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    Wednesday Morning News Roundup

    By May 1, 2024 - BCN8:WEDNESDAY MORNING NEWS ROUNDUP,

    15 days ago

    https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=22jol3_0sk4lJoa00

    A press release from the city reported the project to be the largest single implementation of the Pittsburg Active Transportation Plan to date.

    The total cost is expected to be approximately $9 million.

    "The project will also help transform Railroad Avenue, adding an aesthetic value that will welcome residents and visitors entering and commuting," added Banales.

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    A man who fled to Mexico after allegedly killing his girlfriend in Tracy in 2019 was extradited this month, police said.

    Antonio Flores-Cuellar was suspected of killing his partner, Andrea Cervantes, after police found her dead on June 22, 2019.

    At 10:52 p.m. that day, officers responded to a 911 call of a possible dead body inside an apartment at 158 W. Carlton Way. Responding officers located the 18-year-old Cervantes, who was dead. Police said that based on evidence located at the scene, detectives determined the woman was a victim of a homicide.

    The Tracy Police Department said Flores-Cuellar fled to Mexico but after an extensive investigation, a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive apprehension team arrested him on Dec. 21, 2023. He was booked into a jail in Mexico while he waited for the extradition proceedings.

    Last Friday, Flores-Cuellar was returned to the U.S. and turned over to detectives from the Tracy Police Department. He was booked into the San Joaquin County Jail.

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    Police in Santa Rosa are looking for the driver of a pickup truck that collided with a motorcyclist Tuesday afternoon, sending the motorcyclist to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

    Just before 3 p.m., police and fire arrived at the intersection of Hopper Avenue and Airway Drive after multiple witnesses called 911 to report that a pickup had hit a motorcyclist and fled the scene.

    First responders found the motorcyclist lying in the road and unresponsive and took the person to the hospital.

    According to investigators, the motorcyclist was traveling eastbound on Hopper with a green light. The pickup truck made a left turn in front of the motorcycle from westbound Hopper, in an attempt to turn southbound on Airway. After the collision, the pickup did not stop and sped away.

    Witnesses have described the truck as a Ford F150, possibly gray or silver in color. Police are trying to find the truck and its owner, but the public should be on the lookout for one with front end damage.

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    Prosecutors in Monterey County have linked the cold case murders of two women in the '70s to a man who has been committed to a federal facility for years due to grave mental illness, the District Attorney's Office said Tuesday.

    Jurn Norris, 69, is a former resident of Marina, where he is accused of murdering two young military spouses in 1979 named Helga DeShon and Uicha Malgieri.

    Though they believe they have a solid case against Norris after analyzing DNA evidence decades later, prosecutors are not going to be filing charges because he is currently incompetent to stand trial due to severe mental illness. He is the subject of a federal civil commitment in another state and has been in a locked facility "for decades," according to the District Attorney's Office.

    According to prosecutors, in September 1979, 21-year-old Malgieri was found strangled to death in her apartment on Cosky Drive in Marina. Malgieri was originally from South Korea and was married to a U.S. Army specialist stationed at Fort Ord.

    Malgieri's husband was initially arrested on suspicion of the crime, but he was released with no charges and cleared as a suspect.

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    A Campbell man who ran a business providing home care to people with disabilities pleaded guilty Tuesday to failing to pay over $1 million in employment taxes withheld from his company's employees, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

    Shane Mike was the head of Excel Behavioral Services Inc., a Campbell business that provided care to people with disabilities. As the boss, Mike was responsible for withholding Social Security, Medicare and income taxes from his staff's wages. He was also supposed to pay funds to the IRS.

    From the fourth quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2015, Mike did not pay any withheld taxes to the IRS. And for the third quarter of 2014, he only paid part of the withheld funds.

    In total, the government found that Mike never paid more than $1 million in taxes to the IRS. He also used the money to pay his personal expenses.

    Mike is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 24 and faces a maximum term in federal prison of five years.

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    A state assemblymember from San Francisco introduced a new bill this week that aims to regulate kratom products sold in California.

    On Monday, Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, announced Assembly Bill 2365, the Kratom Safety Act, which would ban the sale of adulterated kratom in California, enforce rigorous testing and registration with the California Department of Public Health, and prohibit those under 21 from purchasing the product.

    Often used as a stimulant to increase productivity, kratom is a tropical tree in the coffee family. Its leaves have historically been used in Southeast Asia for medicinal purposes.

    However, product contamination and unregulated amounts of the leaves' naturally occurring psychoactive compounds -- mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine -- have led policymakers like Haney and even the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which cites it as a drug of concern, to raise eyebrows.

    The Congressional Research Service, the body that assists congressional committees and members of Congress through the legislative process, notes that some kratom products intended for sale in the U.S. have been found to contain dangerous contaminants, such as salmonella and heavy metals.

    The federal government has warned users of the dangers of kratom, but the substance remains unregulated at the federal level, leading states to regulate the substance individually.

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    A Mill Valley Unified School District teacher was arrested Tuesday on sex charges, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office.

    Sheriff's detectives arrested Darren Smith of Fairfax on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a child and continuous sexual abuse of a child.

    The Sheriff's Office said that the school district notified them of the allegations and put Smith on administrative leave. Smith has been employed by the Mill Valley Unified School District since August 2013. The District's website lists him as a music teacher.

    After a thorough investigation of the allegations, including forensic interviews and evaluation of evidence, detectives developed probable cause to arrest Smith, the Sheriff's Office said.

    Smith was booked into the Marin County Jail where he is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.

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    Fairfield officers arrested a man over the weekend who allegedly set a fire in a vacant store, police said Tuesday.

    Police were dispatched at 7:05 a.m. Sunday to a vacant commercial space in the 1900 block of North Texas Street on a report of a fire and glass break alarm. Officers found a small fire near the front window of the building.

    They said fire caused the window to break and filled the building with smoke.

    Dispatch used cameras to locate a suspect and sent a photo to officers. Officers found and arrested 44-year-old Travis Dewitt for suspected arson, according to police.

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    Police in Sunnyvale are investigating a homicide after a man was found shot in a vehicle Tuesday.

    Just after midnight, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety responded to the 100 block of South Bernardo Avenue on the report of gunshots. Police then found a man inside a vehicle suffering from at least one gunshot wound.

    He was taken to the hospital where he died.

    Anyone with information helpful to this case is asked to contact Detective Shillito at (408) 730-7110.

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    The National Weather Service forecast for the greater San Francisco Bay Area for Wednesday calls for clear and sunny skies.

    Daytime highs are expected to be mostly in the 60s to 70s on the coast and around the bay, and in the 70s to 80s inland. Overnight lows will be mostly in the 40s, with some areas around the bay reaching the 50s.

    Like Tuesday, dry conditions will be prevailing in the region on Wednesday with high pressure over the offshore waters to far northern California, forecasters say. Gusty northwest winds are expected to continue over the coastal waters.

    According to the NWS, wet, unsettled conditions will be returning Friday night and Saturday. Unseasonably cool daytime highs are anticipated for early next week before conditions warm by the middle of the week.

    Copyright © 2024 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

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