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(KAR) is throwing its annual New Year’s Eve party and fireworks Dec. 31 and everyone is invited to come join the celebration. 5:30 – 8:15 p.m. Night skiing and riding. 7 – 9 p.m. Ski Hill Bash! Kids games and activities, fire spinners, kids entertainers, facepainting, pinata, BBQ, beer gardens and more. 8:55 p.m. Torch Light Parade. 9 p.m. – Fireworks presented by and KAR. Stemwinder Bar and Grill – NYE DJ Dance Party – starts after the fireworks until 1 a.m. Cover charge after 10 p.m. 19+ (no pre-purchased tickets). Find more information on KAR’s Events Calendar on its website. : The Torch Light Parade and fireworks on New Year’s Eve at Kimberley Alpine Resort.A thunderous doink helped the Kansas City Chiefs gain some breathing room in the race for the No. 1 seed in the AFC after the Buffalo Bills fell short despite Josh Allen’s spectacular performance. The fight for the top spot in the NFC stayed close as the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles kept pace with the Detroit Lions. Four weeks remain in the NFL regular season to determine the playoff picture. There’s a clear leader in the fight for the AFC’s bye. The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs (12-1) are in excellent position to secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs after Matthew Wright drilled a 31-yard field goal off the left upright and through the goal posts as time expired for a 19-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night. Patrick Mahomes again made all the big plays when the Chiefs needed them most and they rallied for their 15th straight one-score victory. People are also reading... Kansas City has a two-game lead over the Bills (10-3) and Pittsburgh Steelers (10-3). Buffalo holds the tiebreaker over the Chiefs after handing Kansas City its only loss in Week 11. The Chiefs and Steelers face off in Pittsburgh on Christmas. Russell Wilson improved to 6-1 this season, tossing two touchdown passes to help the Steelers beat the Cleveland Browns 27-14. Allen became the second player in NFL history to throw three touchdown passes and run for three scores in the same game — Otto Graham did it for the Cleveland Browns in the 1954 NFL championship game — but Buffalo’s defense couldn’t stop Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua and the Los Angeles Rams in a 44-42 loss on Sunday. The Bills had won seven in a row. They visit the Lions next week while the Steelers go to Philadelphia. The Eagles barely held on for a 22-16 victory over the feisty Carolina Panthers. The ugly win left some of Philadelphia’s players in a sour mood. Wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith weren’t thrilled with the offense’s performance. The Eagles (11-2) again relied on Saquon Barkley, who had 124 yards rushing on 20 carries. That meant Jalen Hurts didn’t have to do much. He threw for just 108 yards with two TDs passing and one more rushing. Barkley broke LeSean McCoy’s single-season franchise record for yards rushing. He’s up to 1,623 yards, moving closer to Eric Dickerson’s NFL record of 2,105 set in 1984. Brown, who slammed his helmet out of frustration on the sideline after a three-and-out in the third quarter, responded bluntly when asked where the offense needs improvement. “Passing,” Brown said, without elaborating. Brown was targeted just four times, catching all four passes for 43 yards. Hurts didn’t throw him the ball a couple of times when he was open, including on a TD pass to Smith. Brown said it’s “incredibly tough” for receivers to get into a rhythm because the offense is so run-heavy. The Eagles have won nine straight games and trail the Lions (12-1) by one game for the No. 1 seed in the NFC. Detroit currently has the tiebreaker edge. The Vikings stayed hot on the Lions’ heels thanks to a career day from Sam Darnold in a 42-21 rout over Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons. Darnold had a career-best 347 yards passing and five touchdowns, leading Minnesota (11-2) to its sixth straight win. The Vikings finish the season in Detroit in a matchup that could determine the NFC North and the No. 1 seed in the NFC. But there’s a long way to go until Jan. 5. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers moved into sole possession of first place in the NFC South with a 28-13 win over Las Vegas coupled with Atlanta’s fourth straight loss. The Buccaneers are 7-6 following their third straight win over a last-place team. The Falcons (6-7) swept the Buccaneers, so they own the tiebreaker. The Seattle Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals 30-18 on the road to maintain their hold on first place in the NFC West. It’s a tight race involving the Seahawks (8-5), Rams (7-6), Cardinals (6-7) and San Francisco 49ers (6-7). The division could come down to the Seahawks-Rams game in Los Angeles in Week 18. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — After three straight losses, including back-to-back blowouts , the San Francisco 49ers needed a get-right game. The Chicago Bears helped provide just that. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get updates and player profiles ahead of Friday's high school games, plus a recap Saturday with stories, photos, video Frequency: Seasonal Twice a week
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Last April on a cool night in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Mumford & Sons played to a packed ballroom not far from the Mediterranean. It was the band’s first time performing in the country, but only those who got the invite knew the concert was even happening: The show was a private event put on for employees of a major tech company, which also footed the bill. Corporate performances like these occupy a small but flourishing niche of the live events industry, with companies of all sizes lining up to book current superstars, legacy acts and emerging artists to play their conferences, retreats, holiday parties and more. These shows come with paydays ranging from merch trades to millions of dollars, with most big-name artists rarely receiving less than $50,000 per show. There can also be strings attached, as artists who play these shows work within corporate structures where expectations can be different from the standard festival appearance. “I’ve been involved with a Snoop Dogg private show before and the client was like, ‘He can’t smoke weed,’” says corporate event producer and talent buyer Elana Leaf . “It was like, ‘He’s going to smoke weed. That’s just the way it is.’” This past year has been a strong one for corporate events, with this area of the industry not only finally back in full swing following the pandemic but reaching new heights. Beyoncé set a new precedent for these types of performances in January 2023 when she reportedly received $24 million to play the opening of a luxury resort in Dubai. This past July, the wedding of the son of Indian tech billionaire Mukesh Ambani, which made headlines for its opulence, included a performance by Rihanna . Sources with knowledge of this sector say that upon seeing these big performances and paychecks, more artists have been requesting to play corporate shows. Based in Los Angeles, Leaf has been producing corporate concerts for events for nearly 15 years, working with companies ranging from family offices to international conglomerates to the city of Miami Beach. Regardless of size, though, the process of finding the right artist for each event is the same. “To start, you have to have a dialogue with the client about who’s coming to the event,” says Leaf. “Age is important, economic level is important. Before you start suggesting artists, you’ve got to know who they’ll be playing for.” Once the guest list is hashed out, Leaf and her client create a list of artists they think will fit the desired vibe. Leaf once produced a Super Bowl party for a media company at a private residence in Malibu, so it made perfect sense when she and the client booked The Beach Boys to sing “Surfin’ Safari” and other beachy hits while the crowd gazed out at the Pacific. But the client isn’t necessarily always after a huge star. “A lot of companies come to us and ask if we can activate their entire conference, convention or event,” says Channing Moreland , co-founder of the app EVA, which registers emerging artists (along with speakers, celebrities and more) and corporate clients in search of entertainment and uses technology to match them for events. “Maybe there’s a place to have that closing night headlining show, but we also see [local and emerging artists playing] registration areas, general sessions, interactive experiences. There are so many opportunities to engage.” Of course, not all artists are inclined to play corporate shows. “Some might think it’s selling out, or some might think they’re not going to be taken care of in the same way on-site at a private show as they would be by a promoter,” says Leaf. As such, she says good professional relationships and enticing, often creative offers are even more important in this area of the industry, as agents must be able to assure their client that the gig will be comfortable, worthwhile and valuable (or at the very least neutral) to their brand. (Most of the big talent agencies have departments focused solely on private shows like these.) Naturally, money is a crucial part of the conversation, although the rate a company can offer isn’t always related to its size. “The good agents know that even though I’m coming in with a major tech company, that doesn’t necessarily equate to having the dollars,” says Leaf. “Sometimes smaller companies that really want to move the needle for their brand profile will come in with bigger cash offers, along with really creative ways to sweeten the pot.” “Sweetening the pot” may involve flying the artist and their entourage to the show on the company’s private jet, or providing luxury accommodations and other perks. Sometimes an artist is simply eager to travel to an exotic destination where they might not otherwise tour. Or a company might make a donation to an artist’s charity of choice — an especially attractive option for corporations that can use this as a charitable giving tax write-off. For one corporate client, Leaf was able to get their artist of choice involved by offering the artist the opportunity for their newly launched liquor brand to be the featured liquor at the event itself. “That’s what got them through the door,” she says. But no matter the size of the artist, getting the gig (and the paycheck) can also involve agreeing to unusual requests. These can include morality clauses in which an artist must agree to omit curse words that may be in their lyrics. “You sometimes have to tell the artist they need to perform radio edits, which can be a challenging conversation,” says Leaf, who also recalls certain clients asking for approval of what an artist wears onstage. (Though “as a buyer, I will not push that,” she says. “Artists need to be artists, and what they wear is part of their art.”) However, rising artists who are often more eager for exposure and a cash infusion may be more amenable to such requests. “We know that you can’t just have someone get up on stage and start asking for tips, or cussing, or going through the buffet line,” says EVA co-founder Makenzie Stokel . “You need people that know this isn’t their party, but they’re going to make five or 10 times more than what they’d make at a bar gig.” For Moody Jones, who DJs corporate events around the world and is also GM of dance music at EMPIRE, these gigs often have completely different goals than his regular club sets. “Your role is to get people’s heads nodding, and that’s as much as it goes,” he says. At a recent event he played for YouTube, “The mandate was, ‘We need an artist who doesn’t need the spotlight on them,’” he recalls. “It was a team-building event, so the last thing they wanted was for people to only be paying attention to the music. No one should be Shazam-ing anything.” For most artists — and certainly the biggest ones — all the details about what they will and will not do are hashed out in the contract. “With the big agencies, once you’re contracted, the creative and business terms are set in stone not only to protect the artist but so there’s no ambiguity with my client,” says Leaf. Thus, every element — from what a company wants an artist to say (or not say) while onstage to whether or not they’ll take photos with execs in front of the company logo, to backstage meet and greets and providing signed merchandise — is determined ahead of time. Leaf says these discussions often focus on if and how an artist will interact with a company’s product, whether that’s a cell phone, branded decor clothing item or other object. “It’s not always easy or appropriate-feeling to ask the artist to pick up a mobile device and carry it around,” says Leaf. “You have to work with the production company and the brand to figure out ways to seamlessly integrate the product. A lot of times you have agents and managers who are like, ‘They’re absolutely not going to touch the product.’” But given the rise of influencers, Leaf says brands have gotten “significantly more strategic” with devising product interactions that feel natural. Generally, a company doesn’t ask for sign-off on an artist’s setlist, although negotiations can be more nuanced when dealing with legacy acts. “People want to hear the hits,” says Leaf. “They don’t necessarily want to hear new music, but sometimes it’s hard to say they can’t play new stuff they’re working on.” She says in situations like these, it’s necessary to have conversations with the client and artist to settle on a mix of music everyone feels good about. Generally, say Stokel and Moreland of EVA, there’s been an uptick in corporate show requests following the pandemic as “companies are wanting more unique in-person engagements for people to really connect... Companies are asking, ‘How can we get them up and moving? How can we have a hit songwriter tell a story that feels like a keynote and is tied to music and drives emotion?” They say the return on investment on events is higher for companies when they offer more engaging programming. After connecting over their love of live music as students at Nashville’s Belmont University, Moreland and Stokel created EVA to cater to rising artists. They found that companies often wanted local talent to make events feel authentic but didn’t know where to look. And the artists they knew were interested in making money from corporate gigs to help them pay for studio time, touring and life expenses. They launched the app in 2019, quickly booking corporate events for ESPN, BMW and Arby’s. EVA has since grown to 10 employees and launched in Nashville, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Charlotte and New York. Notably, the company provides artists with the backend requirements necessary to play a corporate show. “These entertainers don’t carry $5 million in insurance, and to work with Amazon you have to have a certain level of COI,” says Moreland. “There has to be tax management, invoicing, payment processing, contracting and it has to be done at a certain level. That’s really what we unlocked.” For some artists, the appeal of playing these shows also comes down to networking. Jones of EMPIRE recently played a robotics conference, an offer that gave him the chance to perform for “a room filled with people who are so ambitious and whose brains work in ways I’ve never thought of,” he says. Such gigs “might not do much for my status,” he continues, “but the people I meet there might open up my mind.” Generally, corporate events also carry less pressure, as the artist isn’t responsible for selling tickets or drawing an audience. “Like, I’m not bringing any more people to a robotics event,” Jones adds. Not every act is built for these kinds of shows. “I think what stops a lot of artists from playing corporate gigs is ego because you’re not the center of attention,” Jones continues. “Or they just don’t have the confidence for it, because playing a sober event where everyone can see one another takes a different stage presence from being in a dark club with my sunglasses on smoking a vape and taking shots.” The artists who do thrive in this world, however, can really hustle while also meeting interesting people and making a lot of money. “ Pitbull is a corporate juggernaut,” says Leaf. “He’s known to do great corporates and he just crushes across demographics.” She says Lionel Richie , Sheryl Crow and Dave Matthews Band are also active in this space given that their music is so broadly appealing. Other times, companies want to create prestige by booking the hottest niche artist of the moment. At events like SXSW or CES, where attendees have many options for how to spend their time, Leaf says companies “want to book a cool artist, because you want to be the cool party.” But ultimately the end goal is the same, regardless of who’s playing. “You want guests to walk away with an experience that’s special and doesn’t feel corny,” says Leaf. “Obviously the audience knows the artist was paid to be there, but you want it to feel authentic and like the artist wanted to be there — paid or not.”Senior members of Canada's cabinet held talks Friday with US President-elect Donald Trump's nominees to lead the departments of commerce and the interior, as Ottawa works to hold off the threat of punishing tariffs. Canada's newly-appointed Finance Minister Dominic Leblanc and Foreign Minister Melanie Joly met with Howard Lutnick, Trump's commerce secretary nominee, who will also lead the country's tariff and trade agenda. Interior secretary nominee Doug Burgum was also at the meeting held at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Leblanc's spokesman Jean-Sebastien Comeau, who confirmed the participants, described the talks as "positive and productive." Trump has vowed to impose crippling 25-percent tariffs on all Canadian imports when he takes office next month. He has said they will remain in place until Canada addresses the flow of undocumented migrants and the drug fentanyl into the United States. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised retaliatory measures should Trump follow through on his pledge, raising fears of a trade war. Leblanc and Joly "outlined the measures in Canada's Border Plan and reiterated the shared commitment to strengthen border security as well as combat the harm caused by fentanyl to save Canadian and American lives," Comeau said in a statement. Canada's Border Plan -- estimated to cost CAN$1 billion ($694 million) -- was crafted as part of Ottawa's response to Trump's concerns. Lutnick and Burgum "agreed to relay information to President Trump," the statement said. Trudeau is facing his worst political crisis since sweeping into office in 2015. Leblanc was named finance minister earlier this month after the surprise resignation of Chrystia Freeland. In a scathing resignation letter, Freeland accused Trudeau of prioritizing handouts to voters instead of preparing Canada's finances for a possible trade war. More than 75 percent of Canadian exports go to the United States and nearly two million Canadian jobs depend on trade. bs/ahaZomato, Zerodha founders back Aakash Chaudhry's edtech comeback Sparkl Edventure
Alameda County divests from Caterpillar over equipment sales to IsraelIn this year-end special edition of Market Watch , we take a look back at 2024 and how it lined up with the forecasts we made . We also examine the year ahead and make some predictions for 2025. “I wasn’t actually bullish enough a year ago,” says Pie Funds chief investment officer Mike Taylor, reflecting on his successful prediction the S&P 500 Index would go through the 5000 mark in 2024. In fact, it rose above 6000. “There were people still talking about recession and the hangover from Covid etc, and what actually happened is that growth was stronger than expected in the US,” he said. “It was a “very, very strong year for US stocks”.Centre transfers Rs 2.23 lakh crore for 1,206 schemes under Direct Benefit Transfer