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Improving Investor Behavior: The problem with pessimism

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:40:10 GMT

With markets improving and the overall economy strengthening, why is everyone so negative about our country’s current financial state? By many measures, I believe our economy is far better than people’s sentiment toward it.The past two years brought the strongest labor market in a generation, for example. Yet many are convinced of an impending recession. The University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, a measure of how positively or negatively people “feel” about the market, indicates a lower low than during the 2008 financial crisis. The 2023 level is even lower than in the 1980s when inflation was 15%, and the 1970s during a challenging economic period.Steve BoorenInflation certainly is a factor in people’s negativity. But that hasn’t stopped consumers from spending, which is generally a sign that things are going well at a household level.It’s also bizarre to see sentiment so low with unemployment near the lowest levels since 1969. With something like 10 million job openin...

Among Colorado judges, former prosecutors outnumber public defenders 2-to-1

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:40:10 GMT

There are twice as many former prosecutors serving as district court judges in Colorado as there are former public defenders on the bench, a Denver Post review found.The state judiciary is skewed toward former prosecutors, raising questions about the overall fairness of the judicial system, the importance of professional diversity among judges and how much judges’ prior work impacts their decision-making on the bench, experts told The Post.“I think there is a measurable effect to having so many more prosecutors who never represented individual clients and therefore never got so closely exposed to all the root causes of crime that bring individuals into the criminal legal system in the first place,” said Tristan Gorman, policy director for the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar.But others say judges can’t be broadly categorized by their backgrounds, and that judges’ personalities, demeanors and capabilities matter more than their past jobs.“In my opinio...

Colorado’s recently struck child sex abuse law to receive second chance through proposed constitutional amendment

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:40:10 GMT

When the Colorado Supreme Court ruled the Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act unconstitutional in June, lawmakers decided it was time to change the constitution.“It’s not a broad scope, it’s not changing the entirety of the constitution, it’s not even changing the entirety of that retrospective piece of the constitution,” she said. “It’s just making a very narrow exception so the state of Colorado no longer has this barrier for survivors of child sexual abuse.”In the court’s June unanimous opinion, the justices ruled the act violated the Colorado Constitution’s prohibition on retrospective legislation.“Since the Supreme Court decided that it was unconstitutional … we decided that we needed to address that constitutional problem,” said state Sen. Jessie Danielson, one of the act’s original sponsors. “And so we’ve crafted a very narrow fix to allow these survivors to pursue their claims.”If the in-progress amendment passes both the state House and Senate with a two-thirds majority, ...

Keeler: CU Buffs quarterback Shedeur Sanders isn’t Cody Hawkins. Just ask Cody Hawkins. “CU fans are the best fans in the world and the worst fans in the world.”

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:40:10 GMT

BOULDER — Shedeur Sanders is no Cody Hawkins.Just ask Cody Hawkins.“First of all, I know everyone was (hacked) off when (Deion Sanders) said, ‘Hey guys, this is your quarterback,’” Hawkins, the former CU QB, son of ex-Buffs coach Dan Hawkins and first-year football coach at Idaho State, told me by phone earlier this week.“(Coach Prime) wouldn’t play Shedeur if he didn’t think he was the best guy.“I was (sometimes) a bad QB, but I was the best guy we had …Shedeur is a good QB. People want to pooh-pooh the (Football Championship Subdivision) level. But I know they’re going to get it right.”He’s 35 now. A grizzled 35. Hawkins still loves CU, loves his Buffs, in spite of it all, even if Boulder aged him quickly. Some CU faithful still haven’t forgiven his dad, and vice versa. (The elder Hawkins, now heading into his seventh season at UC-Davis, politely declined a request to be interviewed for this column.)But if anybody knows what’s coming for Sanders, as both CU’s QB1 and son of the ne...

What previous California storms could show about Hurricane Hilary

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:40:10 GMT

As Hurricane Hilary continues its northward trek, Southern California residents are bracing for an storm event unlike anything the region has seen in decades, KTLA sister station KSWB reports.The dangerous storm system is currently graded by the National Weather Service as a Category 1 hurricane. By the time it reaches SoCal, meteorologists say the storm is likely to have weakened into a tropical storm, nonetheless brining "catastrophic" flooding and strong winds to the region. Bracing for Hilary: Live updates This type of weather event is incredibly rare for the Golden State, with only a handful of storms managing to bring tropical storm-force winds in the last century.Weather experts are revisiting two of these storm events in particular -- a September 1939 tropical storm in Los Angeles and Hurricane Kathleen -- to see how Hurricane Hilary might shake out.Both of these events had monumental impacts on communities in the region, according to historians. Now, decades later, these ...

Fighting future ‘red tides’ in San Francisco Bay

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:40:10 GMT

The largest sources of nutrient pollution and algae blooms in the San Francisco Bay — 37 different sewage treatment plants — are cleaning up their act.Faced with two blooms called “red tides,” deadly to marine life, officials will soon recommend the first-ever restrictions on the release of the nutrients, such as nitrogen, into the Bay, a vast body of water that has long seemed resilient to trouble.Nitrogen is not a toxin; it is necessary for a healthy ecosystem. But too much of it, discharged in wastewater from human urine, sets off a complex series of events that causes too much algae to grow, which depletes oxygen and kills marine life. Last year, a harmful bloom caused piles of stinking fish corpses to wash ashore. This summer, a smaller bloom appeared and then vanished.Thousands of dead fish, killed by an algae bloom, float around Lake Merritt in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022.  (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) “The science is telling us tha...

Me & My Car: ’56 Studebaker in Pleasanton a ‘face-lift’ of an earlier model

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:40:10 GMT

It will be 60 years on Dec. 31 since the once-great Studebaker Corp. closed down its plant in South Bend, Indiana and laid off thousands, including a young man who would later become a classic car columnist for the East Bay Times.Related ArticlesLocal News | Me & My Car: ’61 Lincoln in East Bay said one of under 200 on road today Local News | Me & My Car: Replica ’34 Ford roadster a joy ride for its Bay Area owner Local News | Me & My Car: ’65 Alfa Romeo in East Bay getting better all the time It was a sad day knowing the end of this iconic company was nearly over. They did keep a small assembly plant in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, until March 1966 that produced only the Lark models. Studebaker’s trucks and its Hawk and Avanti car models were no longer manufactured.California played an important part in Studebaker’s history. There were five Studebaker brothers. One of the brothers, John, and his othe...

Kurtenbach: Brock Purdy picked up where he left off. That makes the 49ers the NFC’s team to beat

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:40:10 GMT

SANTA CLARA — There was no controversy or competition for the 49ers’ starting quarterback job this season.The gig was Brock Purdy’s.And he reminded everyone why that was the case on Saturday.The quarterback’s inexperience (five starts last regular season) and injury (he had his ulnar collateral ligament repaired this past offseason) didn’t matter to Niners’ coach Kyle Shanahan.He remembered what Purdy did for his offense last season.And while it was only one series of a preseason game, Purdy provided the same thing for the Niners against the Broncos’ first-string defense Saturday.(Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) Exhibition or not, the preseason home opener was Purdy’s first game since he injured his elbow in January’s NFC Championship Game. He looked like the quarterback we saw win eight straight games, including two in the playoffs.“First game action since the postseason last year. To be able to get out there and sort of sh...

Live Updates: Spain wins first Women’s World Cup with 1-0 victory over England

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:40:10 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Live updates from the Women’s World Cup final between England and Spain:___Spain has won its first Women’s World Cup championship with a 1-0 victory over England. The win for Spain in just its third World Cup appearance prevented the Lionesses — the reigning European champions — from bringing the trophy back to England for the first time since 1966. England’s men’s team won the nation’s only World Cup that year. Spain won on a goal from Olga Carmona in the 29th minute. The left back scored in back-to-back World Cup games for Spain, which has a tournament-best 18 goals in this World Cup, and became just the seventh player in tournament history to score in both the semifinals and the final. Spain, which had a near mutiny last year when 15 players quit the national team, was the more aggressive team in the final and pressed the entire game. The England loss was the first this tournament for coach Sarina Wiegman, who was hired in late 2021 as the te...

Spain wins its first Women’s World Cup title, beating England 1-0 in the final in Sydney

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 13:40:10 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Spain wins its first Women’s World Cup title, beating England 1-0 in the final in Sydney.Source