A lawsuit was filed against OpenAI Sunday by the widow of a man killed in an April 2025 mass shooting at Florida State University, alleging ChatGPT advised the gunman on how to best carry out the shooting.

The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of helping facilitate the April 2025 mass shooting at Florida State University through its ChatGPT chatbot. The suit was brought by Vandana Joshi, whose husband Tiru Chabba was one of two people killed in the attack, alongside university dining director Robert Morales, as NBC News reports. Six others were wounded.

The complaint names alleged gunman Phoenix Ikner as a co-defendant, alleging he used ChatGPT extensively while planning the shooting, according to Reuters. Attorneys for Joshi claim the chatbot advised Ikner on when and where to carry out the attack for maximum casualties, as well as what weapons and ammunition to use.

The lawsuit further alleges ChatGPT failed to flag or intervene during conversations about mass shootings, weapon lethality, and crowded campus locations.

The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and accuses OpenAI of releasing a defective product without adequately warning the public about potential risks. The Associated Press reports that during a Monday press conference announcing the lawsuit, attorneys for Joshi alleged the chatbot reinforced Ikner’s delusions, validated his thinking, and encouraged violent action leading up to the shooting.

OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri denied that ChatGPT played a role in the shooting, calling the attack “a tragedy” while maintaining the chatbot only provided factual information already widely available online.

Pusateri said OpenAI identified an account believed to be linked to the suspect following the shooting and voluntarily turned it over to law enforcement, per Reuters. He added that the company is continuing to cooperate with investigators while working to improve its ability to detect harmful intent.

Ikner, the son of a deputy sheriff, was shot by responding officers and hospitalized after the attack. He's facing two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder.

OpenAI has faced multiple recent lawsuits tied to violent incidents involving ChatGPT. As SFist reported last August, a lawsuit was filed accusing OpenAI of making it too easy for users to circumvent the chatbot’s safety guardrails after a teenage boy died by suicide. Last month, seven families sued the company over a school shooting in Canada.

In March, juries in Los Angeles and New Mexico found Meta liable in separate cases involving the harms its platforms pose to children, including allegations that the company concealed internal knowledge about child sexual exploitation and mental health impacts tied to its platforms. YouTube was also found liable in the Los Angeles case.

Related: ChatGPT Has Now Been Used In Two High-Profile, Violent Attacks, Raising Serious Safety and Liability Questions

Image: Scott Olson/Getty Images

A local law firm filed a lawsuit against Flock alleging federal agencies accessed data from the SFPD’s cameras more than 1.6 million times, and a recent audit by El Cerrito's police department found that several federal agencies briefly accessed its data.

As KTVU reports, Oakland-based law firm Gibbs Mura filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday claiming that data from Flock Safety’s license plate readers was obtained by federal and out-of-state agencies more than 1.6 million times during a seven-month period, and Los Altos’s readers reportedly shared information to out-of-state agencies more than a million times. No further details have been provided about the case.

“The problem that we allege, is that Flock is sharing this information on California drivers with out-of-state law enforcement and the federal government, which is illegal under California law,” says David Berger, a partner with Gibbs Mura, per KTVU.

“They have to be beholden to the laws they claim they are trying to enforce, just like everybody else,” Berger added.

Flock released a statement, saying the company “takes privacy, legal compliance, and data security extremely seriously,” adding, “Flock intends to vigorously defend itself against the asserted claims and allegations.”

NBC Bay Area reports that an audit by the El Cerrito Police Department verified that federal agencies accessed the department’s data from Flock's cameras without its knowledge, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the GSA Office of the Inspector General, when the cameras were first installed in June 2023 until the police department took administrative control of the system two months later.

As Contra Costa News reports, federal agencies gained access to the ECPD’s database two more times after safeguards had reportedly been installed. Between September and November 2023, the United States Postal Inspection searched ECPD’s database. Additionally, over two days in May 2025, the Loma Linda Healthcare System Veterans Affairs Police searched the database.

Per Contra Costa News, Flock reported that the company promptly fixed flaws in the department’s settings that allowed the agencies to access the database. Regarding the Loma Linda Healthcare Systems Veterans Affairs Police, Flock says the agency was incorrectly labeled as a state agency.

“We found these two other incidents of federal sharing that came as a surprise to me,” Chief Paul Keith of the El Cerrito Police Department said.

Per KTVU, the San Jose Police Department implemented safeguards, including requiring more documentation from outside agencies, limiting camera locations, and reducing data retention to 30 days instead of a year, per NBC Bay Area.

Additionally, as KTVU reported Wednesday, the Mountain View City Council voted unanimously to end the city's contract with Flock, and pressure is also mounting in the city of Richmond. As Axios reports, a federal agency accessed the Richmond Police Department's Flock cameras last year before the department blocked access to all federal agencies.

Per NBC Bay Area, Keith will provide further details about the El Cerrito police department's audit at El Cerrito’s city council meeting on March 10.

Image: Tony Webster/Wikimedia

Previously: Report: Flock Safety, Maker of SF’s License Plate Reader Cameras, Had Gobsmacking Security Flaw

A California woman filed a federal lawsuit against a company that owns two upscale apartment complexes in SF’s South Beach neighborhood — Avalon Mission Bay and South Beach Marina Apartments, saying they were aware that she was being sex trafficked there at age 17.

As the Chronicle reports, a woman identified as AV is suing Avalonbay Communities Inc., along with other unidentified corporations and individuals, alleging that staff at two of the company’s properties, Avalon Mission Bay and South Beach Marina Apartments looked the other way when she and other underage girls were being housed and trafficked on the premises. As About Lawsuits reports, AV says the abuse took place for about two years in 2018 and 2019 when she was still in high school.

Per the Chronicle, AV and other survivors were rescued when the FBI arrested the man who trafficked them. The man was given the pseudonym “Tom Roe,” making it unclear when he was arrested or whether he was charged.

Per About Lawsuits, the lawsuit says Roe chose the high-end apartment complexes to appeal to potential customers, alleging that employees at the apartments routinely witnessed victims being escorted by different men in and out of each property around the clock while heavily drugged and wearing revealing clothing. The lawsuit says employees accepted payment for staying quiet and told victims to hide their faces while entering and exiting the properties, per About Lawsuits.

“Roe purposefully placed his trafficked women, including Plaintiff, at luxury apartment buildings to attract wealthier clientele, Tom Roe moved between apartments when another luxury apartment became available,” states the lawsuit, per All Apartments.

Per the Chronicle, rent at the properties ranged from $7,500 to $10,000, which Roe paid in cash. AV’s attorneys said she was drugged with cocaine, marijuana, and Xanax and was often physically harmed for not obeying orders. The lawsuit says AV and other victims were given tattoos of an uncorked bottle of wine on their inner thighs.

“This case seeks to hold accountable the apartment complexes and their respective shareholders, owners, security teams and agents who benefited from the horrors inflicted on (the) Plaintiff,” attorneys for AV said in the lawsuit, per the Chronicle.

Image: South Beach Marina Apartments

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who hasn't been afraid to publicly rebuke his former friend Elon Musk in the past, once again appeared to have had it with Elon on Tuesday.

Elon Musk began his long day of tweeting saying, "Don’t let your loved ones use ChatGPT," along with a repost of a headline linking ChatGPT to nine suicide deaths.

Altman decided not to let to this lie, owning the death figure and responding with a three-paragraph tweet turning things back on Musk and Tesla, asking about all the deaths that have now been linked with Tesla's Autopilot feature. He also gets in a dig about Musk's contradictory criticisms about ChatGPT, at one point calling it too "woke" and restrictive, but also here suggesting that it doesn't have enough guardrails. (And with Grok, he shouldn't be talking when it comes to guardrails!)

"Sometimes you complain about ChatGPT being too restrictive, and then in cases like this you claim it's too relaxed," Altman begins. "Almost a billion people use it and some of them may be in very fragile mental states. We will continue to do our best to get this right and we feel huge responsibility to do the best we can, but these are tragic and complicated situations that deserve to be treated with respect."

Altman continues, " It is genuinely hard; we need to protect vulnerable users, while also making sure our guardrails still allow all of our users to benefit from our tools.  Apparently more than 50 people have died from crashes related to Autopilot. I only ever rode in a car using it once, some time ago, but my first thought was that it was far from a safe thing for Tesla to have released. I won't even start on some of the Grok decisions."

He concludes, "You take 'every accusation is a confession' so far."

Altman and Musk's feud appears to be ramping up just after we learned, last week, that a lawsuit Musk brought against ChatGPT in federal court, claiming it had abandoned its nonprofit mission, is moving forward and is likely headed to trial this year.

Then, on Friday, Musk filed a notice on remedies in connection with the lawsuit, indicating that he is seeking between $79 billion and $134 billion in comepensatory damages from OpenAI and Microsoft. Musk reportedly reached this figure range with the use of an expert, as Ars Technica reports, C. Paul Wazzan, who concluded that "Musk’s early contributions to OpenAI generated 50 to 75 percent of the nonprofit’s current value."

Previously: It Looks Like Elon Musk's Suit Against OpenAI Over Abandoned Nonprofit Mission Is Headed to Trial

Top image: Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

• Anthropic AI has agreed to pay $1.5 billion in a copyright settlement over a lawsuit alleging the company illegally pirated almost half a million books. The plaintiffs — a group of authors and publishers — will be awarded $3,000 for each publication listed in the case. [Associated Press]
• Thirty inmates were involved in a fight at Maguire Correctional Facility in San Mateo County Friday morning, and deputies reportedly used gas to break it up. Six officers had minor injuries, and six inmates were hospitalized, three of whom have since been sent back to jail and the others in stable condition. [KTVU]
• Caltrans is replacing a misspelled sign on southbound 101 in Novato/Petaluma. The sign, which should read “San Marin Drive” instead of the currently incorrect “San Martin Drive,” is scheduled to arrive in a couple weeks — at no extra cost to taxpayers. [KGO]

• Oakland-born world figure skating champion Alysa Liu told the Associated Press she’s replacing the d4vd song she’d planned to use for one of her programs in the Milan Olympics due to the artist’s potential involvement in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. [Associated Press]

National:

• Elon Musk is listed in a newly released Epstein document, along with Steve Banon, Peter Thiel, and Prince Andrew. The file, released Friday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, contains portions of Epstein’s daily schedule from 2014, 2017 and 2019, as well as a flight manifest from 2000. [USA Today]
• Black Panther and Black Liberation activist Assata Shakur, who had been living in Cuba under political asylum for the past several decades, has died. Shakur was given a life sentence in 1977 in the killing of a New Jersey state trooper and was rescued by members of the Black Liberation Army during a jail break in 1979. [Associated Press]
• In a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Amazon agreed to pay its customers $1.5 billion in refunds — in addition to a $1 billion civil penalty — over its “deceptive Prime enrollment practices.” [CBS News]
• Sinclair Broadcasting and Nexstar Media Group, which boycotted the airing of Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week, announced Friday they’ll both be airing the show again on all 38 and 33 of their ABC affiliate stations effective immediately. [CBS News]

Video of the Day:

• This Bay Area couple had a wedding to remember with Vallejo’s own E-40 as their wedding officiant. Big congrats, to the Kinders!

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

In a new lawsuit, a paraplegic man says staff at a care facility in the East Bay city of Concord gave him a cup of wound-cleaning solution with his pills instead of water. He says they didn’t call 911 for two hours until he borrowed his roommate’s phone.

As Bay Area News Group reports, Steven Sharp, 55, says on the first morning of a six-week stay at Diablo Valley Post Acute rehabilitation center, he was mistakenly given about five to six ounces of a solution containing bleach with about 12 pills. Per Bay Area News Group, he immediately told staff he’d been given bleach and was feeling burning in his esophagus and stomach.

According to the lawsuit, after 45 minutes of Sharp asking staff to call 911, an employee came in and apologized for what happened. Sharp reportedly waited for emergency personnel for two hours before someone called 911 — only after they found out Sharp had borrowed his roommate’s phone, per Bay Area News Group.

Sharp says he suffered “severe and ongoing bodily injuries and emotional distress,” and he’s seeking unspecified damages. The lawsuit, which also includes Diablo Valley Post Acute’s parent company PACS, is suing for “gross recklessness, deception, and willful delay of medical care,” as Bay Area News Group reports.

“We take all concerns seriously and have initiated a thorough internal investigation into the allegations,” Diablo Valley Post Acute spokesperson Dan Kramer said.

Bay Area News Group points to two similar cases in San Mateo and Walnut Creek in 2022. At the San Mateo facility, three seniors — two of whom died — were given a cleaning solution that had been poured into a water pitcher. A 94-year-old man died two days prior in Walnut Creek under similar circumstances.

Recent Yelp reviews of Diablo Valley Post Acute describe the facility being under-staffed and their loved ones being severely neglected, including being left with crusty diapers and infected wounds.

Image: Diablo Valley Post Acute/Yelp

The family of Jon-Marques Psalms is ordering a second autopsy after the medical examiner’s report confirmed he died as a result of a high-intensity training exercise at the SF Police Academy. The family’s attorney says Psalms was tackled and disarmed by an opponent wearing a padded “RedMan” suit.  

As the Chronicle reports, the San Francisco chief medical examiner confirmed that Psalms, who was 30 years old, suffered a medical emergency, as previously reported by SFist, resulting from severe physical exertion from the police training exercise, which simulates hand-to-hand combat. He died two days later from massive organ failure. As KRON4 reports, the cause of death has not been released, and Psalms’s family is demanding answers from the city and police department. They’re raising funds via GoFundMe to order their own autopsy.

“My older brother, Jon-Marques Psalms, passed away on August 22nd for reasons that we aren’t fully aware of yet. Jon passed away after participating in a training exercise for the SFPD, San Francisco Police Department,” Psalms’s brother Malik Psalms wrote on the GoFundMe page. “The highly controversial ‘Street Cop Training’ exercise that led to his passing has left our family with more questions than answers, and sadly, the City of San Francisco and the Police Department have not provided us with the clarity and support that we need during this time.”

Additionally, as the SF Standard reported last week, the family retained attorney Bradley Gage from Southern California, where Psalms grew up. Gage is also currently representing San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus in a lawsuit against the county. The Standard says Gage has won major cases against the LAPD, and he represented Biggie Smalls’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit, in which they were awarded $1 million in sanctions before the case was dismissed.

Per the Standard, Gage says that Psalms died after participating in a defensive training exercise referred to as “RedMan,” in which the recruit is tackled and disarmed by an opponent wearing a red padded suit, like the one pictured below. (See the promo video further down of the suit in use during training.) Gage told the Standard that Psalms lost consciousness after the “RedMan” exercise. After he regained consciousness, he then collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.

“We have more questions than answers at this point, but what we do know is troubling,” Gage told the Standard. “A perfectly healthy young man went through training at the police academy. As a result of that training, he has now left the earth. Why did this happen? How did it happen?”

Gage also told the Standard that shortly after Psalms’s death, an SFPD captain went on temporary leave and another high-ranking officer was transferred. “You do not have both a lieutenant and captain [moved] essentially within days of a tragedy unless the department already has found alleged wrongdoing on their part,” he said.

The Chronicle reports that the case is still under investigation by Cal/OSHA, and the SFPD is conducting an internal investigation. Per the Chronicle, in 2020, a Santa Clara County sheriff’s cadet collapsed during a RedMan drill and died after being on life support for several hours. The paper also reports that padded-suit drills were banned in Massachusetts after a recruit lost an eye in 2016.

“Cases like this are tragic, no matter how you look at it. In this particular case, it appeared there [were] problems with the way the training was carried out, which led to a death. People should not die when they are training to become a cop,” Gage told the Standard.

Image: GoFundMe

Previously: 30-Year-Old SFPD Recruit Dies From Medical Emergency During Training Exercise

US News & World Report will start disclosing which hospitals pay for rankings in its “Best Hospitals” list after an investigation by SF City Attorney David Chiu’s office. Chiu also published an op-ed in the publication criticizing its ranking methodology.

As KRON4 reports, Chiu didn’t hold back in his August 29 op-ed in US News & World Report. “While U.S. News has represented itself as an expert in hospital rankings, I have had significant concerns about perverse incentives created by its ranking methodology,” Chiu writes.

According to a press release, Chiu’s office began investigating the publication in 2023 and subsequently discovered at least one hospital paid $42,000 for a “Best Hospitals” badge, which was never disclosed — a violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act. The press release states that US News also offers paid options for “Featured Hospital” placement; advertising on the outlet’s website and in its Best Hospitals guidebook; and access to micro-data relating to US News’s rankings.

When US News neglected to respond to a 2023 letter from Chiu (PDF), his office sent two subpoenas in January 2024 (PDF) requesting documents and information from the publication. US News then filed a lawsuit claiming the investigation was in violation of its First Amendment rights, which was later dismissed.

The parties came to an agreement in April of this year, in which US News agreed to include a disclaimer on any webpages that earn revenue from hospital rankings.

“Consumers use these hospital rankings to make consequential health care decisions, but at the outset of our investigation the company did not disclose as required by U.S. law that it received payments from the hospitals it ranked, including licensing fees for permission to display a ‘Best Hospitals’ badge,” Chiu says. “My office is committed to defending consumers’ best interests, so I’m glad we were able to reach a settlement that ensures greater transparency in U.S. News’s financial disclosures.”

In addition to pushing the outlet to disclose its payment structure, Chiu urged the publication in his op-ed to restructure the way it forms its ranking methodology, citing “significant limitations” with the current system. Chiu writes that the data US News utilizes for its “Best Hospitals” rankings is primarily provided by Medicare, making the list mainly applicable to people 65 and older.

“If U.S. News included data from private insurers and Medicaid, as some other hospital ratings do, it would present a fuller and more representative picture of hospital quality,” Chiu writes. “U.S. News also underweights data from outpatient treatment, which is how hospital care is now frequently provided.”

Additionally, Chiu says the outlet relies on physician surveys for ranking medical specialties, which provides skewed information and could potentially motivate hospitals to incentivize higher-ranking specialties. “For example, in its rankings of children’s hospitals, U.S. News allocates at least 19 points for treatment of cystic fibrosis, a rare disease affecting mostly white newborns, and only 1 point for treatment of sickle cell disease, which affects far more babies and disproportionately affects Black or African American newborns,” Chiu writes.

Chiu urges US News to properly measure the quality of care that hospitals provide all of their patients, including those who are historically underserved. “Separate measures prepared by the U.S. News show that many of its very highest ranked hospitals underperform in offering care to their local communities,” he writes. “It is not enough to provide stellar care to a select group of patients and not others.”

He goes on to say that US News’s current ranking methodology helps already prestigious hospitals attract more funding while cash-strapped local hospitals continue to struggle. “These rankings obscure the fact that for many common conditions and procedures – such as a routine knee replacement – your local hospital is likely just as good as the purportedly top-ranked hospitals that may require expensive travel costs,” Chiu writes.

“Many local hospitals providing outstanding care, but not recognized by U.S. News, are facing immense budgetary pressure. If community hospitals go out of business, patient care will suffer,” he continues. “Rather than pitting hospitals nationwide against each other, a better approach would be to provide key quality metrics for each hospital and, if appropriate, flag areas of special expertise or surgical volume.”

Chiu concludes his op-ed by encouraging the public to “keep in mind that the best hospital for you is usually the one in your community.”

Update: Here’s US News Executive Chairman and CEO Eric Gertler’s response to Chui’s op-ed.

Image: David Chiu/Flickr

• Two former San Ramon Valley High students reached a $7 million settlement after reporting sexual abuse by former theater teacher Ryan Weible between 2010 and 2012. Despite complaints and a police investigation finding condoms in his classroom, the district delayed action, firing him in 2012 but agreeing not to share negative information. [Bay Area News Group]
• Dead & Company’s second night in Golden Gate Park brought out 60,000 fans, many in tie-dye and vintage tour shirts. The band played deep cuts like “St. Stephen” and “Crazy Fingers,” with drummer Jay Lane joining Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann on a triple-drum finale. [Chronicle]

• UCSF oncologist Dr. Vinay Prasad resigned weeks into his new FDA advisory role after far-right activists resurfaced years-old liberal tweets criticizing Trump and conservative pundits. [Bay Area News Group]
• A driver was rescued and hospitalized Friday night after crashing 100 feet down a creek off Monticello Road in Napa, prompting a rope rescue by Cal Fire and county crews. [KPIX]
• A wanted man was arrested after allegedly stealing $1,500 in merchandise—including 21 bottles of probiotics—from South Bay pharmacies, then fleeing on a bike with multiple bags before deputies found the goods and fentanyl pipes. [KRON4]

Top image: An aerial view of an SF MUNI 5 Fulton bus that is wrapped in tie-dye colors on July 29, 2025 in San Francisco, California.  (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A lawsuit is alleging that a Fremont battery company with ties to China called non-Chinese staff “foreigners,” using unauthorized Chinese workers on B-1 visas, and flying in a Chinese lawyer who's unlicensed in the US to advise on bringing in more illegal hires.

As Bay Area News Group reports, the lawsuit was filed on June 13 in Alameda County Superior Court, accusing Gotion Inc., a subsidiary of China-based Gotion High-Tech, of keeping a “revolving door” of Chinese citizens working at its lithium-ion battery plant using B-1 business visas, which do not allow employment. The lawsuit also claims that a Gotion High-Tech lawyer from China was brought to the US despite not being authorized to work or practice law here — allegedly to advise Gotion on “how to impermissibly violate US immigration laws.”

Three plaintiffs — Anirban Das, a US citizen of Indian descent, Atul Deshpande, an Indian citizen with a US work authorization, and Betuel Olivares, a Mexican citizen with a work permit — claim they were stripped of job duties and harassed after raising concerns about the violations. One plaintiff alleges a Gotion manager made racist comments toward non-Chinese workers, referring to them as “foreigners.”

According to the lawsuit, when the three plaintiffs met with Gotion management in June 2024 to discuss steps for making the Fremont facility lawful and safe, Gotion supervisor Chen Li told them two of his Chinese deputies would be taking over their work.

Li reportedly said, “It seems that it is unrealistic to expect these old Americans to solve the problem,” along with, “Don’t expect the foreigners to solve the problem because the foreigner doesn’t understand how.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the Fremont facility lacked proper permits and safety features, and that Gotion continued operations after the city posted a “do not enter” notice on the building. A photo included in the complaint, which was also included in the Bay Area News Group article, shows company brochures allegedly taped over the red closure notice.

This is not Gotion’s first US controversy. In Michigan, its $2.3 billion EV battery factory plan near Big Rapids promised over 2,000 jobs but sparked protests over environmental impact and Chinese ownership. Critics dubbed the company a “Communist Trojan horse,” and GOP figures including Donald Trump used the controversy to criticize the Biden administration’s clean energy policies. Despite efforts by Gotion’s US VP Chuck Thelen — who notably ate battery chemicals to prove safety — local opposition stalled the project. Gotion subsequently redirected efforts to a $2 billion Illinois plant with less resistance.

Gotion has not yet responded publicly to the lawsuit in Fremont.

Image via Google Maps

• Following recent deaths and multiple rescues, San Francisco officials are urging visitors to avoid entering the water at Ocean Beach this Memorial Day weekend. Instead, how about heading to the much more gentle bay side of the water, such as Aquatic Park or Crane Cove Park. [KQED]
• About 20 Stanford students are on the 11th day of a hunger strike, demanding the university cut ties with companies linked to Israel’s actions in Gaza. Protesters also want looser protest rules, dropped charges, and a stronger stance from school leaders. [SFGate]
• YouTube has hired longtime Disney executive Justin Connolly as its global head of media and sports, prompting Disney to sue YouTube for breach of contract and interference, seeking to block the appointment. [Bloomberg]
• A San Francisco boy with a rare bone marrow disease has been on the donor waitlist for over a year, facing challenges finding a match due to his Chinese and Vietnamese heritage. [NBC Bay Area]

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• The Southern California portion of Pacific Coast Highway reopened Friday morning for the first time since the January Palisades Fire, restoring a key route between Malibu and Pacific Palisades. [Chronicle]
• Just an adorable family of three enjoying their beers at the Giants game. [@SFGiantsFaithful]

National:

• At least 12 people were injured, including three critically, in a stabbing attack at a Hamburg train station, where a 39-year-old woman suspect was arrested. Authorities say she likely acted alone and may have been in mental distress. [ABC7]
• Boeing has reached a $1.1 billion deal with the Justice Department to avoid prosecution over two deadly 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. While the agreement includes $445 million in victim compensation and safety reforms, families who have spent years demanding a public trial and harsher accountability strongly oppose the deal. [CBS News]
• More than 100 National Security Council staffers — including both career officials and Trump-era political appointees — were abruptly placed on administrative leave Friday after an email from NSC chief of staff Brian McCormack gave them 30 minutes to clear out their desks as part of a controversial restructuring led by interim adviser Marco Rubio. [Yahoo News]
• NOAA predicts an above-average Atlantic hurricane season beginning June 1, with 13–19 named storms and up to five major hurricanes, driven by unusually warm ocean temperatures and intensified monsoon activity. [NBC News]

Video of the Day:

• Watch rare footage from Sesame Street’s first-ever national tour with a stop in Golden Gate Park where Big Bird and the gang performed for 15,000 fans in what was called a “Preschooler’s Woodstock.”

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Still Making Weekend Plans?

In case you missed it, SFist let you know about the Chinatown Pride event as well as Saturday’s line-up at Yerba Buena Gardens. Here are a couple more big events happening this weekend.

• Carnaval San Francisco, Afro Mundo: Celebrate the African diaspora in the Americas with a weekend of music, dance, and food. Saturday–Sunday, May 24–25 | 11 AM–6 PM | Mission District, SF | Free
• SF Queer Art & Music Festival: Nine-day celebration across the Tenderloin featuring DJs, drag, and visual art. May 23–31 | Various venues, SF
• Crucial Reggae Sundays: Relax with live reggae music in Golden Gate Park's Music Concourse. Sunday, May 25 | 4:20–7:30 PM | Golden Gate Park, SF | Free

Image: Aquatic Park; Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Right-wing public interest law firm Pacific Legal Foundation is representing a white Berkeley high school student in a lawsuit against UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital of Oakland because the teen was rejected from its three-year CHAMPS internship, which is for minority high school students interested in health care careers.

Notably, the student's mother is an attorney who works for Contra Costa County, and Pacific Legal Foundation is a libertarian group funded by ultraconservative donors with a focus on pursuing “individual liberty and limited government,“ as coined by Courthouse News Service.

The Chronicle notes that this lawsuit is one of several recent attempts by the group to dismantle DEI programs, particularly in public education. So far, many of the cases have been thrown out of court.

Image: Mx. Granger/Wikimedia

Previously: Oakland Landlords Lose Case Over Paying Tenants $6,500 To Leave

A tax form left on an Apple office printer has sparked a proposed gender discrimination class action lawsuit involving more than 12,000 current and former female employees, who claim they were systematically paid less than their male counterparts for the same work—a disparity allegedly reinforced by Apple’s compensation policies and hiring practices.

The case was initiated by three named plaintiffs, including Justina Jong, who discovered the pay gap in 2019 when she found her male colleague’s tax form showing he earned $10,000 more than she did for an equivalent role.

A judge in San Francisco Superior Court recently gave the case the go-ahead to proceed, and lawyers for the plaintiffs hope to receive class action status. If approved by the court, women who started working in Apple’s California engineering, marketing, and AppleCare departments in the four years prior to the lawsuit filing, as well as those hired before the case concludes, are eligible to take part.

Since the three plaintiffs filed their case, it’s since grown to include thousands of participants. The lawsuit claims that Apple’s use of salary expectations perpetuated pay disparities, even after California banned inquiries about prior salaries in 2018.

Apple argued the claims could not be addressed as a class action due to the individualized nature of employment decisions, but the judge ruled there was sufficient evidence to proceed.

The lawsuit also alleges Jong faced sexual harassment by a senior Apple employee from 2015 to 2022, which Apple attempted to dismiss, but the judge rejected their arguments.

Image: Steve Proehl/Getty Images

Lyft, the ridesharing giant, is suing San Francisco's city government, accusing it of overcharging the company $100 million in taxes from 2019 to 2023.

The lawsuit, first filed Friday in California state court, alleges that San Francisco engaged in tax methodology that is “distortive and will grossly overstate Lyft’s gross receipts."

Specifically, the company's lawyers claim that the city taxed the total fare amount paid by passengers as revenue, rather than the percentage fee of each fare that Lyft gets paid by drivers.

Lyft's lawyers are seeking a refund of the overpaid taxes with interest and additional punitive compensation if they win. The lawsuit represents a broader legal debate over whether or not rideshare companies such as Lyft and Uber have repeatedly misclassified their drivers as independent contractors.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office told the Chronicle today that their team "will review the complaint and respond accordingly."

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

When Elon Musk took over Xitter, he made headlines for apparently refusing to pay rent at the social media giant’s Market Street office.

Now, the company that owns the property, SRI Nine Market Square LLC, has sued X and is looking for $13.6 million to refill a line of credit, according to court filings, as the Chronicle reported.

The landlord reportedly used Xitter’s existing $3.6 million line of credit to pay the company’s rent in December of 2022 and part of January of 2023, right after Musk bought the company. SRI Nine Market Square is now looking to replenish that and increase the line of credit by an extra $10 million, which was in the original 2011 lease from when Twitter first moved into the offices at 1355 Market St., the landlord said.

X’s legal team had disputed that these claims, saying that the company did pay rent in December 2022, January 2023, and February 2023. But the New York Times reported at the time that the initial rent nonpayment was one of X’s “cost-cutting measures,” along with allegedly stiffing vendors, auctioning off office furniture, and negotiating limited severance packages to former employees.

It seems that Xitter did start paying rent on the space after all the initial chaos, because the nonpayment might have just been a negotiating tactic on Elon Musk's part to try to get better lease terms. But now such tactics are coming back to bite him: Musk reportedly tried the same tactic for X’s office space in Boulder, Colorado, and faced eviction last year, per Quartz.

But hey, sure, when you lay off more than half the company, including most of your legal team, who knows how much office space you actually need, not to mention how you’re going to hold up in court. And X is reportedly heading to trial with its SF landlord on May 6.

Previously: Twitter Reportedly Not Paying Rent as Musk Lawyers Up For That and Other Legal Battles [SFist]

Feature image of the roof of the former Twitter headquarters on July 28, 2023 in San Francisco, California. A week after X CEO Elon Musk officially rebranded Twitter as "X" and changed its iconic bird logo, an X logo was installed on the roof of the social media platform's headquarters. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.