California

California

Genova Delicatessen closed its last Walnut Creek location on Wednesday after 58 years of business in the city.

Four decades after a Bay Area girl's brutal killing, DNA evidence from a cigarette helped secure the conviction of her murderer last week. James Oliver Unick, a 66-year-old resident of Willows, was found guilty of dragging 13-year old Sarah Geer into an alley, sexually assaulting her and strangling her to death in 1982 in Cloverdale, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office announced Feb. 13.

The California Democratic Party will hold its midterm convention at Moscone Center in San Francisco this weekend, and while there's not a whole lot of suspense, it's always an opportunity to see which way the party is leaning in a crucial election year. The message so far: Don't talk about economic inequality-and don't mention the billionaire tax. All the candidates for governor, and all the candidates for the other statewide offices, will be there. Mayor Daniel Lurie will address the crowd. The party issues endorsements in contested primaries, and the San Francisco Congressional race was wired from the start for state Sen. Scott Wiener.

"These regulations are an important step in combating unscrupulous and illegal gaming in California," CNIGA Chairman James Siva said in a statement sent to ReadWrite. "The regulations further clarify that games and practices employed by commercial card rooms are indeed prohibited under California law. Running a business contrary to that law is an illicit business, period. We hope that Department of Justice will now enforce these regulations so California can ensure a well-regulated gaming industry that is safe for consumers."

Showers moving into the region from the Central Coast should bring steady rain to Ventura and Los Angeles counties Thursday morning, with frosty temperatures pushing snow levels lower than normal, potentially impacting commuters along the Grapevine, according to the National Weather Service. "Steady precipitation will taper off to showers by late this afternoon and become confined to the mountains by late tonight," the weather service posted in a Thursday morning forecast.

Berkeley has awarded tens of millions of dollars in contracts that weren't subjected to a competitive bid process, according to a new report, which could lead to the city paying too much for goods and services, or create opportunities for corruption. The investigation by the office of City Auditor Jenny Wong found Berkeley often used non-competitive contracts in cases where it should have solicited for other bids, including in two deals for recycling services worth a combined $41.4 million, which are up for extensions soon.

"She was just a lovely person and would light up the room," Diane Gerold said. "Always very happy."

Officers with Lafayette police made the arrest about 1:20 p.m. after police had been alerted to the robbery in Alamo, according to a statement from Contra Costa Sheriff's Office spokesperson Jimmy Lee. The sheriff's office has jurisdiction over Alamo and contracts out with Lafayette police. The two men - a 23-year-old Antioch man and 20-year-old man without a residence listed - remained in custody on Thursday in lieu of $200,000 and $150,000 bail, respectively, according to jail records. Lee said officers arrested each man on suspicion of two counts of robbery, attempted robbery and conspiracy.

A 53-year-old Bay Area man died at a Tahoe ski resort on Sunday, the Placer County Sheriff's Office confirmed to SFGATE in an email. On Feb. 15, Northstar ski patrol responded to an on-mountain collision of two guests on the Polaris trail at Northstar California Resort. The Northstar Fire Department pronounced one of the skiers dead, Northstar California Resort spokesperson Dennis Baggett told SFGATE in an email.

RIVERSIDE A Jurupa Valley woman partly responsible for her 1-year-old son's ingestion of a deadly dose of fentanyl was bound for state prison Wednesday to serve a sentence of 12 years, four months behind bars after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and another felony. Sandy Alyssa Acuna, 25, admitted the manslaughter count, along with child cruelty, under a plea agreement Tuesday with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

After a multi-agency search involving the FBI and several Southern California counties, the partial remains of a missing 17-year-old girl have been discovered near the edge of the Salton Sea, authorities confirmed, leading to the arrest of a 51-year-old male suspect. The missing child, T'Neya Tovar, was last seen in Thermal, an unincorporated community in the Coachella Valley, on Dec. 1 of last year, the FBI wrote.