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Improving Investor Behavior: Is your home an investment?

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:47:59 GMT

The former home of Groucho Marx, the cigar-chomping, round-glass-wearing comedian of the 1920s, is up for sale in Long Island, N.Y. For the low price of just $2.3 million, you too could own the five-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot home built in 1926. Marx paid a scant $27,000 for it in 1926 (roughly $465,000 in 2023 dollars) and lived there for a few years before selling and relocating to the budding Hollywood scene on the West Coast.Had Marx stayed in his home and ultimately gifted it to his children, how would his investment have performed over the years? Like many of those interested in real estate, I was curious to see how the numbers worked out. An investment purchased for $27,000 ultimately sold for $2.3 million. Seems good, right?Steve BoorenAs an investment adviser, I tend to compare returns to that of the S&P 500. Using a starting date of January 1926 and compounding until August 2023, the S&P 500 had an annual rate of return of 6.21% (excluding dividends). This means th...

Wish Book: Half Moon Bay charity helps ‘unheard and unseen’ Chinese seniors

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:47:59 GMT

They were shivering in shock, huddled under blankets in a local evacuation center when Kiki Wolfeld found them.It had been hours since their disgruntled coworker had gunned down seven others who worked at Half Moon Bay’s mushroom farms. Yingze Wang and her husband, Jinsheng Liu, were among the small group of Chinese farmworkers who had somehow survived the rampage that cool January afternoon.They were trying to comprehend what had happened and where they would go next, but no one there spoke Mandarin to explain — until Wolfeld with the nonprofit Senior Coastsiders arrived.People are brought to the family reunification center at the IDES Hall in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, after a gunman shot and killed seven people. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) “Everything will be OK,” Wolfeld, a China-born former social worker, reassured them.The nonprofit founded four decades ago had hired her just months earlier to reach out to Half Moon Bay’s elderly, larg...

His job: Build the largest new reservoir in California in 50 years

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:47:59 GMT

California is no stranger to severe droughts. Eleven of the past 17 years have been in drought, with urban water shortages, barren farm fields, and a lack of water for fish and wildlife — the most recent ending just last winter when soaking rains finally returned.As the state has struggled, and climate change has made droughts more severe, an increasing number of residents and political leaders have asked “Why don’t we build more dams to increase the water supply?”A few have been built. Contra Costa Water District constructed Los Vaqueros Reservoir in 1998 and expanded it in 2012. Metropolitan Water District of Southern California built Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County in 1999. San Diego County Water Authority raised the height of its San Vicente Dam by 117 feet in 2012.But there have been no enormous new reservoirs built, like Shasta, Oroville and others were in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Experts cite many reasons. Most of the best spots are already taken. President Reaga...

That sinking feeling: SFO is subsiding in the mud

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:47:59 GMT

Ladies and gentlemen, San Francisco Airport has begun its descent.Every year, the airport is sinking an average of nearly 10 millimeters, almost a half an inch, according to new satellite data.There’s no need to fasten seat belts or secure carry-on items. The measurement is so tiny that it almost sounds amusing. But there’s concern that the subsidence, which is experienced unevenly around the airport, could crack runways.“Differential sinking along a runway increases the risk of the runway getting damaged, increases the cost of maintenance, and increases the risk to users,” said Oluwaseyi Dasho, an environmental hazard specialist at Virginia Tech who presented the new study this week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.“Even though it’s just a minute portion of the runway, if it causes a crack, that would render the whole runway unusable,” he said.Built on mud that compacts over time, the airport could sink a foot in 30 years. The...

Highway 84 second lanes expected to open in summer of 2025: Roadshow

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:47:59 GMT

Q: When will they open the second lanes on the Highway 84 widening project between Livermore and Interstate 680?— Steve StamosA: Janis-the-Caltrans-spokesperson for Alameda County reports that Caltrans plans to open both lanes on Highway 84 in the summer of 2025.Q: Do you know if the Caltrans contractor is going to grind/smooth out the new “speed bumps” they installed on Highway 4 between Port Chicago Highway and Railroad Avenue in Contra Costa County? They ground some of the new sections, but some of the uneven surfaces are brutal to drive over in a large truck. I’ve seen front ends implode, trailers come unhitched and loads shaken loose.— Doug B.A: I’m trying to get an answer for you. In the meantime, try also entering this issue in the Caltrans service request system, available here: https://csr.dot.ca.gov/Q: I am sure you have traveled up and down Highways 101 and 85 lately and noticed the jungle that is growing in the center dividers on both highways. Since th...

Unprotected: Have Santa Clara County’s reforms to keep troubled families together left vulnerable children in harm’s way?

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:47:59 GMT

SAN JOSE — Matthew Kraft collapsed in tears then fell into the embrace of a fellow social worker.Months of anger and heartbreak and guilt came gushing out over the death of a 3-month-old San Jose girl who had ingested a lethal dose of fentanyl last spring while in her father’s care.“It’s not your fault,” Sandra Gregory assured Kraft as he sobbed in the hallway outside a Santa Clara County Supervisors board meeting earlier this month. “You did everything you could.”How had this all become his burden? He hadn’t even been assigned to baby Phoenix Castro’s case. But Kraft had warned his superiors about the baby’s safety after overseeing the custody of the infant’s two older siblings. They were removed from their parents’ care in 2022, months after police found the mother delusional, the father with “what appeared to be methamphetamine” in his pocket and the children sucking on Triple A batteries, records released this past week show.Despite the alarm, nobody removed baby Phoenix.Perhaps...

How Steve Wilks got the 49ers’ defense back on track

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:47:59 GMT

It didn’t happen simply because Steve Wilks abandoned the isolated think-tank of the coaches’ box for the intensity and electricity of the sideline.Yet when the 49ers defensive coordinator was kicked downstairs after consultation with coach Kyle Shanahan, things have been on an upward trend ever since.The 49ers are rolling again on defense, giving up an NFL-low 15.8 points per game and excelling in every area since the three-game losing streak that precipitated Wilks’ move from the box to the sideline. The change, which Shanahan said was minor, was just a starting gun for what followed.Wilks knew what was coming when he signed on to replace DeMeco Ryans, who like Robert Saleh before him parlayed his success running the 49ers’ defense into a head coaching gig.Much like the move from the eighth floor to ground level at Levi’s Stadium, there was nowhere to go but down in the eyes of the public when taking over a defense as good as the 49ers.“Like I t...

‘I wasn’t giving up the will to live’: California hiker rescued 3 days after nearly 1,000-foot fall off Hawaii trail

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:47:59 GMT

By Ashley R. Williams | CNNA hiker from California who fell about 1,000 feet to the bottom of a mountain down a trail in Hawaii called his rescue “a miracle” after he survived three days before being found.“I never expected a day of hiking like this to go the way it did,” Ian Snyder said at a news conference Tuesday where he thanked rescuers for saving his life.Snyder, 34, was hiking alone on December 4 when he fell from the Koʻolau Summit Trail near the Pali Notches Trail, according to the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii.Honolulu first responders located him on December 7 near the bottom of a waterfall.Snyder said on the day he went missing, the trail’s peak was steep and the hike became more treacherous as he continued. “I was in good shape and able to navigate things well,” he said at the news conference.“I looked down at Pali Highway and went, ‘Man, that’s a long way below me and I need to get down there,’ that was my plan,” the hiker said.Snyder, a father to two sons and a daug...

Two Bay Area adults, two juveniles arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:47:59 GMT

Two adults and two juveniles were arrested early Thursday morning by Vacaville police officers in connection to an October shooting.A SWAT team, with assistance from the Vallejo Police Department and the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, conducted two search warrants within the city of Vallejo, while detectives from the department served two additional warrants at an apartment complex in the 1500 block of Alamo Drive in Vacaville.Vacaville officers arrested 32-year-old Dallas Drew Deleon, of Vallejo, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder, child endangerment, and violation of parole as well as 22-year-old Davina Ramona Espinoza, of Vallejo, also on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder and child endangerment.Two juveniles, ages 14 and 15, both male and from Vallejo, also were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. Their names were not released because of their ages.Because officers recovered three firearms when executing the warrants, officials also are seeking ...

Golden Gate Bridge toll increases likely again amid deficits

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:47:59 GMT

Faced with looming budget deficits, Golden Gate Bridge district officials are considering a five-year toll increase plan — again.The price to cross the bridge for many drivers ticked up 35 cents to $9.75 on July 1, the final increase in the five-year toll hike plan that started in 2019. However, toll revenues took a plunge when the COVID-19 pandemic kept commuters away, and many still have not returned.While the district did receive $278 million in pandemic relief, those funds will be exhausted by the end of the fiscal year. On Thursday, officials reported an estimated $220 million shortfall over the next five years and a $679 million deficit over 10 years.“Bridge tolls are by statute the backbone of the district’s revenue source,” said Jennifer Mennucci, the district’s budget director. “They fund both bridge operations and operations and maintenance of both bus and ferry, as well to fund reserves for our future capital needs in bridge and transit.”Traditionally, about half of the t...