Business & Tech

Arts & Entertainment

Business & Tech

San Francisco & the Greater Bay Area are known around the world as one of the major business & technology centers. Entrepreneurs, innovators, and tech giants call the SF Bay home.

Business & Tech

Musk and Zuckerberg Are Play-Fighting Over Meta's 'Sanely Run' Twitter Competitor, Maybe Called Threads

Meta is going to be rolling out its "answer to Twitter" sometime soon. The internet is chattering about it. And Elon Musk has challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a "cage match" over it.

Biden's In Town to Debate AI's Future With Tech Leaders; Meanwhile, AI Biden and AI Trump Are Debating on Twitch

It's strange days, indeed! President Joe Biden is in San Francisco today, attending fundraisers for his re-election campaign and convening a forum with tech people to talk about the future of artificial intelligence. And meanwhile, someone has set up a video AI on Twitch with a chatbot Biden.

Business & Tech

Hacking Outfit Demands $4.5M Ransom From Reddit, Threatens to Leak 80GB of Confidential Data

A ransomware group known as BlackCat or ALPHV is reportedly trying to extort $4.5 million from Reddit, and they have glommed on to the recent user controversy and boycott over recently announced pricing for Reddit's API.

Business & Tech

Meta Is Abandoning Their COVID-19 Misinformation Policy on Facebook and Instagram

Great news for your crazy uncle: Facebook and Instagram will no longer remove posts with COVID misinformation in countries that no longer have a COVID-19 public health emergency declaration, which is basically most of the world.

Tucker Carlson Gets Cease-And-Desist Letter From Fox News, Hires Former SF GOP Chair As Lawyer

It was already going to be massively entertaining to watch Fox News wage legal war on Tucker Carlson over his Twitter show, but now add to the mix that Carlson’s attorney is former SF GOP chair Harmett Dhillon, who’s facing her own set of financial impropriety allegations.

Tucker Carlson Debuts Painfully Low-Budget ‘Tucker On Twitter’ Show

Incel messiah Tucker Carlson debuted his new Twitter streaming show this week, and it’s now two episodes in, with Elon Musk apparently gaming the Twitter platform to wildly over-inflate how many views the videos appear to be getting.

Business & Tech

Hotel Expert: Hilton Owner's Declaration on Loan Might Just Be Negotiating Tactic

It was one of the biggest local stories of the week, but is the owner of the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels just negotiating with its bank by publicly saying they're defaulting on their loan?

Business & Tech

Apple Unveils One Very Expensive and Slick AR/VR Headset, the Vision Pro, On Sale Next Year

At the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook got to do one of those famous "One more thing..." product drops, this time with Apple's biggest new piece of hardware since the Apple Watch.

Business & Tech

Owner of SF's Largest Hotel, the Hilton Union Square, Is Walking Away, Surrendering It to Lender

Another bit of bad news for downtown San Francisco arrived Monday morning with the revelation that the investment firm that owns the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels is walking away from its debts and giving up hope on a return of SF's convention market.

Monday Morning Headlines: New Twitter CEO Starts Today

Linda Yaccarino takes over as CEO at Twitter today, and we'll see how that goes; hundreds marched on the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday to protest gun violence; and Sup. Stefani may be the swing vote on the Castro Theatre seats.

Humpday Headlines: Twitter Now Worth One-Third of What Musk Paid

The woman charged in the death of that Kim K look-alike model is out on bail in San Mateo County; Twitter is now worth one-third of what Elon Musk paid for it; and the parents of the Home Depot security guard killed in Pleasanton say that DA Pamela Price won't meet with them.

Business & Tech

SF Tourism Board Launches New Ad Campaign to Sell City as Still Quirky and Fun

Trying to counter several years of bad national press and a concerted effort by conservatives to single out San Francisco for urban ills that exist in many cities, SF Travel has launched its "largest ever" ad campaign to lure conventioneers and tourists back to town.

Business & Tech

Elizabeth Holmes Set to Begin Her 11-Year Prison Sentence In Texas Today

Today is the agreed-upon day for Elizabeth Holmes to report to federal prison in Bryan, Texas — the same minimum-security facility where "Real Housewife" Jen Shah is serving time.

Business & Tech

Elon Musk Is Hosting Ron DeSantis's Campaign Kick-Off Via Twitter Event

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reportedly plans to formally announce his candidacy for president in 2024 in a live Twitter audio conversation with none other than Elon Musk — signaling, we suppose, the DeSantis camp's bet that potential DeSantis voters can be found among Musk's fanboys.

Business & Tech

'Verified' Account on Twitter Shares AI-Generated Image of Explosion at Pentagon, Briefly Roiling Stock Market

In a first major example of a piece of misinformation from a phony yet blue-check "verified" news account on Twitter since the Musk-era change, an account purporting to be Bloomberg News posted an AI-generated image of an explosion near the Pentagon.

Business & Tech

EU Agency Issues Meta Largest-Ever Fine Over Data Privacy, Orders Company to Stop Exporting User Data to US

Facebook/Meta has just hit with a huge fine and a suspension order by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) over its practice of exporting EU user data to its US offices, which is in violation of EU law.

Business & Tech

Twitter Exec Says He Quit After Being Ordered to Make Illegal Building Changes, According to Lawsuit Brought By Six Former Employees

The fallout from Elon Musk's great shakeup-and-layoff spree at Twitter in late 2022 continues this week with a new lawsuit filed in Delaware's Court of Chancery by six former employees who claim they are still owed severance, and that they were ordered by Musk's team to break laws.

Business & Tech

Supreme Court Hands Big Tech a Big Win In Content Moderation Cases

Two separate lawsuits against tech companies Google and Twitter both went in favor of the tech titans Thursday, as the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that neither were responsible for terrorist acts that were linked to content on their platforms.

Business & Tech

Elizabeth Holmes May Report to Prison Right After Memorial Day; Judge Orders $450M In Restitution

The Ninth Circuit also handed down a decision yesterday denying Holmes's bid to remain free pending her appeal. And her legal team is now asking for a prison-reporting date of May 30.

Mayor London Breed Wants to Put $6M Toward Fixing Up Powell Street, Filling Empty Storefronts

The three blocks of Powell Street between Union Square and Market Street are being made a priority in SF Mayor London Breed's proposed new budget, with money being aimed at beautifying sidewalks and finding tenants for some big, vacant stores.

Business & Tech

Elizabeth Holmes's Lawyers Buy Her More Time Before Prison Report Date

As they await the near-guaranteed denial of her appeal to the Ninth Circuit, attorneys for convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes have made another legal maneuver that appears to give her another few weeks of freedom.

Business & Tech

After Hiring Ad Exec as Twitter CEO, Musk Says He's Still 'Adamant About Defending Free Speech'

Over the weekend Musk defended his CEO-hiring choice, telling fans not to judge too quickly and saying he's not afraid to lose some money over the defense of "free speech."

Business & Tech

New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino Comes From Media/Broadcast Ad World

It's not clear how long Elon Musk has known Linda Yaccarino, or how long he's been courting her to be the new CEO of Twitter. But it's pretty clear from the hiring decision that Musk knows advertising is going to be key to Twitter's future viability.

Arts & Entertainment

San Jose Adobe HQ Gets New LED Semaphore Puzzle, and Another Contest To Solve It

A new LED semaphore brain-teaser is being projected atop Adobe’s San Jose Almaden Tower headquarters, and you can win free Adobe software for solving it, though it is unlikely to be solved for many years.

Business & Tech

[Updated] Elon Musk Hires New CEO For Twitter, and She's an Ad Sales Exec

In typical fashion, Elon Musk made a major announcement about Twitter via tweet on Thursday without providing complete details — which, again, might have been handled differently if he had a PR department.