SF News Two SF Women Charged With $500K In Welfare Fraud by Claiming They Were Caring for 17 Kids An SFMTA employee and her partner have pleaded guilty to a $30,000-a-month Section 8 fraud scheme where they claimed they were caring for 17 children, but were not caring for any children whatsoever.
Business & Tech Meta Playing Hardball to Prevent Sales of Ex-Employee’s Tell-All Book Well well well, Mark Zuckerberg suddenly wants less free speech and more content moderation when it comes to a former Facebook employee who’s written a book exposing what it was like to work there, and they’ve hauled the publisher to court.
SF News Daly City Man Sentenced to 15 Years to Life for Murdering Estranged Wife With Four-Year-Old Son in Next Room Justice was apparently finally served after it stumbled the first time around, as a man who initially got off on a mistrial was finally convicted and sentenced for killing his wife and then pointing the gun at her four-year-old son.
SF Politics As ‘Empty Homes Tax’ Faces Legal Challenge, Supervisor Jackie Fielder Moves to Not Suspend It The Empty Homes Tax that SF voters approved in 2022 is in limbo because landlord groups sued, but Supervisor Jackie Fielder wants to explore possible amendments allowing the city to collect the tax if the courts allow it prior to their final decision.
Bay Area Sports March Madness Coming Back to the Chase Center in Two Weeks, Tickets Currently “Cheap” at $200 to $2,500 The March Madness “Sweet Sixteen” and “Elite Eight” games will be at the Chase Center in two weeks, and you might want to jump on the single-game tickets that are currently $200-$2,500, as those prices are likely to absolutely skyrocket.
Arts & Entertainment Castro Theatre Renovation Now $20 Million Over Budget, In Addition to Being Four to Six Months Behind Schedule The $15 million renovation of the Castro Theatre has now ballooned to a $35 million renovation, and this news comes on the heels of learning that the theater’s reopening will be delayed by anywhere from four to six months minimum.
SF News Turns Out That Tesla Showroom on Van Ness Is Operating Without Proper Permitting Here’s the latest from the department of government inefficiency: the Van Ness Tesla showroom that’s been the site of Elon Musk protests also lacks its permit approvals, though it seems the Department of Building Inspection just dropped the ball.
SF Politics At Oakland Mayoral Debate, Barbara Lee and Loren Taylor Blame Each Other For the Whole Sheng Thao Mess Both Loren Taylor and Barbara Lee were sharp and well-prepared for Tuesday night’s Oakland mayoral debate, and both crafted arguments that somehow the other was the bigger enabler of the alleged corruption under former mayor Sheng Thao.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland on Brink of Closure After City Shuts Down Their Patio Scott Peterson got roughed up in a prison fight; the stock market had another dismal day under Trump; and Eli’s Mile High Club may have to shut down after the city forced them to close off their back patio.
SF News Second SF Spa in Two Weeks Has Transgender Patron Controversy, But Quickly Changes Its Policy Japantown’s Korean spa Imperial Day Spa is the latest bathhouse facility with an uproar over where transgender patrons fall in its gender policy, though right before a planned Monday protest, the spa announced it would just go with customers’ chosen gender identity.
SF News Testimony Reveals Doors Would Not Open on Cybertruck That Caught Fire in Piedmont, Killing Three The Highway Patrol’s investigation into a November Cybertruck crash in Piedmont where three college kids died is finding two very Tesla problems: the vehicle immediately caught fire, and its doors would not open.
Business & Tech Waymo Just Expanded Service to Offer Rides In Silicon Valley, the Company's Birthplace The newest places you can catch Waymo robo-rides are the Silicon Valley cities of Los Altos, Palo Alto, and Mountain View, which makes sense, as Waymo was born in Mountain View.
SF News Friday Is the Last Day for Cars on the Great Highway, But a New Lawsuit Hopes to Bring Cars Back Just days before the Great Highway is set to become a full-time car-free zone, a new lawsuit is trying to hit the brakes on the car-free conversion, saying that last November’s Prop K vote was unlawfully placed on the ballot.
SF News Truck Appears to Drive Into Striking VTA Workers on Picket Line, One Hospitalized As Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers went on strike today, picketers at one San Jose location were struck by a truck, perhaps intentionally, and one of those picketers was hospitalized.
Arts & Entertainment Local Event Club Gets Dragged for Unauthorized Hunky Jesus Invite That Ignored the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence A local meet-up group really poked a bear in the LGBTQ+ community by posting a Hunky Jesus Contest Facebook invite that included a membership fee for the free event. But after getting nailed with negative comments, they’ve removed the post.
SF Politics Lurie Sending SF Delegation to Washington DC to Plead We Get Spared From Trump’s Budget Cuts With the Trump administration likely to yank hundreds of millions from SF in already-promised reimbursement funds and other federal subsidies, Mayor Lurie is sending a team of negotiators to Washington, DC in hopes of preventing this.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink SF’s Oldest Indian Restaurant New Delhi Is In Danger of Closing Permanently The 36-year-old Union Square Indian restaurant New Delhi is the only Indian restaurant on the city’s Legacy Business Registry, but is in danger of closing as downtown foot traffic remains in the dumps.
SF News SFMTA Announces More Proposed Muni Service Cuts, Chopping Parts of 5-Fulton, 9-San Bruno, and 31-Balboa The Market Street components of the 5-Fulton, 9-San Bruno, and 31-Balboa would be lopped off under a proposed new batch of Muni service cuts, and there could be more bad news for 6-Haight-Parnassus and 21-Hayes riders.
Arts & Entertainment Effort Underway to Bring a Bruce Lee Statue to SF’s Chinatown A two-year effort to put up a statue to martial arts film star Bruce Lee in Chinatown is really kicking into high gear, and supporters held a press conference today with Willie Brown involved.
Arts & Entertainment Tony! Toni! Toné! Co-Founder and Oakland Native D'Wayne Wiggins Has Died A year-long bout with bladder cancer has taken the life of Tony! Toni! Toné!'s D'Wayne Wiggins, who had three Top 10 hits with that group, and helped launch the careers of Destiny's Child and Beyonce.
SF News Notorious Tenderloin Twitter Provocateur Accused of Tire-Slashing, Harassment, Making Online Threats The Twitter personality "jj smith" is suddenly hiding his tweets after making a series of pretty violent threats, and there is at least one tire-slashing incident in which he was allegedly somehow involved.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Oakland First Fridays Makes Its Return This Weekend Gavin Newsom upset the trans community with some remarks on his podcast; Pittsburg Center’s BART station will be closed this weekend; and Oakland First Fridays returns from its winter hiatus Friday night.
SF News SFPD Makes Huge Deal Out of 16th & Mission Bust That Only Produced Four Arrests, Tiny Smattering of Drugs The Mayor, Sheriff, and Chief of Police thought it was worthy of a press conference that SFPD did a “saturation” bust at 16th and Mission Wednesday night, yet this operation resulted in just four arrests and the seizure of one measly ounce of drugs.
Business & Tech AI Company Databricks Declares It Will ‘Invest Over $1 Billion’ in Downtown SF With Big Conference, New HQ Flush with their latest $10 billion fundraising round, the cloud-based AI platform firm Databricks recently signed a 150,000 square-foot lease at One Sansome, and is now committing to keeping their annual conference in SF for five more years.
SF Politics Oroville Declares Itself a ‘Non-Sanctuary City’ In Symbolic Political Move The mostly white Butte County city of Oroville has few if any undocumented immigrants, but declared itself a “non-sanctuary city” in a move that just seems intended to irk Gavin Newsom and please Donald Trump.
