• Local billionaire Chris Larsen’s SF surveillance network, also known as the SFPD’s Real-Time Investigation Center, got the glossy treatment in the latest issue of New York Magazine. Larson’s $9.4 million network consists of 2,700 private cameras installed throughout the city, as well as 93 drones, which Lurie credits with 800 arrests so far. [New York Mag]
• Three people were injured Wednesday afternoon after a Muni bus collided with a pickup truck at 22nd and Mission streets, and two were transported by ambulance to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. [NBC Bay Area]
• Intuit is eliminating around 3,000 jobs worldwide, including 384 employees in Mountain View, which makes up about 17% of its full-time workforce, as it restructures around artificial intelligence. [Chronicle]

National:

• An Ebola outbreak in Congo is linked to more than 130 deaths in the eastern part of the country. Two American doctors who have contracted the illness were moved to hospitals in Germany and Prague respectively. [Reuters]
• Amin Abdullah, the security guard who was killed in the tragic mass shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, is being hailed a hero for preventing the teenage gunmen from accessing the rest of the mosque where more than 140 kids were located. [Guardian]
• A federal judge ruled that the Presidential Records Act — which requires presidents to preserve official White House documents for public access through the National Archives — is likely constitutional and ordered Trump aides to keep following it despite a Justice Department opinion arguing otherwise. [Politico]

Video of the Day:

• Now that House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi has finally endorsed SF Supervisor Connie Chan, this footage of Chan from a Board of Supervisors meeting from 2022 is bound to make it back into circulation. The benign but awkward clip shows a constituent demanding that Chan, who’s standing in the background staring at her phone, pay attention before he begins his public comment. Ultimately, he runs out of time, and she never acknowledges him.

This is who Connie Chan is.
by u/captaincoaster in sanfrancisco

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Facing a $7.3 million deficit and less than three weeks after the layoffs of 53 California Academy of Sciences employees, the museum’s executive director announced he’s resigning at the end of the month.

It’s unclear whether Scott Sampson, the executive director of the California Academy of Sciences, is resigning due to budget cuts, as the Chronicle reports. CalAcademy Workers United, which represents 37 of the 53 laid-off employees, had been using its recent “Cut From the Top” campaign to urge the museum to reduce its executives’ salaries rather than eliminate essential staff members.

As SFist recently reported, the Academy of Sciences is contending with a $7.3 million deficit, which is expected to grow to $8 million next year. When Sampson announced the latest round of layoffs last month, he said they were the museum’s third in five years. Sampson was with the museum for seven years, and his reported salary in 2025 was $885,000, according to Mission Local.

Sampson’s resignation will be effective May 29, and he’ll remain an advisor through June 30. Amber Mace, the academy’s managing director and chief strategy officer, was appointed by the board as interim executive director, per the Chronicle.

“We believe this was the correct first step in order to restore an academy leadership structure which puts the people who enact the academy’s mission first,” said Teddy Vollman, Cal Academy Workers United president, in a statement. “We look forward to working with a new team which will collaborate with us to find alternatives to layoffs and preserve this beloved San Francisco institution.”

As previously reported, about half of the laid-off employees have been continuing to show up to work during negotiations, as the layoffs require 60 days notice. Additionally, some of the layoffs may violate the terms of the union’s contract.

In a statement about the layoffs last month, Sampson attributed the academy’s financial struggles to high operating costs, declining tourism since the pandemic, and changing visitor habits, as well as the expense of maintaining 60,000 live animals and scientific collections containing nearly 46 million specimens.

Previously: Laid-Off Academy of Sciences Workers Still Showing Up For Work, Demand Salary Cuts For Execs

Image: CalAcademy Workers United/Instagram

Community groups and activists delivered 1,500 postcards imploring SF Mayor Daniel Lurie to avoid cutting crucial programs and instead use reserve funds or increase tax revenue to balance the city's budget.

Members from local nonprofits and community groups delivered hundreds of postcards to City Hall Tuesday containing personal messages from residents describing how San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s budget cuts could affect their lives, as Mission Local reports.

As the city’s deficit grows to a projected $643 million, Lurie is facing mounting criticism from labor unions and community advocates who warn the proposed cuts could eliminate hundreds of jobs and reduce core public services, according to KPIX.

Group members are asking Lurie to reconsider the cuts before he releases his full budget proposal in June, which they say would impact immigrant services, public health programs, disability resources, senior services, and HIV advocacy efforts.

Videos shared by Indivisible SF and SF People’s Budget show community members inside City Hall holding the 1,500 postcards in a long chain along the hallway, while belting out chants including, “Si Se Puede!” and “There Ain’t No Power Like the Power of the People!”  

Lurie has reportedly defended the cuts as necessary to stabilize the city’s finances long term. Mission Local notes that much of San Francisco’s $16 billion budget is already locked into “enterprise departments” like the airport and legally designated funding streams, leaving the mayor with direct control over only a fraction of overall spending.

Per KPIX, city departments were also told to identify roughly $400 million in ongoing cuts, which would eliminate around 500 city positions. As SFist previously reported, 127 city employees were laid off last month.

Labor unions warn that the cuts will lead to potential strikes and disruptions to city operations, as public-sector workers will reportedly be gaining expanded legal protections next year that allow them to strike without risking termination.

Per Mission Local, Budget Chair and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan said she would struggle to support additional cuts beyond last year’s reductions, though her alternative plan depends on one-time reserves and uncertain ballot revenue.

At Tuesday’s rally, members of the People’s Budget Coalition called for using reserves and expanding revenue instead of further cuts, pointing to competing ballot measures that could either increase or reduce city funding.

Many advocates have questioned why cuts are being pursued across social services and city departments while recently approved police and firefighter contracts include 14% raises over four years — reportedly adding roughly $100 million in costs over the next two years.

Previously: Mayor Lurie Says He’s Laying Off 500 SF City Hall Employees, Which Will Not Endear Him to the Labor Unions

Image: Senior and Disability Action/Facebook

The steady march of Bay Area job losses to AI continues today with SF-based tech company Cloudflare, which says it is laying off 1,100 employees globally.

Website optimization and security company Cloudflare, which works to speed up the performance of web-based properties and mitigate against malicious attacks, announced that it is laying off 1,100 employees on Thursday, with notices going out as we speak.

The reason, like with most recent layoff announcements in the tech sphere, is the rise of AI and the need for the organization to rethink how it does business.

"Today is a hard day," the company said in an internal memo obtained by Business Insider. "This decision unfortunately means saying goodbye to teammates who have contributed meaningfully to our mission and to building Cloudflare into one of the world's most successful companies. We want to be clear that this decision is not a reflection of the individual work or talent of those leaving us. Instead, we are reimagining every internal process, team, and role across the company."

The company says in the memo that its internal use of AI has surged "more than 600% in the last three months alone" across multiple departments, and "That means we have to be intentional in how we architect our company for the agentic AI era."

The company just delivered its first-quarter earnings for investors, which beat Wall Street expectations, and the memo insists that the layoffs are not "a cost-cutting measure."

As Reuters reports, Cloudflare had around 5,150 employees as of today, so this represents a headcount reduction of around 20%.

This layoff announcement follows a similar one made by Coinbase on Tuesday, and continues the trend predicted across the tech world in recent months, thanks to the rapidly increasing capabilities of AI models.

Meta also has plans to cut its workforce by around 16,000 this year, with half of those layoffs announced two weeks ago.

Top image: Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

The California Academy of Sciences announced the layoffs of 53 employees last week, and many of them are union members who are still showing up for work.

Scott Sampson, the executive director of the California Academy of Sciences, announced the museum’s third round of layoffs in five years last Tuesday, as the Chronicle first reported. Sampson said 53 employees, about 9.3% of its staff, would receive layoff notices, citing a $7.3 million deficit from 2025 and projected losses of more than $8 million this year.

In a statement, Sampson said the museum also plans to cut or restructure dozens of additional positions, with around 32 employees being offered new roles or reduced hours. He attributed the academy’s financial struggles to high operating costs, declining tourism since the pandemic, and changing visitor habits, as well as the expense of maintaining 60,000 live animals and scientific collections containing nearly 46 million specimens.

As Mission Local reports, of the 53 employees who received layoff notices, 37 are members of the CalAcademy Workers United, including the museum’s entire planetarium staff and its content developer team — which worked with Indigenous communities across California on the award-winning California: State of Nature exhibit.

About half of the laid-off workers are reportedly still showing up to work as negotiations between the union and museum management continue.

Though the museum announced last week that the layoffs would be implemented “immediately,” the cuts are subject to a required 60-day notice period before positions can officially be eliminated. The museum is also required to negotiate with the union over the layoffs.

Per Mission Local, union leaders have argued that top executives should absorb some of the financial burden instead, pointing to Executive Director Scott Sampson’s reported $885,000 salary last year and CFO Matthew Lau’s reported $257,000 compensation.

Union president Teddy Vollman said some of the layoffs may violate the union contract ratified after the museum’s contentious unionization effort, including provisions limiting outsourced work. Vollman, who was laid off from two roles, said the union is pushing to preserve as many positions as possible.

Electronics engineer Victoria Langlands, who’s worked at the museum sporadically for a decade and was previously laid off in 2021, said half of the union’s eight bargaining team members were included in the latest layoffs. Speaking to Mission Local, Langlands described morale at the academy as “dismal,” with staff uncertain about the institution’s direction and priorities, while also suggesting the layoffs appeared retaliatory.

Vollman warned the museum cannot continue cutting staff indefinitely without undermining the institution itself.

Workers described confusion after the announcement, with many reportedly learning about the layoffs through media reports before hearing from leadership. Employees said security guards were stationed around the museum while staff gathered in hallways crying and comparing information.

Community engagement specialist Zuhair Hussain told Mission Local that workers received few clear answers during a livestreamed meeting with senior leadership, describing responses from management as evasive. Hussain said the only direct answer he recalled came when employees asked whether executives would take pay cuts, and the answer was no.

Over the past week, CalAcademy Workers United have been sharing updates on social media with the slogan, “Chop from the Top!” The union recently highlighted the museum’s late Claude the Albino alligator, noting that the jobs of many of the workers involved with the exhibit and its promotions are on the chopping block.  

“If you loved Claude, attended his 30th hatchday,” says the union, “or mourned his passing at his memorial just know that the humans who cared for him and made all of these beautiful community events happen are the folks being targeted in these layoffs.”

On Wednesday morning, laid-off union members who showed up to work received boxes next to their desks. Organizers filmed the group gathering all the boxes to be put on Sampson’s desk.

As SFist reported last year, ​​the union was raising awareness of the impending layoffs on the museum’s 172nd anniversary.

Previously: Cal Academy Workers Union Spreads Awareness On Fight For Fair Wages On Academy Day

Image: CalAcademy Workers Union/Instagram

SF-based cryptocurrency company Coinbase announced it's cutting 14% of its workforce as it moves to implement "one-person teams" using artificial intelligence.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced on X Tuesday that about 700 jobs will be eliminated, which represents 14% of the company's workforce, citing a downturn in the crypto market. Coinbase, founded in San Francisco, now operates primarily remotely.

As the Chronicle reports, workers who received layoff notices lost access to Coinbase's systems Tuesday.

“Coinbase prides itself on talent density,” said Armstrong. “Our employees are among the most talented people in the world, and I have no doubt that your skills and experience will be highly sought after as you pursue your next chapters.”

Armstrong said Coinbase plans to experiment with smaller “AI-native” teams, including “one person teams” that combine engineering, design, and product roles, per the Chronicle. He said AI tools have allowed employees to complete work in days that previously took entire teams weeks, while more workflows across the company are being automated.

The layoffs reportedly were announced ahead of Coinbase’s first-quarter earnings report Thursday.

Armstrong said laid-off workers would receive at least 16 weeks of base pay, with additional compensation based on years worked. He said employees on work visas would receive extra support.

“I know this feels sudden and harsh, but it is the only responsible choice given our duty to protect customer information,” he said.

Back in 2022, SFist reported that Coinbase laid off 1,100 employees, which was 20% of its workforce at the time. According to SFGate, the company had expanded too quickly and reneged on job offers.

Coinbase reportedly had a headcount of around 5,000 at the end of 2025.

Coinbase becomes just the latest Bay Area tech firm to slash its staff as AI eliminates the need for some roles, and as they seek greater "efficiencies" and profits. Meta announced 8,000 layoffs late last month, which may be just the first two mass layoffs this year. And Oakland-based Block laid off 40% of its staff in February, or around 4,000 workers, with CEO Jack Dorsey saying, "A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better."

Previously: Cryptocurrency Giant Coinbase Lays Off 20% of Staff

Image: New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong speak onstage during the 2025 New York Times Dealbook Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 03,  2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

As artificial intelligence continues to drive both spending and job cuts in the tech industry, Meta just announced the first major wave of layoffs this year, which will likely be followed by a second wave before the end of the year.

Meta is laying off 8,000 employees, or around 10% of its global workforce, and closing around 6,000 open roles, as the company announced in an internal memo Thursday that is being widely reported.

Facebook's parent company's plan to slash about 20% of its workforce this year as it invests heavily in AI was first reported over a month ago, and today's announcement appears to represent just a first wave of cuts. Sources told Reuters earlier this week that the first round of layoffs was scheduled for May 20, and further layoffs are being planned "in the second half of the year," with the numbers still to be determined based on how well AI systems in the company are able to create efficiencies.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously warned investors that the company's expenses would be rising this year, both based on the enormous compensation packages it offered to AI experts it recently hired, and based on other costs associated with the AI push.

As the AP reports, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told investors Thursday that Meta's layoffs were welcome news for the company's financials, as it continues to "automate tasks that once required large teams, allowing the company to streamline operations and reduce costs while maintaining productivity driving an increased need for a leaner operating structure."

Another one of America's largest companies, Microsoft, is looking at similarly wide-ranging cuts, as the AP notes, but for now they are planning to broadly offer voluntary buyouts and early retirements to around 8,750 employees, or around 7% of its US workforce.

"Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the choice to take that next step on their own terms, with generous company support," said Microsoft's Chief People Officer Amy Coleman in a memo, per CNBC.

In a somewhat less generous mode, Meta's chief people officer, Janelle Gale, told employees in her layoff memo, "We’re doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making. This is not an easy trade-off and it will mean letting go of people who have made meaningful contributions to Meta during their time here."

It remains unclear how many of the layoffs will be in the Bay Area. As of last month, Meta was said to have around 79,000 employees around the globe.

Meta has made significant slashes to its headcount in recent years, including a 5% cut of around 3,600 employees in February 2025, and a mass wave of 21,000 employees in two big layoffs between November 2023 and March 2024. These cuts have come amid contined hires, with the headcount growing again after each. Still, the company's headcount has come down since ballooning to around 87,000 during the pandemic, during Zuckerberg's push into the metaverse that he later admitted was a mistake.

In an example of the direction Meta is taking with AI internally, in order to increase efficiencies, the company is reportedly building an AI clone of Zuck himself, you know, to attend meetings and pretend he's listening when he can't actually be there himself.

Previously: Report: Meta Planning to Lay Off 16,000 Employees In AI-Driven Move to Cut Costs

Top image: Sign with logo in front of the headquarters of Meta at 1 Hacker Way in the Silicon Valley, Menlo Park, California, July 11, 2024. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

SF Mayor Daniel Lurie began making layoffs this week, as promised, in order to address the city's ongoing budget woes, and over 100 workers across 18 departments got their layoff notices Monday.

127 San Francisco city workers received their pink slips Monday, with some getting 30 days notice, and others getting 60 days notice of their positions being eliminated. Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a statement, "The steps we’re taking today are a painful but necessary continuation of the work we’ve been doing since last year to manage taxpayer dollars responsibly and deliver the best possible services for San Franciscans."

Lurie added, "That work will continue as we prepare a responsible budget that sets up our city for a broad and durable economic recovery," and he said that the city had to "take action now or be forced to do twice as much in the coming years."

As KALW reports, Lurie is trying to cut $400 million out of the city's budget, part of which will be achieved by eliminating 500 jobs. Lurie has said that he intends to reduce salary and benefit spending in the city's budget by $100 million.

This means that around 370 more layoff notices are likely to come in the near future. But, as the Chronicle notes, the number may come down after negotiations over the budget take place with the Board of Supervisors.

Last year, Lurie announced his intention to cut 150 jobs, plus over 1,000 positions that were unfilled at the time, and in the end, only 40 filled positions were cut.

The city's public-sector unions responded today, emphasizing their support for Prop D, the so-called "overpaid CEO act," which is intended to tax local companies more if their top executives are paid 100 times or more of the salary of their average workers, in order to fund more of the city's budget. Lurie has expressed his opposition to Prop D.

"Our solution, Proposition D the overpaid CEO act, which will be on the June ballot, is a fair solution in the long-term, and then in the short term reserves have been set aside in our local budget for this exact moment," said Bianca Polovina, president of IFPTE Local 21, in a statement.

IFPTE Local 21 and SEIU 1021 both issued statements denouncing the layoffs as "drastic."

In addition to layoffs, Lurie has said he plans to put a hiring freeze on 2,000 other positions across city government.

San Francisco employs around 30,000 people and has an annual budget of around $16 billion.

Previously: Mayor Lurie Says He’s Laying Off 500 SF City Hall Employees, Which Will Not Endear Him to the Labor Unions

Photo by Unma Desai

• Merih Fssha Solomon, 47, of Walnut Creek was arrested in connection with the crash that killed a two-year-old and injured her mother in SF’s Mission Bay earlier this month. Solomon was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, red light violation, and failure to yield to pedestrians. [NBC Bay Area]
• The family of Sean Monterrosa of San Francisco received a multi-million dollar settlement from the city of Vallejo over the killing of  Monterrosa by a police officer in 2020, who said he mistook the hammer in Monterrosa’s pocket for a gun. [KRON4]
• The San Francisco Zoo announced it’s eliminating a “small number of positions” amid financial challenges following a scandalous 2024 report that revealed leadership struggles and concerns surrounding animal welfare and employee safety. [Chronicle]

National:

• Thousands were told to evacuate immediately and hundreds were rescued amid severe flash-flooding on Hawaii’s Oahu Island, as a local dam is on the verge of collapsing. [CNN]
• The FDA announced the recall of almost 90,000 bottles of children's liquid ibuprofen made by Strides Pharma for Taro Pharmaceuticals, with the product number D-0390-2026, after the company received complaints they contained "a gel-like mass and black particles." [Associated Press]
• CBS News is shutting down its radio division in May after 100 years in business, and all jobs in the department will be eliminated. [CBS]

Video of the Day:

As thousands prepare to descend upon Union Square for Tulip Day Saturday — early, we suggest, check out this cool video of crews setting up the spectacular installation this week.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

The next big shoe to drop in the local tech world that is being blamed on AI is a massive layoff reportedly about to happen at Meta, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been investing heavily in AI over the last year.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, is planing sweeping layoffs, possibly as soon as this week, with a reported plan to cut around 20% of its staff.

The layoffs were first reported by Reuters on Friday, and the intention of them is reportedly to offset the massive costs of Meta's investments in AI. There was no timeline given for when this layoff may occur.

And news of the layoffs, much as happened with news of Block slashing 40% of its staff three weeks ago, sent Meta's stock rising over 2% Monday morning.

With a reported headcount of 79,000 as of December, Meta's layoff will be much more impactful in terms of the tech job market and potentially the local economy, than Block's. A downsizing of 20% would mean this layoff would impact almost 16,000 employees.

Meta's last big round of layoffs, in February 2025, impacted around 3,600 employees, or around 5% of its total headcount. But between November 2022 and March 2023, the company let go of some 21,000 employees in two big layoffs, after the company's headcount ballooned to around 87,000 during the pandemic. At the time, a contrite Zuckerberg said, "I got this wrong," saying that the company's big bet on the metaverse, among things, was to blame.

Clearly the Meta headcount had creeped back up to nearly 80,000 over the last two years.

As KRON4 notes, with the stock price jump today, it is yet another example of the market rewarding companies for slashing jobs in the name of AI, so we can expect more of this kind of news in the coming months.

Elon Musk has reportedly ordered sweeping layoffs at xAI, which is not a public company and was folded into SpaceX last year, saying in a tweet that the company "was not built right the first time around," and will now be rebuilt "from the foundations up."

Previously: Meta Acquires 'Social Network for AI Agents' Moltbook, While OpenAI Hires One of Its Vibe Coders

Top image: Sign with logo in front of the headquarters of Meta at 1 Hacker Way in the Silicon Valley, Menlo Park, California, July 11, 2024. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Daniel Lurie says that at least 500 City Hall jobs are on the chopping block, a move he avoided last year through accounting tricks, and Lurie may not exactly be Mr. Popular anymore once that axe comes down.

This month’s San Francisco Unified School District teachers’ strike only lasted for four days, so no one involved suffered any political or public relations consequences. And it was comparatively convenient for Mayor Daniel Lurie, as it was SFUSD superintendent Dr. Maria Su (and not Lurie) who had to play the role of the Big Bad going up against the schoolteachers, with Lurie able to comfortably play the role of the neutral facilitator of negotiations.

Lurie will not get that convenience when it comes to some harsh budget-cutting that is on the way as he has to deal with the unpleasant task of trimming SF’s nearly $1 billion budget deficit. And the Chronicle reports on the most recent unpleasant task related to all of that, as Lurie says he will have to eliminate at least 500 San Francisco City Hall jobs.

The Chronicle cites an email from Lurie’s budget director Sophia Kittler in which she tells various City Hall departments that SF "cannot afford to sustain current spending on personnel costs" and that "meeting this target requires eliminating filled positions."

That distinction is critical. Last year, Lurie supposedly “eliminated” 1,400 City Hall jobs but it was a head-count and accounting trick in which he simply eliminated unfilled positions. This year, the administration seems to be saying that the job losses will be actual pink slips assigned to real human beings.

The Chronicle frames this all as a test for Lurie’s relative popularity, as he’s got impending showdowns coming with unions and organized labor. These layoffs will most definitely piss off the public-sector unions, plus Lurie has upcoming labor negotiations with the police union and other City Hall labor groups whose contract negotiations are coming up.

But do labor unions really determine Lurie’s popularity? It seems he could cross a union or two and still remain a broadly popular mayor, maybe even scoring political points by standing up to them. And, honestly, it does not feel like Lurie cutting 500 jobs at City Hall will necessarily bring out any pitchfork-wielding mobs. We'll see!

Related: SF City Hall Faces First Major Layoffs In 15 Years as Mayor Lurie Proposes Cutting 1,400 Jobs [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 29: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks onstage during day three of TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 at Moscone Center on October 29, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch)

It could be the first of many canaries in this coal mine, but Block, which operates the ubiquitous Square point-of-sale systems as well as CashApp and other enterprises, announced a mass layoff on Thursday. And CEO Jack Dorsey is making no secret that this is about AI supplanting the need for human workers.

Block announced a layoff of 40% of its staff, or around 4,000 of its 10,000 workers, with CEO Jack Dorsey promising investors an even leaner and more profitable company.

"The core thesis is simple. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” said Dorsey said in a letter to Block shareholders Thursday. “A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better."

In characteristic all lower case type, Dorsey posted his full message — and apology to laid-off employees — on Xitter, calling it "one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company."

He adds, "we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly."

Dorsey further explained that he could have chosen to make staffing cuts gradually, but he chose to rip the Band-Aid off now. "repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead," Dorsey writes. "i'd rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome."

This bold and, for 4,000 employees, devastating decision is terrific news for investors, and shares of Block rose 5% Thursday, to $54.53. They went to nearly $69 in after-hours trading, and are sitting at $62.80 as of Friday morning.

Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management gave some commentary after the Block announcement, per the Associated Press, and noted that while other companies are laying off thousands and downplaying the link to AI, Dorsey just came out and said it.

"For years, we have debated whether AI would dent jobs at the margin. Now we have a public case study in which the CEO explicitly says that intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company," Innes says.

In response to some criticism on X Friday, Dorsey responded saying, "yes we over-hired during covid because i incorrectly built 2 separate company structures (square & cash app) rather than 1, which we corrected mid 2024." But, he adds,  "this misses all the complexity we took on through lending, banking, and [Buy Now, Pay Later loans]."

A recent trend of doomsaying by AI industry insiders, suggesting that a massive wave of layoffs is on the horizon sooner rather than later, could be seen as coming true here at Block. Advances in AI, particularly when it comes to writing code and building applications, is quickly being felt across the tech industry.

As OtherSideAI founder Matt Shumer wrote in a viral tweet earlier this month, "the next two to five years are going to be disorienting in ways most people aren't prepared for."

Top image: Jack Dorsey creator, co-founder, and Chairman of Twitter and co-founder & CEO of Square arrives on stage at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention, a crypto-currency conference held at the Mana Convention Center in Wynwood on June 04, 2021 in Miami, Florida. The crypto conference is expected to draw 50,000 people and runs from Friday, June 4 through June 6th. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

• On the heels of the historic teachers’ strike, the San Francisco Unified School District is expected to issue preliminary layoff notices for 42 educators and other staff, a decrease from 298 last year. [Chronicle]
• A family-owned educational toy company in Illinois named Learning Resources was the lead plaintiff in the court case that took down Trump’s tariffs in the Supreme Court Friday, which he called “unpatriotic.” [CBC]
• A new proposed state Senate bill would require insurance companies to guarantee coverage for homes that meet wildfire safety standards, and if they don’t comply, they’ll be removed from the state’s home and auto market for five years. [Southern California News Group]
• A celebration of life for Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest National Park Service ranger who died in December at 104, is scheduled to take place March 1 at Oakland’s Kaiser Center for the Arts. [Oaklandside]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

SF’s US District Judge Susan Illston issued a temporary restraining order on the Trump administration’s attempt to fire thousands of federal workers during the government shutdown, effectively undoing many of those firings.

Now 15 days into the current federal government shutdown, President Trump has been very aggressive about using the shutdown as a pretext to fire thousands of federal employees at 30 different US government agencies. And they feel they’re just getting started, as Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought said Wednesday morning that the administration hopes to fire as many as 10,000 employees.

Well, sorry Vought, but that just came to a complete halt. The Chronicle reports that San Francisco’s US District Judge Susan Illston just halted the firings of government employees by issuing a restraining order, ruling in a lawsuit brought by federal employee unions.

Illston pointed out in her ruling that the employees’ firings came “for reasons unrelated to their job performance.” And in a pretty pointed political remark, her ruling also added that “The politics that infuses what’s going on is being Trumped out loud.”

These job positions were created by appropriations from the US Congress, so Illston argued that the president does not have the authority to eliminate them. "Overturning agency mandates Congress has put in place — they can't do that," Illston wrote, according to NPR.

Illston’s ruling effectively reverses any firings that have been ordered since October 10, and prohibits any more for the duration of her temporary restraining order. The lawsuit in question here was brought by the federal worker unions the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME),

As the Chronicle notes, many of these firings were DOGE-style screw-ups. In one case, the Trump administration had meant to fire 982 employees, but accidentally sent the pink slips to 1,760 workers, due to “data discrepancies and processing errors.” Illston also cited that OMB director Vought had publicly declared “Let’s cause trauma to the workplace” with the reductions in force, showing the firings were political and not justified for any rationale related to the government’s effectiveness.

Illston’s restraining order is temporary, and she could reverse it at another hearing in about two weeks. There is little reason to be optimistic that the government shutdown will be over by that time.

Related: SF Federal Judge Orders Rehiring of Probationary Workers at Six Federal Agencies, Calling Firings 'a Sham' [SFist]

Image: Marincyclist via Wikimedia Commons

• Oakland Unified has hired Nelson Alegria as its first executive director of safety, five years after the district disbanded its school police. Alegria, a veteran in school emergency planning, says he’s focused on restorative justice and trauma-informed safety strategies. [Oaklandside]
• Tickets go on sale July 30 for “Golden Girls Live,” the long-running drag parody returning to the Curran this December with two holiday-themed episodes. Now in its 20th year, the show is directed by D’Arcy Drollinger and stars Coco Peru, Matthew Martin, and Holotta Tymes. [Broadway World]
• Around 20,000 Safeway workers could walk off the job at more than 200 Northern California stores Saturday if a deal over pay and benefits isn’t secured by Friday night. [KQED]
• New Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is cutting 25,000 jobs and ending remote work to reduce costs and overhaul the Santa Clara-based chipmaker. [Chronicle]
• The World War II-era U.S. Coast Guard Barque Eagle, known as "America’s Tall Ship," is docked at San Francisco’s Pier 17 this weekend offering free public tours July 25–27, serving as a training vessel and goodwill ambassador for the Coast Guard. [Local News Matters]

• The SF Marathon returns Sunday, July 27, with the main race starting at 5:15 a.m.; expect widespread street closures throughout the city all weekend. [KRON4]

National:

• A federal judge in San Diego has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate social and legal services for families separated at the border, ruling it violated a court settlement intended to address the lasting harm of its first-term family separation policy. The judge rejected the administration’s claims that cost concerns and DEI policies justified ending the contracts and gave it until August 25 to comply. [Bay Area News Group]
• Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from Burbank to Las Vegas reported the plane made a sudden, aggressive dive on Friday afternoon to avoid a midair collision shortly after takeoff, with comedian Jimmy Dore saying passengers “flew out of their seats” and some hit their heads. Two flight attendants were treated for injuries, and the FAA is investigating the incident. [KRON4]

• Tea, the app where women anonymously review men they date, confirmed a major data breach Friday that exposed 72,000 user images — including thousands of selfies with photo IDs. The leak, first flagged by 4chan users and reported by 404 Media, affected users who joined before February 2024. [Associated Press]

Video of the Day:

• The Downtown SF Partnership unveiled the Instagram-worthy Downtown Gateway at Robert Frost Plaza at California and Market, featuring a 16-foot-wide ‘Heart SF’ sign and a redesigned plaza with seating, greenery, and historical displays celebrating San Francisco’s cable cars.

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Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist