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Facebook’s parent company Meta caps rounds of job cuts, offering remaining staff a cold clarity

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:49 GMT

By Alex Barinka, Aisha Counts and Sarah Frier | BloombergMeta Platforms Inc. employees received news Wednesday of the final round of previously announced job cuts, which affected thousands of workers in the company’s business departments. Now, remaining staff are hoping an uncomfortable limbo at the company can end.The layoffs complete the bulk of the restructuring Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced in March to eliminate 10,000 positions. Initial reductions affected the company’s recruiting and human resources departments, and in late April jobs in Meta’s tech groups were slashed. Zuckerberg has said further cuts will come in only a “small number of cases” for the rest of the year, giving those people left a cold sense of relief.The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said the layoffs were necessary to improve efficiency, after over-hiring during the pandemic. Meta promised faster product development and decision-making that sent its shares up more t...

East Bay business owner didn’t pay over employment taxes, gets a year in prison

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:49 GMT

OAKLAND — A federal judge sentenced a Berkeley resident to one year in federal prison Tuesday for committing employment tax crimes, authorities said.U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White handed the sentence down to Larry Kudsk following Kudsk’s guilty plea last August to one count of willfully failing to pay over employment taxes, U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey of the Northern District of California said in a statement. A federal grand jury indicted Kudsk in February 2022.REALTED: Child labor, mayhem, lewd comments to teen girls alleged at Oakland PopeyesAccording to Ramsey, court documents showed that Kudsk operated two construction businesses — Kudsk Construction Inc., and M. Gutierrez Inc. — that served as general contractors or subcontractors on various construction projects, some of them for the government.Kudsk was responsible for filing quarterly employment tax returns on both businesses, Ramsey said, as well as collecting and paying to the IRS employment ...

Latest sustainable funeral option: Mushroom coffins

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:49 GMT

By Raf Casert and Aleksander Furtula | Associated PressDELFT, Netherlands  — For those seeking to live in the most sustainable way, there now is an afterlife too.A Dutch intrepid inventor is now “growing” coffins by putting mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, together with hemp fiber in a special mold that, in a week, turns into what could basically be compared to the looks of an unpainted Egyptian sarcophagus.And while traditional wooden coffins come from trees that can take decades to grow and years to break down in the soil, the mushroom versions biodegrades and delivers the remains to nature in barely a month and a half.In our 21st century, when the individual spirit can increasingly thrive way beyond the strictures of yore, death and funerals are all so often still hemmed in by tradition that may fall far short of the vision of the deceased or their loved ones.“We all have different cultures and different ways of wanting to be buried in the world. But I...

Sale closed in Fremont: $1.5 million for a four-bedroom home

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:49 GMT

38439 Farwell Drive – Google Street ViewA house located in the 38400 block of Farwell Drive in Fremont has new owners. The 1,584-square-foot property, built in 1960, was sold on April 6, 2023, for $1,500,000, or $947 per square foot. The property features four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a garage sits on a 7,683-square-foot lot.Additional houses that have recently been sold close by include:A 1,635-square-foot home on the 5300 block of Tallman Court in Fremont sold in November 2022, for $1,450,000, a price per square foot of $887. The home has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.On Ballard Drive, Fremont, in November 2022, a 2,425-square-foot home was sold for $2,090,000, a price per square foot of $862. The home has 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.In September 2022, a 1,877-square-foot home on Ballard Drive in Fremont sold for $1,633,500, a price per square foot of $870. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. 

Saturn’s iconic rings are disappearing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:49 GMT

By Ashley Strickland | CNNSaturn’s iconic icy rings may not be around for future skygazers to glimpse at through their telescopes, according to new research.A new analysis of data captured by NASA’s Cassini mission, which orbited the gas giant planet between 2004 and 2017, has revealed new insights into how long the rings have been around and when they may vanish from sight. The findings have been shared in three studies published in May.Our solar system and its planets formed about 4.6 billion years ago, and scientists have long debated the age and origin of Saturn’s rings. Some astronomers have argued that the bright, icy rings must be younger than expected because they haven’t been eroded and darkened by interactions with meteoroids across billions of years.The Cassini data has led to a new finding, published May 15 in the journal Icarus, that supports this theory of the rings appearing long after Saturn’s initial formation. Additional studies published on May 12 in Science Advan...

Should You Buy NFTs?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:49 GMT

Sponsored ContentOne of the largest NFT marketplaces in the world, Open Sea, was worth $1.5 billion in July 2021, and the amount accumulated by January 2022 was staggering. Despite the market drops, there is still a high demand for NFTs.Before finding out How and Where to Buy NFT, let us first find out why people want to invest in NFTs. In other words, you too might consider buying NFTs in light of the following reasons.1. Helping artists with NFTsHistorically, artists have been victimized by publishers, producers, and auction houses that force them into contracts they don’t want to be in. There are three main problems:Creators are often required to surrender their IP as part of their contracts, and they don’t have any control over how their work is displayed or adapted.In many cases, artists don’t get paid much for their work, and they miss out on profits when their work gets sold on secondary markets, meaning multinational corporations make the most money.NFTs co...

What to watch: Truth stings in ‘You Hurt My Feelings,’ with Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:49 GMT

Knotty relationships wherein honesty doesn’t always prevail figure prominently in two of the best releases this week, one that’s popping up in theaters, the other on Apple TV+.Our Memorial Day weekend roundup also features a decent Gerard Butler spy thriller and a shockingly good Shudder! shocker and a worthwhile documentary on PBS.Here’s what’s worth seeing this long weekend:“You Hurt My Feelings”: It’s impossible not to develop a little crush, even if it’s a fleeting one, on Julia Louis-Dreyfus whenever she’s onscreen. Part of her appeal can be attributed to her frequently portraying people we relate to: Flawed humans who don’t always say and do the appropriate thing and often find themselves tangled up in a tight ball of neuroses.With “You Hurt My Feelings,” she’s paired, for a second time, with her ideal filmmaking muse, the sly chronicler of modern uneasiness and disorienting moral aches and pains, Nicole Holofcener. Never heard of her? Check our her work. You won’t be disappoi...

San Jose: Scooter driver who was ejected after hitting brush pile dies in hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:49 GMT

SAN JOSE — A man who crashed a motorized scooter on San Jose city streets died in a hospital two days after the collision, according to authorities.The Santa Clara County Office of the Medical Examiner-Coroner identified him Wednesday as 37-year-old Foster City resident Andrew Zoen Hou Lam.Police said he was riding a motorized scooter southbound on Lundy Avenue near Rosebriar Way around 10:53 p.m. on May 15 when he struck a brush pile in the bike lane and was ejected from the scooter.He was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and died there on May 17.Related ArticlesCrashes and Disasters | Trial begins for California man accused of killing woman, 5 dogs during police chase The death was the 16th traffic death on San Jose city streets of 2023.

Man riding scooter dies after striking brush pile in San Jose bike lane

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:49 GMT

(KRON) -- A man who struck a brush pile riding a motorized scooter in the bike lane has died after several days in the hospital, the San Jose Police Department announced. The incident occurred on May 15 shortly before 10:53 a.m.The man was riding south in the bike lane on Lundy Avenue when his scooter struck a brush pile. The man was ejected from the scooter. SJPD officers responded and transported him to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Oakland Mayor Thao to address recent robbery crime spree Two days later, on May 17, the man was pronounced deceased, police said. The victim's identity is being withheld pending the Santa Clara County Coroner's Office confirming his identity and next of kin being notified.This is San Jose's 15th fatal collision and 16th traffic death of 2023.

Another small San Francisco business shutters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:49:49 GMT

(KRON) -- Longtime South of Market neighborhood business Cole Hardware announced its plans to close its 345 9th Street location in San Francisco. The small business is shuttering its doors amid National Small Business Month, which is celebrated in May."Our small customer base for that location evaporated and continues to do so," current owner Rick Karp said in a statement. San Francisco bike shop closes after multiple break-ins The store's last operating day will be May 31. The store is offering customers a closing sale of 25 percent of everything at the SoMa store from May 24 through May 31 as they prepare to move their merchandise to other locations. The family-owned business has five other locations besides the SoMa store in North Beach, Rockridge, Russian Hill, Cole Valley and Downtown San Francisco. Cole Hardware first opened in 1920 in the Cole Valley neighborhood. Store officials cite the store's declining revenue and increasing operating costs since Covid as the main reaso...