Business & Tech Google Tells Workers It's Back-to-the-Office Time Starting April 4 There have been some false alarms and variant-related surprises in the past, but it could be that Spring 2022 will usher in a new late-pandemic phase of workers grudgingly returning to cubicles and conference rooms in SF and Silicon Valley.
Business & Tech State Grants First Permits to Waymo and Cruise For Paid Self-Driving Taxi Service The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has granted its first, semi-full permits to Alphabet-owned Waymo and General Motors-owned Cruise to provide autonomous-vehicle taxi service to paid passengers.
Business & Tech Facebook and Twitter Attempt to Stifle Russian Propaganda Campaign; Russia Turns to Chinese-Owned TikTok Social media is again being used as a battleground by Russia as it continues to try to "sell" its invasion of Ukraine to the Russian people, and to sympathizers abroad.
SF News SF’s Only Crate & Barrel, in Union Square, Will Close Permanently March 23 There will be another retail vacancy in Union Square in late March, as the Crate & Barrel at Stockton and O’Farrell Streets will furnish its last home furnishings and close in the next few weeks.
Business & Tech Silicon Valley Chipmaking Giant Nvidia Hit With Cyberattack, Russia Theories Already Flying While there is no credible evidence that Russia has anything to do with a cyberattack on Santa Clara-based Nvidia, the company is being tight-lipped about an attack that “completely compromised” their internal systems.
Business & Tech The Trump vs. Twitter Lawsuit is Happening in San Francisco, And It’s Not Going Well for Trump In a lawsuit literally named Trump v. Twitter, the former president is suing Twitter to allow him back on the platform, but his arguments are going fruitlessly in a San Francisco district court.
Arts & Entertainment Crypto Enthusiasts Promote ‘Bored Ape’ NFTs In Mission District Murals We have entered the phase where Bored Ape NFT promotions sit among the Mission Street murals, at a moment when the NFT collective behind these virtual apes is angling for a $5 billion valuation.
Business & Tech Trump's Twitter-for-Bigots, Truth Social, Launches Without a Working App Remember how Trump's new media company was launching its own social network, dubbed Truth Social, and Devin Nunes left his job in Congress to help lead this company and this new thing they imagine will go toe to toe with Twitter?
SF Politics SF Neighbors Who Wanted Amazon Hub Site to Remain Industrial Now Not Happy That It's Remaining Industrial Recology wanted to build housing on a site that was formerly home to 300 garbage trucks, but neighbors pushed back. Now Amazon wants to keep things industrial, and still, pushback.
Business & Tech State Agency Sues Tesla Over ‘Racially Segregated Workplace’ Where Racial Slurs Are Thrown Around Commonly A California employment agency brought a pretty disturbing lawsuit against Tesla Thursday, alleging not just racial segregation at the Fremont plant, but a workplace where racial slurs were commonly scrawled on walls and spoken out loud by management.
Business & Tech About 40 of Elon Musk’s New SpaceX Satellites Destroyed by Solar Storm A few dozen SpaceX satellites that launched last Thursday have already bit the dust in a solar storm, but thankfully, they’ll be reduced to dust upon reentering the atmosphere.
Business & Tech Robin Williams’ Estate Sues Pandora For $4.1 Million Over Alleged Copyright Violation The George Carlin estate and Andrew Dice Clay are also lodging copyright suits against the streaming service, saying they don’t actually have the copyrights to play these comedians’ works.
SF News That Market Street IKEA Is Now Officially Under Construction The COVID-delayed but still definitely happening San Francisco IKEA store on Market between Fifth and Sixth Streets has started building out, but it’s going to be more of an “IKEA-anchored meeting place” (mall) with other tenants too.
SF Politics Peter Thiel Stepping Down From Meta’s Board, Will Focus on Getting Trumpers Elected in the Midterms The billionaire co-founder of PayPal and Palantir will no longer serve on the board of directors of Facebook parent company Meta, where he had Zuckerberg’s ear for years (or held Zuckerberg’s leash, depending on who you ask).
SF News The Gap Is Opening Four New Retail Stores at Its Rincon Hill Headquarters It’s encouraging news for retail that Gap is opening four new storefronts downtown, but they’re all in office space that Gap Inc. already owns, so this won’t put a dent in any retail vacancies.
Business & Tech SF Joins Legal Inquiry Into Uber for Allegedly Discriminating Against Trans, Non-Binary Drivers San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego city attorneys are all digging into Uber’s alleged discriminatory practices with trans and non-binary people who try to sign up for the platform, because the bots feel their names and faces do not adequately match their driver's licenses.
Business & Tech Meta Already Has a Sexual Harassment Problem In the Metaverse In a development that's surprising to absolutely no one, Facebook/Meta is already having to address groping and sexual inappropriateness in the Metaverse, even though there is no real Metaverse yet — there's just a beta version of a very early stab at it.
Business & Tech SF-Based Property Management Startup Hemlane Closes $9 Million Series A To Unlock Work-From-Home Accessibility For Property Managers Many technology businesses thrived during the pandemic as work-from-home took hold of the world. Zoom meetings abound, service businesses across the US turned to tech to allow business to continue. Some industries were
SF News Day Around the Bay: Meta Stock Price Tumbles Because of Metaverse Spending Facebook/Meta's share price took a dive in after-hours trading after a rare decline in profits due to metaverse spending, the SFPD is withdrawing from a key agreement with Chesa Boudin's office, and the fire near Big Sur is all contained.
Business & Tech Slack Lets Go Of Its Entire Office Space at 45 Fremont Three Years After Leasing It Slack, the workplace messaging tool that allows one never to have to physically be in the workplace but also allows one to never actually stop working, is giving up its physical workplace in SoMa.
Business & Tech Free Rides In Self-Driving Cruise Taxis Now Available in SF (But You Have to Get On a Waitlist) If you’re sick of looking at those self-driving cars with droids on top of them, now you can get into one and get a free ride instead — but the program seems unlikely to start for weeks or even months.
Business & Tech Spotify Says It Will Add Content Warnings to Podcasts; Joe Rogan Offers Half-Apology Facing a growing crisis last week, Spotify rushed to make a public pledge about dealing with misinformation on podcasts — but the company stopped short of saying it would pull down any content or end its relationship with controversial anti-vaxx bro Joe Rogan.
Business & Tech Waymo Is Suing the California DMV to Keep Its Crash Data Secret Alphabet's self-driving car arm is running up against a roadblock in its path to becoming a fully-fledged autonomous taxi service in California, and that is coming in the form of a legal battle over its crash data.
Business & Tech Lighthouse Real Estate Buys Sizable Vacant SF Property In The Mission. The Planned for Nonprofit Space Will Now Be Repurposed for Life Science Facility After Sale Lighthouse Real Estate bought a 14,000-square-foot San Francisco property in December 2021 with the plans to redevelop it into a life science lab site.The previous owner was developer Chris Foley, who
Business & Tech Legal Battle Over SF's Short-Lived Virgin Hotel Heads to Trial In February The legal fight between the owner of the property at 250 Fourth Street in San Francisco's SoMa district and Virgin Hotels will go to trial in early February, and it remains to be seen whether a hotel will ultimately reopen in that building ever again.
