SF News

Alameda Puts Halt To ‘Cloud Brightening’ Experiment on USS Hornet, Saying City Didn’t Really Know About It

A seemingly innovative experiment to spray sea salt into clouds to fight global warming has been underway in Alameda, but the city just hit the brakes on it, saying they were not informed of it and don’t appreciate being used as guinea pigs.

Business & Tech

Ex-Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt Starts New ‘Bot Company,’ Gets Handed $150 Million Despite Having No Products

Proving again that tech executives can always fail upwards, the CEO that ran self-driving car company Cruise into a ditch, Kyle Vogt, has just been handed $150 million for his new venture called the Bot Company that claims it will eventually develop robots to do household chores.

Business & Tech

Waymo Now Under Federal Investigation For 22 Crash and Safety Violation Incidents

Self-driving car company Waymo may have its time in the barrel coming just like the now-suspended Cruise, as the NHTSA is probing 22 separate crashes and safety incidents with their cars. Oh, and Amazon’s Zoox is being investigated too.

Bay Area Sports

SF’s WNBA Team Now Has a Name and Logo: They’re the Golden State Valkyries

Tuesday morning’s unveiling of San Francisco's WNBA expansion team name and logo did not disappoint, as we learn that the team will be the Golden State Valkyries, with a kick-ass Bay Bridge-inspired purple logo.

SF News

SF’s New ‘Drug Screening for Welfare’ Law Not as Harsh as Advertised, Basically Just an Honor System

The so-called “drug testing for welfare benefits” law that SF voters passed in March will not actually involve drug testing, but instead be based simply on what people answer on a questionnaire.

SF News

172-Year-Old Shreve & Co. Jewelry Store Permanently Closing Its Union Square Shop

The venerable San Francisco-based jeweler Shreve & Co. just announced they’re closing up their Union Square shop permanently, though watch and necklace enthusiasts can clean up on 60% off liquidation sales starting this Friday.

SF News

Port of Oakland Lithium Battery Fire Sent Plumes of Black Smoke Over the Bay Sunday

A black smoke cloud spread over the San Francisco Bay on the Sunday afternoon of Mother’s Day, as a reported lithium battery fire broke out at the Port of Oakland.

Business & Tech

ChatGPT Reportedly Rolling Out a ‘Google Killer’ Search Engine, But Failed to Do So In Underwhelming Monday Demo

There are reports that new tech industry darling OpenAI is working on an AI-powered search engine they hope will overtake Google, but the company’s ballyhooed Monday announcement did not show anything that will have Google shaking in their shoes.

SF News

Naming Contest Underway for Handsome Boy Giraffe Who Just Arrived at Oakland Zoo

This 13-month-old giraffe from Louisiana has a new home at the Oakland Zoo, but he doesn’t have a name yet. You can now help name the towering teen in a naming contest that runs through Monday.

SF News

Missing Child Search in Butte County Finds Child, Plus Nearly 7,000 Pounds of Illegal Marijuana

The good news is that a missing three-year-old girl was found after being reported missing by her Butte County parents. The bad news, for the parents at least, is that police also found about 7,000 pounds of marijuana, plus more than 5,000 illegal plants on their property.

SF News

Some Anonymous Donor Just Gave $100 Million to Build Affordable Housing for Artists on Market Street

We may be losing the McRoskey Mattress store at Market and Gough streets, but we’d be getting about 100 affordable housing units for artists in a slick new building, thanks to a cool $100 million from an anonymous benefactor.

SF News

Latest, Greatest Version of Ambitious Stonestown Development Gets Approval, With Even More Housing

The grandiose plan to turn Stonestown Galleria and its parking lot into a vibrant housing village with new parks was approved by the SF Planning Commission, and it’s been souped up from 2,900 housing units to now 3,500 units.

SF News

Day Around the Bay: Oakland Airport Went and Did It, Officially Approved ‘San Francisco' Name Change

PG&E got their controversial “flat fee” rate change approved; a Piedmont man got no jail time for a fatal hit-and-run; and Oakland’s airport officially changed its name to “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.”

SF News

Infamous Nordstrom Parking Lot Will Remain a Parking Lot Five More Years, City Hall Not Happy About It

The notoriously rejected 27-story residential tower in a SoMa parking lot had its Plan B version approved, but now the developer is putting the project on ice, and a highly frustrated Planning Commission approved letting it remain a parking lot for another five years.

SF News

Judge Rips Chaotic Closure of Dublin Women’s Prison, Orders That Transferred Prisoners' Rights Be Restored

Every prisoner has now been abruptly transferred out of the federal women’s prison in Dublin, but some have been hauled as far away as Florida, and a judge is ordering their belongings returned and their medical care restored.

SF News

Code Tenderloin ‘Night Navigation’ Teams Out There Doling Out 300 Addiction Medications Per Month

While Mayor Breed’s ballyhooed Tenderloin drug crackdown is pretty much failing to get anyone into treatment, a Code Tenderloin night program is getting drug addiction treatment to hundreds every month.

SF News

Armed Suspects Rob Mail Carrier In Dublin, Who Happened to Be 63 Years Old

A 63-year-old woman who’s a postal carrier in Dublin was robbed of her mail keys and cellphone at gunpoint Monday afternoon by two masked suspects, and security camera footage has captured what appears to be the suspects’ vehicle.

Business & Tech

Sure Enough, OpenAI Is Considering Allowing Its Tools to Generate Porn

The artificial intelligence company OpenAI is considering allowing its tools to “responsibly” create AI-generated NSFW content, though it's hard to imagine users would have many goals other than to create a tidal wave of deepfake pornography.

SF Politics

President Biden Returns to Bay Area Thursday for (Of Course) Fundraisers

President Joe Biden has a two-day stint in San Francisco and Silicon Valley this week, attending fundraisers reportedly being hosted by Marissa Mayer and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla.

Business & Tech

Google Is Bailing From Its Offices at Trophy SF Building One Market Plaza

A prize tenant is leaving a prized property at the luxe waterfront offices of One Market Plaza, as Google is reportedly vacating its 300,000 square feet of the property when the lease expires next year.

SF News

State Monitors Take Partial Oversight of SFUSD Finances, as District Runs Risk of Going Broke

San Francisco Unified School District’s deficit has grown so large that outside state monitors have just been given veto power over the district's spending, which is not a full state takeover, but seems to be setting the stage for school closures.

SF News

Day Around the Bay: New COVID Variants Could Mean Possible Summer Surge

Yet another tax code change could be headed for SF's November ballot; a large house fire displaced seven people near Oakland’s Laney College; and some new COVID variants might show up to spoil the summer.

SF Politics

Breed Threatens to Back Out of First Mayoral Debate, Questions Whether It Might Be Rigged by Organizer

The first SF Mayoral debate is in less than two weeks, but London Breed may be a no-show, as there are ties surfacing between the debate’s tech PAC organizer, and both the Mark Farrell and Daniel Lurie campaigns.

Arts & Entertainment

Giant Mystery Laser Dazzles and Confuses SF, Turns Out to Be a Tech Conference Thing

Did you see the giant blue and green lasers shooting into the sky near Coit Tower Monday night? They're scheduled to be back again Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and are brought to you by a company unsurprisingly named MegaLasers.

SF Politics

Peskin Campaign Releases First Campaign Donation Numbers, Which Seem Good But Not Great

Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s mayoral campaign has revealed to the press what the fundraising numbers look like in his first month in the race, but like another late entry, Mark Farrell, these numbers cannot be independently verified and we’re just taking their word for it.