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Stormy weather that is expected to continue to drench the Bay Area this weekend has forced Britney Spears’ outdoors concert in San Francisco inside.
The pop superstar’s concert was suppose to be at the Castro Theatre on Sunday. It now will be at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, located at 99 Grove St.
The free, hour-long performance will air Tuesday on ABC’s Good Morning America to coincide with the release of Spears’ latest album, “Femme Fatale,” according to the network.
Tickets are required for the concert, which begins at noon. Ticket information will be available at www.abcnews.com/gma after 9 a.m. Thursday.
Local Castro retailer Under One Roof, whose proceeds go to HIV/AIDS research, is celebrating all week by displaying a Spears wax figure from the Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf.
Patrons who pay a suggested donation can be photographed with the figure, and on Friday evening, the retailer, located at 518 Castro St., is hosting a Spears look-alike contest.
Supervisor Scott Wiener is scheduled to judge the contest, said David Perry, one of Under One Roof’s founders.
All proceeds collected by Under One Roof will go to charitable contributions, Perry said.
“Any time a star of this magnitude comes to San Francisco it just proves what we already know: San Francisco is a wonderful hub for culture and pop music,” Perry said.
He added that Spears has been “incredibly supportive” of the LGBT community, and that featuring her wax figure is a way to thank her for her work and draw attention to Under One Roof’s mission.
“I think I know exactly where I will be Sunday morning — along with thousands of other people,” he said.
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Here’s a round-up of other Thursday news reports from around the Bay provided by the Bay City News bureau.
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Sen. Barbara Boxer visited San Francisco on Wednesday to criticize
the budget proposal put forward by House Republicans, which she said will
negatively impact working-class Americans.
Boxer held a news conference at the Ferry Building to discuss the
Republicans’ proposal, which she said could cost hundreds of thousands of
jobs and threaten the country’s economic recovery.
The senator invited some Bay Area residents to the event who she
said were examples of the people who would be affected by the proposed budget
cuts, and whose stories she hoped would “underscore the devastating impact
the Republican budget would have on the day-to-day lives of Californians.”
Boxer’s guests included Heather Penman, a Concord woman who was a
patient at Planned Parenthood, which Republicans want to strip of all its
federal funding.
Penman said Planned Parenthood, which offers a variety of women’s
services including free exams, found pre-cancerous cells during a pap smear.
“Had it gone undetected, it would’ve resulted in full-blown
cancer,” she said. “I might not be alive today.”
Penman said people think the organization only deals with
unplanned pregnancies, but it provides a variety of services for many women
and “shouldn’t be reduced to some political argument.”
Another guest was Hobert Lee, a Marine Corps veteran from San
Francisco who was homeless and dealing with substance abuse issues, but who
now works with people suffering from similar problems.
Lee was helped by the nonprofit Swords to Plowshares, an
organization that helps veterans but could also be subject to budget cuts.
“Without their help, I would not be able to do the things I’ve
been doing,” he said.
Boxer said Democrats and Republicans “have to negotiate, and sit
down together” to come up with a budget plan that works for both sides.
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Jury deliberations have started in the San Mateo County Superior
Court trial of Alexander Youshock, who is accused of attempting to kill his
former Hillsdale High School teachers with 10 homemade pipe bombs, a samurai
sword and a chainsaw on Aug. 24, 2009.
Before the jury was escorted out of the courtroom Wednesday,
defense attorney Jonathan McDougall reminded the jurors in his closing
argument that independent psychologists and psychiatrists have diagnosed
Youshock with schizophrenia, a mental illness that prevented the defendant
from being able to formulate intent to commit murder.
To find Youshock guilty of the first four felony counts with which
he is charged – two counts of attempted murder and two counts of exploding a
destructive device with the intent to murder – the prosecution must prove the
defendant formulated specific intent, McDougall said.
“The law mandates that we have to think about what’s in this
person’s mind,” McDougall said.
He refuted the prosecution’s assertion that Youshock methodically
premeditated his attack on Hillsdale High by researching how to make pipe
bombs and mix their explosive ingredients, by selling pieces of his drum set
to buy doorstops, fuses and other supplies, and by practicing cutting up tree
branches with the chainsaw he planned to use as a murder weapon.
McDougall argued that if it weren’t for Youshock’s mental disease,
he would not have responded to his teachers’ reasonable efforts to get him to
do his homework and participate in class by concocting a farfetched plan to
murder them.
“If not for his mental disease, he wouldn’t have been there that
day,” McDougall said.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Guidotti sought to unravel that
argument by saying that Youshock’s schizophrenic symptoms were exaggerated
and exploited by the defense.
“All you have to do is look at what he did to determine he could
form intent,” Guidotti said.
She said that his suicidal tendencies were exaggerated, that he
had opportunities to kill himself but never did.
She said that his hallucinations were infrequent before his
arrest, and could even be considered normal if they were experienced at
nighttime or just before sleep.
Guidotti asked the jurors to put all sympathy for the defendant
aside during their deliberations.
“Sympathy has no place in the search for the truth,” she said.
Youshock has been charged with two counts of attempted murder, two
counts of exploding a destructive device with the intent to commit murder,
one count of possession of a destructive device in a public place, one count
of use of explosives in an act of terrorism, and two counts of possession of
a deadly weapon.
If he is found guilty of any of the charges against him, a second
trial will begin before the same judge and jury to determine his sanity.
The jury is expected to continue deliberations today.
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Jurors in the federal perjury trial of Barry Bonds in San
Francisco heard a tape Wednesday that prosecutors say shows Bonds’ trainer
discussing injections of the baseball star as well as undetectable steroids.
The conversation between Greg Anderson, Bonds’ trainer, and Steve
Hoskins, his former personal assistant, was secretly recorded by Hoskins at
the San Francisco Giants clubhouse in the spring of 2003.
It was played for the jury in the court of U.S. District Judge
Susan Illston as part of the testimony of Hoskins, a prosecution witness.
The tape and Hoskins’ testimony earlier in the day that he heard
Bonds discuss using steroids in 1999 have become important prosecution
evidence in the trial because Anderson has refused to testify.
Anderson was found in contempt of court by Illston on Tuesday and
jailed for the duration of the trial for his refusal to take the stand. The
four-week trial began this week.
Bonds, 46, is accused of lying to a federal grand jury in December
2003 when he denied having knowingly received steroids, other
performance-enhancing drugs or any kind of injection from Anderson.
Hoskins will continue on the stand when the trial resumes this
morning. The next prosecution witnesses will be Giants clubhouse manager Mike
Murphy and former BALCO Vice President James Valente.
Bonds hit Major League Baseball’s single-season record of 73 home
runs in 2001 and the all-time career record of 762 in his last season with
the Giants in 2007
.
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School officials are taking several steps to address two separate
incidents Tuesday involving firearms on the Berkeley High School campus.
Two students were arrested Tuesday morning after a gun they
brought to the school went off in a bathroom, and a third was arrested a
short time later for having an unloaded handgun, school officials said.
In a letter sent to parents and the community later that day,
Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent William Huyett outlined the
district’s plans in response to the incidents.
A special school board meeting is being held March 30 at 7:30 p.m.
to discuss student safety, and a parent forum is being held Monday at 6:30
p.m. at the school’s Little Theater.
Berkeley High School principal Pasquale Scuderi is also holding a
school-wide faculty meeting this week to discuss the incident and review
school safety procedures.
Administrators and other school staff will be meeting with
students on campus this week to talk about the consequences and dangers of
weapons on campus, and discuss why students are bringing firearms to school.
An anonymous tip line to report weapons on campus has been set up
at (866) SPEAK UP, and a text message option will be added soon.
Two additional safety officers will be working at the school until
spring break starts April 2, and they may remain on the campus after the
break if warranted.
As required by state law, the three students, ages 16 and 17, who
were arrested will face mandatory expulsion, school officials said.
No one was injured in either incident.
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A 30-year-old Antioch woman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges
that she had an ongoing sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy she met
through her teenage daughter.
Nicole Bradburn pleaded not guilty to seven counts of unlawful sex
with a minor, 11 counts of committing a lewd act on a child, and nine counts
or participating in oral copulation with a minor, according to court records.
The alleged crimes, which are all felonies, occurred between Oct.
1 and Feb. 14.
Antioch police said they started investigating the case in January
after the victim’s parents became suspicious about the amount of time their
son was spending with Bradburn.
The boy, however, refused to admit to the relationship because
Bradburn had allegedly convinced him she was in love with him, police said.
It wasn’t until the boy’s father discovered what police
characterized as an “incriminating text message” from Bradburn on his son’s
cell phone that the boy finally admitted that he had been having a sexual
relationship with Bradburn, police said.
Detectives served a search warrant on Bradburn’s house last week
and arrested her.
She remained in custody Wednesday at the West County Detention
Facility in Richmond in lieu of nearly $1.7 million bail.
She is scheduled to return to court April 5 for a preliminary
hearing.
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Nancy Trask didn’t expect to have such a rocky Monday.
She was at home in the mountains in Scotts Valley when a rock
slide covered Nelson Road — where her house is located — and prevented her
from leaving.
“My husband’s been here for 25 years, other folks for 30-plus
years, and no one’s seen anything like this,” she said.
Witnesses said they saw sandstone fall in clumps and boulders as
early as 9 a.m. Monday, and then at about 2 p.m., the slide covered Nelson
Road near Sky Meadow Lane, making residents unable to drive past the debris
in either direction.
“We are being optimistic and patient,” said Trask, who noted that
she’s been unable to get to her job, where she works as a substance abuse
counselor.
“My job is impacted and who knows what that will mean down the
line,” she said.
County authorities have been working hard to restore access to the
road, but heavy rain has made rebuilding dangerous, a county spokesman said.
“There are still some rocks coming down from up above,” said John
Presleigh, director of Santa Cruz County Department of Public Works.
“The problem is that it was raining most of the night and into
today,” he said.
Presleigh said the wet environment makes terrain unsafe for
geologists to really get a good look at the rocks and assess the damage.
Until the weather dries out, crews have cobbled together a path
for people to walk around their neighborhood, he said.
But the path isn’t safe at night because it’s dark and slippery,
Trask said.
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One person was transported to a hospital Wednesday night after
their blue sedan crashed into a guardrail and went off an embankment on state
Highway 92 near Redwood City, a California Highway Patrol officer said.
The crash, which happened at about 7:30 p.m. in rainy, windy
weather on the winding, two-lane roadway, was just west of Crystal Springs
Reservoir.
Highway 92 was shut down in both directions between Interstate
Highway 280 and Skyline Drive, and a Sig-alert was issued at about 7:45 p.m.,
CHP Officer Peter Van Eckhardt said.
The Sig-alert was canceled at about 10:30 p.m.
The only person in the vehicle was transported to Stanford at
about 9 p.m. with minor injuries, Van Eckhardt said.
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The Bay Area is expected to see more rain today as well as wind.
There is a slight change of thunderstorms in the afternoon, which could
produce small hail. Highs are expected to be in the mid 50s, with southwest
winds of 25 to 35 mph and gusts of 45 mph.
Tonight is expected to be breezy, with rain likely and a slight
chance of thunderstorms, which could produce small hail. Lows are expected to
be in the upper 40s with southwest winds of 20 to 30 mph.
Showers are likely Friday, with highs in the mid 50s and southwest
winds of 15 to 20 mph.
Ananda Shorey, Bay City News
Ananda Shorey, Bay City News
Q. What is all this rain doing to us around here?