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Realtors forecast rising California home sales, prices in 2024

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:30 GMT

California’s housing market is expected to rebound next year from the disastrous sales drops of 2023, Realtor economists predicted Wednesday, Sept. 20.But even with a 23% jump in sales of existing single-family homes, 2024 still will have the lowest number of transactions since Ronald Reagan was running for reelection in 1984 — and the ninth-lowest in records dating back 55 years.Nevertheless, an easing of inflation and lowering of mortgage rates will create a slightly more hospitable environment for home sellers to reenter the market, the California Association of Realtors forecast.Lower mortgage rates also will increase the buying power of home shoppers, creating more competition for a still-tight supply of for-sale listings, pushing the 2024 home price to a record high.“2024 will be a better year for the California housing market for both buyers and sellers,” state Realtor President Jennifer Branchini said in a statement. “A more favorable market environment with lower borrowing ...

Teen wounded in Oakland drive-by shooting

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:30 GMT

OAKLAND — A 13-year-old boy was wounded in a drive-by shooting Tuesday night in East Oakland, authorities said.He was in stable condition Wednesday recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg and a graze wound to his head, authorities said.The shooting happened about 9:32 p.m. Tuesday at the intersection of 23rd Avenue and East 21st Street.The boy told police he was standing outside a store with some other people when a black  SUV drove by and someone inside the vehicle began shooting at them. He was the only one wounded.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Police raids target Vallejo gang after armed robbery of Alameda County judge’s Rolex Crime and Public Safety | Driver fatally shot in East Oakland Crime and Public Safety | East Bay woman gets 22 months for embezzling $1.7 million from Men’s Wearhouse Crime and Public Safety | Oakland sex offender allegedly killed man within 50 minutes of being transferred...

Oakland Roots and Soul have the ‘go-ahead’ for negotiations with the City of Oakland and stadium 

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:30 GMT

(KRON) -- The Oakland City Council and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors have authorized city and county staff to enter an exclusive negotiation agreement for the Oakland Roots and Soul Sports Club to build and operate an interim stadium at the Malibu Lot. According to the Oakland Roots and Soul, the negotiation agreement has a goal of a 10-year lease.  Bay Area air quality advisory continues Wednesday “We could not be more excited to be one step closer to having a dedicated soccer home in Oakland,” said the Oakland Roots and Soul Sports Club President Lindsay Barenz. “We want to thank the City Council and County Board of Supervisors and the city and county staff for all their hard work and support for our efforts.”According to the Oakland Roots, the 2025 USL Championship season is the target opening for the Malibu Lot Stadium. The sports club believes the stadium will align with the club's “financial sustainability in Oakland.” The Malibu Stadium will give the Oakland Roots...

Rumble Had Exclusive Rights to Stream Republican Debate — Yet Was Buried in Google Search

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:30 GMT

Leading up to the August Republican presidential primary debate, an official from Google’s Civics and U.S. Campaigns team reached out to the Republican National Committee with a standard question, according to a cache of emails obtained by The Intercept: “[D]oes the RNC have live stream plans that I can share with the product team?”The question made sense: For major events, people flock to Google to find out when a live event is occurring — yielding the now-legendary 2011 HuffPost article “What Time Is the Super Bowl?” — and also, just as importantly, where that event can be watched.An RNC official told Google via email that the debate would be streaming exclusively on the upstart video platform Rumble. The August 23 debate was broadcast on Fox News and streamed on Fox Nation, which requires a subscription, while Rumble was the only one to stream it for free. On the day of and during the debate, however, potential viewers who searched Google for “GOP debate stream” were returned lin...

Vanna White extends her time at the puzzle board on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ for two additional seasons

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:30 GMT

Vanna White is not giving up her puzzle board when Ryan Seacrest takes over for Pat Sajak as host of “Wheel of Fortune.” In fact, she will be there for his first two seasons.Sony Pictures Television announced Tuesday that White has extended her contract with the game show — taking her through the 2025-26 season. Her contract was expiring at the end of the current 41st season, which Sajak announced earlier this year would be his last.White and Sajak have worked together since 1982 when “Wheel” began airing in syndication.Confirmation of White’s contract extension was announced while Seacrest was taping an upcoming interview segment for “Sunday Today with Willie Geist.”Seacrest called it “great news” and said that he has “been excited to work with her” and “can’t wait.”He will make his “Wheel of Fortune” debut next fall.Source

Retrial date set for man who claims self-defense in shooting death of former NFL star Will Smith

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:30 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Feb. 5 retrial date was set Wednesday for the man whose 2016 manslaughter conviction in the shooting death of former NFL star Will Smith was overturned because the jury’s verdict was not unanimous.Cardell Hayes, 36, has long insisted he shot Smith in self-defense during an April 2016 confrontation after a car crash.At his December 2016 trial, he said he fired at Smith, hitting him once in the side and seven times in the back, only because he believed Smith had retrieved a gun from his SUV. He insisted on the stand that he heard a “pop” before he started shooting and that he did not shoot at Smith’s wife, who was hit in the legs.There was no other witness and no forensic evidence to back up Hayes’ claim that Smith had wielded or fired a weapon.Hayes was convicted of manslaughter for Smith’s death and attempted manslaughter in the wounding of Smith’s wife, Raquel. He had served about four years of a 25-year sentence when his conviction was overtu...

Alabama school band director says he was ‘just doing my job’ before police arrested him

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:30 GMT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama high school band director said Wednesday that he was just “doing my job” when police officers arrested him and shocked with a stun gun after he refused to immediately stop the band as it played in the bleachers following a football game.Johnny Mims, the band director at Minor High School, told The Associated Press he was confused when officers pulled him from the director’s podium to arrest him following last Thursday’s game between Minor and Jackson-Olin high schools. “I was in shock. Just totally confused because I was pretty much doing my job, and I hadn’t done anything wrong. I definitely did not deserve to be Tased,” said Mims, who noted that he was shocked with the stun gun three times.Police body camera footage released Monday shows Mims being arrested and repeatedly shocked in a chaotic scene that included students screaming. Police charged him with disorderly conduct, harassment and resisting arrest.In the bod...

A new London exhibition highlights the untold stories of Black British fashion designers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:30 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A new exhibition is opening in London to chart for the first time the contributions that Black British culture made to U.K. fashion and design history and to celebrate Black designers who haven’t received public recognition.“The Missing Thread: Untold Stories of Black British Fashion” at central London’s Somerset House, which opens Thursday, pays tribute to the influence of Black designers in fashion from the 1970s. But it also spotlights the racism and other barriers they faced in an industry that remains difficult to break into for people of color.Curators said that the idea of a display celebrating Black fashion and culture has germinated for some time. But it was only after the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of U.S. police — and the global eruption of protests against racial injustice that was triggered — that momentum gathered for a show that also features broader social and political context, such as the rise of anti-immigration sentime...

For many displaced by clashes in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian camp, return is not an option

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:30 GMT

SEBLINE, Lebanon (AP) — Nearly a week after a cease-fire agreement between warring factions in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp brought a fragile peace, hundreds of displaced residents see no immediate prospects of return.Some have lost their houses, while others do not trust that the calm will hold. For many, it’s not the first time they have been forced to flee their homes.Among them is Munira Abu Aamsha, 63, who left the camp near the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon with her family, ducking from alleyway to alleyway under a rain of bullets.She has been sleeping for the past 10 days with her daughters and grandchildren in a classroom converted into a dormitory at a vocational training center run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the nearby town of Sebline.Abu Aamsha was born in the Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp near Beirut, where her parents had taken refuge after the war over the creation of Israel in 1948. She escaped from the camp as a tee...

Ahead of Ohio abortion vote, a court says some ballot language is misleading, must be rewritten

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:30 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A wildly divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled late Tuesday that only one element of the disputed ballot language for describing a closely watched fall abortion rights question is misleading and must be rewritten.The decision lets stand most of the word choices targeted in a lawsuit by Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, the pro-abortion rights ballot campaign, as well as the substitution of “unborn child” for “fetus,” which it chose not to dispute.But it also marked the high court’s second slap this year at the Republican-led Ohio Ballot Board’s chosen wording for describing constitutional amendments to voters. In June, justices ordered the panel to reword its description of a divisive August that constitutional amendment would have made amending Ohio’s constitution harder.In both cases, the summaries were advanced by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, an abortion opponent and 2024 U.S. Senate candidate who chairs the panel in his role as s...