SF Politics SF Examiner Apologizes For (Literally) Placing a Bullseye On Dean Preston’s Face in Print Edition In what’s being criticized as a “deeply irresponsible and contemptible” publishing decision, the SF Examiner Wednesday front page depicted Supervisor Dean Preston with a bullseye target over his face, and the paper is now apologizing.
SF Politics Supervisors Spend Five Hours Haranguing Over Mandated 82,000 New Housing Units, But We Might Actually Hit That Goal? It’s not surprising that the SF Board of Supervisors spent nearly five hours debating a state-mandated housing requirement that the city build 82,000 new housing units by 2031. What is surprising is that we might actually achieve the goal.
Bay Area Sports Now Someone’s Suing Steph Curry and the Warriors Over Promotions of Bankrupt Crypto Fund FTX Did you lose money in the collapse of cryptocurrency firm FTX? Maybe you can get some of it back by suing Steph Curry and the Warriors, because there’s a class action lawsuit against them and other sports stars like Tom Brady who endorsed the now-worthless digital currency exchange.
SF News Alleged Gunman In Oakland Dentist Lili Xu Murder-For-Hire Case Pleads Not Guilty The suspected hitman who stands accused of pulling the trigger on Oakland dentist Lili Xu pleaded not guilty Wednesday, but prosecutors appear to be seeking a life sentence with no parole for the 33-year-old alleged killer Hasheem Bason.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Engardio Inches to Victory, Ann Hsu Falls Further Behind in Vote-Count Update Accused serial sex offender Bill Gene Hobbs was denied release, Netflix is rolling out a way to kick freeloaders off your account, and the latest vote count is great news for D4 candidate Joel Engardio and bad news for school board member Ann Hsu.
Arts & Entertainment ‘All Over Coffee’ Artist Paul Madonna Severely Injured in Horrifying Hit-And-Run Accident A brutal hit-and-run has left legendary SF muralist and “All Over Coffee” illustrator Paul Madonna with displaced organs, a collapsed lung, and shoulder and leg injuries that will have him in a wheelchair — and unable to create artwork — for a while.
Business & Tech Google Agrees To Pay Nearly $400 Million Settlement Over Basically Lying About Letting You Turn Off Location Tracking Google was tracking people even who turned off location tracking, which is kind of a problem in the era of abortion bounty hunter laws, so they’ve agreed to pay a $392 million settlement and they pinky-finger swear they’ll let you turn it off (eventually).
SF Politics Ann Hsu Falls Behind In SF School Board Race, Might Not Win Seat Mayor London Breed’s clean sweep of appointees getting elected last week is now in serious jeopardy, as school board appointee Ann Hsu fell 1,700 votes behind progressive Alida Fisher in the latest vote-count batch.
Business & Tech Scooter Company Bird May Go Bankrupt, or Even Out of Business, After an ‘Overstatement’ of Revenue The scooter startup Bird, which also does business in San Francisco as Scoot, is getting its wings clipped after reportedly overstating revenue for two years, and is now mulling bankruptcy, or discontinuing business altogether.
SF Politics Final Local Ballot Measures Called: Prop M Vacancy Tax Wins, Prop E Affordable Housing Measure Falls The dust appears settled on the final two undetermined SF ballot measures, and the vacant homes tax has passed, while both of the dueling affordable housing ballot measures are shot down.
SF News T-Minus Five Days! Central Subway Trains Set To Start Rolling This Saturday It’s only a soft opening that will run weekends only for a bit, but the nearly $2 billion Central Subway starts service Saturday, four years behind schedule — a pretty exciting transit development nonetheless.
Bay Area Sports Crypto Giant FTX’s Massive Implosion Likely Means Curtains for Cal’s $17.5 million Stadium Naming Rights Deal Cryptocurrency brand FTX went from $32 billion to bankrupt in just nine days, and the Cal football stadium’s $17.5 million naming rights deal is likely to go down the drain with it.
SF News BART Wants to Know If You Want More Lines and Late-Night Service, So They’re Running A Survey Though BART is only at 40% of pre-pandemic ridership, they’re looking toward the next phase of expanded service, and you can win a $100 Clipper Card by helping them figure out what riders want.
SF News Someone Posed as an ICE Agent and Tried to Visit Paul Pelosi Attacker In County Jail Three days after David DePape's arrest, someone apparently posing as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent tried to get in to see him in SF County Jail, wielding little more than a bogus business card.
SF News Day Around the Bay: R.J. Reynolds Sues State of California Over Flavored Tobacco, Menthol Ban Joel Engardio remains ahead in the latest ballot counting drop, NY Times-famous Boichik Bagels just added a new location, and Big Tobacco is suing California for banning flavored tobacco.
Arts & Entertainment Already?!? Union Square Macy’s Tree Was Quietly Lit Wednesday Night for the Holidays A day-after-Thanksgiving tradition returned about two-and-a-half weeks early this year, as the Macy’s Great Tree was unexpectedly lit up Wednesday night, and organizers insist there is “no official tree lighting ceremony this year.”
Business & Tech Throwback Thursday: Remembering the Last Big Tech Layoff Bloodbath, the Dot-Com Bust of 2000-2001 As hundreds or even thousands of tech layoffs again become everyday news this week, we look back to the dot-bomb implosion of 22 years ago, when the Bay Area became a graveyard of f*cked companies.
SF News Power NIMBY Move: Marin Residents Give Selves Hefty Tax Hike to Block Housing Development Would you pay $335 a year, every year for 30 years, to block 43 lots of single-family homes? Some Marin County residents just did that by a decisive margin, rejecting a proposed large-scale development and instead voting make it a 110-acre public park.
Business & Tech Flywheel Taxicabs Are Now on the Uber App in San Francisco Uber’s long war on the taxicab industry has ended with a whimper and a merger, as Flywheel cabs are now incorporated into the Uber fleet, in a pilot that’s starting here in SF and hopes to fly nationwide.
SF Politics Meet Kevin Mullin, Who Just Won Jackie Speier’s Longtime Congressional Seat As Rep. Jackie Speier leaves Congress after 15 years, her peninsula and South Bay seat has been won by her endorsed candidate and former state Senate staffer Kevin Mullin.
Business & Tech During Wild Disinformation Election Day, Twitter Rolls Out (Then Quickly Cancels) New ‘Official’ Check Marks The twin traps of election disinformation and Elon Musk’s own impulsiveness both bit Twitter’s rear end over the last 24 hours, and unsurprisingly, advertisers are not exactly clamoring to buy ads on the platform.
SF Politics Two of Breed’s Appointed School Board Members Cruise To Wins, Ann Hsu Ahead In Race for Third Seat It could be a clean sweep for the three school board members Mayor Breed appointed after the February recall, with only Ann Hsu’s election somewhat in doubt.
SF Politics SF Props Roundup: Car-Free JFK Wins, Mayoral Election Years Moved, Dueling Affordable Housing Props Still Dueling Big victories in local SF propositions for car-free JFK Drive, moving the mayoral election year, and a vacant homes tax, but the affordable housing propositions D and E are still locked in battle.
SF News Day Around the Bay: First Tahoe Ski Resort Slated to Open This Weekend, Everybody Live election results are already pouring in, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong says go ahead and have Thanksgiving with your vaccinated family, and the Lake Tahoe ski resorts will indeed open for your shredding pleasure this weekend.
Business & Tech Report: Salesforce Set To Lay Off ‘As Many As 2,500’ Employees The latest San Francisco layoff-palooza shoe to drop is a big one, as towering software company Salesforce is reportedly set to lay off thousands, in job cuts that actually already started Monday.