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Dubai’s unstoppable luxury housing market just set another record

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:44 GMT

By Lisa Fleisher, BloombergFor the world’s rich looking for places to stash their wealth, one segment of Dubai’s real estate market is increasingly the destination of choice: apartments and townhouses with a brand name, like Four Seasons, Bulgari and Cavalli.Sales of those properties are booming in Dubai, which has become the world capital of so-called branded residences as foreign buyers continue to purchase ultra-luxury homes. This week, a buyer agreed to pay 203.1 million dirhams ($55.3 million) for a five-bedroom, Baccarat-branded apartment in a project that hasn’t even broken ground yet. At 14,000 dirhams per square foot, it’s the highest price per square foot paid for a pre-construction apartment, according to Luxhabitat Sotheby’s International Realty, the broker on the property.It breaks a record set in just February, when a five-bedroom apartment sold for 160.3 million dirhams, or 13,751 dirhams per square foot, in the Bulgari Lighthouse, according to Dubai land records. The...

Mother of teen who died of suspected fentanyl overdose to speak in Sacramento in support of 'Melanie's Law'

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:44 GMT

The mother of a teen who died of a suspected fentanyl overdose at a Hollywood high school will speak in Sacramento this week in support of a bill named after her daughter that aims to help prevent overdoses on campuses.Melanie Ramos, 15, died last September of a suspected fentanyl overdose at Bernstein High School.Her mother, Elena Perez, will speak at the California Senate’s Health Committee Wednesday to urge support for Senator Dave Cortez’s SB-10.The proposed law would expand on the state’s fentanyl overdose prevention for high school students and children by having Narcan on campuses and providing prevention education for pupils, parents and the community Teen overdose deaths have doubled in three years. Blame fentanyl. Through a translator, Perez said the pain in her heart over the loss of her child gets bigger every day. She said she is going to Sacramento to save lives, and to prevent other mothers from feeling how she does now.Melanie and her friend apparently lost conscio...

Would you pay $449 a year to stream NFL games?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:44 GMT

A broken business model is now on full display.For decades, professional sports leagues fleeced cable and satellite companies with exorbitant fees because the broadcasters were able to pass along the costs to all customers, including those that neither wanted nor watched sports programming.The transition to streaming has exposed that racket -- and is making sports prohibitively expensive for all but the most die-hard fans.YouTube TV, which acquired the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package last year, says it will charge significantly more for the games than previous license holder DirecTV.Sunday Ticket will cost $349 a year for subscribers who also pony up $73 monthly for YouTube TV's base service plan -- a total $422.If you want football without the service's other offerings, that'll run $449 annually.YouTube, a Google subsidiary, is paying a reported $2 billion a year for rights to Sunday Ticket. DirecTV paid a reported $1.5 billion.In the past, as noted above, sky-high costs fo...

Elizabeth Holmes loses bid to stay out of prison

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:44 GMT

Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has been rebuffed in her attempt to stay out of federal prison while she appeals her conviction for the fraud she committed while overseeing a blood-testing scam that exposed Silicon Valley’s dark side.In an 11-page ruling issued late Monday, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila concluded there wasn't compelling enough evidence to allow Holmes to remain free on bail while her lawyers try to persuade an appeals court that alleged misconduct during her four-month trial led to an unjust verdict.The judge’s decision means Holmes, 39, will have to surrender to authorities April 27 to start the more than 11-year prison sentence that Davila imposed in November. The punishment came 10 months after a jury found her guilty on four counts of fraud and conspiracy against the Theranos investors who believed in her promises to revolutionize the health care industry.FILE - Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes, center, walks into federal court in San Jose, ...

NoHo man agrees to plead guilty to lying to FBI agents about fake Basquiat paintings 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:44 GMT

A North Hollywood man has agreed to plead guilty to lying to FBI agents about the origins of paintings attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat that were seized last year from the Orlando Museum of Art. Michael Barzman, 45, is charged in federal court with making false statements to the FBI during an August 2022 interview where he denied making any of the fraudulent paintings himself. However, according to a release from the FBI, Barzman and a second man, identified in court documents as “J.F.”, began creating the fake Basquiat paintings in 2012 after “hatching a plan to market the bogus artwork.” “J.F. and Barzman created approximately 20 to 30 artworks by using various art materials to create colorful images on cardboard,” said the plea agreement. “Barzman and J.F. agreed to split the money that they made from selling the fraudulent paintings.” “J.F. spent a maximum of 30 minutes on each image and as little as five minutes on others, and then gave them to Barzman to sell on eBay,” ...

Former NFL head coach Kliff Kingsbury joins USC staff as senior offensive analyst

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:44 GMT

Kliff Kingsbury is joining Lincoln Riley's coaching staff at Southern California as a senior offensive analyst.USC announced the addition Tuesday of Kingsbury, who was fired by the Arizona Cardinals in January after four seasons as their head coach.Kingsbury went 28-37-1 at Arizona, making one playoff appearance. Before that, he spent six seasons as Texas Tech's head coach and earned a reputation as one of football's most innovative offensive minds.Riley and Kingsbury were briefly teammates at Texas Tech when Riley walked onto Mike Leach's Red Raiders roster during Kingsbury's senior season in 2002.“We’re excited to officially welcome Kliff to our coaching staff and add another outstanding football mind to our program,” Riley said in a statement.Between those two head coaching jobs, Kingsbury spent about one month at USC as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for head coach Clay Helton before the Cardinals surprisingly hired him for their top job in January 20...

A’s Seth Brown will be out four to six weeks with oblique strain

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:44 GMT

The way the things are going for the Athletics so far this season, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the news on outfielder Seth Brown’s left oblique strain was more of a gut punch than a temporary annoyance.“Our doctor examined him in Oakland,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay told reporters Tuesday before the A’s faced the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. “It was a Grade 2 strain of the left oblique and generally the timeline runs four to six weeks.”The A’s have lost five straight and are 2-8, with the Orioles coming in at 5-5.Brown was injured Saturday in Tampa Bay on a check swing and was placed on the 10-day injured list retroactive to April 9. But rather than have Brown good to go after the 10-day period, he will instead be out until early or late May and miss 30-plus games.The A’s leading home run hitter (25) and RBI man (73) last season, Brown was for the first time getting an extended look hitting against left-...

Southbound 880 reopens following CHP investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:44 GMT

(KRON) -- Southbound I-880 at Auto Mall Parkway in Fremont has reopened after being shut down Tuesday due to a California Highway Patrol investigation, KRON4 has confirmed. The investigation was related to the fatal shooting of a 5-year-old girl on the 880 on Saturday night.All southbound lanes are now open. Police shut down the first section of freeway at 10:55 a.m. and moved on to a second location. Residual delays are expected. Video shows ex-SF fire commissioner assaulted with pipe in Marina District A severe traffic alert was in effect earlier, according to the California Highway Patrol. Traffic was being diverted at Fremont Boulevard. Motorists were advised to expect delays and use alternate routes to avoid the area.Video from a Caltrans camera of the scene showed what appeared to be a line of CHP officers walking down the empty section of freeway looking for clues.The area of the 880 that was shut down is in the same vicinity as the area where 5-year-old Eliyanah Crisostomo...

Pedestrian dies after Tenderloin crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:44 GMT

(KRON) -- A pedestrian has died following a crash in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon, according to the San Francisco Police Department. I-880 reopens following CHP investigation in Fremont Police received a report of a vehicle collision with a pedestrian around 12:13 p.m. Officers found a man on scene with injuries near Jones and Geary streets. The pedestrian was taken to a local hospital where he later died. Officers are still on the scene investigating. Drivers are told to expect traffic delays and consider alternate routes.Citizen video from the scene shows what appear to be a FedEx and U-Haul truck after a collision. The U-Haul truck is resting in the crosswalk on Geary Street. San Francisco has seen about 30 pedestrians die in collisions since each year, according to the city. The city's Vision Zero program adopted in 2014 aims to eliminate traffic deaths in the city altogether.This is a developing story. Please stick with KRON for updates.

SF Board of Supervisors meeting rescheduled after cable connection reportedly vandalized

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:55:44 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday had to be rescheduled for Wednesday after the fiber connection the board uses to broadcast meetings was vandalized, according to Supervisor Aaron Peskin. As a result of the apparent vandalism, the board is unable to broadcast the meeting through SFGovTV, the cable channel the city government utilizes. ‘Death of Downtown’ study: San Francisco ranks last "We are currently experiencing a service interruption on the Comcast cable TV system and both SFGovTV channel 26 and channel 78 are down," SFGovTV tweeted.The cable provider makes no mention of vandalism but according to Peskin, that's the reason board will recess today's meeting until Wednesday."Sorry for those folks who were planning on turning out for general public comment," Peskin said in his tweet. Agenda items on Tuesday's meeting included recommendations of the government audit and oversight committee, recommendations of t...