Appliance Repair in Keyes, CA

8.5 Acre Site for RNG and CCS Operations

CUPERTINO, CA, April 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire – Aemetis, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMTX), a renewable fuels company focused on negative carbon intensity products, today announced the acquisition of an 8.5-acre property on Faith Home Road for $2 million, located approximately 1/4 mile from the Aemetis Keyes renewable ethanol plant. The corner property is a strategic location for operations supporting the company’s Carbon Zero projects, including dairy renewable natural gas (RNG) and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).

Sited adjacent to the existing Aemetis biogas pipeline, the property is ideally situated at the southeast intersection of Faith Home Road and Keyes Road, approximately 1/2 mile from California Highway 99, the major north-south route that runs through California’s Central Valley. The property is also approximately 1/2 mile from the Union Pacific Railroad. The property’s location and level terrain allow for easy access to the Aemetis Keyes facility and major transportation infrastructure.

Aemetis has completed construction and is currently commissioning a centralized gas cleanup facility and utility gas interconnect at the Keyes Ethanol plant where dairy biogas will be upgraded to RNG and injected into the utility gas pipeline through an interconnection with PG&E.

“The acquisition of the Faith Home property is a key milestone in our RNG and CCS project plans,” said Eric McAfee, Chairman, and CEO of Aemetis, Inc. “The site’s location close to the Keyes ethanol plant, adjacent to the existing Aemetis biogas pipeline and easily accessible to major highways is a major step toward deploying new and ongoing Carbon Zero activities,” added McAfee.

Aemetis Carbon Zero products include negative carbon intensity fuels that can be used in passenger and cargo vehicles including trucks, buses and airplanes to replace petroleum products. Aemetis low-carbon fuels have substantially reduced carbon intensity compared to standard petroleum fossil-based fuels.

Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Aemetis is a renewable natural gas, renewable fuel and biochemicals company focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of innovative technologies that replace petroleum-based products and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Founded in 2006, Aemetis has completed Phase 1 and is expanding a California biogas digester network and pipeline system to convert dairy waste gas into Renewable Natural Gas. Aemetis owns and operates a 65 million gallon per year ethanol production facility in California’s Central Valley near Modesto that supplies about 80 dairies with animal feed. Aemetis also owns and operates a 50 million gallon per year production facility on the East Coast of India producing high quality distilled biodiesel and refined glycerin for customers in India and Europe. Aemetis is developing the Carbon Zero sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel fuel biorefineries in California to utilize distillers corn oil and other renewable oils to produce low carbon intensity renewable jet and diesel fuel using cellulosic hydrogen from waste orchard and forest wood, while pre-extracting cellulosic sugars from the waste wood to be processed into high value cellulosic ethanol at the Keyes plant. Aemetis holds a portfolio of patents and exclusive technology licenses to produce renewable fuels and biochemicals. For additional information about Aemetis, please visit .

The Gallo-owned winery enlisted “Cougartown” star Courteney Cox, 57, to direct a series of digital ads that “combat ageism,” according to a press release, featuring “people over the age of 50 in front of and behind the camera.” Two different spots, one 30 seconds and the other 15 seconds long, started airing this week on Hulu, YouTube, Roku and other platforms.

In the 30-second commercial, silver-haired actors are shown engaged in activities like playing air guitar, riding a horse and posing in a nude photo shoot. “Some people say Chardonnay drinkers are old. Boring. Stuffy. Uninspired. Unadventurous,” a voice-over says. “We say cheers to that.”

It’s cute, especially the air guitar guy. But the logic behind the campaign is a head scratcher. In the context of what’s happening today in the American wine industry, marketing to older audiences is offering a solution to a nonexistent problem.

More than any other age group, people over the age of 50 are already more likely to be wine drinkers. The generation known as Boomers, currently age 57-75, is the largest wine-consuming group by a factor of 2 to 1 over Millennials (25-40), according to the latest industry report from Silicon Valley Bank’s wine division, a leading analyst.

If there’s anyone the wine industry is alienating, it’s youngsters, not elders. In fact, the failure to capture these younger drinkers is imperiling the very survival of the $40 billion California wine industry. “The issue of greatest concern for the wine business today continues to be the lagging participation in the wine category by the large Millennial generation,” wrote Rob McMillan, the author of that report.

By dropping a term like “ageism,” Clos du Bois manages to cloak its bizarre strategy in a noble-sounding mission. When asked about the reports showing the industry’s need to attract Millennials, Keyes did not elaborate. The impetus for what it’s calling its Long Live campaign, said Keyes, was a sense that alcohol ads were disproportionately featuring the young. “It was clear that many brands are ignoring older consumers and only showing young faces.”

Part of this clarity came from a survey that Clos du Bois conducted in March of 1,001 wine drinkers 25 and older. The results showed that only 3% of people aged 55 and older “strongly agree” that alcohol advertising represents their age group well.

It’s undeniable that Chardonnay, maybe more than any other wine, tends to get attached to lots of stereotypes about women. However, data shows that Americans of all ages consume Chardonnay in similar numbers: During a three-month period in 2018, according to Statista, 30% of people who bought Chardonnay were between ages 50-64, as opposed to 27% who were 30-49 and 25% who were 18-29. Old people drink more Chardonnay than young people, but just barely.

Seeing a big digital ad drop, especially with a high-profile name like Cox behind it, is something of a surprise from Clos du Bois, given the rocky year this brand has had. Though the Geyserville winery once enjoyed a strong reputation as a reliable producer of good, affordable wines, it endured a significant fall from grace after being sold to corporate owners in the 1980s. It eventually fell to Constellation Brands, one of the largest alcohol conglomerates in the country, and last year Constellation sold it off — in a bulk deal, along with dozens of other sub-$11 California wine brands — to Gallo.

Immediately after completing the sale, Gallo announced it would not reopen the Clos du Bois tasting room in Geyserville, which had been closed for some time due to the pandemic. In May, Gallo laid off 32 Clos du Bois employees, leaving just five workers on staff there. At the time, the layoffs and closure pointed to Gallo putting the brand on auto-pilot, investing the bare minimum into it and, maybe, hoping to get little out of it.

Not so anymore. Now, it would seem, Gallo sees the brand and its $10.99 Chardonnay as an opportunity for anti-ageism activism. But if Clos du Bois — and the rest of the California wine industry — continues to focus its energy on capturing drinkers over the age of 50, it may not live into the next generation.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s senior wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley

A California man who tried to join ISIS and wanted to encourage more English speakers to be part of the terror group was sentenced to 20 years behind bars, Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced.

Bernard Augustine, 25, represented himself during his one-week trial in August and told jurors that if he was acquitted, he’d try once again to join the terror group, prosecutors said after his Wednesday sentencing.

“The trial evidence demonstrated that Augustine is a committed supporter of ISIS, that he glorified beheadings and other acts of terror, and that he intended to support the terrorist organization by encouraging more English speakers to join its ranks,” US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.

“Today’s sentence ensures this dangerous defendant will not join ISIS as he tried to do in 2016, and testified at trial that he would do again if the jury acquitted him.”

Around the time Augustine turned 18 while living in Keyes, a small rural community outside of Modesto, he made plans to travel in February 2016 to Tunisia from San Francisco with the goal of joining ISIS across the border in Libya.

In the months leading up to his trip, Augustine spent time watching ISIS propaganda videos that glorified the terror group’s violence and googling questions like “how to safely join ISIS,” prosecutors said.

The wannabe terrorist also visited websites on the ISIS recruitment process, including one titled: “How does a Westerner join ISIS? Is there a recruitment or application process?”

Augustine went through with his February 2016 trip to Tunisia, but before he could cross the border into Libya, he was detained for two years and then returned to the US in 2018.

During his trial, Augustine testified that he still wanted to join ISIS and described videos of the group beheading Syrian captives as “good” and “really cool.” He said he intended to help the group by providing English-language voiceovers for their propaganda videos.

Prosecutors asked him to confirm testimony he gave that he “would do it all again and would go back today” if given the chance and Augustine replied, “No, tomorrow, when they let me off.”

Augustine was convicted on charges for attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. It’s unclear where he’ll serve his sentence.

Competition series, based on the Eurovision Song Contest, will feature newcomers and established stars.

You’ve probably at least heard of the Eurovision Song Contest, a wildly popular competition that pits singers and songwriters from different countries against each other.

It’s been held annually (with the exception of 2020) since 1956, and 183 million viewers tuned in last year when the Italian glam rock band Måneskin won the prize. (The contest also was parodied by Will Ferrell in the Netflix movie “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga” in 2020.)

Americans have never participated, of course. But now, thanks to NBC and the producers of Eurovision and “The Voice,” we’ve got our own version — “The American Song Contest.”

Executive producer Ben Silverman calls it “the granddaddy of all music competition shows.” And, while producers in general — and Silverman, specifically — are known to be hyperbolic, in this case he’s right. “I think it translates beautifully to America and our diverse culture that is only unified through its music and song,” he said.

That, or course, remains to be seen.

Contestants representing all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and five territories will compete. Representing Utah is singer/songwriter Savannah Keyes. She said her participation in the show is “truly a stroke of luck. Honestly, I still pinch myself every single day. I’m not sure how I got so lucky. When I look at the cast, I’m, like, ‘Wait, I’m also doing this. This is amazing.”

Executive producer Audrey Morrissey (”The Voice”) said “American Song Contest” is not a show “for the 15-year-old whose family doesn’t know they can sing and they’re going to come out on ‘The Voice’ or ‘American Idol’ or (‘America’s Got Talent’) and blow people away.” It’s for singer-songwriters who have achieved some degree of success. Many of them are already signed to record labels.

And not all the contestants are unknowns. Michael Bolton is representing Connecticut; Sisqó is representing Maryland; Macy Gray is representing Ohio; and Jewel is representing Alaska. (She was born in Payson, Utah, but grew up in Alaska.)

But will the high-profile contestants have an advantage? Gray and Bolton already have followings — how can Keyes compete with that?

Morrissey said that all the artists — both new and established — are being given “an even playing field” with “the same level of support.” And she discounted the advantage Bolton or Gray might have by arguing that “Americans love to discover new people, new musicians, new songs and everything, and they also love an underdog.”

“I almost feel like the legacy artists are going to have to work harder,” said Kelly Clarkson, who’ll host alongside Snoop Dogg.

That, of course, remains to be seen. But executive producer Christer Bjorkman said that in the 20 years he’s produced the Eurovision contest, he’s “seen it all. I’ve seen stars win. I’ve seen stars fall. I’ve seen new stars being born — lots of them. And the thing is, this show is all about the song. It doesn’t matter how famous you are. ... If you come across with your song, you win.”

Keyes found out in January that she was going to be on. The show was originally scheduled to start airing in February, but was pushed back because of the omicron variant surge. “It’s just enough time to freak yourself out,” she said.

Keyes grew up in Sandy, although she now makes Nashville her home. She said her “whole family” still lives in Utah, and she visits often. She isn’t exactly sure how she was chosen to be on the show, and the producers were sort of vague about that. Morrissey said the show’s staff “put our feelers” and used their contacts from working on “The Voice” and other shows. And Keyes competed on “Real Country,” sort of a country-music version of “The Voice” that aired in 2018 on NBC’s sister channel, the USA Network.

It’s a curated group, unlike the European version, where each country has its own selection show that feeds into Eurovision. “Here, we have no mechanism for that,” Morrissey said. “Hopefully, down the road, we will. But in the meantime, we had to sort of kickstart this.”

Starting this week, “The American Song Contest” will air “live” — tape-delayed in the Mountain time zone — on Mondays at 7 p.m. on NBC/Ch. 5. “Which is absolutely terrifying,” Keyes said. “But it makes it more exciting.”

The results will be a combination of viewers’ votes and input from a judging panel. And, according to the producers, contestants from smaller states or territories won’t be at a disadvantage. According to executive producer Anders Lehnhoff, who also produces Eurovision, the winner of the popular vote in each state or territory gets the same number of points — so the winners of the popular vote in California (population 39.5 million) and Guam (population 169,000) each get 12 points, at least in the early rounds.

As the eight-week competition continues, “you need to find support in as many states and territories as possible,” Lenhoff said.

“I think when you sit down to watch the show in the beginning, of course, you root for your home state,” said Bjorkman, “but then you fall in love with any song that you like.”

Keyes is keeping her fingers crossed that she’ll get the support of viewers in Utah. “The people here are always supportive of somebody who has a dream. It’s just taking it further and actually picking up your phone to vote,” she said with a laugh. ”It’s out of my control completely, and I just have to put together the best performance I possibly can.

“But please vote! Otherwise, it’ll just be my mom and my dad, and that’ll be a bummer.”

“The American Song Contest” isn’t just about the performances, it’s about the songs. Keyes can’t talk about the song she wrote until after she performs it on TV, but she did say that when she woke up one morning, “I had a title that I really wanted to write. … It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve written.”

Of course, the competition is also about the performances. Eurovision has become famous — maybe infamous? – for its over-the-top costumes and extravagant production in its final rounds. “And we’ve been working for months to really deliver on that level of production value that Eurovision has and bring that here,” Morrissey said.

Not matter what happens in the competition, Keyes will have a national television stage to promote her song and her career. “Absolutely,” she said. “This is a great opportunity.” And Clarkson said, “It’s also about just getting your music out there.”

And no matter what happens on “The American Song Contest,” it’ll be a big year for Keyes. She and her fiance, Luis Casas, are in the middle of planning a September wedding and she’s “trying to launch an entire career.”

“When it rains it pours, but it’s all good things,” she said. “I’ll probably take a nap at the end of the year, but it’s going to be so much fun.”

Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.

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The 2022 NFL Draft is nearly here

A system called the "common draft" was implemented for the AFL and NFL in 1967, creating a joint draft between the two leagues and establishing the precursor for what has become the marquee event of the offseason.

The two leagues merged in 1970, and the rest is history.

Over the next three weeks leading up to the 2022 NFL Draft, we're going to take a look back at who the Kansas City Chiefs have selected in each round since the event's beginnings 55 years ago.

Let's begin with the seventh round, where Kansas City currently owns four selections (No. 233, No. 243, No. 251 and No. 259) later this month. The Chiefs haven't picked in the seventh round since selecting cornerback BoPete Keyes (No. 237 overall) in 2020.

As of now, these are the selections Kansas City currently has in the 2022 Draft:

No. 29 overall (Round 1)

No. 30 overall (Round 1)

No. 50 overall (Round 2)

No. 62 overall (Round 2)

No. 94 overall (Round 3)

No. 103 overall (Round 3)*

No. 121 overall (Round 4)

No. 135 overall (Round 4)

No. 233 overall (Round 7)

No. 243 overall (Round 7)

No. 251 overall (Round 7)

No. 259 overall (Round 7)*

* Denotes a compensatory pick

And here's a look at who the Chiefs have drafted in the seventh round since 1967:

2020 | Pick No. 237 | BoPete Keyes | CB | Tulane

2019 | Pick No. 216 | Nick Allegretti | OL | Illinois

2015 | Pick No. 233 | Da'Ron Brown | WR | Northern Illinois

2013 | Pick No. 207 | Mike Catapano | DL | Princeton

2012 | Pick No. 218 | Jerome Long | DL | San Diego State

2012 | Pick No. 238 | Junior Hemingway | WR | Michigan

2011 | Pick No. 223 | Shane Bannon | RB | Yale

2009 | Pick No. 256 | Ryan Succop | K | South Carolina

2009 | Pick No. 212 | Javarris Williams | RB | Tennessee State

2009 | Pick No. 237 | Jake O'Connell | TE | Miami (OH)

2008 | Pick No. 210 | Brian Johnston | DL | Gardner-Webb

2008 | Pick No. 239 | Mike Merritt | TE | Central Florida

2007 |Pick No. 231 | Michael Allan | TE | Whitworth (WA)

2006 | Pick No. 228 | Jarrad Page | DB | UCLA

2005 | Pick No. 238 | Jeremy Parquet | OL | Southern Miss

2005 | Pick No. 229 | James Kilian | QB | Tulsa

2004 | Pick No. 231 | Kevin Sampson | OL | Syracuse

2003 | Pick No. 252 | Willie Pile | DB | Virginia Tech

2003 | Pick No. 230 | Montique Sharpe | DL | Wake Forest

2002 | Pick No. 221 | Maurice Rodriguez | LB | Fresno State

2001 | Pick No. 212 | Shaunard Harts | DB | Boise State

2001 | Pick No. 243 | Terdell Sands | DL | Tennessee - Chattanooga

2000 | Pick No. 208 | Desmond Kitchings | WR | Furman

1999 | Pick No. 220 | Eric King | OL | Richmond

1998 | Pick No. 216 | Eric Warfield | DB | Nebraska

1998 | Pick No. 224 | Ernest Blackwell | RB | Missouri

1997 | Pick No. 214 | Nathan Parks | OL | Stanford

1996 | Pick No. 245 | Darrell Williams | DB | Tennessee State

1996 | Pick No. 211 | Ben Lynch | OL | California

1996 | Pick No. 241 | Jeff Smith | OL | Tennessee

1994 | Pick No. 199 | Steve Matthews | QB | Memphis

1994 | Pick No. 219 | Tracy Greene | TE | Grambling State

1993 | Pick No. 186 | Danan Hughes | WR | Iowa

1992 | Pick No. 186 | Erick Anderson | LB | Michigan

1991 | Pick No. 189 | Bernard Ellison | DB | Nevada

1990 | Pick No. 180 | Dave Szott | OL | Penn State

1989 | Pick No. 171 | Ron Sancho | LB | LSU

1988 | Pick No. 170 | Troy Stedman | LB | Washburn

1987 | Pick No. 186 | Doug Hudson | QB | Nicholls State

1985 | Pick No. 180 | Vince Thompson | DL | Missouri Western

1985 | Pick No. 183 | Dave Heffernan | OL | Miami (FL)

1984 | Pick No. 173 | Kevin Ross | DB | Temple

1983 | Pick No. 173 | Ken Thomas | RB | San Jose State

1983 | Pick No. 179 | Daryl Posey | RB | Mississippi College

1982 | Pick No. 184 | Greg Smith | DL | Kansas

1981 | Pick No. 180 | Billy Jackson | RB | Alabama

1979 | Pick No. 167 | Ken Kremer | DL | Ball State

1978 | Pick No. 168 | Ricky Odom | DB | USC

1978 | Pick No. 184 | Bill Kellar | WR | Stanford

1977 | Pick No. 177 | Chris Golub | DB | Kansas

1976 | Pick No. 196 | Rod Wellington | RB | Iowa

1974 | Pick No. 172 | LeRoy Hegge | DL | South Dakota - Springfield

1973 | Pick No. 173 | Donn Smith | OL | Purdue

1972 | Pick No. 179 | Dean Carlson | QB | Iowa State

1970 | Pick No. 182 | Clyde Glosson | WR | Texas - El Paso

1969 | Pick No. 179 | Tom Nettles | WR | San Diego State

1968 | Pick No. 184 | Sammy Grezaffi | DB | LSU

1967 | Pick No. 183 | Dick Erickson | OL | Wisconsin - Stout

Notes:

- Twenty-nine of Kansas City's 58 seventh-round draft picks went on to appear in a game for the Chiefs, combining to play in 1,084 total contests.

- Offensive lineman and 2019 seventh-round pick Nick Allegretti is the only seventh-round selection drafted by the Chiefs currently on the roster. He appeared in all 17 games last season.

- The Chiefs have selected one future Pro Bowler in the seventh round since 1967: defensive back Kevin Ross, who was drafted in 1984. Ross made the Pro Bowl in 1989 and 1990. He was inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame in 2011.

- Ross wore a Chiefs' uniform in the most games of any seventh-round pick in franchise history, taking the field 156 times. Offensive tackle Dave Szott (142) and defensive back Eric Warfield (115) are the only other seventh-round selections to appear in at least 100 games for Kansas City.

- Offensive lineman and defensive back have been the most-selected positions over the years, with 11 picks each.

- Former wide receiver and current Chiefs Radio Network analyst Danan Hughes appeared in 85 games for Kansas City after being selected in the seventh round of the 1993 Draft.