Dish Network, Sling TV to drop NBC Regional Sports Networks
How’s this for a sports fan’s nightmare: Imagine being told that in a month you’ll no longer be able to watch Giants, Warriors, A’s or Sharks games on your television or devices.
For Dish Network and Sling TV viewers, no imagination is needed — their reality is the plug will be pulled on almost all of those games April 1.
Because of a breakdown in negotiations between those services and NBC Sports Regional Networks, subscribers of Dish and Sling TV were notified Tuesday that NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California won’t be available to them.
Coincidentally, the Dish and Sling TV blackout begins on Opening Night for both the Giants and A’s.
A spokesperson for Sling TV released a statement saying the company could no longer justify carrying the Regional Sports Networks on its platforms because of the rising carriage fees NBC
now requires.
NFL
ROETHLISBERGER RETURNING TO STEELERS >> Ben Roethlisberger is returning for an 18th season with the Pittsburgh Steelers and is taking a pay cut to do it.
The team and the twotime Super Bowl winner announced on Thursday they have agreed on a new contract that assures the 39-year-old will be back in 2021.
Financial details were not immediately available, though the Steelers made no secret of the need for Roethlisberger to take a pay cut to ease some of the burden of his NFL-high $41.25-million salary-cap hit scheduled for 2021.
Women’s basketball
STANFORD ROUTS USC >> Ashten Prechtel had 15 points and 11 rebounds to lead No. 4 Stanford to a 9253 victory over Southern California in a Pac-12 quarterfinal.
Haley Jones and Hannah Jump each had 14 points, and Lacie Hull added 10 points for the Cardinal (23-2, 19-2), who improved to 48-6 all-time in the Pac-12 tournament and 18-1 in the quarterfinals.
Alissa Pili led USC (11-12, 8-10) with nine points.
The Cardinal tied a Pac-12 tournament record by making 15 3-pointers and shot 45.5% from beyond the arc.
NHL
WALTER GRETZKY, FATHER OF
NHL STAR WAYNE GRETZKY, DIES AT 82 >> Walter Gretzky, the father of hockey great Wayne Gretzky, has died. He was 82.
Wayne Gretzky said in a statement Thursday night that his father battled Parkinson’s disease and other health issues the past few years.
In his younger days, Walter Gretzky became a name himself, appearing with his famous son in commercials and emerging as a bluecollar symbol of a devoted hockey parent.
Golf
MCILROY, DECHAMBEAU PUT
ON A SHOW AT BAY HILL >> Bay Hill was bustling Thursday, just like golf before the pandemic. The fans were limited in numbers but they all wanted the same dose of entertainment provided by Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau.
First it was McIlroy, slowly feeling better about his game, and with good reason. Starting with a 55foot putt on the par-3 second hole, he ran off five straight birdies for a share of the lead with Corey Conners in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at 6-under 66.
In the group behind McIlroy was DeChambeau, who has been contemplating a shot across the water to cut the 528-yard sixth hole down to size by going for the green. This was not the day with a slight breeze into his face, so the U.S. Open champion had some fun. He took out an iron, and then hit a conservative tee shot (309 yards) to the middle of the fairway.
It was a boring birdie, his third in a row, and he opened with a 67.
WASHINGTON >> As part of its clean-energy agenda, the Biden administration is reviving an Energy Department program that disbursed billions of dollars in loan guarantees to companies such as electric car maker Tesla and the failed solar company Solyndra, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says.
The loan program helped launch the country’s first utility-scale wind and solar farms as part of the Obama administration’s efforts to create “green jobs” but largely went dormant under President Donald Trump.
The program boosted Tesla’s efforts to become a behemoth in electric cars, but it stumbled with a major loan guarantee to Solyndra, the California solar company that failed soon after receiving federal money a decade ago, costing taxpayers more than $500 million.
GOP criticism
Republicans and other critics cite Solyndra as an example of wasteful spending under President Barack Obama’s stimulus program, and the loan guarantees have largely dried up in recent years. The Energy Department provided $12 billion in guarantees for the Vogtle nuclear power station in Georgia, but few other loans were offered under Trump.
That’s about to change — in a big way, Granholm says.
In an interview with
The Associated Press, Granholm said up to $40 billion in guarantees will be made available for a variety of clean-energy projects, including wind, solar and hydro power, advanced vehicles, geothermal and even nuclear.
‘Got to be clean’
“It’s got to be clean. That’s it,” she said. “And when I say clean, you know, it’s technologies that are being researched in the lab,” like projects to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions, so-called green hydrogen fuel and other energy sources, she said.
The program will be overseen by Jigar Shah, a longtime clean-energy entrepreneur who helped pioneer solar power in the U.S.
While Republicans are likely to focus on avoiding a repeat of Solyndra, Granholm, a former Michigan governor, said Tesla is a better example. The company’s founder, Elon Musk, repaid the loan in full years ahead of schedule and Tesla is now one of the world’s leading makers of electric cars and battery storage.
“I mean, obviously that was two administrations ago,” she said, referring to Solyndra, which went bankrupt in 2011. “We’ve learned a lot since then. People understand that when you invest in technology that is new, you’re going to have some that don’t succeed.”
Still, the loan program overall has returned more than $500 million to taxpayers, “people paying back their loans with interest,” Granholm said.
DEAR AMY >> I have strong feelings about who I will see during the pandemic.
I have very little contact with my friend “Marion.” Marion is 62, and a nurse practitioner (but in management, so she is working from home).
Thirty years ago, Marion had breast cancer, but otherwise she is healthy.
I am 60 with an autoimmune disease. I work from home.
Marion goes to the hair and nail salon. She meets her trainer at the gym, and meets friends at outdoor tented restaurants.
She shops in the grocery store.
I would love to do those things, but I use hair color out of a box and put my hair up in a bun. I order my groceries online.
I expressed (oops) that I think it’s wrong that people are going out to hair and nail salons. She thinks I am being overly cautious and that I don’t understand.
The numbers in my state are going up and we have the South African variant of the COVID virus here. Plus, I will probably not get the vaccine until the summer.
We both have strong feelings about this, so I am afraid it might end our friendship.
Tell me if I am being too judgmental.
— Trying to Stay
Healthy
DEAR TRYING >> You have the right to your opinion, but your opinion about what is right for you doesn’t mean that it is right for others. Given your health risk, you are wise to be very cautious.
Does “Marion” urge you to join her while she is on her outings? Does she shame you for having gray roots? It doesn’t sound as if she does. She has done her own informal risk analysis on how to manage during the pandemic (the way we all have), and is making choices based on her own judgment.
You are taking good care of the most important person in this equation: You. In addition to guarding your own health, if you stay healthy throughout the course of the pandemic, you are relieving the health care system (and all of those frontline workers we care so much about) of having to take care of you.
But yes, you are being too judgmental. The pandemic has stolen so much from all of us; don’t let it take your friendship, too.
DEAR AMY >> I was laughing out loud as I read your response to “Wondering,” who was contemplating letting a near-stranger move into his home — and share his bed: “Nope. No, no, no. On the other hand: Maybe the pandemic has prevented you from attending live theater...” Thank you for that perfect and clever response to this man’s absolutely absurd proposed living situation.
— A Fan
DEAR FAN >> Thank you! As my friends in comedy say, “I’ll be here all week.”
I’ve been receiving a steady stream of calls and emails from people asking about the latest stimulus bills for California and the nation, and what it means for people and businesses in need, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, business shutdowns, and unemployment. Another steady stream of calls and emails come from people asking about the forecast for our Real Estate market. We have been in a long drought of available homes for sale, Buyer competition is a routine frenzy, and prices have been pushed higher. How long can this go on? My source for getting the latest and most reliable information on the details of pandemic relief and the forecast for the housing market comes from the California Association of Realtors. Here’s some news on pandemic relief: Governor Newsom signed off on a new $7.6 billion stimulus bill for COVID-19 recovery in California. The economic package will deliver $600 checks to around 5.7 million Californians earning under $30,000 per year. It also sets aside $2 billion for small business fee waivers and the California Small Business Relief Grant Program, which provides grants of up to $25,000 for businesses with annual revenues of between $1,000 and $2.5 million. Priority will be given to women- and minority-owned businesses, as well as businesses in the areas with the highest unemployment rates. The legislature had planned to also vote on a bill that would have provided $2 billion in tax benefits for small businesses, but they decided to amend the bill to let businesses deduct more than $150,000 from their taxes. That bill should be voted on soon.
The Biden administration set aside a two-week window beginning today, February 24, during which only businesses with fewer than 20 employees (including sole proprietors and independent contractors) can apply for forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The administration is also dedicating $1 billion in PPP funding for sole proprietorships. As a bonus, the PPP loan calculation formula for sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals will be revised to potentially offer more relief for these borrowers. The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid rose last week, evidence that layoffs remain high nationwide. In California, unemployment is at its highest level in more than a month, and California continues to account for a greater share of the nation’s jobless claims than it does of the nation’s workers.
Here’s the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) market forecast for 2021:
C.A.R. recently revised the 2021 forecast to increase more than previously estimated. The California housing market started the year even stronger than expected. The statewide median price hit $699,890 in January 2021, which is 21.7 percent higher than January 2020. Home sales this January were up 22.5 percent from 2020, driven by strong growth in California’s core housing markets, in particular the San Francisco Bay Area. The North Valley follows the same trend.
Based upon strong January closed sales, more of the same for February, low interest rates, and ongoing growth in buyer demand, C.A.R. revised its forecast for prices in 2021 to be higher than previously estimated. Existing single-family home sales are expected to rise by more than 11 percent this year, and home prices are expected to increase by 8 percent. Lumber prices are up 170 percent over the past 10 months, causing a rise in new-home prices, too. Newhome building softened in January, likely because of the increase in costs, with overall housing starts down 6 percent nationwide. But California-wide, new home permits are up, so the forecast is for a strong new-home construction market this year.
When will our Real Estate market begin the inevitable slow-down? Or can a rising market just keep rising? Look into your crystal ball and please let me know.