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USA Today
4 days ago
- USA Today
A headless torso has been identified 44 years later. Police now seek woman's killer
A headless torso has been identified 44 years later. Police now seek woman's killer In 1981, railroad workers stumbled upon a headless torso in an empty field in San Jose, California. A pair of Christian medallions lay nearby. Show Caption Hide Caption Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper and DNA: New tech solving murders From Ted Bundy to Jack the Ripper, new DNA technology is solving murder mysteries, finding serial killers, and exonerating innocents. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY Nearly 44 years after two California railroad workers stumbled upon a headless torso in a field in San Jose, detectives have identified the victim as an Oakland grandmother. It was just before 10 a.m. on the morning of July 11, 1981, when the workers made their grisly discovery in an empty field, the San Francisco Examiner reported at the time. The site now harbors a commuter rail transit center and parking structure. The dismembered and decomposing torso, with multiple stab wounds to the chest and no legs or arms, was wrapped in plastic. Nearby lay a pair of Christian medallions, one featuring Saint Christopher and the other the Virgin Mary. 'Vivian Moss was her name,' said Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen in a news release May 27 announcing the development. 'My office knows it. I know it. Her family knows it. And now our community knows it.' The district attorney's cold case unit identified Moss through DNA using forensic genealogy and hope the information will help unveil her killer. Moss, a native of Arkansas, was a 54-year-old grandmother who may have worked at an elementary school in Oakland before her disappearance, the DA's office said. Family members told investigators that Moss was 'close' to preacher Louis H. Narcisse, the late founder of Oakland's Mt. Zion Spiritual Church and a renowned vocalist. How investigators identified Moss In 2023, the Santa Clara DA's office partnered with forensic genealogists at Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs, who suggested the remains were likely that of Vivian Moss. Cold case unit investigators in 2024 tracked down Moss' granddaughter, who recalled waiting as a young girl in the 1980s for her grandmother to pick her up for an overnight stay at her house. However, the woman said Moss failed to show, and she never saw her grandmother again. The DA's office concluded that the remains were those of Moss based on Parabon's testing comparing the granddaughter's DNA to evidence at the crime scene. Her case was featured in an October 2023 video showcasing the work of the DA's office cold case unit. 'One day soon, I hope we will know the depraved person who took her life and left her in a field, hoping she would be forgotten,' Rosen said. 'If her murderer is still alive, they will know that we don't forget in Santa Clara County.' A close association with preacher A photograph posted on social media by the American Museum of Paramusicology said the Mt. Zion preacher she was close with, Narcisse, was known for his collaborations with gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. According to Narcisse, whose congregants called him "His Grace," wore robes and a crown and carried a staff. He launched churches nationwide and hosted a syndicated Sunday radio show. A profile by British music writer Opal Louis Nations describes Narcisse, who died in 1989, as enthralled with the British monarchy, a man thought by some to work miracles as he spread the gospel in his parish. However, Nations wrote, "others saw him as a devil, con artist and clever snake-oil salesman" with "a darker, exploitative side" who "bled his parishioners dry." The church no longer operates and last posted on social media in November 2023.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
One Market Restaurant to close after 32 Years in San Francisco
The Brief One Market Restaurant will close on June 11 after 32 years in downtown San Francisco The decision follows post-pandemic challenges, decreased foot traffic, and the owner's retirement plans. SAN FRANCISCO - One of San Francisco's most enduring restaurants, One Market, is closing next month after 32 years at the foot of Market Street. Known for its contemporary American cuisine, the restaurant was a longtime go-to for business lunches, dinners, and celebrations in the city's Financial District. On its front door now hangs a sign: "Thank you, San Francisco: After 32 years anchoring the foot of Market Street in San Francisco, One Market Restaurant will be reaching retirement on June 11, 2025. Until then, it's lunch, dinner, all-day happy hour, and private events Monday through Friday… Thank you for your friendship and patronage for more than 3,000,000 meals, and smiles, over the years. We may be moving on, but we truly are leaving our hearts in San Francisco." A letter was also sent to guests. Michael Dellar co-founded the contemporary American restaurant in 1993 - the same year it was named Best New Restaurant by the San Francisco Examiner. It later earned a Michelin star from 2008 to 2012. The decision to close came down to a mix of personal and business factors for Dellar. The restaurant once boasted up to 1,000 covers a day across breakfast, lunch, and dinner in its early years. Before the pandemic, it averaged a few hundred. Today, it serves just under 100 guests daily - not including private event bookings. "Those five years since the pandemic have been very different," said Dellar. "As we know, people didn't come back, work schedules changed, tenants moved away, and the robust nature that was the Financial District pre-COVID is different now. Is it going to come back? It probably will. But I looked at being 80 soon." Dellar said his planned retirement played a role and efforts to sell the restaurant didn't work out. He announced the closure to staff recently. "I was choked up, as I knew I would be," he said. "But I feel that this is a great opportunity for the next iteration of what this wonderful space is." Jay Lyon, a longtime customer, said the closure will leave a personal impact. "It will be a loss... I will regret this and think about dishes that I enjoyed and people that I've befriended," Lyon said. Kevin Barry recalled scoring a coveted table the year One Market opened - on a very memorable night. "It was my wife and my first date," Barry said. "We sat in the window right over there, it was amazing. I lived in the Marina and my neighbor was the manager, so I called her up and I said I need dinner reservations. It was a hot ticket then." Others noted the broader changes in the neighborhood over the past few years. "It's not the same for sure, definitely after - you know, I was born and raised here," said Norma Deleon of Vallejo. "So I get to see the difference from back in the day until now. I know it's sad because a lot of businesses had to leave." One Market will remain open through June 11. Dellar said the restaurant has seen a significant uptick in reservations since announcing its closure.
Irish Examiner
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Book review: A forensic examination of the gutter press's race to the bottom
Citizen Kane (1941) is often described as the most influential movie ever made. The main character, Charles Foster Kane, is loosely based on American media mogul, William Randolph Hearst, who developed the largest newspaper chain and media company in the United States, Hearst Communications. Hearst began his career in 1887, aged 24, taking over the San Francisco Examiner from his father, George, who struggled to make it profitable. By 1890, the paper's circulation had tripled. 'The young Hearst demonstrated an extraordinary insight concerning journalism of the future,' writes English journalist, author, and academic, Terry Kirby, in The Newsmongers: A History of Tabloid Journalism. The book is a thoroughly researched, well-crafted history of tabloid journalism from the 16th century right through to the clickbait journalism of today. The real star of Kirby's book, though, is Alfred Harmsworth who became a newspaper man in 1894, when he bought the near bankrupt London Evening News. Within a year, it was the world's biggest selling evening newspaper. Harmsworth dominated the newspaper business in early 20th century Britain — he founded the Daily Mirror in 1903 and bought The Times in 1908. He died as Lord Northcliffe, aged 57, in August 1922. His media empire was passed onto his younger brother, Harold, then known as Lord Rothermere. During the inter-war years, his papers championed Mussolini and Hitler. Closer to home, Rothermere backed the British Union of Fascists, and their thuggish street gang associates, the Blackshirts. In the summer of 1939, just before Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Rothermere wrote a letter to Hitler praising his 'superhuman work'. An omen? The British tabloid press in the post-war period was dominated by outsiders. Robert Maxwell rose from poverty in Czechoslovakia, to become an academic publishing magnate, and a UK Labour Party MP. A crude egomaniac, Maxwell acquired the Daily Mirror in 1984 but his life ended in disgrace. The body of the millionaire publisher was found in early November 1991 off the coast of Tenerife. Maxwell was said to have fallen off the back of the yacht, Lady Ghislaine. He named it after his favourite daughter, who later became a criminal accomplice to serial sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Prior to his death, Robert Maxwell had defaulted on $2bn worth of loans and subsequently raided millions of pounds from his company's retirement fund, even stealing from his own staff's pensions and shares in Britain's Mirror Group. Robert Maxwell acquired the Daily Mirror in 1984 but his life ended in disgrace. File photo Rupert Murdoch, by contrast, was — and still is — a shrewd operator. He arrived in Britain, in late October 1968, aged 37. He was then already owner of a growing media empire in Australia that was started by his father. When Keith Murdoch became editor of the Melbourne Herald in January 1921, Lord Northcliffe (who was a good friend) sent him advice on how to make a newspaper profitable. Later that year, Northcliffe sent Murdoch £5,000 (£300,000 in today's money) to help him purchase the Sydney Morning Herald. By the mid-1980s, Murdoch owned The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and the News of the World. That decade, as market competition increased, the British tabloid press gradually evolved into the gutter press. Kirby examines this topic with forensic analysis. The emergence of HIV/Aids during the early 1980s, which devastated gay communities across the world, prompted little sympathy from the British tabloids. Typically, they sneered and mocked homosexuality. When EastEnders broadcasted the first ever gay kiss in a British soap in 1989, The Sun published a front-page story titled 'Eastbenders'. The article was written by Piers Morgan, then a young reporter for the paper, who wrote a regular column, The Poofs of Pop, where he speculated on whether various male pop stars were gay. There were numerous complaints made to Britain's Press Council over these stories, which the Sun's then-editor, Kelvin MacKenzie rejected. But Rupert Murdoch 'seemed unconcerned', as Kirby puts it. Rupert Murdoch 'seemed unconcerned' by Piers Morgan's regular column in The Sun, The Poofs of Pop, where he speculated on whether various male pop stars were gay. File photo: Arthur Edwards/PA/News International (NI Group Ltd) By July 2011, however, Murdoch had much to be concerned about. In fact, he voluntarily closed down his paper, the News of the World — after evidence emerged that a private investigator working there, Glenn Mulcaire, had hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl, Milly Fowler. Journalists at the paper regularly used Mulcaire as a reliable source for stories they printed. The scandal led to then-British prime minister, David Cameron, to launch the Leveson inquiry, which began that year. It was supposed to bring back credibility and accountability to a press culture that was poisoned by years of criminal and unethical behaviour. In practice, after Leveson, the British media grew even more aggressive. In April 2015, Katie Hopkins published an article in The Sun claiming that all migrants coming to Britain by boat are 'cockroaches'. The new press watchdog, ipso, set up after Leveson, accepted the paper's defence that as an opinion piece, it was fair game. In November 2016, the Daily Mail ran a headline describing 'Enemies of the People'. The story, written by the paper's political editor, James Slack, claimed several High Court judges were risking a constitutional crisis. Actually, the judges were merely pointing out that Brexit needed to be passed in the House of Commons to become legally binding. Slack later went to work as a press officer for British prime minister, Theresa May. It's a route many prominent members of the British press have made. Take Andy Coulson, for instance. He was editor of the News of the World from 2003 to 2007. He stepped down after being given the director of communications job for the Conservative Party, staying in that role until January 2011. In July 2014, Coulson was jailed for 18 months for plotting to hack phones while he was editor of the News of the World. In October 2013, evidence emerged in London's Old Bailey that Coulson, while working at the News of the World, had a secret six-year affair with a fellow editor, Rebekah Brooks, while they both plotted to hack phones at the paper. Between 2003 and 2009, Brooks was editor of The Sun. Kirby cites a text message Brooks sent to David Cameron (then leader of the opposition) on October 7, 2009, on the eve of his Tory conference speech. 'I am so rooting for you tomorrow not just as a proud friend but because professionally we're definitely in this together! Speech of your life? Yes he Cam,' wrote Brooks. 'That last phrase was the Sun's headline the day after the speech,' Kirby explains. He argues convincingly that the line between the third and fourth estate has gradually eroded in Britain over the last few decades — where a motley crew of hacks, editors, press barons, and members of parliament, including several prime ministers, have all become a little too chummy for comfort. Kirby gives the last word to Britain's Prince Harry, the duke of Sussex. Last December, he was awarded £146,000 following a successful legal fight against The Mirror's publisher at the High Court in London, who ruled that he had been the victim of information gathering, including phone-hacking. 'Our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government — both of which I believe are at rock bottom,' the duke of Sussex told the court in a witness statement that day. 'Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinise and hold the government accountable, and instead choose to get into bed with them so they can ensure the status quo.' A British royal giving a lecture about democratic values? It's a bit rich. But he certainly has a point.
Associated Press
18-04-2025
- General
- Associated Press
From Chinatown to the Sidewalk: A Public Art Project Makes Hidden Labor Visible
San Francisco, CA - April 18, 2025 - Non Alien Box is a public art and storytelling project initiated by Xinling Wang, a Chinatown-based cultural worker and curator, in collaboration with artists Yunfei Hua and Grace Cao. The project reclaims abandoned San Francisco Examiner newspaper boxes and transforms them into decentralized storytelling platforms that bring visibility to the often-erased voices of international students, immigrant workers, and non-resident cultural laborers. The project traces its conceptual roots to Wang's 2022 solo intervention Hidden in Plain Sight, installed along Terry A. Francois Boulevard, a street formerly known as China Basin Street. Once a site associated with early Chinese labor communities, the name 'China Basin' has quietly disappeared from public consciousness. In response, Wang painted a mural directly onto a discarded newspaper box at the location, reimagining traditional symbols like plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum to reflect the fractured experience of diasporic identity. She also created and installed a fictional Chinese street sign, 'Bin He Lu', as an act of reclaiming cultural memory and countering erasure. ' I saw this gesture as a small act of renaming and reclamation, " Wang reflects. " Public space is not only physical territory. It is a memory field that revealswho is preservedand who is forgotten. ' Terry A. Francois Boulevard (formerly China Basin Street), San Francisco, California Non Alien Box extends this act from a singular reflection into a collaborative and growing archive. The first box, installed in early 2025, features a collection of handmade 'classified ads' designed to resemble vintage job postings. The stories inside, however, speak not of opportunity, but of exclusion and survival. One reads: 'Because of my visa status, noone wants to sponsor keep my OPT active, I've been doing unpaid internships at art institutions—doing thesame work as paid employees.' Another recounts a broken promise: 'They told me, help us build this nonprofit and you'll qualify for an H-1Bcap-exempt. I worked full-time withoutpay for a year. Then they gave me a vague excuse and let me go. I left with nothing andhad to return to myhome country.' These flyers are pasted inside former information hubs that once delivered headlines to the public. Now, they offer truths that rarely make it into the news cycle. The project debuted at the 2025 Creative Citizens Symposium at California College of the Arts, where it was exhibited for four days alongside an artist talk and student workshop. Non Alien Box was recognized with the 2025 CPAL Impact Award for its contribution to cultural storytelling and immigrant visibility. Looking ahead, the team is preparing a series of workshops in Chinatown, Japantown, and Manilatown in collaboration with local nonprofit organizations. These sessions will invite international students, short-term visa holders, and migrant workers to design their own 'ads,' turning personal stories into public messages. These new works will be installed across additional newspaper boxes, forming a network of storytelling sites throughout San Francisco. Portsmouth Square (Chinatown), San Francisco, California As these boxes reappear across the city, some will blend in while others will spark curiosity. What was once overlooked infrastructure becomes a site of testimony and cultural resistance. 'We are not only artists,' says Wang. 'We are workers, immigrants, and witnesses. These boxes are our bulletin boards and our monuments.' Non Alien Box is more than symbolic. It is a public intervention rooted in lived experience and structural critique. The project asks urgent questions about visibility and belonging in today's cities: Who gets remembered? Who gets to belong? And who remains hidden in plain sight? Media Contact Company Name: Non Alien Box Contact Person: Xinling Wang, Independent Artist Email: Send Email Country: United States Website: Source: Queqi Culture Media
