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Bay Area Coronavirus Information — Updated Daily

Day Around the Bay: Stormy Weather Halts Mass Vaccinations at City College

The extreme weather this week is forcing SF's newly set-up mass-vaccination site to close til Friday, a gay Black firefighter is suing the SFFD for discrimination, and Marin conservatives rally in support of the MyPillow guy.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Famed SF Leather Bar Powerhouse Temporarily Became a Food Pantry For LGBTQ People and Others In Need

For the past six weeks, a SoMa queer bar that's better known for raunchy theme nights and its storied past in the leather community temporarily turned into a food pantry serving LGBTQ seniors and a group of unemployed nightlife workers around the city who found themselves running out of money.

Business & Tech

Uber Lays Off 15% of Postmates Staff, Just Two Months After Buying the Company

Nearly 200 Postmates employees got pink slips Monday in the wake of being acquired by Uber, but top Postmates executives will get “multimillion dollar exit packages.”

Bay Area Man Arrested After He Allegedly Went Nuts Threatening Democratic Congressman and His Family on Jan. 6

In yet another story of a conspiracy-addled right-wing Trump fanboy unraveling in the waning days before the inauguration and allegedly turning to criminal threats and other craziness, we bring you the case of 35-year-old Bay Point resident Robert Lemke.

Arts & Entertainment

Eureka Valley Gallery With Lofty Aims Opens Virtually, Selling Limited-Edition Prints

Upper Market Gallery has opened virtually, with a real grand opening still in the works, and with a view toward tearing down barriers in the local art world creating new spaces that invite conversation and community.

Atmospheric Rivers, Explained

It doesn't seem as though the term "atmospheric river" has been in common use for more than a decade or so by TV weather people. But lately it comes up nearly every winter in California.

California EDD Confirmed to Be a Bloody Mess In New Auditor's Report

A state auditor's report released Monday suggests that not only did the California Employment Development Department (EDD) mishandle hundreds of thousands of claims and leave legitimate unemployed claimants going hungry last year, but that possibly $30 billion was paid out to fraudsters.

Tuesday Morning Topline: Hurricane Hunters Fly Into Our Coming Storm

Twitter has permanently banned MyPillow founder Mike Lindell for "repeated violations," the I-5 is shut down at the Grapevine due to heavy snow, and Rep. Barbara Lee is the new chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Day Around the Bay: Twitter Launches Crowdsourced Fact-Checking Program

Twitter is going the Wikipedia route with a new fact-checking program, California's new My Turn vaccine app was developed by Salesforce, and outdoor dining resumed without hesitation at some Bay Area restaurants today.

SF Archbishop Flouts COVID-19 Restrictions Again, Hosts Hundreds for Indoor Mass

The nutty archbishop rises again in opposition to COVID-19 precautions, this time holding mass indoors for hundreds of congregants, and saying some combination of Proud Boys and Antifa forced him to do so.

Fox News Apoplectic That FEMA Will Fund SF Homeless Hotels, Unaware This Started Under Trump

The right-wing news network’s outrage that “Biden may force American taxpayers to foot bill” for shelter-in-place hotel rooms fails to acknowledge that Trump forced taxpayers to foot the same bill.

Business & Tech

UCSF Team Finds Cancer Drug That Is 30 Times More Effective At Fighting COVID Than Remdesivir

A research team at UCSF has landed on a potential game-changing treatment for COVID-19, though it is a cancer drug made by a Spanish firm that is not yet approved for any uses in the United States.

Coming Deluge of Rain Prompts Evacuations, Landslide, Flood, and Wind Warnings Around the Bay

The next round of rain heading toward the Bay this week will be the heaviest we've seen in a while. And in addition to warnings of high winds coming with the next band of storms, areas that saw significant burning during last year's wildfires are facing the threat of landslides.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Outdoor Dining, Personal Services To Resume In San Francisco

Outdoor dining can resume in San Francisco starting Thursday, now that COVID case numbers are decreasing the state has lifted the regional stay-at-home orders that began over a month ago.

Stubborn Scofflaw Yoga Studio Owner In Pacifica Makes Apparent Threats Against County Supervisor's Family

As the Trumpists continue their wails of false fury about an election that they lost, a local battle that epitomizes the idiocy of politicizing the pandemic and denying basic science rages on just south of San Francisco.

Newsom Lifts Regional Stay-at-Home Orders as Bed Capacities Rise

Governor Gavin Newsom has lifted the remaining regional stay-at-home orders across California, returning to the county-by-county, color-coded system for reopening, and San Francisco will be allowing outdoor dining to resume in short order.

Monday Morning Headlines: Placer County Man's Post-Vaccine Death Being Investigated

Bay Area teachers remain in a vaccine limbo, three people were wounded in a shooting outside a Burlingame hotel, and Sacramento is getting more aggressive with building housing than San Francisco.

Bay Area Sports

Stephen Curry Passes Hall Of Famer Reggie Miller For #2 On NBA's All-Time 3-Pointers List

Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry made history Saturday night, splashing in his 2,561st career 3-pointer early in the second half of a 127-108 loss to the Utah Jazz.

Second Street Crisis Response Team Will Start Responding to Non-Violent Emergency Calls in SF Next Month

Following the launch of San Francisco's first non-police crisis response team in November, another unit of health care clinicians and medical professionals are expected to start addressing mental health and addiction emergency calls in the city come February 1.

Bay Area ICU Capacity Swings to 23.4% — Could Lockdown End Soon?

With the Bay Area's ICU capacity now over 23% — a massive improvement from the last reported ICU availability rate of just 6.5% — the region now falls under the state's criteria for leaving its current stay-at-home order.

Sunday Links: Anti-Abortion Rally Held in Downtown SF; Many Demonstrators Seen Mask-Less

A UCSF study proved essential workers in the food and transportation industries are among the "riskiest jobs" in the pandemic, the body of an unnamed woman washed ashore at Tunitas Creek Beach Saturday morning, and a largely mask-less anti-abortion rally was held in downtown SF yesterday.

California Is Now the Worst State in the Country When it Comes to Giving Out COVID-19 Vaccines

We’ve all been bemoaning how sluggish SF and the state have been at administering vaccines. Though usage rates are rising, those upticks aren't enough to stop Alabama from leapfrogging over CA — making us now dead last in the country for the percentage of supplied shots being used.

Saturday Links: Latest COVID-19 Surge Claims Six Lives at SF's Laguna Honda Hospital

SF restaurants continue to be targeted by vandals, SFMTA is considering reopening Twin Peaks to personal cars, and six residents at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco have lost their lives as a result of the most recent state-wide COVID-19 surge.

Legendary Talk Show and Radio Host Larry King Has Died at 87

Larry King — the broadcasting giant whose interviews with world leaders, global popstars, and Hollywood staples captivated audiences from around the globe — died Saturday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to a statement from Ora Media; he was 87 years old.

Day Around the Bay: Breed Hints San Francisco Could Soon Reopen Under CA Guidelines as Infection Rate Drops

Multiple arrests were made in connection to last weekend's Tenderloin shooting that injured five people, San Jose firefighters responded to an ammonia spill at a Kellogg's-operated facility, and Breed tweeted SF’s current "COVID-19 reproductive rate" Friday morning — which is now at 0.99.