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NEW YORK (AP) — Quite a few President-elect Donald Trump's most outstanding Cabinet members and appointees have fallen victim to bomb threats and “swatting attacks,” Trump's transition team said Wednesday. The FBI said it was investigating.

“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration members were victims of violent, un-American threats against their lives and those who live with them,” Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a press release.

She said the attacks ranged from bomb threats to strikes by which attackers initiated an emergency law enforcement response against a targeted victim under false pretenses. The tactic has develop into popular lately.

Leavitt said law enforcement and other agencies acted quickly to make sure the security of those targeted and that Trump and his transition team were grateful.

Among those targeted were New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's pick to be the subsequent ambassador to the United Nations; Matt Gaetz, Trump's first nominee for attorney general; and former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, who was named head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Law enforcement officials are also investigating whether Susie Wiles, Trump's recent chief of staff, and Pam Bondi, the previous Florida attorney general whom Trump picked to switch Gaetz, in addition to other recent administration officials were also victims — and the way they were each targeted. said a police official who remained anonymous in the course of the ongoing investigation.

Wiles and Bondi didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.

The FBI said in a press release that it was “aware of numerous bomb threats and attacks against new government nominees and appointees” and was investigating with its law enforcement partners.

The FBI added: “We take all potential threats seriously and, as always, encourage the public to immediately report anything they believe to be suspicious to law enforcement.”

White House spokesman Saloni Sharma said President Joe Biden has been briefed and the White House is in touch with federal law enforcement and Trump's transition team.

Biden “continues to closely monitor the situation,” Sharma said, adding that the president and his administration “condemn threats of political violence.”

Stefanik's office said she, her husband and their 3-year-old son were driving home from Washington for Thanksgiving on Wednesday morning after they were notified of a bomb threat against their residence in Saratoga County.

Her office said, “New York State, county law enforcement, and the U.S. Capitol Police responded immediately with the utmost professionalism.”

New York State Police said a team was sent to go looking Stefanik's home Wednesday morning in response to the bomb threat but didn’t find any explosive devices. The agency directed further inquiries to the FBI.

Zeldin said in a social media post that he and his family had been threatened.

“A pipe bomb threat against me and my family at our home was sent today with a pro-Palestinian message,” he wrote on X. “My family and I were not home at the time and are safe. We are working with law enforcement to learn more as this situation develops.”

Police in Suffolk County, Long Island, said emergency crews responded to a bomb threat Wednesday morning at an address listed in public records as Zeldin's home and checked the property.

In Florida, the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook that around 9 a.m. Wednesday it “received a notification of a bomb threat involving former Congressman Matt Gaetz's alleged mailbox at a home in the Niceville area.” .

While a member of the family lives on the address, Gaetz is “NOT a resident,” the office said. No threatening devices were found.

Gaetz was Trump's first candidate for attorney general, but withdrew from the race after allegations that he paid women for sex and slept with underage women. Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and said last 12 months that a Justice Department investigation into allegations of sex trafficking of underage girls had ended with none federal charges being filed against him.

The threats follow a political campaign marked by disturbing and unprecedented violence. In July, a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing the then-candidate within the ear with a bullet and killing one in every of his supporters. The Secret Service later foiled one other assassination attempt at Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, when an agent spotted the barrel of a gun sticking through a fence while Trump was golfing.

Trump has also been the topic of an Iranian assassination plot, with one man saying he was tasked with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.

Authorities also arrested a person this week who they are saying posted videos on social media threatening to kill Trump, court documents show. In a video posted Nov. 13, Manuel Tamayo-Torres threatened to shoot the previous president while apparently holding an AR-15 rifle, authorities said

Among the opposite videos he posted, based on court documents, was one from an arena in Glendale, Arizona, on Aug. 23, the identical day Trump held a campaign rally there. A lawyer for Tamayo-Torres didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment Wednesday.

Public figures across the political spectrum have been victims of false bomb threats and false reports of shootings of their homes lately.

About a 12 months ago, the FBI responded to a surge in such incidents at officers' homes, state capitols and courthouses across the country around the vacations. Many were locked down and evacuated in early January after receiving bomb threats. No explosives were found and nobody was injured.

Those targeted last 12 months included Georgia Gov. Burt Jones, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

In Wu's case, a male caller told police he had shot his own wife and tied up one other man. When police and emergency responders arrived on the address provided by the caller, they quickly realized it was the house of the mayor of Boston. Wu, a Democrat, has also been the goal of various swatting calls since taking office in 2021.

The judges overseeing the civil fraud trial against Trump in New York and the criminal election interference trial against him in Washington each got here under fire earlier this 12 months. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who recently dropped the 2 criminal cases he brought against Trump, was also the topic of a fake 911 call on Christmas Day last 12 months.

Earlier this 12 months, schools, government buildings and the homes of city officials in Springfield, Ohio, received a series of false bomb threats after Trump falsely accused members of Springfield's Haitian community of kidnapping and eating cats and dogs.

And in 2022, scores of historically black colleges and universities nationwide were bombarded with dozens of bomb threats, with the overwhelming majority arriving during Black History Month celebrations.

The U.S. Capitol Police said in a press release Wednesday that any time a member of Congress falls victim to a swatting incident, “we work closely with our local and federal law enforcement partners.” Police declined to supply further details, also to “minimize the risk of imitators.”

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called the threats “dangerous and baseless.”

“There have been not one, but TWO assassination attempts on President Trump this year,” he wrote on America are.”

Members of the “Central Park Five” have sued former President Donald Trump on Monday over “false and defamatory” statements he allegedly made during a month-long presidential debate on her 1989 case.

The five men claim in a single 20-page federal lawsuit that Trump knew he was acting with a “reckless disregard” for the reality when he said throughout the September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that they were pleading guilty to crimes related to the beating and rape of a girl in New York City and that the five teenagers “one person seriously injured, one person killed” within the attack.

“Defendant Trump’s statements were false and defamatory in many respects,” lawyers for the lads, now all of their 50s, wrote within the lawsuit filed in federal court in Philadelphia. “Plaintiffs have never pleaded guilty to the Central Park attacks. All plaintiffs pleaded not guilty and maintained their innocence throughout the trial and incarceration and after their release from prison.”

CNN has reached out to Trump representatives for comment.

The men are searching for compensatory and punitive damages. The lawsuit also alleges that Trump's comments portrayed them in a false light and caused them “severe emotional distress.”

In the case, the group was pressured to make false confessions. They were exonerated in 2002 when DNA evidence linked one other person to the crime. The teens sued town and the case was settled in 2014.

CNN's Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.

The CNN Wire
& © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery company. All rights reserved.

Originally published: October 21, 2024 at 8:02 am

ANTIOCH — More than 100 union members on the local Georgia-Pacific wallboard plant walked off the job this week in protest, frustrated with their wage and contract negotiations.

A day after their strike, employees gathered outside the Minaker Drive manufacturing plant on Tuesday holding signs reading “Strike” and “Unfair to unions.”

Christian Ortega, a union representative for manufacturing and transportation, said two union groups met with management on the Atlanta-based pulp and paper company, but employees felt the meetings weren’t held in good faith and the corporate offered only a 3 percent wage increase.

“What they offered us was basically a slap in the face. Their lawyers told us we lived in a three percent world and therefore we would not get more,” Ortega said.

He said that while the unions cited the difficulties related to the rising cost of living in California, their pleas fell on deaf ears amongst corporate lawyers who don’t live within the Bay Area.

“These negotiators come from states like Kentucky, where the cost of living is not high, so when they see what is being presented here, they think it's all exaggerated,” Ortega added.

Stephan Noorwood, who has worked on the plant for six years, said the corporate also hired busloads of employees from Texas and Las Vegas to maintain operations running through the strike.

Jose Tobar, who has been with Georgia-Pacific for 4 years, said the union's collective bargaining agreement for 2018 through 2022 was prolonged for 2 years, leading to a ten percent across-the-board wage increase. That agreement expired on July 1, he said.

“They had to give us a raise, so they offered us an (extended) contract and said there would be a better one in the future, but that didn't happen,” Tobar said.

Ortega said union members would protest outside the plant until management comes up with a proposal that might provide a “fair” wage increase. The protests, which is able to involve about 130 union members, will last from 3 a.m. to five p.m., Ortega said.

“We just want to sit down and talk with them so that they can offer us a fair contract so that our people can go back to work because we have a lot of good employees here,” Ortega said.

Antioch Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, who attended the protest in support of the unions, said Georgia-Pacific is one among the biggest manufacturing plants in Antioch and employees deserve an honest and fair wage. The mayor said any violence in town may be traced back to a scarcity of well-paying jobs.

“I'm tired of people telling me over and over why there are shootings in Antioch. You want to know why? Because they don't have jobs. They need jobs in our community,” Hernandez-Thorpe said, adding that providing decent employment opportunities with fair wages is the “best crime prevention” a city can have.

When asked for comment on Tuesday, a Georgia-Pacific representative said a written statement could be provided shortly.

Originally published: September 17, 2024 at 3:57 p.m.

Over the course of greater than a dozen “hunts,” the squad has targeted Salinas residents they believed to be members of rival gangs, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release. In some cases, the victims were chosen just because they were Latino, bald or wore blue clothing.

The unit used military tactics and traveled in a convoy of special reconnaissance and gunnery vehicles, authorities said. The occupants of the primary vehicle identified a goal and the occupants of the second vehicle opened fire on the goal.

Authorities said that 11 people were killed in these hunts between 2015 and 2018. Another 17 people were shot at but survived. Most of the victims weren’t members of rival gangs and a few weren’t targeted in any respect but hit by ricochets.

The killings began, authorities said, as a technique to commemorate a recently deceased friend or loved one. Each murder also served to extend a member's status and prestige inside the gang.

“The Murder Squad killed for sport, terrorized the city of Salinas and forever changed the lives of so many innocent members of our community,” said U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey.

“Thanks to the longstanding and close cooperation between federal and state law enforcement agencies, these men will rightly spend the next decades of their lives in prison,” he said.

On May 7, the members pleaded guilty to 1 count of conspiracy to commit organized crime and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in aid of organized crime.

Siaki Tavale, 27, was sentenced to 41 years; John Magat, 37, was sentenced to 37 years; Anthony Valdez, 27, was sentenced to 31 years; Anelu Tavale, 28, was sentenced to 27 years; and Mark Anthony Garcia, 33, was sentenced to 25 years.

They were also ordered to serve five years' probation after serving their prison sentences.

Originally published: September 12, 2024 at 8:57 am

Seven church members representing the Presbytery of San Jose recently traveled to Peru to watch and document what organizations there are doing for the environment.

However, they weren’t there to inform local people what to do or to resolve problems.

“That doesn't work,” said the Rev. Elizabeth Boatwright, who attends First Presbyterian Church of Mountain View and has traveled to Peru. “We wanted to hear their story, their solutions, their dreams. Then our job is to accompany them in prayer and to work with them as partners, praying and offering them all the resources we have to make that dream come true.”

The key, Boatwright said, is to be certain that Peruvians “own the solution.”

The team members visited Peru from May 19 to 26 and were particularly concerned about what Peruvian leaders are doing to handle local air and water pollution, oil pollution, lead poisoning, mining corruption, abuse of indigenous lands, and illegal trade. The church members then returned to the United States and presented their findings to their local churches.

“We were told that very few people come to see and hear what is going on, and [hear] the local solutions to the problem,” Boatwright said. “We were excited to come back and tell the story.”

Team members were originally scheduled to make the trip in 2020, but due to political unrest in Peru and complications related to the COVID pandemic, it was postponed to 2024. Mission teams from the Presbytery of San Jose previously traveled to Puerto Rico and Indonesia.

The team members represent six Presbyterian churches in Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz County. In addition to Boatwright, they are David Heacock, a member of Los Gatos Presbyterian, the Rev. Deborah Troester, pastor of Santa Teresa Hills Presbyterian, the Rev. Karla Kress of Saint Andrew Presbyterian in Aptos, Mary and Barry Vickery of Sunnyvale Presbyterian and Olga Enciso Smith of Westminster Presbyterian in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose.

The group visited four major areas in Peru, including a memorial in Lima that commemorates the thousands of Peruvians who went missing, kidnapped or killed during the Shining Path years from 1980 to 2000. The terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (“Shining Path”) carried out a campaign of violence in Peru that is responsible for more than 24,000 deaths.

The team also visited the Chillon River in Callo. Callo has poor air quality due to oil refineries and the river is polluted by waste and oil spills, Boatwright said.

“This trip brought tears to my eyes as I saw the damage to health and nature,” said Smith, a Los Gatos resident originally from Peru. “I am very grateful to be part of this group and to have the opportunity to witness this dire situation.”

The group also visited the town of La Oroya, which had a smelter that polluted the air for decades and caused lead poisoning in much of the population. According to Boatwright, 98.6% of children between the ages of 6 and 12 have extremely high levels of lead in their blood. The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that there is no known safe level of lead in children's blood. According to the World Health Organization, lead in children can cause mental retardation or a lower IQ.

“In addition, we also spoke to former teams and learned about their commitment to advocating for the interests of local communities both in Lima and in relation to smelters in the United States,” Boatwright said.

She added that the response was “amazing” when the results from Peru were presented to parishioners at First Presbyterian Church in Mountain View.

“People weren’t aware of what Indigenous peoples were affected by unscrupulous practices,” Boatwright said. “My biggest hope is that folks will consider supporting local people's efforts to create healthy environments, promote self-sustaining agriculture and community constructing, end corrupt practices and offer fair trade solutions.”

The team members hope to proceed to spread the message.

“We pray that we can share our presentation with others in the community who would like to join us in providing the means to fulfill their desires,” Boatwright said.

By Oren Lieberman, Gul Tuysuz and Avery Schmitz | CNN

More than a dozen members of a Turkish national youth organization were taken into custody in Turkey after attacking two U.S. Marines, in accordance with local authorities.

The Marines, assigned to the twenty fourth Marine Expeditionary Unit, were on shore leave in Izmir when the attack occurred Monday afternoon, the U.S. Sixth Fleet said in an announcement.

According to local authorities, the Marines were attacked by members of the Turkish Youth Union, a nationalist, anti-American organization that has previously attacked U.S. soldiers.

A video of the attack, confirmed by a U.S. official, shows several people using force to restrain the Marines while a speaker on the street shouts loudly. One of the Marines yells “Help!” several times as the group places a bag over the pinnacle of one other Marine. The crowd then begins to chant, “Yankee, go home!”

The Marines were in a position to break free from the group with help from other Marines in the world, the Navy said. They were evaluated at an area hospital and weren’t injured. The Marines have returned to the USS Wasp.

The US and Turkey are NATO allies, but relations between the 2 countries have often been strained. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been a vocal critic of Israel and accused the country of genocide. In April, Erdogan received Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul. Turkey also blocked Sweden's accession to NATO on the grounds that Sweden was harboring Kurdish terrorist groups. Erdogan backed down when the US pushed forward plans to sell Turkey advanced American fighter jets.

“We can confirm reports that U.S. service members embarked aboard the USS Wasp were the victims of an attack in Izmir today and are now safe,” the U.S. Embassy in Turkey said on social media. “We thank Turkish authorities for their quick response and ongoing investigation.”

An announcement from Izmir governors said local police intervened within the incident and 15 suspects were arrested.

This isn’t the primary time the Turkish Youth Union has attacked US soldiers. In 2021, Turkish authorities arrested 17 members of the group for putting a hood over the pinnacle of a US Navy civilian worker. Reuters reported on the timeTheir actions were a protest against US policy within the Middle East.

In a similar incident in 2014Members of the organization attacked three US sailors who were on vacation from their ship in Istanbul and put bags over their heads. During the attack, the attackers chanted “Yankee, go home!”

For the Turkish Youth Union, putting bags over the heads of US soldiers is a reference to an infamous 2003 incident often known as the “Hood Incident.” Shortly after the invasion of Iraq, US troops captured Turkish soldiers, put bags over their heads and held them for 60 hours.

The twenty fourth Marine Expeditionary Unit is an element of the USS Wasp Amphibious Ready Group, that’s in operation within the Eastern Mediterranean amid fears of regional escalation. The USS Wasp had arrived in Izmir a day earlier and the Marines were allowed to depart the ship for a rest.

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After the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, people in every single place were searching for someone guilty. Of course, the shooter was guilty, but depending in your perspective, They also blamed the Democrats, republican or each for the highly explosive partisan rhetoric that has heated up American political life and made violence an option, a minimum of for some people.

Although the event was shocking, the mood has been constructing for a while. The political times Americans live through are increasingly being described as “Crisis of democracy.“ Much has been written about growing polarizationa decline in public trust in democratic institutions and long-standing principles of behavior often viewed as “democratic norms,” and increasing public support for autocratic ideas and leaders.

Disagreements over policy and strategy have at all times led to divisions. But it’s one thing to disagree over substantive issues akin to tax rates or foreign aid, and quite one other to undermine the legitimacy of opponents.

It's about whether you portray those that disagree as fair and equal competitors or as enemies to be defeated. In this context, attempts at cooperation and compromise might be perceived as betrayal, and it becomes easier to rationalize ways during which long-standing norms – including but not limited to the peaceful transfer of power – and even laws might be ignored or subverted.

As a scholar of American politics and policyI actually have studied the causes and effects of such trends, that are making it increasingly difficult for even essentially the most dedicated public officials to control effectively. It is not any secret that Congress has been growing increasingly dysfunctional and fewer productive for a few years.

But to what extent do members of Congress themselves contribute to those problems through their public rhetoric?

As it seems, quite rather a lot.

Setback for democracy

These anti-democratic tendencies aren’t limited to the US, but once they are observed here, the primary response of many commentators is to attribute them to Trump. Scholars akin to Kathleen Hall Jamieson have noted Special features in the previous president's public rhetoric, which disappoints expectations, avoids responsibility and violates democratic norms.

Trump has attempted to forged doubt on and overturn the consequence of a national election and, more recently, has also attempted to undermine confidence within the justice system.

But these trends aren’t the work of only one person. Changes like these are shaped by the tone and content of public rhetoric from many sources—most notably other political leaders.

Over the years, many scholars have studied how candidates and incumbents communicate with the general public and located patterns of negativity, rudeness And irrational languageOne might call this “politics as usual,” but together they’re crucial components of a broader shift toward anti-democratic rhetoric, a language that leaves politics and beliefs behind and risks turning politics right into a bloody sport.

I worked with a colleague to seek out a strategy to discover and measure the sort of language amongst members of Congress.

All Tweets

We collected all official tweets—a couple of million in total—from members of the 117th Congress from early 2020 to mid-2022, spanning the 2020 presidential campaign 12 months, the election and its aftermath, and the beginning of the midterm cycle.

A pc can read text faster than any human, however it takes human attention to acknowledge phrases like “count every legal vote” as provocative somewhat than innocuous. We created a lexicon to discover anti-democratic rhetoric, and our computer-based evaluation of the tweets revealed 4 key forms of words and phrases that don’t contain substantive arguments about policy or governance, but contain a number of of the next elements:

1. Delegitimizing political opponents and the democratic norms and practices that command respect for them. This rhetorical style is more than likely to be explicitly contemptuous of democracy itself. Some notable examples could be “fake news,” “woke mob,” “stop the steal,” and “a republic, not a democracy.”

2. Autocratic pondering that adopts a powerful leadership style and other authoritarian traits and despises perceived weakness. Examples include terms akin to “weak leader,” “taking power,” and “so-called voting rights.”

3. Conspiracy theories that show an inability to tell apart truth from misinformation and disinformation, with a bent to view anything and every little thing as a nefarious threat. Examples include terms akin to “deep state,” “groomer,” “cabal,” and “socialist agenda.”

4. Ethnonationalism, including racism, xenophobia, and other types of bigotry that demonize marginalized groups—promoting an “us versus them” sentiment and a narrow view of what constitutes a real American identity. This kind of rhetoric is very more likely to be veiled somewhat than explicit, and includes terms like “open borders,” “the real America,” and “take back our country.”

Our evaluation found that using anti-democratic rhetoric increased steadily throughout the study period, with a big increase after the 2020 election.

And while some observers hoped that the aftermath of January 6, 2021, might provide a possibility to calm political tempers, that didn’t occur, a minimum of in Congress. Instead, anti-democratic rhetoric rose again after the attack on the U.S. Capitol and remained at a high level thereafter.

A classic example:

Republican U.S. Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, posted this tweet on December 10, 2021and achieved a hat trick: delegitimization, ethnonationalism and conspiracy theory, all in a single tweet.

Congress in conflict

Of course, the sort of language was not utilized by every member of Congress. In fact, only 41 members of Congress used recognizably anti-democratic rhetoric very steadily—greater than 300 times per member over two and a half years.

But that's enough to warrant attention.

While members of each parties used anti-democratic rhetoric of their tweets, Republicans used it more often, by a ratio of greater than 4 to at least one. GOP members appeared to be appealing to exactly those voters who’re particularly interested in such language.

In addition, male congressmen were almost twice as more likely to use anti-democratic rhetoric as female congressmen.

However, there have been no major differences between the Senate and the House of Representatives, although the House of Representatives was more of a Call of volatility lately.

Twitter has never been the whole political universe, and we’re still working on analyzing more traditional types of political communication, akin to press releases and opinion pieces. Our initial results show similar trends to those seen in tweets.

None of this needs to be taken as a denigration of Congress as an entire. What is obvious—and weird—is that many members of Congress have developed a communication style that undermines not only their opponents but in addition the democratic systems that give legitimacy to their very own status and power.

This will not be normal politics. It will not be mere division, although American politics is indeed increasingly divisive for over 30 years.

Antidemocratic rhetoric violates long-standing norms of political tolerance and constitutional limits on power. Without these norms and limits as guardrails, democracy is unlikely to be self-sustaining.

Such rhetoric not only makes it harder for politicians to serve the common good, it also excludes those deemed unworthy from the political process, thereby negating the concept of ​​a typical good value serving.

Millbrae residents voted to recall Vice Mayor Maurice Goodman and Councilwoman Angelina Cahalan over disagreements about an area housing project, based on semi-official San Mateo County results released Friday afternoon.

More than 70% of voters within the Second District voted for Cahalan's recall, while 29% voted no. Nearly 79% of voters within the Fourth District voted yes for Goodman's recall. Polls for the local recall election closed on July 23.

Of Millbrae's 5,688 registered voters, 2,208 solid their ballots, representing a turnout of 38.8%.

Goodman said in a text message that he was pleased with the general public's engagement within the election but was upset with the final result.

“I am disappointed by the potential consequences for other elected officials who demonstrate political courage and represent the voiceless and hyper-marginalized in the face of misinformation,” Goodman said.

The recall effort was sparked by the controversial La Quinta Inn and Suites project. San Mateo County is attempting to buy the hotel to accommodate homeless families and seniors. The plan met with opposition from the community and sparked a legal battle between the town and the county.

In September of last yr, the Millbrae City Council voted to send a letter to the county opposing the county's purchase of the property. Cahalan abstained, while Goodman voted against sending the letter.

Last yr, the town sued San Mateo County over the project, arguing that the state violated Article 34 of the California Constitution, which requires public housing to undergo an area vote before being approved.

San Mateo County argues that the project is exempt from Article 34 since it falls under recent updates to state law fine-tuning the definition of “vertical housing.”

A San Mateo County Superior Court judge dismissed Millbrae's housing lawsuit against the county without prejudice last month, ruling that the case was filed prematurely. The city can refile the case at a later date.

The recall initiative was led by a bunch of volunteers who supported the conversion project “against the will of their voters.”

Albert Yam, an organizer who’s in favor of the recall resolution, didn’t reply to a request for comment. However, Laura Smith, a Millbrae resident who’s in favor of the recall resolution, previously told this news organization that she believes the 2 council members don’t represent the voice of the community.

“Because of what we believe was an unfair process and their very poor representation of the community, people felt they should be removed from office,” Smith said.

Originally published: July 26, 2024 at 16:59

ALAMEDA COUNTYVoters have officially removed two Sunol Glen Unified School District board members, the culmination of a recall initiative sparked by their push to ban the flying of Pride flags on local school grounds last 12 months.

Results certified by Alameda County on Friday show the recall was an in depth call, with 52% of voters supporting the ouster of Board Chairman Ryan Jergensen and Trustee Linda Hurley. Voter turnout was 64%, with 533 of the county's 828 registered voters casting ballots.

In September, Jergesen and Hurley – who made up the vast majority of the three-member panel – proposed a rule change that will have allowed Sunol Glen School to fly only the “statutory flags,” meaning the flags of the state of California and the United States. Although the Pride flags weren’t specifically mentioned within the resolution, it got here just months after school officials flew the flag on school grounds.

The recall campaign quickly gained momentum, with parents accusing Jergesen and Hurley of bigotry and censorship—not just for the flag ban, but in addition for Jergesen's demand that Alameda County sheriff's deputies remove the general public from the board room before the board voted on the resolution.

In a press release, leaders of the recall initiative, United for Sunol Glen, said the vote “puts an end to the chaos that the school board majority has brought to the community and puts the school district on a path that refocuses on the well-being of Sunol Glen School and its students.”

“Our victory is marred by the knowledge that the past year has created much division and we must now figure out how to move forward as a community,” Erin Choin, a mother and substitute teacher at Sunol Glen, said in a press release.

With Jergesen and Hurley not on the board, that leaves only Peter “Ted” Romo, who opposed the flag resolution. Romo and Jergensen were elected to four-year terms in 2022, while Hurley was elected to two-year terms that very same 12 months.

The Alameda County Board of Education is anticipated to temporarily fill at the very least considered one of the possibly vacant seats.

Staff author Katie Lauer contributed to this story.

Originally published: July 20, 2024 at 12:37 pm

DUBLIN – Half 1,000,000 people still had no access to their accounts at Patelco Credit Union on Monday after a security breach on Saturday brought banking operations to a halt with no solution in sight.

On Saturday, Erin Mendez, president and CEO of Patelco, sent a system-wide email informing customers that a “major security breach” required us to “shut down some of our day-to-day banking systems so we can troubleshoot the issue and contain the impact, including our online banking, mobile app and call center.”

“We deeply apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this incident has caused. Our branches, call center and chat will be as ready to assist you as possible during regular business hours on July 1,” the Dublin-based credit union's website said on Monday. “We will answer your questions as best we can, but are unable to provide you with specific account details at this time.”

The credit union's members, estimated at 500,000, were concurrently locked out of their online accounts, unable to ascertain their balances, send or receive money, or change their passwords.

Patelco stated on its social media pages that customers could use “over 30,000 shared ATMs across the U.S.” for money withdrawals and deposits, but residents were unhappy with the limited access to their money.

“It shouldn't have taken your team 36 hours to respond with an official statement. And besides, no mention of the security of our assets? Ridiculous,” Michele Milz posted on X.

Patelco responded that the corporate's CEO “sent an email with an update to all members. While we may not have all the answers now, your safety and peace of mind is our top priority. Please stay tuned for further updates via social media.”

Julie Brusca, a San Jose resident, said she noticed around 7 a.m. Saturday morning that she not had access to her Patelco checking account. She continued trying to ascertain her account balances but found nothing. On Sunday, she went to a neighborhood Patelco ATM but again couldn’t access her accounts. Then, at 1:53 p.m., the company-wide notification got here from the bank's CEO, she said.

“They were unbearably vague about what it was about,” Brusca said in an interview with this newspaper.

Patelco didn’t provide any further information in regards to the severity or causes of the breach as of early Monday afternoon. The credit union's press office didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment Monday, nor did Mendez.

Later Monday afternoon, an updated statement from the press office got here out confirming that the breach was a “ransomware attack.”

The statement also said the bank had “engaged a leading third-party cybersecurity forensic firm to assist us with the investigation and recovery as quickly as possible” and that it was working “around the clock” on the difficulty.

“Is my money safe?” asks Brusca, a member since 1995. “If you pay your rent or something like that by direct debit, you’re out of luck.”

She added: “If they don't get this sorted by the end of the week, their reputation will go down the drain because you can't just deny people access to their money for a whole week.”

Patelco, the Bay Area's third-largest credit union, has multiple branches throughout the South Bay, including in San Jose, Campbell, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Milpitas. Additional locations include Fremont, Redwood City, Hayward, Castro Valley, San Leandro, San Mateo, Dublin, Livermore, San Bruno, Oakland, Berkeley, San Ramon and Danville.