San francisco

Since 1978, Villa D'Este, a family-run Italian restaurant on Ocean Avenue, known for its heaping piles of creamy fettuccini carbonara, crispy veal Parmesan and hearty layers of lasagna bolognese, is set to close in a matter of days. After 44 years serving the San Francisco community, proprietor Ramon Oropeza Sr. announced the closure on Villa D'Este's website . "After 44 years, I'm retiring. I've been without time off for the past 61 years, so it's time to hit the road," Oropeza told SFGATE on Friday. "I have a ranch up in Vacaville. So I'm perhaps going to make some wine. I'm going to enjoy that and I have horses." Oropeza's granddaughter, Ashley Oropeza, recalls growing up in the family business, helping wait tables and getting to know longtime customers throughout the decades. Villa D'Este's last day of service will be Thursday, June 30. "I've been there since I was 12, and I have first-cousins, we all grew up working throughout high school and college. My uncles and … [Read more...] about San Francisco Italian restaurant Villa D’Este says goodbye after 44 years on Ocean Avenue

Bay Area Rapid Transit is bringing back one of its short-lived but storied promotions: retro arcade games in the Powell Street Station. They weren’t throwbacks when BART rolled out video games the first time in 1976 . With ridership waning and hopes to connect with younger riders, the transit agency partnered with Atari to bring a bank of six games to the platform, including Pong, LeMans and Space Race. This year, BART will bring four games back for a week beginning on Sept. 3, 2022, as part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the system. “This event from the 1970s is something that pops up on social media all the time as a throwback,” BART Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost said. “We’re trying to re-engage our riders to show that we’re not always so square and we can have a little fun and here’s an example.” The Atari Arcade Theatre Kiosk was installed in December 1976, when the transit agency was four years old, and fighting money and public relations problems. … [Read more...] about Arcade games at BART? Pong and Galaga return to Powell station this fall

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Rookie right-hander Graham Ashcraft bounced back from two poor starts, pitching a career-high eight innings to help the Cincinnati Reds stop their seven-game losing streak Friday night with a 4-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants. Nick Senzel drove in two runs and Mike Moustakas scored twice to pace the Cincinnati offense. READ MORE: Fire Burning At Metal Recycling Facility In Sutter County Ashcraft (4-1) gave up only a two-out homer to Evan Longoria in the fourth inning and an RBI single to Mike Yastrzemski in the eighth. The latter followed a double-play comebacker Ashcraft induced from Tommy La Stella to dampen a potential Giants rally. “That changed the inning,” Ashcraft said. He appreciated the decision by manager David Bell to leave him in for the eighth. “That shows he’s starting to get trust in me,” Ashcraft said. Hunter Strickland worked the ninth against his former team for his third save. “Like I told some of the guys: Strickland … [Read more...] about Ashcraft Goes 8, Reds Beat Giants 4-2 To Halt 7-Game Skid

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A federal jury awarded $21 million to the family of a pregnant teen who was shot and killed by undercover police officers in Northern California five years ago, attorneys said. Elena Mondragon was a passenger in a BMW pulling out of a Hayward apartment complex when an unmarked van filled with Fremont police officers tried to cut it off in March 2017, according to a complaint filed by the teen’s family. At the time, Fremont police said the BMW's driver, who was apparently wanted by police, had rammed the car into the van. Police opened fire and fatally wounded Mondragon, who was a passenger. She was 16 and in her first trimester of pregnancy. Her family's civil rights and wrongful death complaint described the killing as “a botched covert arrest operation," the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The jury's decision on Friday was "a tremendous verdict for the family,” said plaintiffs' attorney John Burris. Burris said the jury decided to split … [Read more...] about Jury awards $21M to family of pregnant teen shot by police

What personal rights, such as the right to abortion, are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantees of liberty and equality? According to the Supreme Court, only those rights that are “deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions” dating back to 1868, when the amendment was ratified and few states allowed abortion — and when women were denied the right to vote and most other rights. What restrictions can states impose on the right to carry a gun? According to the court, only those the government can prove to be “part of the historical tradition” that limited those rights — with a particular focus on the late 19th century, when the Second Amendment took effect and when the law required all males 18 and older to carry muskets and join their state militia. The lesson from the final days of the court’s 2021-22 term, apparently, is that constitutional rights should be determined in the history books, as interpreted by a five-justice conservative majority. The … [Read more...] about Looking backward: The Supreme Court turns to history books to redefine rights on abortion, guns

0 Community Corner Take a look at some of the top news stories over the past week from across Califor Michael Wittner , Patch Staff Posted Reply CALIFORNIA – It was another busy news week across California. Missed the headlines on Patch? Whether you're looking for breaking or bizarre news, or sweet or silly features, we've rounded up some of the most share-worthy stories from the past week. Take a look at some of this week's top news stories from across the state. Roe V. Wade Overturned: What It Means In CA California pledged to be a haven for abortion rights now that the procedure is illegal in more than 26 states. 'Attack On American Freedom': CA Leaders React To Abortion Ruling Protests sprung up around the Golden State on Friday following a decision that will strip swaths of states of abortion rights. Protests Erupt Across LA After SCOTUS Overturns Roe V. Wade Protesters took to … [Read more...] about Abortion In CA; Kid Vaccines Approved; Summer Rain: Top CA Stories

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is using the recent Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe v. Wade to assert his role as a future national leader of the left and the Democratic Party — possibly with a view to a forthcoming run for president. Newsom has been in the vanguard of left-wing policy on social issues ever since becoming the first public official to legalize gay marriage, doing so as mayor of San Francisco in 2004 — though his own party blamed him for a national backlash. In recent months, he has devoted energy to picking fights with Texas and Florida, two Republican-governed states that have attracted businesses and residents from California — and which also have taken conservative social stances on many issues. When a draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leaked last month, Newsom promised to build a “firewall” around California to protect abortion. He even tried reframing pro-abortion policies as the real “pro-life agenda.” Now, the … [Read more...] about Gavin Newsom Seizes on Roe Reversal to Bid for Democratic Leadership

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 15 At 88, Gloria Steinem has long been the nation’s most visible feminist and advocate for women’s rights. But at 22, she was a frightened American in London getting an illegal abortion of a pregnancy so unwanted, she actually tried to throw herself down the stairs to end it. Her response to the Supreme Court’s decision overruling Roe v. Wade is succinct: “Obviously,” she wrote in an email message, “without the right of women and men to make decisions about our own bodies, there is no democracy.” Steinem’s blunt remark cuts to the heart of the despair some opponents are feeling about Friday's historic rollback of the 1973 case legalizing abortion. If a right so central to the overall fight for women’s equality can be revoked, they ask, what does it mean for the progress women have made in public life in the … [Read more...] about A ‘sucker punch’: Some women fear setback to hard-won rights

This color photograph, of a historic garment unseen by the public for decades, shows Amelia Earhart's kimono-like robe that she wore before taking off on her record-breaking flight from Honolulu to California in 1935. Earhart would vanish two years later on an epic attempt to circle the world near the equator. Only glimpsed in black-and-white photos by most historians until now, the vibrant silk garment once stood in the middle of an ugly controversy, not so different from today’s “fake news” fights, between those who fabricated stories about the beloved aviator after she disappeared and those seeking the truth. When Amelia Earhart's last message was heard at the start of July 1937, she had been flying for 20 hours and 13 minutes from Lae, New Guinea towards a pinprick island in the Pacific Ocean called Howland Island. Earhart had estimated this leg of her highly publicized round-the-equator trip would take 18 hours, so when she sent her last dispatch, on July 2, she was two hours … [Read more...] about The Amelia Earhart Kimono That Spikes a Racist Legend