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Kenzaburo Oe dies at 88; Japanese author won the 1994 Nobel Prize in literature

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:42 GMT

By Mari Yamaguchi | Associated PressTOKYO — Nobel literature laureate Kenzaburo Oe, whose darkly poetic novels were built from his childhood memories during Japan’s postwar occupation and from being the parent of a disabled son, has died. He was 88.Oe, who was also an outspoken anti-nuclear and peace activist, died on March 3, his publisher, Kodansha Ltd., said in a statement Monday. The publisher did not give further details about his death and said his funeral was held by his family.Oe in 1994 became the second Japanese author awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.Japanese novelist Kenzaburo Oe, left, receives the Nobel Prize for Literature from Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf at the Concert Hall in Stockholm in 1994. (Gunnar Ask/Associated Press Archives)The Swedish Academy cited the author for his works of fiction, in which “poetic force creates an imagined world where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today.”His ...

Silicon Valley Bank bailout: Did regulators have a choice?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:42 GMT

The U.S. economy just escaped a 2008-crash-like moment of the pandemic era – a near-collapse of the banking system – because regulators swiftly chose a bailout option for Silicon Valley Bank.Government officials faced two stark choices after the bank failed last week.Option #1: Concoct a creative rescue for the bank’s numerous depositors with accounts exceeding the $250,000 insurance cap. It’s a group that includes some of the nation’s cutting-edge companies and wealthiest individuals.Option #2: Play it by the book and pray gigantic losses on uninsured deposits didn’t spark a run on the nation’s banking system – particularly smaller, regional institutions.Why choose to save people from their mistakes? Because government officials really had no choice.The cure, technical actions wrapped within bureaucratic lingo, was actually an unprecedented rescue designed to prevent a broader catastrophe. Let’s ponder some of the questions regulators likely faced as they consider...

'No active threat' at West Valley College, lockdown lifted

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:42 GMT

(KRON) -- There is "no active threat" on the campus at West Valley College in Saratoga, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. Earlier, the campus had been placed on lockdown earlier due to reports of an armed intruder on campus, according to an alert from West Valley Education. The weapon, which was described as a "long rifle" earlier, proved to be a replica firearm, according to a tweet from the college. Two suspects were detained in the incident. Principal at school where student was fatally stabbed placed on leave Earlier, police described the intruder as a white man carrying a long rifle. The suspect was associated with a red Cadillac parked in the school's Lot 1.However, as of 1:30 p.m., the police said there was no active threat and that "the campus is safe." A separate tweet from West Valley College confirmed that the campus "is no longer in lockdown."Redwood Middle School, which is located nearby, was also briefly placed under a shelter-in-place order. Howe...

Woman found on Sausalito shoreline identified

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:42 GMT

SAUSALITO, Calif. (KRON) -- The identity of a woman whose body was found near the Sausalito shoreline on Friday has been released by the Marin County Sheriff's Office. Highway 1 still underwater, closed due to Pajaro flooding The woman was identified as 70-year-old Carolynn Leslie Dean of Sausalito. On Friday morning, a 911 caller reported that human remains were found somewhere near the surf, not far from the Spinnaker Restaurant. Emergency responders arrived on scene and found an unconscious and unresponsive Dean, fully-clothed and floating in the water. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now KRON4 Breaking News SIGN UP NOW After Dean was pulled from the water, emergency crews pronounced her dead. She had no identification on her person, so authorities conducted a...

Hooray, We Now Have Medicare for All (Bank Deposits)!

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:42 GMT

Customers in line outside the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., on March 13, 2023.Photo: David Paul Morris/Getty ImagesFor everyone who’s fought and bled for years to get Medicare for All in the United States, I’ve got some great news: The government just created it on Sunday!Yes, this is Medicare for All Bank Deposits, rather than Medicare for All People. But if we think this through, we’ll see that both these things are great ideas and make sense for the same reasons — and there’s no reason that if we have one, we can’t have the other.First of all, it’s important to understand what happened yesterday. Banks are intrinsically vulnerable to runs. They accept deposits from regular people and businesses, which is good, so we don’t have to keep sacks full of cash in our closet and pay armed men to guard them.The problem is that we want to be able to come get our money out of the bank at any time. However, banks don’t keep sacks of all our cash in their vaults wai...

Gun laws, campus policies perplex college sports programs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:42 GMT

At Alabama, one of the team’s best players allegedly delivered a gun that was used in a fatal shooting. At New Mexico State, a player avoided charges for shooting and killing a student in what he said was self-defense, even though he was carrying a gun in violation of school rules. At Michigan State, sports were suspended after gun violence on campus left three students dead. At LSU, the team’s leading wide receiver was arrested, but not charged, for carrying a gun through the French Quarter in New Orleans. The headlines over the past few months illustrate the challenge for athletic departments in determining how gun laws in their states and regulations at their schools should be applied to their programs and communicated to their players. An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen schools in the NCAA tournaments shows a wide range of policies that govern guns at those schools and uneven efforts to regulate them.“I have no idea,” Michigan State basketball coach To...

Confirmed: Global floods, droughts worsening with warming

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:42 GMT

The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Water. These aren’t merely tough weather events, they are leading to extremes such as crop failure, infrastructure damage, even humanitarian crises and conflict. The big picture on water comes from data from a pair of satellites known as GRACE, or Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, that were used to measure changes in Earth’s water storage — the sum of all the water on and in the land, including groundwater, surface water, ice, and snow.“It’s incredible that we can now monitor the pulse of continental water from outer space,” said Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved with the study. “I have a feeling when future generations look back and try to determine when humanity really began understanding the planet as a whole, this will be one of the studies highlighted,...

Indicted aide to former Maryland governor misses court date

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:42 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A federal judge issued an arrest warrant on Monday for Roy McGrath, the one-time aide to former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, after McGrath failed to appear in court as his trial on federal fraud charges was set to begin.U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued the arrest warrant in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Monday morning. McGrath had an arraignment scheduled for 9 a.m. in a superseding indictment in his federal case. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday morning.McGrath faces an eight-count federal indictment. Charges include wire fraud, including securing a $233,648 severance payment equal to one year of salary as the head of Maryland Environmental Service. He also faces fraud and embezzlement charges connected to roughly $170,000 in expenses. McGrath has pleaded not guilty.McGrath did not return cellphone calls or emails Monday morning.McGrath resigned in August 2020 when he was just 11 weeks into the job as Hogan’s top aide, after the paym...

Volkswagen to build electric vehicle battery plant in Canada

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:42 GMT

ST. THOMAS, Ontario (AP) — Volkswagen announced Monday it plans to build a major plant for electric vehicle batteries in Canada.The European automaker said the Volkswagen Group and its battery company PowerCo will establish its first overseas “gigafactory″ for battery cell manufacturing in St. Thomas, in southwestern Ontario. The start of production is planned for 2027.The company signed an agreement last year with the Canadian government to work to identify suitable sites for such a facility in Canada. It also had committed to investigate ways for Canada to contribute to Volkswagen’s battery supply chains, including raw materials and assembly.The province of Ontario set the stage last month for the announcement, introducing and quickly passing a law adjusting the municipal boundaries for a 1,500-acre “mega site″ in southwestern Ontario.The province’s Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli said at the time that the piece of land had straddled two municipalities, ...

Alabama, Houston top final AP Top 25 ahead of March Madness

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:42 GMT

The overall No. 1 seed for March Madness is No. 1 in the final AP Top 25, too.Alabama, fresh off an SEC Tournament title to go with its regular-season crown, ascended to the top spot Monday, earning 48 of 61 first-place votes to jump Houston, which lost in the American Athletic Conference final without star guard Marcus Sasser. Alabama also spent a week at No. 1 last month.“We set goals over the summer: regular season, (league) tournament, obviously a national championship,” Crimson Tide guard Jahvon Quinerly said. “I’m going to make sure our guys are ready to go no matter who we match up with.”That will be Texas A&M-Corpus Christi or Southeast Missouri State, who meet in a First Four game Tuesday night. The winner will play the Crimson Tide on Thursday in Birmingham, an hour down the road from their Tuscaloosa campus. The top seed in the South Region, Alabama would face West Virginia or Maryland for a spot in the Sweet 16 with a win.And how sweet that would be for a team that&#...