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Grading the Week: Did Nathaniel Hackett and his magic goatee put wicked curse on Broncos coach Sean Payton?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:43 GMT

Full disclosure: The new kids in the Grading The Week offices are a superstitious, cowardly lot.We also tend to not take former Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett (stop laughing!) very seriously, and especially not too seriously when Big Nate (I mean it!) steps in front of the Big Apple cameras and starts carping (stop!) about “codes” and “glass houses” (I will turn this column around, I mean it!) while simultaneously wearing a goatee that makes him look less like his hero Han Solo … and more like an amateur magician.That said, we’re starting to wonder if Hackett was onto something. And also into something.And if some kind of weird, mystical NFL forces — perhaps the kind Nate uses in his new magic act — would explain, at least in part, the bizarrely awful karma that hit Dove Valley this past week.Sean Payton’s football karma — DFor the record, GTW does not disagree with pretty much anything Payton told USA Today’s Jarrett Bell. Well, except for maybe the “playoff team” part. But we’ll ...

Opinion: Donald Trump and his enemies take bad faith for granted

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:43 GMT

At the core of the momentous decision to indict former President Donald Trump for conspiring to overthrow the 2020 election are questions of good faith — about both the accuser and the accused. Did Trump knowingly lie about electoral fraud to stay in office? Is Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought the case, acting from an impartial commitment to enforce the law?The country seems irreconcilably divided on these points. Trump’s allies and enemies take the other side’s bad faith for granted. His supporters say he acted as he did because he believed the election was stolen, and they see the prosecution as political. His opponents are equally certain of Trump’s dishonesty and Smith’s fair-mindedness.There’s no conversation across this divide, because neither side will grant any plausibility to the other’s position. This collapse of communication — extending not just to disagreements about policy but to the very foundations of orderly government — is a real and mounting threat to A...

Opinion: Where is the urgency to treat the 65 million with long COVID?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:43 GMT

In a world where most pandemic safety protocols have evaporated, where is the sense of urgency to treat, or at the very least support, people with long COVID?Early in the pandemic, we saw significant mobilization of the health care infrastructure across the world to determine how to prevent and treat COVID-19, leading to substantial reduction in morbidity and mortality. Conversely, the response to long COVID has been muted. In the rush to declare the pandemic over, the low quality of life experienced by millions with long COVID has apparently been deemed acceptable. It is not acceptable.My firsthand knowledge of long COVID began in July 2020. Social distancing protocols were still in effect, masks were mandated in most of the country, and vaccines for the “novel coronavirus” were a distant hope. This was when I contracted COVID-19. I had the usual symptoms of fever, loss of taste and smell, and shortness of breath. But as my symptoms lingered even weeks later, I wondered when I woul...

Can you find a home price that fits your budget?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:43 GMT

Regarding your June 24, 2023, column titled “Is saving money worth the potential of stigmatizing your home after a failed sale?” on The Mercury News and East Bay Times websites:Question: You listed home prices for May 2023 in Silicon Valley. The lease on our apartment is about to expire. My in-laws want us to buy a home because realty prices dropped. Have realty prices fallen in all Bay Area counties?Answer: According to the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.), Bay Area existing-home sales and prices have receded by 19.7% and 2.7%, respectively, from June 2022 to June 2023. Yet, a seller’s market remains. On July 19, 2023, I was on a Zoom call with the 2020 C.A.R. president. He proclaimed that 85% of the single-family home sales for the prior week in Santa Clara County, aka Santa Clara Valley and Silicon Valley, were noncontingent. That’s alarming. Those homebuyers did not have an escape clause written into their purchase contracts. In other words, ratifying a noncontingent ...

Man United signs striker Rasmus Højlund from Atalanta for $82 million

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:43 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Manchester United signed Denmark striker Rasmus Højlund from Atalanta on Saturday in a move that ends the Premier League club’s search for a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo.Højlund cost an initial 64 million pounds ($82 million) and that fee could go up by a further 8 million pounds ($10 million) dependent on his success. He has signed a five-year contract with an option to extend by 12 months.“It is no secret that I have been a fan of this great club since I was a small boy, and I dreamed of walking out at Old Trafford as a Manchester United player,” Højlund said. “I am incredibly excited by this opportunity to turn that dream into a reality, and I am determined to repay the faith that the club has shown in me.”In an offseason that has seen United repeatedly linked with a move for Harry Kane, the club has opted to go with an emerging talent in Europe, rather than one of the most prolific strikers of his generation.The 20-year-old Højlund has impressed wi...

South Africa is out to cause another upset against Netherlands at the Women’s World Cup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:43 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — South Africa has already upset the odds to advance to the knockout stages of the Women’s World Cup. Now it is aiming to spring another surprise against one of the tournament favorites on Sunday. As captain Refiloe Jane says: “anything is possible” against Netherlands for a team that has become one of the big stories of this World Cup. “You know, it’s knockout stages,” she said. “So you still want to keep on fighting as a team, keep on reaching for one another and not lose sight of any of the possibilities that lie ahead of us.”Thembi Kgatlana’s stoppage-time winner against Italy secured South Africa’s place in the round of 16. The joyous scenes after the final whistle of that 3-2 win created some of the most memorable images of the World Cup so far. “South Africans are excited and happy that we made history,” midfielder Kholosa Biyana said. “We’re the first team to do that in South Africa both male and female. So, it is a great achievement...

Md. governor hints public money could be on the table for a Commanders stadium

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:43 GMT

When Dan Snyder owned the Washington Commanders, state and local governments were loath to offer any incentives for a new stadium, even with the lease on FedEx Field in Maryland set to run out in just a few years.At best, he could have expected funding for infrastructure improvements. But money for the stadium itself? That was a line D.C.-area leaders on either side of the Potomac would not cross.But now that the Commanders have had new owners for a couple of weeks, that opposition might be softening.Leaders in D.C. continue to lobby the franchise to consider the old RFK Stadium site again, with Democrats in the Wilson Building working with Republicans in Congress to make it happen. And when the team held its first training camp practice that was open to the public, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin was there seemingly schmoozing with team executives on the sidelines.Right now, the team already owns the land where FedEx Field is, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is still touting that location...

Webb telescope captures iconic Ring Nebula in unprecedented detail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:43 GMT

(CNN) — Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope for a fresh perspective of an iconic celestial favorite called the Ring Nebula.The new image captures never-before-seen details within the colorful nebula, located in the Lyra constellation about 2,600 light-years from Earth.The structure of the Ring Nebula can be glimpsed through amateur telescopes and has been observed and studied for years.The planetary nebula, which despite its name has nothing to do with planets, is home to the remnants of a dying star as it releases the bulk of its mass.Planetary nebulae usually have a rounded structure and were so named because they initially resembled the disks from which planets form when French astronomer Charles Messier discovered the first one in 1764.“I first saw the Ring Nebula as a kid through just a small telescope. I would never have thought that one day, I would be part of the team that would use the most powerful space telescope ever built, to look at this object,” said ...

Chinese embassy slams Moscow over Russian border incident

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:43 GMT

The Chinese embassy in Moscow on Friday criticized “brutal and excessive law enforcement by Russia” after five Chinese citizens were denied entry into the country. In a post on Chinese social media platform WeChat, the embassy said the incident had “seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens.”On attempting to enter Russia on July 29, the group of Chinese citizens was “repeatedly” questioned for “up to 4 hours,” according to the statement. They had their tourist visas canceled and were refused entry, it said.The incident is “inconsistent with the overall situation of friendly Sino-Russian relations and the trend of increasingly close friendly exchanges of personnel between the two countries,” added the embassy. “The Russian side is required to immediately find out the cause of the incident, take active measures to eliminate the bad influence, and ensure that similar incidents will not rec...

Fantastic August weekend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:17:43 GMT

Thumbs up for this weekend forecast! It’s dry with temperatures in the low 80s. Humidity will come down today, and it’ll feel much more comfortable tomorrow. Our morning started off in the 60s. We’ll rebound to the low 80s inland. The wind will be light enough out of the northwest that we get afternoon sea breezes. That’ll keep temperatures in the upper 70s/near 80 on the coast. We’ll see sunshine mixed with afternoon clouds.Mainly clear tonight. If you’re in central Mass, you might want to open the windows with temperatures falling into the 50s. Tomorrow, we’ll have some filtered sunshine and temperatures will be slightly warmer.Splendid baseball weather as the Sox continue their series against the Blue Jays!This weekend is dry. Monday will bring increasing clouds and humidity ahead of some late showers and scattered storms into Tuesday.-Meteorologist Melanie Black