Man arrested for alleged sexual assault of child in San Mateo County Photo: San Mateo County Sheriff's Office
detectives of the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office A man suspected of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy over a period of eight years while claiming to be a family friend has been arrested.
On June 26, 2022, detectives began investigating a case involving a child who was sexually assaulted over a span of eight years by a family friend. The suspect was identified as Alan Frank Russell of Woodside, California.
So, on March 2, detectives obtained a $200,000 warrant for Russell for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14. Shortly after the warrant was issued, Russell was arrested by officers and detectives without incident.
Because these crimes occurred more than 20 years ago, it is unknown at this time if there are any other unidentified victims.
Authorities are asking anyone who may have information about this case to contact Detective Piper at JPiper@smcgov.org or Detective Pitts at 650-599-4060 or Npitts@smcgov.org.
If you wish to remain anonymous, please use the anonymous tip line at 1-800-547-2700.
To be informed, these are the local news from February 25 to March 3 that you must know to stay up to date.
In the blink of an eye, we are already in March. As recently as late December and early January, the Bay Area was struggling to cope with the disasters caused by storms. However, several counties have entered a state of emergency due to the adverse weather they are facing. Given this, we must be cautious and take all precautions to avoid disasters.
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Gentleness and patience are two characteristics needed to teach kindergarten children to read and write, an activity that Michele Mairani has been teaching for more than 22 years at Clifford Elementary School in Redwood City, California.
In light of this, the Redwood City Public Library paid tribute to Professor Mairani's retirement on Friday, February 17, with a plaque and photograph in the place where she most enjoyed her career, the reading area for children.
The event was accompanied by a donation that will be used to finance the book collection in the children's room.
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The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra On Friday, February 24, the institution presented a single performance of the musical drama “Pan,” which was written by Brazilian composer Marcos Balter especially for Claire Chase, a flutist and collaborating partner of the institution.
For an hour and a half, flutist Claire Chase, described by The New York Times as “the north star of her instrument’s ever-expanding universe,” performed between the audience and two stages arranged so that her costume, which emulated the tail of the only Greek god who is half man and half goat, could move freely throughout the space.
The staging included touches of electronic music, as well as a choir and performances by community institutions such as the Amateur Music Network, Casa Círculo Cultural, Openhouse, San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Stanford University School of Music in San Francisco.
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A man was killed by a hit-and-run driver Sunday morning in East Palo Alto.
Police say they were dispatched to the 2200 block of Ralmar Avenue at 10:08 a.m. on reports that a man had been struck by a vehicle that fled the scene.
Officers found a 64-year-old man unconscious in the driveway of a residence. Three nearby vehicles were also struck and damaged.
The victim was transported to the hospital where he later died. Police did not release the man's name.
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Power outages continue in the Bay Area as nearly 8,500 PG&E customers were without electricity Monday morning as storm-related outages persist across the region.
As of 9:30 a.m. Monday, North Bay had the most people without power, with 4,944 customers affected, according to PG&E.
In the South Bay, 3,158 were without power, and the Peninsula had 226 affected. The East Bay had 76 without power and five customers were affected in San Francisco.
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San Mateo police have arrested the owner of a San Mateo massage parlor on suspicion of prostitution and running a brothel, police said in a news release Tuesday.
Following previous incidents in which undercover officers sought massages and were offered sex in exchange for money, police served a search warrant Friday at the business, located in the 100 block of De Anza Boulevard.
Police determined that the owner, Liping Yao, 43, of San Jose, negotiated sexual acts for money and arrested her on suspicion of prostitution and brothel keeping.
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The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors will seek a $5 million grant in state funds to help provide housing for local farmworkers.
The action was taken by unanimous decision of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, with 5 votes in favor, to authorize staff to apply for support that would fund the purchase of manufactured homes, possibly in partnership with the City of Half Moon Bay.
These homes would be located in an as-yet-unidentified area of the coast. Local farmworkers, including families and people displaced by the January mass shooting, would be eligible to live in and purchase the homes.
The state is expected to announce the grant recipients in June 2023. For now, the county is already working with the city of Half Moon Bay to identify potential sites.
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Península 360 Press has launched the call for applications to participate in the third edition of the Community Journalism Workshop, which, on this occasion, will be carried out in a hybrid format and will last 20 hours spread throughout the week.
The purpose of the workshop is for participants to develop journalistic writing and photography skills, which will be developed in three modules with different themes.
The topics of the 3 modules are: Stop The Hate, Environment and A Story of Personal Experience.
The result of each module will aim to create an exhibition that encompasses the work of each of the attendees.
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Since December 2022, there has been a noticeable trend of Hyundai and KIA car thefts throughout the city of Berkeley, the local Police Department said.
"We believe the increase may be due in part to a social media challenge that encourages theft," authorities said.
In a statement, the Berkeley Police Department said that since December, Hyundai and KIA vehicles have accounted for 38 percent of the total number of cars stolen in Berkeley.
However, the thefts not only include new models of both brands, but also those not equipped with an engine immobilizer.
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Tolling began Friday morning on the new express lanes on U.S. 101 in San Mateo County between South San Francisco and Sunnyvale.
The new lanes will operate on Highway 101 Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. between Interstate 380 in South San Francisco and North Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale.
Solo drivers wishing to use the express lane must have a standard FasTrak or FasTrak Flex toll tag, while carpool users and motorcycles must have the FasTrak Flex toll tag in the appropriate position to receive discounted travel.
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San Mateo County Police Department (SMPD) officers arrested three men on Thursday, March 2, for criminal threats, conspiracy, and knife assault in San Mateo County.
On Thursday afternoon at approximately 2:49 p.m., SMPD officers were dispatched to the West Hillsdale Boulevard unit block on a report of a stabbing.
Ultimately, all three suspects were transported to the San Mateo County Jail.
“The Bay Lights” on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, part of Interstate 80, spans the San Francisco Bay in Northern California in January 2014. (Photo courtesy of John Chacon/California Department of Water Resources, via Bay City News).
A canvas of light descends Sunday after illuminating the western span of the Bay Bridge for 10 years. But with enough donors, it will return “in a more glorious manifestation,” founder Ben Davis said Friday.
The Bay Lights have been shining brightly in the Bay Area for many to see despite exposure to sand, dirt and vibration 24/7 for the past decade.
Now is the time to decommission them as they are failing faster than they can be cost-effectively repaired.
“I’m sure they’ll be back,” Davis said in a telephone interview, explaining what residents might see when they do.
Davis wants more people in the Bay Area to be able to see the lights and wants drivers to travel through a “public art portal at night.”
Currently, drivers on the bridge cannot see The Bay Lights except in their rearview mirrors. The proposed project will produce a gently undulating pattern of low-voltage, monochromatic light up to 230 feet high for 1.8 miles.
The lights will wrap around the cables on the north side of the west span in the recreation. Currently, the lights are on only one side of the cables.
“There’s a sense of mystery and magic to the piece,” said Leo Villareal, the artist who worked with Davis to create the light installation.
People see the lights and can't help but say something to the person walking next to them. It brings people together, Villareal said. It's not about language or images, but something deeper, he said.
The light patterns produced by The Bay Lights are never repeated. The original installation took two and a half years from initial conception to completion, Villareal said.
The challenge, which Davis and others are working on, is making sure the new installation doesn't distract drivers. He's working with traffic engineers and the California Highway Patrol to ensure driver safety.
In the past 10 years, the installation of lights has not caused a single traffic problem, Davis said, and that's the equivalent of traveling on the bridge to the sun and back 40 times.
“It immediately became an iconic image for the Embarcadero, drawing visitors to the city,” said Jill Manton, director of public art trust and special initiatives for the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Manton helped win commission approval and helped draft the resolution supporting the commission.
After it goes dark, reinstallation could take eight to 10 months following an ongoing fundraising campaign. Davis is trying to raise $11 million to fund the project over the next 10 years.
It's looking for 10 donors who can give $1 million each along with $1 million in crowdfunding donations. Details of the efforts so far will be revealed Sunday at 7:45 p.m. at Epic Steak, which is at 369 The Embarcadero and overlooks The Bay Lights.
The new creation will have double the current number of lights, or 50 thousand LEDs. Gifts for the new installation can be made at http://www.thebaylights360.org/More than $5,200 had been raised as of Friday afternoon.
“The Bay Lights have become one of San Francisco’s iconic landmarks, and we hope the fundraising campaign to save this important light art installation is successful so they can come back even bigger and better than before,” said Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association, the city’s official destination marketing organization.
“We encourage businesses and residents of San Francisco to support efforts to keep The Bay Lights illuminating our beautiful city for years to come,” D'Alessandro said.
California's latest survey of snow levels in the Sierra Nevada shows the state continuing to make progress against a severe drought that appeared poised to extend into a fourth straight year in December.
The state Department of Water Resources (DWR) conducted its third snow survey of the season Friday at Phillips Station in El Dorado County in the Central Sierra.
The survey measured 116.5 inches of snow with a snow and water equivalent of 41.5 inches, which is 177 percent of average for the date of March 3, according to DWR.
Additionally, data collected from 130 snow sensors across the state shows that the statewide snowpack is currently at 190 percent of average with a snow water equivalent of 44.7 inches.
“There was a good indication that it was going to be the fourth year of drought,” state climatologist Michael Anderson said at a news conference Friday. “Then, after Christmas, something interesting happened: We started to see a pretty surprising set of a family of atmospheric rivers.”
Fred Greaves/California Department of Water Resources via Bay City News
In the three weeks following December 25, the state was hit by nine massive storms that struck particularly hard from the Bay Area to San Diego and across the central and southern Sierra Nevada.
A dry period then settled over the West until about a week ago, when the state again saw a “massive amount of precipitation” from a series of unusually cold storms coming out of the Gulf of Alaska, Anderson said.
The result is that, in addition to a snowpack that is second only to the record set in 1982-1983, the state is enjoying reservoir levels that are about 95 percent of normal for this time of year.
"Most are doing pretty well," said Jeanine Jones, DWR's interstate resources manager.
Conditions have improved so much, in fact, that the U.S. Drought Monitor still considers only about half the state to be in severe or moderate drought conditions, a big change from late January.
Improved hydrologic conditions prompted state water managers in February to set delivery forecasts of 35 percent of requested water supplies for the 29 public water agencies that draw water from the State Water Project, which serves 27 million people and 750,000 acres of agricultural land.
That's an increase of just 5.0 percent of the requested supplies for 2022.
In addition, the federally run Central Valley Project set deliveries for most urban and industrial water users at 75 percent of historical use, up from just 25 percent last year.
"Obviously, this is the year of the snow, so to speak," Jones said.
Still, he cautioned that while many reservoirs are performing well, Shasta and Trinity in the Northern Sierra are still below average and the Colorado River basin, which helps supply much of its water to Southern California, is drier than average, as are many of the state's important groundwater aquifers, particularly in the Central Valley.
“Where we’re not getting that recovery right away is in groundwater,” Jones said. “It just takes a long time for that to recover and for that data — about groundwater levels — to filter through.”
Researchers at Stanford Medicine have successfully transformed cancer cells into immune cells, which are able to teach the body's immune system to fight and attack the very cancer the cells came from.
"This approach could open up a completely new therapeutic avenue for treating cancer," said Dr. Ravi Majeti, professor of hematology and senior author of the study, which was published March 1 in Cancer Discovery.
Some of the most promising cancer treatments use a patient's own immune system to attack the disease, often by dampening immune responses to cancer or teaching the immune system to recognize and attack cancer more vigorously.
T cells, part of the immune system that learns to identify and attack new pathogens such as viruses, can be trained to recognize cancer-specific antigens, which are proteins that generate an immune response.
It would therefore be better to train T cells to recognize cancer through processes that more closely mimic the way things happen naturally in the body – such as the way a vaccine teaches the immune system to recognize pathogens.
T cells learn to recognize pathogens because special antigen-presenting cells (APCs) collect pieces of the pathogen and display them to the T cells in a way that says, “This is what the pathogen looks like, go for it.”
A similar approach in cancer would be for APCs to pick up the many antigens that characterize a cancer cell. That way, instead of T cells being programmed to attack one or a few antigens, they would be trained to recognize many cancer antigens and would be more likely to mount a multipronged attack on the cancer.
Now that researchers have become adept at transforming one type of cell into another, Majeti and his colleagues had a hunch that if they turned cancer cells into a type of APC called macrophages, they would naturally become adept at teaching T cells what to attack.
“Our hypothesis was that perhaps cancer cells reprogrammed into macrophages could stimulate T cells because those APCs carry all the antigens of the cancer cells they came from,” explained Majeti, who is also director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Stem Cell Research and Medicine.
The study builds on previous research from Majeti's lab showing that cells taken from patients with a type of acute leukemia could be converted into non-leukemic macrophages with many of the properties of APCs.
In the current study, the researchers programmed mouse leukemia cells to induce some of them to transform into APCs. When they tested their cancer vaccine strategy on the mouse immune system, the mice successfully cleared the cancer.
“When we first saw the data showing leukemia elimination in mice with functioning immune systems, we were astonished,” Majeti said. “We couldn’t believe it worked so well.”
Further experiments showed that cells created from cancer cells acted as antigen-presenting cells that sensitized T cells to the cancer.
“What’s more, we showed that the immune system remembered what these cells had taught them,” Majeti says. “When we reintroduced the cancer into these mice more than 100 days after the initial tumor inoculation, they still had a strong immune response that protected them.”
"We asked ourselves: if this works for leukemias, will it also work for solid tumors?" Majeti said. The team tested the same method on mouse fibrosarcoma, breast cancer and bone cancer.
“Transforming cancer cells from solid tumors was not as effective, but we still saw positive results,” Majeti said. With all three cancer types, creating tumor-derived APCs led to a significant improvement in survival.
Finally, the researchers returned to the original type of acute leukemia. When APCs derived from human leukemia cells were exposed to human T cells from the same patient, they saw all the signs one would expect if the APCs were really teaching the T cells to attack the leukemia.
“We showed that reprogrammed tumor cells could trigger a long-lasting, systemic attack on cancer in mice and a similar response with immune cells from human patients,” Majeti said. “In the future we might be able to extract tumor cells, transform them into APCs, and give them back to patients as a therapeutic cancer vaccine.”
“Ultimately, we might be able to inject RNA into patients and transform enough cells to activate the immune system against cancer without having to extract cells first,” Majeti said. “That’s science fiction at the moment, but it’s the direction we’re interested in moving in.”
Officers of the Police Department of San Mateo County SMPD arrested three men on Thursday, March 2, for criminal threats, conspiracy, and knife assault in San Mateo County.
On Thursday afternoon at approximately 2:49 p.m., SMPD officers were dispatched to the West Hillsdale Boulevard unit block on a report of a stabbing.
Officers quickly arrived on scene and located a male victim in the parking lot who had not been stabbed and did not require medical assistance. However, officers learned that a suspect, later identified as Anderson Lopez Guzman, and a friend of the victim were involved in a physical fight on Edison Street.
When the victim attempted to stop the fight, Guzman brandished a knife and said he would stab the victim and threatened to kill her. When the victim fled, two additional suspects, later identified as Andy Perez Juarez and Christian Lima, began chasing her. Juarez armed himself with a knife during the chase, but the victim managed to elude the suspects.
As SMPD continued to investigate the scene, Guzman returned to the scene. Officers took Guzman into custody after they located a knife that matched the description provided by the victim, who identified Guzman as one of the suspects.
Shortly after officers located the vehicle, officers observed Juarez and Lima returning to the vehicle and both were detained.
Ultimately, all three suspects were transported to the San Mateo County Jail.
Authorities reminded people that “if you see something, say something” and encouraged the community to use security cameras, which are especially useful for identifying suspicious activity in neighborhoods when they are oriented toward the street.
Tolling began Friday morning on the new express lanes on U.S. 101 in San Mateo County between South San Francisco and Sunnyvale.
The new lanes will operate on Highway 101 Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. between Interstate 380 in South San Francisco and North Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale.
Solo drivers wishing to use the express lane must have a standard FasTrak or FasTrak Flex toll tag, while carpool users and motorcycles must have the FasTrak Flex toll tag in the appropriate position to receive discounted travel.
Los carriles, construidos por Caltrans en colaboración con la Autoridad de Transporte del Condado de San Mateo y la Asociación de Gobiernos de la Ciudad/Condado del Condado de San Mateo, están destinados a fomentar el uso compartido de vehículos o el uso del transporte público, así como mejorar los tiempos de viaje y reducir la congestión en la carretera.
La representante Judy Chu, demócrata de California, y Dominic Ng, designado por el presidente Joe Biden como presidente de la Cooperación Económica Asia-Pacífico ‒APEC‒, han sido acusados de tener vínculos con el Partido Comunista Chino y de ser antipatrióticos.
Photo: mig.com vía Ethnic Media Services
A los líderes de la comunidad de AAPI les preocupa que las tensiones entre Estados Unidos y China, que se han aumentado en las últimas semanas por las acusaciones de espionaje chino, haya provocado una nueva ola de xenofobia a medida que políticos asiático-estadounidenses de alto rango se convierten en blanco de ataques republicanos.
La representante Judy Chu, la primera mujer chino-estadounidense elegida para el Congreso, es acusada de ser «antipatriótica» por el representante Lance Gooden, republicano por Texas, debido a su apoyo a Dominic Ng, designado por el presidente Joe Biden como presidente de Asia- Cooperación Económica del Pacífico ‒APEC‒. Gooden y otros cinco republicanos de la Cámara acusan a Ng de tener vínculos con el Partido Comunista Chino.
Chu, una demócrata de California, es la presidenta del Caucus Americano del Pacífico Asiático del Congreso ‒CAPAC‒ y quizás uno de los miembros de la AAPI más conocidos de la Cámara. Californiana de segunda generación y nativa de Los Ángeles, también es hija de un veterano de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
«Pura Bufonería»
«Esto es absolutamente alarmante, pero no sorprendente, dadas las partes involucradas», dijo John C. Yang, presidente y director ejecutivo de Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, a Ethnic Media Services. «Gooden ha cuestionado el patriotismo de Chu, que es repulsivo, censurable e imperdonable».
«La congresista Chu es una verdadera patriota. Cualquier acusación de ser comunista es pura bufonería», dijo Yang.
«Sugerir que Dominic Ng es de alguna manera un espía es ridículo y va en contra de la decencia común», agregó.
Yang señaló que cada vez que China entra en la conversación nacional como adversario, hay un aumento palpable en los ataques racistas. «Tenemos diferencias geopolíticas con China, pero también una guerra caliente con Rusia, pero nadie está perfilando a los estadounidenses de origen ruso».
La Casa Blanca debería emitir una declaración sobre cómo los estadounidenses de origen chino han contribuido al bienestar de la nación, sugirió Yang.
«Aumentando la xenofobia»
Manjuusha Kulkarni, directora ejecutiva de AAPI Equity Alliance y cofundadora de Stop AAPI Hate, dijo a EMS que estaba muy desanimada por los ataques contra Chu y Ng. «Los ciudadanos respetables que son líderes en nuestra comunidad están siendo atacados solo por su origen étnico», dijo, y agregó que no le sorprendería ver un aumento en los delitos de odio contra la comunidad AAPI. «Estamos intensificando la xenofobia una vez más», dijo.
«Los estadounidenses de origen chino no son responsables de los globos espía y no hay evidencia de que estén participando en actividades peligrosas. Muchos inmigrantes chinos están en contra del PCCh, y puede ser por eso que emigraron: para buscar una nueva vida y una forma de gobierno diferente».
Kulkarni dijo que está alarmada por la cantidad de proyectos de ley en las legislaturas estatales de todo el país que parecen estar alimentados por la xenofobia. De particular preocupación para ella es la SB 147 de Texas, que, en su forma original, habría prohibido a los ciudadanos chinos comprar casas en el estado. El proyecto de ley ha sido modificado, después de una andanada de preocupaciones sobre el racismo.
Lealtad y competencia de Chu en cuestión
En una entrevista con Jesse Waters de Fox News el 22 de febrero, Gooden declaró que Ng tenía vínculos con el Partido Comunista Chino. Continuó diciendo que Chu debería ser investigado, junto con Ng.
«Cuestiono su lealtad y competencia», dijo Gooden. «Si ella no se da cuenta de lo que está pasando, entonces está totalmente fuera de contacto con uno de sus electores principales».
Gooden continuó diciendo: «Estoy realmente decepcionado y sorprendido de que alguien como Judy Chu tenga una autorización de seguridad y derecho a sesiones informativas confidenciales de inteligencia hasta que esto se resuelva». Pidió que la congresista fuera relevada de sus asignaciones en el comité.
«La lealtad no debe ser cuestionada»
Los demócratas y el republicano Mike Gallagher, republicano de Wisconsin, quien copreside el nuevo Comité Selecto de la Cámara sobre China junto con el demócrata Raja Krishnamoorthi de Illinois, denunciaron de inmediato las declaraciones de Gooden, diciendo que eran racistas. Gallagher y Krishnamoorthi aparecieron en Face The Nation con Margaret Brennan el 26 de febrero y condenaron el ataque a Chu.
«Desafortunadamente, uno de mis colegas atacó a Judy Chu, la primera congresista estadounidense de origen chino en el Congreso de los Estados Unidos, diciendo que de alguna manera no es leal a los Estados Unidos. Yo mismo lo encuentro ofensivo como asiático-estadounidense», dijo Krishnamoorthi.
Gallagher estuvo de acuerdo. «Bueno, déjame decirte que no debemos cuestionar la lealtad de nadie a los Estados Unidos. Creo que eso está fuera de los límites. Está más allá de los límites», subrayó.
FBI letter
El 15 de febrero, Gooden y cinco miembros republicanos del Congreso enviaron una carta al director del FBI, Christopher Wray, alegando los vínculos de Ng con el PCCh y pidiendo una investigación. La carta decía que entre 2013 y 2017, Ng se desempeñó como director ejecutivo de la Asociación de Intercambio en el Extranjero de China, que es una organización de fachada para el Departamento de Trabajo del Frente Unido, un servicio de inteligencia chino cuya misión es servir de enlace con los partidos políticos extranjeros, influir en las operaciones, y recopilar inteligencia.
Posteriormente, COEA se fusionó con la Asociación de Amistad de China en el Extranjero, que «siguió siendo un grupo de fachada para UFWD cuando el Sr. Ng comenzó un mandato de 5 años como director ejecutivo de COFA en 2019», declararon los miembros del Congreso en la carta.
«Organizaciones como el UFWD y sus grupos afiliados juegan un papel cada vez más importante en la política exterior china y permiten que actores políticos como el Sr. Ng ganen influencia en instituciones estadounidenses sensibles para defender los intereses de la China comunista. Esta táctica es empleada regularmente por el PCCh para infiltrarse en los gobiernos e influir en las políticas para obtener resultados orientados al PCCh», escribieron. «La Administración Biden ha permitido que el PCCh se infiltre en el sector de terceros y, en consecuencia, en los líderes políticos que tienen relaciones existentes con estos grupos y están al tanto de la inteligencia de EE. UU. No se pueden tolerar nuevas invasiones».
The letter was signed by Gooden and Reps. Tom Tiffany, R-Minnesota, R-Florida, Ben Cline, R-Virginia, Doug La Malfa, R-California, and Keith Self, R-Pennsylvania.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
Since December 2022, there has been a noticeable trend of Hyundai and KIA car theft throughout the city of Berkeley, the Local Police Department.
"We believe the increase may be due in part to a social media challenge that encourages theft," authorities said.
In a statement, the Berkeley Police Department said that since December, Hyundai and KIA vehicles have accounted for 38 percent of the total number of cars stolen in Berkeley.
However, the thefts not only include new models of both brands, but also those not equipped with an engine immobilizer.
According to a press release from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Hyundai and KIA have developed anti-theft software for vehicles lacking an immobilizer that can be provided free of charge.
Authorities have therefore encouraged owners of vehicles from South Korean brands to contact KIA or Hyundai dealerships to obtain their latest anti-theft software and consider using a steering wheel lock for their parked vehicle.
If you are unable to park in a garage, remember to find a well-lit, busy place to park your vehicle, and if you see someone who appears to be trying to steal a vehicle, report it as soon as possible.
Also, when you return to your vehicle, place your belongings so that you can quickly enter your vehicle, lock the door, and leave. Remain alert and aware of your surroundings.
If you meet someone for a trade, consider trading in a safe place or in a well-lit and well-trafficked place, if you see anything suspicious don't hesitate to report it.
And if you do become a victim of car theft, report the crime as soon as possible. You may also want to consider adding a way to track your vehicle, such as a LoJack-style system or an Airtag-style device hidden inside the vehicle.
In 2022, there were 15 reported carjackings in total. And so far this year, the Berkeley Police Department said it has had 6 reported vehicle thefts.
Most of the carjackings have occurred in the evening or early morning. In most cases, the people who have been kidnapped have been threatened with knives or guns.
El estado ha extendido las fechas de vencimiento de pago y presentación de impuestos en California hasta el 16 de octubre de 2023 para los californianos afectados por las tormentas de invierno registradas en diciembre y enero.
Así, los residentes y negocios en los condados de Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Kings, Lake, Los Ángeles, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento y San Benito, tendrán una extensión para presentar sus impuestos.
Also, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, and Solano.
En tanto, los condados de Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, Yolo y Yuba que han sido afectados por severas tormentas invernales, inundaciones, deslizamientos de tierra y lodo son elegibles para la desgravación fiscal.
«A medida que las comunidades de todo el estado continúan recuperándose del daño causado por las tormentas de invierno, California está trabajando rápidamente para ayudar a los californianos en recuperación a recuperarse», señaló el gobernador Gavin Newsom.
Con esta acción, el estado se alinea con la Administración Biden y extendiende el plazo de presentación de impuestos además de la desgravación fiscal anunciada a principios de este año.
En febrero, Newsom anunció una desgravación fiscal para las personas afectadas por las tormentas de invierno, dándoles la posibilidad de reclamar una deducción por pérdidas por desastres y extendiendo ciertos plazos de presentación.
Cabe destacar que este alivio se aplica a los plazos que caen a partir del 8 de enero y antes del 16 de octubre de 2023, incluidas las declaraciones de impuestos sobre la renta de personas físicas de 2022 que vencen el 18 de abril y los pagos trimestrales de impuestos estimados, que generalmente vencen el 17 de enero de 2023 y el 18 de abril de 2023.
Such payments were previously extended through May 15, 2023 for those affected by winter storms.
El IRS anunció alivio de impuestos para los californianos afectados por estas tormentas de invierno. Los contribuyentes afectados por estas tormentas califican para una prórroga hasta el 16 de octubre de 2023 para presentar declaraciones de impuestos individuales y comerciales y realizar ciertos pagos de impuestos.
This includes individuals whose tax returns and payments are due on April 18, 2023; quarterly estimated tax payments due January 17, 2023, April 18, 2023, June 15, 2023, and September 15, 2023; business entities whose tax returns are normally due on March 15 and April 18; PTE elective tax payments due June 15, 2023.
Sin embargo, los contribuyentes afectados por un desastre declarado por el presidente pueden reclamar una deducción por una pérdida por desastre al presentar una declaración de impuestos del año fiscal 2022 original o enmendada.
Al presentar su declaración, los contribuyentes deben escribir el nombre del desastre con tinta azul o negra en la parte superior de su declaración de impuestos para alertar a FTB.
Si presenta la declaración electrónicamente, los contribuyentes deben seguir las instrucciones del software para ingresar la información del desastre. Si un contribuyente recibe un aviso de multa por pago o presentación tardía relacionado con el período de aplazamiento, debe llamar al número que figura en el aviso para que se reduzca la multa.
Para conocer mayor información e instrucciones para Pérdida por desastre y cómo reclamar una deducción de impuestos estatales pueden acceder al sitio https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/misc/1034.pdf.
Las víctimas de desastres pueden recibir copias gratuitas de sus declaraciones estatales para reemplazar las perdidas o dañadas. Para hacerlo, deben usar el form FTB 3516 and write the name of the disaster in blue or black ink at the top of the application.
