SF News First Major Overhaul of Chinatown’s Portsmouth Square In Decades Has Begun Following years of disputes, construction has begun on the $73 million renovation of the historic Portsmouth Square park in SF’s Chinatown, which is expected to take two years.
SF Politics Supe Melgar Delays Proposed Smoking Ban at SF Bar Patios Following Backlash After facing widespread outrage over a proposed ban on smoking at bar patios in SF, Supervisor Melgar has put the plan on hold while she and Mayor Lurie continue discussions with the community.
SF News SF Faces Second Class-Action Lawsuit Over Treatment of Women at County Jail Following a class-action lawsuit last month over alleged illegal strip searches of women at SF County Jail No. 2, a second suit filed Tuesday claims conditions for women in custody are worse than those for men.
SF Politics Trump-Endorsed Steve Hilton Wins Second Spot For California Governor Behind Becerra Former Fox News host Steve Hilton will face Xavier Becerra in California’s November governor’s race, according to the latest projections, with Hilton beating out billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer for the second spot in last week’s primary.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Natalie Gee Withdraws From November Election For District 4 Supervisor A 33-year-old swimmer aims to be the first person to swim the entire California coast; an activist was convicted after protesting in front of OpenAI’s headquarters last year; and Natalie Gee has dropped out of the November race for District 4 supervisor.
Arts & Entertainment SCRAP Creative Reuse Center Buys Building In SF’s Bayview Twice the Size of Old Space Beloved SF art center SCRAP is nearly doubling in size with the purchase of its own 26,000-square-foot building in the Bayview District not far from its current location, and the transition will take place in phases over the summer.
SF News Oakland Man Dies at Santa Rita Jail After Hospital Release Within a Week of Prior Jail Death An Oakland man died at Santa Rita Jail Saturday after being released from the hospital an hour earlier, marking the jail’s third in-custody death this year and the second within a week.
SF Politics Lurie, Mahmood Shelve Proposal to Halve Transfer Taxes on Property Sales Over $10M A proposal recently introduced by SF Supervisor Mahmood and Mayor Lurie, which was put on hold, would have cut transfer tax rates in half on property sales of $10 million or more, returning them to pre-2020 levels before voters approved Proposition I.
SF News DOJ Opens Inquiry Into Gender and Sex Ed Policies at SFUSD, Three Other Districts Ahead of Maria Su’s DC Visit As SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su prepares to give testimony in Washington DC Wednesday, the DOJ announced it’s performing a compliance review into policies surrounding gender and sexuality at SF public schools along with three other California school districts.
Business & Tech Meta Says Israeli Spyware Firm Targeted WhatsApp Users in Spear-Phishing Campaign Following reports that the Pentagon had raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to “critical,” Meta said an Israeli spyware firm was caught targeting a small group of WhatsApp users.
SF News OSHA Fines SF General For Seven Violations Following Fatal Stabbing of Social Worker SF General Hospital received its steepest fine on record from Cal/OSHA, which found the hospital did not take the proper measures to prevent violent workplace incidents prior to the fatal stabbing of a social worker in December.
Business & Tech Apple Debuts Siri Chatbot, Other AI Features Powered by Google Partnership At his final World Wide Developers Conference as Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook unveiled a slate of new AI features Monday, including a standalone Siri chatbot app, based on models Apple created in collaboration with Google.
SF News Congress to Grill SFUSD’s Maria Su, Two Others on Parental Rights ‘Abuses’ In Schools All eyes will be on SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su and two other school figures from Chicago and Virginia who are set to speak before a GOP-led committee in DC this week on “inappropriate content” and “legal abuses” in public schools.
SF News Trump Sends $75 Million to Fund New Coal Export Terminal In Oakland After Years of Delays In a push to boost the export of coal to other countries, Trump invoked a wartime order to fund the development of 13 plants across the US, including Oakland, which is expected to be one of the largest facilities on the West Coast.
SF News Court Allows Kars 4 Kids to Keep Ads on Air In California While It Appeals Ban Just when Californians thought the airwaves would be free of those mind-numbing Kars 4 Kids jingles, a court ruled that the company can continue running its ads during the appeals process.
SF News Fairfield High School Relocates Graduation Ceremony Following Fatal Shooting After one person was killed and three others injured in a shooting outside a continuation school's graduation ceremony at Fairfield High School, Fairfield High announced its own graduation ceremony will be moved to a different location.
SF News Person Thrown From Three-Wheeler In Collision With Car In SF's Western Addition, Four Hospitalized Four people were hospitalized with minor to moderate injuries after a three-wheeled vehicle crashed into a car that allegedly ran a red light in San Francisco’s Western Addition, ejecting a passenger.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Alan Wong’s District 4 Win Strengthens Mayor Lurie’s Agenda Lovers Point Beach in Monterey County is closed over the potential presence of a shark; two SoCal lawyers were penalized after including false, AI-generated information in a court briefing; and Alan Wong won big after joining forces with Lurie.
SF News Jeep Driver Strikes, Injures Scooter Rider In Suspected Road Rage Incident Witnesses at the scene of a collision on the Embarcadero say an altercation led to the driver of a Jeep intentionally running into a scooter rider who was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Business & Tech Suspected Thief Flees Scene In Waymo With Stolen Goods From Marina Yoga Studio The San Francisco Police Department is searching for a suspected thief who used a Waymo robotaxi as his getaway vehicle earlier this year in the city’s first reported case of this kind.
Business & Tech Report: Waymo Vehicles Create a Whole New Set of Traffic Safety Problems A recent CNN investigation found that while Waymo's robotaxis may reduce many of the risks associated with human drivers, they often create new problems of their own, from emergency response disruptions to close calls involving pedestrians and cyclists.
SF News Two Deaths In SF Streets Reported an Hour Apart In SoMa, Excelsior A pedestrian was fatally struck by a driver in San Francisco's South of Market District Wednesday, and another person was found dead in the street in the Excelsior less than an hour later.
Business & Tech Google to Add Clearer Sources In AI Searches, Allow Sites to Opt Out Following UK Ruling Following a ruling from UK regulators, Google announced it plans to allow website owners to opt out of appearing in AI searches, and it’s also agreed to add clearer attributions and links to sources in its AI overviews.
SF Politics State Senator Aisha Wahab In Early Lead For Eric Swalwell’s Former Seat In 2027 The early front-runner in the primary for Eric Swalwell's former East Bay congressional seat next term appears to be State Senator Aisha Wahab, who currently represents roughly half the district, with former Dublin mayor and BART director Melissa Hernandez trailing behind.
SF News SF Affordable Housing Project Opens in Record Time Through New Public-Private Partnership A new 145-unit affordable housing development was completed in a fraction of the typical time for half the cost in SF’s Mission District near the Bernal Heights border, and officials hope to use it as a model for future projects.
