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How far will Banh & Butter Bakery owner make it on Food Network holiday baking show?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:36:11 GMT

Thoa Nguyen didn’t get her hopes up when she first heard from a casting agent about participating in Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship.”The owner of Aurora’s popular Banh & Butter Bakery Cafe, at 9935 E. Colfax Ave., had already been turned down by a competition show two years prior, and “I was heartbroken when they sent me home without warning,” she said.But when Nguyen got the call last spring to hop a plane to Burbank, California, and film the first episode of season 10 of Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship,” a baking competition hosted by former Bachelor and NFL quarterback Jesse Palmer, her hesitation dissipated.“I’ll do whatever I need to bring some attention to my team and business, even put myself on national television in a vulnerable spot to secure their livelihood and jobs,” Nguyen said.Josie Sexton, The Denver PostPatrons sit in the sun at Banh & Butter Bakery Cafe in Aurora on April 15, 2022. (Photo by Josie Sexton, The Denver Post)The first e...

Denver weather: Light snow, rain mix expected Wednesday

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:36:11 GMT

After a cold front dropped temperatures overnight, Denver could see some light snow and rain mixed together Wednesday evening.The precipitation will likely start before 11 a.m. with a rain and snow mix, then rain showers are possible through 3 p.m. After that, there is a 70% chance of snow showers.Denver’s high Wednesday is 42 degrees, and the low is 30 degrees.While most of the Denver metro won't see much in the way of snow accumulation, widespread light to moderate snowfall is forecast for the higher elevations. Be prepared for changing conditions – check https://t.co/uoUwxQYden for the latest updates! #cowx pic.twitter.com/ZphupSevYm— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) November 8, 2023There will likely not be much accumulation if any across the metro area, forecasters at the National Weather Service in Boulder said.There is a 40% chance of snow Wednesday night before 11 p.m.The high country is expected to get more snow, and a winter weather advisory was issued for th...

Man surrenders after hours-long standoff on Metro bus in Hollywood

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:36:11 GMT

Police shut down the intersection of two major Los Angeles thoroughfares to investigate reports of a man armed with a gun on a Metro bus, leading to an hours-long standoff that ended with the man in custody. ‘Shockwaves of emotions’ after 4 L.A. Sheriff’s Department employees die of suicide in 24-hour span Initial reports of the barricaded armed suspect came in to the Los Angeles Police Department around 4 a.m., law enforcement officials told KTLA, closing Melrose and Western avenues in the area.Authorities were not able to confirm if the man actually had a weapon, police said, but the SWAT team was called in.At about 6 a.m., the LAPD deployed a robot dog as the man was motionless in the back of the bus.Police shut down the intersection of two major Los Angeles thoroughfares to investigate reports of a man armed with a gun on a Metro bus on Nov. 8, 2023. Police shut down the intersection of two major Los Angeles thoroughfares to investigate reports of a man armed with a gun on a M...

'Shockwaves of emotions' after 4 L.A. Sheriff's Department employees die by suicide in 24 hours

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:36:11 GMT

Warning: This article discusses suicide.After the suicide deaths of one retired and three current members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in a 24-hour period, officials released a statement Tuesday saying the department “is beyond saddened to learn of the deaths.”  While the sheriff’s department did not identify the employees or say the deaths were self-inflicted, the Los Angeles Times cites numerous sources who agreed to talk about the suicides on the condition of anonymity. The first victim was discovered Monday at around 10:30 a.m. in Valencia. A little more than two hours later, at 12:53 p.m., LASD detectives responded to another death in Lancaster and a third at 5:40 p.m. in Stevenson Ranch. The fourth victim was discovered Tuesday at around 7:30 a.m. in the city of Pomona.  “We are stunned to learn of these deaths, and it has sent shockwaves of emotions throughout the department as we try and cope with the loss of not just one, but four beloved ac...

Hamas victim shares terrifying survival story at Los Angeles event

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:36:11 GMT

A survivor of a Hamas terrorist attack, along with loved ones of current hostages are speaking out and calling for freedom amid the Israel-Hamas War.The Israeli-American Council of Los Angeles held a special event Tuesday night at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills where those affected by the war gathered.The event’s organizers said the goal is to show the world the horror inflicted on Israel by the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas, on Oct. 7th in what they are calling, “Black Sabbath” or “Black Saturday.”The terrorist group has killed at least 1,400 people and captured hundreds of hostages. More than 250,000 Israelis have evacuated homes near the borders of Gaza and Lebanon as rockets were continuously fired into Israel, the Associated Press reports.“I really believed this was the way I’m going to die,” said Ariel Ein-Gal, a 26-year-old Hamas victim. “Like, I really accepted it.”Ein-Gal is an Israeli citizen visiting Los Angeles to share the terrifying story of how he and 19 frie...

Bay Area News Group high school football predictions: Week 12, 2023

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:36:11 GMT

Not much gets people more fired up in high school sports than playoff seedings and formats.Count us in that group.Mike Lefkow, in our weekly video show that includes this week’s picks, can’t believe teams such as Liberty and Antioch in the North Coast Section and Prospect and Cupertino in the Central Coast Section are not playing postseason games this weekend.“That’s a travesty,” he said. “Prospect was 8-2. You get 80 percent on a math test or an English test or a history test, you’re probably going to get at worst a C+ and you’re probably going to get a B.”I explained to Lefkow that in the Central Coast Section, divisions have been created for teams not on the same level as others in their league.The lower divisions receive fewer spots but those teams don’t have to play stronger competition during league play.“Then schedule at their level and create a sixth division,” Lefkow said.The NCS’s format is entir...

Taste-Off: The best vegetarian black bean chili at Bay Area markets

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:36:11 GMT

As temperatures take a dive and days grow shorter, we start to crave comfort food — and there are fewer things more comforting than a bowl of chili of any variety, including spicy black bean. Made right, a vegetarian chili is hearty, satisfying, low in fat and so nutrient-dense it will fuel any snowy adventure or brisk fall walk.Unlike popular brands of pinto bean chili, the black bean version is typically vegetarian-friendly, and it often leans gourmet. The big question is, how does the storebought version taste?Black beans are grown all over the world, but they’re native to Central and South America and popular not only for their intense color, but their meaty, mushroomlike flavor and almost chewy texture. Black beans are common in Caribbean, Spanish and Mexican cuisines, but the sturdy little beans are also a delicious addition to American-style chili, as they hold up well to the long cooking time required to build great flavors.Good black bean chili boasts a perfectl...

The tragic history of the Bay Area’s forgotten zoos

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:36:11 GMT

Perhaps the earliest zoo in San Francisco – “zoo” in a very loose sense – was the Mountaineer Museum run by John Capen Adams, aka Grizzly Adams. Located in a basement in what’s now the Financial District, the 1850s museum boasted the “largest collection of wild animals ever brought together in California,” according to a contemporary news report, including grizzly bears, eagles, elk, a lion, a tiger and an “enormous HOG, 800 pounds, from Monterey.”Adams was a failed gold miner-turned-animal trainer whose antics with wild bears sound like something from television (which it was, in the 1970s). After shooting a mother bear in the wild, he captured her cubs and trained them to walk on leashes and carry his packs. Visitors paying 25 cents to the Mountaineer Museum could watch Grizzly wrestle and ride around on top of his bears. In karmic turnaround, bears caused his downfall – he got mauled so much, it left his brain tissue exposed, and he died in 1860 of suspected meningitis.“Gri...

Lindsay Wildlife Experience: Where animals teach humans about their life in the wild

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:36:11 GMT

In some ways, the daily scene outside this specialty E.R. resembles other hospitals, with cars rushing into the parking lot to bring in sick and injured patients.But at Walnut Creek’s Lindsay Wildlife Experience, a nationally renowned museum and wildlife hospital, the arriving patients are native birds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians, tucked in cardboard boxes or wrapped in towels and blankets and carried by humans. On a recent day, it was a worker for a tree-trimming company who delivered a young, severely injured red-tailed hawk.The veterinary staff meet the patients outside, assess their condition, then bring them into the hospital, where they do all they can to save them. If the animals make it through the first 24 hours, they have an 80 percent chance of survival. Staff aim to rehabilitate and return these patients to their habitats, al though some won’t be able to go back, due to injuries, such as damaged wings, that would make it impossible for them to hunt or t...

How abortion lifted Democrats: 7 takeaways from Tuesday’s election

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:36:11 GMT

The political potency of abortion rights proved more powerful than the drag of President Joe Biden’s approval ratings in Tuesday’s off-year elections, as Ohioans enshrined a right to abortion in their state’s constitution, and Democrats took control of both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly while holding on to Kentucky’s governorship.The night’s results showed the durability of Democrats’ political momentum since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022. It may also, at least temporarily, stem the latest round of Democratic fretting from a series of polls demonstrating Biden’s political weakness.After a strong midterm showing last year, a blowout victory in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April and a series of special election wins, Democrats head into Biden’s reelection contest with the wind at their backs. The question for the party is how they can translate that momentum to Biden, who remains unpopular while ot...