poker game pc SAN FRANCISCO -- Pacific Gas & Electric Co. could receive up to $15 billion in federal loans to help the utility modernize its power grid and expand clean energy infrastructure across central and northern California, officials announced Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Energy announced a conditional commitment for one of the largest loan guarantees ever under its Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment program. When finalized, the money would be loaned in installments over several years. The funds would support a portfolio of projects to expand hydropower generation and battery storage, upgrade transmission capacity, and enable virtual power plants throughout PG &E's service area, the energy department said. PG &E submitted its application to the agency's Loan Programs Office in June 2023. Partially funding its projects with lower-cost federal loans could save customers up to $1 billion over the life of the financing, the utility said in a statement Tuesday. "Investments in a clean and resilient grid for northern and central California will have significant returns for our customers in safety, reliability and economic growth. The DOE loan program can help us accelerate the pace and impact of this work, which supports thousands of living wage jobs, at a lower cost to our customers," PG &E CEO Patti Poppe said in the statement. The Sierra Club, the environmental advocacy group, cheered PG &E's commitment to modernizing the power grid and expanding clean energy infrastructure. "This innovative loan program will help ensure that Californians will see more stable rates, enjoy more good clean energy jobs and live with fewer harmful emissions. This unprecedented windfall also offers a unique opportunity for PG &E to update its outdated transmission infrastructure with more efficient, climate-friendly and fire-safe technology," Sierra Club organizer Julia Dowell said in a statement Tuesday. President Joe Biden's administration is rushing to spend billions of dollars from the Loan Program which faces an uncertain future when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. KGO-TV contributed to this report

Washington 65, Prairie View 50Social media firms raise 'serious concerns' over Australian U-16 banFischang-Cicchetti road race celebrating 50th run

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Princely Umanmielen’s return to the Swamp ends with a loss and a police escort

A US appeals court upheld a law on Dec 6 requiring a divestment or ban of TikTok. NEW YORK - TikTok advertisers were in no rush to shift their marketing budgets after a US appeals court upheld a law on Dec 6 requiring a divestment or ban of the popular Chinese-owned short video app , citing TikTok’s continued survival despite years of threats. Chinese tech firm ByteDance must sell TikTok’s US assets by Jan 19 or the app that is used by 170 million Americans will face an unprecedented ban that jeopardises billions in ad revenue. TikTok and ByteDance had argued that the law is unconstitutional and violates Americans’ free speech rights. The ruling is expected to be appealed to the US Supreme Court. With TikTok’s future in the US uncertain, advertising executives said brands are maintaining their activities on the app, while ensuring they have a plan B. “Advertisers have not pulled back from TikTok, though several are developing contingency plans for potential reallocation of investment should there be a ban,” said Mr Jason Lee, executive vice-president of brand safety at media agency Horizon Media. Horizon is working with clients to prepare for a variety of scenarios if the app is sold or banned, Mr Lee said. Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram, stands to gain the majority of TikTok’s ad revenue if the app is banned, followed by Alphabet’s YouTube, said Mr Erik Huberman, CEO of marketing agency Hawke Media. Both companies have introduced short-form video features in the past few years to compete with TikTok. Still, “there’s no decision to make until there’s a decision to make,” he said. TikTok’s US ad revenue is expected to reach US$12.3 billion (S$16.5 billion) in 2024, according to estimates from research Emarketer. By comparison, analysts on average expect Meta Platforms’ advertising revenue in 2024 to reach about US$159 billion, according to LSEG data. The potential boon for rivals propelled stocks on Dec 6. Meta Platforms shares rose to an all-time record high of US$629.78 earlier on Dec 6, and were up 2.3 per cent at US$622.85 in late afternoon regular trading. Alphabet shares were up 1.1 per cent at US$176.21. Trump Media & Technology, which operates the Truth Social app and is majority-owned by President-elect Donald Trump, rose 3 per cent to US$34.78. Shares of Snap, owner of messaging app Snapchat, rose 1.89 per cent to US$12.40. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you. Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards Spin the wheel nowNone

Homeland Security shares new details of mysterious drone flights over New Jersey, lawmaker says A New Jersey lawmaker from part of the state where several mysterious drones have been spotted in recent week says the devices appear to avoid detection by traditional methods. Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia was among state officials who met Wednesday with representatives from the Department of Homeland Security. She says lawmakers were told the drones have dodged detection by helicopters and radio. Fantasia says DHS described the devices as up to 6 feet in diameter and sometimes traveling with their lights off. The Morris County Republican made the comments in a post on X shortly after she and several other state and local lawmakers met with state police and Homeland Security officials. Donald Trump will ring the New York Stock Exchange bell as he's named Time's Person of the Year NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time and be named Time magazine's Person of the Year. Thursday's events will be a notable moment of twin recognitions for Trump, a born-and-bred New Yorker who has long seen praise from the business world and media as a sign of success. Four people with knowledge of his plans told The Associated Press that Trump was expected to be on Wall Street on Thursday to mark the ceremonial start of the day's trading, while a person familiar with the selection confirmed that Trump had been selected as Time's Person of the Year. Rape allegation against Jay-Z won’t impact NFL's relationship with music mogul, Goodell says IRVING, Texas (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says a rape allegation against rapper Jay-Z won’t impact the NFL's relationship with the music mogul. Jay-Z's company Roc Nation has produced some of the NFL’s entertainment presentations including the Super Bowl halftime show. A woman who previously sued Sean “Diddy” Combs alleging she was raped at an awards show after-party in 2000 amended the lawsuit Sunday to include an allegation that Jay-Z was also at the party and participated in the sexual assault. Jay-Z says the rape allegation made against him is part of an extortion attempt. The NFL teamed up with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019 for events and social activism. The league and the entertainment company extended their partnership a few months ago. Ohio politician proposes make flag planting a felony after fight in Michigan rivalry game An Ohio politician has seen enough flag planting. Republican state Rep. Josh Williams said Wednesday on social media he's introducing a bill to make flag planting in sports a felony in the state. His proposal comes after the Nov. 30 fight at the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry football game when the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes 13-10 and then attempted to plant their flag at midfield. A fight ensued and police had to use pepper spray to disperse the players. Former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield famously planted a flag in the middle of the field at Ohio State after the Sooners beat the Buckeyes in 2017. Gastineau confronts Favre in documentary for his 'dive' on Strahan's record-breaking sack Former New York Jets star Mark Gastineau confronted Brett Favre last year at a memorabilia show and angrily accused the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback of deliberately going down on a record-breaking sack. The tense exchange is shown in the new ESPN 30 for 30 documentary “The New York Sack Exchange." It chronicles the Jets’ fearsome foursome defensive line of the 1980s that included Gastineau. Gastineau set an NFL record with 22 sacks in 1984, but Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan broke the mark when he sacked Favre in 2002 in a game between the Giants and Packers. Many have accused Favre of purposely taking the sack so Strahan could set the single-season record with 22 1/2. What happens next with Alex Jones' Infowars? No certainty yet after sale to The Onion is rejected Lawyers in the Alex Jones bankruptcy case are now in discussions on what could happen next after a federal judge in Texas rejected the auction sale of Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet. The next steps remained unclear Wednesday as the judge ordered the trustee who oversaw the auction to come up with a new plan. Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston rejected the bid late Tuesday, saying there was too much confusion about The Onion’s bid. The bankruptcy case was in the wake of the nearly $1.5 billion that courts have ordered Jones to pay for calling the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut a hoax. Sandy Hook families had backed The Onion’s bid. NFL and Nike extend their partnership with a 10-year deal, will focus on growing the sport globally IRVING, Texas (AP) — The NFL’s desire to become a global powerhouse is no secret. Nike is committed to helping the league continue expanding its worldwide reach. The league and the apparel giant announced Wednesday a 10-year partnership extension. The NFL and Nike will focus on working together to grow the game’s global reach, increase participation, develop new talent, and expand the football fan base. Nike, the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel, has been the NFL’s exclusive provider of uniforms and sideline, practice and base layer apparel for all 32 NFL teams for 12 years. George Kresge Jr., who wowed talk show audiences as the The Amazing Kreskin, dies at age 89 NEW YORK (AP) — George Joseph Kresge Jr., otherwise known to TV watchers as the mesmerizing entertainer and mentalist The Amazing Kreskin, has died at age 89. Kreskin’s friend and former road manager, Ryan Galway, says he died Tuesday at his home in Caldwell, New Jersey. Kreskin launched his television career in the 1960s and remained popular for decades, appearing with everyone from Merv Griffin to Johnny Carson to Jimmy Fallon. Fans would welcome, if not entirely figure out, his favorite mind tricks — whether correctly guessing a playing card chosen at random, or, most famously, divining where his paycheck had been planted among the audience. He also hosted a show in the 1970s, gave live performances and wrote numerous books. Albertsons sues Kroger for failing to win approval of their proposed supermarket merger Kroger and Albertsons’ plan for the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history has crumbled. The two companies have accused each other of not doing enough to push their proposed alliance through, and Albertsons pulled out of the $24.6 billion deal on Wednesday. The bitter breakup came the day after a federal judge in Oregon and a state judge in Washington issued injunctions to block the merger, saying that combining the two grocery chains could reduce competition and harm consumers. Albertsons is now suing Kroger, seeking a $600 million termination fee, as well as billions of dollars in legal fees and lost shareholder value. Kroger says the legal claims are “baseless.” Keynote Selena Gomez spotlights prioritizing mental health during Academy Women's Luncheon LOS ANGELES (AP) — While surveying a room packed with Hollywood’s most influential figures, “Emilia Pérez” star Selena Gomez took center stage at the Academy Women’s Luncheon to spotlight a critical issue: Prioritizing mental health and supporting underserved communities often left behind in the conversation. The singer-actor has been public about her mental health struggles, revealing she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Gomez was the keynote speaker Tuesday at the event held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures with attendees including Ariana Grande, Olivia Wilde, Amy Adams, Pamela Anderson, Rita Wilson, Ava DuVernay and Awkwafina.Is ‘Glicked’ the new ‘Barbenheimer’? ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’ collide in theaters

PG&E could receive $15 billion in federal loans for power lines, hydroelectric power

Hospitals were 'hours from running out of PPE' during early months of Covid, Hancock says

Lawyers for Baltimore City on Wednesday told a judge two drug distribution companies should have to pay $5 billion to curb the raging opioid epidemic here. The approximately weeklong bench trial presided over by Circuit Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill kicked off with the testimony of a public health professor the city hired to create a detailed plan to tackle the opioid crisis . Wednesday’s proceeding is the second phase of Baltimore’s civil case against drug distributors McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, now known as Cenora. A jury in November ordered the companies to pay $266 million for flooding Baltimore with hundreds of millions of addictive opioid painkillers from 2006 to 2019. Now it’s up to Fletcher-Hill to determine how much else, if anything, the drug distributors must pay to resolve the crisis jurors found them liable for. Baltimore initially asked Fletcher-Hill to make the companies pay $11 billion but reduced its monetary demands following the first trial. Unlike the monthslong jury trial that ended in November, lawyers did not give dramatic opening statements . Instead, they submitted arguments in writing before this so-called “abatement phase” trial began. Attorneys for Baltimore argue McKesson and AmerisourceBergen should pay at least $5 billion to offset the damage they caused by flooding the area with addictive painkillers with little regard for the havoc the companies knew they would wreak. Their reckless distribution of opioids, the city said, hooked a new generation on painkillers. They then overdosed and died at staggering rates after moving on to heroin and much more potent fentanyl when their prescriptions ran out. “The only viable remedy to reduce the nuisance and minimize its effect is to require Defendants to fund a plan to abate it,” city lawyers wrote. Attorneys for the drug distributors argue the city is abusing the civil justice system to force two companies to pay for societal issues they had no role in. They called the city’s abatement plan a “sweeping, 15-year social policy plan related to opioid addiction and many other social issues — e.g., homelessness, re-entry after incarceration, foster care, job training, food support, and bolstering the health care workforce.” “That type of public policy-making is for the General Assembly, not a Court sitting in equity in a lawsuit involving just two wholesale distributors,” the companies’ lawyers wrote The first witness Wednesday was Susan G. Sherman of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a social and behavioral scientist whose decades of research focuses on people who use opioids, primarily in Baltimore. Sherman highlighted the 91-page report she prepared before the trial that made recommendations she predicts in 15 years would bring down the fatality of overdoses by 23%, reduce initiation of nonmedical prescription opioid use by 7.5% and decrease the prescribing of opioids by approximately 55%. Sherman’s plan calls for dramatically expanding access to medication-assisted opioid treatment — regarded by experts as the most effective way to treat opioid addiction. It would also create more programs to reduce the deadliness of drug use and its side effects and offer education campaigns to allow officials to better respond to the crisis. She called it “a full response to the opioid epidemic.” Sherman also proposes expanding measures Baltimore already has, like the distribution of the opioid overdose-reversing drug naloxone and providing clean syringes to reduce the risk of diseases like HIV and Hepatitis B. “It’s a philosophy of meeting people where they are in their drug use,” Sherman testified. Her plan also calls for some initiatives that would be novel in the city, such as overdose prevention sites, which provide people who use opioids a place to administer drugs under the supervision of medical professionals with life-saving resources available. There are at least 200 such places, also known as safe consumption sites, around the world but only two in America, located in New York City, Sherman’s report says. “Despite millions of injections taking place in OPSes worldwide, not one has resulted in a fatal overdose,” she said. Sherman testified that overdose prevention sites have led to people stopping drug use and entering treatment. She said there are plans to open such operations in Rhode Island, Vermont and Minneapolis. Under her plan, the percentage of opioid users in the city who were in treatment would climb from 13% to 41%, she testified. She calls for more easy-to-access treatment programs like Project Connections at Reentry, a van that offers opioid medications to people without identifications or health insurance outside the Baltimore Central Booking & Intake Center. She also called for more wrap-around services for people in treatment, including transportation, housing support, nutritional assistance, job training and mental health care. “It’s important for people to have stability — food, housing, mental health care — to be successful in treatment,” Sherman testified. ©2024 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Penguins acquire Nashville forward in exchange for a 2027 draft pick