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How Crosswords Have Adapted to Political, Technological, and Cultural Shifts Over Time

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

Crosswords, with their black and white grids and intricate clues, are more than just a leisurely game. They are a testament to human creativity, intellect, and adaptability. Since their inception in the early 20th century, crosswords have undergone tremendous transformation, reflecting the seismic shifts in politics, technological advancements, and cultural dynamics. What started as a simple diversion during a newspaper’s holiday season has become an integral part of daily life for millions around the world. Crosswords challenge the mind and provide a connection to current events, historical milestones, and societal changes. The clues and answers within the grids have evolved, mirroring our language, values, norms, and beliefs. As we venture into this exploration of how crosswords have adapted to political, technological, and cultural shifts over time, we embark on a journey that is as multifaceted as the puzzles themselves. The evolution of crosswords tells a story that reach...

How Marissa Andrada Is Helping Educate Companies on DEI Initiatives

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) is a priority for most brands; that doesn’t mean it is automatically successful, though.JUST Capital recently reported that 94% of employers and 74% of employees say their organizations have committed to advancing DEI at work. However, 43% of both groups add that there’s still a long way to go before acceptable progress is made.The corporate world is ready for DEI, it just doesn’t necessarily know how to implement it. This is where a leader like Marissa Andrada can be a game-changer.Who Is Marissa Andrada?Marissa Andrada has positioned herself as the “Culture Master and Kindness Catalyst” within the work world. The successful executive and corporate influencer seeks to transform company cultures by putting people before goals, procedures and the bottom line.Andrada possesses the perfect blend of corporate experience and DEI acumen. She is the embodiment of empathy while simultaneously grasping the nuance of executing an empathetic leadership s...

With Daniels family in its heart, Mountain View cruises to victory over Leigh

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

MOUNTAIN VIEW — For a moment at least, sorrow was replaced by joy at Mountain View High on Friday night.Nine days after the death of football parent Lucinda Daniels, it was clear the Spartans were able to focus more and the result was a rout over visiting Leigh, 40-21, in a non-league contest.A horrific turn of events that began with a traumatic leg injury suffered by Mountain View’s Dillon Daniels during the season-opener at The King’s Academy on Aug. 25 and ended with a pair of strokes and ruptured brain aneurysm that took the life of his mother will remain on the minds and hearts of the team, staff, and school community.But Friday provided some reasons to smile.“Especially after that King’s game after everything that happened, we feel like we’re a lot closer and more of a family than we were before,” quarterback Kevin Conway said. “Before, sometimes we would break on ‘family,’ and I’m not sure if everyone meant it. But after that game, I know that everyone means it.”Conway ...

A’s ‘not interested in selling’ their share of Oakland Coliseum. What are the city’s options?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

OAKLAND — The A’s have no plans to part with an ownership stake in the Oakland Coliseum, even though the franchise no longer believes the property is fit for professional baseball.A’s President Dave Kaval rejected a purchase offer Thursday in a letter to the African-American Sports and Entertainment Group, which a day earlier had proposed acquiring the team’s half-ownership share of the 155-acre Coliseum complex.The local, Black-led group is in negotiations to buy the other half of the site from the city of Oakland, with plans to transform the baseball stadium, nearby arena and vast concrete parking space into a new hotspot for retail and nightlife — a $5 billion venture.But the group has found itself in an unusual relationship with the A’s, whose billionaire owner John Fisher appears to believe the Coliseum real estate is worth holding onto as a failsafe for his dreams of a Las Vegas ballpark, or perhaps as a future revenue stream.“While we...

Ranking the 49ers’ newcomers by expected impact

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

SANTA CLARA — Change is constant in the NFL, which is also an acronym for “Not For Long.”Even a roster as strong as the 49ers, who have played in the last two NFC Championship games, turned over more than a quarter of its current 53 members. Changes could still take place heading into Week 1 on the road against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 10.Here is a subjective ranking of the 14 new faces and their potential contributions to what the 49ers hope will be a Super Bowl season:1. DT Javon HargraveA quick strike in free agency to the tune of four years and a maximum of $84 million, Hargrave adds a sawed-off (6-foot-2) and relentless inside presence at 305 pounds to go along with the more angular Arik Armstead (6-7, 290). Hargrave becomes even more important should Nick Bosa’s holdout carry past Week 1. Hargrave played his first four seasons as a 3-4 nose tackle with the Steelers.2. K Jake MoodyThere’s no guarantee Moody will even be ready for Week 1 wit...

Editorial: Elect Jorge Lerma to fix Oakland schools in crisis

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

The future of the financially beleaguered and educationally challenged Oakland public schools will be determined by a special election Nov. 7 to fill a vacancy on the district’s governing board.Voters in District 5, which stretches from the Fruitvale to the Glenview neighborhoods, will select a new director who will hold the crucial swing vote on the seven-member board.That person will help determine whether the district continues its skid toward fiscal insolvency, or the governing board makes tough decisions needed to ensure quality education for Oakland’s kids.Like most of Oakland politics, this is not a choice between left and right, or liberal and conservative. This is a pick between two progressives, Jorge Lerma, a career educator with strong financial acumen, and Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez, a community organizer with little understanding of the district’s fiscal plight.Voters in Oakland District 5, which stretches from the Fruitvale to the Glenview neighborhood, will select a new ...

High school football: Los Gatos comes up just short vs. Grant-Sacramento in last-minute matchup

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

LOS GATOS — Time of possession and yardage gained indicated a one-sided outcome.But the final score was as close as final scores can get without the game ending in a tie: Grant-Sacramento 22, Los Gatos 21.The visitors from the San Joaquin Section ran 77 plays from scrimmage and gained 432 yards. Los Gatos ran 34 plays for 230 yards.“They had some long drives and we couldn’t get off the field,” Los Gatos coach Mark Krail said. “In fairness to our defense, they were out there an awful lot and they gave us everything they had.”The game came together virtually at the last minute earlier this week, after Los Gatos’ scheduled contest against Live Oak was called off. Not wanting to make a second straight road trip after last week’s dramatic win at Liberty-Brentwood, the Wildcats were able to convince Grant, the 3-AA state champions from last fall, to come to the Bay Area — a decision both teams were content with after the game.“I have no regr...

Opinion: Is crime rising or falling? In Los Angeles, the answer is both

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

It’s 8:19 a.m. Tuesday at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division. Nothing about this place, at least on this morning, shouts “crime wave.”There are a few people in the lobby — a woman checking on the status of her stolen car, a couple reporting a stolen passport. The streets outside are bustling with kids headed to school and vendors setting up for the day, but the neighborhood has the sleepy feel of a community going back to work after a long weekend, not of a place living under the siege of crime.Television coverage leaves a different impression. Over the Labor Day weekend, one station went big with the mugging of a young father who was robbed of his savings and the story of jewelry store owners who fought off a robbery attempt. On another station, all five of the top local stories were about crime as of Tuesday morning.That has an effect on public perceptions. In a Public Policy Institute of California survey last fall, two-thirds of Californians said they viewed cr...

Russia snubs UN proposal to rejoin Black Sea grain deal

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

Russia on Saturday stressed again that it was not willing to rejoin the Black Sea grain deal unless its demands are met.“All our conditions are perfectly well known. They do not need interpretation; they are absolutely concrete and all this is absolutely achievable,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday, according to Reuters. Russia left the United Nations-backed deal in July, accusing Western countries of receiving the bulk of grain deliveries from the agreement and refusing to lift sanctions on Russia. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to rejoin the deal only if restrictions on Russian agricultural exports were dropped.In August, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres reportedly sent Moscow some proposals in a bid to convince Russia to rejoin the deal. The U.N. proposals included giving a Luxembourgish subsidiary of the Russian Agricultural Bank access to the SWIFT international payments system.But, on Saturd...

Death toll rises above 1,000 in Morocco earthquake

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:49 GMT

A powerful earthquake struck central Morocco Friday night, killing more than 1,000 people and injuring hundreds more.The death toll for the tremor near Marrakech reached 1,037, with more than 1,200 injured, the Associated Press reported, citing the Moroccan government. The quake was the biggest to hit Morocco in 120 years, according to the AP. The quake seriously damaged buildings, according to local media, including Marrakech, where people spent the night outside for safety reasons. A mosque minaret toppled in Jemaa al-Fna Square, the heart of Marrakech’s old city, Reuters reported. Heads of governments from all over the world were quick to express solidarity and offer help to Morocco. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is in India for a G20 summit, said her “heart” was with the Moroccan people. In a sign of the huge scale of the disaster, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI ordered the armed forces to mobilize to help deal with the catastrophe, the A...