Latest news with #SanJoseState
Associated Press
10-06-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Vikings agree to 3-year contract with tight end Josh Oliver
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension with tight end Josh Oliver on Tuesday, enhancing their commitment to a key part of their running game. Oliver had career highs last season with 258 receiving yards and three touchdowns while expanding his involvement in the passing attack along with his role as a run blocker. Pro Football Focus analysts gave Oliver the best run-blocking grade among all NFL tight ends who played at least half of the blocking snaps in 2024. He also got the ninth-highest overall grade in the league at his position, after he was ranked fourth by PFF in 2023. The 28-year-old Oliver has entered his third season with Minnesota after signing as a free agent in 2023 following two years with Baltimore. The 6-foot-5, 259-pound Oliver was a third-round pick by Jacksonville in the 2019 draft out of San Jose State. ___ AP NFL:
San Francisco Chronicle
05-06-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Want to go behind the scenes of the Chronicle Opinion section? Check out our new newsletter
Wait, don't hit delete! Yes, this is still the Opinion Central newsletter. We're just rolling out a new format to offer readers more than a collection of links. I'm Harry Mok, and starting this week on Thursdays, I'll be your guide for content from the Chronicle's Opinion section. First, a little about me. I'm the Opinion section's assistant editor and a columnist. I help edit all the stories that appear in the section, and I'm the editor who receives all of the Letters to the Editor submissions from readers. I grew up in the Sacramento area on a farm that my parents, immigrants from China, started as the family business. I didn't appreciate much of my family's history until I got off the farm and went to college at San Jose State, where I majored in journalism. I knew that having a family farm that grew Chinese vegetables was unusual. At San Jose State, I took classes in Asian American history and literature, which gave me a better understanding of how my family fit, or didn't fit, into the American story. I'm glad I've been able to document and honor that history by writing about it. My career has taken me from California to New York and back, and to the Chronicle twice. I was a copy editor at the Chronicle from 1997 to 2002, and I returned in 2016. I've been with the Opinion section as assistant editor since 2021. I've lived in San Francisco since 1996 and in the Sunset District since 2004. Some readers might be familiar with my columns about the Sunset, including the recent debate over the closure of the Upper Great Highway to cars. With the new Thursday newsletter format, I want to give you insights into what you're reading and how it came to be. Sometimes, that could be going behind-the-scenes with staff columnists or contributors to talk about their pieces or an analysis of issues of the day. Other times, I might give newsletter readers the space to weigh in. The goal is to have a deeper discourse that gets people thinking. Then, maybe you'll want to send a letter to the editor. Or you'll be motivated to research a subject to bolster an opinion or offer your personal experience for an Open Forum submission. The Chronicle's Opinion section welcomes viewpoints from all perspectives about the challenges we face and the triumphs we celebrate, hit me up. Our submissions inbox is open, and I can be reached at hmok@
San Francisco Chronicle
31-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Why Trump's panic over one trans kid among 1,500 CIF track and field athletes is fake news
Fortunately, the high school transgender athlete competing in the girls' jumping events at the CIF State Track & Field Championships over the weekend in Clovis is not a javelin thrower. Had she been, Donald Trump would have spent last week alarming his followers with ghastly tales of innocent bystanders impaled by the mighty, errant javelin heaves of the teen. When Trump goes on a crusade, all truth, reason and perspective saunter out for a smoke break. When he objected to a San Jose State trans volleyball player, Trump told wild — and wildly untrue — tales of opponents suffering injuries from 80 mph spikes of said Spartan. You can't injure opponents by jumping into a sand pit or high-jumping onto a big air mattress, but from Trump's level of alarm and outrage, you might have thought that the SoCal teenager was planning to compete with a nuclear bomb strapped to her back. Trump has signed an executive order banning trans athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports. When California didn't jump to comply on something that does not, after all, have the force of law, he opened up a can of blowhard. 'Please be hereby advised,' Trump trumpeted on social media, 'that large scale Federal Funding will be held back (from California), maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not adhered to… I am ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow the transitioned person to compete in the State Finals. This is a totally ridiculous situation!!!' The high schooler in question did compete Friday in the preliminaries of her three jumping events, and qualified to compete in Saturday's finals. Look, this is an issue, at least insofar as people have been told that's the case by Trump and his cronies. Seven of ten American adults, according to one poll, say they are opposed to transgender athletes competing in girls' and women's sports. But had a poll been taken before Trump made this a moral crusade, 10 out of 10 adults would have had no idea that this was even a thing, let alone a national crisis. I understand the concept of a 'slippery slope,' but fears of any wholesale invasion and destruction of female sports by trans athletes seems to be not a thing that is happening or ever going to happen. The CIF serves 835,000 California high school athletes, and the CIF has long let trans girls to participate in girls' sports, since 2013 statewide, in some school districts 20 years or more. It was never a problem before Trump. There were 1,533 athletes, boys and girls, competing at the state meet in Clovis. Only one of them was a trans person competing in girls' events. The San Jose State volleyball controversy, remember, was about one athlete among tens of thousands of competitors just in her sport. On a middling team in a second-tier conference. As one of less than 10 trans athletes among more than 500,000 college student-athletes. Trump sees one tortoise creeping out onto the highway and calls it a stampede. The state track meet was such a colossal crisis that about a dozen protestors showed up outside the event. One airplane towed a banner. It was, as Trump might say, a protest like nothing we've ever seen before. It would be cool to be able to write that California and the CIF stood their moral and legal ground and told Trump to pound sand, which conveniently can be found in the jumping pits. Instead, the CIF took a stab at appeasing Trump by cobbling together a new rule. The trans girl could compete, but an extra girl would be allowed into the competition, so that no girl would be 'deprived' of a shot at glory by the lone trans competitor. Any medals or places the trans athlete earned would be shared with the competitor who finished just behind her. Never mind that this 'solution' won't work in any other sport, and that it works — sort of, awkwardly — only in the 'field' half of track & field. The effort, no doubt, was genuine. Recognize that many now see this as a problem, and seek areas of compromise. Buy time for civilized discourse and discussion. Yeah, no. The CIF and the state are dealing with a man who is open to discussion and debate, as long as it ends quickly in supplication, followed by tearful gratitude. Not that it matters. Had the CIF and the state and all those 'local authorities' yielded to Trump and kicked one trans athlete out of the state meet, another villain would have been quickly targeted. The trans athlete 'issue' was never a legitimate crisis, it was a convenient club used by a bully to beat California into submission, to further demonize the heathen state. Maybe the way out of this situation would have been for her parents to buy a couple of tickets to a million-dollars-per-plate Trumpy event. They could have raised the money through GoFundMe or whatever. Then, not only would the athlete in question have been given Trump's blessing to compete, the unprincipled prez would have commissioned a bronze of her for his planned statue garden of athletic heroes. Trump recently issued 60 pardons/commutations — not counting 1,500 or more related to the January 6 insurrection — and at least 10 of those free birds have clear financial or political connections to the Pardoner-in-Chief. Ah, but even if Trump had been briefly distracted from the high school track & field controversy, he quickly would have re-aimed his wack-a-mole club at another random California crime against humanity. The CIF's quick fix will be just that. Eventually, you either bow down in surrender, or stand up for what you believe.
CBS News
31-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Retired teacher continues to give back to Stockton and her Filipino community
STOCKTON – After arriving in the U.S. from the Philippines nearly 60 years ago, Virginia Navarro continues to inspire her community. In 1966, Navarro left the Philippines to continue her education in the U.S. "They say that the United States is the land of opportunity, so I tried my best," Navarro said. "I saw the struggles of my parents making [a] meager salary, my dad. So, I said I have to break this poverty here." She got accepted to San Jose State's graduate program and soon realized her scholarship didn't cover all costs. "I didn't know I was going to be paying my dorm and board and lodging, and my $60 is almost gone," Navarro said. So, she leaned on her faith. "I just took those problems as mere challenges, so I worked harder I found a job in the college library," Navarro said. That summer, Stanford University hired Navarro through its Peace Corps Volunteer Program to teach Philippine culture and the language. This meant moving to Stockton and joining the large Filipino American community. "The vibrant life of the Filipinos in here, and I said, 'This is [the] Philippines, you know in the south side,'" Navarro said. It didn't take long for Navrro to accept a teaching job with the Stockton Unified School District. "My goal of uplifting my family economically is realized because I had money to send them," Navarro said. Navarro eventually moved her entire family to the U.S. She worked as an elementary school teacher during the day, and at night, she taught ESL and Tagalog classes at San Joaquin Delta College. The ambitious educator wanted to do more. "Give them self-confidence and I want them to appreciate their Filipino culture through songs and dances," Navarro said. Navarro started three Filipino folk dance groups for children. It's something she did growing up in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. "It's not only for them to develop awareness and sensitivity to their culture, and appreciation of their culture, but to disseminate to other ethnicities," Navarro said. After 62 years of teaching, Navarro decided to retire. At 87 years old, she is still giving back. "I love the community, community work, I can't get away from it," Navarro said. With so many awards and accolades to her name, Navarro knows the real reason for her distinguished career. "The most important part of my success is my family," Navarro said. Navarro remains a constant leader in Stockton, advocating for teachers and students and enriching her community with culture and diversity.
USA Today
29-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
5 things to know about new Rams OT David Quessenberry, who beat cancer early in his career
5 things to know about new Rams OT David Quessenberry, who beat cancer early in his career Quessenberry was drafted in 2013 but didn't make his NFL debut until 4 years later After letting Joe Noteboom walk in free agency, the Los Angeles Rams needed help at the swing tackle position. They appear to have found it during OTAs by signing veteran lineman David Quessenberry to a one-year deal, adding the 34-year-old to their offensive tackle group. Quesenberry will first have to make the 53-man roster but given the lack of depth behind starters Alaric Jackson and Rob Havenstein, he'll have a good chance to stick around on his fifth NFL team. Here are five things to know about the veteran tackle who last played for the Vikings in 2023 and 2024. He didn't have any scholarship offers out of high school Quessenberry went to La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad, Calif., so he grew up not too far from Los Angeles. During his time there, he played tight end and wasn't exactly on the radar of colleges. He didn't have a single scholarship offer out of high school, so he walked on at San Jose State in 2008 and eventually earned a scholarship there. He was one of the top non-scholarship players in the FBS in 2012 In 2012, Quessenberry was named a finalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, which is awarded to the best player in the FBS who began his career as a walk-on. It was given to Matt McGloin that year but simply being one of three finalists for the award was an accomplishment for the San Jose State lineman. He beat cancer early in his NFL career Quessenberry was a sixth-round pick by the Texans in 2013 but he didn't see the field until his fifth season in the NFL. That's because he suffered a season-ending foot injury in September of his rookie year and then in the summer of 2014, he was diagnosed with a "very rare and very aggressive" form of Lymphoma. He began chemotherapy right away and then got radiation treatment for six months. In February of 2015, the cancer went into remission. He finished his treatment in April of 2017, officially winning his battle with cancer. Quessenberry made his NFL debut in December of 2017 after being promoted from the Texans' practice squad, marking his first game as a pro since being drafted four-plus years earlier. He won the 2017 George Halas Award for overcoming adversity After making his way back from months of treatment and a multi-year absence due to Lymphoma, the NFL recognized Quessenberry's perseverance by naming him the George Halas Award recipient, which goes to the player, coach and staff member who overcomes the most adversity in a given year. He's 1 of 3 brothers to make it to the NFL Quessenberry isn't the only member of his family to reach the NFL. His brother Scott was a fifth-round pick in 2018, landing with the Chargers as the 155th overall pick. His other brother, Paul, signed with the Patriots as an undrafted rookie in 2020 after serving five years in the Marine Corps. He also had a stint with the Texans from 2021-2022. Follow Rams Wire on X, Facebook and Threads for more coverage!
