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How adding a butler’s pantry enhances your home’s value and efficiency

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:26 GMT

Popularized by TV home makeover shows, the butler’s pantry adds a touch of elegance and functionality to any home.This versatile space is the ultimate secret weapon for hosting seamless dinner parties, storing fine china, or simply keeping your kitchen clutter-free.With the popularity of open floor plans, some homeowners feel stressed about keeping their kitchens clean. A butler’s pantry makes that easier by moving more food prep out of sight.Homeowners can use a butler’s pantry for storage, food prep, or cleanup. The space is typically located near or between the kitchen and dining room.“Once we opened up our kitchens, it became more challenging to keep them clean for entertaining,” says Jill Schafer with Kentwood Real Estate.“We’re seeing people take a larger walk-in pantry and make it a caterer’s kitchen or butler’s pantry. It’s a place where you can do the prep dirty work and then close the door.”No longer just a ...

Broncos WR Marquez Callaway hopes to take advantage of opportunity like he did with Saints

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:26 GMT

In 2021, wide receiver Marquez Callaway saw an opportunity and took advantage.As a member of the New Orleans Saints, he watched star wideout Michael Thomas miss the entire season due to an ankle injury, and former head coach Sean Payton needed another pass catcher he could rely on.Callaway stepped up. Then he recorded a team-best 698 receiving yards and six touchdowns on 46 receptions in 17 games (11 starts).Two years later in Denver, Callaway finds himself in a similar situation with the same coach. Broncos wide receiver Tim Patrick suffered a season-ending torn Achilles, and speedster K.J. Hamler was waived with a non-football illness designation, providing Callaway a chance to carve out a role.“I’m an outsider coming in and just trying to (find) my way,” said Callaway, who is entering his fourth season.At 6-foot-2 and 204 pounds, Callaway is a big target who can make big plays. He averaged a career-best 15.2 yards per reception in 2021. He and former New Orleans wide receiver Lil...

Swifties can win free 'Eras Tour' tickets through Vivid Seats contest

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:26 GMT

Vivid Seats wants to help one lucky Swiftie see Taylor Swift during her "Eras Tour" stop in Inglewood on Aug.9To enter the contest, fans will have to download the official Vivid Seats app, which is available on the App Store and Google Play, and play the Taylor Swift trivia game in the game center. A guide to attending one of Taylor Swift’s sold-out shows at Sofi Stadium No purchase is necessary to enter the contest. The winner will get two tickets to Swift’s Eras Tour show on Aug. 9. and the contest ends on Aug. 6, according to the company's Instagram page.The “Midnights” singer will perform six sold-out shows at Sofi Stadium on Aug. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 during the final stop of her 2023 U.S. leg of the “Eras Tour.” Taylor Swift shares heartfelt moment with Kobe Bryant’s daughter during SoFi concert Swift is scheduled to return to the U.S. in 2024 to perform more shows in Miami, New Orleans, Indiana and Toronto after performing overseas.For those who may want to buy tickets to o...

Road rage may have sparked shooting on I-80 in Richmond, CHP says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:26 GMT

RICHMOND — Road rage may have been the cause of a shooting early Friday morning on Interstate 80 in Richmond, according to the California Highway Patrol.At 1:25 a.m., officers were notified of a shooting on westbound I-80 near Central Avenue. Bullets hit the victim’s car — a grey Audi sedan — but not the passenger, an adult male. No arrests were made and police have not yet released information about the shooter.The CHP is asking anyone with information about the shooting to call 510-457-2875.

49ers training camp: Busier than ever Brock Purdy feels ‘normal’, not timid

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:26 GMT

SANTA CLARA — Any training camp story about Brock Purdy must open with his health update, especially after Friday commanded the most workload for his surgically repaired elbow.Physically, “arm feels good,” Purdy said, “feels like I can continue to keep going.”Mentally, therein lies another aspect Purdy must continue to improve before the Sept. 10 season opener. That goes for getting his eyes up to speed to track defenders’ adjustments and receivers’ routes. And it goes for what most comeback-making football players refer to clearing a hurdle thanks to that first hit.“I feel like normal when I’m out there,” Purdy countered. “I just have to get in a rhythm and play, go through progressions, and just play quarterback.”“It’s not really, ‘Hey, I have to get tackled here, just so I feel good about my arm.’ Nothing like that goes through my mind. I just play football, go through my reads, and I feel normal. It’s not li...

Chiefs’ Charles Omenihu gets six-game suspension for arrest while with 49ers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:26 GMT

Kansas City defensive end Charles Omenihu received a six-game suspension Friday under the NFL’s personal conduct policy for a domestic violence arrest in San Jose last season when he was playing for the 49ers.Omenihu, 25, was arrested by San Jose police in January and charged with two misdemeanor counts of domestic battery and a misdemeanor count of illegally destroying, removing or obstructing the use of a wireless communication device.The criminal case was resolved when Omenihu reached an agreement with prosecutors in which the battery counts were dismissed after he pleaded no contest to the third charge, completed community service, and underwent 32 hours of counseling, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.After his arrest, a San Jose police investigation determined that Omenihu’s girlfriend called 911 from his Santana Row apartment to report that he was trying to “beat her.” About 30 minutes before that call, police said Om...

What to play: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ will keep gamers busy during August

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:26 GMT

It’s the beginning of August and gamers are going to be a lot busier starting this week. That’s because Larian Studios has dropped its highly anticipated role-playing game “Baldur’s Gate 3.” Based on the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons rule set and sporting gameplay from Larian’s earlier work on the “Divinity: Original Sin” series, this sequel and revamp of the franchise is shaping up to be a potential game of the year contender.With a dozen classes, 46 subclasses and 11 races, players will have a field day creating just the right character to explore the Forgotten Realms. What makes Larian’s games so uniquely suited to D&D is that it takes BioWare’s adapting the rule set to computers and expands it even further into storytelling with player choices and decisions impacted by abilities and skills. The game forces you to role dice to see if an action works out for you.The game is also flexible in the way it offers play...

Antioch woman released from jail in plea deal for killing allegedly abusive boyfriend in Oakland

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:26 GMT

OAKLAND — An Antioch woman who was 18 when she shot and killed her allegedly abusive boyfriend during a heated argument in their car has been sentenced to time in jail she has already served, clearing the way for her release from custody, court records show.Lalique Westbrook, 22, pleaded no contest to assault with a firearm in May and last month was formally sentenced to time in jail she already served, court records show. In exchange for her no contest plea, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office dismissed murder charges against Westbrook, who has been in custody since March 26, 2019, the day she shot and killed Taiwan Lamar Moore, 24, of Oakland.The case drew wildly different theories from prosecutors and the defense, with a the defense arguing that Westbrook lawfully shot her abuser in self-defense, and a deputy district attorney casting doubt on that story’s validity. A judge in Westbrook’s 2021 preliminary hearing said it was possible a jury would...

Death of Cash App founder Bob Lee 'still stings,' ex-wife says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:26 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Bob Lee's ex-wife sat in the front row of a San Francisco courtroom and listened to 12 hours of testimony. "It still stings," Krista Lee told KRON4 Tuesday during a brief break from a preliminary hearing. She put on a strong face while police officers testified on the stand about grisly details, including how the Cash App founder was stabbed in the heart, staggered along Main Street bleeding at 2:30 a.m. April 4, and tried in vain to find help.Krista Lee told reporters, "Unfortunately I think he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. We will find out more as (the case) progresses. I certainly hope that someday we all get a motive. Will we ever? I don't know. Does the family deserve that? His children certainly do."Homicide victim Bob LeeBob Lee, 43, was a star in the Bay Area tech industry and the CEO of MobileCoin when his life came to a sudden and tragic end.His accused killer, Nima Momeni, attentively watched surveillance videos played ...

The buzz around Simone Biles’ return is papable. The gymnastics star seems intent on tuning it out

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:26 GMT

HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL (AP) — Ignore the wedding band and it could have been 2019 for Simone Biles. Or 2016. Or 2014.Long before Tokyo. Long before the “twisties.” Long before two years off in which the gymnastics star took a step back, took a long look at the arc of her record-setting career and decided she wasn’t done. Not quite yet.There she was walking onto the floor at NOW Arena on Friday on the eve of the U.S. Classic, her first meet since winning bronze on balance beam at the delayed 2020 Olympics, a medal she called among the sweetest she’s ever earned.There she was laughing with her teammates. There she was running and stretching and flipping — and yes, occasionally twisting — with the casual ease she summoned so regularly when the seven-time Olympic medalist was at her peak.Those heady days may be over. Biles is 26 now and at a different place in her life. She married Green Bay Packers defensive back Jonathan Owens in April. Her Instagram feed is filled with...