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Anatomy of a cheeseburger and fries: How inflation has pushed up the cost of this very American meal

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:14 GMT

Long gone are the days when a burger cost less than $10.When James Samara and Brendan McManus opened The Mighty Colorado Burger inside Denver Beer Co.’s Arvada location in 2017, a basic cheeseburger with fries cost $9. Now, the combo is $12, which Samara said is to make up for higher employee wages, food and distribution costs.The entire restaurant industry has been struggling to keep up under a pile of economic issues since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, including supply chain issues, labor shortages, the rising cost of minimum wage and an increase in the price of ingredients.“It’s the perfect storm,” Samara said. “We’re paying our staff much more, and their cost of living is higher, and we’re spending much more on our ingredients, so unfortunately it just has to get passed on to the customer at some point.”The Mighty Colorado Burger, which operates out of an Airstream trailer inside the brewery, isn’t the only restaurant charging double-digit sums for a burg...

After the storms: UC Botanical Garden’s rescue operation to save a paradise lost

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:14 GMT

Decades of tender care built the UC Botanical Garden’s Asian collection, a premier compilation of some of the world’s most precious plants.Then, in just an instant, a toppled giant redwood tree turned the delicate botanical gem into a disaster zone.Experts are now converging on the storm-damaged site, perched high in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus to pull bruised and battered plants from the wreckage in a race to save what remains.Eric Schulz, a horticulturist at UC Botanical Gardens, takes a break before continuing to clear fallen branches at UC Botanical Gardens in Berkeley. Winds toppled part of a large coast redwood on March 21, widespread damage was inflicted on the Garden’s Asian collection. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group) “I dig through the debris to find where the plant is located and what is salvageable from it,” said propagator Susan Malisch. Some plants get remedial pruning. Others are rushed back to the garden’s nursery, where cuttings c...

Editorial: Google, Facebook must share profits for local journalism to survive

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:14 GMT

Imagine you are a pie-maker. You buy the cherries, sugar, flour and other ingredients. You rent space for your industrial kitchen and purchase ovens. You hire bakers. And after your pies are ready, the only grocery store in the area sells them. And keeps the money.That is a simplified analogy of the story of local journalism today. We’re the pie-makers, and Big Tech companies such as Google and Facebook are the grocery stores. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but, essentially, they’re taking our news product, putting it on their sites and selling advertising with it. And reaping the profits.Which helps explain why local news operations across California and the nation are struggling to survive. And why California has lost over 100 newspapers in the last decade. It’s time for state lawmakers to change this paradigm — to make Big Tech pay for the journalism it’s using to drive its advertising.Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, is trying to ensure that happe...

Opinion: An AI moratorium is not the answer to the technology’s threats

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:14 GMT

Hundreds of technology leaders and researchers, including Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk, recently released a letter calling for a moratorium on artificial intelligence development, citing the risk to human society.There are legitimate concerns about AI impact on humanity, but a moratorium is unrealistic, especially while there is a reasonable alternative.Jerry McNerney served in Congress representing part of the East Bay from 2007-23. For six years, he was chairperson of the House AI Caucus. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, file)First, let’s look at those concerns. There’s worry that AI will dehumanize society by making us too soft or overly dependent on technology. AI could benefit a very few while eliminating jobs or replacing them with menial low-paying ones. AI applications could be biased, harming specific ethnic groups.AI could be used in fraud and other crimes. AI could manipulate the political discourse causing social instability. AI could be used in autonomous weapons on and off...

Masters Live Updates | At 63, Couples likely to make cut

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:14 GMT

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Live updates from Saturday’s second and third rounds of the Masters (all times local):8:30 a.m.It appears that Fred Couples will be playing the rest of the weekend at the Masters.The 1992 champion finished his second round with a bogey, leaving him at 1 over for the championship and inside the projected cut line. That would make the 63-year-old Couples the oldest player to make the cut at Augusta National, beating the mark that Bernhard Langer set during the 2020 tournament by about 3 1/2 months.It also would be the 31st career cut for Couples, trailing only Jack Nicklaus’ record of 37. At one point, Couples made 23 straight cuts to tie Gary Player for the longest such streak at the Masters. Five-time champion Tiger Woods can join them by making the cut Saturday. He had six holes left in the cold, rainy weather and was right on the projected cut line of 2 over. Woods has never missed the cut as a professional.Players are trying to finish the second ro...

Oxon Hill day care employee fired after video depicts alleged abuse

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:14 GMT

A day care employee in Oxon Hill, Maryland, was fired and is now being investigated by police after video surfaced that seems to show her abusing kids.A video posted online appears to show the employee picking up, slamming and tripping kids at the Oxon Hill Center For Early Learning.It appears that she recorded some of the alleged abuse on her phone.Prince George’s County police told WTOP the department is aware of the video.“We are investigating,” police said in a statement said. “The detectives did see the video and they know the identity of the person in the video. They will be attempting to make contact.”Ledarra White’s 3-year-old son attends the day care and she says that she’s considering pulling her child out.“They come to school, [it’s] supposed to be for a learning environment in somewhere safe while their parents are away at work,” White told WTOP.The day care sent a letter to families that says they immediately took ac...

2 Woodbridge teens charged in shooting of 15-year-old

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:14 GMT

Two teens from Woodbridge, Virginia, were arrested Thursday for their roles in shooting another teen in Stafford County, according to authorities.The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said that the suspected teens, both 17, traveled to Stafford County and got into a fight with the 15-year-old victim.The fight escalated into a shooting, leaving the 15-year-old with a serious gunshot wound to his back.Deputies found the wounded teen at the Park Ridge Community Pool on Parkway Boulevard around 4 p.m. He was flown to a hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries. The teen was still being treated for his injuries as of Friday.The two assailants discarded their guns and fled the scene before law enforcement arrived.Both 17-year-olds were found hiding hiding in a shed on Boondocks Lane.One of the suspects was transported to a hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to the leg before being turned into the sheriff’s office. He was charged with aggravated malicious w...

European Commission ‘concerned’ by China’s military drills near Taiwan

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:14 GMT

The European Commission expressed concern and called for restraint on Saturday after China started three days of military exercises near Taiwan in retaliation for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last Wednesday.The Taiwanese government on Saturday said it had spotted 42 Chinese aircraft as well as eight ships crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the unofficial border between the two countries. China considers Taiwan part of its territory, a claim rejected by Taipei. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry condemned the incursions as “irrational actions” and pledged to “defend national security with solid combat readiness.”“We are concerned by the intensification of military activities of the People’s Liberation Army in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan, with incursions in Taiwanese Air Defense Identification Zone and crossing of the median line,” a Commission spokesperson said in ...

US appeals court ruling puts hundreds of January 6 felony cases in limbo

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:14 GMT

Hundreds of Jan. 6 obstruction cases — one of the most commonly charged felonies against those who breached the Capitol or confronted police that day — are facing new uncertainty after a divided appeals court ruling Friday.The three-judge panel spared the Justice Department an immediate disaster by agreeing to permit three challenged Jan. 6 obstruction cases to continue. But the judges — one liberal and two conservatives — all raised serious questions about whether other Jan. 6 obstruction cases might face legitimate challenges.At the heart of the conflict is how to measure whether Jan. 6 rioters acted with “corrupt intent,” a central element in the crime of obstructing an official proceeding. The judges noted that the requirement of “corrupt intent” was meant to avoid inadvertently criminalizing traditional protest or lobbying activities that have been a feature of civic engagement throughout American history. Any decision on the meaning of corrupt intent would have to separate tho...

Leaked documents on Ukraine battlefield operations circulated as early as March

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:00:14 GMT

A tranche of leaked documents that detail plans about Ukraine’s spring military offensive circulated online as early as March — a month earlier than previously reported, according to researchers with Bellingcat and a review of social media postings.The batch includes more pages than originally known and also outlines sensitive information about other global hotspots.The Ukraine-specific documents, photographed and distributed on myriad social media sites, outline everything from Ukraine’s readiness and training capabilities to death tolls on the battlefield. They date from the end of February to the end of March — around the same time as senior American generals hosted the Ukrainian military at a U.S. base in Germany to wargame the spring operation.The materials that circulated in early March were uploaded on a Discord, an encrypted messaging app. They appear to be photos of slide deck printouts that were folded up and then smoothed out again. They have since been pos...