Local:

  • Governor Gavin Newsom says the state of California will start selling its own insulin as a state-branded generic drug, and it will only cost $11 a pen. This is the payoff on a $50 million investment the state made with the nonprofit pharma company Civica to develop the low-cost generic, which will be available to Californians in 2026. [NBC Bay Area]
  • This Sunday is Sunday Streets Excelsior, the final Sunday Streets of the 2025 season, though the citywide “Phoenix Day” Sunday Streets parties are not officially happening. That said, several informal Phoenix Day parties are happening, as volunteers have stepped up to host these on Friday along Piedmont, Chenery, and Clayton streets, plus on Sunday right outside Glide in the Tenderloin. [Examiner]
  • Nearly 100 election ballots were found in what appears to be a pile of stolen mail at an abandoned homeless encampment in Sacramento. A Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson says the ballots will be returned to the local elections department so people do indeed get their replacement mail-in ballots. [Sacramento Bee]
  • That South Lake Tahoe mayor who admitted she embezzled from a church apparently also had an insurance company sue her for “theft of funds” totaling more than $122,000 back in 2006, and somehow sued her again over the same matter in 2021. [Chronicle]

National:

  • Turns out that an October 8 White House video depicting supposed “chaos” in Chicago was actually full of footage from Florida, Texas, South Carolina, and even… Nebraska? [AFP]
  • On the same day that the Trump administration bombed another alleged drug boat in the Caribbean (not killing the whole crew this time), the head of the US Southern Command, which oversees operations in Central and South America, has abruptly resigned from his position, reportedly because he’s not on board with these boat bombings. [NY Times]
  • Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley, perhaps best known for the single “New York Groove” from when the band released four simultaneous solo albums in 1978, died after complications from a recent fall. He was 74. [Variety]

Video:

  • The always-timely South Park this week chose to skewer Peter Thiel’s recent Antichrist obsession. Here’s one clip from the (as always) incredibly vulgar episode, which features more Trump gay sex with Satan, a Towelie cameo, and a delightfully revolting climax.

Image: Livable City