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- A SoMa hotel agrees to pay the city millions to get out of its public open space requirement. [Socketsite]
- The mother of a Missing Yuba City college student say she’s received texted ransom demands. [KRON4]
- Trump picks Lyft's GM for his transportation team, which doesn't make the company seem very "woke," now does it. [LA Times]
- Meanwhile, Lyft is half a billion richer thanks to a new funding round. [Cnet]
- These NorCal artists and academics are getting the Guggenheim nod (and funding). [Chron]
- Kids aren’t tenants, a court of appeals ruled, reversing a lower court decision. Told you MOM now stop charging me rent! [Socketsite]
- There've been a wave of break-ins happening in the Inner Richmond. [Richmond SF Blog]
- "Extraordinary Playscapes" launches in Civic Center, bringing some pretty wild and whimsical playground structures to local kids. [Hoodline]
- SF BARF has their "Sue The Suburbs" suit (they weren't doing their part to build housing, the pro-development group alleged) tossed out by a judge. [Business Times]
- New photos have been released of the vehicle driven by a suspect in the Oakland slaying of a former NASA scientist. [ABC7]
- Rare photos of the Bay Bridge as its under-construction are up for auction for the first time. [Chron]
- Is SF’s graffiti problem getting worse? [CBS 5]
- A federal judge on Thursday said he will allow an expert chosen by Alphabet/Google self-driving car company Waymo to examine Uber’s technology. [East Bay Times]
- After Twitter sued the Trump administration for compelling it to help identify a user, the administration backed down, and Twitter pulled its lawsuit.
- UC Berkeley had prior knowledge of three incidents involving philosophy professor John Searle, who was accused of sexual harassment last month, in which he allegedly assaulted or harassed women — in 2004, 2013, and 2014. [BuzzFeed]
