LIVERMORE — A motorcyclist died Thursday morning after what the California Highway Patrol said was a three-vehicle crash on a freeway. Related Articles Crashes and Disasters | 1 dead in single-occupancy car accident after driving car off of San Mateo County cliff Crashes and Disasters | Authorities identify two who died in separate East Bay car wrecks Crashes and Disasters | 4 killed in crash identified as Livermore couple, 2 children Crashes and Disasters | Man charged with vehicular manslaughter in 2022 Oakland hit-and-run Crashes and Disasters | Two-car crash results in fatality on Hi ..read more

The four people killed in a single-car crash Saturday in Manteca have been identified as a Livermore couple and two of their children. Three other children survived. Related Articles Crashes and Disasters | 1 dead in single-occupancy car accident after driving car off of San Mateo County cliff Crashes and Disasters | Motorcyclist dies in wreck on Interstate 580 Crashes and Disasters | Authorities identify two who died in separate East Bay car wrecks Crashes and Disasters | Man charged with vehicular manslaughter in 2022 Oakland hit-and-run Crashes and Disasters | Two-car crash results in ..read more

A month before students must decide where they will go to college, the botched revamp of the federal financial aid process has caused aid applications to plummet by more than 30% compared to last year. Now, California universities are bracing for steep declines in student enrollment.  “I have not seen numbers this low in years – even during the pandemic we had higher numbers of applicants,” said Sonia Jethani, associate vice president of Financial Aid and Compliance at California State University East Bay. “It’s not looking good right now, all across the universities. It’s not just E ..read more

LIVERMORE – Two seasons ago, Granada’s boys basketball team won the Northern California Division I championship. This past season, it reached the Division I regional final. The Livermore school’s baseball team this spring is undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports. But next school year, Granada will have a new athletic director after David Moore was recently informed that he would not be retained after six years on the job.   “The reason I was told by my principal was that they were going in a different direction,” Moore told the Bay Area News Group on Monday. “Ther ..read more

In celebration of National Ramen Day April 4, Yelp is out with its Top 100 Ramen Spots in California list, a crowd-sourced ranking of customer favorites. “It’s no secret that Californians are obsessed with ramen,” Yelp said in its announcement. “In fact, according to Yelp data, California has had the second-highest number of searches for ramen in the country since 2019! And across the entire US, Los Angeles (#1) and San Francisco (#2) are the top 2 cities with the most Yelp users who have earned a Recognition badge for their reviews in the ramen category.” But it’s a Santa Clara restaurant tha ..read more

Granada baseball player Parker Warner is the Bay Area News Group’s boys athlete of the week for March 18-23. In online voting that ended at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Warner had 36.06% of the votes to finish ahead of Newark Memorial baseball player Noah Hanohano, who took second at 25.60%. Congratulations to all the candidates for this week’s recognition. Warner, a Stanford commit, pitched a three-hitter with nine strikeouts to lead undefeated Granada to a 2-0 victory over California in East Bay Athletic League play. The senior began this week with a 1.68 ERA in 25 innings. To nominate an ath ..read more

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor. CalFresh meant to help people in need Re: “CalFresh setup causes a stink” (Page A1, March 20). I found the article on CalFresh disturbing. I was under the impression that programs like CalFresh were established to help those in real need: seniors on limited fixed incomes; people who, for reasons beyond their control, are in need of temporary assistance; people without family or other resources. I do not see how a 24-year-old college graduate falls into any of these categories. She does not need assistance. She nee ..read more

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor. Civilian casualties unfortunate result of war Re: “Biden’s Gaza policy is cause for concern” (Page A6, March 13). The writer contends that the behavior of Israel in Gaza constitutes genocide and that U.S. backing of it is shameful. But I think it’s similar to asking if it was shameful for the United States to back the Allies in World War II. After all, the Allies killed quite a few innocent civilians when fighting tyrants for the survival of those targeted countries. War is a necessary evil that often results in t ..read more

The deeply ingrained wine scene in Livermore is about to get even more alluring with the arrival of The Black Cat, a natural wine and craft cocktails bistro with small plates and conservas — tinned fish and other delicacies from the sea. The Black Cat is scheduled to open downtown in May at 2241 First St. in the former Miel de Agave Azul space. The co-owners and real-life partners are Dina Parks — the daughter of the winemaker at Plowboy Wine in the Sierra foothills — and local restaurateur Gianni Schell, who owns Livermore’s Rebel Kitchen & Libations. Parks also works at Cured: Fish ..read more

In a recent — and strongly worded — letter, the managers of two Bay Area cities demanded improvement from Falck, the private ambulance company tasked with responding to emergencies in Alameda County.  The officials from Livermore and Pleasanton alleged poor performance and delayed response times that were “outside of those dictated” by Falck’s contract. In sum, the letter reported that ambulances were late to about one in every six medical emergencies in their cities. “The expectation of our community is a quicker ambulance response when 911 is called,” the letter read. Related Articles ..read more