Jeremy T. Ringfield's Blog, page 181
March 24, 2025
Reno man sentenced to life in prison for 1982 murder, kidnapping of Anne Pham
A Seaside cold case from 40 years ago is closed after the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office announced that Robert Lanoue was sentenced for the murder and kidnapping of 5-year-old Anne Pham back in 1982.
Lanoue, 72, from Reno, Nevada was given 25 years to life in prison plus 31 additional years. On Feb. 20 Lanoue pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping, committing a forcible lewd act on a child under 14, forcible rape and forcible sodomy. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
Pham disappeared Jan. 21, 1982 while walking to her kindergarten class at Highland Elementary School. She was never seen alive again, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Two days later on Jan. 23, 1982, her remains were discovered on the former Fort Ord military base. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death, prosecutors said.
The case went cold for 40 years, but in 2020 the county’s Cold Case Task Force, alongside the District Attorney’s Office and Seaside Police Department, reopened the case and submitted evidence for DNA analysis.
A piece of pubic hair found on Pham was enough to create a DNA profile that could be used in genealogical databases and Lanoue’s name came up as a possible suspect.
At the time of the crime, Lanoue was 29 serving in the U.S. Army while stationed at Fort Ord. He lived 60 feet away from the Pham family and one of his children also attended Highland Elementary School, though prosecutors said there is no indication the families knew each other.
Investigators interviewed Lanoue July 6, 2022 and he admitted to picking up Pham from school, but claimed he did not remember killing her.
Lanoue said he may have blocked it out of his memory to protect himself, and admitted to having a history of sexually assaulting young girls.
Horoscopes March 24, 2025: Jim Parsons, anger will stand between you and what you want
CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Christopher Briney, 27; Peyton Manning, 49; Alyson Hannigan, 51; Jim Parsons, 52.
Happy Birthday: Ask, and you shall receive. Communication is crucial this year if you want to get things done. Anger will stand between you and what you want. Put ego aside and forge ahead with tolerance, charm and savvy negotiating skills. Your ability to swivel and compensate will be key to achieving your goals. Market yourself for success, and turn any negative you encounter into something substantial. Your numbers are 4, 13, 23, 29, 34, 45, 48.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): A creative approach to life, love and getting what you want will win points and separate you from any competition. Trust your instincts, change what isn’t working for you and set a high standard for others. Engage in what makes you content and secure. Turn your home into your comfort zone. 2 stars
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Take the initiative. A change will wake you up and point you in a new direction. Let your imagination run wild, and you’ll discover something you enjoy doing that offers meaning and gives you purpose. Put your energy and skills into getting ahead and reaping the rewards you deserve. 5 stars
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): An optimistic attitude is terrific; however, weigh the pros and cons before you take a leap of faith. Don’t ignore any uncertainty or go overboard with your plans. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Do your research, and take baby steps if it eases stress. 3 stars
CANCER (June 21-July 22): You’ll have the energy to finish what you start and enlist the best of the best to help you reach your target; you will feel good about your accomplishments. You stand to gain recognition that will lead to unexpected rewards. There is power in doing whatever it takes to make your dreams come true. 3 stars
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Deal with relationship issues head-on and avoid misunderstandings that can compromise your position. It’s in your best interest to ask questions, make concessions and focus on the result you want to achieve. Manufacture your success instead of waiting for it to happen. Personal gain is apparent; live, laugh and love. 3 stars
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Find a place, activity or group of people that make you think and encourage you to enforce lifestyle changes that are conducive to your goals. Entertain; make adjustments to your environment or become active in a group that shares your beliefs. Your contributions will open a window of opportunity you cannot resist. 3 stars
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Evaluate a situation you encounter, and look for the most opportune way to turn it into something that can improve your life. Whether you want to improve your physical, emotional or financial well-being, taking the first step will be a game changer you won’t want to miss. On your mark, get set, go! 5 stars
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Do your homework: Know what and who you are against, and play to win. Refuse to let anyone mess with your emotions or take advantage of you financially. Knowledge is your ticket to coming out on top. Engage in hands-on learning, not secondhand information. Participate in positive change and forward thinking. 2 stars
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Refuse to let anyone stand in your way. Bypass negativity, and take the path that accommodates your desires. A positive change at home or among those you allow into your sphere will help decide the outcome. Concentrate on what matters most, and you won’t be disappointed. Put your energy where it counts. 3 stars
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Look closely at who is involved in whatever you participate in before signing up. Take a leadership position if it allows you to control situations and outcomes that impact your life. Let your experience, knowledge and connections guide you, and positive change will unfold. 3 stars
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Put pressure where needed most and move forward with a plan. Refuse to let uncertainty set in or cost you time and money. Set up a workspace conducive to doing your best and achieving the most. Invest energy with intelligence and charisma, and it will lead to personal and financial rewards. 3 stars
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Extract what is no longer of value to you. Simplify your life and rethink what’s meaningful to you. Redesigning how you move forward will be an adventure. Embrace what’s to come with an open heart and the willingness to try something new and exciting. Live life your way, and you’ll have no regrets. 4 stars
Birthday Baby: You are responsive, unique and persistent. You are charming and protective.
1 star: Avoid conflicts; work behind the scenes. 2 stars: You can accomplish, but don’t rely on others. 3 stars: Focus and you’ll reach your goals. 4 stars: Aim high; start new projects. 5 stars: Nothing can stop you; go for gold.
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The best bleach for laundry and home cleaning
Whether chlorine-based or peroxide-based, bleach is one of the most versatile household chemicals you can keep on hand for everything from stain removal to sanitation. Many other cleaning products include bleach in their formulas because manufacturers know how powerful it is.
As helpful as bleach can be, it must be handled with care to avoid any potential damage to dyed clothing or delicate materials. Undiluted bleach, especially chlorine-based brands, can be very caustic and should be treated like any other household chemical.
We’ve taken a fresh look at our shortlist of favorite bleaches, and our updated list contains a familiar alternative bleach in the top spot, as well as a new form of an old favorite. Rounding out our picks is a liquid alternative bleach favored by many professional cleaners.
What to know before you buy bleachHow bleach worksIn chemistry terms, all bleaches are considered oxidizers, meaning they introduce oxygen to the cleaning process. This oxygenation is what causes stains to disappear and white clothing to appear whiter. Bleach is also alkaline, which means it does not have a corrosive effect on surfaces like an acid-based solvent can.
Types of household bleachThere are essentially two forms of household bleach: those with chlorine and those without.
Chlorine bleach contains sodium hypochlorite, a powerful base. When many people think of laundry bleach, they envision a strong-smelling liquid poured over white clothing or added to a bucket of mop water before mopping. Chlorine bleach has become a familiar chemical in most households, but it isn’t always the safest choice for every cleaning chore.Nonchlorinated bleaches use hydrogen peroxide for oxygenation, and the result is often promoted as a bleach alternative. Hydrogen peroxide is not as caustic as sodium hypochlorite and generally does not contain a strong chemical odor. It’s effective as a stain remover, and the hydrogen peroxide doesn’t affect the dyes used in colored clothing. However, bleach alternatives are often criticized for not being as effective as traditional chlorine-based bleaches.Forms of bleachThe form of bleach product can also vary widely from brand to brand. In general, bleach can be purchased in the same forms as laundry detergent.
Liquid bleach is often diluted and packaged in gallon-sized plastic containers. Powdered bleach may be in a box or packaged in single-use pouches. There are also bleach pods for use in washing machines and crystals designed to dissolve in water to reduce splashing.
How much does household bleach cost?The price of household bleach depends largely on the formulation and the packaging. Standard liquid chlorine bleach can cost as little as $4 a bottle, while bleach alternatives are often a little more expensive. Liquids are usually less expensive than powders or gels, while pods are the most expensive form per ounce.
Bleach FAQDo all bleach products kill germs?A. Disinfection is certainly one reason why people choose to add bleach to their laundry or housecleaning arsenal, but not all bleach products are promoted as disinfectants. Read the product label carefully to determine if a particular product is formulated to kill germs or disinfect surfaces.
Can I use diluted bleach to sanitize my stainless-steel countertops and metal cookware?A. Chlorine bleach is corrosive by nature, and it will cause almost all metals to oxidize (form rust). It reacts with the chromium and steel in a stainless-steel countertop, refrigerator door, or stainless-steel cookware. Only use cleaning products specifically approved for use on metal surfaces.
What is the best bleach to buy?Top bleach 
OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover Powder
What you need to know: This versatile bleach can be used for a lot more than just laundry.
What you’ll love: It works on multiple household surfaces, and the powder mixes easily with water for general stain removal. It’s also very effective as a pre-laundry stain lifter.
What you should consider: It’s not entirely color-safe and can fade fabrics. It also has a very strong fragrance.
Top bleach for the money 
Clorox Zero Splash Bleach Crystals
What you need to know: These bleach crystal packs are premeasured, so you can make sure you get the right amount of bleach every time.
What you’ll love: The crystal formula doesn’t splash until mixed with liquid. It works well as a water treatment. It kills bacteria, mold and viruses on contact. It’s also lighter than liquid bleach.
What you should consider: The crystals may not dissolve completely; some people reported lingering residue.
Worth checking out 
What you need to know: This classic bleach is designed especially for high-efficiency washing machines but also works well as a household cleaner.
What you’ll love: It’s thick and concentrated, so it does a good job of getting stains out. It also has an easy-grip handle to minimize spills. It’s also unscented.
What you should consider: Some people had issues with the bottle leaking.
Prices listed reflect time and date of publication and are subject to change.
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SF Giants’ Jung Hoo Lee returns from back injury, Roupp shines but River Cats win exhibition
SACRAMENTO — After suffering a back injury last week in Scottsdale, Jung Hoo Lee returned to the San Francisco Giants’ lineup on Sunday in an exhibition game against the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.
The 26-year-old outfielder was scratched from a spring training game on March 15 and had not played since. Lee’s injury was characterized as back tightness from sleeping wrong.
On Sunday, Lee batted third in the lineup and went 1 for 2 with an RBI double and was walked once in a 4-3 loss to the River Cats at Sutter Health Park.
He knocked in Heliot Ramos from first base in his first at-bat, swinging at the second pitch he saw and doubling on a hit to right center field.
“Playing in today’s game was really important for playing on Opening Day,” Lee said through an interpreter before Sunday’s game. “I wasn’t really worried because I knew that I was preferred to play in today’s game.”
According to Lee, there were no discussions of being the Giants’ designated hitter to ease him back into the lineup.
Giants manager Bob Melvin said that if Lee looks healthy over a trio of exhibition games — including Monday and Tuesday at Oracle Park against the Detroit Tigers — there’s a good chance he will start in the season opener at Cincinnati on Thursday.
“I just want to get him out there and get some at-bats and make sure he’s healthy,” Melvin said. “He was having a good spring up to that point and looked really healthy. … If we can get him three games here in the next three days, I think we’ll be in good shape for him to start the season with us.”
San Francisco Giants’ Jung Hoo Lee (51) connects for an RBI double in the first inning of their exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)A season-ending shoulder injury kept Lee to just 37 games played last season. Lee told the Bay Area News Group on Friday that he’s never experienced back cramps quite like the ones he had earlier this month.
“Not even (just) for sports players, I feel like normal people when they wake up sometimes, they’re in a bad position for the whole day,” Lee said. “They might wake up with a cramp. I’ve had that before, but it’s never been (as bad) as this. I’ve never had this feeling.”
There will still be an adjustment period for Lee in the coming days. In the fourth inning, he dropped a run-saving catch when he tried to slide and pick the ball from a low angle.
When asked if he needs to hit any personal markers in the next three games, Lee said, “I just want to be as fit as possible and be 100% conditioning-wise. That’s my personal goal going into today’s game.”
Lee signed a six-year, $113 million deal last offseason, joining the Giants from Korea.
San Francisco Giants’ Jung Hoo Lee (51) sits in the dugout before their exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)Competition for final rotation spot heats up
The battle for the final spot in the pitching rotation has gotten much closer after Sunday night. While Hayden Birdsong came in as the favorite to become the Giants’ fifth starting pitcher, Landen Roupp certainly made things more interesting just four days out from San Francisco’s season opener.
Roupp struck out eight, walked three and gave up just one earned run and a hit in five innings. Birdsong gave up three hits and three runs, recording just one out after relieving Roupp to start the sixth inning.
“I would just sum up (the spring) by being confident,” Roupp said. “I’m confident in my ability to perform and just keep the ball rolling. Whatever happens, happens and I’m looking forward to the outcome.”
The 26-year-old right-hander alum gave up five runs in his last spring training start, but hadn’t allowed an earned run up to that point. With Kyle Harrison being optioned to Sacramento to start the year, the race for the fifth spot in the rotation will be between Roupp and Birdsong.
“It’s tough,” Melvin said. “We got a lot of good young pitching here, so it’s a little bit difficult. We haven’t completely made up our mind on what the roster is going to look like, but I think one of the strengths of the organization right now is the young pitching depth we do have.”
Before Sunday’s game, the Giants also optioned RHP Sean Hjelle, possibly opening a spot in the team’s bullpen. Roupp said while his preference is to be a starter, he wouldn’t mind sliding back into a reliever role.
“I want to be a starter, but I’m just going to go out there and compete either way,” Roupp said.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Landen Roupp (65) pitches against the Sacramento River Cats in the third inning of their exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)Jerar Encarnacion update
Outfielder Jerar Encarnacion underwent surgery in Los Angeles to repair his fractured left hand, San Francisco announced on Sunday. A timetable for his return will be determined following tomorrow’s surgery.
Encarnacion hit .302 and had two home runs in 53 spring training at-bats.
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The Athletics will make their debut in Sacramento in eight days, but one wouldn’t know when walking around the concourse at Sutter Health Park.
There were no banners, posters or announcements promoting the team formerly from Oakland anywhere on the field or throughout the concourse.
The only A’s logo found anywhere in the stadium was on a dual schedule poster in the restrooms with the dates of both River Cats and A’s home games throughout the season.
The Sacramento River Cats play the San Francisco Giants in the sixth inning of their exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin (6) stands in the dugout while playing the Sacramento River Cats in the third inning of their exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Baseball fans watch as the San Francisco Giants play the Sacramento River Cats during their exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
The San Francisco Giants prepare to take the field to play the Sacramento River Cats during their exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin (6) chats with San Francisco Giants first base coach Mark Hallberg (91) in the dugout before their exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Fans wait in line to purchase food during the Sacramento River Cats exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Sacramento River Cats mascot Dinger hi-fives baseball fans during their exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
San Francisco Giants’ President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey peeks out the centerfield wall while attending their exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Baseball fans sit in the right field grass area while watching the San Francisco Giants play the Sacramento River Cats during their exhibition game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Educators gather in Aptos for inaugural LGBTQ+ symposium
APTOS — When times are tough, “look for the helpers.”
That’s the advice Fred Rogers offered his audience for decades as host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” but it was also the opening message delivered to about 100 educators gathered inside a lecture hall at Cabrillo College Friday in support of LGBTQ+ students and community members.
“You here are the helpers,” said Adam Spickler, a Cabrillo College trustee and the first openly transgender man elected to public office in California. “We need to figure out how we wear our coat of armor in a way where the youth that we are serving will see it and find us as helpers.”
Spickler’s metaphor of protection and bravery was shared at the LGBTQ+ Symposium for K-14 Educators, organized by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education in partnership with Cabrillo College. The all-day event attracted teachers from Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, and featured panels and breakout sessions that covered protective state laws, support strategies, student perspectives and inclusion strategies.
Cabrillo College Vice President of Student Affairs Blanca Baltazar-Sabbah speaks during the keynote panel at Friday’s symposium as fellow participants State Senator John Laird, left, and UC Santa Cruz graduate student Zak Keith listen. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
A discussion of laws and policies in California K-12 education at Friday’s symposium in room 450 at Cabrillo College. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
An attentive crowd at Friday’s LGBTQ+ symposium. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Santa Cruz County Office of Education LGBTQ+ consultant Rob Darrow, right, moderates a panel discussion on Friday. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Show Caption1 of 4Cabrillo College Vice President of Student Affairs Blanca Baltazar-Sabbah speaks during the keynote panel at Friday’s symposium as fellow participants State Senator John Laird, left, and UC Santa Cruz graduate student Zak Keith listen. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Expand“The main purpose is to bring people together who are supporting LGBTQ+ students in schools so they can meet each other and share ideas,” said Rob Darrow, the event’s emcee and an LGBTQ+ consultant with the county Office of Education.
Darrow said he’s been attending education conferences for years focused on history, science or administration, but never felt like there was enough time dedicated to issues impacting LGBTQ+ youth who, according to Darrow, make up 10% to 15% of the state’s student population.
“Nobody has a whole conference focused on this group of students,” said Darrow.
After enjoying a continental breakfast replete with breakfast burritos and hot coffee, symposium attendees spilled into the lecture hall for a keynote panel focused on allyship and state laws.
During the discussion, Cabrillo’s Vice President of Student Affairs Blanca Baltazar-Sabbah stressed that it is critical for educators to listen to LGBTQ+ youth, connect students to resources and behave in such a way that their actions align with their stated values.
“If we’re saying we’re creating a safe space and we welcome you and we’re going to protect you, and then something happens on campus or at your work and you stay silent, you just told your students that you’re not an ally,” said Baltazar-Sabbah. “Students have the most powerful voices, that’s for sure. And when they come out they’re going to make change. But sometimes they may not be ready, so we need to be sure that we are there; that we are the allies; that we are the adults that are going to take care of them and that our actions are going to be aligned with our values.”
Though the event glistened all over with exuberant colors — attendees were welcomed with pride flag-themed resource bags — it took place in the shadow of what many from the LGBTQ+ community are experiencing as a perilous political environment. In the early hours of his presidency, President Donald Trump issued a flood of executive actions that targeted LGBTQ+ programs and services, and rolled back protections for transgender people.
Many in the audience audibly groaned when the topic of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom,” was referenced. In the show’s inaugural episode, Newsom spoke out against allowing transgender women and girls an opportunity to compete in female sports. His comments drew widespread criticism from progressive leaders in the state, including from the LGBTQ Caucus, which wrote that it was “profoundly sickened and frustrated” by the remarks.
State Sen. John Laird, a member of that caucus and former Cabrillo College trustee, also spoke at the symposium to share updates on recent state laws and offer reflections on the movement for LGBTQ+ rights and protections.
Laird said the LGBTQ+ community has grappled with crises before, such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of the 1990s. And while he said the current situation “is particularly bad,” he thinks students can help lead the path forward.
“There were so many different things where it was two steps forward, and one step back,” said Laird. Later, he added, “It’s really about being clear where we stand and what we’re doing in these times. That is the important thing.”
Warriors wing Jimmy Butler downplays anticipated Miami return
After the Warriors lost in Atlanta to tip off a six-game road trip, Jimmy Butler shrugged off the significance of his imminent return to the Kaseya Center and Miami.
“Another game for me, another game that we’re expected to win for sure,” Butler told reporters.
The Warriors’ loss to the Hawks came without Steph Curry, who is being re-evaluated on Monday for the pelvic contusion he suffered on Thursday night against the Raptors. It moved the Warriors’ record to 16-3 when Butler is in the lineup.
The six-time All-Star will surely be in the lineup Tuesday night against the Heat, his former team. Butler brought the Heat to two NBA Finals appearances, but his tenure with the organization ended in flames. The team suspended him three times this season for conduct detrimental to the team, and his relationship with Pat Riley frayed after the president publicly called him out and declined to award him with a contract extension.
The Heat traded Butler while he was serving an indefinite suspension to the Warriors for Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and a protected 2025 first-round pick. Dennis Schroder and Lindy Waters III were also included in the multi-team deal.
The trade ended an era in Miami and appears to have extended one in Golden State, as Butler immediately acclimated himself as a two-way star.
“Yeah, I was traded from there, yada, yada, yada,” Butler said after finishing with 25 points, eight assists and four rebounds in the loss to Atlanta. “Yeah, it didn’t end the way that people wanted to, yada yada yada. But that’s so far behind me now. I don’t even think about it. I don’t pay attention to nothing except for the trajectory of this squad.”
Butler is averaging 17.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game as a Warrior. As Curry’s stylistic foil, Butler has brought a new, rugged dynamic to the Warriors’ offensive attack and has paired well with Draymond Green on the defensive end.
Green said he knows the upcoming Heat game will be a big night for his new teammate, as well as for Wiggins — who won the 2022 title with Golden State.
“We want to win for Jimmy, they’re going to want to win for Wiggs,” Green said. “We got to come out ready to play.”
Related ArticlesGolden State Warriors | Surveying potential first-round matchups for the Warriors Golden State Warriors | Warriors defense lapses in Atlanta for loss in first game of road trip Golden State Warriors | Saint Mary’s Sweet 16 bid may hinge on Marciulionis vs. Alabama All-American Golden State Warriors | Kurtenbach: The Warriors avoided the worst with Steph Curry’s injury. It was still a harsh reminder Golden State Warriors | Steph Curry to miss game with pelvis injury as Warriors begin road tripIn the post-Heatles era, Butler brought Miami to its highest heights. He was the only All-NBA player on two separate Eastern Conference champions, one in the 2020 bubble and another in 2023. But the Lakers beat Miami in the bubble Finals and Nikola Jokic’s Nuggets eliminated the Heat two years ago.
“We were alright,” Butler said of his Heat tenure. “We didn’t win nothing like we were supposed to. So I don’t know. We made some cool runs. We had some fun. I think that’s all we did.”
Warriors sign Kevin Knox II for the rest of the seasonGolden State officially signed Kevin Knox to a standard contract. He’d previously signed a pair of 10-day contracts with the team.
Knox is the 14th player on Golden State’s roster, leaving the team with one vacant spot. The Warriors can sign a 15th player at any point from now until the end of the regular season; the later they choose to fill the opening, the more money they’ll save.
New Parkinson’s treatment developed at Stanford could help millions
After a twitching pinky finger led to a diagnosis of young-onset Parkinson’s disease, Keith Krehbiel, then 42, stopped at a bookstore on the way home to learn more about the progressive neurological disorder before telling his wife Amy the shocking news.
“I remember sitting in a parking lot and hearing this sad piece by Miles Davis,” he said. “I haven’t been able to listen to it since without feeling what I felt then.”
Twenty-eight years later, as a political science professor emeritus at Stanford, Krehbiel just became the first person in the U.S. to receive adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation (aDBS) therapy as a part of regular care. It had previously been available only on an experimental basis.
The therapy is akin to a pacemaker for the brain, counteracting beta waves and other arrhythmias relating to the immobility, stiffness and trembling associated with Parkinson’s. The device functions in a closed loop within the body, responding in real-time to feedback from the brain while documenting these interactions.
Dr. Helen Bronte-Stewart shows a Medtronic neurostimulator, the device implant that delivers adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation (aDBS) with electrical signals that adapt in response to the Parkinson’s symptom-causing beta waves of the patient’s brain. Stanford Neuroscience Health Center, March 3, 2025, Stanford, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)None of this was possible until Stanford researchers developed it in 2015 by implanting the first-generation sensing neurostimulators. Now, the personalized treatment is poised to touch millions of lives.
Parkinson’s disease diagnoses have doubled since the 1990s, affecting 10 million people around the world, including “Back to the Future” icon Michael J. Fox and science communication advocate Alan Alda of M*A*S*H fame.
A study published days ago predicts that 25 million people worldwide will be living with the disease by 2050. The U.S., where a million people have the disease, reports 90,000 new diagnoses each year.
The emerging aDBS therapy is a quantum leap from earlier treatments, approved by the FDA in 1997, the same year Krehbiel was diagnosed. In both, currents from a battery-powered neurostimulator in the chest are sent to two electrodes in the brain via wires extending up the neck, behind the ear, and into the head.
Dr. Helen Bronte-Stewart developed adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation (aDBS) as a more responsive and refined treatment for the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease – the FDA approved aDBS for the market on Feb. 24, 2025. Photographed at the Stanford Neuroscience Health Center on March, 3, 2025 in Stanford, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)Dr. Helen Bronte-Stewart, the Stanford neurologist whose research contributed to the development of the new therapy said older versions were “basically blind and deaf to the brain’s own rhythms.”
The over quarter-century-long road to aDBS began when Bronte-Stewart was growing up in the U.K., training to be a ballerina. When she chose science, her fascination with movement brought her to lead Stanford’s movement disorders center in 1999.
Her work gravitated toward Parkinson’s because of how kinetically complex and common the disease is — second only to Alzheimer’s in prevalence among degenerative neurological conditions and fastest-growing globally.
In 2011, Medtronic, a medical device company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, sought programming for their new sensing neurostimulator. They had the platform, Stanford had the technology and Bronte-Stewart had the science.
By 2018, projects across the U.S., Canada and Europe catalyzed an international multi-center pivotal trial for market approval of aDBS.
“This was fairly radical,” said Bronte-Stewart, whose team went from applying aDBS for 20 minutes at a time in the lab to sending subjects home with it.
In 2020, Krehbiel was originally scheduled for the earlier treatment, cDBS but qualified for experimental aDBS after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed his implantation.
Neurosurgeons drilled two holes into his skull while Krehbiel was fully conscious — a “creepy” experience despite the absence of pain. After a night at home with bandages securing the “manhole covers” in his head, he returned to the hospital, went under general anesthesia, woke up while doctors fit electrodes into his brain, and slept again.
Minus a slight headache when he awoke, Krehbiel felt better even before the system was on.
“My tongue felt like it had helium in it — it levitated to the top of my mouth,” he said, of the “tweaking” process that acquainted aDBS to his unique biology.
Krehbiel gradually went from six or seven pills of dopamine agonists a day to one, freed from the “awful” side effects of the drugs commonly prescribed for Parkinson’s.
Krehbiel’s disease continues to progress, in the forms of vocal deterioration, fainting spells and falls, but life is better, he said.
“It’s definitely a game changer but it’s not a cure,” he said.
John Lipp shows the neurostimulator implanted in his chest on Feb. 28, 2025. The slimeline device and battery in one is connected to electrodes surgically positioned in his brain by wires extending down behind his ear and down his neck. He said he cannot feel the presence of the wires. Photographed at Friends of Alameda Animal Shelter, in Alameda, Calif., on Feb. 28, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)Across the Bay, on Alameda island on a recent Friday afternoon, John Lipp, another Stanford research subject, unbuttoned the pink sateen shirt under his blue blazer. Standing in the open doorway to the dog kennels of Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter where he is the CEO, he asked his colleague to cue up a “stripper song” — “You Gotta Have A Gimmick” from the musical “Gypsy.”
He flashed a red line on his chest, where surgeons slid a fresh neurostimulator under his skin in an outpatient procedure in December. Soon, he won’t have to go under the knife to recharge the device.
Lipp learned he had Parkinson’s in 2015. He was 49. A harbinger had been when he was on his way to meet friends and his hand clenched into a fist. “I literally stopped in the middle of the street and talked to myself: ‘Hey, relax.’”
After diagnosis, Lipp ran his first marathon at Disneyland in 2016 but soon had to stop running because of severe muscle cramping.
In 2019, his care team told him about a study in which he could receive cutting-edge treatment while advancing medicine.
He went into surgery ready, panicking only when he realized his head was locked to the operating table. Establishing care afterward was rocky. When he worried about travel plans with his husband, researchers told him he could quit the trial. But, he thought, I’ve come this far.
The aDBS treatment banished Lipp’s cramping and helped him shed most medications. Last November, he completed the 2024 New York City Marathon.
“Even if the DBS is working, the Parkinson’s is progressing, even hour by hour,” Lipp said. Anxiety, insomnia, stress and a gait that’s slightly off remain part of his reality. He can no longer open his eyes in the morning without prying them open manually.
Lipp is retiring this June, in part, to focus on his health and advocate for the Parkinson’s community.
John Lipp, another research subject in the development of adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation (aDBS), says the treatment bought him four more years working as the CEO at Friends of Alameda Animal Shelter (FAAS) in Alameda, Calif. Photographed at the shelter on Feb. 28, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)“One thing I’ve learned about this disease – any disease – is that it doesn’t change your nature. If you’re an optimistic person before your diagnosis, you’re going to be after it,” he said.
Brian Fiske, chief scientist at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, which funded some of Bronte-Stewart’s early aDBS research, said no approved treatment exists to slow Parkinson’s. “But we see these advances in symptom management to be just as critical,” he added.
An international registry will follow participating aDBS patients to inform further advancements. The pre-existing treatment is still in use in some patients — its steady signal is still optimal for some, especially if their neural signals are too weak for aDBS responses.
Bronte-Stewart expressed gratitude for supporters of research, and human subjects who spend years in trials with no guarantee of benefit. She wants the new treatment to reach everyone who needs it.
“Only 2% of doctors become neurologists, and yet, neurological diseases are increasing exponentially. So you can immediately see there’s a supply and demand problem,” she said.
If Bronte-Stewart ever finds free time, she dances — keeps it moving.
“This is just the beginning,” she said.
Tom Karwin, On Gardening | Using AI to nurture garden needs, Part 2
This drought-tolerant unidentified plant emerges from Mexico and comes with a handling warning: use caution as it has hundreds of sharp edges on its leaves. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
This large bold lilac unidentified plant is native to western Australia and can grow 6 to 10 feet high. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
Attractive to insects and hummingbirds for its hot pink flowers, this unidentified plant can be found in the cloud forests of Southern Mexico and Central America, ranging from 6 to 12 feet in height with optimal conditions. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
A common shrub with white to pink flowers, this unidentified plant is most commonly found in Southern California and can grow up to 30 feet tall. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
Native to Mexico and Guatemala, this unidentified plant’s tubular red flowers attracts hummingbirds and flourishes in full sun during warmer months. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
Show Caption1 of 5This drought-tolerant unidentified plant emerges from Mexico and comes with a handling warning: use caution as it has hundreds of sharp edges on its leaves. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
ExpandOur recent column introduced garden-related use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), which organizes new content based on existing information, rather than analyzing or predicting existing data. This category of AI can generate text, images, music or video, supporting a range of garden-related projects.
That column focused on skills for prompting GenAI to address a specific interest. For example, a gardener could use this skill, called prompt engineering, to describe a garden landscape plan in words, and to refine the plan based on the gardener’s vision, perhaps with input from a garden designer.
Another category of AI includes tools that gardeners can use to identify plants and plant diseases, and other specific gardening interests. This column features plant identification tools. In a future column we’ll dig (a little) into AI tools to identify plant diseases, garden pests and weeds; monitor climate and soil; and optimize plant care. Additionally, we could explore ways gardeners can use AI to include images in a landscape plan.
AI tools for plant identificationBecause flowering plants (Angiosperms) include 13,000 genera and 300,000 species, encountering an unfamiliar plant is a common experience. Plant identification could be a gardener’s most frequent use of AI tools.
We begin with three highly rated tools, all available on the Apple iPhone, Android and online. These tools are convenient for uses while in the field.
Pl@ntNet (plantnet.org). This is a crowd-sourced database where users contribute plant images to improve plant identification accuracy. Its database is organized by geographic areas. To search for a plant, switch to the appropriate area (or enter “world flora”) and enter your plant’s photo. It accurately identified my photo of a pregnant onion (Albuca bracteata), an African native.
PictureThis (picturethisai.com). This tool responds to a photo by using deep learning and a huge database for plant identification and provides plant care tips, watering schedules and sunlight needs. When I subscribed to this tool for $3.33 per month, it worked well.
Google Lens (on Google, click on the “Search by Image” icon). This use of the Google website is free, easy and very quick. I uploaded a snapshot of the leaves and stems of an unfamiliar plant in my garden, and Google Lens immediately identified it accurately as dragon arum (Dracunculus vulgaris).
Any AI information should be verified through another source. When you receive a plant identification, enter the botanical name into the internet for verification.
More plant ID toolsPlantAI. Available on a cellphone. Try free for seven days, then $29.99 per year. This tool identified my photo of a natal lily (Clivia miniata).
PlantSnap. This free app identified my photo of a sacred flower of the Andes (Cantua buxifolia) as a trumpet vine (Campsis radicans). I will give it another chance.
Plant Parent. A free seven-day trial of this tool identified my plant photo as palmer’s sedum (Sedum palmeri) and provided cultivation information.
PlantIn. A three-day free trial of this app correctly identified my photo of a natal lily (Clivia miniata)
PlantID. This app, using a free three-day trial, identified my photo of an agave ‘blue glow’ that has a flower stalk, as an American agave, American aloe, century plant, etc. The agave genus has many species, so this ID was not helpful.
There are several tools that specialize in identifying mushrooms. Try Mushroom Identificator, Shroomify, Forest Mushroom Identification or Mushrooms LITE.
Plant identification databasesPlant ID tools might use these databases or other sources of information.
Plants of the World Online (plantsoftheworldonline.org). The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew manages this global plant database with detailed species data. The Plant List (theplantlist.org) has been incorporated into POWO.
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (gbif.org). This is an open-access biodiversity database with records of plant and animal species from around the world.
USDA Plants Database (plants.usda.gov). This a comprehensive plant species database managed (currently) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and focused on North America.
This week in the gardenThis column is another invitation for readers to explore the information age of gardening. Identifying plants can link to details on the plant and its cultivation, change a mystery to knowledge or just satisfy your curiosity. Your project for this week is to identify unfamiliar plants that you see in your garden or elsewhere.
If you use AI to identify a plant, write to us about your experience for sharing with other adventurous gardeners.
Enjoy your garden!
Sonya Walger lost her home to wildfire just weeks before her debut novel published
Sonya Walger hadn’t yet unpacked her family’s evacuation go-bag from December’s Franklin fire; it lay unused by the front door. Then, on Jan. 6, hurricane-force winds began punishing her Malibu neighborhood.
That night, the one before the Palisades wildfire, felt different, she says.
“I’d had a bad feeling,” says Walger, who’s lived with her family in the Big Rock neighborhood for nearly two decades. After making hotel reservations to avoid the heavy winds, she and her husband, the television writer and producer Davey Holmes, agreed that at the first sign of a fire, they’d vacate with their children. The morning of Jan. 7, they did.
“As we left, there was a huge, thick cloud of yellow smoke that just blew right across the ocean,” says Walger. “We’ve lived up there for 18 years, and I’ve never seen that before.”
That was the last time she saw her beloved neighborhood, home, and library of books, cookbooks and personal journals.
“It’s all gone,” she says. Walger and her husband didn’t learn of the house’s fate until the next morning when a neighbor sent them a photograph. “We haven’t been back yet. I can’t … I just can’t face it.”
Walger describes Big Rock as a close-knit community that kept in contact via WhatsApp as the winds blew and the fire spread. Her house, she says, was the one always filled with friends and guests.
“This was our third child, this house. This was a very, very special place, and a place that our entire community came to. It was the house that everyone spent Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter at,” she says. “We never didn’t have people staying. We never didn’t have 10 people coming for lunch on Sunday. I’m a cook. I love cooking. I love hosting. So it was that house. It was the house that everybody came to. So the loss is so immense in so many ways and to so many people.”
As an actor, Walger is known to many as Penny Widmore on the TV series “Lost” as well as for roles on “The Mind of the Married Man” and “For All Mankind.” She is also now a debut author: “Lion,” her slim, elegantly crafted autobiographical novel about growing up with a glamorous, problematic and often-absent father, was published by New York Review Books in February, just weeks after the fire.
“I think in this moment where I and others feel so adrift and cut off from everything that was familiar, normal, routine,” she says. “To have the book as this touchstone … a sense of continuity and sense of a thing in the world that can’t be burned … is very reassuring.
“I feel tremendously fortunate to have this little piece of balsa wood to cling to and keep me afloat,” she says.
“People are like, ‘God, how are you managing a book launch in this moment?’ And I’m like, ‘How are you getting through this moment without one?’”
A novel approachAlthough “Lion” is based on her own experiences, Walger knew she wanted to approach the story of her life – which at times found her bouncing between her mother or boarding school in England and her father’s life and subsequent marriages in Argentina and Peru – as fiction.
“I made the decision early on. On the most basic level, I have a notoriously faulty memory; in no way do I trust myself to be a sort of harbinger of truth,” she says, explaining why she decided not to write the book as a memoir, despite spending about two years reading exemplars of the form by Mary Karr, Ocean Vuong, Tobias Wolff and Natasha Trethewey.
Instead of focusing on her time working on a popular television show, the book examines her parents’ dramatic courtship, brief union and her own experiences with her father in the intervening years. Told in short, powerful chapters that are always in the present tense, Walger shares evocative details about her dad, a charismatic rogue who, among his exploits, took up skydiving in his late 50s.
“I am an inveterate journal keeper and have kept a journal for years and years and years. Or I did. They’re all gone. But I did have 25 years of journals, so I went to the journals in order to harvest them for little, I don’t know, kernels of memories or thoughts or observations I’d had.
“I was trying to work them into something bigger. And as I did – and this is the years of being an actor, you know – sort of closing my eyes and inhabiting that moment from inside it, imagining what my father might have thought when he first met my mum, or what it might have felt like to be alone in a hotel room in Kinshasa, aged 26, having never spent a minute in Africa,” she says, referring to moments in her parents’ lives she’d only heard about in their stories. “These are fictions.
“The artist in me, the author in me, wanted the right and the opportunity to be inside those moments,” she says.
A glamorous disasterAsked to describe her father for those who have yet to read the book, Walger says she often resorts to lists to describe him.
“He was larger than life. He was a racing car driver, Formula One. He was a polo player. He was a serial lady killer. He was a father to several. He was a cocaine addict. He lived all over the globe,” she says.
“He was the kind of man that is just so mesmerizing and charismatic and wonderful to sit next to at dinner or maybe have as your godfather,” she says. “He just isn’t necessarily who you want as your dad,” she says, mentioning his long absences and a stint in jail. “And I had a mum who never spoke ill of him and compensated for his manifold neglect, which meant that I just grew up loving him.
“I couldn’t bear that all these extraordinary, glamorous, disastrous stories should disappear with him,” she says. “So that’s how ‘Lion’ was born.”
The love of the lionessThe novel opens with a section called “Lioness,” in which Walger’s narrator describes the thankless litany of labors performed by her mother, “the one who did not stray.” These tasks include staunching blood, ignoring lies, returning books, paying fees and – quite often – combing out the lice, to name just a few from the recitation of fierce, loving gestures.
However, for all these efforts, the book is not about Walger’s mother, but her father – a man who, rather than wait in line at the post office, crammed his newlywed wife’s carefully written thank-you notes to family and friends back in England into the garbage.
“My mother tells me she will never read this,” writes Walger in that first section. Understandable, but it’s hard to imagine someone as caring as she’s presented – and who Walger says never spoke ill of her father – sticking to such a vow.
She didn’t.
“My mom not only read the book but was there at The Strand for the opening night of it, the launch of it. And it was very, very meaningful and very moving to have her there,” she says, adding that the novelist Katie Kitamura suggested Walger read that chapter at the Feb. 20 event.
“It felt like a unique moment to be able to have my mum in the audience and to be able to read ‘Lioness’ out loud to her in public. I don’t know that that’s something we’ll repeat in the world,” she says. “So yes, I have a mum who has seen the light, thank God, and read the book and is, I think, enormously proud.”
And about those letters stuffed into the garbage?
“My mum would be deeply appreciative that you felt the absolute agony of that moment,” she says. “52 years later, of all my father’s many sins, it is the one that makes her blood run cold that those thank-you letters never arrived.”
The lost libraryAs a lifelong reader, Walger says the destruction of her personal library at home hit hard. Books she’d held onto since childhood, a lifetime’s collection of cookbooks and 25 years worth of journals, burned up in the fire.
Her friends, it turns out, understand the depth of her loss.
“Barely a day goes by that a box doesn’t arrive from somebody, somewhere who’s sending me books,” she says. “NYRB, my lovely publishers, sent me a box full of their back catalog. And my editor, Susan [Barba], who edited ‘Lion,’ sent me the most beautifully curated box of books.
“Of course, you can replace things, but … to have them replaced by friends feels very, very touching.”
