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Buying a lot to build a home can be a nightmare or a dream

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:19:04 GMT

Question: The multiple-offer bidding process in the Bay Area is exhausting. We give up. As first-time homebuyers, we have written over 10 offers. We have yet to receive a counteroffer.Yesterday, my in-laws suggested we buy land. My father-in-law’s golfing buddy inherited a Bay Area lot. The ancestral family home on the property has long since been torn down. My father-in-law’s friend agreed to sell us the lot. They sealed the deal with a handshake.My wife is excited. She says this is our opportunity to buy in the Bay Area. The lot is expensive. I’m worried. We have to build a house. It feels overwhelming. We were bidding on “turnkey” houses. Now, we are buying a piece of land on a handshake.We will visit the lot on Saturday. We will meet the seller. The local escrow office will consummate the sale if we want the lot. That also makes me uncomfortable.Buying a Bay Area house includes agents and presale seller disclosures. It should be the same way for a lot sale. In other words, what ...

Ask Amy: She reposted my email about a friend, and now it’s loose on the internet

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:19:04 GMT

Dear Amy: My friend “Tyler” and I decided to try a yoga class. As we were doing the first position, he passed gas. Very audibly!It was super-awkward, but then he said, “Excuse me! Sounds like I started things with a bang.”People chuckled and the class went on.I thought Tyler’s recovery from an ultra-embarrassing moment was great, so I mentioned it in an email to a mutual friend of ours, but I stupidly and accidentally sent it to the wrong person (a near-stranger I’d exchanged a couple of emails with a couple of years ago).The person who received the email posted a screenshot of it on social media with the message: “I got an email about a dude who farted!”Her posting was reposted many times by her impressive number of followers. The email had Tyler’s actual first and last name and some details about where we live.I was horrified and insisted that she delete her posting, and she did – but of course it is still “out there,” floating around on the internet.Should...

Four tornadoes confirmed in Mass. and RI as storm damage cleanup continues

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:19:04 GMT

Several communities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island were left with flooding and wind damage Friday after severe weather swept through the region, spawning multiple tornadoes and knocking out power to thousands of people. Officials at the National Weather Service issued several tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood warnings beginning early in the morning. As conditions improved around midday, cleanup efforts were getting underway. The NSW confirmed a total of 4 tornadoes in the region. EF-1s hit Weymouth and the area of North Attleboro and Mansfield. Stoughton was hit by an EF-0 tornado, while Scituate and Johnston, Rhode Island experienced winds topping 115 miles per hour during an EF-2 tornado.“Everything was just bent over,” said one man in Weymouth describing the scene as storms hit his area. “You could hear the branches breaking.” The NWS issued the region’s first tornado warning of the day around 8:30 a.m. for parts of Rhode Island. Me...

Hurricane Hilary prompts historic tropical storm warning for California as Southwest braces for dangerous rain, flooding

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:19:04 GMT

(CNN) — Residents in the Southwest are bracing for heavy rains and potentially catastrophic flooding as Hurricane Hilary is expected to pummel the region as a rare tropical storm beginning Sunday and lasting into next week.Hilary remains a Category 4 hurricane as it marches toward the coast of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula with sustained winds of 130 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Its core is expected to pass close to the peninsula Saturday night and then weaken into a tropical storm as it crosses into the US and Southern California.The threat has triggered California’s first ever tropical storm warning extending from the state’s southern border to just north of Los Angeles.The Southwest is forecast to see heavy rainfall through early next week – with the most intense conditions on Sunday and Monday – as Hilary advances. The deluges could bring more than a year’s worth of rain to parts of California, Nevada and Arizona.Parts of Southern Cal...

Bob Raissman: Hard to make sense of ESPN’s decision to dump top NBA voices Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:19:04 GMT

While recently going public with their new NBA broadcast teams, ESPN’s Bristol Faculty didn’t add laser beam focus on why they unceremoniously dumped Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson who teamed with Mike Breen for nearly two decades as the network’s No. 1 hoops trio.During that time, the three voices authored a memorable partnership. Historically speaking, they will go down as one of the best microphone combinations in the industry and the best ESPN has presented in any sport.It’s rare for a network to strike this brand of gold. Even rarer to strike gold than flush it down the toilet.Under ESPN’s watch, Van Gundy became a star. Nonetheless, the suits decided their NBA product could do without his unique personality, something that can’t be taught or duplicated. Both JVG and Jax are genuine.Yet the sum of this gang was greater than any individual part. It was a compelling team, in the truest sense. At any moment, the insight — or humor —...

Russian missile attack kills 7 in northern Ukrainian city as Zelenskyy visits NATO candidate Sweden

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:19:04 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A missile attack in the center of a northern Ukrainian city killed seven people and wounded scores of others on Saturday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Sweden, his first visit to the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.As Zelenskyy arrived in Sweden, a Russian missile strike killed seven people and wounded 117 others in the city center of Chernihiv, the regional capital of the northern Ukrainian province of the same name, acting mayor Oleksandr Lomako said. A 6-year-old girl was among the dead, while the wounded included 12 children.Zelenskyy condemned the attack, which he said hit buildings including a theater and a university.“This is what a neighborhood with a terrorist state is, this is what we unite the whole world against. A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv,” he wrote on Telegram. “A square, the polytechnic university, a theater. An ordinary Saturday, which Russia ...

Greek authorities rescue nearly 60 migrants on small boats in Aegean Sea

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:19:04 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities on Saturday rescued nearly 60 migrants in inflatable dinghies trying to cross from Turkey to the nearby eastern Aegean Sea islands in two separate incidents, the coast guard said.In recent weeks Greece has seen a rise in such arrivals, mostly in small unseaworthy boats provided by smugglers.A coast guard statement said a patrol boat located 41 people early Saturday on a drifting inflatable dinghy off the island of Lesbos. All were safely evacuated and taken to a reception center on the island.Following a chase earlier Saturday, a coast guard patrol boat stopped another dinghy carrying 17 people near the eastern Aegean islets of Arkii. The migrants were taken to the island of Patmos, while one of them was arrested on suspicion of belonging to a smuggling ring.Greek officials have blamed the increase in arrivals largely on conflicts in Africa that are adding pressure on the main smuggling routes to Europe, and also on a burgeoning black market i...

Last rodeo for Longhorn Network, the Texas venture with ESPN that once rattled the Big 12

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:19:04 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — When the Longhorn Network launched in 2011, the 20-year, $300 million partnership with ESPN set up Texas with its own 24-hour television showcase that sent shockwaves across college sports some say can still be felt today.Rivals in the Big 12 Conference bitterly complained the swaggering Longhorns were stomping over the rest of the league, and would reap an unfair recruiting advantage amid that shower of cash. Some worried Texas was about to become a runaway train in college athletics.Twelve years after the studio lights flickered on, the network will soon go dark: LHN will be folded into the SEC Network when Texas joins the Southeastern Conference next summer. This academic year is the last for a pioneering effort that forced new NCAA rules, laid the groundwork for emerging conference networks and played a role in what would be a decade of realignment.“Yeah, it was bold,” said former Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds, the architect of the idea for LHN. “We b...

4 teenagers shot in North Lawndale late Friday night

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:19:04 GMT

CHICAGO — Four teenagers were shot in the North Lawndale neighborhood late Friday evening, with two of the victims currently in critical condition.According to Chicago Police, two offenders approached a large gathering in the 3500 Block of W. 13th Place at 11:50 p.m. and fired multiple shots into the crowd. All four victims, ages 17 through 19, were transported to Mout Sinai Hospital.A 19-year-old male suffered six gunshot wounds to the left side of his body and is in critical condition along with an 18-year-old female, who was shot in the upper back. Two other victims are in good condition: A 17-year-old male who was hit in the right leg and left arm, and another 17-year-old male who was shot twice in the right buttocks. Police found over 30 shell casings in the area around the shooting. There are currently no suspects in custody as Chicago Police Area 4 detectives continue to investigate.

Hit by 'streamflation'? Here's why media companies are hiking prices

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:19:04 GMT

(The Hill) – Media companies across the board are jacking up the price of their streaming services in what some have dubbed “streamflation” as they look to turn a profit on streaming after years of losses.Disney announced last week that it plans to increase prices for the ad-free versions of Disney+ and Hulu by at least 20% in October, following a “pretty significant” jump in prices just last year.Netflix also recently axed its cheapest ad-free option, making the $15.49 a month Standard plan the most economical choice for subscribers who want to avoid commercials. Paramount Plus similarly ditched its mid-range, ad-free option in June.Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, formerly known as HBO Max, increased its monthly rate by $1 in January, while NBCUniversal increased its plans on Peacock by $1 to $2 per month on Thursday.Overall, the average monthly cost of a major streaming service has increased by nearly 25% in a year, according to a recent Wall Street Journal analysis. The Financial T...