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Review: ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’ masterfully weaves a complex but satisfying sequel

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:45:14 GMT

It’s remarkable to watch a spider build a web. Timelapse videos show an arachnid creating a structure that doesn’t resemble the unique netting at first, but as it sets anchor points and creates bridge lines, a familiar shape begins to form. By the end of the footage, you see an amazing feat of engineering.In a similar way, that’s how “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” develops. It floods players with a firehose of Spidey content in the beginning. Peter Parker and Miles Morales team up in an epic battle against an enraged and enormous Sandman. It tosses in the villain Kraven for good measure as he turns New York City into his hunting ground.Meanwhile in their personal lives, Miles has to write his college essay and be Spider-Man at the same time while Peter tries to hold a job, so he can keep the home aunt May left him. He ends up fired on his first day on the job as a teacher, but luckily, his childhood friend, Harry Osborn, offers him a plum job at the Emil...

Bay Area News Group girls athlete of the week: Grace Hui, Archbishop Mitty golf

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:45:14 GMT

Archbishop Mitty High golfer Grace Hui is the Bay Area News Group’s high school girls athlete of the week. (Courtesy of Archbishop Mitty) Archbishop Mitty golfer Grace Hui is the Bay Area News Group’s girls athlete of the week for Oct. 9-14 after she received 35.37% of the vote by the 5 p.m. deadline Wednesday.Leland water polo player Tasaria Kilpatrick (29.73%) finished second.Congratulations to all the candidates for this week’s recognition.Hui, a senior, was the medalist in both of Mitty’s victories during the week. She shot an even-par 36 against Presentation and a 6-under par against St. Francis.To nominate an athlete for next week’s poll, email [email protected] by Monday, Oct. 23, at 11 a.m. Please include stats and team results.We also review stats submitted to MaxPreps.com by coaches/team statisticians for consideration.Winners are announced each Friday on the Mercury News & East Bay Times websites and in the print edition of the Mercury News a...

Bay Area campuses rife with tension over the Israel-Hamas war

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:45:14 GMT

As the war between Israel and Hamas rages, students across the Bay Area have become tangled in its ideological crossfire. And as the death toll in the Middle East mounts, the vitriol across American campuses has too, with threats, discrimination and online harassment popping up at universities from coast to coast.It has grown so contentious that two University of California, Berkeley, professors from opposites sides of the conflict felt compelled to plead with students on a campus that was the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement to stop the harassment.“We are two professors on this campus who disagree, vehemently. But we have always treated one another with respect and dignity,” wrote the two professors — one Palestinian, and the other Israeli — in a message to the student body last Thursday. “We love this campus with its diverse communities and all of our students and are heartbroken to hear of incidents of near violence between students in recent days.”Students and ...

Kyle Shanahan gets another look at Vikings’ Cousins, with Purdy firmly entrenched

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:45:14 GMT

SANTA CLARA — When the 49ers visit the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football, there will be a familiar face at quarterback.He’ll calmly go through his progressions, likely complete a high percentage of his passes and run his offense with precision and poise.Well, two familiar faces actually. Because the 49ers’ Brock Purdy and Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins were both initially schooled in how to play quarterback in the NFL by Kyle Shanahan.One of the worst-kept secrets in the NFL is that Shanahan carried a torch for Cousins since their days together in Washington. Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for his father Mike Shanahan, and Cousins was a fourth-round draft pick out of Michigan State overshadowed by Robert Griffin III, the No. 2 pick in the draft behind Andrew Luck.Kyle joined his father’s staff in 2010, with Donovan McNabb starting over Rex Grossman the first year and Grossman starting over John Beck in 2011 with Washington going 11-21 over th...

Federal judge strikes down decades-old California ban on assault weapons

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:45:14 GMT

By Taylor Romine | CNNA federal judge has overturned a decades-old California law banning assault weapons, calling the restriction “extreme” and unconstitutional.US District Judge Roger T. Benitez ruled Thursday the ban impedes on residents’ Second Amendment rights and has no historical precedent, as is required by a landmark Supreme Court decision last year that changed the test courts are to use when determining the constitutionality of firearms regulations.Benitez relied on a similar argument when he struck down California’s ban on high-capacity magazines last month.The state argued the law aims to prevent mass shooters from gaining access to assault weapons. But Benitez countered many of the banned firearms are also commonly used by “law-abiding” citizens for self-defense.“California’s answer to the criminal misuse of a few is to disarm its many good residents. That knee-jerk reaction is constitutionally untenable, just as it was 250 years ago,” Benitez wrote in his decision.The...

Police: Driver who crashed into Chinese consulate in San Francisco tried to stab a responding officer before being fatally shot

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:45:14 GMT

By Veronica Miracle and Aya Elamroussi | CNNThe driver who crashed a blue Honda sedan into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco last week was armed with a knife and had a loaded crossbow in his car before he was shot and killed by police, authorities said Thursday.Zhanyuan Yang, 31, rammed into the lobby area of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China on October 9 just after 3 p.m. local time, San Francisco Police said last week. At the time, police said there were no other injuries.On Thursday, the San Francisco Police Department held a town hall where it addressed details about how the attack on the consulate unfolded. Officials played 911 calls and body camera footage of responding police officers.One video shows an officer arriving at the scene and running into a building inside of which appears a blue sedan has crashed. As the officer makes his way farther into the building, the camera moves closer to a man dressed in a blue T-shirt and pants while covering hi...

Plans for thousands of homes on San Jose golf course get county boost

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:45:14 GMT

SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County’s adoption of its own blueprint for future housing development gives a big boost to a fledgling concept that could replace a San Jose golf course with thousands of homes.The prospect for wide-ranging housing development and other uses such as retail and open spaces — effectively a new neighborhood — is being contemplated at the long-shuttered Pleasant Hills Golf Course site in east San Jose.San Jose’s Pleasant Hills Golf Course at the northeast corner of South White Road and Tully Road, aerial view, November 2022. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)Santa Clara County in recent days adopted a housing element for the years 2023 through 2031.California’s quest to spur the creation of more residences throughout the state has obliged numerous local agencies to pass housing elements — a bureaucratic term for blueprints that local jurisdictions must craft for residential development within their borders.Tucked away...

The Earthquakes wanted to raise their standard. Luchi Gonzalez helped them do it

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:45:14 GMT

SAN JOSE — Sitting on one knee just outside the penalty box, Luchi Gonzalez positioned himself far enough from his team to make it clear that his voice wasn’t needed.He sat calmly with his whistle, blowing it only when necessary, but rarely saying much as his players finished their training session Wednesday morning at PayPal Park.As he wraps up his first season as the head coach of the San Jose Earthquakes with a must-win game against Austin FC on Saturday, Gonzalez hopes he created a culture that prioritizes stability and process, one that encourages development and believes success isn’t always linear.“I’m going to go to sleep at peace knowing I’m trying my personal best and the players are trying their best,” he said. “I think we’re close to our potential. That’s where I’m hopeful.”A win on Saturday and the Earthquakes would clinch a playoff berth and secure an opportunity to host a postseason game for the first time since 2012, before the opening of PayPal Park.“We ...

Opinion: Pac-12 is ‘Conference of Champions.’ Don’t let it disappear

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:45:14 GMT

No collegiate athletic conference has been more dominant than the Pac-12 when it comes to winning national trophies. As of this month, the conference has earned an unmatched 553 NCAA championships, with a 200-plus trophy cushion over the second-place league.And this legacy of success doesn’t belong just to the powerhouse sport of football.Consider the Olympic sports contested across the NCAA: Pac-12 schools dominate the top 25 national rankings and finishes, and Stanford, UCLA and USC sweep the podium spots for schools with the most NCAA team titles. If the Pac-12 were a nation, it would have placed fifth in the medal count at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Indeed, it is Olympic sports that have made the Pac-12 the “Conference of Champions.”One would think that with stats like these, the college presidents and university athletic directors in the Pac-12 wouldn’t let the conference disintegrate, picked apart by its fellow leagues and set t...

Two women arrested for stealing $1,900 of merchandise at Great Mall in Milpitas

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:45:14 GMT

(KRON) -- Two women were arrested at the Great Mall in Milpitas Wednesday for organized retail theft and grand theft, the Milpitas Police Department announced on Thursday. Detectives were driving through the parking lot at the mall when they noticed two people coming out of the mall. Over $130K of property stolen from rental car parked in San Mateo Police described the subjects as "suspicious characters" who were "hurrying out of the Great Mall with large bags filled with merchandise." Officers observed them get into a car and drive away.A patrol officer who was nearby stopped the car. Inside, officers found nearly $1,900 in merchandise allegedly stolen from Marshalls, as well as a tool used to remove security sensors.The car's driver and passenger, two women from Merced, were arrested, police said. One of the women allegedly tried to trick officers by giving them a fake name. Officers learned her true identity and that she had a felony warrant for grand theft.The suspects were bo...