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NoHo man agrees to plead guilty to lying to FBI agents about fake Basquiat paintings 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:56:09 GMT

A North Hollywood man has agreed to plead guilty to lying to FBI agents about the origins of paintings attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat that were seized last year from the Orlando Museum of Art. Michael Barzman, 45, is charged in federal court with making false statements to the FBI during an August 2022 interview where he denied making any of the fraudulent paintings himself. However, according to a release from the FBI, Barzman and a second man, identified in court documents as “J.F.”, began creating the fake Basquiat paintings in 2012 after “hatching a plan to market the bogus artwork.” “J.F. and Barzman created approximately 20 to 30 artworks by using various art materials to create colorful images on cardboard,” said the plea agreement. “Barzman and J.F. agreed to split the money that they made from selling the fraudulent paintings.” “J.F. spent a maximum of 30 minutes on each image and as little as five minutes on others, and then gave them to Barzman to sell on eBay,” ...

Former NFL head coach Kliff Kingsbury joins USC staff as senior offensive analyst

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:56:09 GMT

Kliff Kingsbury is joining Lincoln Riley's coaching staff at Southern California as a senior offensive analyst.USC announced the addition Tuesday of Kingsbury, who was fired by the Arizona Cardinals in January after four seasons as their head coach.Kingsbury went 28-37-1 at Arizona, making one playoff appearance. Before that, he spent six seasons as Texas Tech's head coach and earned a reputation as one of football's most innovative offensive minds.Riley and Kingsbury were briefly teammates at Texas Tech when Riley walked onto Mike Leach's Red Raiders roster during Kingsbury's senior season in 2002.“We’re excited to officially welcome Kliff to our coaching staff and add another outstanding football mind to our program,” Riley said in a statement.Between those two head coaching jobs, Kingsbury spent about one month at USC as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for head coach Clay Helton before the Cardinals surprisingly hired him for their top job in January 20...

A’s Seth Brown will be out four to six weeks with oblique strain

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:56:09 GMT

The way the things are going for the Athletics so far this season, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the news on outfielder Seth Brown’s left oblique strain was more of a gut punch than a temporary annoyance.“Our doctor examined him in Oakland,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay told reporters Tuesday before the A’s faced the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. “It was a Grade 2 strain of the left oblique and generally the timeline runs four to six weeks.”The A’s have lost five straight and are 2-8, with the Orioles coming in at 5-5.Brown was injured Saturday in Tampa Bay on a check swing and was placed on the 10-day injured list retroactive to April 9. But rather than have Brown good to go after the 10-day period, he will instead be out until early or late May and miss 30-plus games.The A’s leading home run hitter (25) and RBI man (73) last season, Brown was for the first time getting an extended look hitting against left-...

Southbound 880 reopens following CHP investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:56:09 GMT

(KRON) -- Southbound I-880 at Auto Mall Parkway in Fremont has reopened after being shut down Tuesday due to a California Highway Patrol investigation, KRON4 has confirmed. The investigation was related to the fatal shooting of a 5-year-old girl on the 880 on Saturday night.All southbound lanes are now open. Police shut down the first section of freeway at 10:55 a.m. and moved on to a second location. Residual delays are expected. Video shows ex-SF fire commissioner assaulted with pipe in Marina District A severe traffic alert was in effect earlier, according to the California Highway Patrol. Traffic was being diverted at Fremont Boulevard. Motorists were advised to expect delays and use alternate routes to avoid the area.Video from a Caltrans camera of the scene showed what appeared to be a line of CHP officers walking down the empty section of freeway looking for clues.The area of the 880 that was shut down is in the same vicinity as the area where 5-year-old Eliyanah Crisostomo...

Pedestrian dies after Tenderloin crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:56:09 GMT

(KRON) -- A pedestrian has died following a crash in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon, according to the San Francisco Police Department. I-880 reopens following CHP investigation in Fremont Police received a report of a vehicle collision with a pedestrian around 12:13 p.m. Officers found a man on scene with injuries near Jones and Geary streets. The pedestrian was taken to a local hospital where he later died. Officers are still on the scene investigating. Drivers are told to expect traffic delays and consider alternate routes.Citizen video from the scene shows what appear to be a FedEx and U-Haul truck after a collision. The U-Haul truck is resting in the crosswalk on Geary Street. San Francisco has seen about 30 pedestrians die in collisions since each year, according to the city. The city's Vision Zero program adopted in 2014 aims to eliminate traffic deaths in the city altogether.This is a developing story. Please stick with KRON for updates.

SF Board of Supervisors meeting rescheduled after cable connection reportedly vandalized

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:56:09 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday had to be rescheduled for Wednesday after the fiber connection the board uses to broadcast meetings was vandalized, according to Supervisor Aaron Peskin. As a result of the apparent vandalism, the board is unable to broadcast the meeting through SFGovTV, the cable channel the city government utilizes. ‘Death of Downtown’ study: San Francisco ranks last "We are currently experiencing a service interruption on the Comcast cable TV system and both SFGovTV channel 26 and channel 78 are down," SFGovTV tweeted.The cable provider makes no mention of vandalism but according to Peskin, that's the reason board will recess today's meeting until Wednesday."Sorry for those folks who were planning on turning out for general public comment," Peskin said in his tweet. Agenda items on Tuesday's meeting included recommendations of the government audit and oversight committee, recommendations of t...

Los Angeles Tries to Claw Back Public Records After Police Invent New Definition of “Undercover”

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:56:09 GMT

Last week, the city of Los Angeles filed a lawsuit against Ben Camacho, a local journalist, as well as the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a community watchdog group that opposes police surveillance, in an attempt to censor a database of Los Angeles Police Department officer headshot photos. The lawsuit alleges that Camacho and the watchdog group are in “wrongful possession” of 9,310 headshots, which the city itself released to Camacho as part of a settlement in response to a public records lawsuit.The city’s lawsuit was denounced as meritless by First Amendment experts. “Once the government gives you information in good faith, you have the right to publish it under the First Amendment,” David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, told The Intercept. “This is not even a close case.”The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition launched a website called Watch the Watchers that includes the LAPD headshots. The dataset has also been published by Distributed Denial of Secrets, or DDoSecret...

Confident Rays not surprised by excellent start to season

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:56:09 GMT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The streaking Tampa Bay Rays are running out of superlatives to describe baseball’s best start in more than three decades.Remarkable, incredible, unbelievable — even crazy — are words players have used to describe the dominant, all-around team effort that’s carried them to a 10-0 record that’s the toast of the big leagues two weeks into the season.The Rays, who have made the playoffs each of the past four years, expected to be good.But no one could have envisioned them joining the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers, 1982 Atlanta Braves, 1981 Oakland Athletics, 1966 Cleveland Indians, 1962 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers as the only clubs to begin seasons with double-digit winning streaks. Of those teams, only the Dodgers won the World Series.“Pretty exciting. Doing it the way we have, every facet of our game is really performing, producing and contributing,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Normally it doesn’t work out that way.”Entering Tuesday night’s home ga...

Virginia lawmakers to weigh Youngkin’s changes to hemp bill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:56:09 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has proposed a rewrite of a bill that aimed to ban the recreational sales of intoxicating hemp-derived products, seeking to ensure the continued availability of certain therapeutic CBD formulations. Youngkin’s proposed changes came after hemp industry advocates and parents of patients who benefit from nonintoxicating CBD products pressed him to reconsider the impact of the legislation as it recently passed. Lawmakers will weigh the Republican governor’s proposals to amend that measure and dozens of other bills during a one-day session Wednesday. Youngkin’s substitute hemp bill continues “his efforts to crack down on dangerous THC intoxicants, including synthetic products” such as delta-8 THC, a psychoactive chemical often synthesized from hemp-derived CBD, his spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said in a statement, noting it contains “a narrowly tailored exemption” for therapeutic CBD products. “Governor Youngkin’s substit...

Guards at burned Mexican detention center didn’t have keys

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:56:09 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two guards who fled a fire that killed 40 migrants in a locked Mexican detention center did not have keys to the cell door, Mexico’s president said Tuesday.The comments by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came on the same day that the bodies of 17 Guatemala migrants killed in the fire were scheduled to be flown back to their home country. It was unclear what effect López Obrador’s comments might have on the trial of the guards.“The door was closed, because the person who had the keys wasn’t there,” López Obrador said.A video from a security camera inside the facility shows guards walking away when the fire started in late March inside the cell holding migrants. The guards are seen hurrying away as smoke fills the facility, and they did not appear to make any effort to release the migrants.Three Mexican immigration officials, a guard and a Venezuelan migrant are being held for investigation in connection with the fire. They face homicide charges.Th...