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Opinion: Yes, Barbie is a feminist — just don’t ask her creators

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

Almost 30 years ago, when I researched and wrote a history of the people and ideas that led to the creation of Barbie, I had no doubt she would be as talked about in 2023 as she was in 1959, when she first appeared.But what I never expected was the way that this plastic object, once tarred as anti-feminist, has come to be viewed as feminist, or, in any event, as an important cultural touchstone in understanding feminism.From the get-go, Barbie and her possessions reflected and shaped the marketplace, experiencing meteoric sales when her consumption patterns and activities were in harmony with the zeitgeist, and weathering blistering criticism when they were not.Barbie is in tune with the times again — at least as she appears in Greta Gerwig’s new film interpretation of her, coming out Friday. The movie’s zany, self-ironic production design suggests that Gerwig is not only well versed in feminism but also in camp, an aesthetic sensibility that values artifice, exaggeration and parody...

California school district to vote on forced outing of transgender students to their parents

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

The Chino Valley Unified School District board is expected to vote on on a parental notification policy Thursday, July 20, that would require schools to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender.The policy introduced on June 15 would require schools to notify parents in writing within three days if their child identifies as transgender, is involved in any violence or talks about suicide. Under the policy, schools would notify parents if their child seeks to change their name or pronouns or asks for access to gender-based sports, bathrooms or changing rooms that do not match their assigned gender at birth.The policy under consideration Thursday evening echoes a Riverside County lawmaker’s bill that stalled in the state Assembly this spring.Assembly Bill 1314, sponsored by GOP Assemblymember Bill Essayli, would have required schools across the state to notify parents when a child identifies as transgender. The CVUSD school board voted 4-1 to adopt a resolution supporting...

High-profile killer of California college student granted release from prison

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

A man who has spent nearly 20 years behind bars for the high-profile slaying of Redlands teen Kelly Bullwinkle was granted his freedom this week.Despite pleas from more than a dozen family members, friends and San Bernardino County prosecutors, the Board of Parole Hearings on Tuesday, July 18, affirmed a panel’s Jan. 31 decision to grant parole to Damien Matthew Guerrero.The decision followed a review by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who referred the case back to the full board on June 16 to make the final determination.20-year anniversaryThe decision comes nearly two months shy of the 20-year anniversary of Bullwinkle’s slaying in an area of Live Oak Canyon canvassed by orange groves, southeast of Alessandro Road and north of San Timoteo Canyon Road.Bullwinkle, a student at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa who loved horses, was last seen alive on Sept. 13, 2003, when she left her job at Baker’s Burgers in Redlands. Her partially buried and decomposed body was found in the canyon by paintball ...

Comic-Con Museum’s Stan Lee exhibit offers super-powered origin story

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

By Hannah Ramirez, San Diego Union-TribuneMillions of people have seen Stan Lee in his quirky background appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or know him as the co-creator of some of the most iconic characters in comic book history.Now, at a new exhibit in the Comic-Con Museum, they can see a rarely portrayed side of him, the editor whose decisions and influence changed the landscape of comics.“One of the things that makes him so unique is that the comic book industry never had a greater spokesperson,” lead curator Michael Uslan said.“Excelsior! The Life and Legacy of Stan Lee,” opened Tuesday at the museum.SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 18: Spider-Man attends as Comic-Con Museum debuts new exhibits and features on Stan Lee alongside “Cowboy Bebop” and “My Hero Academia” at Comic-Con Museum on July 18, 2023 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images)San Diego, CA – July 18: On Tuesday, July 18, 2023 at the Comic-Con Museu...

Former California youth basketball coach convicted of sexually assaulting 4 former players

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

A former youth basketball coach has been convicted of sexually assaulting four young female athletes, after also being accused at trial of grooming and exploiting two others, while he was involved with a variety of Orange County club and high school teams.Carlos Francisco Juarez, 48, was convicted Tuesday of 21 felony counts — including lewd acts upon a minor, oral copulation of a minor and sexual penetration by foreign object of a minor — in connection with four former players who ranged in age from 11 to 17 at the time of the repeated assaults between 2005 and 2010.Two other former players made similar allegations in their testimony during Juarez’s trial, but their accusations were not included among the criminal counts filed by prosecutors.Earlier this week, Deputy District Attorney Raquel Cooper told jurors that instead of being a mentor to his players, Juarez was a “predator” who abused the trust of the girls for his own sexual needs.“He is a master manipulator in all senses of...

Opinion: Three factors could pose a threat to Biden’s reelection prospects

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

President Joe Biden forged a unified NATO position on ultimate membership for Ukraine and continued military help abroad last week. At home, inflation fell to the lowest level in more than two years, outpaced by wage gains.A new poll showed him leading his two most likely Republican rivals. And the House GOP barely survived a legislative train wreck by passing a defense bill laden with unpopular social policy riders.It was a good week for Biden, accentuated by the contrast between his successes and the flailing of Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail.But three other factors could pose the biggest threats to the president’s reelection prospects.One was vividly illustrated when a pair of political mavericks, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and former Utah Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman, staged a New Hampshire event Monday touting a third-party option that polls show would hurt Biden and help the GOP.The other two are his age – he’ll be almost 82 when Americans vot...

Jurors convict man of 2018 California spa bombing that killed his ex-girlfriend

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

A Long Beach rocket and explosives hobbyist was convicted Wednesday of crafting a homemade bomb that killed his ex-girlfriend, injured two other women and obliterated an Aliso Viejo day spa in a deadly explosion more than five years ago that shocked the quiet Orange County community.The Los Angeles jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding Stephen Beal, 64, guilty of using a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, among other explosives-related charges, in the May 15, 2018 killing of 48-year-old Ildiko Krajnyak.Just after federal prosecutors ended their closing arguments against him, Beal had been amiably chatting with his attorneys inside the courtroom. But he was quickly taken into custody after the jury’s verdict.Earlier Wednesday, Beal had listened quietly inside a Downtown Los Angeles courtroom as prosecutors accused him of building a simple but powerful bomb inside a cardboard box disguised as a package that Krajnyak opened at her desk at the Magyar Kozmet...

A small business was wrecked in raid by LAPD SWAT team, but city won’t pay for damage

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

The first sign of trouble was the police helicopter thumping above Carlos Pena’s print shop in North Hollywood last August, an officer barking orders over a loudspeaker.Alarmed by the commotion, Pena peeked out the door — and was yanked from the business by a fugitive who barricaded himself inside the NoHo Printing & Graphics shop on Lankershim Boulevard.Pena, 56, was ordered by deputy U.S. marshals to stand aside. He watched from a neighboring restaurant during the 13-hour standoff as an LAPD SWAT team fired more than 30 tear gas canisters inside the store, smashing through walls, and permeating Pena’s expensive equipment and inventory with toxic chemicals.The fugitive ended up escaping, leaving damage to the print shop estimated at $60,000 — money that the city of Los Angeles has refused to pay, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, July 19, by Pena and the Institute for Justice, a libertarian, nonprofit public interest law firm based in Arlington County, Virginia. N...

Gov. Gavin Newsom sending textbooks — and possibly a $1.5 million fine — to Temecula

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

The feud between Gov. Gavin Newsom and conservative members of a southwest Riverside County school board intensified Wednesday, July 19, with news that the state will ship textbooks to Temecula and fine the school district $1.5 million.Newsom’s announcement came the day after the Temecula Valley Unified School District board voted 3-2 to once again reject a state-approved elementary school social studies curriculum.RELATED: Temecula school board again rejects social studies curriculumAn earlier rejection stemmed in part from concerns that the curriculum’s supplemental materials mentioned slain LGBTQ civil rights leader Harvey Milk, who was called a “pedophile” by two members of the board’s conservative majority.Newsom, a liberal Democrat who’s made a national name for himself by attacking Republican governors and the GOP agenda, vowed to send textbooks to Temecula if the board didn’t approve the curriculum in time for the mid-August start of the new school year. The textbooks will c...

Soak up summer vibes all year long

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:37 GMT

People from cooler climates — or even coastal Southern California, where they’re used to May Gray and June Gloom — may say that we in the Bay Area shouldn’t be frustrated by this year’s delay in the onset of summer weather. They’re not wrong.Few places have the kind of climate that doesn’t require checking the forecast at night to know if the next day would be good for the amusement park, pool or water park. There’s less than zero chance of a Nor’easter hitting the Bay Area this summer.But all this longing for real summerlike weather begs a question: How can a new-home buyer infuse summer into their home year-round?Builders here have already addressed that question. And unless these builders have added meteorological AI to their design and construction prowess, they did so without knowing the year would be soggier and grayer than usual.Start by touring new-home communities at times that ordinarily might have featured pool parties or coastal trips to beat the heat. Keep an eye on how...