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Monsters Explores a Fan’s Dilemma: Good Art by Bad People

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:14:42 GMT

Via our sister paper The Village Voice: Claire Dederer’s “Monsters” looks at artists you might not want to bring home to mother. I’m talking to my class about the relationship between the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland and a carving in a 12th-century church in Beverly, England, when a student stands up and starts yelling, “Lewis Carroll was a child molester!” There goes my college lecture about animal iconography, and now we’re talking about rape. I would have put this mess in context by speaking about verifying sources, photography of children in Victorian England, Carroll’s letters (which I’ve read), or asking whether any actual molestation ever happened. But I can’t, because she won’t stop yelling.Badness and confusion: That’s why Monsters, A Fan’s Dilemma, Claire Dederer’s recent book about good art made by bad people, is so hot. The book is as good as it can be, considering its rash gestures and unsuccessful efforts to understand itself — problems that actual monsters seem...

SF Giants mount comeback, walk off Guardians to finish crucial home stand on positive note

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:14:42 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — J.D. Davis stood, frozen, his bat exactly where his backswing left it. He watched hopefully, more so than he admired. He bounced, bat still in hand, up the first base line, as if to will the ball further by somehow transferring his kinetic energy.The bat dropped. The ball cleared the wall. The game was tied.The Giants, put in a 5-1 hole by their left-handed phenom making his fifth major-league start, climbed all the way back Wednesday afternoon to walk off the Guardians, 6-5, in 10 innings. They took two of three from Cleveland, winning three straight series for the first time since July, and finished their all-important home stand with wins in five of their six games.Davis tied it with his three-run shot in the bottom of the eighth, and Patrick Bailey raced home on a walk-off sac fly from LaMonte Wade Jr. in the bottom of the 10th. Cleveland challenged, and the call was confirmed upon review.Called on to record the final out of the top of the ninth, Camilo Doval ear...

Antioch City Council will not assume control over hiring, firing police chief

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:14:42 GMT

A proposal that would give Antioch City Council the authority to hire, fire and supervise the police chief failed to advance this week after one council member revised her stance on the issue.The council had approved a first reading on the structural changes on a 3-2 vote Aug. 22, with Councilmembers Lori Ogorchock and Mike Barbanica dissenting. But on its final reading Tuesday, Mayor Pro Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker, one of those who had originally proposed the idea, asked that the council add a condition that would end its authority after a year or as soon as a new permanent city manager was named.The councilwoman said she had second thoughts knowing “absolute power corrupts absolutely” and pulled the item from the consent calendar.“A lot of times when people who haven’t had power get a little, they misuse it – and that can happen in politics,” Torres-Walker said. “That can happen among the city council… And so I offered the compromise because most of us work full time. We also...

Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh, to release a memoir

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:14:42 GMT

By Hillel Italie | Associated PressNEW YORK — The California professor who testified that then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had assaulted her while they were in high school has written a memoir. Christine Blasey’s Ford’s “One Way Back” is scheduled for publication next March.According to St. Martin’s Press, she will share “riveting new details about the lead-up” to her testimony in 2018; “its overwhelming aftermath,” when she allegedly received death threats and was unable to live at her home; and “how people unknown to her around the world restored her faith in humanity.”Ford, a professor at Palo Alto University and the Stanford University School of Medicine, made headlines when she told the Senate Judiciary Committee about a party she and Kavanaugh attended in the early 1980s. She alleged that he cornered her in a bedroom, pinned her on a bed and tried to take off her clothes, while pressing his hand over h...

Fallout from Sunol school ban on Pride flag, as parents keep kids home and consider recall

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:14:42 GMT

After a contentious board meeting on Tuesday night in which the tiny Sunol district approved a controversial resolution to prevent the town’s single elementary school from flying a Pride flag, some local parents kept their kids home on Wednesday out of fear for their safety, concerned that the hostility would continue.“It’s disconcerting, it’s scary, it’s not right. We’re reeling and trying to figure out how to push back against this,” said Matthew Sylvester, a parent at the school.Related: Sunol school board meeting devolves into chaos, audience thrown out as Pride flag bannedThe meeting, at which the three-person board voted 2-1 in favor of the ban, eventually adjourned close to 10 p.m. — only after the entire audience had been cleared from the room by Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies.But the following day, it was clear that the emotions would not be limited to one single meeting.In fact, some community members said it felt that a dark cloud had been...

Trump, GOP rivals want to shut down Department of Education

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:14:42 GMT

By Kate Sullivan and Katie Lobosco | CNNFormer President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants to close the Department of Education and have state governments “run the education of our children,” pushing for a long-held Republican goal that has been endorsed by several other 2024 GOP candidates.“We’re going to end education coming out of Washington, DC. We’re going to close it up – all those buildings all over the place and people that in many cases hate our children. We’re going to send it all back to the states,” Trump said in a new campaign video.But eliminating the US Department of Education would not necessarily give any more power to states over K-12 schools. While the federal agency helps the president execute education policies, the power to set curriculum, establish schools and determine enrollment eligibility already lies with the states and local school boards.Trump has been floating the idea of eliminating the Department of Education since his 2016 presidential campaign. ...

Newborn boy’s suffering and death on full display as parents blame each another at start of Richmond murder trial

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:14:42 GMT

Amary Darn lived for just five weeks before he went unconscious inside the second-story Richmond hotel room where he spent almost all of his short life and died at a hospital.But during those five weeks, little Amary suffered more than most adults will in a lifetime, authorities say.By the time the newborn boy’s parents took him to a hospital, Amary was covered in sores, burns and mold. He suffered broken ribs, a broken femur, a fractured wrist and a fractured skull. There was methamphetamine in his bloodstream — and nothing in his stomach or intestines. He wasn’t just malnourished; he’d been starved, an autopsy later found.And now, Amary’s parents — Ray Ray Darn, 37, and Marilyn Northington, 30 — are before a Contra Costa jury, facing charges of murder, assault on a child causing death and child abuse. At the start of their trial on Wednesday, prosecutors for the first time revealed the horrific details of Amary’s brief life and agonizing February 2021...

CSU Board of Trustees unanimously vote to increase tuition

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:14:42 GMT

(KRON) -- Today, the California State University Board of Trustees unanimously voted to increase the tuition by 6 percent each academic year until the end of the decade. According to CSU, the initiative is “a multi-year revenue sustainability plan for systemwide tuition, nonresident tuition, and the graduate business professional program fee.” CSU is adamant that the plan will “provide necessary resources for each university, provide tuition stability and predictability for students and parents, and enhance financial aid and affordability for those students with the greatest financial need."The tuition rate increase will span five academic years from 2024-25 to 2028-29. At the end of the 2029 academic year, tuition rates will be held at the 2028-29 rate until the Board decides to raise or decrease rates beyond that academic year. CSU states the tuition increase will bring in additional resources to "continue to provide its students with an accessible, high-quality education." This i...

Judge again declares DACA is illegal, setting up likely showdown before US Supreme Court over the fate of ‘Dreamers’

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:14:42 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — Judge again declares DACA is illegal, setting up likely showdown before US Supreme Court over the fate of ‘Dreamers.’Source

Netflix’s ‘Full Swing’ won’t be getting full access to the Ryder Cup team rooms

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:14:42 GMT

The Netflix golf documentary series “Full Swing” won’t have full access at the Ryder Cup.U.S. captain Zach Johnson says he spoke to all 12 players on his team when concerns were raised about a film crew in the team rooms, and they unanimously decided to keep certain areas off limits.“Netflix is going to be there,” said Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America. “I would say all things involving the team we leave to the team and the captain. I think there’s a sanctity to the team room, and the experience is important to them. It’s part of being a team, right? Netflix has been great for the game. They’re doing great things. The team collectively decided there are areas of privacy that need to be respected.”Netflix is in production for its second season of the series that has been popular with golf fans and even those who didn’t pay much attention to the sport. Nielsen Media Research analysis in U.S. markets showed 60% of viewers are between the ages of 25 and 54, and 63% of viewers watche...