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Yellen nomination passes through Senate panel

Yahoo Finance's Brian Cheung joined Yahoo Finance Live to break down how Janet Yellen is poised to become the first female Treasury chief as her nomination passes through the Senate.

Latest Stories

  • Sacha Baron Cohen Says Borat Is No More: 'The Gray Suit Is Locked Up'

    Cohen was inspired to film the second "Borat" to expose the dangers of Donald Trump, but it ended up "the most dangerous project" he'd worked on.

  • Canada’s Housing Market ‘Far From Risk-Free,' RBC Says As Vancouver Sales Soar 73%

    Things are getting a little too hot for comfort this winter.

  • Procore Files Amended Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering

    Procore Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of construction management software, today announced that it has filed an amended registration statement on Form S-1/A with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. Procore intends to list its common stock on The New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "PCOR."

  • Myanmar coup crisis grows after years of US neglect

    WASHINGTON — Nearly a decade ago, the United States was touting Myanmar as an American success story. The Obama administration reveled in the restoration of civilian rule in the longtime U.S. pariah as a top foreign policy achievement and a potential model for engaging with other adversaries, such as Iran and Cuba. But today, Myanmar is once again an international outcast, facing a new wave of U.S. sanctions. A coup has returned the military to power and pro-democracy activists, reform advocates and journalists have been attacked and detained in a brutal crackdown. The collapse is not America’s fault, to be sure, but it follows inconsistent efforts to nudge the Southeast Asian nation further toward democracy, enthusiasm for which was diminished by a systematic campaign of repression against Muslim minorities in the country's north. After years of robust diplomacy with Myanmar under President Barack Obama focused mainly on then-opposition leader and now jailed State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi, the Trump administration adopted a largely hands-off policy. It focused primarily on Myanmar’s strategic importance in the competition between the United States and China for influence in the region. Myanmar has become a reminder that, for all the hopefulness and anticipation of Obama administration officials – many of whom now serve in the Biden administration – there are limits to America’s ability to shape developments in another nation, particularly one so reclusive and far away. The restoration of civilian rule after six decades of dictatorship was at least partially the fruit of one of the Obama administration’s earliest attempts to reach out to a country long denounced by the U.S. Overtures to Iran and Cuba would come later, buoyed in part by what appeared to be success in Myanmar. Sanctions were eased, diplomatic representation bolstered and aid was increased. Obama made two trips to Myanmar, also known as Burma, as president and his two secretaries of state, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, each visited the country twice themselves. Clinton’s visit in 2011 was the first by a U.S. secretary of state since 1955.. She met with Suu Kyi at the lakeside home where the opposition leader had been held under house arrest for years, Just six years earlier, President George W. Bush's Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had branded Myanmar as one of six “outposts of tyranny” for the military’s refusal to brook dissent and rejection of democratic elections. And, in 2007, as world leaders gathered at the annual United Nations General Assembly, a crackdown on Buddhist monk-led protests, the so-called “Saffron Revolution,” attracted widespread concern and international condemnation, including high-profile repudiations from Rice and then-first lady Laura Bush. Thus, the opening initiated by Obama and Clinton in 2010 augured what many hoped would be a new beginning for Myanmar, whose military leaders were then ostensibly concerned about being overly reliant on China for trade and security. There was initial enthusiasm over the thaw, over Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi’s elevation to a leadership role despite being barred from running for office, and over Myanmar’s steady but hesitant opening of its once cloistered country. But that soon faded, most notably over the government’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims, who became the target of a ruthless campaign of repression and abuse. Repeated entreaties to Suu Kyi, who was appointed State Councilor after her National League for Democracy won 60% of the vote, and others on behalf of the Rohingya and other minorities went unheeded. Still, the Obama administration continued to have faith in her. “Proud of my friend Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma for never giving up in the long struggle to bring change to their country,” Clinton said in 2015, after having devoted an entire chapter of her 2014 memoir “Hard Choices” to the Obama administration’s policies toward the nation. Despite Kerry’s two trips to Myanmar, the administration became rapidly consumed with the Iran nuclear deal and normalization of ties with Cuba. At the same time, it was pursuing an ill-fated effort to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. So Myanmar’s halting and imperfect democratization was left largely untended by officials in Washington. When President Donald Trump took office in 2017, his administration made no secret of the fact that it was focused less on bilateral ties than in concentrating on a broader effort to blunt China’s growing regional influence. In November 2017, Trump’s first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, made that administration’s only high-level visit to the country and on his return declared that the military-backed violence against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine state amounted to “ethnic cleansing.” Sanctions on the country’s top military leaders followed the next month. But since then, U.S. attention to Myanmar has been sporadic, dominated primarily by public expressions of disappointment in Suu Kyi, who defended the military crackdown in Rakhine and opposed efforts to initiate and international investigation into it. Stirrings of the Feb. 1 coup, coming as those elected in November 2020 elections won by Suu Kyi’s party were to take their seats in parliament, did not appear to be a priority in Washington, where officials were preoccupied by domestic political problems of their own. In its final weeks in office, the Trump administration made no public comments about growing civilian-military tensions in Myanmar despite speaking out about democracy concerns in Venezuela, Tanzania, Uganda, Cuba, Iran and Russia. After taking over on Jan. 20, the Biden administration was similarly silent until Jan. 29 when the U.S. Embassy in Yangon signed onto a joint statement with several other embassies to support democracy in the country and to oppose “any attempt to alter the outcome of the elections or impede Myanmar’s democratic transition.” The warning went unheeded by the military. “There was a risk that the Burmese generals were playing us,” Clinton wrote about the 2010-11 rapprochement with Myanmar in “Hard Choices.” That fear may have been prescient. Matthew Lee, The Associated Press

  • Whitestone Improves Tenant Mix, Increases Occupancy by 3.5%, and Increases NOI by 6.3% at Its Fountain Hills Plaza Property in AZ; Adds AutoZone to its High Quality, E-Commerce Resistant Tenant Base

    HOUSTON, March 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Whitestone REIT gets “Into the Zone” by adding AutoZone to its Fountain Hills Plaza property in Arizona. With the signing of AutoZone, Whitestone increased property occupancy by 3.5% and property net operating income by 6.3% by doing what it does best, crafting the optimal mix of tenants to meet the needs of the local community. The addition of the Fortune 500 company also improves the quality of cash flows to Whitestone’s shareholders and helps guarantee the long-term security of the property. AutoZone joins other essential tenants Bashas’ grocery store, Ace Hardware, and Verizon Wireless. Chairman and CEO Jim Mastandrea commented, “Fountain Hills Plaza has been an essential staple in the community of Fountain Hills, providing for the neighborhood throughout COVID as evidenced by the consistent foot traffic we were able to track over the past eleven months of the pandemic. In fact, data sourced from our internal artificial intelligence platform has shown actual increases in year-over-year foot traffic during 15 weeks of the pandemic. This type of data speaks to the significantly important role our centers play in the everyday lives of our neighborhoods. The essential quality of our properties in turn, helps attract quality tenants who want to benefit from the steady and consistent consumer visits to our centers.” About AutoZoneAutoZone is the nation's leading retailer and a leading distributor of automotive replacement parts and accessories with more than 6,000 stores in US, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Brazil. Each store carries an extensive line for cars, sport utility vehicles, vans and light trucks, including new and remanufactured hard parts, maintenance items and accessories. Since opening its first store in Forrest City, Ark. on July 4, 1979, the company has joined the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: AZO) and earned a spot in the Fortune 500. About Whitestone REITWhitestone is a community-centered shopping center REIT that acquires, owns, manages, develops and redevelops high-quality neighborhood centers primarily in the largest, fastest-growing and most affluent markets in the Sunbelt. Whitestone seeks to create Communities That Thrive through Creating Local Connections between consumers in the surrounding communities and a well-crafted mix of local, regional and national tenants that provide daily necessities, needed services, entertainment and experiences. Whitestone is a monthly dividend paying stock and has consistently paid dividends for over 15 years. Whitestone’s strong balanced and managed capital structure provides stability and flexibility for growth and positions Whitestone to perform well through economic cycles. For additional information, please visit www.whitestonereit.com. Investors Contact:Kevin Reed, Director of Investor RelationsWhitestone REIT(713) 435-2219ir@whitestonereit.com

  • Elastic Announces General Availability of Searchable Snapshots and Introduces Runtime Fields

    Elastic (NYSE: ESTC) ("Elastic"), the company behind Elasticsearch and the Elastic Stack, recently announced the general availability of searchable snapshots and the beta of schema on read with runtime fields to maximize data insights and cost efficiency across its Elastic Enterprise Search, Observability and Security solutions.

  • Britain to ease listing rules to buttress London after Brexit

    Britain will "modernise" its listing rules to attract more high-growth and "blank cheque" SPAC company flotations to London, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday. The London Stock Exchange is facing tougher competition from NYSE and Nasdaq in New York, and from Euronext in Amsterdam since Britain fully left the European Union on Dec. 31. In a bid to keep London globally competitive after Brexit, Sunak commissioned a review of listings rules last November.

  • Eurovision announces health and safety rules ahead of 2021 contest

    The show will go ahead in May but with strict measures.

  • Vasta Announces the Acquisition of Sociedade Educacional da Lagoa Ltda.

    SÃO PAULO, Brazil, March 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vasta Platform Limited (“Company”) (NASDAQ: VSTA) announces the acquisition, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Somos Sistemas de Ensino S.A., of Sociedade Educacional da Lagoa Ltda. (“SEL”), paying R$65.0 million. SEL provides technical and pedagogic services to education platforms, including the maintenance of such platforms, development and improvement of contents and training of professionals. Founded in 1997, SEL currently serves, direct or indirectly, 441 schools, 272 thousand K-12 students and approximately 503 thousand students in the secondary and continuing education segment. Vasta estimates that the transaction has a 2021E EV/EBITDA multiple of 7.6x. With this acquisition, Vasta takes another important step towards offering a complete digital services to K-12 schools and strengthens its commercial relations with important clients. VASTA’S MISSION Our mission is to help private K-12 schools to be better and more profitable, supporting their digital transformation ABOUT VASTA Vasta is a leading, high-growth education company in Brazil powered by technology, providing end-to-end educational and digital solutions that cater to all needs of private schools operating in the K-12 educational segment, ultimately benefiting all of Vasta’s stakeholders, including students, parents, educators, administrators and private school owners. Vasta’s mission is to help private K-12 schools to be better and more profitable, supporting their digital transformation. Vasta believes it is uniquely positioned to help schools in Brazil undergo the process of digital transformation and bring their education skill-set to the 21st century. Vasta promotes the unified use of technology in K-12 education with enhanced data and actionable insight for educators, increased collaboration among support staff and improvements in production, efficiency and quality. For more information, please visit ir.vastaplatform.com. CONTACT Investor Relations +55 11 3133 7311 ri@somoseducacao.com.br FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “expect,” “should,” “plan,” “intend,” “estimate” and “potential,” among others. Forward-looking statements appear in a number of places in this press release and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our intent, belief or current expectations. Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to of various factors, including (i) general economic, financial, political, demographic and business conditions in Brazil, as well as any other countries we may serve in the future and their impact on our business; (ii) fluctuations in interest, inflation and exchange rates in Brazil and any other countries we may serve in the future; (iii) our ability to implement our business strategy and expand our portfolio of products and services; (iv) our ability to adapt to technological changes in the educational sector; (v) the availability of government authorizations on terms and conditions and within periods acceptable to us; (vi) our ability to continue attracting and retaining new partner schools and students; (vii) our ability to maintain the academic quality of our programs; (viii) the availability of qualified personnel and the ability to retain such personnel; (ix) changes in the financial condition of the students enrolling in our programs in general and in the competitive conditions in the education industry; (x) our capitalization and level of indebtedness; (xi) the interests of our controlling shareholder; (xii) changes in government regulations applicable to the education industry in Brazil; (xiii) government interventions in education industry programs, that affect the economic or tax regime, the collection of tuition fees or the regulatory framework applicable to educational institutions; (xiv) cancellations of contracts within the solutions we characterize as subscription arrangements or limitations on our ability to increase the rates we charge for the services we characterize as subscription arrangements; (xv) our ability to compete and conduct our business in the future; (xvi) our ability to anticipate changes in the business, changes in regulation or the materialization of existing and potential new risks; (xvii) the success of operating initiatives, including advertising and promotional efforts and new product, service and concept development by us and our competitors; (xviii) changes in consumer demands and preferences and technological advances, and our ability to innovate to respond to such changes; (xix) changes in labor, distribution and other operating costs; our compliance with, and changes to, government laws, regulations and tax matters that currently apply to us; (xx) the effectiveness of our risk management policies and procedures, including our internal control over financial reporting; (xxi) health crises, including due to pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic and government measures taken in response thereto; (xxii) other factors that may affect our financial condition, liquidity and results of operations; and (xxiii) other risk factors discussed under “Risk Factors.” Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update them in light of new information or future developments or to release publicly any revisions to these statements in order to reflect later events or circumstances or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

  • Yard sale find turns out to be artifact worth up to $500,000

    Talk about your yard sale finds. A small porcelain bowl bought for $35 at a Connecticut yard sale turned out to be a rare, 15th century Chinese artifact worth between $300,000 and $500,000 that is about to go up for auction at Sotheby's. An antiques enthusiast came across the piece and thought it could be something special when browsing a yard sale in the New Haven area last year, according to Sotheby's.

  • Furlough support scheme to be extended until September

    The chancellor is set to extend the wage support scheme, while more self-employed will be eligible for help.

  • Thirteen die in southern California crash near Mexico border

    Twenty-seven people were said to have been travelling in an SUV when it collided with a trailer truck.

  • Unanimous committee report calls on Trudeau not to trigger election during pandemic

    OTTAWA — A House of Commons committee is unanimously urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to promise he won't call a federal election while the COVID-19 pandemic rages across Canada.In a report by the procedure and House affairs committee, even Liberal members supported a recommendation calling for a commitment that there will be no election during the pandemic, unless Trudeau's minority Liberal government is defeated on a confidence vote.The committee makes no similar call for opposition parties to promise not to trigger an election during the pandemic by voting non-confidence in the government.However, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has vowed his party won't vote to bring the government down as long as the country is in the grip of COVID-19.That should be enough to ensure the survival of the minority Liberal government for the foreseeable future, unless Trudeau decides to trigger an election himself.Trudeau has repeatedly insisted he has no interest in forcing an election but opposition parties remain suspicious."Unfortunately, the Liberal government has already indicated their desire to recklessly send Canadians to the polls at whatever time they deem to be the most advantageous for the prime minister," the Conservatives say in a supplementary report to the committee's report.Indeed, the Conservatives assert, without explanation, that Trudeau has already tried to orchestrate his government's defeat.They thank Liberal committee members for taking "a stand against the whims of the prime minister, who has been eagerly pressing towards an election for the last few months."At the same time, Conservatives have been pursuing a strategy that could give Trudeau justification for calling an election: They've been systematically blocking the government's legislative agenda, including repeatedly delaying a bill authorizing billions in pandemic-related aid.They have also blocked debate on a bill that would give Elections Canada special powers to conduct an election safely, if need be, during the pandemic.Bill C-19 is the government's response to chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault, who has said special measures are urgent given that a minority government is inherently unstable and could theoretically fall at any time. However, some opposition MPs view the legislation as proof that the Liberals are planning to trigger an election.In their own supplementary report, New Democrats argue that an election in the midst of the pandemic "has the potential to undermine the health of our democracy." They point to the current delay in Newfoundland and Labrador's election due to a COVID outbreak as an example of the "delays, confusion and unforeseen barriers in voting" that could undermine Canadians' confidence in the outcome of a federal election."This raises the spectre of a government whose political legitimacy is openly challenged," the NDP committee members say, adding that could lead to the kind of crisis that provoked a riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by supporters of former president Donald Trump.The Capitol riot, sparked by Trump's unfounded claims that mail-in ballots were fraudulent, appears to have been on the minds of opposition committee members when it comes to other recommendations for how to safely conduct an election, if necessary, during the pandemic.Anticipating a massive increase in mail-in ballots, the chief electoral officer has, among other things, suggested that mail-in ballots received one day after the close of in-person polls should still be counted.The Conservatives say the procedure and House affairs committee should have rejected that proposal, arguing that "the election should end on Election Day and Canadians deserve to know the results without delay."Bloc Quebecois committee members, in their supplementary report, similarly argue that extending the deadline for receipt of mail-in ballots "would delay the election results, which would fuel voter suspicion and undermine confidence in the electoral system, which is obviously undesirable."This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2021. Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press

  • Sturgeon and Salmond feud bringing the country down – Gordon Brown

    Nicola Sturgeon will appear before a Holyrood inquiry on Wednesday.

  • This Best-Selling Crossbody Purse Comes in 21 Colors — and They’re All on Sale Today Only

    Amazon shoppers say it “fits all the necessities”

  • Maezawa wants you: Japan billionaire seeks 'crew' for moon trip

    Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Wednesday launched a search for eight people to join him as the first private passenger on a trip around the moon with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The entrepreneur, who sold his online fashion business Zozo Inc to SoftBank in 2019, is paying the entire cost of the voyage on SpaceX's next-generation reusable launch vehicle, dubbed the Starship. Two recent prototypes have exploded during testing, underscoring the risks for Maezawa, 45, and his fellow passengers, who must also contend with the strains of space travel in the first private journey beyond Earth's orbit.

  • Why Virgin Galactic Shares Plunged 15.9% in February

    Shares of space tourism company Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) dropped 15.9% in February, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, and the losses didn't stop there. The biggest news of the month came during Virgin Galactic's earnings call with investors. This delay will put Virgin Galactic months behind schedule in launching space flights for paying customers.

  • Intel Told to Pay $2.18 Billion After Losing Patent Trial

    (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp. was told to pay VLSI Technology LLC $2.18 billion by a federal jury in Texas after losing a patent-infringement trial over technology related to chip-making, one of the largest patent-damages award in U.S. history. Intel pledged to appeal.Intel infringed two patents owned by closely held VLSI, the jury in Waco, Texas, said Tuesday. The jury found $1.5 billion for infringement of one patent and $675 million for infringement of the second. The jury rejected Intel’s denial of infringing either of the patents and its argument that one patent was invalid because it claimed to cover work done by Intel engineers.The patents had been owned by Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors Inc., which would get a cut of any damage award, Intel lawyer William Lee of WilmerHale told jurors in closing arguments Monday. VLSI, founded four years ago, has no products and its only potential revenue is this lawsuit, he said.VLSI “took two patents off the shelf that hadn’t been used for 10 years and said, ‘We’d like $2 billion,”’ Lee told the jury. The “outrageous” demand by VLSI “would tax the true innovators.”He had argued that VLSI was entitled to no more than $2.2 million.“Intel strongly disagrees with today’s jury verdict,” the company said in a statement. “We intend to appeal and are confident that we will prevail.”Intel fell 2.6% to $61.24 in New York trading. The stock is up 23% since the beginning of the year.One of the patents was originally issued in 2012 to Freescale Semiconductor Inc. and the other in 2010 to SigmaTel Inc. Freescale bought SigmaTel and was in turn bought by NXP in 2015. The two patents in this case were transferred to VLSI in 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Law.VLSI lawyer Morgan Chu of Irell & Manella said the patents cover inventions that increase the power and speed of processors, a key issue for competition.‘Willful Blindness’Federal law doesn’t require someone to know of a patent to be found to have infringed it, and Intel purposely didn’t look to see if it was using someone else’s inventions, he said. He accused the Santa Clara, California-based company of “willful blindness.”The jury said there was no willful infringement. A finding otherwise would have enabled District Court Judge Alan Albright to increase the award even further, to up to three times the amount set by the jury.“We are very pleased that the jury recognized the value of the innovations as reflected in the patents and are extremely happy with the jury verdict,” Michael Stolarski, chief executive of VLSI, said in an e-mailed statement.Officials with NXP couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.The damage request isn’t so high when the billions of chips sold by Intel are taken into account, Chu said. Intel paid MicroUnity Systems Engineering Corp. $300 million 2005 and in 2011 paid Nvidia Corp. $1.5 billion even though a settlement in that case involved a cross license of technology, he said.“Operating companies are going to be disturbed by not only the size of the award but also the damages theory,” said Michael Tomasulo, a Winston Strawn lawyer who attended the trial. “They more or less seemed to have bought the entire VLSI case.”The damage award is about half of Intel’s fourth-quarter profit. The company has dominated the $400 billion chip industry for most of the past 30 years, though it’s struggling to maintain that position.The verdict is smaller than the $2.5 billion verdict won by Merck & Co. over a hepatitis C treatment. It was later thrown out. Last year, Cisco Systems Inc. was told by a federal judge in Virginia to pay $1.9 billion to a small cybersecurity companies that accused it of copying a feature to steal away government contracts. Cisco has asked the judge for a new trial.The case is among the few in-person patent trials in recent months, with many courts pressing pause amid the coronavirus pandemic. It was delayed a week because of the winter storm that wreaked havoc across much of Texas.Intel had sought to postpone the case because of the pandemic, but was rejected by Albright, a former patent litigator and magistrate who was sworn in as a federal judge in 2018 and has quickly turned his courtroom into one of the most popular for patent owners to file suit.The case is VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corp., 21-57, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (Waco).(Updates with VLSI comment in 12th paragraph. An earlier version corrected the spelling of law firm name in eighth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Macy’s, Inc. Announces Pricing of Offering of Senior Notes

    Macy’s, Inc. Announces Pricing of Offering of Senior Notes

  • Yusei Kikuchi faces most important season yet for Mariners

    It feels very much like Yusei Kikuchi just arrived in the majors after his highly anticipated move from Japan. Yet, the left-hander is already about to start his third season with the Seattle Mariners and easily his most important to date. “I feel that he’s kind of got his arms around where he’s at as a pitcher and hopefully it starts playing out on the field more consistently,” manager Scott Servais said. “We’ve seen it. We’ve seen it in flashes, we just haven’t seen consistent stretches of it.” Kikuchi got in his first work of spring training Tuesday, throwing two innings, allowing one hit, one run and striking out three against the Cleveland Indians. His plan is to build up to five or six innings prior to the start of the season, when Kikuchi seems likely to fit into the six-man rotation behind staff ace Marco Gonzales. And when the season begins, so will the analysis of how and whether the Mariners will move forward with Kikuchi. Kikuchi’s contract is structured so that he and the Mainers will have to make major decisions following the conclusion of the 2021 season. Seattle holds a club option on Kikuchi to be exercised within three days of the conclusion of the World Series. This isn’t just a one-year option, but a commitment for four years that would keep Kikuchi tied to the Mariners through the 2025 season. That option would cost Seattle $66 million over the life of the deal. Should the Mariners decline the four-year option, Kikuchi has control over his future. He could exercise a player option to remain in Seattle for the 2022 season and be paid $13 million. Or he could opt out of the deal entirely and become a free agent at age 30. It’s a massive decision that could lock Kikuchi in long-term or leave both sides searching for other options. “It’s obviously a big year contract-wise personally, but I’m more focused on how big of a year it is for our team. This year and next year,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter. “We truly believe that this year, next year, we’re going to make a good run for the playoffs and more. And so I’m just really focused on being able to be a big factor.” Part of the issue with analyzing Kikuchi is the oddity of the past two seasons. In 2019, Kikuchi was spending his first year away from Japan, making the adjustment to the majors. At times, he looked the part of an ace. At other times, he struggled badly and appeared stubborn about making adjustments. He made just nine starts during the shortened 2020 season, but the results led to optimism about Kikuchi moving forward, even with numbers — 2-4, 5.17 ERA — that overall didn’t look great. He pitched at least six innings in four of his starts. In two starts against division rival Oakland, Kikuchi allowed no earned runs in 12 innings. He added a cutter to go along with his excellent slider. And he seemed to find comfort with Seattle’s six-man rotation, which almost duplicated the frequency with which he pitched in Japan. Seattle intends to use the six-man rotation this season and possibly beyond. “We all saw the stuff last spring training had changed from 2019. He kind of spent last year figuring out what that stuff is and how to use it and how to play with it,” pitching coach Pete Woodworth said. “I think we saw in the second half the confidence in knowing that this stuff is real, and I can wreak havoc on a handful of lineups, it doesn’t really matter who’s in the box.” Servais said Kikuchi has taken a very analytical approach to understanding the value of being ahead in the count and what pitches work best in those situations. Having altered his repertoire of pitches last year, Kikuchi said his off-season was focused on pitch command and simplifying his mechanics. “Scott has trusted me for two years now and so I want to be able to put up good numbers for him this year and years to come,” Kikuchi said. ___ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Tim Booth, The Associated Press