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Colorado’s marijuana industry calls this year’s 4/20 sales “the worst” in recent years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:08 GMT

Colorado’s marijuana industry dubbed weed sales for this year’s 4/20 “the worst” in five years.The Marijuana Industry Group, a Denver-based trade association, is sounding the alarm bells for the state’s “struggling” industry, as falling sales compound with business closures and layoffs. This year, the market’s entrepreneurs are contending with too much supply, not enough demand, increased competition in other states, dropping prices, a dearth of cannabis tourism, the draw of black market weed and more.April’s marijuana sales – medical and retail combined – stood at close to $132 million, which counts as the lowest number in five years, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. In April 2018, the number was about $124 million.This year, total medical marijuana sales looked especially dismal in April at almost $17 million. That’s the lowest amount ever recorded for that month since sales first started in January 2014.M...

Two places to see insane wildflower blooms this weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:08 GMT

Something beautiful and unusual is happening in the southern part of the state this summer. Thanks to above-average moisture that has set the stage for an epic wildflower season there and elsewhere in the state, dazzling cactus blooms are erupting with seldom-seen abundance.“This year the yuccas flowered like I really have never seen them,” said Alex Crochet, horticulturist for the city of Colorado Springs. “Now the cactus are following suit. It’s very evident that this rain was really great for these plants to get them started. Now, down here, we have had 90-degree days back to back, and that heat is just making these really hot-loving plants bloom like crazy.”One of the places where this is unfolding spectacularly is the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.Cacti are blooming like crazy in southern Colorado, thanks to above-average moisture this year. This photo of a prickly pear was taken at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, which is having one...

Truck crashes into crowd during street takeover in Los Angeles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:08 GMT

Street takeovers shut down intersections in the Hyde Park, Harvard Park, and Gramercy Park neighborhoods of South Los Angeles overnight.One of the incidents took place around midnight at the intersection of West Century Boulevard and Denker Avenue in the Gramercy Park area. A red pickup truck could be seen doing doughnuts in the street when it slammed into the curb. Street racers took over several neighborhoods in South Los Angeles on July 6, 2023. (Anonymous)The truck flew into the air, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle. It then drove into a crowd gathered in the intersection, but it was unclear if anyone was injured. 3 teens arrested for murder of pizza deliveryman helping assault victim in Stanton A Metro bus driver was recording some of the chaos on her cellphone when she became stuck in traffic. The bus driver appeared to be in good spirits but was concerned about the passengers. “I just feel bad for everyone who wants to go home,” the driver said as tires sq...

Thousands of thrill seekers, including Americans, take part in Spain's running of the bulls

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:08 GMT

Thousands of thrill seekers took part Friday in the first running of the bulls at the San Fermín festival in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona.Several runners took knocks and hard falls in the 8 a.m. event but no one was gored by the beasts, a frequent feature of the spectacle.The festival attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists. Nearly 1.7 million people visited Pamplona for the celebrations in 2022, and forecasts are higher for this year with all COVID-19 constraints ended.La Palmosilla's fighting bulls run among revelers during the first day of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, Friday, July 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)In the run, six bulls guided by six tame oxen charged along a route through Pamplona’s streets for around two minutes and 30 seconds before reaching the bull ring.The festival was made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises.” This year marks the 100th anniversary of Hemingway’s first visit to the festival. Vietnam b...

Tech exec tells whirlwind tale of starting SF Unicorns, Bay Area’s cricket team in new U.S. league

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:08 GMT

LOS ALTOS — When Anand Rajaraman first came to the Bay Area to attend graduate school at Stanford in the 1990s, he kept his connection to his home of India by playing cricket with a tennis ball on Stanford’s oval lawn.After 30 years in the tech industry all in the Bay Area, Rajaraman is now hoping that the region is ready to embrace the sport that he has always loved.Rajaraman is a co-owner of the San Francisco Unicorns, one of six inaugural teams in Major League Cricket (MLC), a brand new league forming in the United States.“Over the past 25 years, more people from cricket-loving countries have come to the U.S.,” Rajaraman, 52, said. “Now, I think there’s enough of an audience for it to be the right time.”MLC will play a shorter version of cricket, popularized in the last 20 years, that may be more palatable to the American audience. The normal version of cricket often takes days to complete a four-inning game. MLC will use the Twenty20 (T20) version of cricket, which consists of o...

San Francisco’s weekday population dropped by 200,000 during the pandemic. Santa Clara County’s plunged too. What now?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:08 GMT

On a typical workday before the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of commuters flowed into San Francisco and Silicon Valley from around the region, swelling their daytime populations. Then COVID emptied streets and transit stations and quieted once bustling shops and restaurants that catered to the weekday crowds.A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau highlights just how big of a hit remote work had on the country’s commuter centers.San Francisco lost nearly 210,000 people during a typical workday in 2021 compared to 2019, a Bay Area News Group analysis found, and Santa Clara County saw a drop of nearly 110,000. That drop of more than 300,000 in what the Census calls the ‘commuter-adjusted population’ of the Bay Area’s two largest counties far outpaced — by nearly 100,000 — the decline in far-larger Los Angeles.On the flip side, Alameda and Contra Costa counties added tens of thousands to their workday populations between 2019 and 2021 as pre-pand...

Warriors at Summer League: Three things to watch in Las Vegas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:08 GMT

The Warriors’ Summer League squad will descend on Las Vegas this weekend looking for some rhythm after splitting two games in the California Classic at Golden 1 Center. A week in Las Vegas represents a chance for rookies to adjust, for familiar faces to show they have grown and for Summer League invitees to prove they belong.Golden State will play five games in Las Vegas. The Dubs open Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, take on the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night, then play afternoon games against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday and Houston Rockets on Thursday. A fifth game next weekend will be determined by standings after the first four.Here are a few names and trends to watch for at Summer League:Brandin Podziemski’s scoring touch Podziemski turned down a few open shots in his first Summer League game against the Kings in Sacramento, but he settled in late, scoring eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter. Two of his more impressive scoring plays ...

Affordable homes project in San Jose heads toward construction start

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:08 GMT

SAN JOSE — A big development of affordable homes has landed the financing it needs to launch construction as soon as this month at a site next to a train station near downtown San Jose.Tamien Station has obtained roughly $139 million in funding from an array of government agencies to build an affordable housing project at 1197 Lick Avenue in San Jose, according to public records and the project’s principal developers, Core Cos. and Republic Urban Properties.In addition to real estate veterans Core Cos. and Republic Urban, the project’s key players include the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and Central Valley Coalition for Affordable Housing.The housing would rise next to Tamien Station, which accommodates light rail and Caltrain stops.The Tamien Station residential project is slated to begin construction around July 23. The housing complex should be complete by July 2025.Along with the housing, the project will include 30,000 square feet of ground-floo...

Editorial: Halt cannabis industry’s disgraceful efforts to target children

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:08 GMT

So it turns that, when it comes to marketing its products to children, the cannabis industry is every bit as irresponsible as the lowlifes who try to hook kids on tobacco products at an early age.Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, has the solution. Her Assembly Bill 1207 would have curtailed the disgraceful practice of creating and selling cannabis products in a manner that is attractive to children. We’re talking about flavoring marijuana cigarettes and vaping products. And psychoactive candies and snacks that resemble Doritos chips, Oreo cookies and Cocoa Pebbles.The bill should have had bipartisan support from the Legislature. It passed the Assembly without a single vote of opposition. But a Senate Committee this week watered it down. The cannabis industry managed to convince senators to strip out the provisions prohibiting flavoring of inhaled products.It’s the same sort of prohibition that voters, with passage last year of Proposition 31, applied to tobacc...

Morgan Hill man faces new charges in attempted murder in Santa Cruz Jail

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:55:08 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — A Morgan Hill man awaiting trial in a Watsonville homicide case appeared in court Thursday with two others to face new gang-related attempted murder charges.Matthew Madriz Alcaraz, 19, and Adrian Ortiz, 23, were each charged with an allegedly gang-related shanking of a 20-year-old fellow inmate on June 26 in the Santa Cruz County Jail. The two face criminal enhancements of causing great bodily injury and participating in street terrorism. Attorneys for the two men delayed entering pleas at their arraignment until July 14. A third codefendant, Leo Rueda, 38, faces charges of gang-related assault with a deadly weapon and a street terrorism enhancement.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Intersection near SJSU closed after man brandishes knife Crime and Public Safety | Longtime San Jose activist arrested on suspicion of illegal firework distribution Crime and Public Safety | San Jose man who helped security firm launder mill...