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The Strawberry Festival Returns And G’s On Sunday – Here’s What’s Popping Up

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:30:02 GMT

The 37th Annual California Strawberry Festival makes its debut at the Ventura County Fairgrounds Saturday and Sunday, May 20 and May 21, with strawberry-themed food, beverages, contests, live entertainment, rides and activities. Strawberry lovers can indulge in more than 50 food and beverage vendors serving up strawberry pies, strawberry-topped funnel cakes, strawberry nachos, deep-fried strawberries, berry kabobs, strawberry tacos, strawberry beer and smoothies. Festivalgoers can build their own strawberry shortcakes, piling on as many strawberries and whipped cream as possible.Strawberry tamales (Michele Stueven)On Saturday, May 20, the Agave Library, Sendero’s third out of four dining concepts, debuts sky high on the 24th floor of The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles. Every Saturday, chef Kevin Luzande will present a tasting menu centered around a rotating selection of rare and premium tequila, mezcal and other agave-based spirits. The inaugural tasting menu for summer will compl...

Where Sweet Dreams Die an American Historical film

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:30:02 GMT

Where Sweet Dreams Die is nostalgia for the present moment.Remembering Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (2002), Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “25th Hour is as much an urban historical document as Rossellini’s Open City, filmed in the immediate aftermath of the Nazi occupation of Rome.”Where Sweet Dreams Die is the first mainstream film by the Chicago studio, Ave Fenix Pictures known for its rise in arthouse cinema. Owner Monica Esmeralda Leon and executive producer, who was serving in the United States Army at the time recalled the difficulty in creating the film during the pandemic, “It was tough, for one I’m not around, the pandemic shut us down, we had to move the film around multiple times for over a year and a half – but we never stopped originating – we were always able to capture something and coming to the end it looks like we caught a moment in American history.”Where Sweet Dreams Die accumulated so much footage over its extended shoot the film was to be rel...

Does CBD Show Up On a Drug Test?: Part One

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:30:02 GMT

View the original article about Does CBD Show Up On a Drug Test? at Real Tested CBD.CBD is becoming increasingly popular for the treatment of a wide range of health problems and diseases, which include everything from chronic pain to epilepsy. While CBD has proven to be effective, the substance is taken directly from cannabis plants, which is why many users fear that CBD might show up on a drug test. If you have a job interview coming up and believe that a drug test is required before you’re able to start your new job, find out if CBD can show up on a drug test.Types of CBD To Be Aware OfCannabidiol is taken directly from cannabis, which is actually a wider family of plants. These plants are comprised of hundreds of compounds, the primary of which include terpenes, flavonoids, and cannabinoids. The popular products of hemp and marijuana also come from various cannabis plants. However, each plant contains different amounts of THC, which is a chemical that causes the psychologic...

Dark World: The Sisters of Mercy sandwich Cruel World as a dark wave envelopes LA

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:30:02 GMT

Dark World: Context is key. This coming weekend, the latest installment of the Cruel World Festival takes place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena –— the nostalgia-fueled goth, punk and new-wave festival that this year features the likes of Iggy Pop, Siouxsie, Billy Idol, the Human League, Adam Ant, Gang of Four and many more.Cruel World is sandwiched by two shows at the Hollywood Palladium headlined by dark rockers (don’t call them goth) the Sisters of Mercy. Some might think that the Sisters would be perfect for a Cruel World spot. Frontman Andrew Eldritch is certainly not one of those people.“The what? Oh… is that the pasty Californian dweeb thing? You may quote me on that,” Eldritch says. “Something did cross my desk that involved pasty-faced Californian dweebs. It crossed my desk very swiftly.”Eldritch has a reputation for being a massive grump. Scratch the surface and he’s a charmer with a bone-dry sense of humor, who doesn’t seem to care a whole lot about nostalgia or attaching him...

NCS baseball playoffs: St. Mary’s-Berkeley advances to face top seed Cardinal Newman

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:30:02 GMT

NEW: PREP SPORTS MAILBAGThe Bay Area News Group is introducing a high school sports mailbag in May. Get your questions in as soon as possible. Our debut edition is an open forum. Got questions about spring sports playoffs, coaching changes, an early peek at football season, etc.? Send them to [email protected]. Please include “mailbag” in the subject line.Division IIIBumped up to Division III for the North Coast Section playoffs after capturing the Division IV championship last season, St. Mary’s-Berkeley is off to a strong start.The Panthers opened the playoffs on Wednesday with a 6-1 victory over ninth-seeded Montgomery-Santa Rosa as Max Barnett-Abrams and Caven Croom each had two hits and an RBI and Eli Fogelman allowed one unearned run in a complete-game gem.Mateo Morales added a hit and knocked in two runs.St. Mary’s scored two in the first and four in the second as it improved to 15-8-1.Montgomery finished 14-11.The victory sets up a quarterfinal gam...

7 fantastic Bay Area things to do this weekend, May 19-21

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:30:02 GMT

Got your weekend all planned? We have some cool ideas, from great shows and movies to yummy chowder and a South Bay brewery excursion.As with everything these days, be sure to double check websites for any last-minute changes in health guidelines. Meanwhile, if you’d like to have this Weekender lineup delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning for free, just sign up at www.mercurynews.com/newsletters or www.eastbaytimes.com/newsletters.1 SEE & HEAR: Great shows are all overFrom the sensational pianist Hiromi to the beloved Scottish Fiddlers, there are all kinds of fun and exciting shows to catch in the Bay Area this weekend.2 PLAY & SIP: A Silicon Valley beer runOK, campers, check your pocket protector jokes at the door, and join us a Silicon Valley day trip that includes some terrific breweries.Ansel Adams captured this image, “The Golden Gate Before the Bridge,” from the Sea Cliff, San Francisco, community in which he resided, in 1932. Ansel Adam...

NCS softball playoffs: Castro Valley stifles Amador, defending champion Heritage survives

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:30:02 GMT

Division INo. 10 Castro Valley 2, No. 7 Amador Valley 0Gabriella Tavares shut down one of the hottest teams in the Bay Area on Wednesday afternoon, allowing just two hits and striking out nine Amador Valley batters in a North Coast Section Division I upset.“It is the most confident I’ve ever seen her be on the mound,” Castro Valley coach Nicole Manley told the Bay Area News Group on Wednesday night. “It’s almost as if she’s been in this position before, but oddly enough due to the pandemic affecting her high school career, she hasn’t.”The game was scoreless until the fifth inning, when an Ava Thomas double drove in Jaidyn Torres. Katrina Longoria added an emphatic insurance run in the top of the seventh by hitting a solo home run over the right field wall. “She has been due for a big hit like that, and the timing of it couldn’t have been any better,” Manley said.Amador Valley pitcher Kaylee Davis was otherwise superb, allowing just two hits and striking out seven in a pitcher’s duel...

Could Oakland teacher strike cost district millions for lost instruction time?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:30:02 GMT

The Oakland Unified School District has settled a week-long strike with its teachers union — a deal that will boost pay a total of $70 million. But as the administration figures out how to pay for those raises, could it also face stiff fines for the time its 34,000 students went without teachers?District officials had no answers early this week, but the experience of another large Northern California school district’s lengthy strike last year is sobering: The Sacramento City Unified School District expects to be hit with a hefty $47 million in penalties after a two-week strike left it short of the state’s required 180-day instruction time.“It’s significant,” said Brian Heap, Sacramento City Unified’s chief communications officer. “It’s not a small amount of money.”At Oakland Unified, eight days of regular classes were lost, and although campuses were not officially closed, teachers were absent, and the few students who show...

Berkeley: Man arrested as suspect in downtown bank robbery attempt

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:30:02 GMT

BERKELEY — An unhoused 35-year-old man was in county jail Wednesday after his arrest in connection with an attempted bank robbery, authorities said.Around 9:40 a.m., police dispatchers received a call from Chase Bank, 2150 Shattuck Ave., saying that a person passed a note to a teller demanding money.When the teller walked away from the counter, the person, who did not use or show any weapons, left the bank. No one was injured during the attempt, and no money changed hands, police said.Officers arrived at the bank and canvassed the area, but did not initially find a suspect matching a preliminary partial description of a blue shirt, pink shirt and black heels. But around 12:20 p.m., an officer found a person matching the description, and arrested him shortly after 1 p.m. on suspicion of the robbery attempt after a positive identification, police said.The man was taken to Santa Rita Jail and held on $100,000 bail, and faces arraignment Friday at an Oakland courtroom, according t...

Water whiplash: See how California’s drought disappeared in a few months

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:30:02 GMT

California has been on an amazing roller coaster of drought and floods recently.The three years from 2020 to 2022 were the driest three-year period in the state’s recorded history, breaking the old record set during the previous drought from 2013 to 2015, according to the state Department of Water Resources.But after a deluge this winter, reservoirs are full. Wildfire risk has dropped. Groundwater tables in many areas have risen. The Sierra snowpack, the source of 30% of California’s water supply, was at 324% of normal on Thursday, the highest level in 40 years.The extreme swings have been documented each week in color-coded maps issued by the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly report by the NOAA, the USDA and the University of Nebraska.Here’s how it unfolded: The drought began with below-average rain and snow in the winter of 2019-2020. It worsened the following winter as high-pressure ridges off the West Coast relentlessly blocked storms. By the summer of 2021, 95% of California...