Fremont

A new fire blazing at the border of Napa and Sonoma counties on Wednesday afternoon was expected to cause delays on Highway 121, fire officials said. The blaze, dubbed the Fremont Fire, had burned 40 acres and was 0% contained shortly before 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to Cal Fire. Firefighters were battling the blaze in the area of Fremont Drive and Napa Road in Sonoma County. Napa County emergency services officials said motorists should expect delays heading west on Highway 121 at the Napa-Sonoma county line. Officials urged residents living in the area to stay indoors and close their windows and doors to prevent wildfire smoke from entering homes in the area. “Smoke may be visible but no other threats have been identified and no evacuations have been ordered,” Napa County emergency services officials said in an alert to community members. Check back for updates. Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] …

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4 SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers on Thursday voted to spend more than $2 billion to prevent wildfires and address a severe drought, closing the book — for now — on a $262.5 billion operating budget that began the year with a record deficit because of the pandemic and ended with a record surplus in spite of it. Wildfire spending in California has more than tripled since 2005, surpassing $3 billion last year. But most of that money is spent on putting out fires, not preventing them. That strategy hasn't been working in an era of climate change that is making fires larger than ever and more difficult to put out. Fifteen of the state's most destructive wildfires have occurred in the last 10 years. Five of the largest wildfires in state history happened just last year, and a fire that's still burning this year is the second largest ever. New spending approved Thursday brings California's wildfire prevention budget to more than $1.5 …

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Sign up for our Remote Control newsletter to receive our best streaming stories of the week in your inbox, as well as SFGATE staff picks and updates on when your favorite shows will return. "The Matrix Resurrections" has been a long time coming. The last film in the iconic sci-fi series, "The Matrix Revolutions," came out in 2003, and the trilogy was complete, or so fans thought. After years of squashed rumors and co-director Lilly Wachowski calling the idea of a return to the franchise a "particularly repelling idea," Warner Brothers officially announced in 2019 that a fourth film was indeed in the works, with Lilly's sister, Lana Wachowski, co-writing and directing. Later that year, San Franciscans going about their day were given a sneak peek of some insane stunts being shot in the Financial District as two (presumable) stunt doubles tethered to a network of safety wires ran and leaped from the roof of 44 Montgomery . According to documents obtained by SFGATE, the San …

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6 Several weeks ago, Dan Chan parked his car near the Exit Theatre in the Tenderloin to see one of his fellow magicians perform. He tucked his own bag of magic tricks out of view under the front seat of his car, locked the vehicle and left. When he returned to his car a couple of hours later, the telltale puddle of shattered glass lay on the sidewalk. His one-of-a-kind decks of cards, shell game equipment, juggling balls, crystal ball, silk pieces to wave over disappearing objects and other tools of his trade had vanished into thin air. But this was no magic trick. It was just one more all-too-real vehicle break-in in a city where the crime occurred more than 30,000 times last year. On average, that’s once every 18 minutes. That’s also 24 percent more than the year before and about triple the number in 2011. And those are just the break-ins reported to police. “Like anyone else, I was stunned,” said Chan, 40, a San Francisco …

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Inside a low, brick-red building in Queens Village, a group of about 30 cooks has made and served more than 145,000 free meals in just 10 weeks. They arrive at 4 a.m. three days a week to methodically assemble vast quantities of basmati rice, dal, beans and vibrantly flavored sabzis for New York City hospital workers, people in poverty and anyone else in search of a hot meal. This isn’t a soup kitchen or a food bank. It’s a gurdwara, the place of worship for Sikhs, members of the fifth-largest organized religion in the world, with about 25 million adherents. Providing for people in need is built into their faith. An essential part of Sikhism is langar, the practice of preparing and serving a free meal to promote the Sikh tenet of seva, or selfless service. Anyone, Sikh or not, can visit a gurdwara and partake in langar, with the biggest ones — like the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India — serving more than 100,000 people every day. Since the coronavirus pandemic has halted …

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Tesla's expansion into Austin has been praised by the city's only historically Black college and university, Huston-Tillotson. Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of the electric car company, confirmed in an earnings call this week the next gigafactory plant would be built close to the state capital and used to make at least two much-anticipated vehicles, the Cybertruck and Semi. In a message welcoming the move, Huston-Tillotson said it would be partnering with the firm to help provide employment opportunities and careers for its students. A spokesperson revealed a university leadership team had met with officials from Tesla, with the conversation leading to "actual strategies," including faculty collaborations and undergraduate research. It did not share an exact timescale for the roll-out. "HT appreciated Tesla's sincerity, interest, and intentionality for forming sustainable partnerships with local institutions of learning to develop talent pipelines," it said. "The employment …

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Somewhere between a childhood vacation to Sequoia National Park and a college biology class, I latched on to a single fact about California’s giant sequoias: They’re immune to wildfires. These ancient trees have survived for so long because they had found a way to coexist with a deadly threat. Or so I thought. Last summer, a single fire killed tens of thousands of sequoias in the Sierra Nevada. And this month, blazes in and around Sequoia National Park are lapping at the bases of these massive trees, worrying the firefighters who are scrambling to protect them. The ever-increasing intensity of fires in California has become too much even for the sequoias, which evolved to survive — even thrive — in fires. The dangers prompted firefighters last week to wrap General Sherman, believed to be the largest tree in the world, in flame-retardant foil in a bid to save it from flames. Experts say the fires that sequoias endured for centuries were mostly low grade. Thick bark and …

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