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  • Amazon Will Open Brick-And-Mortar Stores Next Week

    Amazon Will Open Brick-And-Mortar Stores Next Week

    Amazon will reportedly be opening a physical retail store in San Francisco next week, just in time for the holiday season. This one is only temporary, however.

    Geekwire first reported the news, saying that Amazon will be opening a pop-up store at Westfield San Francisco Centre, which is a mall in the downtown area. It will open on October 22nd. The report initially cited anonymous sources, but then updated with confirmation on that and an additional store from Amazon. The report shares the following statement from the company:

    “We’re excited to open new pop-up kiosks in San Francisco and Sacramento in time for the holidays so that customers can try out our new devices,” a spokeswoman said. “The team is moving incredibly quickly – already this year we’ve launched Fire TV, Fire phone, new Fire tablets, new Kindle e-readers, and a bunch of new features and services. While customers can already see our products online and at retailers like Best Buy and Staples, we wanted to provide another option to try out our full line-up leading into the holidays.”

    While it’s unclear how long the stores will be open, it is clear that they will only be around temporarily. This is a separate endeavor from the one reported last week, which involves Amazon setting up shop in New York City.

    The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was testing the concept of a permanent retail store that would showcase its devices and also serve as a place for item pick-up and other customer services. It wouldn’t be a huge Walmart-like store initially, though it the test proves successful, the company is expected to expand the concept to other cities.

    From there, it’s not unfathomable that the stores themselves would expand to include more products. Amazon does, after all, already offer multiple grocery services.

    For now, however, Amazon appears to be focused on moving some of its hardware over the holiday season, and get sales up for its Kindle and Fire devices. The company certainly launched plenty of such devices this year.

    Image via Google Play

  • Brenda Song Goes Shopping with Mom and Younger Brother

    Brenda Song Goes Shopping with Mom and Younger Brother

    Brenda Song was recently spotted shopping in Los Angeles with her mom Mai and younger brother Nathan.

    The trio hit a mall in the trendy Woodland Hills neighborhood on Friday. Onlookers said Song and her mother bought beauty products at the MAC store.

    Song, 26, appears close to her family, with photos of them peppered throughout her Instagram feed.

    The actress was born in the Sacramento, CA suburb of Carmichael. Her parents met in Sacramento, but were both born in Asia.

    Her father is Hmong and was raised in a tribe that traveled the mountains of Thailand and Laos. Song’s mother was born Thai, but adopted into a Hmong family.

    Song has said that her father insisted that she and younger brothers Timmy and Nathan speak Hmong growing up so they could communicate with their grandparents and retain a piece of Hmong culture.

    Song’s favorite part of that culture is the food:

    “There’s a chicken drumstick dish where they stuff it with noodles … It’s my favorite dish.”

    Song’s father was in the military and at one point the family lived on an army base in Germany. They traveled extensively throughout Europe while he was stationed there. Song did professional theater on the American base.

    When the family returned stateside, she told her mother she wanted to become a full time actress.

    “My imagination, as a child, was huge,” she recalls. “It’s all I wanted to do.”

    Song landed her first big role in Disney’s The Suite Life of Zach and Cody. After appearing in every episode of the show’s three-season run, she moved on to the spin-off The Suite Life on Deck, which also ran three seasons, from 2008 to 2011.

    From there Song went on to appear in more grown up roles on series such as New Girl and Scandal. In 2013 and 2014 she starred in Fox’s sitcom Dads opposite Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi. In May the network announced it had canceled the show after just one season.


    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Tornadoes in California Cause Limited Damage

    Since last summer, San Francisco, California has received less than half the average amount of rainfall it usually sees over the course of one year. A supercell, which hit the mainland from the Pacific on Wednesday, however, has brought much needed rain, and more, to the Bay Area.

    At 6:15 pm Wednesday afternoon, the city of Roseville, Ca experienced an EF-0 tornado, the lowest possible rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale.

    Despite the weak strength of the tornado, a strip approximately 100 yards long and 10 to 20 yards wide suffered heavy damage from the strong winds. In total, 12 houses reported structural damage, and as many as six fences were destroyed by the tornado. One home, which had smashed windows and a large hole torn in a bedroom wall, suffered anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000 in damages, according to Roseville Fire Department spokesman Rob Baquera: “It kind of touched down pretty quickly and went back up. Roof tiles went flying off, solar panels … and a boat was lifted up and moved about six feet from where it was.”

    While the damage caused by the tornado will take some time to recover from, California residents are happy to see the presence of much-needed precipitation.

    Forecasters are predicting that the next week will be the wettest week for California to date this year. Wednesday saw areas receiving as much as three-quarters of an inch of rain, and more is yet to come.

    Holly Osborne, a meteorologist with the weather service in Sacramento, believes that the Sacramento Valley could see one-half to more than one inch of rain before Sunday, with the Northern Bay Area experiencing as much as two inches of precipitation total: “We’re expecting unsettled weather even into early next week, so be prepared to bring your umbrella and rain boots,” predicted Osborne.

    While many people see rain as an inconvenience, many Californians welcome the days to come:”So, I know people hate the rain here and I’m very not used to it. But at the same time, I’ve seen how low the water levels are. So hopefully this is getting over the mountains and into the reservoirs,” stated San Francisco resident Mike Vladimer.

    While tornadoes are a rare occurrence in California, from 1950-2004 more than 303 tornadoes were recorded in “The Golden State”, with more and more tornadoes being recorded in recent years.

    Image via Twitter

  • Mystery Plane Haunts Neighborhood for Weeks

    It’s yet another airplane mystery.

    Residents in the Arden neighborhood in Sacramento County, California have been complaining for weeks about a low-flying single-engine plane that circles their area night and day.

    A local television station finally went out to investigate and found that what residents were saying was right. The plane was circling again and again. One resident said that the plane would be circling when he went to bed, and there again when he woke.

    Some area residents took to online flight path tools and found the plane’s recent activity. Curiously, unlike other planes found on those sites, there is no identifying information about that plane.

    The station called the Federal Aviation Administration, but apparently the plane was flying low enough that it did not need to interact with the FAA or air traffic control. The FAA said it had no idea what the plane was.

    Some folks theorized that it might be the Drug Enforcement Agency, looking for heat signatures from “grow houses” – marijuana growing operations in suburban homes that use “grow lights” for their crops. That notion bothered neighbors, who were concerned about what sort of element might be doing business near their homes.

    Finally, the FAA looked into the matter and said that the aircraft is military.

    ABC News reports that FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer told them, “This is a U.S. military training aircraft. It’s a T-38 performing pattern work, and he is totally authorized and legal.” The pilot is practicing takeoffs and landings, Kenitzer explained.

    That might make people feel somewhat better, but the problem now is that this flying pattern can go on indefinitely, circling neighborhoods, buzzing along. The FAA notes that residents can file the usual noise complaint paperwork at the airport.

    Image via News10

  • Atheist Billboards Used to Promote Religious Freedom

    The Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation consists of a group of non-believers, who aim to promote religious freedom. They are engaged in a campaign that will continue to advance the separation of the church and state through their use of fifty-five billboards. In order to bring broader visibility to their lack of religious faith, the billboards will be placed throughout the Sacramento Valley, California landscape with featured slogans and pictures of local residents. This campaign follows similar ones that have taken place in other major U.S. cities in recent years.

    The messages are used as a vehicle of expression, in order to encourage other non-believers to “come out of the closet” and to be open about their atheism, especially during the holiday season. By doing so, the messages create widespread controversy, deeply impacting the hearts of “believers” throughout the country. The atheist billboards have become a part of the public debate between religious conservatives and atheist individuals, who prefer to set religion aside and out of the public life.

    “The whole month of December is taken over in a celebration of the religious beliefs, in particular Christianity, and it’s just as if the whole month turns non-believers into outsiders,” stated Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Foundation. She also stressed that the campaign is not meant to insult Christmas or any other holidays, but to inspire individuals to ignore the religious undertones. According to Gaylor, the group sought out Sacramento-area members to share their views from their perspectives as non-believers. The response was so extremely positive that the organization had to build a contract with a second billboard company to meet the high demand.

    “I believe in people, not gods,” reads a message from Liz Shoemaker, a Sacramento teacher. Another statement from Matt and Kimberly Martin, a Sacramento couple, reads, “Integrity and compassion require no gods.” These billboards portray residents against “softly colored backgrounds” that list their names and the communities in which they reside. Gaylor said, “We’re a free society, and it’s the free marketplace of ideas. It should be debated publicly. What’s wrong with open debate?” In fact, it would be unconstitutional under the First Amendment to prohibit freedom of expression, and conversely, the Amendment also protects the right to freedom of religion, or, in this case, lack thereof.

    James Murphy, Monsignor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, agrees that people can do good without being religious and that atheists have a right to express their views on billboards and anywhere else. “I wish they weren’t up there…but I’m not going to fight their rights,” he said. Though, he did find it ironic that the billboards plan to be deployed after Thanksgiving, which is a holiday that shows a culture deeply rooted in religion. The billboards are set to go up in Sacramento on the day after Thanksgiving, yet there are other reports stating that they will be put up on Monday, December 2, 2013. The organization also plans to make their mark in Chicago as well. They plan on placing a large “A”, for atheism, in Chicago’s Daley Plaza, which is the site of an annual Christmas display.

    Gaynor firmly believes that the campaign can show non-believers one significant point: that they do not have to hide their views in a polarized nation where atheists and agnostics often feel isolated. “Those of us who are free from religion, who work to keep dogma out of government, science, medicine, and education, have a lot to offer society,” she exclaimed. Bishop Jaime Soto, of Sacramento’s Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, states, “While I’m not happy about this kind of propaganda going out, particularly in this area, I am fairly certain that people still, when they look deep down in their soul and in their heart, there is this spark of faith.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Firefighters Honored; Officials Climb 110 Stories

    In honor of the World Trade Center towers collapse on 9/11, a ceremony will take place this Sunday.

    Many law enforcement officials will climb the stairwells of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel to remember all of those who lost lives on the day of the tragedy. Those loosing lives included 343 firefighters.

    According to the CBS 8 news-station, “The 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb, which begins just after 8 a.m., will raise money for programs that help injured firefighters and their families. Lt. Joe Torrillo, a retired Fire Department of New York firefighter who was trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center and survived, is scheduled to speak about his experiences.”

    All of those who participate in the Sunday morning events will receive a badge and a photo of someone who lost their lives fighting on September 11 in 2001, CBS 8 also said.

    Many other events like this are taking place throughout the country. Today in Sacramento, firefighters climbed the Renaissance Tower in honor of those who served and lost lives on 9/11. Since the tower is only 28 stories, those climbing went up and down the staircases 4 times in order to climb 110 floors, in which the World Trade Center had.

    The local CBS Sacramento news-station, said that each one person who climbed the tower attached to their coat, a photo of a firefighter, police officer or other official who served on 9/11.

    [Photo via Youtube]

  • Sinkhole Swallows Pond in California

    A Newcastle, California man woke up Sunday morning and found his pond missing.

    The man, Mark Korb, told the Sacramento-area NBC affiliate KCRA that his man-made pond was drained by a sinkhole. As if pulling the plug on a giant bathtub, Korb estimates the entire pond drained in four or five hours.

    It is unknown whether the sinkhole was caused by natural processes or by mining activity, which was once prevalent in the Newcastle area.

    Sinkholes have recently been making the news on the other side of the country, following the death of a Florida man. The man was swallowed up by a large sinkhole that opened up beneath his bedroom.

  • Coach Dies in Freak Accident Involving Bicycle, Gate

    The Sacramento Bee is reporting that a Rio Linda High School teacher has died in a tragic accident involving his bicycle and an open gate arm.

    The report states that Adams, who was a popular multimedia teacher, as well as a track and football coach at the high school, was riding his bicycle after track practice on Monday, March 4. On his way out of the stadium parking lot he was impaled on the arm of an open metal swing gate.

    Adams, who was 59, was taken to the hospital where he died after enduring multiple surgeries. According to the Bee, Adams’ students and co-workers filled hospital halls and waiting rooms throughout the night.

    The Twin Rivers Unified School District has released a statement expressing its sadness:

    We are deeply saddened by the death of one of our beloved teachers, 59-year-old Marion Adams, who passed away early this morning after a tragic bicycle accident March 4. Adams was a multimedia teacher and track and football coach at Rio Linda High School.

    His death has had a major impact on our Twin Rivers family. We have had a crisis intervention team at RLHS today working with students and faculty members. These professionals are well prepared to assist us during this difficult time.

    Adams was a 1972 graduate of RLHS and began teaching there in 2004. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and colleagues, and the students who admired him. He will be missed by all of us.

    The Bee states that Adams was an avid sports fan and a big fan of the San Francisco 49ers. Adams leaves behind a wife, son, daughter, and two grandchildren.

    (Image via Facebook)

  • Sacramento Area Mother Finds Meteorite Worth $20,000

    Brenda Salveson is just a regular mother. She like to bring her kids and dog to the park in Lotus, California almost every day for a walk. During her walk, she found a particular rock that caught her eye. Turns out that “rock” is a meteorite that is about 4 billion years old and worth about $20,000.Sshe didn’t realize was that some meteorites fell in the area several days before, prompting a “gold rush” of sorts. That is funny because this town of Lotus is located right next door to Coloma, California where gold was discovered that prompted the California gold rush.

    Thousands of people were coming from as far away as Australia and Canada to try and grab one and she just happened upon one. “As I opened my hand, there was a huge gasp,” from the geologists, treasure hunters and scientists that took a look at Brenda’s find. She then had Brenda had geologists and NASA scientists confirm that it was indeed a meteorite.

    The meteorite she found was found weighs 17 grams, equal to just over a tablespoon of sugar, but it’s real worth is almost priceless. “I was lucky, blessed, good karma,” Brenda said. “It was sitting there at my toes like an Easter egg.”