• A debate popped up on Reddit after somebody posted a photo of a car with one of those "No Valuables Inside" signs that have you may have seen popping up in cars around your neighborhood, with people chiming in on both sides of the "It works"/"It doesn't work" aisle. [SFGate]
  • Ariel Pink has apologized for offending concertgoers during a show at The Chapel last Saturday. [SFGate] [NME]
  • One researcher explored how a new Uber driver promotion apparently amounts to them charging drivers to work. [Uber Screeds on Medium]
  • Robert Scoble, a popular tech evangelist and tech industry figurehead, has been accused of sexual harassment (again). [Medium] [BuzzFeed]
  • Some tenants who were living in an unpermitted warehouse in the Mission before being displaced by a fire have won a lawsuit against their landlords, who evicted them through the Ellis Act. They alleged "negligence, breach of contract, unlawful rent increases, constructive eviction, unlawful eviction, intentional infliction of emotion stress, nuisance, unfair business practices, unjust enrichment, and injunctive relief," according to [Mission Local], and have won $1 million in a settlement.
  • The [SF Business Journal] dropped their list of San Francisco's 20 highest-paid public employees. They say the top three are: William Coaker, Jr., Chief Investment Officer of the San Francisco Employees' Retirement System ($527,343); Arthur Wang, Managing Director of the SF Employees' Retirement System ($414,516); and Antonio Santiago, Deputy Sheriff ($388,465).
  • Alleged lead peddler and noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones flipped his wig over Long Beach library's Drag Queen Hour, posting a rant to YouTube where he disparages the practice (SF has its own) and some SF queens. [SF Weekly]
  • One jewelry designer tried to sell necklaces featuring the "#MeToo" hashtag, which many women have been using to express their experiences with sexual harassment. After strong backlash, the designer decided to donate 100% of the proceeds to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. [Slate]
  • The Berkeley Police Department is searching for a man in a "'Peter Pan' style hat" who assaulted and robbed a woman in Berkeley park. [KRON 4]
  • The Stockton Metropolitan Airport is looking to add "San Francisco" to its name. It's not a new thing, says Stockton Airport Director Harry Mavrogenes said, as airports often "tie in a major destination." [SFGate]
  • The [Chron] wrote a profile of Marilyn Ress, one of the victims of the Wine County fires. Her friends remembered her as a generous, caring, "angel on Earth" with the "biggest heart."
  • Researchers at John Hopkins University say that we still don't know all that much about how our health is impacted by wildfire smoke or how much it differs from pollution. [Huffington Post]
  • Workers at Harbin Hot Springs, which burned down in the Valley Fire two years ago, were "on edge" watching the news roll in about the Northern California wildfires. [SFGate]
  • A new People Behaving Badly report from Stanley Roberts digs into why the word "police was cut out of some of Santa Rosa's wildfire "Thank You" signs over Highway 101. [KRON 4]
  • The latest tally puts the total cost of damages caused by the wildfires at over $1 billion dollars with over 6,900 buildings destroyed. [KQED] explains that the number value comes from insurance claims, so it doesn't count uninsured property.
  • According to one UC Berkeley forest ecologist, a tree-killing disease known as sudden oak death could have played a role in the spread of the Northern California wildfires, as dead and dying oaks serve as better fuel than healthy ones, which are naturally resistant to fire. [Chron]