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San Jose teen makes triumphant homecoming in starring role of hit musical

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:24 GMT

Isabella Esler is going back home.And she’s doing it in a very cool way.The San Jose teen, who graduated from Archbishop Mitty High School in 2022, makes her way back to the 4-0-8 as one of the stars of the hit Broadway musical “Beetlejuice.”Esler plays Lydia — the role that Winona Ryder made famous in the 1988 film version of “Beetlejuice” —  in this touring production, which checks into San Jose’s Center for the Performing Arts for six nights, Aug. 1-6. Tickets are $33 – $153, broadwaysanjose.com.It’s a huge achievement for Esler, who honed her acting and singing skills in numerous Children’s Musical Theater San Jose (CMTSJ) productions over the years. And it’s certainly not something that she expected to be doing so soon out of high school.“In my head, I was convinced I was going to college,” she says. “Then this whole thing happened.”Yet, her success certainly hasn’t surprised those who’ve known ...

Judge denies motion to move Pelosi hammer attack trial outside of San Francisco

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:24 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A federal attempted murder trial for David DePape will be held in San Francisco after a judge denied defense attorneys' motions Wednesday.DePape was arrested on October 28 for allegedly attacking then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer inside Pelosi's Pacific Heights house. DePape confessed to San Francisco police detectives that he broke into the house in the middle of the night because he wanted to break Nancy Pelosi's kneecaps. But the Democratic politician wasn't home that night, so DePape attacked Paul Pelosi instead, he told police. Two SFPD officers' body cameras recorded the assailant striking Paul Pelosi in the head with the hammer. The hammer attack captured national headlines. On Wednesday DePape's defense attorney argued that the only way to ensure a fair trial and find untainted jurors was to move the trial out of the Bay Area. Defense attorneys requested for the upcoming trial to be held in Eureka, where prospective juror...

Teenage woman injured in shooting near SF's Pier 39, teen boy arrested

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:24 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- An 18-year-old woman was shot in the leg near San Francisco's Pier 39 on Tuesday night and a teenage boy was arrested in connection, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The shooting took place around 8 p.m. and officers from SFPD's Central Division responded. 3 pedestrians struck by car, infant dies in San Jose The woman was getting out of a vehicle when she heard multiple shots ring out, police said. She felt pain in her leg and realized she'd been shot. The woman's friends transported her to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.A suspect in the shooting, described as a 17-year-old male, was arrested, police said. No further information was provided.The incident follows another shooting in the Pier 39 area last month. Six people were injured in that incident, which involved two vehicles exchanging gunfire along the Embarcadero.KRON On is streaming live news now.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0...

SF County Jail giving away free Narcan to visitors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:24 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Visitors to the San Francisco County Jail will now be able to help themselves to free Narcan nasal spray, according to a tweet from the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Naloxone, which is sold under the brand name of Narcan, is an antidote to opioid overdoses that is commonly used in treating someone who is suffering from an accidental fentanyl overdose. Teenage woman injured in shooting near SF’s Pier 39, teen boy arrested The SF Department of Public Health is making the drug available to "people at risk of overdose and/or people who want to be prepared to save a life," the tweet said. SFDPH is also providing free fentanyl test strips at the main jail, which is located on Seventh Street in SoMa.Deaths from fentanyl overdoses have seen a spike in San Francisco this year. The city has already seized more of the drug from street dealers than it did in all of 2022. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said recent coordinated actions have led to the seizu...

Ex-Venezuelan spy chief is extradited from Spain to US on drug trafficking charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:24 GMT

MADRID (AP) — A former Venezuelan spymaster close to the country’s late leader Hugo Chávez has been extradited to New York from Spain on Wednesday to face decade-old drug trafficking charges.Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal will enter a not guilty plea at his initial appearance Thursday in Manhattan federal court, his lawyer, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, told The Associated Press.Nicknamed “El Pollo” (The Chicken), Carvajal advised Chávez for more than a decade. He later broke with Chávez’s handpicked successor, Nicolás Maduro, and threw his support behind his U.S. backed opponents. He did so in dramatic fashion: releasing a videotaped speech from an undisclosed location calling on his former cohorts in the military to rebel against their commander in chief a month into mass protests seeking to replace Maduro with lawmaker Juan Guaido, who the U.S. recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate leader because of his role as head of the democratically elected National Assembly.In ...

How the death penalty phase of the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman’s trial might play out

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:24 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The federal trial of a 50-year-old truck driver convicted of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history is in its third and final phase, in which jurors must decide whether to sentence him to death.The jury convicted Robert Bowers in June after three weeks of testimony about how he stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018 and shot anyone he saw. He killed members of three congregations that were sharing the building, and wounded two worshippers and five police officers.During the second phase of the trial, it took jurors only two hours to decide that Bowers was legally eligible for the death penalty. That led to the final phase, which is more emotionally taxing for jurors as they weigh whether sentence the man across the courtroom to die.Here is a look at the final phase:IS THERE ANY WAY TO PREDICT THE OUTCOME?Given the overwhelming evidence, everyone including Bowers’ lawyers knew a conviction was a...

IRS whistleblowers airing claims to Congress about ‘slow-walking’ of the Hunter Biden case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Wednesday held a public hearing raising unsubstantiated allegations against President Joe Biden over his family’s finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers for their first open testimony about claims the Justice Department improperly interfered with a tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter.“We will continue to follow the money trail,” said Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.The top Democrat on the committee, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, called the hearing “a theater of the absurd.”The Justice Department has denied the whistleblowers’ allegations.Lawmakers were hearing from the two IRS agents assigned to Hunter Biden case, which focused on tax and gun charges. The second agent, whose name was withheld in closed-door interview transcripts released earlier by Republicans and who was referred to by the committee as “whistleblower X,” was disclosed at the hearing as Joe Ziegler. The other IRS em...

Australia 299-8 at stumps in 4th Ashes test against England as Broad claims 600th wicket

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:24 GMT

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Stuart Broad claimed his 600th test wicket for England, under-fire wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow took three catches and Australia batters kept the runs ticking along to reach 299-8 at stumps on the first day of the fourth Ashes test on Wednesday in what already looks like another close contest.Broad joined test cricket’s exclusive club as he and Chris Woakes kept England’s hopes of a rousing Ashes comeback alive at Old Trafford.Three years after taking his 500th wicket at the same ground, Broad completed another century to join a hall of fame that includes only four other names: Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, Broad’s teammate James Anderson and Anil Kumble. Among fast bowlers, Anderson and Broad stand alone in the pantheon.The 37-year-old Broad dismissed the series’ top run-scorer Usman Khawaja (3) early on and returned after tea to bounce out Travis Head (48) as his landmark victim, overtaking Ian Botham’s record for an England bowler of 148 Austr...

Alabama woman missing for 2 days after reporting toddler on freeway was abducted, mom says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:24 GMT

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — The mother of a 25-year-old Alabama woman says her daughter was abducted and fought for her life when she disappeared for two days after calling 911 to report a toddler wandering on a highway. Police say they’re still trying to determine what happened to Carlee Russell before she returned home.Authorities in Hoover, Alabama, plan to hold a news conference on Wednesday to discuss the case.Russell’s disappearance last Thursday sparked a frantic search by family and friends. Her return home Saturday prompted intense speculation about where she had been and what had happened to her.Russell was not in a “good state” when she got back and needed medical care, Talitha Russell told NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday. She said her daughter gave detectives a statement so they could “continue to pursue her abductor.”“There were moments when she physically had to fight for her life, and there were moments when she had to mentally fight for her life,” Talitha Russell said. P...

Jill Biden welcomes proposal for Medicare to pay for navigation services for cancer patients

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:12:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Jill Biden on Wednesday welcomed a new proposal to have Medicare pay for navigation services for cancer patients, saying it will make “an enormous difference in people’s lives.” She joined other Biden administration officials on a conference call to discuss a proposal by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to pay for “principal illness navigation services,” which help patients make decisions about treatment for cancer and other serious illnesses and overcome barriers to quality care. Biden spoke about her sister Jan, who underwent six weeks of stem cell transplant therapy several years ago to treat lymphoma. Biden said an advocate helped her sister “every step of the way.”She said making these services more widely available is something that she and her husband, Joe Biden, worked on before he was elected president and then made a priority after he took office. The first lady frequently visits cancer centers around the United States...