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Xcel Energy plans to spend $15 billion to boost renewable energy by 2030. How much will it cost customers?

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:35:15 GMT

Xcel Energy plans to spend $15 billion on renewable energy to provide electricity to its Colorado customers in the coming years, although its new proposal comes with a potential rate increase and criticism from environmentalists who want the utility to complete end its reliance on fossil fuels.The company filed a new clean energy plan Tuesday with the state Public Utilities Commission, which has until the end of this year to accept or reject it, said Katie O’Donnell, a PUC spokeswoman.Xcel said the plan would make 80% of its system in Colorado run on wind, solar and biomass energy by 2030 and would add 6,500 megawatts of renewable energy to the grid as it closes its last coal-fired power plant.“This is a very significant investment for our customers and our communities,” said Robert Kenney, president of Xcel Energy Colorado. “It’s not just benefiting our environmental goals, but it will put us on our path to reduce carbon emissions.”The utility company ...

Want public records from the Weld County Sheriff’s Office? Better find a notary.

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:35:15 GMT

The Weld County Sheriff’s Office recently mandated that anybody seeking public records from the agency must get a form notarized in order to obtain documents — a move a free speech expert called an unprecedented and unlawful burden.The Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act and Colorado Open Records Act allow public agencies to ask members of the public to sign a statement affirming that the records “shall not be used for the direct solicitation of business for pecuniary gain.”Nowhere in the statute does it say a public entity may require this form to be notarized.Law enforcement agencies are allowed to ask a requestor to show some form of identification when they seek public documents. The Colorado legislature this year passed a bill outlawing the ID requirement for other public bodies that do not fall under the criminal justice records law.Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, said he hasn’t seen another age...

New in Colorado skiing: Four resort improvements we can’t wait to try this winter

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:35:15 GMT

The culmination of Steamboat Resort’s ambitious three-year redevelopment project tops the list of most exciting resort improvements in Colorado this winter with a new base-to-summit gondola that will dramatically increase uphill capacity and a 655-acre terrain expansion.There’s also a new lift at Keystone to serve above-timberline bowl skiing that previously was hike-to terrain, and a fancy new mid-mountain restaurant at Copper Mountain, but Steamboat’s $220-million transformation stands apart as the most significant upgrade in the resort’s 61-year history.Since 2021, Steamboat — which was pounded by snow last year — replaced an old gondola that ran from the base to mid-mountain at Thunderhead and demolished the old gondola building to make room for base area improvements that include an ice rink and a food hall. Last year, the first leg of a second gondola, the Wild Blue Gondola, opened from the base area to a new on-mountain learning center call...

Optimism grows over possible agreement in Hollywood writers' strike but picketing continues

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:35:15 GMT

Hollywood writers and studios will enter a second day of negotiations Thursday amid encouraging reports that the monthslong strike, which has shut down the entertainment industry, could be coming to an end. Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) will still be on the picket lines Thursday while union leaders meet with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and studios including Netflix, Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal Television.Wednesday's meeting was the first between the two sides since mid-August but it went so well that some believe a deal could be finalized as soon as Thursday, CNBC reported. The WGA began its strike on May 2 with the Screen Actors Guild joining them in striking on July 14, marking the first time in over 60 years both unions have been on strike at the same time.Striking writers say they are split with producers over issues such as higher residual pay, viewership transparency from streaming services, incr...

San Jose tech titan Adobe widens partnerships with SJSU, other schools

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:35:15 GMT

SAN JOSE — Tech titan Adobe has widened its partnerships with San Jose State University and two other colleges, along with the schools’ students, with big grants to each of the educational institutions.As part of the company’s “Adobe for All” initiative, the tech firm has provided grants to SJSU, Bowie State University and Winston-Salem State University, Adobe said Thursday.Each of the three schools received $1 million from The Adobe Foundation, Adobe said. San Jose State is a Hispanic-Serving Institution, while both Bowie State University and Winston-Salem State University are designated as Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the company added.With the latest rounds of grants from Adobe Foundation, the tech company has provided a total of $9 million to the schools in recent years, or $3 million total for each university over that time frame, according to Amy White, Adobe’s global head for corporate social responsibility.The three univer...

From the Roadshow archives: When Sunol Grade replaced Bay Bridge as worst traffic jam in Bay Area

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:35:15 GMT

Editor’s note: Mr. Roadshow wanted to share some of his favorite columns and stories from more than 30 years of informing, entertaining and getting things changed for Bay Area (and beyond) drivers. He’ll be back on the road with new material soon. In the meantime, please keep sending Mr. Roadshow your comments or questions to [email protected] story originally was published on February 10, 1999. It’s now official. The thousands of Interstate 680 motorists who rise as early as 3:30 in the morning to beat the traffic jams over the Sunol Grade drive the region’s worst daily commute.For the first time since Caltrans began tracking congestion levels in 1981, the Bay Bridge has been toppled as the worst commute on state roads in the nine Bay Area counties.“Oh, wonderful,” said David Rodriquez, who commutes 95 miles from Delhi in Merced County to the East Bay on I-680 and must leave home in predawn hours to have any chance of getting into the...

49ers vs. Giants: 5 keys to winning home opener in Year 10 at Levi’s Stadium

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:35:15 GMT

SANTA CLARA – New grass is down, a 2-0 start is in hand, and the 49ers open their 10th season at Levi’s Stadium in prime time.“Whoooo’s got it better than us? … ”Sorry, that was then-coach Jim Harbaugh’s rallying cry a decade ago, when the 49ers moved from Candlestick Park to their $1.2 billion mansion atop a Great America parking lot.Kickoff is at 5:15 p.m. today when the 49ers’ host the short-handed New York Giants (Prime Video; KTVU Ch. 2).Do you know how many times the 49ers Faithful have attended a Thursday night win here? Once, for a 2018 rout of the then-Oakland Raiders. Two years later, the 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers when COVID guidelines banned fans.Do you recall the fiasco from the first Thursday night game at Levi’s Stadium? Thanksgiving night, 2014, a 17-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, and, then a Tweet from CEO Jed York apologizing for how “this performance wasn’t acceptable.”This season is trending much better, and this marks the start of a three-game homestand. ...

Barabak: Why Trump shouldn’t be kicked off California’s 2024 ballot

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:35:15 GMT

Donald Trump is a cancer on the body politic, a malignant tumor of a man who turns just about everything he touches into rot.He’s coarsened our culture, trampled our Constitution and helped widen the country’s partisan divide into a yawning, seemingly unbridgeable chasm.In a just and sane world, Trump will never come remotely close to holding elected office ever again.But that doesn’t mean he should be kicked off the 2024 ballot, or otherwise prevented from putting his name before voters as he bids to return to the White House and wreak further havoc.That’s a terrible idea, which several misguided California lawmakers took up this week, asking Democratic Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta to unilaterally strike Trump’s name from consideration in the March 5 primary.The notion, resting on legally shaky ground, may enthrall Trump’s critics. It may entice those who rightly worry about what would remain of our democracy if Trump — unbound, unhinged — were restored to power with a voter mandate that n...

Bay Area poker player who drew donations for Las Vegas event lied about dying from cancer

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:35:15 GMT

LAS VEGAS  — A poker player who said he had terminal cancer and accepted thousands of dollars in donations so he could play in a World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas now admits it was all a lie.Rob Mercer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he made up a stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis for his GoFundMe page in June, the newspaper reported Wednesday.Mercer, of Vallejo, California, was trying to raise enough funds to meet the $10,000 buy-in for the No-limit Hold’em World Championship. He received contributions worth between $30,000 and $50,000, including a stay at a suite in the Bellagio. Even a fellow player from Arizona who suffers from chronic illness donated $2,500.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Oakland homicide victim identified as 40-year-old city resident Crime and Public Safety | San Jose police set to classify gun-pointing as a use of force Crime and Public Safety | Man shot at Berkeley bus stop Crime and P...

Opinion: High-speed broadband is essential for every California family

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:35:15 GMT

“Leave no family behind.”  That’s the ambitious and appropriate goal of Gov. Gavin Newsom and the federal government’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to bring affordable, reliable, high-speed, home broadband to every unserved and underserved family in California.Like water and electricity, home broadband is essential.  Reliable internet impacts our ability to access telehealth, education, jobs, public safety and emergency services.With state and federal funds described as “once-in-a-lifetime” to finally bridge the digital divide, we have the opportunity to meet the moment and achieve this vital goal.  In California alone, 996,302 locations — primarily families — are depending on our policymakers to get this right.The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appropriately insists that reliable home broadband deliver 100 megabits per second (Mbps) “download” and 20 Mbps “upload.”  To meet (or exceed!) that 100/20 Mbps broadband...