There were two big pieces of news on Thursday: the bankruptcy trustee's lawyer in the Bob Cook case is working with the Maloofs to get access to the details of the Seattle deal under a confidentiality agreement, and the city is pursuing its initial steps in vetting a plan to build an entertainment and sports complex at the site of the Downtown Plaza. The Bee reports that city manager John Shirey has retained Dan Barrett, the arena consultant who assisted on the Railyards plan, to look into the Plaza site, which seems to be the favorite of Ron Burkle.

It's unclear whether the Sacramento City Council will take a vote on anything regarding the arena plan before March 1. They will be getting weekly updates on progress.

The judge in the bankruptcy case also declined to push back the schedule for the auction of Cook's 7 percent stake in the Kings. That will happen on April 19, which is also the second day of the NBA Board of Governors meeting, during which the league is expected to vote on the sale of the team to Seattle. However, if the right of first refusal exists and is transferable, I don't see how the NBA can approve it with a stake in the process of being put up to bid.