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Cover Story: El Cholo Celebrates 100 Years

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:07:17 GMT

In 1923, Alejandro and Rosa Borquez opened Sonora Café, named for their home state of Sonora, Mexico. The site of the two-room restaurant was in Downtown LA, on Broadway and Santa Barbara Avenue, which is now Martin Luther King Boulevard. It was near the LA Memorial Coliseum,  which also opened in 1923. The original menu featured early California plates, including the legendary green corn tamales that are still a highlight today.The dusty cafe was a favorite among the local workforce. As the story goes, two years later, a guest wandered into the cafe and, while waiting for dinner, doodled the figure of a man on the menu and captioned it “El Cholo,” the name given to field hands of the Spanish settlers in California at the time. Alejandro loved the man’s scribble and changed the name of his restaurant. By 1927, the family had expanded to an old Craftsman bungalow at 11th Street and Western Avenue, and the rest is Los Angeles history. Courtesy El Cholo“Some of my earliest memories are...

Glen Matlock and Friends on Sunset

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:07:17 GMT

Glen Matlock and Friends on Sunset: Having just played Coachella as a current member of Blondie, Sex Pistol Glen Matlock will perform a solo set at the Roxy with a bunch of pals.Matlock is about to release his Consequences Coming solo album, so expect to hear plenty of that as he plays with Clem Blurke (Blondie), Gilby Clarke (Guns N’ Roses), Steve Fishman, Kathy Valentine and, oddly, Fred Armisen. Frankie & the Studs are also on the bill.We chatted with Matlock back in 2019, and he told us that “I do things from all aspects of my career. The beauty of doing that is I’m not dependent on whether the band know a song or not. I can do any song at the drop of a hat. If somebody shouts out for something, I can normally make a good fist of it and if it goes wrong I can turn it into a laugh anyway. But all the songs tend to hang together. Every solo record started life on one of my acoustic guitars.”Glen Matlock performs at 9 p.m. on Saturday, April 29 at the Roxy.&nb...

Kurtenbach: The NBA knows the power of the Warriors’ home-court advantage, so they’re undercutting it

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:07:17 GMT

When the Warriors play at Chase Center in front of a sold-out crowd, it’s a force to be reckoned with.But is it a force stronger than Bay Area rush hour traffic?We’ll find out soon enough, because in an affront to good sense and good basketball, the NBA scheduled Game 6 of the Warriors’ first-round playoff series to tip off at 5 p.m. Pacific on Friday.Yes, it’s a working day, but the sun will be up when the game starts, and it will still be up when the game ends.Who thought this was a good idea?A quirky weekend start time at Chase Center is understandable — 12:30, 3:30, 5:30, whatever thirty, people will show up on the weekend.But this? It’s going to be a challenge.If you didn’t already know, the NBA is, first and foremost, a TV show, and when the Warriors make an appearance, the ratings go through the roof.That’s genuinely what this absurd game time is about: the NBA (justly) assumed an East Coast audience would rather watch Warriors-Kings than Lakers-Grizzlies.But it’s...

White woman whose accusation led to the lynching of Emmett Till has died at 88, coroner says

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:07:17 GMT

By Dianne Gallagher and Sara Smart | CNNCarolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman whose accusation led to the 1955 lynching of Black teen Emmett Till in Mississippi — and whose role in Till’s brutal death was reconsidered by a grand jury as recently as last year — has died in Louisiana, the Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office confirmed to CNN.Donham, 88, died Tuesday in Westlake, according to a fact of death letter from Calcasieu Parish Coroner.CNN has reached out to the Till family.In August 1955, 14-year-old Till was beaten and shot to death after he allegedly whistled at Bryant — now Donham — in Money, Mississippi.(Gene Herrick/Associated Press Archives)FILE- In this 1955 file photo, Carolyn Bryant poses for a photo. A grand jury in Mississippi has declined to indict the white woman, Carolyn Donham, known as Carolyn Bryant, whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, despite revelations about an unserved ...

Emeryville: Newest Chick-fil-A in the Bay opens today

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:07:17 GMT

Chick-fil-A, the fried-chicken sandwich juggernaut, has added to its growing Bay Area footprint.The chain’s newest restaurant — No. 22 — opens today in Emeryville at the East Bay Bridge Shopping Center. This franchise is locally owned by Jon Hooper, an entrepreneur who first started working at Chick-fil-A at the age of 16.Operating hours will be 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.Returning to the spring menu is the seasonal Watermelon Mint Lemonade. Three new beverages have sprung from that: Watermelon Mint Sunjoy, Watermelon Mint Frosted Lemonade and Watermelon Mint Iced Tea.Since 2019, Chick-fil-A has served antibiotic-free chicken in all of its U.S. locations.Related ArticlesRestaurants, Food and Drink | 7 amazing Bay Area things to do this weekend Restaurants, Food and Drink | Q&A: The “King” of cocktail bitters talks foraging ingredients in West Marin Restaurants, Food and Drink | Nora Haron&...

49ers’ 2023 draft: Analyzing the hits and misses in Shanahan-Lynch regime

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:07:17 GMT

SANTA CLARA — Whatever mistakes coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch have made in the NFL Draft, they’ve been either good enough or fortunate enough to make up for them in later rounds.Or even later drafts.That was evident in their first draft in 2017, when they made swung a deal with the Chicago Bears, wound up with two picks among the first 31 and didn’t get anywhere near what they hoped for from either defensive tackle Solomon Thomas or linebacker Reuben Foster.Much later in that draft, they were able to get a franchise cornerstone in the fifth round with the selection of Iowa tight end George Kittle.Or take the bold decision to trade three first-round draft picks for Trey Lance, a quarterback who faced questionable competition and hadn’t started a lot of games at North Dakota State.If Lance never ascends to being the 49ers’ starting quarterback, the move was mitigated with the final pick in last year’s draft and the selection of ...

Could a new California bill make it harder to suspend kids?

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:07:17 GMT

A proposed state bill could end suspensions for students who defy teachers’ orders, disrupt school activities, or engage in other types of behavioral misconduct – requiring teachers to de-escalate such incidents instead of forcing a child from the classroom.The bill, which was introduced by State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) earlier this year and will be heard by the appropriations committee next month, would extend an existing ban on so-called “willful defiance” suspensions.Today, such a ban only applies to students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Senate Bill 274 would add middle and high schoolers to the mix, and dissolve the existing ban’s expiration date of 2025.“SB 274 is based on a simple premise: Students belong in school,” said Skinner. “Suspending youth from school for low-level behavior issues leads to significant harm, including learning loss and a higher likelihood that affected students will drop out of school completely.”When – and how – to suspend ...

Ex-SF fire commissioner is no-show in court, suspect in attack released

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:07:17 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A former San Francisco fire commissioner attacked homeless people with bear spray in the Marina neighborhood, according to attorneys who spoke in court Wednesday. The defense attorneys spoke on behalf of a 24-year-old unsheltered man, Garret Allen Doty, who was released Thursday morning. Doty's release follows former fire commissioner Don Carmignani's refusal to participate in trial proceedings as he did not appear in court for Doty's preliminary hearing on Thursday.Doty is charged with assaulting Carmignani and accused of beating him with a metal pipe. The April 5 pipe beating was recorded on surveillance video footage obtained by KRON4. A preliminary hearing is set for May. Stabbing victim at Northgate High in Walnut Creek in stable condition New surveillance video footage recently surfaced, however, showing that 53-year-old Carmignani provoked the incident when he allegedly attacked Doty with bear spray, Doty's defense attorneys said. Carmignani was hosp...

Lyft to lay off 1,072 employees, 26% of staff

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:07:17 GMT

(KRON) -- Rideshare company Lyft plans to lay off 1,072 employees, or 26 percent of its workforce, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday by CFO Elaine Paul. The filings also said it had eliminated 250 open positions.Filings said the San Francisco-headquartered company expected to pay between $41 million and $47 million in severance packages plus more in stock-based compensation due to the job cuts.Lyft does not count its drivers as employees.This news comes about a week after reports of staffing cuts from the company's 4,000-person workforce were reported when CEO David Risher said a "significant" number of employees would lose their jobs. Lyft's last round of layoffs occurred in November 2022 when the company let go about 13 percent of its workforce. The company also laid off about 60 employees last summer.Lyft is among a slew of technology companies going through layoffs to deal with post-pandemic restructuring including Meta, ...

Dropbox laying off 500 employees as tech layoffs continue

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:07:17 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Cloud storage company Dropbox announced Thursday that it would be laying off 500 employees, or about 16% of its global workforce. A letter to employees from CEO Drew Houston cited slowing growth and the coming wave of AI as the main reasons behind the layoffs."The AI era of computing has finally arrived," Houston wrote. "We've believed for many years that AI will give us new superpowers and completely transform knowledge work." Are tinted windows legal in California? In an SEC filing, the company said the layoffs are part of a plan to "streamline the Company's team structure to support long-term growth and profitability objectives.""Dropbox intends to strategically reinvest some savings from this reduction in force into future growth initiatives, and will continue to hire for roles critical to those initiatives," the filing also states.According to Houston, the layoffs are part of a shift toward a more AI-centered business model for the company."Our next st...