Latest news with #Alcala
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Yahoo
Motorcyclist killed in South Bay crash identified
CHULA VISTA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — A motorcyclist killed in a crash last week in Chula Vista has been identified. Josue Calderon Alcala, 47, of Chula Vista, was announced as the deceased, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office. On the evening of April 16, authorities say a blue 2006 Kawasaki ZX-6R was traveling eastbound on East Orange Avenue when the rider hit the passenger side of a black 2023 Audi Q3 that was making a southbound turn on to Max Avenue from westbound East Orange. The motorcyclist, Alcala, was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver of the Audi, a 34-year-old pregnant woman from Chula Vista, and one-year-old passenger suffered minor injuries. The manner of the crash was determined as an accident, medical officials confirmed. A GoFundMe has been set up for Alcala. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Intercept
12-04-2025
- Business
- The Intercept
Meet the Activists Motivated by Hatred of Elon Musk
When Victor Alcala saw that the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, had the Department of Veterans Affairs in its crosshairs, he decided to set up a protest at his local Tesla dealership. On a rare rainy day in Los Angeles in mid-March, Alcala stood outside the Alhambra Tesla showroom holding a sign: 'Don't buy a Swastikar.' Alcala, a social worker, interacts with older adults in his daily job. More than 56 million seniors receive Social Security benefit payments each month. For a long time, Republicans and Democrats saw the program as the 'third rail of politics,' untouchable because of how many people were dependent on it. As part of DOGE's efforts under Elon Musk, more than 7,000 jobs in the Social Security Administration will be cut, which Alcala believes will create a negative ripple effect when it comes to caring for senior citizens. 'I've worked with seniors for 25 years. And now that that agency is being hollowed out, we'll end up seeing missed payments and a total system collapse of Social Security. What happens to all those people that are on social security, that's their only form of income?' Alcala told The Intercept. The protesters' focal point, across age, race, class, and favored cause, is an abiding hatred of Musk By protesting in front of the Tesla showroom, he hoped that he could make a small dent in pushing back against the cuts, particularly impacting Musk, who is Tesla's largest shareholder. 'DOGE is an illegal organization. Since he's taken money out of our pockets, we're here to take money out of his pocket as well.' Across the country, hundreds of thousands of people like Alcala have swarmed Tesla showrooms, standing outside weekly to protest Musk and DOGE's recent efforts to cut different government departments. They range from former public school teachers, to prospective young graduate students, to a 96-year-old woman who once lived under Nazi-occupied Netherlands. To date, DOGE has been linked to more than 280,000 federal job cuts, including at the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The protesters' focal point, across age, race, class, and favored cause, is an abiding hatred of Musk— who has quickly shifted from helpful hatchet man to albatross for Donald Trump. News outlets have reported that Musk may soon step down from his position with DOGE. Trump has increasingly seen the tech executive as a political liability, and Musk's 130-day status as a 'special government employee' will soon expire in May or June. But Tesla's stock and branding may already have taken a more permanent hit. While Tesla's stock value already dipped over the past year due to weakening sales, Musk's recent political activities have also hurt the perceived value for shareholders. 'The protests have worked dramatically well, scaring away consumers that even were considering Teslas,' said Ross Gerber, the chief executive officer of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management in Santa Monica, California. Gerber said that his clients have been asking him to sell their shares of Tesla stock. 'It's still the best EV and it's a great brand. But now, who wants to drive one?' 'The value of these protests is not just about people individually no longer buying Teslas. It's really about rebranding the whole and making it an 'untouchable' brand,' said Aaron Vansintjan, a policy manager at Food Secure Canada and co-author of 'The Sustainability Class: How to Take Back Our Future from Lifestyle Environmentalists.' The Intercept spoke to a number of people at protests in Southern California, Massachusetts, and Virginia over the past month. Some only wished to be identified by their first name out of privacy concerns. All were spending their time publicly demonstrating in front of Tesla showrooms. Here are portraits of just some of the broad coalition coming together to attack Tesla's bottom line: GARY THORNTON AND DELIA THORNTON Gary and Delia Thornton hold protest signs at a Tesla rally outside of the Americana mall showroom in Glendale, Calif., on March 22, 2025. Photo: Helen Li/The Intercept Gary is an army veteran, serving for eight years in Texas, Japan, and Germany. He also formerly worked in the federal government. Why are you protesting Tesla? 'We're here because we're concerned about the direction of this country. Elon Musk is the hatchet man for our current president. He is unelected, he's unaccountable, he's unsupervised, and he's just wreaking havoc with our country. We believe no one is coming to save us. The courts are glacial. Congress is locked down under Republicans. So, basically, it's up to the people. It's up to us to try to stop this thing that's happening in our country. I served my country for 34 years. It's horrifying what's happening to this country, happening to our government.' PHILIP Philip holds a protest sign outside of the Glendale Americana mall Tesla showroom on March 22, 2025. Photo: Helen Li/The Intercept Philip is a tech worker. Why are you protesting Tesla? 'Because PEPFAR got shut down. PEPFAR is the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. It was a part of USAID and was responsible for essentially providing lifesaving medication for over 20 million people around the world. Because of the various suspension states of USAID, if nothing is done, more people are going to die from this than the Holocaust. [ Editor's Note: Estimates vary on the potential impact of the USAID cuts, but 26 million fewer deaths from AIDS have been attributed to PEPFAR alone over the past 20 years .] About two years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz in Poland, and I made this informal promise to myself that if anything like that ever happened again, I would try to do every single thing in my power to not make it happen again. I'm not particularly important. I'm not a politician or whatever, so I'm trying to do every little thing I can do.' MICHELLE Protesters stand at the Alhambra Tesla showroom on March 14, 2025. Photo: Helen Li/The Intercept Michelle, holding the 'Nazi Punk Fuck Off' sign, works in adult education. Why are you protesting Tesla? 'I work in adult education for [the Los Angeles Unified School District] and we get a big part of our funding from the federal government to support adults getting the skills they need so that they can be decently employed through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. We do everything from teaching adults who never learned how to read, to teaching students and immigrants who need to learn English. My area is academics: help people finish high school who never got to graduate or pass, and then career training. Calling the Department of Education a waste? That's insulting to all of us who work in education. These threats of cutting the Department of Education are directly an existential threat to any of these programs.' CINDY REVELLE Cindy Revelle holds a protest sign at a rally outside of the Tesla showroom at the Prudential Center in Boston on March 29, 2025. Photo: Helen Li/The Intercept Cindy works in public education. Why are you protesting Tesla? 'I am personally affected as a public educator and I have family members who rely on Medicaid. I am more globally concerned for people in this country who are going to be affected. I'm also very, very concerned about the ousting of the vaccine expert that just took place. I can't believe the person who helped us get the Covid-19 vaccine has been forced to resign. To me, that's unconscionable, and the fact that measles vaccines are being questioned? All of that will affect us.' MICHAEL NOLA Michael Nola stands near the Alhambra Tesla showroom on March 14, 2025. Photo: Helen Li/The Intercept Michael is a Vietnam War veteran. Why are you protesting Tesla? 'The guy is a liar. He just lies, and he puts these lies out like the Democrats are bringing all these illegal aliens and they're getting Social Security. But you can't get Social Security in this country unless you have a Social Security card. And to have a Social Security card, you have to have proof of citizenship. So the people that are here illegally and paying into Social Security are not drawing Social Security when they retire. They don't get it. They're actually putting into the system and not the other. The Pentagon never passed an audit. The last one they took, they literally could only account for somewhere between 40 percent and 50 percent of their spending. Now, if you're serious about cutting waste and fraud, wouldn't you start at the one agency? Clearly they're not serious about actual waste and actual fraud. My father killed Nazis in World War II. I won't buy a car from one.' SARAH Sarah holds a protest sign at a rally outside of the Tesla showroom at the Prudential Center in Boston on March 29, 2025. She prefers her face not be shown due to safety concerns. Photo: Helen Li/The Intercept Sarah works with children with disabilities. Why are you protesting Tesla? 'I am really angry about what's happened, and I want to make my voice heard and be with other people that feel the same way. I work with direct care staff with adults with developmental disabilities. Cutting Social Security, cutting Health and Human Services, all of that is going to profoundly affect people's lives. And I think the way that it's happening is deeply disturbing. This is [some] people's only income and these kinds of cuts by people who have no understanding of the services that they're cutting are dangerous. The population that I serve are very scared about their health care and their food and really day-to-day needs, and in the long term, I'm very concerned about funding for the services.' JACOB AND RYAN Jacob, left, and Ryan hold protest signs at a rally outside of the Tesla showroom at the Prudential Center in Boston on March 29, 2025. Photo: Helen Li/The Intercept Jacob is an engineer and Ryan is a student and sustainability advocate. Why are you protesting Tesla? 'I've been watching this sort of DOGE thing unfold and watching the power that Elon Musk reveals in the government, remembering that I never voted for him, and that nobody ever voted for him. Due process is really important. When somebody has power, it is important that it comes from the consent of the governed, rather than from some decree from an authoritarian controller. Being someone who's going to be going into physics and grad school, everything does affect me personally. I feel like our democracy is facing some really big challenges right now.' — Jacob As a sustainability advocate, why are you protesting Tesla? 'I used to be a fan of the argument that you should buy a Tesla because, not just for the environmental benefits, but just because it's a better car. I didn't care. I wanted to see more people buying electric. But when I see the richest man in the world buying a spot in the government, using the wealth that he accumulated from having like a 50 percent share of the market in the U.S., I don't think that's right.' — Ryan ELIA BEN-ARI Elia Ben-Ari holds a protest sign at a rally outside of the Tesla showroom in Arlington, Va., on April 1, 2025. Photo: Helen Li/The Intercept Elia is a retired science writer focused on cancer research. What DOGE cuts concern you the most? 'I'm a former scientist and science journalist, and I worked for the National Institutes of Health for many years. I'm really concerned about what's happening, what Trump and Musk are doing to science, to scientific research. Directors of institutes at NIH are being either put on administrative leave or told that they are being reassigned. These are people who have years of expertise and training in things like infectious disease research, and now for political reasons, they're essentially being forced out of their jobs, and funding for research is being cut, especially in HIV research, things like preventing transmission of HIV from mother to unborn child. Why would anybody want to stop supporting research in that area? It's clearly political.'
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Offense quiet as Twins drop second straight game to Cardinals
ST. LOUIS — Joe Ryan's first start since last August, Mickey Gasper's first-career hit and a nice leaping catch from Byron Buxton were among the standout moments for the Twins on Saturday afternoon in St. Louis. Aside from that? There wasn't much. Advertisement The Twins went hitless in the middle innings of the game and Jorge Alcala (0-1) gave up three runs without recording an out, helping send the Twins to a 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium, their second straight loss to begin the season. 'Obviously not what we're aiming for,' manager Rocco Baldelli said. 'It's not the objective, but we've got a long season to go. We've played two games. I'm not sweating two ballgames. I think there were a lot of positive things that we saw out there from our guys.' Ryan's outing was one, but the starter, who gave up one run in five innings pitched, talked of wishing he could have kept his pitch count (81) lower, so he could have stayed in for an extra inning. The way Saturday's game went, it might have made the difference. Advertisement Instead, Alcala entered in a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning. He was promptly hit on his throwing shoulder by a Nolan Arenado batted ball to lead off the bottom of the frame. The ball rolled under shortstop Carlos Correa's hand and into the outfield for a double. Alcala walked the next batter and gave up another hit, allowing the go-ahead run to score and spelling the end of his day. Louie Varland relieved him, attempting to do damage control, and was close to doing just that — after walking the first batter he saw, he struck out the next two. But Lars Nootbaar, whose two-run home run on Thursday helped lift the Cardinals to a victory on Opening Day, instead rocked a 98.8 mile per hour fastball to center for a two-run single, breaking open the game. All three runs were charged to Alcala, who said he did not feel anything at the time he got hit. But the right-hander said through an interpreter that he felt some tightness in his shoulder once he resumed throwing. 'The video didn't quite match up with what he was saying to us on the mound. But then he said, 'I'm fine,'' Baldelli said. 'He didn't pitch like he was fine after that. … He didn't throw the ball great, he wasn't commanding the ball well at all really after he got the comebacker and that was the big inning for them.' Advertisement That inning, coupled with an offense that disappeared for a bulk of the game on Saturday, sent the Twins to 0-2 on the season. From Willi Castro's double in the second inning, which drove in Trevor Larnach for the Twins' only run of the day, to Gasper's infield single to lead off the eighth, the Twins' offense went hitless. 'We were hitting some balls real hard around the field and (have) nothing to show for it right now,' Gasper said. Within that stretch, 13 straight hitters were sent down, as the Twins could do little off Cardinals starter Erick Fedde and reliever Ryan Fernandez. Fedde (1-0) went six innings in his start, allowing just two hits and making life tough on the Twins. Ryan, who finished last season on the injured list after suffering a shoulder surgery in August, matched him, for the most part. After giving up a run in his first inning of work, the Twins starter settled in and threw four scoreless innings, striking out five, before departing. Advertisement 'Winning is everything, so it feels good to go and put our team in a good spot to do that, but, ideally, I can limit some of the pitches there, go another inning, save the bullpen, kind of set up a different situation,' Ryan said. Related Articles
Associated Press
14-03-2025
- General
- Associated Press
Vibrant Leaves Fall Onto Postcard Stamps
STRONGSVILLE, Ohio, March 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the colorful sights of autumnal walks with the release of five new Vibrant Leaves postcard stamps. Each stamp showcases a single leaf from the aspen, sassafras, oak, maple and sweetgum trees. Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed the stamps using existing photographs. 'I am enchanted by the colors one finds in leaves, especially during the autumn season,' Alcala said. 'I wanted to present a gradation of colors but with a variety of leaf shapes and trees.' The aspen is often referred to as the 'quaking aspen' because of the characteristic rustling sound that comes from its flat leaf stalks, which cause its silver-dollar-sized leaves to flutter with the gentlest of breezes. Aspen leaves typically appear heart-shaped or nearly round and are known for their brilliant golden color in the fall. Sassafras leaves can have multiple lobes, sometimes giving them a mitten-like shape. The uniqueness of the sassafras tree's smell comes from its citrusy leaves and cinnamon-scented bark. In the fall, sassafras trees are known for their spectacular yellow, orange, crimson, burgundy and purple colors. The mighty oak is an essential part of a forest's ecosystem. Its acorns are important food sources for many types of wildlife, and its trunks and branches provide homes to hundreds of birds, insects and animals. In the fall, oak trees tend to produce leaves that are vivid red, burgundy or reddish brown. Maple trees are prized for their sweet sap, which is then boiled and made into maple syrup. While all maples produce sap, sugar and black maples have the highest concentration of sugar, so they are most often used in maple sugar production. Their warm yellows, crisp oranges and brilliant reds make maple trees key players in New England's brilliant autumn landscapes. Sweetgums, also known as redgums because of their reddish-colored bark, are named for the sweet-smelling resin they produce. Their magenta, orange and purple star-shaped leaves make them a standout in the realm of ornamental fall trees. The nondenominated Vibrant Leaves stamps are priced at the postcard rate and issued in panes of 20 or coils. The word 'POSTCARD' on the stamps indicates their usage value. News of the Vibrant Leaves stamps is being shared with the hashtag #VibrantLeavesStamps. Postal Products Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through the Postal Store at by calling 844-737-7826, by mail through USA Philatelic or at Post Office locations nationwide. For officially licensed stamp products, shop the USPS Officially Licensed Collection on Amazon. Additional information on stamps, First Day of Issue Ceremonies and stamp inspired products can be found at Please Note: The United States Postal Service is an independent federal establishment, mandated to be self-financing and to serve every American community through the affordable, reliable and secure delivery of mail and packages to 169 million addresses six and often seven days a week. Overseen by a bipartisan Board of Governors, the Postal Service is implementing a 10-year transformation plan, Delivering for America, to modernize the postal network, restore long-term financial sustainability, dramatically improve service across all mail and shipping categories, and maintain the organization as one of America's most valued and trusted brands. The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas House passes bill allowing Topeka to inspect subsidized housing units
The Kansas House passed a bill narrowly targeted toward inspecting federally subsidized housing units in Topeka after revelations about the Timberlee Apartments in Topeka shocked local lawmakers. Currently, cities and counties can't inspect the interior of housing units without the consent of the occupant, which proponents said is rarely gained because tenants in subsidized housing fear retaliation from landlords if they complain. Rep. John Alcala, D-Topeka, said he visited Timberlee Apartments and saw the state of the apartments and the fear of retaliation from residents. "Phone calls were coming in: 'We're having problems with sewage backup. We're having problems with mold. We're having problems with rodents and roaches, but I don't want nobody to know that I'm the one saying anything because I'll end up having to be homeless,'" Alcala said. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandates annual inspections of properties it subsidizes, but Alcala said it had delayed or suspended inspections at Topeka properties. At Timberlee, conditions were so bad that two children were hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning. The bill caught some flack during committee hearings from statewide associations of landlords for potential breaches of property rights with mandatory inspections and that it could deter landlords from signing up for HUD programs. The bill was amended to only apply to Topeka, more narrowly define what counts as subsidized housing and sunset its provisions in 2030 to attract more support. The bill won over some of its detractors, passing the House with 111 votes and only 12 against. More: 'I can't even get some sleep': Tenants battle mice as Kansas House eyes Topeka bill "I spoke against this bill this morning for various reasons, and I want to clear the air out here. I have met with the people that have written the bills and and done the amendments, and I'm extremely comfortable with it," said Rep. Sean Tarwater, R-Stilwell. House Bill 2099 now will go to the Senate for a vote, before it reaches Gov. Laura Kelly's desk. This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas House passes bill aimed at public housing inspections in Topeka
