SF News Judge Shoots Down Lawsuit to Bring Cars Back to Great Highway, Sunset Dunes Will Remain Car-Free Park A last-ditch lawsuit attempting to overturn 2024’s Prop K and bring cars back to the Great Highway has failed, as a judge just tossed out the lawsuit’s claim that the car-free Great Highway ballot measure skirted California law.
SF News West Portal's Long-Shuttered Empire Cinema Could Become Nine-Story, 64-Unit Housing Complex Under New Proposal The former CineArts at the Empire on West Portal Avenue is just a one-story structure, but could become a nine-story housing complex with 64 units under a just-announced proposal from the family that has long owned the building.
SF News Report: Flock Safety, Maker of SF’s License Plate Reader Cameras, Had Gobsmacking Security Flaw Turns out anyone with an internet connection, and not even a password, could access the feeds of a line of the Flock surveillance cameras that are currently all the rage with the SFPD and Oakland Police Department.
SF News SF City Hall Employee Who Embezzled $627K, Bought Himself VR Headsets Sentenced to Three Years in Prison The wild corruption case of a SF City Hall Workers' Comp department employee who embezzled $627,118 and blew city money and personal tech gear has ended, and that now-fired employee is headed to prison.
SF News Bay Area Protests Kick In After Trump’s Venezuela Invasion and ‘Regime Change’ Coup After President Trump invaded Venezuela and deposed President Nicolás Maduro Friday night, the Bay Area reacted fast, as protests took over both San Francisco and San Jose by Saturday afternoon.
Arts & Entertainment The SF Zoo Will Be Free For Kids 11 and Under for the Whole Month of January An excellent free activity to take the kids to this month (once the rain dies down), as the San Francisco Zoo will offer free admission to kids 11 and under for the entire month of January.
SF News SFPD Standoff With ‘Armed Individual’ Has Streets Shut Down Near Embarcadero and Brannan Streets A standoff with an “armed individual threatening to harm themselves and not complying with officers' commands” at Embarcadero and Brannan streets began just after noon Monday, and much of that area remained blocked off for hours.
Arts & Entertainment Tommy Lee Jones’s Daughter Had Three Bay Area Arrests Last Year Before Being Found Dead at Fairmont Hotel After the daughter of actor Tommy Lee Jones was found dead in a hallway at the Fairmont Hotel just hours after midnight on New Year’s Eve, we’re learning she racked up something of an arrest record in the Bay Area in 2025.
Bay Area Sports 49ers Get Stymied by Seattle Seahawks 13-3, Now Must Hit the Road for the Playoffs Those wacky black helmets did the 49ers no favors in a Saturday night game, as they blew their storybook chance at home field advantage through the Super Bowl, getting suffocated by Seattle 13-3.
Arts & Entertainment Claude the Albino Alligator Getting a Big, Free ‘Celebration of Life’ on Sunday, January 18 If you feel you still haven’t paid your respects to the dearly departed albino alligator Claude, there will be a large, public (and free!) “celebration of life” for the deceased 30-year-old gator at the Golden Gate Bandshell.
SF News Recology’s Free Christmas Tree Pickup Is Now Underway, So Do Not Abandon Your Christmas Tree on a Sidewalk You do not need to sneak around and ditch your Christmas tree on a sidewalk when no one is looking. Recology is happy to pick up your tree for free if you just leave it next to your compost bin when putting out trash and recycling.
SF News Highway Patrol Foiled by 100-MPH Speeding Camaro With Disappearing License Plates One Camaro driver who enjoys speeding at more than 100 miles per hour on I-580 has a novel, James Bond-style trick to evade authorities, as this particular vehicle’s license plates are able to automatically disappear when the cops show up.
SF News California DMV Screwed Up the Real IDs, Hundreds of Thousands Need to Be Replaced That new Real ID driver’s license you were forced to get in 2025 may be worthless in 2026, because the California DMV had a software error, and an estimated 325,000 state residents must replace their ID yet again.
SF News SFO Closing One of Its Runways for Six Months in 2026 as Part of $180 Million Revamp Airport officials claim it will not lead to significant travel delays, but we’ll see about that when SFO closes one of its runaways for repairs from late March until early October 2026.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink That Magnificent Former Chevy's on the Waterfront In Emeryville Is Going to Become a Benihana Great news for Emeryville and people who like to dine with views of the bay, as a Benihana is coming to that shuttered Emeryville Chevy's space on the waterfront that's been closed for more than a year and a half.
SF News After Lick Observatory Gets Roof Piece Ripped Off by Extreme Winds, Scientists Race to Save 137-Year-Old Telescope The historically significant, 57-foot-long Great Refractor telescope near San Jose is in serious danger, after 110 mile-per-hour winds ripped a steel crescent off the Lick Observatory’s roof, and more storms are on the way.
Business & Tech Now We Know How Hackers Reprogrammed Peninsula Crosswalks With Fake Elon Musk and Zuckerberg Messages Palo Alto and Menlo Park crosswalks were hacked in April to play fake, satirical messages from Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Hackers were able to do this because Caltrans just never changed the default factory passwords.
SF News Day Around the Bay: California Delays Revoking Immigrants' Commercial Driver’s Licenses The SFPD has a new assistant police chief; some lady in Palo Alto is accused of pepper spraying a family in a road rage incident; and 17,000 immigrant truck drivers will not lose their licenses next week as had been planned.
SF Politics Scott Wiener’s Law Banning ICE Agents From Wearing Masks Takes Effect Thursday. Will ICE Abide? State Senator Scott Wiener got a law passed prohibiting ICE agents from wearing face coverings in California. We’ll find out when it goes into effect Thursday whether ICE agents will follow that law.
SF Politics Billionaires Going Berserk on Twitter Over Proposed California Billionaire Tax There’s a signature drive to put a 5% “billionaire tax” on the California ballot. It has not collected even one signature, but the billionaires are freaking out on Twitter with grand tantrums saying they will leave the state en masse.
Arts & Entertainment Reminder: Skrillex is Playing Pier 80 Tonight, So Expect Noise Complaints From Both Sides of the Bay Windows will likely rattle everywhere from Potrero Hill to Alameda island Tuesday night, as ravelords Skrillex and Four Tet are playing Pier 80 in a show whose sound check last night indicated that things are going to get very loud.
SF News Car Theft Suspects Allegedly Ram Into Four San Ramon Police Cruisers; One Officer Injured, Two Suspects Arrested The attempted bust of a stolen vehicle ring went sideways in San Ramon Sunday night, as the suspects allegedly started ramming into police cars and left one officer with minor injuries, and two of the four suspects got away.
SF News Take That, Fox News: SF Crime Was Down 25.5% in 2025, Third Straight Year SF Crime Went Down More evidence that the national narrative about crime in San Francisco is complete baloney, as the city sees its third straight year of crime rates plummeting, this year by a full 25.4% reduction in crime across the board.
SF News SF Businesses Still Fuming Over PG&E Outages, PG&E Vaguely Indicates They Might Reimburse Businesses More Coming off three SF PG&E outages in a week, west side business owners are demanding more reimbursement from the utility. PG&E says they might oblige, but businesses have to fill out an application and then just hope for the best.
SF News Remember, Everybody, Muni Is Free Again on New Year’s Eve, BART Will Be Running Extra Late-Night Trains Muni will be absolutely free on New Year's Eve for the 17th year in a row, and while BART will not be free, the BART system will let you catch trains almost up until (but not quite until) the 2 am last call at the bars.
