Yosemite National Park -Yosemite -Nationalpark worker, who were recently fired by the Trump administration, have an effect on the experience of tourists and the well -being of untamed animals that thrive in the favored holiday destination within the California Sierra Nevada.

Yosemite houses huge Sequoia trees and a port for countless wild animals. El Capitan, a 914-meter wall product of pure granite and possibly the world's most legitimate rock field, attract climbers from all around the world. Such majestic qualities also attracted people to work within the beloved park, which is a goal for families from California and across the country.

Relatives: Why a mistaken American flag hangs within the Yosemite National Park

The Trump administration released around 1,000 newly hired National Park Service employees last week, maintaining and cleansing the parks, clarifying visitors and exercising other functions as a part of their broad efforts to cut back the federal government.

On the outcry, the administration plans to revive not less than 50 jobs within the parks. The parking service also said in a brand new memo that it could hire more seasonal employees than normal. The Park Service has around 20,000 employees.

At least a dozen of those that have lost their work worked on Yosemite.

Oil Chmura, a rock climber who moved from Ohio to California and took on a job as an administrator within the park last yr, received his letter of termination last week.

He and one other dismissed administrator were the one ones who worked on his parking section, and he fears that the rubbish will piling up, the toilets is not going to be cleaned and the upkeep problems will grow, said Chmura.

“You would be amazed at how many diapers I picked up from the roadside. Beer bottles, toilet paper, all the stuff so that you don't have to see. You can see the park in its true natural beauty, ”he said.

Getting a job within the park was a dream that made it possible for him to follow his passion for climbing during his free time, said Chmura.

Public security may be in danger since the park's search and rescue teams were influenced by the layoffs, said Chmura.

Other former employees take care of the well -being of the wild animals living within the park.

Andria Townsend was carnivore of the National Park Service, the research on the Fisher, a mammal and member of the Weasel family and the Sierra Nevada Red Fox, each endangered species.

Town -ended to work within the park in October 2023, but a recent promotion to a brand new position meant that it was approved as a sample assistant, in order that her task was justified for termination.

She said she was concerned in regards to the way forward for the animal world within the park, including the animals which can be used to eating garbage that’s left by people if nobody can eliminate it properly.

“In the long term, a larger picture, what does that mean for the state of national parks? What does this mean for nature conservation for wild animals? It's really scary, ”said Townsend. “It is a really unusual time for those of us who take care of nature conservation and public areas, so I'm definitely worried about the future.”

The Park Service indicates Freeze Ordered by President Donald Trump. Seasonal employees are routinely added within the months with warm weather to serve the tens of millions of tourists who rise to Yosemite yearly.

Ken Yager, who founded the Yosemite Climbing Association and runs his museum in Mariposa, California, a gateway city within the park, said the uncertainty and confusion.

“The people here are pretty depressed,” said Yager. “You are somewhat fearful about what’s going to occur. How much will it go? “

___

This story has been updated to correct that Townsend worked within the park in October 2023.

Originally published: February 24, 2025 at 7:54 a.m. PST

The Santa Clara County Library District and town of Milpitas have worked together on a brand new storywalk, which was installed in Murphy Park in Central Milpitas on February 9.

A storywalk accommodates pages which have been recorded directly from a children's book that’s mounted and installed on an out of doors path. While children and families walk along the way in which, they’re encouraged to read and follow the story.

“I hope that many little readers will fall in love with books through the storywalk and the families will make the short trip to the Milpitas library to find more literary treasures,” said County Librarian Jennifer Week in a press release.

This is the fourth Storywalk Park project of the library district. The others are in Campbell, Morgan Hill and Saratoga. The story exhibited in Milpitas is “one day, maybe” by Diana Murray, considered one of this 12 months's Silicon Valley, who reads the accompanying books for youngsters. In Murphy Park 17 individual panels flow into the kids's playground and tell the story of a gaggle of youngsters who imagine the roles, discoveries and innovations that may occur of their future, from intergalactic rock bands with riffing robots to doctors with X-ray glasses.

“By bringing stories to life in Murphy Park, we create a space in which Milpitas families can interact with literature in an entertaining and accessible public space,” said Ned Thomas, manager of Milpitas City.

Originally published: February 16, 2025 at 6:50 a.m.

San Francisco for about two weeks of each February is a panoramic sight: the Peak blossom of the magnolia trees of the Golden Gate ParkOne of an important collections of Magnolia in America.

The over 200 trees are positioned within the San Francisco Botanical Garden And in the meanwhile, pink, ivory and magenta are starting in saucer -shaped explosions. Other silver buds, velvety and soft deer antlers, are for walking. The peak blossom should last until the tip of next week (February twenty second). The flower might be continued by mid -March if the weather stays cool and cop at.

The Magnolia were originally planted by the primary director of the garden, Edward Walther, a German immigrant who had a passion for the species. When the rare cup and saucer-Magnolienbaum of the garden-typically within the Himalayas bloomed-in 1940, it was the primary of its kind within the United States and pulled admiring crowds from everywhere in the bay.

“Magnolia are a really beautiful and charismatic tree. It is difficult not to fall in love with them, ”says Ryan Guillou, director of collections and nature conservation for the Gardens of the Golden Gate Park. “We are lucky enough to have a climate that is mild compared to most United States, where we can grow so many different types.”

Some of the garden of the garden come for greater than a century and reach as much as 80 feet. They come from all parts of the world, from the mountains of Asia to the forests from Central America to endangered Chiapas, Mexico. Only 4 or five gardens on the planet have this guy, Magnolia Sharpii, of their collection.

While the Magnolias Blossoming is a protected sign of spring, while you visit the garden, concentrate to other seasonal miracles.

The magic begins when the sun sets, reflecting off the bay water and revealing Coyote Hills Regional Park in Fremont. The “golden hour” is a photographer’s favorite palette, because the setting sun bathes the hills, the swamps, the animals and the visitors in warm light. The deer appears and increases the dark sky.

Photos by Dai Sugano

Originally published: January 26, 2025 at 6:00 am PST

For one night only – Sunday, November twenty fourth – the drive-thru event was strictly a motorbike drive-thru event. The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition put the query to Christmas within the Park executive director Debbie Degutis, who agreed to the two-wheeled extravaganza.

Although bicycles aren’t any longer allowed this season, cars are allowed on the Drive Thru Light Show until January 1st. Tickets are $30 and could be purchased at www.fareharbor.com/christmasinthepark/items. It is the first income that keeps the downtown Christmas within the Park exhibit free to visitors.

Originally published: November 30, 2024 at 11:57 am PST

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

After a hearth damaged a public restroom at Wildwood Park in Saratoga this summer, the City Council voted to allocate nearly $140,000 toward repairs.

The Santa Clara County Fire Department first responded to reports of the restroom fire within the early morning hours of Aug. 3 and identified the origin of the fireplace in the lads's restroom, in keeping with Matt Mokhtarian, a public information officer with the fireplace department. There were signs of forced entry into the restroom, and firefighters estimated the associated fee of cleanup and repairs resulting from the fireplace to be around $1 million.

The incident stays under investigation, Mokhtarian said.

The council voted unanimously at its Oct. 2 meeting to amend the contract with the development company already contracted for the project to make repairs to the fireplace damage their responsibility. The cost of those repairs is estimated at $138,876, city staff said.

“Combining the work with the original contract increases efficiency because the single contractor can coordinate all work together,” city staff said in a report. “In addition, the combined project will allow the toilets to reopen more quickly.”

San Jose has secured a major investment from the federal government to support the event of a park within the Spartan Keyes neighborhood, providing green space to a historically industrial and underserved area of ​​town.

The U.S. Department of the Interior has awarded San Jose a $4.5 million grant to assist town design and construct a 1.3-acre park on a site on the corner of Third and Keyes streets which has been working on for a long time as a brickworks production site.

“I had the privilege of taking a quick walk and showing the room to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and discovered that the closest park to these neighborhoods is a 30-minute walk away and is not accessible to children, elderly residents or families,” said Mayor Matt Mahan on Friday. “That’s why this investment is so important.”

Launched in 2014 and administered by the National Park Service, the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership grant program provides funding to develop latest recreational spaces or revitalize existing parks in underserved or disadvantaged communities of at the very least 30,000 individuals who have little or no access to those facilities .

The grant program can be a part of the larger “America the Beautiful” initiative launched by the Biden administration to “combat the nature and climate crises, improve equitable access to nature, and strengthen the economy.”

Haaland said that while the Trump administration zeroed out this system, the Biden administration has “doubled down on its efforts.”

This 12 months's park grants totaled nearly $255 million for 54 projects in 24 different states, with grant amounts starting from $390,000 to $15 million.

While California received 14 of those grants totaling about $88 million, Spartan Keyes Park is the one Bay Area project to receive funding.

“From Anaheim to Redding, communities across the state will benefit from expanded access to beautiful outdoor spaces and more outdoor recreation opportunities,” Haaland said. “The work taking place here in San Jose and across the state is an incredible example of the type of collaborative partnerships needed to ensure Americans’ access to nature in every part of our country.”

Rita Torres, a longtime Spartan Keyes resident, said she was excited to listen to in regards to the investment, noting that it felt like a lifetime for the reason that city acquired the land greater than eight years ago and that she previously unsure if she would survive See the way it happens.

Although the precise date of completion of the park is unknown because it has yet to be designed, Mahan expects it to be inbuilt a couple of years.

The grants granted amounted to as much as 50% of the whole costs of the respective projects. In the case of Spartan Keyes Park, the $4.5 million grant is estimated to cover 45% of what town must make it occur.

Although San Jose is currently fighting a half-billion-dollar park maintenance backlog, it continues to prioritize investments in urban amenities. Seven parks have opened this 12 months and two more are within the pipeline.

“Everyone deserves to have access to these public green spaces and amenities close to home,” said Gloria Sandoval, assistant secretary for access on the California Natural Resources Agency. “This builds healthier communities as spending time in nature promotes our physical, mental and social well-being and creates many memories with their families.”

Oakland police held a news conference Sunday to debate details of a deadly shooting in West Oakland Saturday evening.

The shooting occurred at DeFremery Park near the 1600 block of Adeline Street around 7:30 p.m. during a McClymonds Alumni Action Committee picnic.

Deputy Chief Frederick Shavies said the victim, a McClymonds High School graduate, was two days away from his thirty ninth birthday when he was killed. Police didn’t release his identity or a motive for the shooting.

Shavies said the death was the seventieth homicide this 12 months.

“Multi-generational community members held parties in the park,” Shavies said. “Unfortunately, after 7:30 p.m., shots were fired in the middle of the park.”

He said investigators imagine there can have been multiple shooter on the event.

“We are grateful that no one else was harmed at this crowded, family-friendly event,” Shavies added.

“I would like to direct my heart, my prayers and my thoughts to the victims,” Mayor Sheng Thao said during a news conference Sunday morning. “Not just for the victim’s family members, but also for those who were there that day and were terrorized. There is no place for violence here in the city of Oakland. This is an annual event where we have witnessed peaceful gatherings of the McClymonds High alumni group year after year. It is unreasonable for someone… to take someone’s life during a party.”

Community members and volunteers were on site Sunday cleansing up the realm after the shooting left the place in disarray.

Thao said the college will offer grief counseling to those traumatized by the shooting.

“I also want to acknowledge that there are community leaders here in the city. We have resources for great grief counselors,” Thao said.

Oakland police are asking anyone who can have details concerning the shooting to call 510-238-3821.

Originally published: September 29, 2024 at 2:35 p.m