SF News SFPD Rescues Two Dogs From SoMa Apartment After Apparent Battery Fire Another apparent battery fire broke out at an apartment at Sixth and Minna streets this weekend, and two dogs had to be rescued from the blaze.
SF News BART Releases Bodycam Video of Incident Where BART Police Shot a 32-Year-Old Woman We now have bodycam video of the November 18 BART Police shooting of a woman at the Union City BART station parking lot, after BART Police responded to reports she was doing donuts in the parking lot.
Business & Tech OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Sucks Up to Trump With $1 Million Inauguration Donation It’s a little awkward for incoming mayor Daniel Lurie that his top transition adviser is now a Donald Trump donor, as AI titan Sam Altman has donated $1 million to the Donald Trump inauguration, obviously hoping to curry favor.
SF News Scathing SFPD Audit Finds Rampant Abuse of Police Overtime Charges The SF Police Department is now spending $108 million a year on overtime pay alone, with wild and potentially fraudulent abuse of paid sick leave, officers approving their own overtime, and some taking paid time off to moonlight as security guards.
SF News SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin is Resigning at the End of the Year The five-year reign of SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin will come to an end on December 31, and while he steered Muni through the pandemic and saw some big projects completed, he was a lightning rod for criticism over bike lanes and car-free streets.
SF News Day Around the Bay: SFPD Reportedly ID’ed Luigi Mangione Days Before He Was Arrested The Union Square holiday Winter Walk starts Friday; SFMTA won’t start issuing those “daylighting” parking tickets until March; and there are reports that SFPD identified accused CEO shooter Luigi Mangione days before he was arrested in Pennsylvania.
SF Politics Pamela Price's Phone Records Subpoenaed Over Extortion Allegations Against Her A public defender claims former Alameda County DA Pamela Price tried to shake her down for political donations in exchange for a lighter sentence for her client, and that public defender just won a subpoena to go through Price’s phone records to prove it.
SF Politics Lurie Taps Former Giants Executive as Chief of Staff, Announces Other New Hires Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie announced his first three hires, and while two of them were campaign staffers, his out-of-left-field pick is former Giants executive vice president Staci Slaughter as his new chief of staff.
Arts & Entertainment Brace Yourself: SantaCon Has Expanded to Three Consecutive Days This Weekend You better watch out, as Saturday’s SantaCon has fattened up with additional new Friday and Sunday events, making SantaCon a three-day, weekend-long affair as SF’s new holiday pop-up bars are hosting expanded SantaCon events.
Business & Tech No Surprise Here: Bay Area Has Highest Concentration of Million-Dollar Jobs of Any US Metro Area The good news is that the Bay Area has the highest concentration of high-earning people of any United States metropolitan region. The bad news is that this is partly the case because rich people have priced so many lower-income people out of the city proper.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink SF’s Next Boozy ‘Entertainment Zone’ Could Be Coming to Cole Valley Three blocks of Cole Valley are poised to be the next “entertainment zone” where bars can sell to-go cocktails during certain outdoor events and gatherings, adding to the two existing entertainment zones on Front Street and outside the Chase Center.
SF News ‘Magic Mushroom Church’ Is Closing Down Its SoMa Location, Claiming Harassment From SF City Hall The Church of Ambrosia’s Zide Door in SF has been providing magic mushrooms and other legally questionable delights for over a year now at Howard and Seventh streets, but says they’re shutting down the SF location because of “harassment” from the SF Planning Department.
SF News United Airlines Flight Snafu Diverts SFO-Bound Flight From New Zealand to Hawaii United Airlines just resumed the only non-stop route between the US and Christchurch, New Zealand, and it runs to SFO, but a Tuesday flight from Christchurch to SFO was diverted to Hawaii because it needed a crew change.
SF Politics SF City Hall Cancels Contracts With Nonprofit That Had Improper Spending Scandal After the director of a city commission was found to be directing taxpayer-funded contracts to a man she lived with, City Hall officials have found what appears to be more self-dealing, and canceled their contracts with a controversial nonprofit.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Cruise Robotaxis Are No More, as GM Abandons Robotaxi Business Another day has passed with no Nima Momeni verdict; some hateful graffiti hit a Jewish student center; and GM is giving up the ghost on Cruise robotaxis and abandoning that line of business.
SF Politics Is This Why the FBI Raided Sheng Thao’s Home? Filings Allege High-Rollers Traded Campaign Donations for City Contracts A new set of filings allege that a recycling company and a security firm funneled nearly $300,000 to a Sheng Thao political operative in exchange for lucrative city contracts, and now that political operative may have flipped and could be cooperating with the feds.
SF News SF on Track to See the Lowest Number of Homicides In 64 Years as 2024 Comes to a Close It looks like 2024 will be the year with the fewest murders in San Francisco since all the way back in 1960, as the city is three weeks away from likely recording its lowest homicide rate in 64 years.
SF Politics Oakland City Council Weighing Drastic Cuts as $130 Million Deficit Looms Layoffs, pay cuts, and reductions to the police and fire departments are all on the table in Oakland, as the City Council looks for ways to slash the city's budget as they confront a deficit of nearly $130 million.
SF Politics Santa Clara Vice Mayor Resigns After Being Found Guilty of Perjury In 49ers Scandal A sitting Santa Clara City Council member and Vice Mayor of the city, Anthony Becker, was just found guilty of lying under oath about an illicit favor to the San Francisco 49ers ownership. He’s now stepped down, and he’s got prison time to worry about.
SF News 17-Year-Old Arrested After Crashing Truck Into Discovery Bay Security Booth, Killing Guard A 62-year-old security guard is dead, and his colleague seriously injured, after a teen crashed his truck into the security booth of a gated community late Friday night, and the teen driver is facing vehicular manslaughter charges.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink La Mediterranee Staying Put on Fillmore After All, With Lease Extension After Bout of Uncertainty The fate of 45-year-old Middle Eastern restaurant La Mediterranee was up in the air after a new controversial landlord on a buying spree bought its Upper Fillmore building, but the restaurant and owner jointly announced a four-year lease extension for the legacy business.
SF News Woman Suffers Life-Threatening Injuries After Fall From LUMA Hotel in Mission Bay A woman fell or leapt from the 17-story LUMA Hotel in Mission Rock Saturday afternoon in what police currently believe was a suicide attempt, though she instead appears to have crashed into an awning and suffered life-threatening injuries.
SF News German Shepherd Gives Birth to Seven Puppies on SF Whale Watching Boat An SF whale watching boat tour took an unexpected direction Sunday morning, as the boat’s resident German shepherd suddenly went into labor and produced seven little puppies as the boat was setting sail.
SF News Shootout at Antioch Bowling Alley Leaves Two People Dead A Saturday night shootout at the Delta Bowl in Antioch has left two people dead, and they apparently both shot each other in some sort of dispute in the bowling alley’s parking lot.
SF News It’Sugar Abruptly Closes Union Square Store, But New Tenant Supposedly Lined Up Candy emporium It’Sugar has just closed down its Stockton and Market street store, which had previously been a Virgin Megastore and a Forever 21, but the realtor insists there’s already a new tenant moving in.
