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A stir-fry that will convert the skeptics

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:38 GMT

By Eric Kim, The New York Times“The only pepper I cannot abide is a green pepper,” cookbook author Nigella Lawson once wrote, aptly calling out the fruit’s bitter, undeveloped flavor.“In an emergency,” she recently told me, “I can eat grilled or pan-cooked green bell peppers, as the heat and char give them a more balanced flavor, but they do really still taste underripe to me.”It’s understandable. Next to its older siblings in blazing red, orange and yellow, the green bell pepper has never had the best reputation.But, if you’re trying to capture the edge of bitterness, where savory and sweet intermingle, then the green pepper might be your ideal implement. That in-between flavor can be used to your advantage, whether infusing a gin cocktail with a vegetal aroma or lending clarity and balance in flavor bases, like sofrito, epis and the “holy trinity” of onion, pepper and celery in Cajun and Louisiana Creole cooking.Perhaps the one dish where the diner must confront the unripe pepper ...

L.A. first-grade teacher charged with sexually assaulting girls in the classroom

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:38 GMT

An East Los Angeles first-grade teacher has been charged with sexually assaulting six girls at the school, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón.Martin Reyes Jr., a 29-year-old teacher at Sunrise Elementary School, faces 10 counts of lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14, Gascón said in a press release. According to investigators, Reyes abused six female students. The alleged assaults would take place in his classroom during recess. The alleged abuse was reported on May 22. “Our educators are entrusted with creating a safe and nurturing environment where students can learn and grow without the fear of abuse or exploitation. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that schools are places where all students can thrive, free from the threat of sexual violence,” Gascón said in a statement. “I encourage any victim of childhood sexual assault to contact our Bureau of Victim Services to receive trauma-informed care.”Reyes is due to appear in court on Se...

Hesperia sex offender arrested again for sexting with minor, Sheriff's Department says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:38 GMT

A Hesperia man is behind bars again after he allegedly traded obscene and explicit material with a 16-year-old girl over the internet.Nicholas Gary Burstein, 38, was already a registered sex offender when he contacted the unidentified teen, who lives out of state, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in a news release. Burstein, who also is known as Nicholas Giles, was arrested in 2017 on a warrant related to allegations of continuous sexual abuse of a child between 2012 and 2013, the Sheriff's Department said at the time.According to State of California Department of Justice records, he was convicted on that charge in 2018. In 2003, he was also convicted of sexual battery. 1st-grade teacher from East L.A. faces 10 counts of sexual abuse of students On Wednesday, he was arrested again after investigators found he "shared obscene material and received sexually explicit photographs" from the teenager, officials said.He faces charges of possession of child pornography,...

Chipotle is testing guacamole-making robot named

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:38 GMT

The Chipotle Mexican Grill workers so often seen chopping and preparing fresh ingredients in ad spots may soon have a non-human helper.The company is testing a "collaborative robot" named Autocado at the Chipotle Cultivate Center in Irvine, California.Autocado can take up to 25 pounds of unpeeled avocados at a time, the company says. The robot stands the fruit upright one at a time, slices them in half, and removes the skin and pit.The peeled avocados drop into a bowl below, and a Chipotle worker then takes over, adding additional ingredients and mashing the guacamole.Autocado is a collaborative robot prototype that cuts, cores, and peels avocados before they are hand mashed to create Chipotle's guacamole. (Chipotle)"We are committed to exploring collaborative robotics to drive efficiencies and ease pain points for our employees," said Curt Garner, Chief Customer and Technology Officer at Chipotle in a news release. "The intensive labor of cutting, coring, and scooping avocados...

Manuel Abel Sanchez Pronounced Dead after Head-on Collision on East Golf Links Road [Tucson, AZ]

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:38 GMT

21-Year-Old Speeding Driver Killed after Colliding Head-on with 18-Wheeler near South Wilmot RoadTUCSON, AZ (July 13, 2023) – Late Friday night, police responded to a deadly car collision that left Manuel Abel Sanchez dead.On June 30th, at around 10:30 p.m., officers were called to the eastbound lanes of East Golf Links Road near South Wilmot Road involving an 18-wheeler truck and a 1993 Honda Civic.According to the Tucson Police Department, the Civic was driven by 21-year-old Sanchez with a passenger when he was speeding in the area and lost control of the vehicle.Furthermore, Sanchez veered to the westbound lanes and collided head-on with the red 2022 Kenworth T680 semi-truck.Unfortunately, Sanchez suffered extreme injuries and he was later pronounced dead. His passenger was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.Both directions of the roadway were temporarily shut down to allow for cleanup and preliminary duties.Meanwhile, the driver of the Kenworth did not suffer ...

Beatriz Pena Killed in Solo-car Crash on Hollywood Boulevard [Las Vegas, NV]

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:38 GMT

Beatriz Pena Dead and Breanna Thompson Injured in Single-Vehicle Crash on Stewart AvenueLAS VEGAS, NV (July 13, 2023) – Early Sunday morning, a single-vehicle accident on Hollywood Boulevard claimed the life of Beatriz Pena.The incident happened on July 2nd, just before 2:00 a.m., near the intersection of North Hollywood Boulevard and East Stewart Avenue involving one vehicle.According to reports, Pena, in a 2005 Toyota Matrix, was traveling southbound on Hollywood Boulevard with her passenger Breanna Thompson. She was reported to be driving at a high rate of speed.For reasons that are currently unknown, Pena lost control of the vehicle. As a result, the car slammed into a tree.Emergency crews at the site of the collision pronounced 29-year-old Beatriz Pena dead at the scene. Meanwhile, paramedics rushed her passenger, 22-year-old Breanna Thompson, to a local hospital for treatment.In this sorrowful time, the Sweet James team would like to extend their heartfelt condolences to...

Farrell Hundley’s Furnishings for a Dark New Golden Age

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:38 GMT

William Farrell and Elliott Hundley have been thinking about the past — specifically the myths and tastes of historical civilizations. From Ancient Greece to the Renaissance, and the halls of Versailles, periods of advanced philosophy have coincided with explosions of aesthetic opulence that contained within them the seeds of the chasmic social and economic inequality and decadence that would be their undoing. In 2019 they founded design studio Farrell Hundley, and since then on the theory that we are currently living in another such time, they’ve been making shiny, mutated, dangerous objects for the palaces of today’s dark new golden age.Farrell Hundley: Polyxena Mirror (Courtesy of Friedman Benda)Through their unique collaboration and interpretive relationship to functional design, the pair — each of whom maintains a separate fine art practice — explores resonant passages of myth and poetry from the West’s oldest societies. Their first Los Angeles exhibition of this project, Choru...

Two children among four people injured in Oakland shootings

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:38 GMT

OAKLAND — Four people, including an 8-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl hit by stray bullets, were injured in Oakland shootings that happened within six hours Wednesday in different areas of the city, authorities said.The children did not require hospitalization, authorities said. None of the shootings appear to be related at this time, according to investigators.The girl was injured in a shooting that happened about 9:07 p.m. Wednesday in the 9900 block of MacArthur Boulevard.Police said a 44-year-old man was shot multiple times by someone who confronted him outside on the street.A stray bullet grazed the head of the girl, who was a passenger in a vehicle that was stopped nearby, police said. She was treated and released at the scene.The man was taken to a hospital, where he was initially listed in critical condition but was later upgraded to stable.A motive for the shooting was under investigation. No arrests were announced.About 9:50 p.m. a 67-year-old ice cream cart vend...

Outrage in Italy after court rules groping under 10 seconds is not illegal

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:38 GMT

By Sharon Braithwaite | CNNA court ruling that found a school janitor not guilty of groping a student because the act only lasted less than 10 seconds has sparked outrage in Italy.In their decision, the judges of the fifth criminal section of the Court of Rome said they acquitted the accused, a 66-year-old man according to Italian state broadcaster RAI, of sexual assault because the whole thing lasted “about five to ten seconds.”In her testimony, the then 17-year-old girl, according to RAI, said the act happened in April 2022 as she was climbing the staircase at school with a friend.She testified that she pulled up her trousers and felt a hand tucked inside them, under her briefs, touching her buttocks, according to the judgment, issued July 6.“Love, you know I was joking,” the janitor said, according to the teenager’s testimony mentioned in the judgment.During the trial, the janitor admitted that he had touched the student but that he had done it “as a joke.”The judges accepted the...

‘I want my daddy’; Family mourns young father slain in Oakland

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:38 GMT

OAKLAND — Bernard Parker II’s 2-year old daughter, Jhenea-Marae, wakes up several times a night crying and saying  “I want my daddy.”But that reunion will never happen.Bernard Parker II. (Courtesy Bernard’s family) The 27-year-old Parker, a home health care provider and part time warehouseman, was fatally stabbed June 17 after getting into an argument with another man in the area of 14th and Madison streets, near a bar where he liked to hang out and play pool. authorities said.Parker had moved to Oakland at the end of March with his fiancee, Rashanda Charles, their daughter and her 6- and 7-year-old sons.The 27-year-old Charles, who still calls Parker “my husband,” said he “didn’t deserve to die the way he died.”She said they had been best friends since they were 15 and living in Charlotte, North Carolina. They had been together five years and lived in San Leandro before moving to Oakland.Charles said it took her a few...