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Nuggets Journal: GM Calvin Booth is happy with title, but is already plotting more: “This is not the peak for us.”

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:17 GMT

Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth knows championship windows are fleeting.He was there the past two campaigns when debilitating injuries to Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. robbed the Nuggets of two golden opportunities to make history. With the team finally healthy this season, Booth was in charge after Tim Connelly’s swift exit to Minnesota and tasked with shepherding the franchise to heights unknown.As soon as he inherited the job, he felt the weight of realizing their vast potential around Nikola Jokic. It was his job, he said at the time, to make sure these years weren’t squandered and these opportunities were maximized.That’s why, in trading for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, signing Bruce Brown, drafting Christian Braun and Peyton Watson and even attempting to improve the roster at this year’s trade deadline, Booth was so aggressive. He had very recent evidence of how fickle these openings can be.Monday night, when the Nuggets seized their first championship, the 6-foot-11 B...

Vance Joseph looks to follow in Wade Phillips’ footsteps as former Broncos head coach turned defensive coordinator

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:17 GMT

There are a few times in life when relationships are rekindled after a sour breakup. Sometimes, it takes a willingness to look past the bad moments to mend the bond.That was the case for Vance Joseph.Five years removed from his unsuccessful head coaching stint in Denver, Joseph has returned as the defensive coordinator with a fresh mind. He says he doesn’t dwell on the back-to-back losing seasons that led to his firing after the 2018 campaign. For Joseph, the opportunity to rejoin the Broncos and work with head coach Sean Payton made coming back to Denver worth it.“I’m back now, and my focus is to play good defense with Sean and win games,” Joseph said after Wednesday’s minicamp session in his first time speaking to reporters since his hiring in February.This isn’t the first time the Broncos have brought a previously fired head coach back as defensive coordinator. Wade Phillips was shown the door as head coach in 1994 before returning as the coordinator in 2015, orchestrating ...

2 women sue Longmont hotel for allegedly providing attempted murder suspect access to room

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:17 GMT

Econo Lodge in Longmont is facing a lawsuit after employees allegedly gave a room key to a man accused of entering an occupied room and brutally attacking two women staying at the hotel. Nicole Gallegos and her mother, Carol Gonzales, are suing the hotel for negligence, including negligent hiring, retention, supervision and infliction of emotional distress, as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress, premises liability and liability for the employees’ actions as agents of the hotel.The two women, with representation from Haltzman Law Firm, filed a complaint against the hotel at 10811 Interstate 25 Frontage Road on June 5. The complaint accuses the hotel of recklessly failing to ensure the safety of their guests, failing to follow safety policies such as restricting room access to guests and hiring unqualified individuals.On Jan. 3, Gallegos occupied a temporary resident room, rented by Gonzales. The two had a guest, 31-year-old Cody Czichos, visit the room to eat pizza ...

Former Long Beach EMT gets 29 years for gun, drug trafficking charges, including selling fentanyl to coworker

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:17 GMT

A former Long Beach first responder was sentenced to more than 29 years in federal prison after he was found guilty of gun and drug crimes, including selling fentanyl that resulted in the fatal overdose of a coworker, officials with the United States Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.  Cruz Noel Quintero, 43, of Long Beach, who was formerly employed as an emergency medical technician at a Long Beach hospital, shipped methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs across the country beginning no later than Feb. 2018, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Central District of California Office.  In the parking lot outside the hospital’s emergency room, in May 2019, Quintero sold a coworker a white powder he claimed was cocaine for $100. The coworker was planning a trip to Vegas with her partner, a volunteer firefighter and former nurse at the Long Beach hospital.  According to evidence presented during the 43-year-old's trial, the coworker and her partner, n...

Nearly $200 million awarded to house thousands of homeless Southern Californians

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:17 GMT

Nearly $200 million dollars were awarded on Wednesday to move 7,300 homeless Californians out of encampments and into housing.The award was made possible through the Encampment Resolution Fund which is administered by the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency and the California Interagency Council on Homelessness.The grants will be disbursed to 23 projects across 22 communities throughout the state.The fund was “designed by Governor Gavin Newsom and the Legislature to provide communities of all sizes with the funding to move people living in encampments into housing,” according to the state officials.Wednesday’s announcement of $199 million is the third and largest round of ERF grants to be distributed. Previously, 26 communities were awarded $96 million from the fund over two rounds.Grants being disbursed to Southern California include:-Los Angeles County will receive the largest share with $59.5 million to serve 3,000 people on Skid Row.-The Los Angeles Homeless Services ...

Police raid Oakland sites, seize hundreds of catalytic converters, $260,000 in Bay Area-wide theft probe

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:17 GMT

Officers from a police task force seized more than 200 allegedly stolen catalytic converters, along with about $260,000 in cash and guns as they simultaneously raided two Oakland locations, the California Highway Patrol said Wednesday.Six men suspected of thefts around the Bay Area were arrested.Police seized about $260,000 in cash and arrested six people after raiding two Oakland sites June 9 in a long-term investigation by the Alameda County Regional Auto Theft Taskforce into an alleged Bay Area-wide catalytic converter theft operation throughout the Bay Area. (courtesy of California Highway Patrol) The seizures and arrests Friday morning by the Alameda County Regional Auto Theft Taskforce —composed of members from the CHP, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Oakland Police Department and Alameda County Probation Department — resulted from an investigation that started in mid-2022 into “a prolific catalytic converter fencing operation and crew responsible for thefts ...

Celebrated book editor Robert Gottlieb dies at 92; guided such authors as Toni Morrison, John le Carré, Michael Crichton

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:17 GMT

By Hillel Italie | Associated PressNEW YORK — Robert Gottlieb, the inspired and eclectic literary editor whose brilliant career was launched with Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” and continued for decades with such Pulitzer Prize-winning classics as Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker,” has died at age 92.Gottlieb died Wednesday of natural causes at a New York hospital, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group announced. Caro, who had worked for decades with Gottlieb on his Lyndon Johnson biographies and was featured with him last year in the documentary “Turn Every Page,” said in a statement that he had never worked with an editor so attuned to the writing process.“From the day 52 years ago that we first looked at my pages together, Bob understood what I was trying to do and made it possible for me to take the time, and do the work, I needed to do,” Caro said in a statement. “People talk...

Nevada Assembly approves deal for Oakland A’s Las Vegas ballpark

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:17 GMT

The Oakland A’s cleared another important hurdle Wednesday in their quest to receive $380 million from Nevada taxpayers for a new ballpark in Las Vegas as the state Assembly’s approval the taxpayer-funded deal late Wednesday.The state Assembly’s 25-15 vote means the A’s now have won approval from both houses in the Legislature, clearing a path for the team to fulfill its vision of a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat ballpark on the Vegas strip, though additional steps remain.“I am really excited to make memories with my daughter and see other families make memories with their kids – and where tickets start at $12,” Assemblymember Shannon Bilbray-Axelrod, a Democrat said at Wednesday’s proceedings of a possible A’s stadium.With its latest amendments, the proposal will return to the state Senate for another vote and if approved there, finally the desk of Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who has helped lead the effort to lure the As to Las Vegas.The...

National pundits turn on John Fisher after A’s fans show strong ‘reverse boycott’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:17 GMT

OAKLAND — A’s fans flocked to the Coliseum on Tuesday night to show the world that they still want their team, and it was John Fisher, the team’s owner, who had turned his back with the intention to move their club to Las Vegas.The “reverse boycott” drew a season-high 27,759 fans endlessly chanting “Sell the Team!” and an assortment of often vulgar anti-Fisher missives. But was it just noise, or did it resonate outside of the Bay Area?“I think for the average fan that may not pay attention day-to-day, it’s easy to think A’s fans aren’t showing up and the fanbase does not exist,” ESPN national baseball writer Joon Lee said in a phone interview Wednesday. He added that the boycott is “such an in-your-face example of how the fanbase shows up when things are good. We’ve seen this in the past, too, when the A’s are good.”CBS Radio host Jim Rome went to bat for A’s fans on his nationally syndicated show on Wednesday, noting that ...

Big-rig fire on eastbound 580 in Livermore closes two lanes, spreads to hillside

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:17 GMT

(KRON) -- A big-rig fire on I-580 east of North Flynn Road in Livermore has shut down traffic across two lanes and set fire to a nearby hillside, according to Caltrans. Cal Fire says the fire has now spread to 10 acres and is 40% contained.The truck caught fire in the eastbound lanes. Major delays are expected, the CHP said shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday. A photo of the burning truck shows a large cloud of smoke billowing from the rig's cab. 240 stolen catalytic converters found in Bay Area theft ring bust "Thank you for your patience and driving safely," the CHP said in a tweet.The fire has extended to the adjacent hillside, however, the driver was able to safely exit the vehicle, according to a Traffic CAD alert.There is no word yet on what caused the rig to catch fire. Crews are working to put out the fire on the adjacent hillside.This is a developing story. Check back for updates.