- Waymo's expansion effort into San Mateo County and Los Angeles has been given a 120-day suspension by state regulators, which the company says is standard procedure. The California Public Utilities Commission's Consumer Protection and Enforcement Division is undertaking a review of the expansion plan, and such a suspension-for-review also took place before Waymo's permit to operate in San Francisco was granted. [ABC 7]
- One person was shot Wednesday morning in an apparent robbery in Oakland. The shooting occurred at a retail business on the 2400 block of San Pablo Avenue. [KRON4]
- President Biden spoke at a fundraiser for wealthy donors in Los Angeles Wednesday, telling them they need to "stay focused" on the battle to defeat Donald Trump a second time. "I may not run as fast as I used to. I may not be able to play flanker back at Delaware," Biden told the audience, which included Jane Fonda. "But I tell you what... I’ve been around long enough to know what’s going on." [Associated Press]
- Former Contra Costa County sheriff's deputy Matthew Allen Buckley has taken a plea deal in a case involving multiple felony charges including illegal weapons possession and falsifying evidence. [KPIX]
- Santa Clara-based chip-maker Nvidia, whose valuation has surged more than 40 percent since the start of the year making it now the third most valuable U.S. company behind Microsoft and Apple, says its growth is only going to continue amid the AI boom. [New York Times]
- Speaking of AI, SF-based OpenAI has just signed on Match Group, the company behind dating apps Match, Tinder, and OkCupid, for an enterprise license for ChatGPT to "be the wingman… employees didn’t know they needed." [TechCrunch]
- A schoolbus-sized bit of European space junk — a defunct satellite that was decommissioned in 2011 that used to collect data on climate change and natural disasters — was expected to descend through the atmosphere today and land, in pieces, in the Pacific off the California coast. [Chronicle]
- And the naming contest has concluded — the new male falcon who's mating with UC Berkeley resident falcon Annie has been named Archie, in honor of school alumnus and Olympic medalist Archie Williams, the first African American on the campus to run for student council. Williams, who died in 1993, later became a beloved high school teacher in Marin County, and the former Sir Francis Drake High School was renamed after him in 2021. [KPIX]
Photo via CalFalcons/X