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California farm eager to reintroduce sweet, nutritious mulberries to America

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:06 GMT

“All fruits are beautiful, but the mulberry is the king of fruits.”– Persian ProverbMove over cherry, there’s a new berry in town.Thousands of cherry lovers throughout the Bay Area make their way each spring to one of dozens of U-pick farms in Brentwood for the plump, juicy round fruits, but now – for the first time – there’s another option that is arguably just as sweet: the Himalayan purple mulberry, which looks a bit like an elongated blackberry with tiny clusters of fruit.Not only is Habitera Farms the only one allowing visitors to partake in the picking of the tasty, dark-colored fleshy fruit — the season lasts about eight weeks — but it appears to be the only business selling mulberries on such a large scale commercially in the United States.A farmworker picks mulberries that fell onto nets attached to carts designed to shake trees as part of the harvest season at Habitera Farms in Brentwood, Calif., on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)Habitera’s organi...

Cadillac CT4-V series is a head scratcher

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:06 GMT

With the elimination of Pontiac and Oldsmobile back in the mid-2000s, General Motors was tasked with identifying an existing brand to consume sports and “market-right” vehicles to reduce the brunt of the loss.  Clearly they wanted to ensure that they didn’t lose customers and continue the legacy of those brands, but through other brands in the fleet; makes total sense to me.In Grasso’s Garage this week, Cadillac is back for a slice of the review pie with their 2023 Cadillac CT4-V series. In Grasso’s Garage, this presents a lot of questions. As the V designation was originally designed to deliver Corvette power in a luxury vehicle, we struggle to understand the reason behind the V-series. So with the roll-out of the Cadillac CTS-V back in the late 2000’s, this helped GM with rolling out a sporty and luxury model which covered the needs of Oldsmobile as well as Pontiac; and it worked, cha-ching!Although a good appearing vehicle and one that simulates curvatures of the past Ponti...

1 injured after shots fired in East County; suspect barricaded inside home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:06 GMT

Editor's note: This story has been updated to say the location is the 8000 block of Longdale Drive, and to reflect updated information from authorities that the injured woman is a neighbor.LEMON GROVE, Calif. -- One person was injured after shots were fired in East County Thursday morning, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department confirmed to FOX 5.The rounds were fired off at a residence on the 8000 block of Longdale Drive in Lemon Grove, and authorities say a female neighbor was transported to a local hospital to be treated for injuries. Owners of San Diego restaurants charged with COVID-relief fraud Meanwhile, the sheriff's department said the suspect was barricading himself inside a home in the area. Authorities are advising the public to avoid the area of Skyline and Longdale drives.Capt. Amber Baggs with the sheriff's department described the suspect as a white, 28-year-old man who may be suffering from a mental health crisis. FOX 5's Elizabeth Alvarez was at the scene and ...

German airline Lufthansa signs deal for minority stake in Italy’s struggling ITA Airways

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:06 GMT

MILAN (AP) — German airline Lufthansa on Thursday signed a deal with the Italian government for a 41-percent minority share in the long-struggling ITA Airways, formerly Alitalia.The deal calls for investments of 575 million euros in capital increases, 325 million euros from Lufthansa and the rest from the Italian Finance Ministry, providing capital for growth. Lufthansa will also have the option of buying the remaining shares at a later date. Lufthansa’s industrial plan for the Italian carrier calls for revenues of 2.5 billion euros ($2.68 billion) this year, growing to 4.1 billion euros in 2027, the Italian Finance Ministry said in a statement. During that period, Lufthansa plans to expand the ITA fleet from 71 aircraft to 94 and bring the workforce to 5,500 employees, from the current 4,000. Once the deal is completed, ITA Airways would be Lufthansa Group’s fifth carrier.Under the strategy, Rome’s Fiumicino airport will become one of the Lufthansa Group’s hubs, as ITA Airway...

2 North Carolina state legislators lose leadership roles after remarks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:06 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Two North Carolina state House Republicans have lost their caucus leadership positions after recent comments directed at Democratic colleagues questioning their educational attainment and religion.Reps. Keith Kidwell and Jeff McNeely have resigned as deputy majority whips after the GOP leadership team asked them to step down, House Majority Leader John Bell said in a news release on Thursday. “As elected officials, we must serve by example and be accountable for our actions, especially as leaders in the caucus,” Bell said. “While apologies have been made and accepted, we believe this is an appropriate action and step forward.”Neither McNeely nor Kidwell, both of whom are white, responded immediately Thursday to phone messages left at their legislative offices seeking comment. They remain sitting legislators. Deputy whips are tasked with helping corral votes on issues important to members of their party. The Democrats who were the subjects of the comments are bot...

Ex-NFL player Damon Arnette pleads not guilty in 2022 Vegas Strip hotel valet gun case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:06 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former NFL cornerback Damon Arnette has pleaded not guilty in Nevada to felony charges and his lawyer is challenging his indictment alleging he displayed a handgun during an argument with Las Vegas Strip casino valets in January 2022.“He never brandished a gun. He never pointed a gun,” defense attorney Ross Goodman said Thursday of Arnette. The former player appeared in court Wednesday and remains free pending trial in October on assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed firearm charges.Prosecutor Jory Scarborough declined to comment.Arnette, 26, a first-round draft pick of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020, played college football at Ohio State and lives in Boynton Beach, Florida.He is accused of holding a .45-caliber handgun and threatening two hotel valets during an argument about a receipt for parking his Mercedes SUV at the Park MGM hotel.Las Vegas police who stopped and arrested Arnette and a passenger in the vehicle a short distance away reported find...

Economic headwinds weigh on bank results as more money set aside for bad loans

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:06 GMT

TORONTO — The effects of heightened inflation and central bank efforts to rein it in by slowing the economy are showing in the second-quarter results from Canada’s big banks.Four out of the Big Five banks have reported earnings that missed expectations as they set aside more money for bad loans and struggle to contain rising costs, and several see their revenue take a hit from slower loan growth.CIBC was the lone outlier as its results Thursday came in better than analysts had expected.While Canadian mortgage loan growth has slowed to a trickle, with several banks reporting flat results from the previous quarter, much of the focus these days is on what’s going on with the banks’ U.S. operations following several high-profile bank failures.Several bank executives have noted the more challenging economic conditions, while TD Bank Group warned of tougher days ahead as it said it no longer expects to meet its medium-term earnings growth target. The recent collapse of T...

GOP field in Pennsylvania Senate race still wide open as candidates consider jumping in

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:06 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The GOP primary field in Pennsylvania to challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Casey remains wide open, with the hopes of top party officials hanging on the potential entry of a high-profile candidate in a top-tier battleground state contest that could help define the Republican Party’s path forward in 2024.Former hedge fund CEO David McCormick is the favorite of party leaders and has drawn pledges of financial support from top Republican officials — should he decide to run. Meanwhile, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a hard-right lawmaker who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump in last year’s race for governor but lost in a landslide, has said he will announce Thursday night whether he will run for Senate. McCormick is facing a complicated decision, with Trump seeking the party’s nomination for president. A Mastriano candidacy could further complicate McCormick’s path.At the very least, it will “force McCormick to go spend millions to defend him...

Quebec will require economic immigrants to speak French before arriving: Legault

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:06 GMT

Quebec Premier François Legault says the province will require that the vast majority of economic immigrants to Quebec speak French before they arrive. Sixty-five per cent of immigrants to Quebec come through the economic immigration stream, which is controlled by the province.Legault says his government is also considering increasing the number of immigrants it accepts every year to 60,000 people from 50,000 people, by 2027. He says the rise in immigration would come from people arriving through the economic stream, adding that his government is not considering increasing the number of people who immigrate through the family reunification program or as refugees.Legault had said during the province’s fall election campaign that accepting more than 50,000 immigrants a year would be “suicidal” for Quebec.Now he says that if immigrants speak French they wouldn’t threaten the province’s culture and language.This report by The Canadian Press was first publis...

Prosecutors widen child sex abuse case in polygamous sect, adding child pornography charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:16:06 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Prosecutors have widened their case against members of a small polygamous group that resides near the Utah-Arizona border, detailing its leader’s sexual encounters with children he took as wives in new charges filed earlier this month.A grand jury accuses Sam Bateman of child pornography in a superseding indictment filed recently and adds new counts to charges filed last year for kidnapping and impeding an investigation. The May 18 document provides new details about how Bateman — with the help of followers — took wives as young as 9 years old and created a sprawling network spanning at least four states as he attempted to start an offshoot group of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.The FLDS is itself a breakaway sect of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The sect is known because its leader, Warren Jeffs, is serving a life sentence in federal prison in Texas. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the ma...