Glynis Johns dies at 100; award-winning actress was best known for role in ‘Mary Poppins’

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:05:25 GMT

Glynis Johns dies at 100; award-winning actress was best known for role in ‘Mary Poppins’ By Mark Kennedy | Associated PressNEW YORK — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie “Mary Poppins” and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be “Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100.Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. “Today’s a sad day for Hollywood,” Clem said. “She is the last of the last of old Hollywood.”Johns was known to be a perfectionist about her profession — precise, analytical and opinionated. The roles she took had to be multi-faceted. Anything less was giving less than her all.“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing the role on only one level,” she told The Associated Press in 1990. “The whole point of first-class acting is to make a reality of it. To be real. And I have to make sense of it in my own mind in order to be real.”Johns’ greatest triumph was ...

Lululemon distances itself from founder’s diversity criticism

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:05:25 GMT

Lululemon distances itself from founder’s diversity criticism By Ramishah Maruf | CNNLululemon’s controversial founder is back with criticisms about its diversity and inclusion efforts — and the athleticwear company is distancing itself from his comments.It’s been almost a decade since Chip Wilson left the company, but the founder has gripes about Lululemon’s “whole diversity and inclusion thing,” according to a new profile in Forbes. Wilson had founded the yogawear brand in 1998 in Vancouver, British Columbia.“They’re trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody,” Wilson told Forbes. “And I think the definition of a brand is that you’re not everything to everybody… You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in.”He also used a flurry of descriptions for the faces in the athleticwear’s ads: “unhealthy,” “sickly” and “not inspirational.”In a statement to CNN, Lululemon said that Wilson does not speak for the company and that his views don’t stand for its values or beliefs. It said it’s a “very different company...

Police: Moraga shooting deaths being investigated as murder and suicide

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:05:25 GMT

Police: Moraga shooting deaths being investigated as murder and suicide MORAGA — A man and woman were found fatally shot inside their home Wednesday and police are investigating the deaths as a murder and suicide, authorities said Thursday.The names of the two people will not be released until it is ensured that all family members have been notified, police said.The bodies were found about 4:40 p.m. Wednesday inside a home on Southard Court.Moraga Chief of Police Jon King said in a news release that police received a call requesting a welfare check at the residence by someone who said they had been unable to contact their parents, who resided there.Officers responding to the home were met by a neighbor who told them he had not been able to contact the residents and was also concerned about their welfare.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Walnut Creek lawyer charged with 26 counts of child molestation, allegedly kept itemized files of child pornography Crime and Public Safety | Stockton woman killed at Oakland side...

Documents show Epstein’s influence among the powerful

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:05:25 GMT

Documents show Epstein’s influence among the powerful By Larry Neumeister | Associated PressNEW YORK — Newly released court documents describing Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls provide a reminder of how the financier leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to recruit his victims and cover up his crimes.The more than 40 documents released late Wednesday — the latest of thousands that have been made public — were sprinkled with the names of celebrities and politicians who socialized with Epstein or worked with him in the years before he was publicly accused nearly two decades ago of paying underage girls for sex.Most of those names were familiar to anyone who has followed the scandal closely, including the criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was Epstein’s former girlfriend, household manager and chief recruiter of young, vulnerable females.It was during Maxwell’s criminal trial two years ago that Epstein’s victims, some of whom aspired to be models or artists, described how he d...

San Jose racist cop scandal: After judge’s order, disclosure of new texts and other officers’ names ‘forthcoming’

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:05:25 GMT

San Jose racist cop scandal: After judge’s order, disclosure of new texts and other officers’ names ‘forthcoming’ SAN JOSE — The city of San Jose has been ordered to disclose more damning text messages and the previously unreleased names of two officers connected to a scandal in which a now-former cop prolifically used racist language to disparage a Black man he shot two years ago.The disclosures to attorneys for K’aun Green were in accordance with a Dec. 28 order by federal Judge Nathaniel Cousins, and were due Wednesday. Green requested the additional legal discovery as part of a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed against the police department and city over Green being shot and wounded in March 2022 by former San Jose Police Department officer Mark McNamara.Adante Pointer, one of Green’s attorneys who has sued the city, confirmed that his law firm, Lawyers for the People, received the discovery which in Cousins’ order is narrowed to “text messages obtained from the personal cell phone of Defendant McNamara that contain a racial slur, word, reference, or statement...

Denmark’s queen makes final public appearance before abdicating

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:05:25 GMT

Denmark’s queen makes final public appearance before abdicating By Jan M. Olsen | Associated PressCOPENHAGEN, Denmark — Europe’s longest reigning monarch Queen Margrethe rode through Denmark’s capital Thursday in a gilded, horse-drawn coach as she concluded her final public New Year’s before her abdication later this month.Thousands, many cheering and waving flags, braved the freezing temperatures, strong winds, snow and sleet to cheer the popular queen along the route in what is to be her last public appearance as monarch. She will step down on Jan. 14 after 52 years on the throne.The 83-year-old monarch will hand the throne to her oldest son, Crown Prince Frederik in the first such resignation in Europe’s oldest ruling monarchy in nearly 900 years.Margrethe rode in the so-called Gold Coach — pulled by six white horses — that is used when the monarch rides from the royal residence at the Amalienborg Palace to the Christiansborg Palace during the traditional New Year’s fete with officers from the Armed Forces but al...

Suspected Highway 1 road rage driver who shot child identified

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:05:25 GMT

Suspected Highway 1 road rage driver who shot child identified APTOS, Calif. (KRON) -- California Highway Patrol officers identified a man who investigators believe shot a driver and a 3-year-old child on Highway 1 in Santa Cruz County in an act of road rage.On Thursday, the CHP announced that the suspected road rage gunman is Raphael Shakur Abduh-Salam, 33, of Hayward. The shooting occurred at 8:37 p.m. on May 26, 2023 while Abduh-Salam was driving on Highway 1 near the Freedom Boulevard exit in Aptos, according to the CHP. "Five people were victimized during a road rage incident that resulted in an adult male driver and a three-year-old child being struck by gunfire and associated shrapnel," the CHP wrote. Abduh-Salam fled from the scene before emergency responders arrived, investigators said. Woman’s body found in Berkeley, boyfriend arrested in Santa Cruz County for homicide Detectives with the CHP, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, and Hayward Police Department teamed up for an eight-month-long investigation tracking down the shooter. ...

Burglars who used U-Haul as getaway car arrested at Fairfield fast food restaurant

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:05:25 GMT

Burglars who used U-Haul as getaway car arrested at Fairfield fast food restaurant (KRON) -- Burglary suspects who apparently used a U-Haul as a getaway vehicle were arrested at a fast-food restaurant Thursday morning, according to the Fairfield Police Department. Fairfield PD was alerted to the suspects at around 9:15 a.m. Thursday after receiving a call from the American Canyon Police Department.ACPD advised FPD that a burglary had just occurred in their city and that the suspects were on their way to Fairfield in a U-Haul. A short while later, Fairfield PD officer Diaz located the U-Haul at a fast food restaurant in the 2200 block of Pacific Avenue. Santa Rosa police reestablish gang crimes unit Officers detained the suspects in the U-Haul. An additional suspect, who police said was the driver, was detained inside the restaurant. One of the men involved had a non-extradition warrant for embezzlement and was on active probation for burglary, police said.The man who police called the "primary suspect," identified as John Scharff, was also arrested for burglary....

Review: ‘All of Us Strangers’ finally opens in DC for haunting, supernatural tale of love, family and grief

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:05:25 GMT

Review: ‘All of Us Strangers’ finally opens in DC for haunting, supernatural tale of love, family and grief It premiered to acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival in August before being released in select U.S. cities Dec. 22.This Thursday, the British indie gem “All of Us Strangers” finally opens in our area, including the Landmark E Street Cinema in Northwest D.C., the Alamo Drafthouse in Northeast D.C. and the Angelika Film Center & Cafe at Mosaic in Fairfax, Virginia.Not only is it your chance to see one of the Best Actor nominees at the Golden Globes this Sunday, it’s an opportunity to experience melancholic catharsis if you’ve grieved lost loved ones only to find yourself.Based on the 1987 fantasy novel “Strangers” by Taichi Yamada, the film follows London screenwriter Adam, who embarks on a romantic relationship with a lonely man in his building named Harry, whom he refused the night before. While talking a walk around town the next day, Adam discovers that the ghosts of his late parents appear to be living in his childhood home just as they w...

Goalkeeper Zack Steffen joins Colorado after 2 Premier League matches in 4 1/2 seasons

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:05:25 GMT

Goalkeeper Zack Steffen joins Colorado after 2 Premier League matches in 4 1/2 seasons COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (AP) — American goalkeeper Zack Steffen transferred to Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids on Thursday after playing in just two Premier League matches over 4 1/2 seasons during his contract with Manchester City.The 28-year-old from Coatesville, Pennsylvania, agreed to a three-year contract that includes a team option for 2027.Steffen had arthroscopic knee surgery last summer to repair longstanding wear and tear and returned to training in late October after a 2 1/2-month layoff, agent Dan Segal said.“Zack is an elite-level goalkeeper with a wealth of experience internationally and in MLS. His exceptional skills, experience, and proven track record make him a valuable addition to our roster,” Rapids president Pádraig Smith said in a statement. “His character and mentality will greatly benefit our team. We’re thrilled to bolster our backline with his signing and look forward to welcoming him to Colorado.”Steffen played in just 21 total matches during his ...