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Epoch Times
09-07-2025
- Epoch Times
Heed the Siren Call of Crockett, the Bay Area Small Town That Time Forgot
By John Metcalfe Bay Area News Group Crockett is a small town with an oversized pull. Its intriguing history threads through the cross-Pacific sugar trade, perilous smelting of precious metals, and strange crimes involving an 'Ocean's Eleven'-style gold heist and intricate networks of underground tunnels.
San Francisco Chronicle
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
East Bay journalist reflects on ‘finding a new rock bottom' in ‘Lying Drunk'
Tony Hicks, 58, has been a lot of things: an award-winning columnist with Bay Area News Group and Bay City News, a father, a husband, and a heavy metal drummer. In his new book, ' Lying Drunk,' Hicks comes clean about his not-so-secret identity as a recovering alcoholic. Like his columns, the stories are told with sobering clarity and snarky self-deprecating humor from someone who once blew a field sobriety test of 0.56% — a number that eclipsed that of Led Zeppelin's late drummer John Bonham, who died from alcohol poisoning. 'I finally found something I could do better than John Bonham,' Hicks wrote. It's a heartbreaking work of staggering intoxication that documents the homes and cars he's wrecked, the rehabs he's entered and escaped, and the trail of bottles, grief and broken promises left scattered behind. Hicks spoke to the Chronicle from his Walnut Creek home about his rockiest of rock bottoms, letting his mom read the first manuscript, and his pick to voice the audiobook. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Q: You've been to rehab more than 10 times. What was the rockiest rock bottom? A: The first time people go into rehab is when they've hit rock bottom. I kept finding a new rock bottom over and over again. One weekend, I spent the first night in the psych ward because my 70-something mother kicked me out of her house. I left the psych ward to walk to the liquor store and spent the second night in jail. The third night, I spent on a Martinez park bench wearing a T-shirt and shorts in January. That's when I knew I'd hit rock bottom. It's tough to turn that weekend into a positive. It's really hard not to just be overwhelmed by shame. I had kids. I had a career. After all that, it was hard to be an optimist and put that in the past, to be positive and move forward. This book is helping me do that. Q: Has your mom read the book? A: I wasn't going to let my mom read it before publication because I thought she would come back with dozens of changes, but I let her read it. She was a little upset because she relived a lot of the stuff that happened to her son. I almost died at least three or four times. But my mom loves the book. I think she bought 10 copies to give out to friends. Q: Which chapter was the hardest to write or reread? A: The last chapter. I hadn't processed losing most of my friends until I wrote that last chapter. Some of them go back to eighth grade, and that was really tough. Q: Does the book serve as an additional measure of accountability for yourself? A: That was probably the scariest thing for me in writing this book: Once it's out there, I'm accountable. The saying 'One day at a time' was something I struggled with early on during the recovery process: If I think, 'One day I'm never gonna drink again,' it feels like I'm never going to see my best friend again. Or that I'm never going to see that woman I love again. Alcohol was my best friend. I relied on it. It helped me before it turned evil and really bad. It motivated me and made me feel better. It made me feel smart and handsome. It was my best friend on the planet. Until it wasn't. Q: At one low point, you ranked yourself a -6 in the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program. A: I've been to thousands of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. AA was really great for me when I was transitioning from rehab to regular life again, or when I had a bad episode and I needed help immediately. But I'm not a big joiner, and the God stuff just doesn't click with me. Six of the 12 steps talk about a higher power and that you can have whatever you want as your higher power. That said, I still go to AA meetings every now and then just to connect with people. And I have other alcoholics who I'm connected to, one of whom I talk to every day. A: I've found getting up first thing in the morning and getting my ass into the gym, even if it's just for a half hour, makes all the difference in the world to my state of mind. I need to stay busy. Boredom is a big enemy of alcoholics everywhere.
San Francisco Chronicle
05-07-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Murder charge filed 16 years after newborn was found dead in Bay Area dumpster
A Colorado woman has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the death of a newborn girl found abandoned in a Union City dumpster 16 years ago, police announced this week. The infant was discovered on May 18, 2009, behind the Parkside Apartments by a man searching for recyclables. The baby still had her umbilical cord attached and was found among bloodied pantyhose and a Costco receipt. Officers named her Matea Esperanza — a name meaning 'Gift from God' in Hebrew and 'Hope' in Spanish. 'This case touched so many people in our department,' Detective Steven Mendez said at the time. 'We were flabbergasted. There is a fire station a few blocks away where the baby could have been safely surrendered. Our station is half a mile away. It's tragic all the way around.' For years, the case remained unsolved. But with recent advances in DNA technology, Union City detectives were able to reanalyze evidence collected in 2009, ultimately identifying Angela Onduto, 46, of Denver as a suspect. Police said the suspect, also known as Angela Anderson, had previously been considered a person of interest early in the investigation. In May, around what would have been Matea's 16th birthday, detectives traveled to Denver and, in coordination with local law enforcement, arrested Onduto. In a probable cause statement obtained by the Bay Area News Group, Union City Detective Dominic Ayala wrote that Onduto admitted to killing the baby. An autoposy revealed the cause of death was drowning. 'Angela detailed how she intentionally murdered (Matea) after giving birth at home in 2009,' Ayala wrote. 'Angela expressed no remorse, and said she knew while pregnant she had no intention of keeping the baby. She admitted to discarding Baby Jane Doe in the dumpster. She denied diagnosis with any psychiatric conditions and/or drug use at the time of the incident.' Although Onduto was initially taken into custody, charges were withheld pending further forensic analysis and a detailed review of the coroner's findings. This week, after that review, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office formally filed a murder charge under California Penal Code 187. Onduto was rearrested by Denver police Wednesday and awaits extradition to California. In 2017, the Union City Police Officers Association purchased a permanent grave marker for her at Chapel of the Chimes in Hayward.
San Francisco Chronicle
29-06-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
Giants lose for 5th time in 6 games as Verlander again denied a victory
Shayna Rubin comes to the San Francisco Chronicle from the Bay Area News Group, where she covered the Oakland A's dysfunctional pursuit of a stadium in Oakland, the Golden State Warriors' 2022 championship run and a little bit of everything else over her five years there. Shayna was born and raised in San Francisco. She grew up reading the Sporting Green and trekking the dirt parking lots at Candlestick Park for Giants and 49ers home games, so the teams' history is embedded in her memories. She got her start in journalism writing freelance articles about the San Francisco Giants during the dynasty's last-hurrah 2014 World Series season. She's a graduate of San Francisco State University where she graduated with a bachelor of arts in Journalism and a master of arts in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts.
Miami Herald
19-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Eviction cases still soaring in the Bay Area five years after COVID-19
The eviction court of Alameda County, California, was crowded on a recent Wednesday. It usually is. Tenants, family members, landlords and attorneys - about 100 people in all - waited long hours to appear before a judge at the Hayward Hall of Justice. Fifty-six people were slated to appear that day in a marathon of back-to-back sessions. Many of the renters were nervous. "Desperate, scared, depressed, filled with anxiety, as you can see," said Chris, 60, his hands shaking. A former software engineer who rents an apartment in Alameda, he asked not to use his last name, fearing it would further threaten his housing. In eviction court, state law requires that case files remain confidential until 60 days after judgments. "I can't sleep at night," Chris said. "Lost my job - that's why I'm here." An eviction might force some of those at the court to move in with family. Landlords might be reluctant to rent to them in the future. Or, they might have to live in a tent or in their car, another statistic in the Bay Area's crisis of homelessness. Crammed eviction courts are the new normal in the Bay Area. Nearly four years after pandemic-era pauses on evictions began to expire, landlords are seeking to evict tenants through the court system at a higher rate than they did before COVID-19 disrupted life and work for millions in the region. That's the case in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties as well as San Francisco, according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of superior court data. Two years after the expiration of its eviction moratorium and a "wave" of evictions that followed, Alameda County leads the region in eviction cases. In the eviction process, a landlord gives a tenant notice to move out or meet certain terms, for instance, getting caught up on rent. If the tenant doesn't pay up or move out in time, the landlord can try to evict them by filing a lawsuit. In 2019, Alameda County tallied 226 eviction cases filed per 100,000 residents. After its pandemic-era eviction moratorium expired in 2023, that spiked to 293 cases per 100,000 residents that year, then 362 filed per 100,000 residents in 2024. Filings this year were on track to pass that high-water mark as of late April. "It turns out, it's not a wave. It's just the new normal of evictions filed every week, every month," said Grant Kirkpatrick, a staff attorney at the Oakland-based Centro Legal de la Raza, which represents tenants in court. The exact reasons for the continued uptick are unclear. Landlords can take renters to court for missing rent payments, violating their leases and more. In the Bay Area, local governments apparently don't track the causes of evictions. According to attorneys for low-income tenants and advocates for landlords - two groups usually at odds - most tenants are being taken to court for failing to pay rent. That stark reality is accelerating, but it's nothing new in the Bay Area's notorious housing market. It's also unclear how many of the eviction filings result in an eviction. If a tenant responds to their eviction notice in time and appears in court, they may be able to reach an agreement with their landlord to stay housed. Or, they can take the case to trial. But many don't try their hand in court and simply move out when given notice, attorneys said. When that happens, it isn't reflected in the case filing data. "It's expensive and time-consuming to move forward with evictions," said Whitney Prout, executive vice president of legal affairs at the California Apartment Association, which advocates for landlords. "It's not something our members like to do. The main reason you do that is if someone isn't paying the rent." Low-income tenants "cannot sustainably afford the cost of rent," said Tristia Bauman, directing attorney at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, which represents low-income tenants in eviction court in Santa Clara County. The high rate of evictions is persisting in spite of local rent control measures, such as those in Berkeley and Oakland, and protections for tenants. In Silicon Valley, the wealth divide has widened at twice the rate of the rest of the U.S. over the past decade, with stark disparities in housing and other necessities for Black and Latino residents. Eviction attorneys there and in the East Bay say the vast majority of their clients are people of color. Plus, many are seniors or disabled. In April, the typical renter in the San Jose area needed to earn $136,532 per year to pay apartment rents at just 30% of the median income - the highest threshold in the U.S. that month. In Oakland, about half of all households are "rent burdened" and spend more than 30% of their income on rent. At the Hayward Hall of Justice, veteran eviction attorney Anne Tamiko Omura sifted through a stack of files on a desk in the crowded hallway. Every week, her nonprofit, the Oakland-based Eviction Defense Center, represents about 40 tenants at court for free. She took a file and walked to a group of renters seated at a bench. They told her they owed more than $17,000 in payments, but they could make progress on that debt if their landlord agreed to a monthslong repayment plan. Omura recommended against it. "If you miss a single payment, the sheriff comes and throws you out the door," she told them. "Do you understand that?" Nearby, Chris anxiously waited for his appearance before the judge. At one point, he felt too dizzy to speak. He said he fell behind on rent after his partner left him, and then he lost his job. He too hoped his landlord would agree to a payment plan as part of a settlement. "That's my prayer," he said. Two crucifixes hung around his neck. Two legal aid attorneys conferred with Chris in the crowded hallway. It's common for tenants to appear at court without an attorney, and that day, 23 arrived without a lawyer, including Chris. Unrepresented renters tend to have worse outcomes in court, studies show. But some cities and counties fund legal aid groups to cover that gap, including Centro Legal de la Raza. Between that organization and Omura's, all the tenants would have an attorney by their side that day, said Kirkpatrick, the Centro staff attorney. State Sen. Aisha Wahab, an influential Democrat who represents a swath of the East Bay and Silicon Valley, said the high eviction rates are "disappointing," but not surprising. She chairs the Senate Committee on Housing and has played a key role in top Democrats' splashy campaign to make California more affordable this year. A cornerstone of that push is Wahab's SB 681, which would prevent landlords from charging fees that aren't spelled out in a rental agreement. Democrats passed that bill in the state Senate on June 4. Wahab and Democrats also advanced legislation that would give tenants two weeks before a landlord could begin to evict them for nonpayment. The status quo is currently three days. Wahab, who is skeptical of developers, said the Bay Area can't simply build its way out of its housing crisis. "The reality is, we need to keep people housed longer," she said. Prout, of the apartment association, doubts that Wahab's plan would reduce the eviction rate much. What would, she said, is a permanent and "robust" rental assistance program. Currently, the Bay Area is a patchwork of rent assistance; some cities and counties run such programs, such as Santa Clara County and Oakland. Elsewhere, tenants facing tough choices must fend for themselves. (Bay Area News Group Data Reporter Jovi Dai contributed to this report.) Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
