Local:

  • Two Bay Area platforms, gaming platform Roblox and chat platform Discord, are being sued following an attempted assault on a teenage girl. The 14-year-old plaintiff says that a sexual predator targeted her on Roblox and communicated with her on Discord, sending sexually explicit messages, before convincing her to meet him near her home in Alabama; the companies are accused of prioritizing growth over safety and allowing unverified users to interact with minors. [KRON4]
  • Alameda County officials have stated unequivocally that law enforcement there does not cooperate with ICE, however a federal program that reimburses local jails for the costs of detaining undocumented people suggests otherwise, with a shared database of names and other details. [Berkeleyside]
  • In a complete reversal from where polling was last summer for former Mayor London Breed, a new Chronicle poll finds 73% of SF residents approving of Mayor Daniel Lurie work so far (71% disapproved of Breed at this time last year). [Chronicle]

National:

  • The FAA is investigating a semi-near-miss over North Dakota Friday between a commercial jet being operated by SkyWest and a military B-52 bomber. The plane, a Delta connection flying from Minneapolis to Minot, ND, was coming in for a landing when it unexpectedly saw the military craft flying straight toward it, so the pilot made an aggressive maneuver to avoid it that was "not fun" for the passengers or crew. [CBS News]
  • Vice President JD Vance's planned family vacation in London and the Cotswolds next month is likely to draw significant protests, and it may impact the lives of celebrities who live or frequent the Cotswolds, including Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. [Bay Area News Group]
  • Dog the Bounty Hunter's stepson, Gregory Zecca, apparently shot and killed his own 13-year-old son, Dog's grandson, in an accidental shooting in an apartment in Naples, Florida on Saturday. [TMZ]
  • Also in sad news, actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica. He was 54. [KTVU]

Video:

  • Apologies for the potentially upsetting or triggering image of attempted animal abuse, but this surveillance video of a despicable soul chasing down a raccoon in SF's Mission Terrace neighborhood with blowtorch was posted to Reddit, and Animal Care & Control has launched an investigation into the incident. The poster of the video says that this "sadist was wandering the Mission Terrace neighborhood at 3am on 7/18/25 with a blowtorch looking for animals to light on fire." [Chronicle]