SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) – On Saturday night, skaters raced at high speed down Church Street in San Francisco – next to Dolores Park.

They call it the “hill bomb” and it happens every year, but the San Francisco Police have tried to prevent it.

They set up barricades on several blocks of Dolores Street, but the skaters simply went down another street.

“I guess the police aren't as interested in this one as they were in Dolores,” said Amire Lofton, who attended. “Four skaters, they all said Church Street and they all just came here.”

RELATED: 'You could get arrested': SFPD warns skaters planning to attend Dolores Park Hill bomb blast

The police were on the mountain but did not intervene. They even blocked the road for the skaters.

Last year, San Francisco police attempted to prevent the Hill Bomb and a confrontation broke out between them and the skaters. Over 100 people were arrested for throwing objects at police and damaging a MUNI train.

Police Chief Bill Scott said this week he would not tolerate violence.

Many skaters feel the city should have worked with them to keep the event going while ensuring safety.

“The city was not warned about this event without adequate warning,” said Aaron Breetwor, a skateboard activist from San Francisco. “I was in contact with them a year ago trying to get them to make the event safer, even though there was no official organizer, and they had nothing planned other than this.”

RELATED TOPICS: What will happen at this year's Dolores Park Hill bombing? SFPD advises not to go

Breetwor claims skateboards are listed as a non-motorized, user-powered vehicle in the city's traffic code. He plans to continue talking with the city.

However, residents of the park were happy to see the police.

“It's about public safety. It's not about the kids not having fun,” said Chuck Louden, who lives near the park. “I'm glad to see them here today. We can work together to find a place that works for everyone, but this is about safety.”

We have reached out to the San Francisco Police Department to ask why they did not intervene in the bombing on the hill and are now waiting for a response.

Copyright © 2024 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

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Winds of up to 75 mph toppled trees and power lines, leaving residents in San Francisco and California without power after shocking eyewitness footage showed glass falling from apartments

“Hurricane-force winds” sweep through San Francisco

A bomb cyclone has killed one person and plunged over 230,000 residents into darkness after hurricane-force winds battered San Francisco Tuesday night.

The torrential rains hit the west coast after winds of up to 120 km/h caused trees to fall and debris to be blown across the US’s Portolla Valley.

Eyewitness video shows glass falling from high-rise buildings as the storm hit San Francisco Tuesday afternoon.

No injuries were reported in the incident, but evacuation orders were issued after two people were injured by a falling tree.

A similar incident in San Mateo County resulted in the tragic death of one person.

California Highway Patrol Officer David LaRock said more than 230,000 residents were without power after debris and power lines went out.

Vehicles trapped after heavy rain in California (Agency Anadolu via Getty Images)

He told Weather.com, “Due to the strong wind, a large tree fell on the vehicle as it was heading east. When rescuers arrived, they had to remove several large branches to get to the vehicle.”

Eyewitnesses, including meteorologist Drew Tuma, said winds dropped from “60 miles an hour to absolute calm” as he entered the storm.

The winds caused flights to be grounded at San Francisco International Airport and delayed over 300 flights.

After the flood, people had to leave their cars behind(Getty Images)

20 flights were canceled as Oakland and San Jose Mineta International Airports reported delays as passengers took to social media to vent their frustration.

Meanwhile, an overflowing levee in San Francisco triggered a section and drifted away while several boats were stranded.

Motorists across California were stranded after power lines struck Woodside, and many residents were forced to seek shelter after several power cables fell.

Trees and power lines have fallen, leaving thousands of residents without power (AP)

Ferry services were also suspended on Tuesday afternoon after winds caused “oceanic waves” in the Bay Area.

And in San Joaquin County, just two hours from San Francisco, the bomb cyclone flooded streets with deep water as the San Francisco Fire Department urged residents to take precautions.

Spokesman Jonathan Baxter said, “Right now there’s a lot of road closures going on all over San Francisco simply because of downed power lines, downed trees and flooded areas.”

Motorways were closed due to the flooding(Agency Anadolu via Getty Images)

“‘Be aware of the severe storm moving over San Francisco. If you don’t need to travel, consider other options. If you’re on the road, expect delays during your journey.”

With winds of up to 75 mph expected Wednesday, a winter storm warning has been issued for the Lake Tahoe area, with disruptions expected through the end of the week.

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The Cardinals got off to their worst start since 1973, losing seven of their last nine games before tonight’s game and trailing the first-seeded Pittsburgh Pirates by 8.5 games. To win an escape day, St. Louis was tasked with beating right-hander Logan Webb, who finished last season with a 2.90 ERA and won 15 games.

Here’s the St. Louis line-up without Willson Contreras.

1. Lars Nootbaar, CF
2. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
3. Nolan Gorman, DH
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Alec Burleson, RF
6. Paul DeJong, SS
7. Tyler O’Neill, LF
8. Andreas Knizner, C
9. Tommy Edman, 2B

Miles Mikolas – SP

And for the giants:

1. LaMonte Wade Jr., L.F
2. Thairo Estrada, 2B
3. Joc Pederson, DH
4. Michael Comfort, RF
5. Wilmer Flores, 1B
6. Mike Yastrzemski, CF
7. Blake Sabol, C
8. David Villar, 3B
9. Brandon Crawford, S.S

Logan Webb SP

The Cardinals won a baseball game against the odds Thursday afternoon, led by Miles Mikolas’ best start to the season. The offense was boosted by Alec Burleson’s solo home run in the seventh inning, which came close to splashing into the bay.

The Cardinals hit all six runs starting in the seventh inning. The win improves the Cardinals’ series finals record to 6-2 this season. The Cardinals are 4-14 in games that aren’t the last game of a series.

But about the win…

1st inning

Easy first inning for Webb, who only throws 12 pitches to set up a zero. Strikeouts from Nootbaar and Gorman were pinched by Goldschmidt around a deep flyout to midfield.

Mikolas knocked out Wade to start the ballgame, but Estrada stabbed a one-out single into right field. However, Miles was able to pull Pederson back with a flyout and Conforto with a groundout to get out of the inning.

2nd inning

Arenado led the inning to left field with a line drive single. Burleson followed and ripped a sharp ground ball straight at Flores, which kept Arenado at first base. Flores stepped on the pocket for the first out and then tagged Arenado, who attempted to dunk back into the first for the second out of the inning (once the first out was made, Arenado was no longer forced to go for second, and tried to dive back first for sure). DeJong landed for our number three.

Flores made a full count against Mikolas and eventually pulled a leadoff walk. He was stuck there, however, with strikeouts from Yastrzemski and Sabol, followed by a right flyout from Villar.

3rd inning

After a groundout by Tyler O’Neill, Knizner hit the middle (actually putting him 3-9 in his last 9 at-bats). Edman struck, but Nootbaar achieved an infield single perfectly placed between the postponed Crawford and Estrada. Goldschmidt pulled a two-out walk to load the bases, but Gorman flapped out at the knees after a perfectly placed changeup to kill the Cardinal threat.

Brandon Crawford led at the bottom of the third and hit a flyball towards foul territory on which O’Neill made a fine sliding play for the first out. Wade landed just ahead of DeJong for our number two, but then Mikolas slammed Estrada right in the ribs with a 95-mile fastball. After standing by the coaches for a few minutes, he was finally able to go down first and stayed in the game. Pederson showed up in the infield, Edman made the catch and finished the third inning.

4th inning

A nine-pitch, 1-2-3 inning for Webb in the fourth. Arenado batted on three pitches (his ninth strikeout in his last 19 at bat), Burleson landed right back at Webb, and DeJong landed in second place.

It was also a fast inning for Mikolas, who retired Conforto (groundout), Flores (strikeout) and Yastrzemski (flyout) in 11 places.

5th inning

Leading from fifth, O’Neill put a good swing on a 2-2 shifter and sent it 384 feet into midfield, where Yastrzemski ran it down a foot or two short of the Warnbahn. Knizner ended up in first place and Edman in second place for outs two and three.

Sabol at-batted Mikolas on the second pitch and slammed Edman in flat right field. Villar chased Mikolas’ first pitch and took a knee-high fastball into right field for a base knock. Crawford followed with a base goal in midfield, Villar went from first to third.

While Wade was batting, Crawford stole second base (his third steal of the season) and put two runners in goal position for the Giants left fielder. Wade took a stroll to recharge them – and set up the doubles game if you’re one of those optimistic fans. Estrada swung and hit a dead helicopter about six feet from the plate — trouble is, both Knizner and Mikolas tried without both being on home plate to get the leading runner. Because of this, Knizner grabbed the ball and dove back towards home plate, knocking out a headfirst diving Villar before he could touch the plate.

Estrada made first base in the previous game, so Joc Pederson’s bases were still loaded. He hit a 109-mph line drive right at Burleson in right field for the final of the fifth inning – Mikolas escapes the jam.

6th inning

Nootbaar struck for the second time in the game, Goldschmidt’s 108.8 mph line drive was intercepted on Conforto’s right field wall and Gorman struck for the third time in the game – his first hat-trick of the year!

Conforto led at the end of the sixth, hitting a bouncer right back to Mikolas, who took his time with a flip to make the out for the first time. Flores hit a low ball into midfield which Edman repelled to catch the second out. With two outs, Yastrzemski hit a rocket off right fieldwall for a double, with Burleson’s throw hitting his leg at second base, giving DeJong no opportunity for a tag. Mikolas hit Sabol with a slider to end the inning and set the game’s potential on the first run in the second.

7th inning

After an Arenado groundout, Alec Burleson hammered a high fastball (like very high…no hit high) high and low into the San Francisco sky for his third homer of the year, overcoming the 24-foot wall on right field to take it 1-0 to make the Cardinals in the seventh.

DeJong followed up with a base hit into right field, which put him 7-for-16 since his return to the Cardinals. O’Neill hit essentially the same spot, putting on two for Knizner with an out. The Cardinals catcher hit a deep fly ball into left midfield, with Wade making the catch off the warning lane. Both runners moved up, with DeJong third and O’Neill second.

With two outs, Edman hit a ground ball down the middle. Estrada reached to his right, gloved it and made a two-hop throw to first base, calling Edman out on a bang-bang play. However, the Cardinals initially challenged the call and it was nullified — Edman had an infield hit and the Cardinals had another run on the board that saw DeJong cross the plate.

Gabe Kapler went to the bullpen and brought in former Cardinal John Brebbia against Nootbaar, who flew into midfield for our number three.

Mikolas hit Villar with a big curveball for the first out in the bottom of the seventh, and Oli Marmol went for the bullpen. When the left-hander struck Crawford and Wade, it was time for Genesis Cabrera.

Cabrera defeated Crawford, gave Wade a one-out double, but got Estrada to hit a groundball straight back to him to end the seventh inning.

Mikola’s closing line: 6.1 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K (95 pitches)
Webb’s last line: 6.2 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K (102 pitches)

8th inning

Goldschmidt worked a 12-pitch at-bat against Brebbia, including six fouls, but eventually landed. Gorman jumped on a 1-1 slider and put it into right field for a one-out hit, but was cleared on second base when Arenado scored in an easy 4-6-3 double play. However, Crawford’s throw back to first base was high and down the line, allowing Arenado to reach first.

Dylan Carlson, who came on as Burleson’s defensive back-up, hit a ground ball where the third baseman would have been had he not been shadowed to the right. The ball rolled all the way down the third baseline until it was finally picked up by Wade, and the relay didn’t make it home in time to reach Arenado, who scored to make it 3-0. Carlson ended up in second place with a double.

Kapler went into the bullpen again and brought in right-hander Tristan Beck for his third appearance of the season. DeJong greeted him with a bombshell and slammed a hanging breaking ball 369 feet into left field seats for a two-run homer — his second homer in five games since he was recalled. 5-0 Cardinals.

O’Neill pulled a two-out walk, but Knizner was called out on strikes for the number three.

Mitch Haniger pinched for Pederson and hit a 51 mph swinging bunt toward third base that Arenado simply picked up and pocketed for a leadoff single. Cabrera finished out Conforto with a flyout and Flores with a pop out before defeating Yastrzemski with two outs. He knocked out Sabol to strand both runners and send that play to ninth place.

9th inning

A double from Tommy Edman and a single from Nootbaar got Goldschmidt out with runners in the corners and nobody to start the ninth inning. He hit a ground ball to Villar in third, who went for second for the force out, but they initially failed to complete the doubles play. Edman scored to make it 6-0.

Gorman picked up a gold sombrero on that beautiful Thursday and Arenado landed on second base.

Drew VerHagen threw a clean ninth-place floor with two strikeouts to end the game. The Cardinals avoid the four-game sweep.

FINALS: Cardinals 6, Giants 0

Next

The West Coast road trip from Hell continues tomorrow for the Cardinals (10-16) when they fly a few hours south to face the Dodgers (13-13) in Los Angeles.

Redhead fireballer Dustin May (2-1, 3.07 ERA) will start for the Dodgers while Jack Flaherty (2-2, 3.29 ERA) will go for St. Louis. May earned a win over the Cubs on his last outing by hitting the sixth inning and giving up two earned runs. Flaherty beat the Mariners last weekend, giving up three earned runs over six innings while striking out nine.

The first pitch is scheduled for 9:10 p.m

around the headquarters

Pirates 6, Dodgers 2

Boy 5, Padre’s 2

Today’s pickle

MLB Pickle #414 – 5/9

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In the coming months, Mayor London Breed and other city officials are expected to announce the opening of Maceo May, a six-story, 105-unit affordable housing development specifically designed for formerly homeless veterans and families on Treasure Island.

The project is one of many currently underway on the man-made island, which has essentially become a 400-acre construction zone. However, when it comes time for city officials to cut the ribbon on Maceo May, one notable group won’t be in attendance: the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council. 

For years, the organization representing more than two dozen labor unions in San Francisco has been butting heads with Breed and other elected officials on how the city intends to meet its housing goals—and who should be doing that work. In the case of Maceo May, the Building Trades were essentially boxed out.

Members of the Carpenters Local Union 22 listen to Mayor London Breed speak at the Affordable Homes Now Rally in the Tenderloin on June 16, 2022. | Eloïse Kelsey for The Standard

The project instead relied on a unionized group of carpenters working out of Factory_OS, a modular construction plant on Mare Island in Vallejo. What the prefabricated homes may lack in flash, they make up for in efficiency. Supporters of the assembly-line style of production—which includes almost every aspect of a build-out, from the plumbing and electrical to the flooring—say it can radically reduce the cost and duration of construction.

San Francisco has an ambitious state mandate to build 82,000 units of housing by 2031, and Breed and pro-housing advocates see modular construction as an important avenue in reaching that lofty goal. But a war being waged on two fronts—one between the Building Trades and a coalition of carpenters, and the other between the Building Trades and City Hall—is threatening to derail that progress, with disputes on multiple issues boiling over into strongly worded letters and multimillion-dollar fights at the ballot box.

To understand why that matters and what comes next, it might help to recall an act of God that occurred a year and a half ago.

Monsoon on Treasure Island

In October 2021, a “bomb cyclone” more powerful than any storm seen in the previous quarter-century drenched the Bay Area. An atmospheric river traversed across the Pacific Northwest, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage across the Left Coast. 

Maceo May wasn’t spared. The storm’s heavy downpour and high-speed winds ravaged the development for one key reason: Maceo May didn’t come with a roof. 

The prefab project—built by members of the Northern California Carpenters Union at Factory_OS—was delivered topless to Treasure Island, with plans to complete roofing at a later stage in construction. Despite “round-the-clock staffing” to protect the project, city officials said the damage was substantial. 

“The project’s location on Treasure Island, in the middle of the Bay and subject to particularly high winds, led to extraordinary damages at this location,” Anne Stanley, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, said in an email. “Given that modular units are installed before the building’s finish materials or roof are built/installed, units are delivered covered in protective wrappings, but at least some of those wrappings had already been removed for installation.”

The Maceo May modular housing development is seen on Treasure Island on April 18, 2023. | Paul Kuroda for The Standard

The storm harmed nearly every aspect of Maceo May’s build-out, and the estimated cost to repair and complete the project ballooned by nearly $35 million, raising the total price tag to $110 million and delaying completion by more than six months. 

The devastation was shocking, said Malcolm Yeung, the executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center, which partnered with the nonprofit Swords to Plowshares to build Maceo May.

“Did I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I heard the news? Yeah,” Yeung said. “Did my eyes pop out of my head? Yeah. I had to find them and put them back in my skull.”

San Francisco issued new loans to keep the project moving forward, but the extent of the damage and increase in costs have gone unreported until now. City officials expect all of Maceo May’s units to be leased by June.

Who’s Got Skill?

According to leaders of the local Building Trades, the mistakes made at Maceo May are just one example of a larger trend in which local construction jobs are being shipped out of San Francisco to less-skilled workers, resulting in mistakes and additional costs that aren’t accounted for in bids. 

John Dryden, a carpenter and framer, works on corridor walls at the Factory_OS facility in Vallejo on July 26, 2019. | Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Larry Mazzola, president of the Building Trades, has sent multiple letters to the mayor and supervisors calling out Factory_OS, accusing the city of using “smoke and mirrors” to avoid hiring properly skilled and trained San Franciscans and paying prevailing wages.

In a letter from March 2021, Mazzola listed 14 bullet points worth of issues about a modular project at 833 Bryant St. in the South of Market area, noting numerous code violations. While the work of Building Trades’ members is inspected throughout the process of construction, Mazzola said, modular projects are delivered nearly complete, making it impossible to inspect issues like electrical wiring without opening up the walls.

“The carpenters go around telling everybody that it’s too expensive to build housing with union labor, and it’s completely false,” Mazzola told The Standard, citing his shop’s work on the Jazzie Collins Apartments.

Jay Bradshaw, executive secretary-treasurer of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, disputed that characterization, noting that the Carpenters Union has the most workers in residential construction, including affordable housing.

“For Mazzola to make such a false and baseless statement should be an embarrassment to him,” Bradshaw said. “We have never made such a statement. He knows his statement is false and should be ashamed of himself.”

John Dougherty, the business manager and financial secretary for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union No. 6, also has taken issue with Factory_OS, which employs about 400 carpenters under the umbrella of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union.

“They’re taking electrical and performing it in-house, off-site for 21 bucks an hour,” Dougherty said. “It’s taking work opportunities for San Franciscans out of San Francisco.” 

Four recent modular housing projects in San Francisco include: Maceo May; 833 Bryant St.; 410 China Basin St. in Mission Bay; and 1064 Mission St., a permanent supportive housing project also in SoMa.

A modular housing project gets installed in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco on Sept. 28, 2015. | Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

The dispute between the SF Building Trades and carpenters came to a head in February, when the carpenters refused to sign a unity pledge with other laborers, leading to the union’s suspension. In turn, carpenters unions across Northern California pulled out of every other building trades council. They later joined the Bay Area Council, a business association that partners with YIMBYs and counts the region’s biggest companies among its members.

The same month that storms hammered Maceo May, the local chapter for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers took a shot at modular housing with a video showing kitchen lights turning on when a worker tried to test the stove.

Supervisor Connie Chan has entered the fray on behalf of the Building Trades, and she suggested in a phone interview that modular projects and other exceptions to local provisions are a slippery slope.

“We are minimizing these long-standing values that we have, and I think that’s problematic,” Chan said.

However, the mayor and pro-development advocates cite two major issues in giving the Building Trades the work it desires: First, the costs of projects skyrocket when accounting for San Francisco unions’ prevailing wages; and second, there aren’t enough unionized laborers to meet San Francisco’s housing goals, let alone the entire state’s goal 2.5 million new units of housing.

“Just to be clear, everyone agrees—[building] trades, carpenters and myself—we’d like to see more unionization of the residential construction workforce. We all share that goal,” state Sen. Scott Wiener told The Standard. “But the sad reality is that right now only about 9% of residential construction workers are unionized. So, when you leave out non-unionized construction workers, you’re leaving out more than 90% of these construction workers, many of whom are capable and skilled, they’re just not in a union or a union apprenticeship program.”

The Factory Fight

Fights between unions and City Hall officials are far from unique. But as the city scrambles to meet a daunting state mandate, those fights could threaten efforts to speed up housing construction.

The exterior of a studio apartment is built at the Factory_OS facility in Vallejo on July 26, 2019. | Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Proposition D, Breed’s signature proposal to streamline housing approvals, fell short last November, in part, because the Building Trades tossed hundreds of thousands of dollars into a competing measure, Prop. E. Meanwhile, a political action committee for the Nor Cal Carpenters Union threw $69,000 into the mayor’s housing measure. Both ballot measures failed.

“We wanted Prop. E to pass. We wouldn’t have put it on [the ballot] just to block Prop. D,” Mazzola said. “But the fact that it did block was an added bonus.”

The rift between the Building Trades and carpenters seems unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. The Nor Cal Carpenters Union has aligned with Wiener and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland)—both champions of all forms of housing construction—in a calculated move that could bring them more work. 

Members of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union lead a chant with San Francisco Mayor London Breed, center, and Jay Bradshaw, right, the union’s executive secretary-treasurer, on the steps of City Hall on April 14, 2023.

At a rally last week at City Hall, members of the carpenters union decried wage theft and tax fraud in between boastful chants about being carpenters. In an interview, Bradshaw, head of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, dismissed the grievances of the local Building Trades on modular construction.

“It’s a total red-herring issue,” he said. “They had zero interest nor capability to expand into industrial production of housing.” 

On the issue of being suspended by the SF Building Trades, Bradshaw added, “They have a right to fight us on it. Good for them.”

Political Winds Blow

In a show of support for the carpenters, Breed and Wiener both attended last week’s event at City Hall. Wiener is carrying two bills with the support of the carpenters: SB 4 and SB 423. The goal of both bills is to streamline and fast-track housing approvals.

The Nor Cal Carpenters Union is proud to support Senate Bills 423 and 4. These bills will streamline the construction of affordable housing in California. Both require Prevailing Wages, Family Medical Healthcare, Apprenticeship, and will have the strongest https://t.co/AWQOEgwluL… pic.twitter.com/fzAiRVaFj4

— Nor Cal Carpenters Union (@NorCalCarpU) March 28, 2023

City officials have stressed that modular housing is just one of many strategies in meeting its Housing Element, which calls for the 82,000 new units.

“Modular construction is one tool we can use, but it is just one tool of many,” said Jeff Cretan, a spokesperson for Breed. “There are numerous other improvements we need to make and we are always open to pursuing different innovative strategies to get more housing built faster.”

But a new front in the war over construction work in San Francisco has emerged in recent weeks. The Building Trades are now accusing the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) of abandoning the citywide Project Labor Agreement, and cutting them out of jobs related to a 2019 housing bond measure that will lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts.

The Mayor’s Office contends that affordable housing projects that receive funding from the city are not subject to the existing project labor agreement, which prompted the Building Trades to recruit the help of Supervisors Chan and Ahsha Safaí, the latter of whom is considering a run for mayor.

“The previous director of MOHCD sent a letter to the Trades clearly spelling out the city’s position on how the 2019 affordable housing bond would be spent and committed to skilled and trained workforce,” Safaí told The Standard. “That is pretty clear. As far as modular construction goes, we need leadership to bring a modular construction factory to San Francisco that includes all crafts.”

The new fight has affordable housing developers spooked, city officials said. The prospect of contracting with Building Trades laborers on all aspects of a project could raise the cost of construction, although Mazzola and others dispute this argument. If an impasse persists, the Building Trades might oppose a housing bond expected to go to voters in 2024.

Workers build a modular affordable housing project at 833 Bryant St. in San Francisco on June 30, 2020. | By Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

“I don’t know,” Mazzola said. “Opposing a housing bond is tough, but I would like to think that we can work this out, so that there are no problems in the future.”

For some local housing advocates, however, this simmering beef between the Building Trades, City Hall and the carpenters is long overdue and necessary.

“I think the only path is to have this fight and for the carpenters to win,” said Laura Foote, executive director of YIMBY Action. “We’re never going to meet our housing goals under the requirements of the Trades. This fight needs to happen to bring us into the promised land.”

Josh Koehn can be reached at [email protected]

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SAN FRANCISCO — A storm turned into a powerful “bombing cyclone” before slamming into the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Coast Tuesday afternoon, killing at least one person, closing numerous roads, derailing an Amtrak train and blowing over a large oil rig the Bay Bridge, canceled transit including ferries and buses, grounded flights, uprooted trees and nearly 200,000 PG&E customers without power.

For weather geeks, Tuesday brought a dizzying trifecta of a bomb cyclone, a rare Fujiwhara effect and a stab jet. For everyone else it brought misery.

The storm-related death occurred on the peninsula, where a tree fell on a van traveling along Alpine Road outside Portola Valley, killing the driver inside. According to The Mercury News, a photographer at the scene reported that the victim was driving a plumber’s vehicle.

In Napa County, a tree fell on a pickup truck traveling on Highway 29, completely blocking the road. Fortunately, the driver was not injured.

In the East Bay, an Amtrak train crashed into a fallen tree half a mile east of Port Costa, causing a derailment. There were initially no reports of injuries.

Highway 101 in Marin County was closed due to a fallen tree. Highway 9 was impassable through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

A large oil rig has overturned on the Bay Bridge, blocking several lanes of traffic. Nothing was initially known about the condition of the driver.

The weather madness was caused by a “bomb cyclone”. The phenomenon is characterized by a rapid drop in pressure.

The #MontereyBay buoy really made a leap today. Sea level pressure fell by 24 millibars in just under 17 hours! Oops! This is a meteorological (24MB or more drop in 24 hours or less). And we had the wind to prove it. This summary will follow shortly.#cawx pic.twitter.com/EpRoLlmmCc
— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) March 22, 2023

But it wasn’t just one depression, at least two were rotating around each other. The rare occurrence is called the Fujiwhara effect.

Which atmospheric Beyblade wins? In the end, the result means strong winds throughout the region! Watch out for fallen trees and power lines https://t.co/K7j5th18ff
— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) March 21, 2023

To make matters worse, the National Weather Service reported a “stab jet,” representing an acceleration of winds near a low-pressure center, the LA Times reported.

The winds roared ashore with more than a dozen gusts at or above hurricane force, destroying trees and power lines. The strongest wind gust was 89 mph recorded at KNPT Towers. Here is the list of locations and gusts recorded by the NWS that equaled or exceeded hurricane strength:

• KNPT Towers 89 MPH
• Point Potrero 88 MPH
• Poo107 Loma Chiquita 85 MPH
• River Los Gatos 82 MPH
• Mount Alison 81 MPH
• Loma Prieta 81 MPH
• Pier One 77 MPH
• Soda Springs Road 76 MPH
• 24.9 SW Greenfield (DRI) 75 MPH
• Mountain Three Times 75 MPH
• Mine Tower 74 MPH
• Oakland Airport 74 MPH
• Lake Drive 74 MPH
• Mount Diablo 74 MPH

In addition to blocking roads, trees downed by the high winds have damaged power lines. At 2:30 p.m., PG&E reported 88,208 customers without power across all five divisions. By 5 p.m., the number had grown to 188,000.

Bay Area Power Outages (Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.)

• East Bay: 82,932 customers
• Peninsula: 43,489 customers
• San Francisco: 34,897 customers
• South Bay: 19,956 customers
• North Bay: 3,183 customers

PG&E said outage activity “increased significantly” in the early afternoon as crews responded to a cascade of reports of downed trees, branches and other debris. The utility said its crews are ready to deploy at full force Tuesday in coordination with the Emergency Operations Center. More than 20 helicopters from the fleet have been placed on standby to assist with aerial photography and other support if needed.

Officials are asking anyone who sees downed wires or wires to stay away and call 911 and then contact PG&E directly at 1-800-743-5002. Residents can also search for outages in their area using the online map or by calling 1-800-743-5000.

Here are some Storm memories from PG&E:

• PG&E encourages customers to have a plan, prepare for power outages, and most importantly, stay safe.
• Customers can find out about outages in their neighborhood through a variety of channels.
  • Contact our Outage Information Hotline at 1-800-743-5002
  • Customers can also log into their account through pge.com and opt-in to receive proactive outage alerts via email, SMS or phone.
• Never touch fallen power lines: If you see a fallen power line, assume it is live and extremely dangerous. Don’t touch it or try to move it – and keep children and animals away. Report broken power lines immediately by calling 911 and calling PG&E at 1-800-743-5002.
• Use flashlights, not candles: During a power outage, use battery-powered flashlights rather than candles due to the risk of fire. If you need to use candles, please keep them away from curtains, lampshades, animals and small children. Do not leave candles unattended.
• Have a spare phone handy: If you have a phone system that requires power to function, such as a cordless phone or an answering machine, plan to have a standard telephone or mobile phone ready as a backup.
• Have fresh drinking water, Ice: Freeze plastic containers filled with water to make blocks of ice to put in your fridge/freezer during a power outage to prevent food spoilage. Blue Ice from your picnic cooler also works well in the freezer.
• Secure outdoor furniture: Patio furniture, light garden structures and decorative lawn items should be secured as they can be blown away by high winds and damage to overhead power lines and property.
• Use Generators Safely: Customers with standby power generators should ensure they are properly installed by a licensed electrician in a well-ventilated area. Improperly installed generators pose a significant hazard to customers and crews working on power lines. If using portable generators, ensure they are in a well-ventilated area.
• Turn off appliances: If you experience a power outage, unplug or turn off all electrical appliances to avoid overloading circuits and risk of fire when power is restored. Just leave a single lamp on to alert you when power returns. Turn your devices back on one at a time as conditions return to normal.
• Clean Up Safely: After the storm has passed, make sure you clean up safely. Never touch fallen utilities and always call 8-1-1 at least two full business days before digging or visit 811express.com to have all underground utilities safely tagged.

The post 1 Lifeless As ‘Bomb Cyclone’ Ravages Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

At least two vehicles were hit by fallen trees; an Amtrak train derailed in the East Bay after hitting a tree; 188,000 lost power.

Mar 21 2023 3:20pm PDT | Updated Mar 21, 2023 9:25pm PDT

SAN FRANCISCO — A storm turned into a powerful “bombing cyclone” before slamming into the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Coast Tuesday afternoon, killing at least one person, closing numerous roads, derailing an Amtrak train and blowing over a large oil rig the Bay Bridge, canceled transit including ferries and buses, grounded flights, uprooted trees and nearly 200,000 PG&E customers without power.

For weather geeks, Tuesday brought a dizzying trifecta of a bomb cyclone, a rare Fujiwhara effect and a stab jet. For everyone else it brought misery.

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The storm-related death occurred on the peninsula, where a tree fell on a van traveling along Alpine Road outside Portola Valley, killing the driver inside. According to The Mercury News, a photographer at the scene reported that the victim was driving a plumber’s vehicle.

In Napa County, a tree fell on a pickup truck traveling on Highway 29, completely blocking the road. Fortunately, the driver was not injured.

In the East Bay, an Amtrak train crashed into a fallen tree half a mile east of Port Costa, causing a derailment. There were initially no reports of injuries.

Highway 101 in Marin County was closed due to a fallen tree. Highway 9 was impassable through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

A large oil rig has overturned on the Bay Bridge, blocking several lanes of traffic. Nothing was initially known about the condition of the driver.

The weather madness was caused by a “bomb cyclone”. The phenomenon is characterized by a rapid drop in pressure.

But it wasn’t just one depression, at least two were rotating around each other. The rare occurrence is called the Fujiwhara effect.

To make matters worse, the National Weather Service reported a “stab jet,” representing an acceleration of winds near a low-pressure center, the LA Times reported.

The winds roared ashore with more than a dozen gusts at or above hurricane force, destroying trees and power lines. The strongest wind gust was 89 mph recorded at KNPT Towers. Here is the list of locations and gusts recorded by the NWS that equaled or exceeded hurricane strength:

• KNPT Towers 89 MPH
• Point Potrero 88 MPH
• Poo107 Loma Chiquita 85 MPH
• River Los Gatos 82 MPH
• Mount Alison 81 MPH
• Loma Prieta 81 MPH
• Pier One 77 MPH
• Soda Springs Road 76 MPH
• 24.9 SW Greenfield (DRI) 75 MPH
• Mountain Three Times 75 MPH
• Mine Tower 74 MPH
• Oakland Airport 74 MPH
• Lake Drive 74 MPH
• Mount Diablo 74 MPH

In addition to blocking roads, trees downed by the high winds have damaged power lines. At 2:30 p.m., PG&E reported 88,208 customers without power across all five divisions. By 5 p.m., the number had grown to 188,000.

Bay Area Power Outages (Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.)

• East Bay: 82,932 customers
• Peninsula: 43,489 customers
• San Francisco: 34,897 customers
• South Bay: 19,956 customers
• North Bay: 3,183 customers

PG&E said outage activity “increased significantly” in the early afternoon as crews responded to a cascade of reports of downed trees, branches and other debris. The utility said its crews are ready to deploy at full force Tuesday in coordination with the Emergency Operations Center. More than 20 helicopters from the fleet have been placed on standby to assist with aerial photography and other support if needed.

Officials are asking anyone who sees downed wires or wires to stay away and call 911 and then contact PG&E directly at 1-800-743-5002. Residents can also search for outages in their area using the online map or by calling 1-800-743-5000.

Here are some Storm memories from PG&E:

• PG&E encourages customers to have a plan, prepare for power outages, and most importantly, stay safe.
• Customers can find out about outages in their neighborhood through a variety of channels.
  • Contact our Outage Information Hotline at 1-800-743-5002
  • Customers can also log into their account through pge.com and opt-in to receive proactive outage alerts via email, SMS or phone.
• Never touch fallen power lines: If you see a fallen power line, assume it is live and extremely dangerous. Don’t touch it or try to move it – and keep children and animals away. Report broken power lines immediately by calling 911 and calling PG&E at 1-800-743-5002.
• Use flashlights, not candles: During a power outage, use battery-powered flashlights rather than candles due to the risk of fire. If you need to use candles, please keep them away from curtains, lampshades, animals and small children. Do not leave candles unattended.
• Have a spare phone handy: If you have a phone system that requires power to function, such as a cordless phone or an answering machine, plan to have a standard telephone or mobile phone ready as a backup.
• Have fresh drinking water, Ice: Freeze plastic containers filled with water to make blocks of ice to put in your fridge/freezer during a power outage to prevent food spoilage. Blue Ice from your picnic cooler also works well in the freezer.
• Secure outdoor furniture: Patio furniture, light garden structures and decorative lawn items should be secured as they can be blown away by high winds and damage to overhead power lines and property.
• Use Generators Safely: Customers with standby power generators should ensure they are properly installed by a licensed electrician in a well-ventilated area. Improperly installed generators pose a significant hazard to customers and crews working on power lines. If using portable generators, ensure they are in a well-ventilated area.
• Turn off appliances: If you experience a power outage, unplug or turn off all electrical appliances to avoid overloading circuits and risk of fire when power is restored. Just leave a single lamp on to alert you when power returns. Turn your devices back on one at a time as conditions return to normal.
• Clean Up Safely: After the storm has passed, make sure you clean up safely. Never touch fallen utilities and always call 8-1-1 at least two full business days before digging or visit 811express.com to have all underground utilities safely tagged.

The post 1 Lifeless As Bomb Cyclone Ravages Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) received bomb threats at his Castro neighborhood home and at his office, he stated in a press release Tuesday.

“Early this morning, I was informed by the San Francisco Standard and the police that someone had issued a bomb threat against me, listing my specific home address and also threatening to shoot up my Capitol office,” Wiener stated. “The email said ‘we will f—— kill you’ and called me a pedophile and groomer.”

Wiener was a target of a bomb threat earlier this year. In a separate incident, a San Ramon man was found guilty in September for threatening to kill him.

Wiener, who is gay and Jewish, has been a frequent target of homophobic and anti-Semitic statements on social media. Legislation that Wiener proposed, which was since signed into law, in the areas of transgender rights and the California sex offender registry, has led to his being targeted, the senator stated.

“This latest wave of death threats against me relates to my work to end discrimination against LGBTQ people in the criminal justice system and my work to ensure the safety of transgender children and their families,” Wiener stated. “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and MAGA activist Charlie Kirk recently tweeted homophobic lies about me, falsely accusing me of supporting pedophiles and child ‘mutilation.’”

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The sex offender law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, did not change any criminal penalties, but did allow those convicted of sexual relations that are not penile-vaginal sexual intercourse with a minor of the same sex the ability to ask a judge they not be placed on the sex offender registry , provided the minor was 14 or above and they were within 10 years of the age of the minor.

With regard to penile-vaginal intercourse, this had been the case for some time, but the ability to petition a judge did not exist in cases where there’d been oral, rectal or digital penetration. Misunderstandings about the law have been prevalent on social media, the Associated Press reports.

Marjorie Taylor Greene hurls homophobic slur at Bay Area Rep

The most recent threat to Wiener’s life came in the aftermath of a massacre at a Colorado gay bar and a warning to the LGBTQ and Jewish communities from the United States Department of Health and Human Services regarding their safety.

“The extreme homophobic and transphobic rhetoric that has escalated on social media and right wing media outlets has real world impacts. It leads to harassment, stalking, threats, and violence against our community. People are dying as a result. Responsible political leaders on the right must call it out and stop tolerating it,” Wiener stated. “I will always fight for the LGBTQ community — and for the community as a whole — and will never let these threats stop that work.”

The post San Francisco legislator receives one other bomb risk appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Laguna Honda Hospital is a facility with a rich history of scandal and mismanagement. For it to now be facing an existential crisis over a series of comparatively minor violations feels a bit like Al Capone going to prison over tax evasion.

But Capone did indeed go to the slammer — you can buy the commemorative t-shirt at Pier 39. And, as mind-boggling as it may be, the 700-odd vulnerable patients here may be out on their ears before year’s end if the hospital fails to meet the latest terms imposed by the federal government. If Laguna Honda comes up short in a top-to-bottom recertification process, it could lose Medicare and Medi-Cal funding in four to six months’ time.

This would blow a roughly $20 million a month hole in the city’s budget and open up the real possibility of patients being transferred hundreds if not thousands of miles away — or, tragically, to the curb and immediate homelessness. A high percentage of Laguna Honda’s patients exhibit behaviors that would’ve led to them being screened out of almost any other nursing facility, and it’s unrealistic to expect beds to be found for them.

“They would probably have to soak up a bed at General Hospital until they ended up in jail, or a bed comes up in a locked facility for people who are criminally insane,” sums up Dr. Teresa Palmer, a geriatrician who worked at Laguna Honda from 1989 to 2004.

This assessment is as harsh as it sounds. The fate of both this city and its most vulnerable populations are not in a solid place right now.

Laguna Honda, seen in 1926. Photo courtesy of OpenSFHistory.org

You may have missed the existential crisis unfolding at this 156-year-old institution. It’s easy to. Laguna Honda shelters the people society is most eager to overlook: The frail elderly and — increasingly — mentally ill and/or drug-addicted younger patients. This is a combustible and counterintuitive mix, and plays no small role in the fix Laguna Honda now finds itself in.

“There are a huge number of men here between ages 50 and 70,” says Palmer. At most nursing homes, she continues, you’d be more likely to find “a majority of ladies in their 80s.”

Between 1999 and 2021, the percentage of women at Laguna Honda dropped from 56 percent to 37 percent.

The problems at Laguna Honda, like Hemingway’s description of bankruptcy, have come gradually then suddenly. As would bankruptcy, so to speak, if federal funding is yanked.

Laguna Honda was founded in 1866 as an almshouse for geriatric Gold Rush forty-niners. We could start this story then. Or we could start it in 1999, when voters approved a $299 million bond to “save” the hospital. Or in 2006, when a licensing survey noted that the younger, more ambulatory patients flowing into Laguna Honda were toting drugs, alcohol, loaded firearms, and abusing the elders — staff even futilely erected signs reading “no hitting.”

Or we could start in 2019, when Laguna Honda staff took demeaning, nude photos of incapacitated patients and doped them up with non-prescribed medication (the first of several lawsuits settled last year for $800,000).

Nursing Director: “Our team have exhausted most options in helping eliminate or minimize the contraband and illicit substances into the unit.” … (Resident 2) voluntarily handed the burnt aluminum foil, plastic pen body case burned on one end and a cigarette lighter that he’s holding. … Resident even stated “they know I’m doing this.”

California Department of Public Health Survey of Laguna Honda Hospital, March 28, 2022

But, instead, we’ll start in July 2021, when two of the younger, more ambulatory patients here purportedly wandered off campus, wandered back on with methamphetamine and fentanyl, and suffered non-fatal overdoses.

The hospital reported the overdoses to regulators — to not do so would be unthinkable following the 2019 scandals that led to $780,000 in fines and a slew of lawsuits. And this triggered a concatenation of regulatory procedures that led to where we are today and put the hospital at the brink.

Laguna Honda, on multiple subsequent occasions, did not meet inspectors’ expectations on its “termination revisit survey.” In April, inspectors found 27 different violations. Some of these were not insignificant — incomplete patient assessments or staff wearing improper or inadequate PPE around patients. Other assessments seemed to be more of the ticky-tack variety: medicated shampoo without a prescription, medicated creams and lotions in patient rooms, “three open plastic bags were hanging (unattended) in a dirty hamper.”

These are the infractions that triggered the feds to last month broach the possibility of yanking funding. Laguna Honda announced this month that it now must go through the rigmarole of working to demonstrate that it could relocate all of its residents as a condition to continue receiving government funding. It will receive that funding while it works to recertify and avoid relocating anyone. It’s a Kafkaesque turn of events. Laguna Honda has so much to answer for going back through the years — but it’s the medicated shampoo et al. that was noted on this most recent report.

Adding to the surreal nature of these proceedings, the federal agency currently calling the shots, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is responsible for overseeing all the truly horrific, for-profit, deathtrap nursing homes you saw on 60 minutes. There is no universe in which Laguna Honda compares to these charnel houses, and the overseers’ monomaniacal focus on this public hospital is hard to explain. As is any “solution” that might result in the dispersal of its residents.

Laguna Honda Hospital. Photo by Christopher Michel.

“I don’t know why they are being so harsh,” says Dr. Derek Kerr, a 21-year physician at Laguna Honda who has since turned into a whistleblower and critic of the facility. “Laguna Honda is always judged harshly. If you have one violation in a 700-bed unit that is as bad as one violation in a 15-bed nursing home. They don’t take into account the denominator.”

And while 27 violations sounds like a lot, says Charlene Harrington, a professor emeritus at UC San Francisco, Laguna Honda is seven times the size of an average nursing home facility. And, she continues, the average number of violations recorded on such an inspection is eight — meaning Laguna Honda had about half what you’d expect, per capita.

“California has had extremely poor enforcement of nursing homes, and has some of the worst nursing homes in the country. And that has gone on for years,” says Harrington. “Laguna Honda had some deficiencies, and I am not excusing the deficiencies. But the [overseers’] behavior in this case is inexplicable. They have let other facilities go for years … awful, for-profit facilities where really terrible things are going on.”

Multiple emails to CMS officials have not yet been returned.

Harrington has studied nursing homes and regulation for 40 years. And she is at a loss to explain what is going on here: “I can’t think of any case like this before.”

Laguna Honda in 1875. Photo courtesy of OpenSFHistory.org

There is nothing like a threat from outside to cement allegiances inside. So, at noon on Wednesday, Mayor London Breed and the SEIU 1021 — who maintain a Ralph Wolf-and-Sam Sheepdog relationship — will both appear at a rally to save this hospital.

Government officials across San Francisco described CMS as rigid and intractable. Former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is now the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, which runs CMS. But, city officials say, he may be trying extra hard not to be seen as playing favorites.

CMS, city officials say, intransigently insists that its procedures are proscribed and must be done by the book, come what may. And you know the mayor’s office has been bending their ears, as has the office of Rep. Nancy Pelosi — and, if need be, every California politician there is will join the queue.

What a predicament: At last San Francisco has run into a situation in which it can’t just have his political mommy and daddy make some calls and get it out of his longstanding ineptitude. The process, at least thus far, seems to be politically impenetrable. How unfortunate, then, that this appears to be a process devoid of common sense or empathy in which, ostensibly for the patients’ own safety, hundreds of them may be jettisoned to parts unknown or pushed to the street.

That’s just plain stupid.

Maybe that will come up at the rally tomorrow. It’s doubtful, however, the city officials will examine their own role in this fine mess. But we can. So let’s go back to that bond measure in 1999.

“Laguna Honda had some deficiencies, and I am not excusing the deficiencies. But the [overseers’] behavior in this case is inexplicable. They have let other facilities go for years … awful, for-profit facilities where really terrible things are going on.”

Charlene Harrington, UCSF professor emeritus

Voters, you may recall, agreed to go into $299 million in bonded debt to build a new, 1,200-bed facility. They were promised that this would house the city’s frail elders.

But that didn’t happen. The price tag ballooned by hundreds of millions of dollars and the capacity of the hospital was reduced by hundreds of beds. And, top it off, the city began transferring younger, mentally ill and/or substance addicted patients into the hospital.

So yes, we paid more, got less, and the hospital is not exclusively serving the elderly population that voters were enticed to pony up and help.

As noted earlier, this situation is longstanding. By 2004, Palmer left Laguna Honda, in large part because she felt the influx of “out-of-control” mentally ill and/or substance abuse addicts was unsafe. “They are deforming the hospital to accommodate an antisocial minority,” says Kerr, who was forced out in 2010.

There is no scenario in which crippling and defunding Laguna Honda and ejecting its patients is in anybody’s best interests — and, Palmer still describes it as “a better nursing home than most” and a place where she would’ve put her own mother.

The city must do all it can to fend off this doomsday scenario, and a consulting firm with an expertise in re-certification has already been hired.

But the city must also address the untenable situation of commingling the frail elderly and ambulatory mentally ill and/or addicts. In 1999, you’ll recall, 56 percent of Laguna Honda’s residents were female — and the average age was 76. By 2021, only 37 percent of the residents were women. And while patients’ average age wasn’t disclosed in ’21, it had dropped to 64 by 2013.

A state Department of Public Health survey from March, 2022 obtained by Kerr and shared with Mission Local notes staff observing residents overtly smoking drugs off aluminum foil and seeing little they could do to prevent this.

“Our team have exhausted most options in helping eliminate or minimize the contraband and illicit substances,” a nursing director is quoted as saying. The patient in question surrendered his burnt aluminum foil, plastic pen and lighter. “They know I’m doing this,” he said.

This city has chosen to serve populations nobody else would. But it has chosen to do so in a manner that has proven to be unworkable and led to the current crisis.

San Francisco owes it to itself and Laguna Honda’s residents to solve this crisis. But also to ponder its own role in it. And make things right. Gradually then suddenly.

The post Closing Laguna Honda Hospital could be like dropping a bomb on San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SACRAMENTO (CBS / AP) – Just a week before she and 12 other US soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing, Sgt. Nicole Gee was cradling a baby in her arms at Kabul airport.

She posted the photo on Instagram and wrote, “I love my job.”

Sgt.Nicole Gee holds a baby at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Sgt. Gee from Sacramento was killed in a bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday. (U.S. Department of Defense via Twitter)

Gee, 23, of Sacramento was one of four Californians killed in the bombing of Kabul airport, where people were evacuated during the Taliban takeover. The blast killed 169 Afghans and 13 US soldiers, including 11 Marines.

Lance complete with Dylan Merola, 20, from Rancho Cucamonga; Complete Hunter Lopez, 22, from Indio; and Lance Cpl. Norco’s Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui was also killed.

Gee was a maintenance technician with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Sgt. Mallory Harrison, who lived with Gee for three years and called her a “forever sister” and best friend, wrote a moving account of the extent of her loss.

“I can’t quite describe the feeling I get when I force myself to go back to reality and think about how I’ll never see it again,” Harrison wrote on Facebook. “How her last breath was taken to do what she loved – to help people. … Then there was an explosion. And just like that, she’s gone. “

Gee’s Instagram page features another photo of her in work clothes holding a rifle next to a line of people going into the belly of a large transport plane. She wrote: “Escort evacuees to the bird.”

The social media account, which contains many selfies after a workout at the gym, lists their location as California, North Carolina, and “Somewhere Abroad”.

Photos show her on a camel in Saudi Arabia, in a bikini on a Greek island and with a beer in Spain. One from earlier this month in Kuwait shows her radiant with her meritorious promotion to sergeant.

Harrison said their generation of Marines hear war stories from veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they seem very aloof in the midst of boring missions until “the peaceful chariot you were on turns into … your friends, that never come home. “

Gee’s car was still in a parking lot at Camp Lejeune, and Harrison pondered over all the marines who had passed him while she was overseas without knowing who it belonged to.

“Some of them knew her. Some of them don’t, ”she said. “Everyone walked past it. The war stories, the casualties, the flag-hung coffins, the KIA wristbands and the heartache. It’s not that far away anymore. ”

US SERVICE MEMBERS KILLED

• Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, from Berlin Heights, Ohio
• Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee
• Marine Corps Staff Sgt.Din T. Hoover, 31, from Salt Lake City, Utah
• Marine Corps Sgt.Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25, from Lawrence, Massachusetts
• Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, from Sacramento, California
• Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, from Indio, California
• Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska
• Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, from Rio Bravo, Texas
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, from St. Charles, Missouri
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, from Rancho Cucamonga, California
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California

© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report

The post Sacramento Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, three Different Californians Amongst Afghanistan Bomb Victims – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) – Mountain View police said a device that looked like a grenade was brought to safety after a house was evacuated late Wednesday morning.

The Mountain View Police Department Twitter account reported the incident just before noon.

MVPD officers are at a house on McCarty Avenue’s 500 block after a grenade appears to be found in one house.

The house was evacuated and the @SCCoSheriff Bomb Squad was brought in to keep the device safe.

We will update as soon as we have more information. pic.twitter.com/DeSDqaDhCz

– Mountain View Police (@MountainViewPD) March 10, 2021

Mountain View police officers are found in a house on the 500 block of McCarty Avenue after the discovery. The house was evacuated and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Bombing Squad was called in to ensure the safety of the device.

The bomb squad arrived at the scene at around 12.40 p.m. About an hour later, police tweeted that the device had been made safe and the scene was safe.

UPDATE: The device was rendered safely and the scene is safe. Thank you for your patience as we worked to keep our community safe! pic.twitter.com/FL8R4VZd2u

– Mountain View Police (@MountainViewPD) March 10, 2021

No injuries were reported in the incident.

The post Mountain View Police, Bomb Squad Render Gadget Thought To Be a Grenade Secure – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.