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SVB’s Greg Becker was Silicon Valley’s money man for 30 years, until suddenly he wasn’t

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:26 GMT

By Lizette Chapman and Jennifer Surane | BloombergEarly on March 9, as SVB Financial Group’s stock began its death spiral, Chief Executive Officer Greg Becker picked up the phone.Becker started contacting friends, hoping that some of the goodwill he’d spent decades accruing as head of the startup community’s go-to bank could be repaid. Among the venture investors he spoke with was Alex Rampell, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Becker wanted Rampell’s firm to help shore up SVB, the company’s commercial bank, as depositors fled, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation.Foremr Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group/File) Over the next 24 hours or so, A16Z and many other firms realized the bank’s precarious position, with some advising founders to pull money out. By the following afternoon, SVB was in the hands of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.SVB’s failure put an end to Becker’s 30-year career at the bank. Just over a week ...

Opinion: Newark should drop plan to develop shoreline in flood zone

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:26 GMT

Newark could address the housing and climate crises simultaneously by building resilient homes. But the city’s current plan continues to prioritize development of Newark’s shoreline, putting 469 single-family homes in a flood zone on a site scientists have urged be protected and restored to wetlands.This is not a regular shoreline housing proposal. Newark plans to pave over a 500-acre mosaic of undeveloped marshland and wildlife habitat along San Francisco Bay. The development, on a site known as “Sanctuary West” or Newark Area 4, would need over 100,000 truckloads to bring in 1.67 million cubic yards of fill. Area 4 is entirely within a FEMA flood zone that already is pumped annually to reduce flooding and is anticipated to be nearly completely inundated by sea-level rise in the near future.The project is contained in the city’s draft Housing Element, the guiding document for how to develop over the next decade. The city has missed the January deadline for state certification of th...

Warriors-Mavericks showdown has major Western Conference playoff implications

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:26 GMT

The Warriors’ game tonight against the Dallas Mavericks will have a direct impact on the Western Conference playoff seeding.Golden State sits in the No. 6 seed following a rare road win against the Houston Rockets on Monday. But the Warriors don’t hold that spot by much. Just a half-game separates the seventh-seeded Mavericks (36-36) and Warriors (37-36) and they’ll go head-to-head on Wednesday to determine the season tiebreaker.Ultimately, whichever team falls into the seventh seed will participate in the play-in tournament. The seventh seed plays one game against the eighth seed, the winner of that game moving on to the playoffs’ first round as the seventh seed. The loser of that game would play the winner of a game between the ninth and 10th seeds for the eighth seed.“As a competitor, you relish in the moments of the most important games,” Klay Thompson said after the Warriors’ Houston win. “We’re coming down to the home stretch and every game is so ...

Another storm hits Bay Area: 88K still without power

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:26 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) -- Tuesday's storm unleashed fierce winds and pounding rain across the San Francisco Bay Area. Rain will continue throughout Wednesday morning making for another slippery commute but will dry up around noon before another storm hits the region next week. Video shows couch fly through the San Francisco sky during storm Follow along for the latest Bay Area storm updates:Wednesday, March 226 a.m. -- Number of PG&E customers without power risesAccording to PG&E's latest power outage report, the number of customers without power has risen to more than 88,000 since 5 a.m. Wednesday when numbers hovered around 86.5K. The outages are still mostly impacting the East Bay with a total of 50,981 outages.5:45 AMAffected Customers San Francisco8,204Peninsula21,697North Bay 2,724East Bay 50,981South Bay 4,674Bay Area Total88,2805 a.m. -- 86K still without power PG&E's latest update shows that the total number of outages in t...

GameStop leads meme stock rally

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:26 GMT

Meme stocks are rising before the opening bell Wednesday after GameStop, one of the most heavily traded off-brand stocks during the pandemic, posted a surprise profit for the fourth quarter. Rather than a per-share loss of 16 cents as Wall Street had expected, the video game retailer reported a profit of 16 cents per share, or $48.2 million in all. GameStop’s revenue fell and much of the profit gain came from aggressive cost cutting, including store closures and layoffs. However, as was the case during the pandemic, fundamentals that typically drive stock movement appear to be being pushed aside. Shares of GameStop Corp., Grapevine, Texas, surged 47% in premarket trading and it pulled other meme stocks along for the ride. During the pandemic, GameStop was a member of a group of beat-down stocks that drew smaller investors in huge numbers. The theory was that if enough small investors got in the game and drove the stock higher, it would force large hedge funds with short positi...

Prince William County’s crisis receiving center taking shape; Sen. Kaine pays a visit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:26 GMT

This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.The former Gander Mountain store in Woodbridge didn’t look like much Monday morning, its shop floor empty, concrete flooring exposed and paint peeling in places.But in Prince William County Community Services Director Lisa Madron’s hands were plans of what the 79,000-square-feet space could soon be for those in desperate need of mental health services.Madron was leading Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and over a dozen other elected officials and local health care leaders on a tour Monday of what will soon be the county’s first crisis receiving center, a project that Kaine and his congressional colleagues helped fund through an appropriations request.Scheduled to open in 2024, the center will have 16 units for 23-hour observation of adults and 16 in-patient beds for those who require monitoring beyond 23 hours, typically t...

French President Emmanuel Macron says in TV interview that pension bill needs to be implemented by ‘end of the year’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:26 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron says in TV interview that pension bill needs to be implemented by ‘end of the year.’Source

Climate solution: Downsize laundry jugs to cut emissions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:26 GMT

Laundry detergent is looking a little different these days. A growing number of companies are making bulky plastic jugs smaller and concentrating the detergent or soap.Without all that water, less fossil fuels are required for transport, because the products are lighter and more can be shipped in a single trip. New detergent formulas are changing to become ultra-concentrated liquids or even solid sheets roughly the size of an iPhone. “Laundry detergent can contain up to 90% water,” said Lisa Karandat, co-founder of Good JuJu, a company that sells sustainable laundry sheets and solid shampoo and conditioner bars, among other things. “Those big heavy jugs require a lot of space to truck around the country.”In addition to lower carbon emissions from diesel-burning delivery trucks, some companies are responding to public demand to minimize plastic pollution.If more laundry soap were sold in concentrated bottles, it would sharply cut waste without taking away customer benefits, said John...

UN: Many African children at risk from lack of clean water

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:26 GMT

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — In Nigeria’s teeming city of Lagos, children in the Makoko area swim and play in filthy water surrounded by garbage. In Ivory Coast’s largest city, Abidjan, thousands of families must fetch water from streams for their daily needs.In Mozambique and Malawi the recent destruction and flooding caused by Cyclone Freddy have displaced more than 500,000 people and the lack of clean water has seen a dramatic rise in cholera cases. March 22 is the United Nation’s World Water Day, marked annually since 1993 to raise awareness about the pressing need for billions of people around the world to have access to clean water and sanitation.According to the UN, 1 in 4 people – 2 billion people worldwide – lack safe drinking water and 1.4 million people die annually of diseases related to poor water, sanitation and hygiene.An estimated 190 million children in 10 African countries are at the highest risk from inadequate access to clean water and sanitation facil...

2nd day of remembrance for Boulder King Sooper victims

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:26 GMT

BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) — Wednesday, March 22, marks the second anniversary of the shooting at the King Soopers in Boulder. Ten people were killed when a gunman entered the store and opened fire.The shooting took place shortly after 2:30 p.m. that afternoon.The victims included Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley. He was killed shortly after arriving at the store and confronting the gunman. He was one of the first officers on scene. Remembering 10 people killed at Boulder King Soopers The other victims were shoppers and employees. The gunman was shot by police and taken into custody. A legal battle is still underway over his competency to stand trial.A remembrance event will be held Wednesday evening in Boulder.  The ceremony is being held at the eTown Hall located at 1535 Spruce St. in downtown Boulder.  It begins at 5:30 p.m. and the event is free but you are asked to register online on the Boulder website. According to the event planners, the ceremony is a safe space for the commu...