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Sherman Oaks middle school teacher charged with sexually assaulting 2 students

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

A man who works as a middle school teacher in Sherman Oaks has been charged with sexually assaulting two eighth grade students, officials announced Thursday.Kareen Spann, 47, was charged with lewd act on a child under 14 and one misdemeanor count of child molestation, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.Investigators allege Spann, a teacher at Louis Armstrong Middle School, started having “inappropriate communication” with a student in April that led to grooming. The grooming then allegedly led to inappropriate and unlawful touching, officials said.That same month, Spann is accused of assaulting a second student on school property during lunch time.The defendant has pleaded not guilty and is set to appear in court on June 21.“Children deserve to feel safe and secure in their environment, and it is the responsibility of adults to protect them from any form of abuse or exploitation,” District Attorney George Gascón said. “These types of crimes against vulner...

Canoga Park woman dead, husband missing after boat capsizes in Alaska during family trip

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

A Canoga Park woman is dead and her husband is missing after a boat capsized in Alaska during their family vacation, officials and a loved one said.The woman's sister also died. The incident occurred around 10:20 p.m. May 28 when a 30-foot charter vessel carrying five people capsized in the area of Low Island in Sitka Sound, Alaska Department of Public Safety detailed.One person was eventually found unresponsive in the water near the boat. The 57-year-old Hawaii resident was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.He was identified by Alaska officials as Maury Agcaoili.Robert Solis and Brandi Tyau are seen in an undated Facebook photo provided by a family member. Around 5 p.m. Wednesday, two bodies were recovered from the sunken boat and are believed to be sisters Danielle Agcaoili, 53, of Hawaii, and Brandi Tyau, 56, of Canoga Park.Brandi’s husband, Robert Solis, 61 of Cangoa Park, is still missing, along with the boat operator and captain Morgan Robidou 32, of Alaska.Mich...

Wolverine spotted in California wilderness for only 2nd time in century

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

A wolverine has been spotted in California for only the second confirmed time in nearly 100 years.In May, the lone wolverine was spotted on trail cameras on two separate occasions in the Inyo National Forest in both Inyo and Mono counties, as well as a third sighting in Yosemite National Park in Tuolumne County.The California Department of Fish and Wildlife analyzed the videos and photos of the creature and consulted wolverine experts with the United States Forest Service. By analyzing the animal's size, body shape, coloration and movement patterns, they were able to confirm that the animal spotted on camera was in fact a wolverine.It's an incredibly rare sighting in California, as wolverines tend to be primarily found in Canada and Alaska, with small populations located in the Rocky and Cascade mountain ranges.An animal recorded on camera in Inyo National Forest in May 2023 was confirmed by California Fish and Wildlife to be a wolverine. (Dominic Carton via CDFW)“Wolverines can tra...

Orange County businessman arrested for alleged $1.8 million fraud scheme

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

An Orange County businessman who allegedly portrayed himself as one of the richest men in Africa was arrested in a $1.8 million fraud scheme.Amadou Kane Diallo, 44, a Senegalese national living in Laguna Niguel, was arrested Thursday on federal charges alleging he solicited investments under false pretenses while using the funds to support a lavish lifestyle, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.Officials said Diallo fraudulently obtained more than $1.8 million from at least 11 victims who were told their “investments would allow them to reap the benefits of Diallo’s supposed business successes while facing little to no risk,” officials said.As the CEO of two Newport Beach-based companies – Virtual Advisors LLC and Liquide, Inc. — Diallo allegedly used the companies to solicit investments for business opportunities in various sectors including technology, healthcare, real estate, home ownership and service to the African diaspora.Diallo allegedly made false claims to his victims ...

Royal TV: Queen Charlotte, Queen Cleopatra, and The Great , Reviewed

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

Streaming services, cable TV and Primetime television are fighting for your viewership now more than ever. UNBINGED is here to help you weed through it all, with reviews of the latest shows that highlight what we love, what we hate and what we love to hate-watch, too. Fiction inspired by facts, or facts distorted by fiction? History-inspired tales of great queens are more imagination than authenticity, but if the story is good,  why let a few white lies stand in the way? For this edition of UnBinged, we take a look at streaming’s current royal treatment in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, Queen Cleopatra and The Great Season 3-– all popular dramas that misconstrue the history of great female leaders for the sake of entertainment. Which deserves a crown and which needs to go down? Read on.Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Netflix)Before the bodice-ripping, tawdry tales of Bridgerton continue for a third season, Netflix has unleashed a spin-off inspired by their ver...

Trump, DeSantis trade jabs on the campaign trail

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

By Michelle L. Price, Steve Peoples and Thomas Beaumont | Associated PressGRIMES, Iowa — Former President Donald Trump kept up a steady drumbeat of criticism of his chief rival Ron DeSantis on Thursday, jumping immediately on remarks by the Florida governor on the campaign trail to try to highlight his own strength as the leading GOP presidential candidate.Trump, appearing in Iowa as DeSantis campaigned in New Hampshire, made a point of telling about 200 members of a conservative club gathered at a Des Moines-area restaurant that they could ask him questions — an offer that came not long after DeSantis snapped at an Associated Press reporter who asked him why he didn’t take questions from voters at his events.“A lot of politicians don’t take questions. They give a speech,” Trump said to the audience, many of whom wore red Make America Great Again hats espousing his political movement.Trump also sought to push back on DeSantis’ argument that it will take...

Mission Peak Village creates new Bay Area housing and intergenerational connections

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

Homebuyers in 2023 are questioning whether conventional neighborhoods work well for them. Many are now more acutely sensitive to isolation from neighbors — the possibility of living among people you rarely see or interact with. It’s hard to know if a prospective community will be friendly.Mission Peak Village members gather to play soccer over the weekend. Members of Mission Peak Village believe finding a home should be more than a real estate transaction; it is a lifestyle choice. Residents are their own developers with an active role in building homes on a site that meets their own rigorous criteria. Mission Peak Village hired an experienced development consultant, bought land and selected an architect. By move-in time, they will already be a connected community of intergenerational neighbors.Mission Peak Village didn’t invent this approach. The group adopted an intentional community model called cohousing, introduced to North America in 1988 by architects Kathryn McCamant an...

The 10 most expensive homes reported sold in Alameda, Piedmont and Oakland in the week of May 22

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

A house in Piedmont that sold for $5.7 million tops the list of the most expensive residential real estate sales in Alameda, Piedmont and Oakland in the past week.In total, 38 residential real estate sales were recorded in the area during the past week, with an average price of $2.3 million. The average price per square foot ended up at $828.The prices in the list below concern real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of May 22 even if the property may have been sold earlier.10. $2.5 million, single-family home in the 6700 block of Elverton DriveThe sale of the single family residence in the 6700 block of Elverton Drive in Oakland has been finalized. The price was $2,500,000, and the new owners took over the house in April. The house was built in 2007 and has a living area of 5,531 square feet. The price per square foot was $452. The house features four bedrooms and five bathrooms.Elverton Drive9. $2.5 million, single-family house in the 5900 block of Bruns Cou...

Letters: Protect ridgeline | Spend prudently | Warning to voters | Safe roads

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.Protect the PittsburgCNWS ridgelineImagine waking up one day to see development on the ridgeline of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, right behind the new Thurgood Marshall East Bay Regional Park. That will happen if we don’t speak up now. The Seeno-owned ridgeline property is in the process of being quietly approved by the Pittsburg City Council and developed.In 2023 we should at the very least save our ridgelines from development, especially this ridgeline that will be seen by neighboring cities.What can you do? Contact the Pittsburg City Council and ask them to be a good neighbor and preserve at least the ridgeline. Support Save Mount Diablo in their efforts to preserve open space, including this ridgeline.Kathy GleasonConcordTransit agencies mustspend money prudentlyTransit has fallen on hard times. Thanks to COVID and the resulting changes in travel patterns, transit ridership and farebox returns h...

Murraya? Cernuous? Here’s how long ago these National Spelling Bee winning words were trending

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:00 GMT

Several Bay Area kids are slated to compete Thursday night in the grand finale of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland.If you’ve ever watched the Spelling Bee, you’ve probably asked yourself: Where in the world do they come up with these words?Case in point: Have you ever heard of the word “murraya” before? Pronounced: mr·ai·uh. That’s M-U-R-R-A-Y-A. Apparently it describes a certain type of tropical Asiatic and Australian tree.If you got that wrong, that’s entirely understandable, since in 2019 it only appeared 0.0000000499% of the time compared to all other words in English language books stored on Google. According to our analysis of the data, Murraya was a much more commonly-used word back in the 1800s, but has fallen out of fashion over the last 223 years.And that is not the only National Spelling Bee winning word that’s fallen out of favor. 2019 winner erysipelas, which refers to a skin condition, peaked back ...