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Photos: End of an era in Monterey County, LaPorte Mansion being torn down

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:50 GMT

Flames billow from the attic of Victorian home on the corner of 17 Mile Drive and Lighthouse Avenue as firefighters battle the blaze in Pacific Grove on Friday. (David Royal — Herald Correspondent)Crews were out Friday morning clearing out and tearing down the historic LaPorte Mansion, after a fire destroyed the home in May (Molly Gibbs – Monterey Herald).Crews were out Friday morning clearing out and tearing down the historic LaPorte Mansion, after a fire destroyed the home in May (Molly Gibbs – Monterey Herald).A fire captain works at a hydrant while battling a blaze in the Victorian home on the corner of 17 Mile Drive and Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove on Friday. (David Royal — Herald Correspondent)Firefighters saturate a first-story room with water while battling a blaze in the Victorian home on the corner of 17 Mile Drive and Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove on Friday. (David Royal — Herald Correspondent)Crowds look on as firefighters battle ...

A Bay Area couple turns their Eichler into a lush oasis

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:50 GMT

Terry Bremer grew up in a New York apartment in Queens. “The only plant I could identify was a hedge,” she quips.Things would change once she moved to Marin after spending two decades in San Francisco, where as a legal secretary she met and eventually married her boss, attorney David Bremer. Today, they both still work together in his San Rafael law practice.“I began gardening when I lived in the Sunset District of San Francisco,” she recalls. “I had a tiny yard, but I made the best of it, learning what would grow in that cold, foggy climate.”When they purchased one of the coveted Lucas Valley Eichler homes, on a large corner lot and a quiet cul-de-sac, they also got a generous quarter-of-an-acre spot in which to garden with a backyard, two side yards and a courtyard.A concrete block wall, which had originally separated the courtyard from the front yard, had been removed by a previous owner, and the fenced-in area enlarged, thus creating a more open space. The previous owner had als...

Livermore makes list of hottest ZIP codes in U.S. for home buyers — but Bakersfield has it beat

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:50 GMT

Despite soaring mortgage rates that have dampened sales for existing homes, at least one Bay Area city is still considered a hotspot for buyer demand.Livermore ranked 44th on a list of the 50 hottest ZIP codes in the country, according to a new report by Realtor.com. The Tri-Valley city was one of two California cities that made the list. Bakersfield in Kern County, north of Los Angeles, came in at No. 24.What’s the hottest ZIP code in the country? It’s 43230, perhaps better known as Gahanna, Ohio, in the Columbus metropolitan area. The median listing price on the real estate website for a home there in June was $351,000.Affordability, location and bang for your home-buying buck are what’s driving the highest concentration of buyer interest across the country, according to the report, with markets in the Midwest and Northeast ranking highest.Livermore — with a median listing price of $1.4 million — was the highest-priced ZIP code on the top 50 list, said Hannah Jones, se...

A dozen rare California condors explore Diablo Range

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:50 GMT

A dozen condors were recorded flying over the Diablo Range this week, suggesting the rare species is exploring new territory in the Bay Area’s rolling grasslands, plateaus and peaks.“It’s the most condors we’ve seen in that area at one time, ever,” said Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society, which reintroduces captive-bred condors to their historic Central Coast habitat. “The population is growing in size, and it’s also expanding its range.”On Thursday, two of the birds were spotted soaring over Mount Hamilton, only 20 miles east of downtown San Jose, sending astronomers and other Lick Observatory staffers rushing outside, eyes to the sky, after a radio announcement.“It was so exciting. They’re just such huge majestic birds,” said Observatory astronomer Elinor Gates, who raced out of her residence with binoculars and cameras.The pair – one released in the mountains near the coast of San Simeon a...

Who’d shoulder higher Bay Area bridge tolls to bail out transit? Backers say the rich, critics the poor. Who’s right?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:50 GMT

When state lawmakers this past week put the brakes on a plan to rescue BART and other ailing transit systems, a key concern was that the proposed toll increases at Bay Area bridges to pay for the bailout would wallop low-paid workers who cross those spans to get to their jobs.But the question of who would bear the burden of a $1.50 bridge toll hike — the working poor or the well-off — is hardly settled, as both sides of the debate point to data and arguments that back their claims. The answer will be key to selling the bailout plan as legislative advocates strategize a fresh pitch for early next year.In a letter this month to Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislative leaders, seven Bay Area congressional representatives with deep reservations about the toll hike plan demanded an analysis of its impact on “low-income or car-dependent commuters.”The congressional delegation cited Metropolitan Transportation Commission data that 59% of bridge toll payers come from Alameda, Co...

Marin sex offender assigned work as caregiver by county agency

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:50 GMT

A registered sex offender who is facing new charges in Marin was assigned to work as a caregiver by a county agency.The agency — the In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority of Marin — matches caregivers with people certified as eligible by the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services. Recipients are typically low income, over the age of 65 and have a physical or mental disability.The agency gave an assignment to Brett Emmanuel Ortiz in April. Ortiz, 59, was convicted of a lewd or lascivious act upon a child under 14 in Kern County in 1989, failure to register in Marin County as a sex offender in 1998 and indecent exposure in Marin County in 1999, court records show.In June 2022, Ortiz was booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of molesting a child younger than 14 following a six-week investigation by the Novato Police Department. His jury trial on the charge of committing a lewd act upon a 9-year-old child is scheduled in Marin County Superior Court on Sept. 13....

At Cook’s Corner, lives remembered: A hero, a noted urban planner and a mom who loved to dance

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:50 GMT

“I think I am dead.”Those were the last words a friend heard John Leehey say as he lay bleeding on a dirt path outside of Cook’s Corner in Trabuco Canyon, while bullets from a gunman described as a “crazy” ex-cop whizzed around him and two of his friends.Leehey, 67-year-old urban planner and landscape architect from Irvine, along with Tonya Clark, 49, of Scottsdale, Arizona, and Glen Sprowl Jr., 53, of Stanton, were killed in the shooting rampage Wednesday at the popular biker bar during its $8 Spaghetti Night.Retired Ventura Police Sgt. John Patrick Snowling, 59, who was in the middle of a divorce, entered Cook’s Corner with a pair of legally registered handguns, walked up to his wife Marie silently, and shot her in the jaw, authorities said. Somehow, she survived.But the shooting continued.For more news, see: Cook’s Corner mass shooting a horrifically common display of domestic violenceJohn LeeheyJames O’Malley, a real estate consultant who lives a couple of miles from Cook’s Corn...

2 more Cook’s Corner mass shooting victims ID’d as deeper picture of accused killer emerges

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:50 GMT

Two more people killed in a shooting rampage at a Trabuco Canyon bar were identified on Friday,  as a clearer picture emerged of the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of the gunman who authorities say critically injured his wife with a bullet to the face.Tonya Clark, 49, was killed in the mass shooting at Cook’s Corner in Trabuco Canyon. (Courtesy of OC Sheriff’s Department) Tonya Clark, 49, of Scottsdale, Arizona and Glen Sprowl Jr., 53, of Stanton were killed when retired Ventura Police Department Sgt. John Snowling marched into the Cook’s Corner biker bar just past 7 p.m. Wednesday and without word opened fire on his wife and others, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said.John Leehey, 67, was killed in the mass shooting on Weds., Aug 23, 2023 at Cook’s Corner in Trabuco Canyon. (Courtesy OC Sheriff’s Department) John Leehey, 67, an urban planner and landscape architect from Irvine, was earlier identified as one of the three killed. Six people were injured and taken to hospitals, th...

Cook’s Corner mass shooting a horrifically common display of domestic violence

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:50 GMT

Authorities say the shooter at Cook’s Corner, John Patrick Snowling, was taking his marital complaints, however misguided, public.If true, experts say it’s the latest in a long string of examples of how marital friction, guns and silence can combine to end in death.Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said this week that Snowling, a 59-year-old retired Ventura Police Department sergeant, was specifically targeting his soon-to-be ex-wife when he walked into the family-friendly biker bar in Trabuco Canyon on Wednesday, Aug. 23 and shot nine people, killing three.That his wife was among those who were gravely injured, not killed, and that Snowling died during a shootout with Orange County Sheriff’s deputies, not by his own hand, are only slight variations in what experts describe as a grim pattern: When domestic violence escalates to its apex and turns deadly, what was private often becomes public, and the range of victims often spreads beyond the fighting couple.It’s also not rare.In Oran...

El Segundo wins Little League World Series with walk-off HR by Louis Lappe

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:50 GMT

El Segundo’s Louis Lappe hits a solo walk-off home run off of Curacao’s Jay-Dlynn Wiel during the sixth inning of the Little League World Series championship game on Sunday in South Williamsport, Pa. El Segundo won, 6-5. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)El Segundo’s Louis Lappe watches his solo walk-off home run off Curacao’s Jay-Dlynn Wiel during the sixth inning of the Little League World Series Championship game in South Williamsport, Pa., Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023. California won 6-5. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)El Segundo’s Brody Brooks scores sliding past Curacao catcher Yaedon Lourens Martie on a double by Jaxon Kalish during the third inning of the Little League World Series Championship game in South Williamsport, Pa., Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Tom E. Puskar)Curaçao’s Nasir El-Ossais (13) celebrates as he runs to first on his grand slam home run off of El Segundo’s Max Baker during the fifth inning of the Little League World Series Champion...