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50+ min ago (68+ words) A portion of Muni's Central Subway is back open after a car crashed into the tunnel on Friday night. It happened around 10 p.m. at Fourth and Bryant streets, south of Market, a few blocks from Moscone Center. The SFMTA closed the tunnel while crews removed the car. Crews had to shuttle passengers during this morning's closure. Regular service resumed at about 9:30 a.m....

1+ hour, 46+ min ago (914+ words) By JILL LAWLESS | Associated Press In a statement Saturday, United Agents said Stoppard died "peacefully" at his home in Dorset in southern England, surrounded by his family. "He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language," they said. "It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him." The Czech-born Stoppard was often hailed as the greatest British playwright of his generation and was garlanded with honors, including a shelf full of theater gongs. His brain-teasing plays ranged across Shakespeare, science, philosophy and the historic tragedies of the 20th century. Five of them won Tony Awards for best play: "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" in 1968; "Travesties" in 1976; "The Real Thing" in 1984; "The Coast of Utopia" in 2007; and "Leopoldstadt…...

2+ hour, 9+ min ago (315+ words) The 49ers elevated place kicker Matt Gay and linebacker Jalen Graham Saturday from the practice squad to face the Cleveland Browns. Gay kicked field goals of 47 and 29 yards without a miss and converted two extra points in the 49ers" 20-9 win over the Carolina Panthers on Monday night in place of Eddy Pi'eiro, who is out with a hamstring strain. The forecast in Cleveland Sunday calls or a high of 38 degrees with the possibility of snow and freezing rain. Depending on how fast Pi'eiro heals, it could be Gay"s finale with the 49ers. The 49ers have their long-awaited bye week coming up, and resume play on Dec. 14 against the Tennessee Titans at Levi"s Stadium. Pi'eiro has yet to miss a field goal attempt in 22 tries. Graham, in his second season out of Purdue, was active for the first time this season and played…...

3+ hour, 7+ min ago (1035+ words) Back in 1962, Jorma Kaukonen traveled from Ohio, where he was studying at Antioch College, to the University of Santa Clara in California. He was already an accomplished fingerstyle guitar player, having been tutored by a friend at Antioch " who in turn had studied with Reverend Gary Davis. So he was in some ways the guy least likely to become one of psychedelic rock's primary electric guitar heroes. "I guess on some levels they dragged me kicking and screaming into it," Kaukonen tells us, via Zoom, about his migration to electric guitar. Again, it was a confluence of circumstance. I'd just recorded the Wabash Avenue stuff," he explains, referring to recordings of acoustic club performances that were released for Record Store Day Black Friday this year. "I was thinking about moving to Europe, maybe going to Denmark and being an expat…...

3+ hour, 9+ min ago (97+ words) San Jose Fire Department logo. Firefighters were battling an apartment fire on Saturday afternoon, according to authorities. The fire department said they responded to a full first-alarm fire at a two-story apartment building on the 500 block of S 7th Street. According to officials, heavy fire could be seen coming from the second floor. The fire was knockdown just after 1 p.m., and crews were making sure the fire did not extend to the attic, according to officials. The fire department added the traffic nearby was impacted and asked drivers to avoid the area....

3+ hour, 28+ min ago (252+ words) Police heard shots fired Saturday morning at the US Coast Guard Housing area in Novato as they were searching the area following reports of shots heard overnight. The Novato Police Department announced at 10:15 a.m. that tactical officers heard shots fired in the US Coast Guard Housing area located at the former Hamilton Army Airfield. At the time, officers were investigating reports of shots heard in the area overnight. Police, with the help of Marin Regional Crisis Response Unit and Coast Guard officials, are investigating the source of the shots. Residents in the area are advised to stay indoors and 911 if they see any suspicious activity. It is unclear if the shots heard Saturday morning are related to a shooting that occurred in the same area Thursday, where there was an altercation between a US Coast Guard Security officer and an unknown…...

5+ hour, 22+ min ago (905+ words) Having spent much of the last two years celebrating the old " with the Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 30th Anniversary Tour " Sarah McLachlan is now onto something new. "This is a brand new show, with brand new songs off the new album called "Better Broken,'" McLachlan told the capacity crowd at the Masonic in San Francisco on Friday. "I'm going to pepper the set with new stuff, but there will be lots of old, familiar stuff as well." New path, but one thing definitely remains the same as ever: her voice is better than ice cream. And, yes, that includes cookie dough ice cream. During the course of nearly two hours, and running through 20 songs from more than 30 years of her stellar career, McLachlan's voice was nothing short of exquisite, divine, miraculous, wondrous " take your pick of highly complementary adjectives, since they all…...

5+ hour, 25+ min ago (645+ words) Santa Claus has a new ride on display at Christmas in the Park this year, a plug-in sleigh that's parked right next to his all-electric house. You've got to wonder if Reindeer Local 1225 will start picketing at Plaza de Cesar Chavez, but they'll probably still get to pull the sleigh for appearances sake. "We decided to step it up this year by offering Santa a lot of the incentives that we can offer residents as well," San Jose Clean Energy Deputy Director Heather Dauler said. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said powering Santa's house with renewable energy is an example of the city's push to be the nation's first carbon-neutral city by 2030 " and a good example for the diverse crowds that make the visit to see the animatronic displays and Santa as part of their holidays. "It's a great San…...

6+ hour, 53+ min ago (877+ words) By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. But the song's vocal phrasing, melodic shape and stylistic DNA came from someone who does exist: Grammy-nominated country artist Blanco Brown, a Black music artist who has worked with Britney Spears, Childish Gambino and Rihanna. And he had no idea. "I didn't even know about the song until people hit me up about it," said Brown, whose 2019 country rap hit "The Git Up" helped usher in a new, hybrid era of country crossover. He didn't learn about the chart-topping AI track until his phone was flooded with messages from friends. The moment is the latest example of how generative AI is upending the music industry, giving anyone the ability to instantly create seemingly new songs by typing prompts into a chat window, often using models trained on real artists' voices and styles without their knowledge. Brown…...

7+ hour, 29+ min ago (299+ words) The Orange County Register columnist known as Honk is thankful for his readers, not least because of what he learns from them. Among the insights of the past year:" There are no plans to redesign the standard-issue California license plate, which became the norm in 2011, a Department of Motor Vehicles spokesperson said. If you have 1984 Olympic license plates, you can keep renewing them, but they haven't been available to get for decades and even replacement plates are long gone. In fact, once any style of specialized plate has been discontinued, such plates cannot be replaced but can continue to be used. Once a car or truck rolls off of a dealership's lot, the new owner can get cited for not having two plates. Even for Teslas that often don't sport front license plates. Under state law, drivers can prove to…...