Black loves matter! That’s one of many wry rallying cries in the badass new musical “Strange Loop,” as our hero Usher grapples with being “big, Black, and queer” on the Great White Way. Silly and cerebral, tuneful and tart, this meta-theatrical musical, tightly directed by Stephen Brackett, sucks us deep into the whirlpool of a quarter-life identity crisis with heartbreaking authenticity. Usher (the sweetly endearing Malachi McCaskill), an insecure musical theater writer about to turn 26, enters into a Thunderdome-style battle with his own pesky thoughts as he works as an usher at “The Li ..read more

A man was fatally run over by his own pickup truck when he leaned out of the driver’s seat to try to flip the charging port door closed, the California Highway Patrol said. Related Articles Crashes and Disasters | Family of four killed in East Bay vehicle crash Crashes and Disasters | Deadly Bay Area streets spark officials to make traffic safety improvements Crashes and Disasters | Pedestrian hit and killed by driver in San Martin Crashes and Disasters | DUI driver accused of two East Bay hit-and-run crashes, including one killing 6-year-old Little Leaguer Crashes and Disasters | Oaklan ..read more

The Hotline is delighted to provide Pac-12 fans with a regular dive into the recruiting process through the eyes and ears of Brandon Huffman, the Seattle-based national recruiting editor for 247Sports. He submitted the following report on April 25 … Scorching start for Sun Devils While last week was something of a roller coaster for Arizona State, the weekend itself proved to be quite fruitful. Sure, the loss of quarterback Jaden Rashada and cornerback Ed Woods to the transfer portal came out of relative nowhere. But second-year coach Kenny Dillingham and his staff’s persistence in recruiting ..read more

These days, people seem kindly disposed to Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, because of the cheerful way she’s carried on with life even amid her recent diagnosis with skin cancer and the ongoing fallout of Andrew’s public disgrace due to his friendship with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. But the reported death of their daughter Beatrice’s ex-boyfriend, an American “playboy” named Paolo Liuzzo in Miami, has renewed questions around some of the parenting choices that she and Andrew made with regard to their oldest daughter. The Sun reported that Liuzzo died in early February of ..read more

OAKLAND — One man was killed and another man wounded in an East Oakland shooting Friday morning, authorities said. Police have not yet released any information about the victims. The shooting happened about 4:20 a.m. in the area of 16th Avenue and International Boulevard. Both men were taken to a hospital where one of them died a short time later.  The other man was in stable condition. Related Articles Crime and Public Safety | East Bay girl fends off man who grabbed her wrist while trying to unlock a car Crime and Public Safety | Second man charged in fatal Oakland shooting during gu ..read more

By Giles Turner | Bloomberg A small stake in the San Francisco Giants is for sale at a price that could value the team at about $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The Major League Baseball team is owned by around 30 partners, including former catcher Buster Posey and investor Arctos Sports Partners. Charles B. Johnson, 91, a former chief executive officer of Franklin Templeton Investments, holds the largest stake at about a quarter. The stake is less than 5% and related to estate planning, the person said, who asked not to be named discussing private information. A spoke ..read more

“How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market. The pain: Twenty U.S. cities with the highest home-price-to-income ratios are all in California. The source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed a housing affordability yardstick by Construction Coverage, which tracked median home prices divided by the median annual household income for 384 cities including 79 from California. The pinch If going 20 for 20 at the top of this “unaffordability” ranking wasn’t painful enough, look at California’s share of this city-by-city scorecard this way … 93% of the 30 cost ..read more

Imagine repurposing underground fiber optic cables, typically used for delivering high-speed Internet to California residents, to detect and measure earthquakes. That is the focus of a recent research by scientists at the California Institute of Technology led by Zhongwen Zhan, who presented his findings to students and community members during a lecture on Wednesday evening, April 24. “California is the earthquake country, and we have a pretty good seismic network starting from more than 100 years ago now,” said Zhan, a professor of geophysics at Caltech. “We really want to have even denser i ..read more

San Francisco police reported the death of a person shot two weeks ago in the South of Market neighborhood. Related Articles Crime and Public Safety | Accused killer of 14-year-old Bay Area girl in 1982 faces September trial Crime and Public Safety | Second man charged in fatal Oakland shooting during gun sale Crime and Public Safety | Judge finds man competent to stand trial in death of UC Santa Cruz student from San Ramon Crime and Public Safety | 5 Bay Area sex workers stabbed, beat homicide victim with their high heels, police say Crime and Public Safety | ‘I didn’t wanna do it but I ..read more

A former Riverside County sheriff’s correctional deputy accused of transporting 104 pounds of fentanyl pills in his private car came under suspicion during an investigation into Sinaloa cartel activities in the county, law enforcement authorities revealed. Investigators had not previously explained how they came to target Jorge Oceguera-Rocha. Related Articles Crime and Public Safety | ‘I have let you all down’: Antioch community service officer avoids jail for wire fraud, but judge warns other cops won’t be so lucky Crime and Public Safety | Could fallout from the latest Oakland police dis ..read more