Local:

  • According to wastewater monitoring, COVID levels quadrupled in California during the month of July, which is consistent with past seasonal upticks and part of a national trend. The currently circulating variants, Stratus and Nimbus, are not known to be particularly virulent, but could lead to hospitalizations and deaths in the elderly. [Chronicle]
  • United Airlines has grounded all its flights bound for and leaving SFO due to an unexplained "technical issue" Wednesday evening, and no timetable for restoration of flights has been provided. Many delays are expected. [KRON4]
  • Lawyers for the free speech-focused Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression have just sued the federal government on behalf of the student newspaper at Stanford University, The Stanford Daily, over threats to deport foreign students who speak out against Israel in the paper. [NY Times]
  • The Department of Justice has put San Francisco on some sort of sanctuary jurisdiction "blacklist," though it's unclear what that even means. [KRON4]
  • Ten more acts have been announced for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass lineup, including former Low vocalist Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles, Kelly McFarling, and William Prince. [SFGate]

National:

  • There was a mass shooting today at Fort Stewart, a US Army base in Georgia, that injured five soldiers. The suspect is 28-year-old active-duty Army sergeant Quornelius Samentrio Radford, and he is in custody. [CNN]
  • The threats, both political and violent, continue against the group of Democratic lawmakers from Texas who left the state to prevent a partisan gerrymandering effort by Republicans. Wednesday morning, there was a bomb threat, determined to be false, at a hotel where some of the Democrats are staying in Illinois. [NY Times]
  • The Trump team is reportedly considering sending Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on to the Joe Rogan podcast to try to quash the Epstein mess. [NY Magazine]

Video:

  • A little bit of history: Beer delivery drivers for the Teamsters union in San Francisco went on strike in 1973 over low wages, and the strike led to beer shortages all over the city. The strike later grew into a wider boycott the following year focused on Coors in particular, with the LGBTQ community joining in to protest against the Coors family's politics — a boycott that remains in effect at some Castro neighborhood bars.

Top Photo: David Syphers