Fremont Ca

For one wonderful year, Kimberly Paternoster lived in Web-surfer nirvana. A computer programmer and entrepreneur building a business pertaining to Web auctions, she was among the first 100 charter subscribers to @Home--an ultra-high-speed connection to the World Wide Web that operates over cable television lines. At first the service seemed to fulfill its improbable performance claims--100 times the speed of a standard phone connection to the Web for only $39.95 a month.

A woman was arrested after allegedly chasing a utility's tree trimmers with a chain-saw and twisting the fingers of an officer, police said. Diane Kaiser, 57, posted bail and was released. She "apparently has had some issues with" the utility trimming the trees, police said.

In response to widespread discontent over the quality of high-speed Internet service provided by AT&T, the Fremont City Council was expected Tuesday night to adopt detailed new standards that could set a national pattern.

A woman and her daughter were bludgeoned to death with a 20-inch-long tree branch while walking four miles through the night to a nursing home where the mother worked the early shift, police said Monday. Neighbors who called police at 3 a.m. Sunday said they heard screams and saw a man standing over the women's bodies with the crude club. The man then got into a car with three other people in it and sped away, police said.

In a move expected to influence municipalities around the country, the Fremont City Council this week established minimum-service standards for Internet access provided over the local cable TV system in the Bay Area. The rules require AT&T Broadband Interactive Services, monopoly holder of the city's cable TV franchise, to answer 90% of all service calls within 30 seconds and to fix 95% of service outages within 24 hours.

Police canvassed the Irvington district of the city Tuesday, hoping to prevent more pipe bombs from being planted in an area where eight bombs have been found in recent days. Police said two pipe bombs were found Monday, and they asked people to be aware and to report any suspicious devices immediately. One of the bombs was found in the window well of a resident's car, and the other was found in the middle of Fremont Boulevard, police say. Neither bomb exploded.

A woman was arrested after allegedly chasing a utility's tree trimmers with a chain-saw and twisting the fingers of an officer, police said. Diane Kaiser, 57, posted bail and was released. She "apparently has had some issues with" the utility trimming the trees, police said.

A transgender teen under attack after partygoers discovered that the girl they knew as Lida was anatomically male apparently made a desperate bid for safety by offering a cash ransom if she were let free, a witness testified Monday. Jaron Chase Nabors, who was at the party the night the teenager was killed, said defendant Jason Michael Cazares, 22, told him "that Lida had offered him a couple of grand to get her out of the house." The answer was no, "obviously," Nabors said.

Twelve unsophisticated, low-powered bombs have been found in the past month randomly targeting cars in the city's Irvington neighborhood, police say. Nine of the bombs have exploded. No one has been hurt. Police have asked for help from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

City officials are considering forming a sister-city relationship with Kabul, Afghanistan. Fremont is home to about 10,000 Afghan Americans. A section of the city has even been nicknamed Little Kabul. Afghanistan has no sister cities. The idea was recently proposed by Sister Cities International, a nonprofit corporation that handles such relationships. Fremont's other sister cities include Fukaya, Japan; Puerto Penasco, Mexico; Horta, Portugal; and Jaipur, India.

A transgender teen under attack after partygoers discovered that the girl they knew as Lida was anatomically male apparently made a desperate bid for safety by offering a cash ransom if she were let free, a witness testified Monday. Jaron Chase Nabors, who was at the party the night the teenager was killed, said defendant Jason Michael Cazares, 22, told him "that Lida had offered him a couple of grand to get her out of the house." The answer was no, "obviously," Nabors said.

One of four young men charged in the killing of transgender teenager Eddie "Gwen" Araujo testified against his co-defendants Monday, saying that they slapped the victim and beat him on the head with a frying pan after learning he was a man. Jaron Chase Nabors said Araujo pleaded with his attackers to stop, begging them, "No! Please don't! I have a family!" But the attack continued, Nabors said, and Araujo's intended fate became clear.

City officials are considering forming a sister-city relationship with Kabul, Afghanistan. Fremont is home to about 10,000 Afghan Americans. A section of the city has even been nicknamed Little Kabul. Afghanistan has no sister cities. The idea was recently proposed by Sister Cities International, a nonprofit corporation that handles such relationships. Fremont's other sister cities include Fukaya, Japan; Puerto Penasco, Mexico; Horta, Portugal; and Jaipur, India.

Twelve unsophisticated, low-powered bombs have been found in the past month randomly targeting cars in the city's Irvington neighborhood, police say. Nine of the bombs have exploded. No one has been hurt. Police have asked for help from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Police canvassed the Irvington district of the city Tuesday, hoping to prevent more pipe bombs from being planted in an area where eight bombs have been found in recent days. Police said two pipe bombs were found Monday, and they asked people to be aware and to report any suspicious devices immediately. One of the bombs was found in the window well of a resident's car, and the other was found in the middle of Fremont Boulevard, police say. Neither bomb exploded.

In a move expected to influence municipalities around the country, the Fremont City Council this week established minimum-service standards for Internet access provided over the local cable TV system in the Bay Area. The rules require AT&T Broadband Interactive Services, monopoly holder of the city's cable TV franchise, to answer 90% of all service calls within 30 seconds and to fix 95% of service outages within 24 hours.

A woman and her daughter were bludgeoned to death with a 20-inch-long tree branch while walking four miles through the night to a nursing home where the mother worked the early shift, police said Monday. Neighbors who called police at 3 a.m. Sunday said they heard screams and saw a man standing over the women's bodies with the crude club. The man then got into a car with three other people in it and sped away, police said.

In response to widespread discontent over the quality of high-speed Internet service provided by AT&T, the Fremont City Council was expected Tuesday night to adopt detailed new standards that could set a national pattern.