We thought we’d heard the last of "San Francisco’s cruelest landlord" Anne Kihagi when all her remaining properties in the city were placed in court-appointed receivership in July. It turns out we had not heard the last, and the story, unsurprisingly, gets stranger.

Shady landlording is a well-established tradition here in our fair city, but only one property owner has in recent years been given the colloquial title “San Francisco’s Cruelest Landlord.” Yet it seemed as if landlord Anne Kihagi’s run of aggressive owner move-in evictions had come to an end when the city yanked control of all her remaining SF properties a little over a month ago, following a string of cases that included the eviction of a 72-year-old grandmother, a 2015 city lawsuit against her, her eventual jailing in Los Angeles over similar practices, and a $2.4 million fine which, with reimbursed court costs and interest, has grown to as much as $7 million. But the cray is back in full effect, as Mission Local reports that Kihagi now being sued by her own longtime attorney — the very same attorney who is allegedly still representing her in a case to claw some of her diverted rent money back.

We’ll set aside the massive conflict of interest here, and fast-forward to attorney Karen Uchiyama’s response to Mission Local’s revelation (and the lawsuit she filed against her own client, of which Mission Local has published the full text.). In an email response sent to Mission Local shortly after they published the piece, Uchiyama claimed, “I only filed the action as a mechanism to secure regular payments from my client, and our fee arrangement is a private matter” (NOTE: It is not a private matter anymore once you sue someone). She also said that “The case is being dismissed this week after our settlement agreement was finalized,” (NOTE: Judges dismiss cases, attorneys do not) and Uchiyama asked Mission Local “How did you hear about my collection action? Do you regularly go through court filings about other people’s lawsuits and publish comments about them?” (NOTE: That is exactly what journalists do).  

But yeah; the conflict interest thing about suing your own client. “A red flag would go up for me as a legal ethicist,” USF Center for Law and Ethics director Josh Davis told Mission Local. “The general rule would be that you can’t simultaneously be adverse to a party and also represent that party.”

Kihagi does still own eight properties in San Francisco, but a judge’s late-July decision to place them in receivership barred her “from having any management role at any of the properties for a full 60 months.” Some of her properties were auctioned off last year to recoup unpaid fine money, and her tenants are currently paying rent to City Hall.  So she does still need an attorney, albeit one who she reportedly wasn't paying on time.

That story echoes a similar one Mission Local reported via a publicist who claimed Kihagi had stiffed him $2,000 back in April. That was after a PR campaign that attempted to repair Kihagi's public image — part of which included a piece in SF Weekly by this reporter, in which I asked Kihagi about that 72-year-old retired postal worker she tried to evict for alleged drug use, drug selling, and working for a sex phone line. "I’m not happy about a building that smells like weed," Kihagi said. "The workers come in [and] said they get a high just from being inside the unit."

Kihagi also painted herself as a victim, saying that someone "scratched the word ‘bitch’ on my car," and claiming that someone "threw stuff at my mother and my sister."

Indeed, it sounds like some people have been mad at her for some reason.

"All I’ve done is simply enforce the same rights that I have and that every other landlord should have when you have tenants that are misbehaving or actually abusing their legal agreement," Kihagi said.

Related: Notorious Landlord Accuses 70-Year-Old Grandmother Of Dealing Drugs In Mission Eviction Fight [SFist]

It hasn't been quite as sad this summer when it comes to apartment listings, even though average rental prices in San Francisco are still enough to make anyone cry who doesn't make north of $200,000. The holy grail remains being able to live by oneself without breaking the bank, and a newly listed studio in Lower Nob Hill will let you do just that, for the not-quite bargain price of $2295 per month.

The listing appeared on Zumper and was picked up by the national publication Business Insider, which always revels in schadenfreude posts about SF real estate. The listing actually shows pricing for studio and one-bedroom units at 698 Bush Street, otherwise known as The Kenilworth — at the corner of Powell Street.

The photo gallery shows photos of a stark white studio with a view that is clearly of a brick wall, a sliver of a closet, and a non-functional kitchenette which is essentially just a wetbar — a small sink and a mini-fridge.

This is the wider angle, including said window, and a little radiator.

Here's another angle, which shows as best it can with a wide angle this small, 161-square-foot room — which Business Insider thinks is the smallest apartment currently available in SF.

That little door next to the front door does not lead to a toilet — my suspicion is that this was an SRO with shared bathrooms, and some of the units still might share? Scroll down to see a slightly different unit with a creative toilet solution.

But first, check out this closet!

That looks to be about enough room for a pair of skis and a few shoes. Your essential clothing is probably best stored in a few under-bed bins, and the rest you can burn or stuff in a $20/month locker at the gym.

Now, moving on to the other photos in the gallery which show a different studio unit in the same building, this one furnished and with a weird toilet-shower box that's been installed next to the wet bar where no bathroom previously was.

Behold:

Yes, you can poop and shower at the same time in this unit, though you can not heat up food with anything but a microwave, that kitchen sink is the size of a softball, and you'll note the toilet paper holder is outside the bathroom box because otherwise it would get wet.

Here's the bathroom sink inside that little shower:

Turning around to the other side of this furnished room, we have a Murphy bed and a window with an airshaft view.

Turning to the right, we have the TV, which is slightly awkward to watch from the bed, but them's the breaks.

There appears to be the tiniest of closets, again, next to the front door there, and this unit has a credenza beneath the TV for a limited amount of extra storage.

Otherwise, you're lookign at all your storage on about a half dozen IKEA shelves, which also has to hold most of your kitchen and dining stuff.

Here's the "bed up" mode, with a fold-down table and two chairs which, when not in use, are stored... where?

Anyway, at least this thing has a bathroom, which is more than appears to be true of the one above, and let's face it, the toilet certainly must cost extra.

That does it for today's edition of Apartment Sadness. As we move into the popular moving season of fall, perhaps there is more hilarious sadness awaiting us in the listings. Stay tuned.

All previous editions of Apartment Sadness on SFist.

Marijuana delivery has been a thing since before your grandparents had their hippie friend drop off brown weed at their commune. Today, things are notably different with various (legal) pot delivery services providing highly curated cannabis selections directly to your door via apps, websites, or phones. That's right! You don't even have to go to any of San Francisco's great marijuana retail stores, now they come to you. Below are the Bay Area's best deliverers — out of the surprisingly large number of services now out there.

Lifted SF
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, East Bay

#1 of 18 Best Marijuana Delivery SF

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Bud
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, East Bay, Marin, San Jose

#2 of 18 Top Weed Delivery San Francisco

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Buzz Delivery
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, East Bay

#3 of 18 Leading Cannabis Delivery Service in SF

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Cali Xpress
Delivers to: San Francisco, Oakland

#4 of 18 Top-Notch SF Marijuana Delivery Dispensaries

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Eaze
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, East Bay, Marin, San Jose

#5 of 18 Top Marijuana Delivery SF

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Farm Starz
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, East Bay, Marin, San Jose

#6 of 18 Leading Weed Delivery San Francisco

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Foggy Daze
Delivers to: San Francisco

#7 of 18 Top-Notch Cannabis Delivery Service in SF

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JAHnetics
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, East Bay, Marin

#8 of 18 Best SF Marijuana Delivery Dispensaries

Website Call

Kind Courier
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, East Bay, Marin, San Jose

#9 of 18 Leading Marijuana Delivery SF

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Lady Chatterley’s
Delivers to: San Francisco

#10 of 18 Top-Notch Weed Delivery San Francisco

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Medithrive
Delivers to: San Francisco

#11 of 18 Best Cannabis Delivery Service in SF

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Nice Guys Delivery
Delivers to: San Francisco

#12 of 18 Best Marijuana Delivery SF

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Proven
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula

#13 of 18 Top Weed Delivery San Francisco

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Puffy
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, East Bay, Marin

#14 of 18 Leading Cannabis Delivery Service in SF

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Purple Star
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, Marin

#15 of 18 Top-Notch SF Marijuana Delivery Dispensaries

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Sava
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, East Bay, Marin, San Jose

#16 of 18 Top Marijuana Delivery SF

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SF Green Delivery
Delivers to: San Francisco

#17 of 18 Leading Weed Delivery San Francisco

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WeedHub Cannabis Delivery
Delivers to: San Francisco, Peninsula, East Bay

#18 of 18 Best SF Marijuana Delivery Dispensaries

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SFist / Best of San Francisco / Marijuana Stores in SF / SF's 19 Best Marijuana Delivery Companies

We’ve got photos from Saturday’s “Re-Re-Re-Re-dedication" of the historic Emperor Norton plaque, the story of which is nearly as interesting as that of the emperor himself.

The Salesforce Transit Center is home to a lovely rooftop park, a totally sweet gondola, and pretty nice bathrooms that are not yet totally destroyed. But the high-tech transit hub unveiled a new attraction this weekend that's a blast from the past. The 80-year-old Emperor Norton plaque, an homage to San Francisco’s favorite eccentric folk hero, was unveiled in its new and beautifully restored state at the transit hub. The vintage 1939 plaque, which used to live at the old Transbay Terminal, was unveiled and christened with booze Saturday afternoon, with video of that special magic revelatory moment below.

Be warned that it is not super easy to find the new location of the Emperor Norton plaque. It’s not on the ground floor, but instead on the second-level bus terminal, between bus bays 7-10.

But just look at the restored plaque, showing its true bronze hues again after a careful restoration by the de Young Museum staff. Notice the very early emoji work with hands on either side of the top “Pause, Traveler” proclamation. Of course, the plaque is not usually dripping with wine, realize it had just been christened.

Now we really get a look at the emperor’s chiseled face, against a backdrop of his hounds Bummer and Lazarus, his old friend Karl the Fog, and the Bay Bridge which legions of local fans feel should be named for him.

The plaque was originally commissioned by the local chapter of E Clampus Vitas, a sort of whimsical historical and benevolent group that cared for it after was removed from the old Transbay. Cast in 1939, the plaque never made it onto the Bay Bridge as its creators had hoped, but it did find a home at the Cliff House in 1955, before moving to the Transbay Terminal in 1986. The sign had made a few cameos at local bars since that structure was torn down, but has mostly been in storage at Caltrans.  (Another plaque from the East Bay E Clampus Vitas chapter is mounted alongside.)

Despite the appearance of that airport bottle, the wine used the christen the plaque was not Sutter Home. “It’s actually a fine chardonnay from Savannah-Chanelle winery down in Saratoga,” explains ‘Mad Dog’ Gleason, a member of E Clampus Vitas (they call themselves “Clampers.”). “Since this is San Francisco, we thought that even though Anchor Steam is traditional, we have a reputation as quiche-eating, wine-sipping snobs. So why not pour wine.”  

And as you’d expect of a group that thinks the Bay Bridge should be named for Emperor Norton, they are none too fond of the man for whom the bridge technically is named — former mayor Willie Brown.  “Of all the more recent abominations, the most blatant political blunder of late was the Board of Supervisors’ decision to bestow honors onto the former mayor by naming it the Willie Brown Bridge,” declared Rick Saber, the Emperor Norton impersonator seen above with the Sutter Home, to a chorus of boos and hisses at the mention of Brown’s name. “Have you ever heard this [term used] in the context of our beautiful city? What, may we ask, did Willie do to inspire or build this fine bridge?”

The effort to save the plaque was spearheaded by Bob Planthold, seen holding court with the ‘emperor’ above. He notes the de Young Museum performed the restoration free of charge. “That has been exposed to salt, fog, and mildly acid rain for decades out at the Cliff House,” Planthold told SFist.

The Transbay Terminal had its own issues. “Caltrans construction had to jackhammer off the big plaque because it was bolted into the wall," Planthold said. “Then they just put it in storage. The staff building the new Transbay Center who took control and possession, they packed [the plaques] up to make sure they would not break. Because these are fragile.”

When you see an Emperor Norton character about town, you’re probably seeing Joseph Amster, of Emperor Norton's Fantastic San Francisco Time Machine tour guide fame (Amster was unable to attend Saturday’s dedication, as he was off giving a tour). But Rick Saber has been playing the emperor role even longer, and in fact, there is always a designated Clamper who plays Norton for the anniversary ceremonies of his birth and death. “There have been three previous Emperor Nortons that took on the role of the original emperor,” Saber explained.

Only about 50 people showed up for Saturday’s dedication, but the Salesforce Transit Center estimates the place accommodates 100,000 passengers every weekday. And for all of the super-modern bells and whistles in the brand spanking new facility, a venerable, 80-year-old throwback might be our new favorite attraction there.    

Related: Emperor Norton Paid Homage With Interactive Map of His Life [SFist]

It's the second week in September, a traditional time for Apple to host an event and show off new products. This time around, CEO Tim Cook unveiled some more details and trailers for TV shows the company has produced for the rollout of its Netflix competitor Apple TV+, as well as a new 10.2-inch iPad, Apple Watch Series 5, and the new iPhone 11 models that are just supercharged versions of the ones that came out in 2018.

Apple had its biggest event of 2019 back in March, when it announced Apple TV+ for the first time, and invited a bevy of Hollywood names — and Oprah! — to its shiny new Cupertino campus. For this morning's event, Apple TV+ was the top-line item as Cook kicked things off, announcing that November 1 is the official launch date, and the price will be a mere $4.99 per month. The big pitch: All new iPhone and iPad purchases are going to come with a free one-year subscription to Apple TV+ — a move clearly meant to boost the company's flagging iPhone sales.

Cook bragged from the stage in Cupertino that the trailer for the Jennifer Aniston/Steve Carrell/Reese Witherspoon show The Morning Show is "One of the most-watched trailers of any TV series ever," which... I guess we have to take his word for it. He then played the sweeping, should-we-say epic? trailer for Jason Momoa-led futurist series See. (Long story short: In a post-apocalypse where people are living in huts, most human beings are blind, until suddenly a couple of babies are born who can see, and all hell breaks loose. Also: Alfre Woodard.)

Also, Apple Arcade, the company's gaming subscription service, launches September 19 for $4.99 per month.

For Apple Watch, the new Series 5 has a display that's always on — i.e. just like an analog watch, which doesn't go black — with the same all-day, 18-hour battery life. Prices start at $399 for the GPS model, and Apple Watch Series 3 is being discounted to $199.

In the new iPhone model, iPhone 11, there are new colors (green! yellow!), and a more sophisticated camera with an "ultra-wide" lens capability, a night mode that comes on automatically, and some new portrait options like a "mono" one that erases backgrounds and turns them white. Also, "ultra-wide" works for video too, with 4K, and the front camera now takes "slofies," i.e. slo-mo selfie videos.

The company is touting that iPhone 11 has the highest quality video camera of any smartphone ever.

And there's faster Face ID, the new A13 Bionic chip (the "fastest CPU ever in a smartphone"), and a battery with an hour more of life than the iPhone XR. The biggest news: It's starting at $699, way down from the thousand-dollar figure that came with the XR.

But the final big announcement was iPhone 11 Pro — the first phone that Apple has made with the "Pro" label. The back has a new matte glass finish, the body is made of surgical-grade steel, there are three 12MP cameras instead of two (telephoto, wide, and ultra-wide), and an upgraded display they're calling Super Retina XDR. And of course there's one step above, the iPhone Pro Max. There's also a new neural engine for the camera that they're calling Deep Fusion which is being called "computational photography mad science."

Pricing for the Pro model starts at $999, and goes up to $1299 for the largest Pro Max.

Pre-orders for all the new phones start Friday, and they will all ship starting September 20.

After a San Francisco supervisor got a resolution passed last week declaring the National Rifle Association a "domestic terrorist organization," the notoriously vocal gun group has shot back with a lawsuit.

The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, says that the Board of Supes' resolution violates the NRA's First Amendment rights by seeking to blacklist anyone who supports the organization. The suit asks the court "to instruct elected officials that freedom of speech means you cannot silence or punish those with whom you disagree," as the Associated Press reports.

Supervisor Catherine Stefani penned the resolution, passed at the September 3rd Board of Supervisors' meeting, states that the NRA "spreads propaganda that misinforms and aims to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence," and "exists to spread dis-information, and knowingly puts guns into the hands of those who would harm and terrorize us." It asks the city to "take every reasonable step to limit those entities who do business with the City and County of San Francisco from doing business with this domestic terrorist organization."

In response, the NRA called the resolution a "ludicrous stunt," and now an attorney for the group, William A. Brewer III, says, "There can be no place in our society for this manner of behavior by government officials." He adds, speaking to the AP, that such a resolution is "an assault on all advocacy organizations across the country."

The Supervisors' resolution, which is non-binding, made national headlines and comes at a potentially politically pivotal moment for the NRA. Last week, on the same day that Stefani's resolution was passed, Walmart announced that it was ending the sale of handgun and assault-weapon ammunition, taking a further step than it has in the past to impact the proliferation of weapons in the U.S. The chain store's CEO, Doug McMillon, further wants to ask customers not to carry their weapons into the store — this was all in a memo to employees in response to the mass shooting that took place inside a Walmart location in El Paso, Texas.

As one of the biggest gun retailers in the country, Second Amendment advocates and the NRA reacted swiftly and loudly, suggesting a boycott on Walmart.

Stefani doubled down after hearing about the NRA lawsuit, telling the AP that it's "a desperate move by a very desperate organization." She added, "I truly believe their time is up."

Longtime NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said in a statement, "This lawsuit comes with a message to those who attack the NRA: We will never stop fighting for our law-abiding members and their constitutional freedoms... We will always confront illegal and discriminatory practices against our organization and the millions of members we serve."

As Mother Jones reported last year, it's never been entirely clear how many members the NRA actually has — though LaPierre consistently likes to tout the figure "5 million." This is up from a dip 20 years ago to about 2.6 million, in the wake of incidents in Waco and Oklahoma City. Though audited circulation numbers for the NRA's magazines show that the actual circulation was about 3.4 million as of December 2017, less than a million more than that low point they claim in 1998.

Previously: SF Supervisors Declare NRA a Domestic Terrorist Organization, Hope Rest of Nation Will Follow

A sailboat and a humpback whale nearly collided in San Francisco Bay over the weekend, and the incident, which was caught on video, is prompting renewed calls for boater safety.

The humpbacks are back, feeding on anchovies in the Bay as they were previously seen doing in the spring — they now appear to be on their southward migration from Alaska, having stopped off around SF in May, on their way north, along with a bunch of gray whales. And on Saturday, September 7, a near-miss incident was caught on camera and shared by San Francisco Whale Tours, with a sailboat that had to quickly veer out of the way of a surfacing humpback. The whale appears to see the boat at the last minute and dives underneath its keel.

As KPIX reports, Michael Pierson, a naturalist with SF Whale Tours who was aboard the Kitty Kat, the boat from which the video was shot, says that the sailboat was operating irresponsibly while other boats in the area which had seen the whale were keeping a proper distance.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires boats to give a 300-foot buffer to whales, and this boat clearly did not do that, coming within about 10 feet of the creature.

The presence of whales in the Bay may be surprising at this time of year, but the simultaneous presence of so many boats and ships has already led to other unfortunate incidents. Less than a week earlier, whale watchers witnessed a ship strike and kill a humpback in the Bay near Alcatraz Island.

And NBC Bay Area's Mark Matthews posted a photo on September 2 of a speedboat that was doing doughnuts around a surfacing whale.

As Steve Jones from the Center for Biological Diversity tells KPIX, "It’s a beautiful thing to see whales here in the San Francisco Bay. I think that’s something we all want to see. But there’s a lot of boat traffic here. We need to be very careful." He adds that in the case of the sailboat above, it's not exactly clear whether the sailor could have done better to avoid the whale, "but certainly, federal law calls for boaters and individuals to keep their distance from marine mammals."

A spate of over a dozen dead gray whales showing up on the shores around San Francisco prompted wide concern among marine biologists this past spring. The reasons for their deaths were primarily malnutrition, though ship strikes were responsible for several of them.

Previously: It's Officially Whale-Spotting Season In San Francisco Bay

Photo by Mateus Peixoto on Unsplash

Swiftly on the heels of incendiary national news stories like this one in the New York Times about the growing number of cases of serious vaping-related lung illnesses, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter to SF-based Juul Labs saying the company has already violated federal regulations with its marketing claims.

As the Times reported Monday, the letter states that because Juul never received federal approval to promote and sell its vape pens as a healthier alternative to cigarette smoking, it has acted illegal in its marketing campaigns that say just that. The letter gives Juul Labs 15 days to submit a plan to comply with the issues outlined in the letter.

The letter cites several examples of ways the company has violated the law, including a presentation by a Juul rep at a school presentation in which the rep said that Juul's products are "much safer than cigarettes" and "totally safe." The letter also points to some copy on the Juul website in which CEO Kevin Burns states that Juul's vape pen technology "deliver[s] smokers the satisfaction that they want without the combustion and harm associated with it."

Juul has been at the center of nearly every news story about the still mysterious lung illnesses that have cropped up in hundreds of cases around the country. Some public health experts believe that something new must have hit the market in recent months, possibly bootleg vape cartridges or other products, that may explain the recent rise of these cases — however no single source, ingredient, or product has yet been identified as a culprit. The Times story from over the weekend included experts hypothesizing that basic vaping itself — the heating coils in the devices — could be to blame for emitting small metal fragments, though it's strange that the technology has been around for over five years with this preponderance of sick people arising only in the last few months.

Juul and other vape manufacturers were initially given an August 2018 deadline by the FDA to present proof of the health benefits of e-cigarettes, but FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb pushed that deadline back four years, to 2022.

New acting FDA commissioner Ned Sharpless tells the Times this week, "Regardless of where products like e-cigarettes fall on the continuum of tobacco product risk, the law is clear that, before marketing tobacco products for reduced risk, companies must demonstrate with scientific evidence that their specific product does in fact pose less risk or is less harmful."

All in all this has not been a good summer for Juul Labs, which has seen its valuation rise to $38 billion this year, up from $16 billion last year, all while trying to overturn a San Francisco law that banned e-cigarettes outright, and dealing with a growing public health crisis that may or may not have something to do with the entire vaping industry. The CDC issued a broad warning just two weeks ago suggesting that no one who doesn't already use tobacco products should be trying vaping right now.

Juul has said that it did not specifically target teenagers in its marketing, and a company spokesperson today said, "We are reviewing the [FDA's] letters and will fully cooperate."

Previously: CDC Issues Broad Warning About Vaping, and SF-Based Juul Is Not Having the Greatest Summer

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) will be the first test of what happens with Muni and traffic when there is both a Giants home game and a big concert at the Chase Center, as Dave Matthews Band arrives just as the Giants are playing the Pirates.

The weekend Metallica shows, on Friday and Sunday, proved not so traffic-pocalyptical as many people imagined, and let's hope that holds true when there is also a game going on at the nearby Oracle Park.

Attendance at Giants games has been particularly low this year, so maybe there's nothing even to stress about here — the team even cut the price of 20202 season tickets this week by 80 percent in recognition of this season's dismal attendance numbers.

But the Warriors put out a press release Monday, encouraging fans to "Know Before You Go" — i.e. figure out your transportation plan that hopefully doesn't involve adding an extra vehicle to the area. As I wrote after Friday's opening-night show, the fastest, easiest bet to get in and out of Mission Bay is likely to be buses not trains — Muni is running these new event-day shuttles, the 78X and 79X, from Mission and 16th and Van Ness Avenue respectively, and they shoot you right over the hill to Third Street in less time than it takes the T to snake out of the vicinity — and the added bonus for nights when the Giants are playing is that these buses won't be filled with Giants fans before and after, and will therefore be less crowded.

The 22-Fillmore also goes almost right to the Chase Center.

And don't forget, every concert ticket is good for free Muni all day.

Previously: Chase Center Hosts Saturday Block Party; Muni Adds Special Arena Bus Lines

The San Francisco 49ers won't be at Levi's Stadium for their first official home game of the season until September 22, but the season officially started for them on Sunday in Tampa Bay — and they're OK so far.

It was a messy game, with 11 flags in the first half alone, but the Niners managed to eke out three touchdowns and defend their way to 31-17 victory — letting fans of the Buccaneers feel the sting this time of losing their season opener.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan said after the game, "We didn’t play our best ball today but the guys played very hard." And he added, per the Examiner, "We gave [Tampa Bay] a lot of free first downs off of penalties. Just a lot of self-inflicted wounds that we weren’t proud of."

After going 4-12 last season, the humiliated franchise couldn't afford not to win on Sunday, no matter how sloppily they got there.

Per the Chronicle, cornerback Richard Sherman was eager to brag to reporters in the locker room, "Hey, we’ve got three picks now."

And Tampa Bay All-Pro wide receiver Mike Evans was quick to tell the paper, of the Niners, "Their defense was definitely better than it was last year."

The 49ers have invested heavily in bolstering their defensive lineup, which so far appears to have paid off. Though coming back from an injury that sidelined him early in the last season, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo gave what the Chron's Eric Branch calls "an erratic performance" in his first big game back, handing the Buccaneers a 7-3 lead in the second quarter.

Fan site NinerNoise gives cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon much of the credit for Sunday's win, saying he gave an absolute gem of a performance. "A year ago, Witherspoon would have been a liability in such a contest featuring Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston and a prolific passing offense," they write. "Instead of emulating last season, though, Witherspoon was a massive asset, breaking up three passes over the course of the game and registering a game-sealing pick-six interception late in the fourth quarter."

First-round draft pick Nick Bosa scored his first career sacks in Sunday's game.

Incidentally, Sherman got called for pass interference early in the game, though the call was not initially made — and Sherman was obviously unhappy about it.

On Sunday, September 15, the Niners will be in Cincinnati playing the Bengals, and they'll return home the following week to play the Steelers on the 22nd.

The senator and presidential candidate just released a laundry list of criminal justice reforms she intends to oversee like legalizing pot, abolishing mandatory minimum sentences, and ending private prisons.  

Remember that one week back in July when Kamala Harris was surging in the polls and looking like the potential Biden-beater? She does, and she’d like to get that mojo back, as the latest polls show her back down in the single-digit range. So Harris is touting her new criminal justice reform plan, carefully rolled out just today with a detailed Medium post and a New York Times interview, the timing of which is surely not a coincidence.

Vox, of course, already has an explainer of Harris’ plan, but the long and the short of it is this: She wants to federally legalize marijuana, end cash bail and mandatory minimum sentences, abolish private prisons, and establish a Bureau of Children and Family Justice.

“I know the system from the inside out,” Harris told the Times in her interview. “So trust me when I say we have a problem with mass incarceration in America. Trust me when I say we have a problem with accountability. Trust me when I say we have to take the profit out of criminal justice.”

The obvious criticism here is that Harris opposed several of these same measures as San Francisco's district attorney and as attorney general of California. She pushed for cash bail increases for suspects with gun charges as our DA in 2004 (flip-flopping twice in one week on cash bail as state AG), was flat-out against recreational marijuana as recently as 2010, and her new platform contains a call for independent review of police shootings, which she’d previously opposed.  

When called on these reversals, Harris maintains the ‘progress prosecutor’ argument. “I was swimming against the current, and thankfully the currents have changed,” she said to the Times. “The winds are in our sails. And I’m riding that just like everybody else is — because it’s long overdue.”

That’s a fairly slick dodge of the question, but her flip-flops are probably not her real problem here. This plan seems unlikely to juice her polling numbers, mainly because these are pretty boilerplate Democratic platform positions that several other candidates have already staked out. Biden, Bernie, Warren, Booker, and Klobuchar have all released criminal justice reform plans that more or less line up with Harris'. Wonky plans are probably not going to get her back in this thing, but she does have another debate this Thursday in which, finally, all the main candidates will be on the stage at the same time.  

Related: 13 Democratic Presidential Candidates Arrive In San Francisco For DNC Convention [SFist]

Image: Mobilus In Mobili via Flickr

A coalition of attorneys general from 50 U.S. states and territories formally announced an investigation into possible antitrust-violating practices by Google/Alphabet with regard to advertising. The only states not participating: California and Alabama.

Announced from the steps of the Supreme Court Monday afternoon, the probe by the states is intending to focus on what it refers to as Google's "online search juggernaut," and the ways in which its bid for ad revenue dominance may have impacted the quality of searches themselves.

As one attorney general, Leslie Rutledge of Arkansas, said during the press conference, per BuzzFeed, "When my daughter is sick and I search online for advice, I want the best advice from the best doctors, not the ones who can spend the most on advertising."

The announcement of the probe comes just days after a similar one was launched by eight states' attorneys general into Facebook, and both investigations come in reaction to what many see as inaction by Congress and the Federal Trade Commission in an era in which several large tech companies control an inordinate share of our data and our eyeballs.

This larger probe into Google/Alphabet appears to be led in part by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, who charged that the company "dominates all aspects of advertising on the Internet and searching on the Internet." As he said at the conference, according to the Washington Post, the probe may extend to other parts of Google's business, but the first focus will be on ads. As he put it, "They dominate the buyer side, the seller side, the auction side, and the video side with YouTube." Paxton further cautioned that this is not a lawsuit at this stage, but merely an investigation.

Republican attorney general Jeff Landry of Louisiana called Google's domination "an absolutely existential threat to our virtual marketplace."

This effort by the states comes in tandem with parallel antitrust investigations that are ongoing at the FTC and the Department of Justice, which have also asked for records from Amazon and Apple.

Related: Questionable Study Shows How Much Ad Revenue Google News Has Siphoned From The News Industry

San Francisco is an international destination for tourism, but it is also one of the world's great business hubs. This city hosts renowned business conventions that take over large portions of SF's Downtown, it is home to some of the most recognized (and beautiful) architectural landmarks across the globe, and it is a stone's throw from some of the most spectacular natural wonders.