- There are, of course, COVID concerns over fans gathering to watch Saturday's big playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers. Bars all over the Bay Area are eager for the business, but Omicron is still very much everywhere. [KRON4]
- A Tenderloin addict whom the Chronicle's Heather Knight had befriended and followed over three years and who had recently gotten clean has died of an overdose. Jeffrey Choate was 36, and his mother says his addiction problems began when Kaiser over-prescribed opioids following a wisdom tooth surgery when he was a teenager. [Chronicle]
- Four teenagers were arrested in connection with a shooting that occurred Wednesday night in the parking lot of Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo. [NBC Bay Area]
- A San Leandro man has been arrested on suspicion of cruelty to animals after video appeared on social media of him allegedly stomping on ducks at a San Lorenzo pond. [NBC Bay Area]
- A vigil Saturday intends to call attention to a missing persons case in Santa Rosa, a 28-year-old mother, Terra Trunick, who went missing a year ago. [CBS SF]
- A proposal in the California State Senate would allow kids 12 and up to get vaccines without their parents consent — the youngest of any such rule in the U.S. [Associated Press]
- A new study has found no link between COVID vaccines and infertility, but the study did find a possible link between males being recently infected with COVID and difficulties conceiving. [East Bay Times]
- Adele has postponed her Las Vegas residency due to COVID cases among her crew, and other complications. [CNN]
- Comedian and Emmy-winner for Baskets Louie Anderson has died at 68. [Associated Press]
- And rock star Meat Loaf has also died at age 74. [Associated Press]
Photo: Frederick Lee
