Dave Cobb, who helped organize the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, has been named chief executive and president of British Columbia’s provincially owned electrical utility, BC Hydro said Tuesday. Cobb, 47, was most recently deputy CEO and executive vice-president of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, the body that organized the Winter Games. He will start at BC Hydro on May 25.

BC Hydro, which has been looking for a new CEO since November, said Cobb will be in charge of the utility’s new clean energy agenda, which calls for increased efficiency and greater use of renewable power sources. “The Clean Energy Act sets out a very clear policy direction from the province. I think it’s very exciting but there are challenges with it too,” Cobb told Reuters in an interview.

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Vancouver Canucks fans are predicting the Olympic fever that swept Canada to hockey gold will help carry the Canucks to the Stanley Cup. Fans gathered at a Surrey pub Wednesday for Game 3 between Vancouver and the Chicago Blackhawks were confident the home team would win -- even though Chicago took an early 1-0 lead in the first period. The winner of Game 3 will have the advantage going into Game 4.

"Vancouver is still buzzing from the Olympics so there's a lot of pride, whether it's for the country or the home team," said Cameron Kaufman, 21. "The crowd has a lot to do with it. I worked downtown during the Olympics and it was just infectious. It just so happens hockey is the other thing Canadians get excited about."

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New Jersey Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk believes the hockey World Championship is a great chance for Russia to rehabilitate for their failure at the Vancouver Olympics.Kovalchuk got a chance to appear.

At the tournament in Germany after the Devils were eliminated by Philadelphia in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The 27-year-old arrived at the national team despite having a newborn baby and some uncertainty about his future as he hasn’t signed a contract with New Jersey of any other club for the next NHL season.

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Moderate Vancouver voters who supported the Vision Vancouver Party as a fresh alternative to the Coalition of Progressive Electors during the last civic election should now be feeling a healthy dose of betrayal as Mayor Gregor Robertson and former union executive turned councillor Geoff Meggs kicked off a union payback scheme in a big way last week.

Even former NDP premier Glen Clark, once a union organizer, likely would have blushed in announcing a program that gives members of unions that backed his campaign the inside track on the Olympic Village housing, some of the most desirable rental property in the world.

And despite the "emergency worker" language used to justify it, payback is exactly what this is. How else could public -- but not private -- teachers be included, and fire and flood restoration employees be excluded? One can only hope that they still read George Orwell's Animal Farm in Vancouver schools.

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Scott Moir is funny, and he knows it. He also knows how to play the media game. When he is asked about the Olympic gold medal he won in Vancouver with Tessa Virtue, he recognizes an opportunity to let his funny bone out.

“They are heavy, and your neck gets sore. It’s not easy being an Olympic champion,” Moir said while rubbing his medal-free neck Wednesday. “That’s going to be in the papers. There, I always have them.” He means the zingers, the one-liners every journalist is praying to get. Moir has the lines, he has his medals  he and Virtue also won gold at the world championship in March  and, it seems, he has some explaining to do.

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I love my job. Honestly, how many people can say that? One of the main reasons I love what I do is that every two years, as an event producer, I get to be in the midst of the world’s greatest sporting spectacle, The Olympic Games. Another bonus is being able to bring the family along so they, too, can experience, the magic of the Olympics as spectators.

These were my 9th Games and will definitely rank as one of my favorites. Vancouver and the Whistler/Blackcomb ski resort have always been on the bucket list of places we hoped to visit and neither disappointed.

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The Olympics aren't quite finished this year at the Lou and Gib Reese Ice Arena.For those who miss the scrape of skates against the ice and the baffling twirls, jumps and footwork that rise to popularity during each Winter Games, there's no reason to long for 2014 to get your fix -- especially when you can witness local stars-to-be for $5 and avoid buying a plane ticket to Sochi, Russia.

Today and Saturday, almost 100 local figure skaters between the ages of 3 and 18 will take to the ice for the fifth annual Jane McConnell Spring Ice Show, this year aptly titled "Olympic Celebration." The program will highlight everything the fledgling skaters in the arena's "Learn to Skate" program have been practicing since September, in addition to special solo performances by three seasoned local figure skaters:

Utica High School senior Elizabeth Richards, Newark High School junior Sarah Gartner and Granville Middle School student Anya Cohen. The arena will take on an Olympic-like atmosphere for the event, general manager Jamie Baringer said.  "We really do a great job of making the kids feel special," Baringer said. "It looks like a production."

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Weather confounded the US Winter Olympic team one more time on Wednesday as short-track speed skating star Apolo Anton Ohno led teammates.

And Paralympians to the White House. President Barack Obama had planned an outdoor ceremony on the south balcony of the presidential mansion for the US Winter Olympic and Paralympic teams, but was forced to scale down the event and move it inside by pouring rain.

Ohno, the most decorated US winter Olympian in history, joked that rain-drenched Washington was no match for balmy conditions which caused headaches for organizers of the Games in Vancouver and Whistler in February.

"Vancouver was nice. It should have been called a Spring Olympics," Ohno said, saying he met Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and even the First Dog, Bo, during his White House visit.

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Y ou could say it's all downhill from here. A parade of former Olympians took their turns with the torch Friday as the flame neared its final destination, reaching Whistler, one of the host sites for the 2010 Games.

"For Whistler . . . (this) is the actual beginning of the Games," said Mayor Ken Melamed. "The athletes are here, they are training on the mountains now, so this is really the kickoff for the Games.

"It is game-on now." Fourteen former Olympians carried the flame that will launch the Vancouver Games as it travelled on Day 99 of the relay.

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Olympics Bill doesn't include cost of taking over $1 billion Olympic Village project: Hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games this year cost Vancouver, B.C., slightly less than it takes to run the city itself for an entire year. A report going before the city council next week estimates Vancouver spent $727.6 million on infrastructure and operations to host the world for the 27 days of competition. It recouped $174.5 million from provincial and the federal governments, leaving a bill of $553.1 million.

That doesn't include the cost of taking over the $1 billion Olympic Village project after the primary financier balked. Vancouver's overall operational budget for 2010 was $959 million. NBC loses $223 million on Games in first quarter: NBC lost $223 million on the Winter Olympics in the first quarter. That is slightly better than the most recent estimate of $250 million in losses.

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