SF News Day Around the Bay: Oakland Airport Went and Did It, Officially Approved ‘San Francisco' Name Change PG&E got their controversial “flat fee” rate change approved; a Piedmont man got no jail time for a fatal hit-and-run; and Oakland’s airport officially changed its name to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.”
SF News Infamous Nordstrom Parking Lot Will Remain a Parking Lot Five More Years, City Hall Not Happy About It The notoriously rejected 27-story residential tower in a SoMa parking lot had its Plan B version approved, but now the developer is putting the project on ice, and a highly frustrated Planning Commission approved letting it remain a parking lot for another five years.
SF News Judge Rips Chaotic Closure of Dublin Women’s Prison, Orders That Transferred Prisoners' Rights Be Restored Every prisoner has now been abruptly transferred out of the federal women’s prison in Dublin, but some have been hauled as far away as Florida, and a judge is ordering their belongings returned and their medical care restored.
SF News Code Tenderloin ‘Night Navigation’ Teams Out There Doling Out 300 Addiction Medications Per Month While Mayor Breed’s ballyhooed Tenderloin drug crackdown is pretty much failing to get anyone into treatment, a Code Tenderloin night program is getting drug addiction treatment to hundreds every month.
SF News Armed Suspects Rob Mail Carrier In Dublin, Who Happened to Be 63 Years Old A 63-year-old woman who’s a postal carrier in Dublin was robbed of her mail keys and cellphone at gunpoint Monday afternoon by two masked suspects, and security camera footage has captured what appears to be the suspects’ vehicle.
Business & Tech Sure Enough, OpenAI Is Considering Allowing Its Tools to Generate Porn The artificial intelligence company OpenAI is considering allowing its tools to “responsibly” create AI-generated NSFW content, though it's hard to imagine users would have many goals other than to create a tidal wave of deepfake pornography.
SF Politics President Biden Returns to Bay Area Thursday for (Of Course) Fundraisers President Joe Biden has a two-day stint in San Francisco and Silicon Valley this week, attending fundraisers reportedly being hosted by Marissa Mayer and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla.
Business & Tech Google Is Bailing From Its Offices at Trophy SF Building One Market Plaza A prize tenant is leaving a prized property at the luxe waterfront offices of One Market Plaza, as Google is reportedly vacating its 300,000 square feet of the property when the lease expires next year.
SF News State Monitors Take Partial Oversight of SFUSD Finances, as District Runs Risk of Going Broke San Francisco Unified School District’s deficit has grown so large that outside state monitors have just been given veto power over the district's spending, which is not a full state takeover, but seems to be setting the stage for school closures.
SF News Day Around the Bay: New COVID Variants Could Mean Possible Summer Surge Yet another tax code change could be headed for SF's November ballot; a large house fire displaced seven people near Oakland’s Laney College; and some new COVID variants might show up to spoil the summer.
SF Politics Breed Threatens to Back Out of First Mayoral Debate, Questions Whether It Might Be Rigged by Organizer The first SF Mayoral debate is in less than two weeks, but London Breed may be a no-show, as there are ties surfacing between the debate’s tech PAC organizer, and both the Mark Farrell and Daniel Lurie campaigns.
Arts & Entertainment Giant Mystery Laser Dazzles and Confuses SF, Turns Out to Be a Tech Conference Thing Did you see the giant blue and green lasers shooting into the sky near Coit Tower Monday night? They're scheduled to be back again Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and are brought to you by a company unsurprisingly named MegaLasers.
SF Politics Peskin Campaign Releases First Campaign Donation Numbers, Which Seem Good But Not Great Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s mayoral campaign has revealed to the press what the fundraising numbers look like in his first month in the race, but like another late entry, Mark Farrell, these numbers cannot be independently verified and we’re just taking their word for it.
SF News Waymo Spotted Driving in Red Bus Lane, About to Make Illegal Left-Hand Turn A video from Sunday shows a self-driving Waymo robotaxi driving in the red ‘bus only’ lane on Van Ness Avenue, and apparently about to engage in an illegal left-hand turn.
SF Politics New California Bill Would Eliminate or Severely Curtail Self-Checkout, In Hopes of Reducing Shoplifting A SoCal state Senator is pushing a new bill that would eliminate self-checkout from many stores in California, under the reasoning that self-checkout is responsible for a whole lot of shoplifting, and to keep more human cashiers employed.
SF News Mayor Breed Touts New Numbers Saying SF Tents and Encampments at a Five-Year Low London Breed’s office is making a big to-do over the latest city numbers that indicate tent encampments are at a five-year low, and while these numbers vary wildly over time, it does look like the trend line is going in a positive direction.
SF News Gavin Newsom Trumpets Record California Tourism Spending; Critics Say It’s Just Driven by Inflation California Governor Gavin Newsom climbed atop the Golden Gate Bridge to tout the supposedly record-breaking $150 billion tourism dollars spent statewide in 2023, but cynics point out that may just be because of inflation-driven higher prices.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink 36-Year-Old Haight Street Bar Hobson’s Choice Is Closing Permanently Another punch in the gut to the SF bar scene, as the owner of Upper Haight rum bar Hobson’s Choice has announced the place is closing, though the establishment’s final day has not yet been determined.
SF News US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Bay Area Today There may be a motorcade or two complicating traffic near Moscone Center Monday afternoon, as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will be downtown to give a keynote at the RSA Conference.
Arts & Entertainment Mayor Breed Proposes ‘Entertainment Zone’ Where Bars Can Sell Open Containers for Outdoor Events SF Mayor London Breed’s latest gambit to get you to please go downtown and spend money again is her new proposed “entertainment zone” where establishments can sell alcohol to street patrons, and the first of these could be on the Financial District’s Front Street.
Arts & Entertainment SF’s Three-Legged Dog Picnic Aims to Set World Record for Largest Gathering of Three-Legged Pups This Summer This year’s annual “Tri-Pawed Picnic” meetup for three-legged dogs hopes to unleash an all-time record, as the event is gearing up to set the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of three-legged dogs ever in one place.
Arts & Entertainment Watch: Yet Another Brood of Baby Falcon Chicks Has a Nest Cam, This One on Alcatraz Island It’s a baby falcon bonanza this spring for those who love fluffy little raptors, as a second peregrine falcon livestream is now up and running from a nest on Alcatraz, and the mama falcon there was actually born to Berkeley falcon Annie in 2018.
Arts & Entertainment Saturday’s How Weird Street Faire Abruptly ‘Postponed,’ Not Even 48 Hours Before the Event Saturday's 25th annual How Weird Street Fair will not be held on Saturday, as organizers suddenly blame a bad weekend weather forecast, and will “postpone” the event until maybe June.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Popular LED Forest ‘Entwined: Elder Mother’ Has Closing Party Saturday The wife of the doctor who drove his family off a San Mateo cliff is asking the court for leniency; a big new UC Berkeley student housing complex will be given an Ohlone name; and Golden Gate Park’s beloved annual LED forest Entwined has its closing party Saturday.
SF News Black Man Found Hanged Near Bernal Heights Park, Case Currently Ruled a Suicide There are more questions than answers about the hanging death of 34-year-old Randy Dudley, whose body was discovered hanging from a tree at a Bernal Height park Tuesday morning, but authorities have made a preliminary ruling that it was a suicide.