Luka Doncic agrees to a contract extension through 2028 with the Lakers
The deal keeps Doncic with Los Angeles through 2028. The Slovenian superstar had a player option for the 2026-27 season under his previous contract.
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Abreu homers off Pivetta to help the Red Sox beat the Padres, 10-2
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Wilyer Abreu made former teammate Nick Pivetta pay for his mistakes with a two-run home run in a four-run fourth inning and Masataka Yoshida also connected to help the Boston Red Sox beat the San Diego Padres 10-2 on Friday night. Connor Wong added a bases-loaded double and Walker Buehler (7-6) shut out the Padres on four singles through six innings as the Red Sox won for the 10th time in 12 games. Buehler struck out four and walked two, with only two Padres reaching scoring position. Buehler improved to 7-1 against the Padres and 2-1 at Petco Park. His previous 12 starts against San Diego all came while with the NL West-rival Los Angeles Dodgers. Buehler, who earned the save in the Dodgers' World Series-ending Game 5 victory over the Yankees, signed with the Red Sox as a free agent Dec. 28. Pivetta (11-4) loaded the bases opening the fourth by allowing a single to Alex Bregman and walking Jarren Duran and Trevor Story. Yoshida hit a sacrifice fly and Pivetta's errant throw trying to pick off Story brought in another run. With two outs, Abreu hit a 423-foot homer to right-center, his 21st, to make it 4-0. Bregman hit a sac fly in the fifth. Pivetta allowed five runs and five hits in six innings, struck out three and walked three. Wong's three-run double off Sean Reynolds made it 8-0 in the eighth. The Padres scored twice in the bottom of the inning. Yoshida hit a two-run homer in the ninth off Reynolds, his second. Key moment Abreu's homer to one of the deepest parts of Petco Park. Key stat Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. The Red Sox improved to 18-10 against the Padres, 9-4 at Petco Park and 11-5 in San Diego. Up next Red Sox RHP Lucas Giolito (8-2, 3.57 ERA) was scheduled to start Saturday night opposite RHP Michael King (4-2, 2.59). ___ AP MLB:
National Post
an hour ago
- National Post
L.A. Dodgers use a three-run seventh inning to beat Blue Jays
Two throwback starters and future first-ballot hall of famers, baseball's biggest star in Shohei Ohtani on a night pitting two of the best teams in what some viewed as a potential World Series preview. Article content It all made for a sporting stage befitting Hollywood, by far the highest profiled and most anticipated game the Jays will play this season until the cauldron of October rolls around. Article content Article content Article content To add to the occasion, the Max Scherzer-Clayton Kershaw pitching duel was undoubtedly their final showdown, barring that is an actual Jays-Dodgers matchup in the Fall Classic. Article content Either way, Friday night at Chavez Ravine was not an ordinary game. Article content Above all else, the Jays were abundantly made aware that they were not playing the Colorado Rockies. Article content They were exposed to what playoff baseball is all about against the reigning champions, who have not been playing well. Article content The champs, though, would rise to the challenge, while the Jays understood, if they didn't already know, how every little detail must be executed and how a bullpen can't afford to issue late-game walks in a tight game. Article content The following are three takeaways from the opener of a three-game series L.A. won, 5-1, a night when Kevin Gausman would be ejected, even though he never pitched. Article content 1. Max out Article content As if anyone needed a reminder of Scherzer's competitive spirit and how he relishes the big stage, the first inning pretty much summed it up. Article content After giving up back-to-back hits, Scherzer recorded a strikeout and then watched as Davis Schneider made a great catch at the wall in left field. Article content A two-out walk loaded the bases to bring Teoscar Hernandez to the plate in the game's first dramatic moment. Article content The one-time Blue Jay struck out swinging. Article content For Scherzer, four of his hardest pitches of the season were thrown in the first inning, when he needed 23 pitches. Article content What stood out the most was his unrelenting ability to battle. Article content Another rare quality the veteran possesses is how he unabashedly wears his emotion on his sleeve. Article content He knew he made a mistake in the fifth inning, allowing a two-run homer to Mookie Betts. Those were the lone runs Scherzer gave up in providing his team with six complete innings. Article content What he didn't receive was offensive support. Article content 2. Clayton curve Article content His out pitch was a lights out pitch Kershaw would summon, a looping curveball that was among baseball's most lethal.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
As electric bills rise, evidence mounts that data centers share blame. States feel pressure to act
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Amid rising electric bills, states are under pressure to insulate regular household and business ratepayers from the costs of feeding Big Tech's energy-hungry data centers. It's not clear that any state has a solution and the actual effect of data centers on electricity bills is difficult to pin down. Some critics question whether states have the spine to take a hard line against tech behemoths like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta. But more than a dozen states have begun taking steps as data centers drive a rapid build-out of power plants and transmission lines. That has meant pressuring the nation's biggest power grid operator to clamp down on price increases, studying the effect of data centers on electricity bills or pushing data center owners to pay a larger share of local transmission costs. Rising power bills are 'something legislators have been hearing a lot about. It's something we've been hearing a lot about. More people are speaking out at the public utility commission in the past year than I've ever seen before,' said Charlotte Shuff of the Oregon Citizens' Utility Board, a consumer advocacy group. 'There's a massive outcry.' Not the typical electric customer Some data centers could require more electricity than cities the size of Pittsburgh, Cleveland or New Orleans, and make huge factories look tiny by comparison. That's pushing policymakers to rethink a system that, historically, has spread transmission costs among classes of consumers that are proportional to electricity use. 'A lot of this infrastructure, billions of dollars of it, is being built just for a few customers and a few facilities and these happen to be the wealthiest companies in the world,' said Ari Peskoe, who directs the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard University. 'I think some of the fundamental assumptions behind all this just kind of breaks down.' A fix, Peskoe said, is a 'can of worms' that pits ratepayer classes against one another. Some officials downplay the role of data centers in pushing up electric bills. Tricia Pridemore, who sits on Georgia's Public Service Commission and is president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, pointed to an already tightened electricity supply and increasing costs for power lines, utility poles, transformers and generators as utilities replace aging equipment or harden it against extreme weather. The data centers needed to accommodate the artificial intelligence boom are still in the regulatory planning stages, Pridemore said, and the Data Center Coalition, which represents Big Tech firms and data center developers, has said its members are committed to paying their fair share. But growing evidence suggests that the electricity bills of some Americans are rising to subsidize the massive energy needs of Big Tech as the U.S. competes in a race against China for artificial intelligence superiority. Data and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie published a report in recent weeks that suggested 20 proposed or effective specialized rates for data centers in 16 states it studied aren't nearly enough to cover the cost of a new natural gas power plant. In other words, unless utilities negotiate higher specialized rates, other ratepayer classes — residential, commercial and industrial — are likely paying for data center power needs. Meanwhile, Monitoring Analytics, the independent market watchdog for the mid-Atlantic grid, produced research in June showing that 70% — or $9.3 billion — of last year's increased electricity cost was the result of data center demand. States are responding Last year, five governors led by Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro began pushing back against power prices set by the mid-Atlantic grid operator, PJM Interconnection, after that amount spiked nearly sevenfold. They warned of customers 'paying billions more than is necessary.' PJM has yet to propose ways to guarantee that data centers pay their freight, but Monitoring Analytics is floating the idea that data centers should be required to procure their own power. In a filing last month, it said that would avoid a 'massive wealth transfer' from average people to tech companies. At least a dozen states are eyeing ways to make data centers pay higher local transmission costs. In Oregon, a data center hot spot, lawmakers passed legislation in June ordering state utility regulators to develop new — presumably higher — power rates for data centers. The Oregon Citizens' Utility Board says there is clear evidence that costs to serve data centers are being spread across all customers — at a time when some electric bills there are up 50% over the past four years and utilities are disconnecting more people than ever. New Jersey's governor signed legislation last month commissioning state utility regulators to study whether ratepayers are being hit with 'unreasonable rate increases' to connect data centers and to develop a specialized rate to charge data centers. In some other states, like Texas and Utah, governors and lawmakers are trying to avoid a supply-and-demand crisis that leaves ratepayers on the hook — or in the dark. Doubts about states protecting ratepayers In Indiana, state utility regulators approved a settlement between Indiana Michigan Power Co., Amazon, Google, Microsoft and consumer advocates that set parameters for data center payments for service. Kerwin Olsen, of the Citizens Action Council of Indiana, a consumer advocacy group, signed the settlement and called it a 'pretty good deal' that contained more consumer protections than what state lawmakers passed. But, he said, state law doesn't force large power users like data centers to publicly reveal their electric usage, so pinning down whether they're paying their fair share of transmission costs 'will be a challenge.' In a March report, the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard University questioned the motivation of utilities and regulators to shield ratepayers from footing the cost of electricity for data centers. Both utilities and states have incentives to attract big customers like data centers, it said. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. To do it, utilities — which must get their rates approved by regulators — can offer 'special deals to favored customers' like a data center and effectively shift the costs of those discounts to regular ratepayers, the authors wrote. Many state laws can shield disclosure of those rates, they said. In Pennsylvania, an emerging data center hot spot, the state utility commission is drafting a model rate structure for utilities to consider adopting. An overarching goal is to get data center developers to put their money where their mouth is. 'We're talking about real transmission upgrades, potentially hundreds of millions of dollars,' commission chairman Stephen DeFrank said. 'And that's what you don't want the ratepayer to get stuck paying for.' ___ Follow Marc Levy on X at
