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49ers’ Brock Purdy on Cowboys: ‘One of my toughest games’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:11:01 GMT

SANTA CLARA — When Brock Purdy led the 49ers to a divisional-round playoff win over Dallas in January, it was above and beyond the call for a rookie seventh-round draft pick.It’s not as if Purdy is a seasoned veteran, even if he conducts himself like one. He’s gone wire-to-wire in 11 games. But Purdy is expecting more out of himself when the 49ers host the Cowboys Sunday night at Levi’s Stadium.“They’re a really good defense and there were times where they did a good job of just getting me offset with some little things and just sort of made me rush some things and I feel like I didn’t get in a good rhythm,” Purdy said Thursday.The 49ers beat the Cowboys 19-12, with Purdy completing 19-of-29 passes for 214 yards and no touchdowns. In nine possessions, the lone touchdown came on a 2-yard run by Christian McCaffrey on the first play of the fourth quarter.Otherwise, the scoring was up to place kicker Robbie Gould, who converted field goal...

Donald Trump announces whom he’s backing for House speaker

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:11:01 GMT

By JILL COLVIN and FARNOUSH AMIRI | Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is officially backing Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the pugnacious House Judiciary Committee chairman and longtime Trump defender, to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.“Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C., representing Ohio’s 4th Congressional District,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site shortly after midnight Friday. “He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”The announcement came hours after Texas Rep. Troy Nehls said Thursday night that Trump had decided to back Jordan’s bid and after Trump said he would be open to serving as interim leader himself if Republicans couldn’t settle on a successor following McCarthy’s stunning ouster.Trump, the current GOP presidential front-runner, has used the leadership vacuum on the Hill to further demonstrate his control over the...

Warriors: How a longtime rivalry fuels Steph Curry’s chemistry with Chris Paul

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:11:01 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Warriors fans may need some time to adjust to this sight: Steph Curry and Chris Paul in the same uniform and in the starting lineup together.Fans will get their first glimpse of it on Saturday night at Chase Center when the Warriors take on the Los Angeles Lakers in their first preseason exhibition game.This pairing, which may be surprising to the outside world, is far more familiar with each other than might be expected.Curry and Paul organized team-wide mini-camps this offseason in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco, and have also made it a point to get plenty of run together, along with Klay Thompson, during the offseason. They learned quickly that a decade-long rivalry and years of scouting had the former foes completely in sync. It helps, too, that the 38-year-old Paul is one of the smarter players in the NBA playing within an offense that thrives on high basketball IQ.“He was calling out stuff that he had been scouting against us for years and...

Bay Area News Group boys athlete of the week: Noah Beedon, Los Altos football

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:11:01 GMT

Los Altos football player Noah Beedon is the Bay Area News Group’s boys high school athlete of the week for Sept. 25-30 after he received 35.66% of the vote.Menlo School football player Mikey McGrath (31.16%) took second.Congratulations to all the candidates for this week’s recognition.Beedon, a senior, threw for 249 yards and four touchdowns as the Eagles opened Peninsula Athletic League El Camino Division play with a 30-26 victory over Carlmont. Los Altos improved to 2-3.To nominate an athlete for next week’s poll, email [email protected] by Monday, Oct. 9, at 11 a.m. Please include stats and team results.We also review stats submitted to MaxPreps.com by coaches/team statisticians for consideration.Winners are announced each Friday on the Mercury News & East Bay Times websites and in the print edition of the Mercury News and EB Times sports sections.Related ArticlesHigh School Sports | Bay Area News Group girls athlete of the week: Ava Allen, Me...

Bay Area News Group girls athlete of the week: Ava Allen, Menlo School flag football

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:11:01 GMT

Menlo School flag football player Ava Allen is the Bay Area News Group’s girls high school athlete of the week for Sept. 25-30 after she received 40.41% of the vote.James Logan volleyball player Julianna Bondoc (37.02%) took second.Congratulations to all the candidates for this week’s recognition.Allen, a freshman, did it all in Menlo School’s victories over Notre Dame-San Jose and The King’s Academy. She ran for two touchdowns, threw three more, and even caught a TD.To nominate an athlete for next week’s poll, email [email protected] by Monday, Oct. 9, at 11 a.m. Please include stats and team results.We also review stats submitted to MaxPreps.com by coaches/team statisticians for consideration.Winners are announced each Friday on the Mercury News & East Bay Times websites and in the print edition of the Mercury News and EB Times sports sections.Related ArticlesHigh School Sports | Bay Area News Group boys athlete of the week: Noah Beedon, Los Alt...

Tech titan lease renewals may spur Silicon Valley real estate rebound

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:11:01 GMT

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Tech titan lease renewals in multiple Silicon Valley cities offer some hope that the battered office sector in the region could be starting to stabilize.Google, Amazon and Apple are among the high-profile tech companies that have decided to renew their leases in big office buildings, according to commercial property databases and several real estate sources.1100 Discovery Way in Sunnyvale, an office building leased to Amazon (center). The Amazon logo is visible on an adjacent office building (left) with a separate address of 905 11th Avenue. (Google Maps)Four known major lease renewals were large enough to account for a combined 901,000 square feet of office space, the real estate databases show.Here are the details of the lease renewals involving giant tech companies that have occurred so far this year:Office building at 5425 Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino. Apple logo is visible next to a driveway. (Google Maps)— Google agreed to renew a ...

Blow: Trump, McCarthy and the ripples of Republican chaos

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:11:01 GMT

This week, Donald Trump delivered his version of a sad tiny desk performance, hunched over the defendant’s table in a New York courtroom, diminished and watching the illusion of power and grandeur he has sold voters thin and run like oil in a hot pan.He insisted on appearing in person at his civil fraud trial, apparently believing that he would continue to perform his perverse magic of converting that which would have ended other political careers into a political win for himself.His hubris seemed to consume him, convincing him that in matters of optics, he’s not only invincible but unmatched.He has done it before: In August, he scowled in his mug shot — a precursor to his Fulton County, Ga., criminal trial — summoning the allure of an outlaw, using the photo to raise millions of dollars, according to his campaign.But I think his attempts at cosplaying some sort of roguish flintiness will wind up being missteps. Courtrooms don’t allow for political-rally stagecraft. Ther...

One-fifth of Silicon Valley offices are available as empty spaces balloon

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:11:01 GMT

SAN JOSE — One-fifth of Silicon Valley’s office buildings are empty, the highest such level since the last recession, one of the grim side-effects of the tech industry’s push to sublease space, according to a new report.During the July-through-September third quarter of 2023, 19.8% of the office space in Silicon Valley was available to be leased or subleased, estimated Colliers, a commercial real estate firm.That 19.8% availability rate — a broad measure of empty offices — was the highest that Colliers has ever recorded for Silicon Valley, according to Derek Daniels, regional research director with Colliers. Available space consists primarily of offices being offered directly by property owners and sublease space being hawked by tenants.The Silicon Valley vacancy was 12.8% in the third quarter, in a measure of office space the property owners are offering through direct leases. Another 7% of the region’s office space was being made available throu...

Review: ‘Royal Hotel’ is a sort-of horror flick, but good

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:11:01 GMT

By Mark Kennedy | Associated Press“The Royal Hotel” is a horror movie but don’t expect any jump-cuts, scary masks or serial killers. It’s more like the horror that dawns on a frog when it realizes it is being boiled alive.Filmmaker Kitty Green tells a captivating tale of two young American female backpackers who find themselves tending bar for a few weeks in a very remote part of Australia.The bar is a dump ironically called “The Royal Hotel” and the clientele are rough, hard-drinking miners unfamiliar with the etiquette of Miss Manners or even just respectful interaction.Our two heroines — Julia Garner from “Ozark” and Jessica Henwick from “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” — really should not be in this situation. They are the recipients of dirty jokes, drunken behavior, offensive nicknames and constant propositions. One client pays for his beer by passive-aggressively tossing coins at them.“Wouldn’t hurt you...

Elias: California housing policy based on state’s bad forecasting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 13:11:01 GMT

Two things you can count on with ballyhooed state forecasts on issues such as California’s housing and population are that they’ll be incompetent and inconsistent. Usually, they’ll also be outdated even before they’re issued.Related ArticlesLocal News | Elias: California housing costs worse for homeowners than renters Local News | Elias: Newsom-DeSantis debate may mean more in 2028 than 2024 Local News | Elias: California bill’s OK may let thieves ransack any store they please For years, this state has plagued its cities and counties with inaccurate, vastly varying predictions of housing need. In 2018, the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) predicted California would need to build 3.5 million new housing units by 2025.Four years of unpredicted population loss followed. The HCD never listed this as a reason, but by 2021, it was saying the need had dropped to 1.8 million living spaces. This year, de...