When SF’s organizers disavowed SantaCon in 2014 due to the chaos it brought the city every Christmas, one of the event’s organizers in NYC leaned into the chaos by forming a charity — at first to appease officials and then later to allegedly collect and divert funds for personal use.

As SFist mentioned back in December, allegations had been circulating about Stefan Pildes, one of the original organizers of New York City’s SantaCon, who was suspected of funneling money that was meant for charitable causes into his own bank account while only donating a small fraction. Ticket sales and commissions paid by bars and restaurants reportedly brought SantaCon about $2.7 million in proceeds from 2019 through 2024 — all meant for charity, and federal prosecutors suspect Plides pocketed about half of it, according to the Chronicle.

Plides was arrested in Manhattan Wednesday and charged with federal wire fraud. Prosecutors say he used more than $1 million in donations meant for SantaCon to pay for expenses such as renovations to a lakefront New Jersey property, the lease on a Manhattan apartment, and an investment at a Costa Rica resort.

Gothamist has a rundown of the origins of SantaCon and how it spread from SF and Nevada to other cities. In 1990, the Cacophony Society’s John Law organized a Christmas-themed camp at one of the first Burning Man events in Nevada, prompting annual flash mobs in SF — then called Santarchy — in 1994. Plides and others brought it to NYC a few years later.

SantaCon’s turning point came in 2014, when SF organizers disavowed the event over mounting chaos — going so far as to stage a mock funeral — while NYC organizers, under Pildes, moved to contain it by forming the nonprofit Participatory Safety, Inc. at the NYPD’s urging.

Newer organizers Tom DiBell and Judi Henderson later reshaped the SF SantaCon into a more structured, charity-focused event, emphasizing toy drives and coordinated programming that gradually won back local bars after years of bans, per SFist.

In New York, as Gothamist reports, Participatory Safety positioned SantaCon as a charitable operation, bringing in money through $15 “Santa Badges,” bar commissions, and partnerships, with proceeds advertised as supporting local charities. But filings show a large share of revenue going to expenses tied to producing the event — staffing, permits, venues, and overhead — despite the nonprofit reporting little to no fundraising costs, a practice experts say can make its charitable output appear inflated.

The group also reported losses on cryptocurrency investments and directed both grant funding and operational spending toward Burning Man-related art projects.

“He took advantage of New Yorkers’ generous holiday spirit to finance his lifestyle through personal expenses, big and small,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in a statement. “No matter how you dress it up, fraud is fraud.  We are committed to protecting New Yorkers from those who exploit their enthusiasm and generosity.”

Ultimately, less than a fifth of the money raised through NYC’s SantaCon went to registered nonprofits between late 2014 and 2022.

Image: Bo Zaunders/Getty Images

It's hard to understand where Philz CEO Mahesh Sadarangani is coming from other than a place of fear and Trump-inspired bigotry, but in a confidential memo to employees he's apparently digging in on this Pride flag issue, controversy be damned.

The Chronicle got ahold of this confidential memo, because clearly employees and store managers in San Francisco are pissed and eager to share such things. In it, Sadarangani doesn't back down from the newly announced anti-flag policy, or apologize to any employees who may be upset by it.

"We hear and deeply understand that we did not handle changes to store decor as well as we should have, especially as true allies to the community," Sadarangani says. "Some of our team members have shared that those changes felt personal."

Well, yes, and a policy that impacts the hanging of rainbow flags, at a coffee chain that was born and nurtured in very queer-friendly San Francisco, is just bizarre, full stop.

There is still no timeline or deadline for the removal of the Pride flags, but as the Chronicle reports, the memo does discuss the creation of a new "unifying" piece of artwork that will hang in all stores, in lieu of things like flags.

"Over the last year, we have been working on custom Philz artwork to set the expectations for a safe and inclusive space for all, including our LGBTQIA+ community," the memo says, per the Chronicle. "We want one piece of artwork that unifies all of Philz, that openly showcases our commitment to honoring the uniqueness and diversity of each person who enters our place."

But again, what the fuck is wrong with a Pride flag and who among Philz customers is offended or feels "unsafe" because of it? The change also comes less than a year after a private equity firm acquired Philz from the Jaber family, who originally owned it.

A group of protesters gathered outside the Castro neighborhood Philz store on Friday to demonstrate against the new company policy.

SF Pride also issued a statement last week after this new policy came to light, calling it "deeply disappointing."

"There’s also a real frustration that comes with being a queer person right now – feeling like you want to respond to every headline, but not always knowing where your energy and bandwidth are best spent, especially with so many serious issues impacting LGBTQ+ communities globally,” said SF Pride executive director Suzanne Ford, speaking to KRON4. "That’s what makes moments like this one sting. It may seem small, but removing a Pride flag sends a message, and for many in this neighborhood, it feels like another blow right at home."

State Senator Scott Wiener made a video statement Saturday, saying, "Now we have this private equity firm coming into San Francisco and trying to say that our Philz Coffee locations can’t have a Pride flag. That is really gross. It shows once again the importance of small businesses that actually know a community and are rooted in a community."

Previously: Let the Boycott Begin!: Philz Coffee Locations Barred From Hanging Pride Flags

Video that was posted to Reddit appears to show the moments before, during, and after a man was killed near the intersection of Mission and South Van Ness on Monday.

The hit-and-run collision that occurred Monday, in which the driver of a Mercedes allegedly struck a possibly homeless man in SoMa and fled the scene, does not appear to be a traffic accident on a busy street, as some might have assumed.

This video [Warning: it is graphic in nature and may not be suitable for all viewers or viewing situations] which was linked from Reddit and appears to come from a nearby surveillance camera, shows the victim walking from the rear to the front of the suspect vehicle as it sits straddling the sidewalk, attempting to pull out from a driveway onto the street.

This appears to have been some sort of confrontation, and the driver appears to accelerate into the victim as he passes in front of the vehicle, knocking him onto the hood and onto the ground before running him over.

A white pickup truck, likely the same one described as being at the scene and cooperating with police after the collision, can be seen driving into the frame in the lane where the victim's body was laying, and attempting to drive around it.

Also in the vicinity we see a Waymo vehicle, which likely captured much of the incident on its cameras.

On Monday, shortly after the crash, police detained 30-year-old Valentino Cash Amil, who apparently led police on a brief chase in a black Mercedes. Amil, who reportedly had a small child in the car at the time, was arrested on charges of homicide and felony hit-and-run with injury.

Strangely, on Wednesday, another video surfaced on Reddit and was picked up by KRON4, which shows a black Mercedes nearly striking a bicyclist as it makes a speedy right turn at 8th and Mission streets — a few blocks away from Monday's hit and run — veering into the bike lane on Mission. It's not clear what day this video was captured, or if this was the same black Mercedes sedan, though the driver appears in a photo to be significantly older than 30 years old.

Previously: Police Arrest Mercedes Driver Suspected In Fatal SoMa Hit-and-Run, With Baby In Car

Top image: Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Several California gubernatorial candidates attended two forums in Sacramento Tuesday where they discussed issues affecting Latino and Hispanic communities throughout the state. While one forum heavily discussed the Swalwell scandal, the other left him out of the discussion entirely.

Seven Democratic candidates for governor took the stage in Sacramento Tuesday night at Nuestra Voz ’26, just hours after Congressman Eric Swalwell’s official resignation — though his name didn’t come up during the discussion, as KTVU reports. However, the Swalwall scandal was discussed between a panel of six candidates earlier in the day at another event in Sacramento, hosted by the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, according to KPIX.

Swalwell’s absence reportedly gave the remaining candidates the opportunity to win over his former supporters Tuesday.

Per KTVU, Nuestra Voz's discussion centered on immigration, voting rights, housing, and the growing role of artificial intelligence. Moderators questioned candidates on cooperation with federal authorities versus state protections, as well as how they would address barriers to voting and prepare younger Californians for an AI-driven workforce.

In response to cooperating with the federal government, ​​​​former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said that the line starts with constitutional protections, arguing warrants should be required for enforcement actions in homes, workplaces, hospitals, and schools.

Former Congresswoman Katie Porter said California must protect voting systems from political interference, while San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan pointed to legal challenges and media pressure as tools to counter federal overreach, according to KTVU.

On affordable housing, former Health and Human Services Secretary Javier Becerra called for expanded homeownership access and stronger rent protections.

Entrepreneur Tom Steyer proposed taxing the AI industry to fund job retraining programs, and former State Controller Betty Yee emphasized introducing students to technology and digital skills at an early age.

As KPIX reports, six of the candidates also attended a panel at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce earlier in the day in Sacramento, where they discussed California's budget deficit and affordable health care and childcare — in addition to the Swalwall fallout.

Steyer voiced support for a single-payer healthcare system, and Mahan highlighted efforts to expand childcare by helping local workers open home-based daycare centers.

The Swalwall scandal was repeatedly mentioned at the Chamber of Commerce forum in relation to accountability in upper levels of government.

Yee said the moment calls for new leadership, noting that the public is now paying closer attention to the governor’s race due to the scandal, per KPIX.

Becerra called the news of Swalwell's resignation a chance for a new beginning.

"It's really day one, really, for this campaign for everyone," he said.

The trouble is, it isn't day one, and the primary is fast approaching on June 2. Even prior to Swalwell bowing out, state Democratic Party leaders were expressing anxiety at there being too many candidates still in race, dividing the Democrat electorate to the point that the two Republicans in the race could end up getting the most votes in the primary.

State Democratic party chair Rusty Hicks vowed last month to spend money on weekly polling in order to shame the lowest-polling candidates into dropping out of the race. "I would simply say if people are afraid of information, you have to ask why," Hicks said.

Swalwell had been leading the pack in recent polls, but Steyer and Porter were close behind and the only other candidates polling in double digits.

Election officials are set to start mailing out primary ballots in less than three weeks.

Related: SoCal Sheriff Chad Bianco, the Trumper Running for Governor, Seizes 650,000 Ballots From Last November In Concerning Move

Top image: California Immigrant Policy Center/Facebook

An infant in San Francisco has contracted the measles virus and is infectious, according to the SF Department of Public Health, in the first known measles case in the city since 2019.

The measles case was confirmed on Monday, April 13, according to the Department of Public Health, in an infant who is younger than 12 months. The infant had recently traveled internationally and became infectious upon returning to San Francisco, and the family of the infant is all reportedly vaccinated.

The department says that the risk to the general public from this case is "low," at this time, and they are conducting contact tracing with those who have been in contact with other family members. Those who may have been in contact with the infant or a family member will receive a phone call from the city department or the California Department of Public Health.

The measles virus is airborne, can be spread through breathing or coughing, and can remain in the air for up to an hour. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, and conjunctivitis, as well as a rash that appears within four days. The most common cause of death for children with measles is pneumonia, which is a possible complication.

Infants are typically vaccinated against measles between 12 and 15 months of age, with a second dose administered between ages 4 and 6. Infants 6 to 11 months old can get the vaccine if they are traveling internationally.

"It is incredibly important to get the MMR vaccine, as measles is one of the most infectious diseases in the world," says San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip in a statement. "If you and your family are traveling internationally, make sure everyone is up to date with the MMR vaccine and is aware of the symptoms of measles."

Measles has been on the rise in California among unvaccinated individuals, with 39 cases reported in the state so far this year. As the Chronicle reported just yesterday, there is an ongoing measles outbreak in Sacramento and Placer counties, with 17 cases reported there, and four just in the last week.

The first case in that outbreak appeared in an unvaccinated toddler who had recently traveled to South Carolina, which is in the midst of a widespread outbreak of nearly 1,000 cases to date.

Of the 39 cases in California this year, 85% have occurred in individuals younger than 20.

The last major measles outbreak in the state came in 2019, and California recorded 73 cases that year.

Anthropic's latest AI model, named Claude Mythos Preview, is capable of hacking into major banking systems, perhaps many at once, and doing massive damage if it fell into the wrong hands. Banks are being encouraged to test it out.

In case you missed the announcement last week, Anthropic has a new high-level AI coding model called Claude Mythos Preview, or just Mythos for short. Immediately upon announcing it, Anthropic also announced Project Glasswing, a joint initiative among multiple companies — Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Palo Alto Networks — to "secure the world’s most critical software."

The reason for Project Glasswing is that Mythos is reportedly capable of hacking into major computer networks at scale, and has indeed "already found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser." [Italics theirs]

Security researcher Costin Raiu points specifically to IBM-built banking systems from decades back, telling Reuters this week, "A model like Mythos would have a field day finding exploits" in those systems. "And it's just one example of ancient technologies powering the financial industry," Raiu adds.

Mythos hasn't technically been released, and won't be released to the public because of these potential dangers. Large banks, which are mostly run on legacy software, are being encouraged by the White House to test out Mythos and use it to build up their own defenses against AI-powered exploits.

IBM said last week that Mythos is already "forcing enterprise security teams to rethink their defenses from the ground up."

As TechCrunch reports, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark confirmed this week that the Trump adminsitration had been briefed on Mythos and its capabilities, which prompted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to call a meeting with banking executives this week. The administration told banks they should be ready "to understand and anticipate a wide range of market developments" because of this new AI model.

JPMorgan Chase, which is one of the banks that is doing some preview testing work with Mythos, put out a statement calling the project "a ​unique, early-stage opportunity to evaluate next-generation AI tools for defensive cybersecurity across critical infrastructure."

As Reuters reports, government officials in the UK and Canada have also met with banking institutions to discuss the potential threats posed by Mythos.

Security expert David Lindner tells Fortune that the problem will be doing all the work to fix vulnerabilities in systems that do exist — many of which companies are already aware of. Lindner also warns that Mythos won't stay "unreleased" for long.

"Even if they, quote unquote, don’t release it, China will have a version in five or six months, and there’ll be an open-source version within a year or two," Lindner tells Fortune.

Anthropic calls its Project Glasswing "a starting point," but the potential for future catastrophes seems clear.

"No one organization can solve these cybersecurity problems alone: frontier AI developers, other software companies, security researchers, open-source maintainers, and governments across the world all have essential roles to play," the Anthropic blog post says. "The work of defending the world’s cyber infrastructure might take years; frontier AI capabilities are likely to advance substantially over just the next few months. For cyber defenders to come out ahead, we need to act now."

Related: Trump Administration Still Used Anthropic's Claude In Iran Strikes, Hours After Trump Banned Anthropic

Top image: Anthropic Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei speaks at the "How AI Will Transform Business in the Next 18 Months" panel during INBOUND 2025 Powered by HubSpot at Moscone Center on September 04, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Chance Yeh/Getty Images for HubSpot)

Well that's what you'd call a pivot. Allbirds, the once buzzy Silicon Valley shoe brand, is not going to make shoes anymore (though the brand may live on?), and instead it's going to become an AI company.

Yes, it will apparenly be called NewBird AI. What branch of the AI industry will they be in, you ask? As KRON4 is reporting, NewBird AI will be "a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions provider."

This news follows last week's news that Allbirds had sold off its wool sneaker business and brand assets for $39 million to American Exchange Group, a brand management company — which means, presumably, that Allbirds shoes will still be around. The last standalone Allbirds retail store, in Hayes Valley, closed two months ago.

How does a shoe company become a GPUaaS and AI-native cloud solutions provider? As the Chronicle reports, Allbirds says that it has secured a $50 million convertible financing agreement with an unnamed institutional investor, and it will be using that money to buy high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), and will then lease that computing power to others.

In a statement, the company says, "The rise of AI development and adoption has created unprecedented structural demand for specialized, high-performance compute that the market is struggling to meet."

News of the pivot to NewBird AI sent Allbirds shares soaring, and its stock price is currently up over 600% — having closed Tuesday at $2.49, and potentially closing above $18 today.

One day, trendy sneakers, the next day, compute infrastructure. This is the world we're living in.

Eric Swalwell's seat in Congress, which he officially vacated on Tuesday, will remain empty until late summer, and now a special election date has been set.

Governor Gavin Newsom wasted no time in announcing a special election to replace Rep. Eric Swalwell, and late Tuesday he announced that the election will occur on August 18. As the Chronicle reports, Swalwell's resignation, which became official at 2 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, came too late for the election to be consolidated into the June 2 primary.

Swalwell's current term ends in January, though, and candidates are already running in the primary to replace him — Swalwell had essentially given up his seat already in order to run for governor, with state law prohibiting running for two offices at once.

State Senator Aisha Wahab, former Dublin Mayor Melissa Hernandez and San Leandro City Councilmember Victor Aguilar Jr. are all running in the primary for the congressional seat, and will therefore likely be in line for the August special election as well. And whoever wins the August election will obviously get a leg up in the November election, and will head to the US House of Representatives to finish out the last five months of Swalwell's current term.

Other names may emerge in the coming weeks, as well.

Swalwell announced his resignation from Congress on Monday following the Friday publication of allegations that he sexually assaulted a former staffer from his Castro Valley office. While he denies the allegations, he was facing an expulsion proceeding in the House, and he had already suspended his campaign for governor on Sunday.

Within hours of his making his departure official on Tuesday, a second woman from Los Angeles came forward with a story of being drugged and raped by Swalwell in 2018. This was one year prior to the first of two incidents described by the former staffer, while Swalwell's wife was reportedly pregnant.

The woman, Lonna Drewes, further alleges that Swalwell choked her to the point of unconsciousness.

Three additional women have come forward in recent days with their own accusations of misconduct against Swalwell, including one who said she woke up in a hotel bed without a memory of what had occurred the night before.

Prior to the second woman coming forward with an assault allegation, Swalwell said in a Monday statement, "I will fight the serious, false allegation made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make."

He also said that the effort to expel him from Congress "without due process" was "wrong." "But it's also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties," he wrote.

Swalwell is now facing potential charges for sexual assault in Alameda County, in Los Angeles County, and in Manhattan.

Previously: Eric Swalwell Could Now Face Rape Charge In Los Angeles as New Accuser Comes Forward

Photo via Getty Images

• Contra Costa College in San Pablo is forgiving up to $1,000 in school debt for its graduating students who don’t qualify for free tuition — thanks to a $31,000 gift donation from the college’s foundation. [KPIX]
• Billionaires Michael Moritz and Chris Larsen, who both opposed SF Mayor Daniel Lurie during the 2024 mayor’s race, have together pledged $4 million to his agenda, primarily the city’s charter reform. [Mission Local]
• The city of San Francisco awarded a former employee at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner $750,000 after she was allegedly wrongfully fired for reporting a skull she found in the trash that was supposed to be kept for evidence. [Chronicle]

National:

• An Oklahoma high school principal tackled a 20-year-old armed gunman last week who was targeting the principal in a Columbine-style attack against his former school. [NBC News]
• 7-Eleven is closing 645 of its North American stores as its operator, Japan-based Seven & i Holdings Co., moves to convert many of its locations to wholesale fuel stores. [Associated Press]
• Vice President JD Vance said at a Turning Point USA event Tuesday that just as he has to be careful as vice president about what he says regarding political affairs, Pope Leo XIV should “be careful” when he talks about theology. [NBC News]

Video:

• This stunning community and artist-led public art mural, On Indigenous Land; The Story of Rinihmu Pulte’Irekne (2024) by artist Cece Carpio, covers the exterior of the restroom structure at Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland Hills. The panels move the viewer through the passage of time — sunrise, day, sunset, and night, conveying the visual story of the land, which was recently returned to Indigenous stewardship.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A new episode of NBC’s Dateline covers the case of Mountain View resident Alice Ku who disappeared while traveling in Taiwan in 2019 with her husband — the prime suspect, but loopholes surrounding his Canadian citizenship enabled him to avoid trial in the US and extradition to Taiwan.

Six and a half years following the disappearance of 36-year-old Alice Ku, a Mountain View tutor with students throughout Silicon Valley, her body has never been found and the case remains unresolved. As the Mountain View Voice reports, Ku is now the subject of the latest episode of Dateline on NBC.

In 2023, a Santa Clara Judge determined that Ku died in Taiwan's Taroko National Park while traveling with her husband, 62-year-old German-born Canadian citizen Harald Herchen. Herchen, a prominent Silicon Valley engineer, was in Taiwan on a business trip, per the Voice.

While Herchen is the primary suspect, prosecutors cannot charge him with homicide in the US because the federal statute covering killings abroad applies only to American citizens, according to Redwood City-based attorney Andrew Watters, who represents Ku's family.

However, following a civil trial last summer, the Santa Clara DA filed perjury charges against Herchen in September due to inconsistencies in his depositions, and he is currently awaiting trial in that case.

Herchen had claimed Ku had gone to visit her parents who live in Taiwan, but her parents said they were unaware she was in the country. They were also reportedly unaware who Herchen was and that she had gotten married.

Herchen said in court depositions that he dropped Ku off at the train station in the city of Hualien to visit her parents at their home near Taipei on the morning of November 29, 2019. But Ku’s parents said she hadn’t been to their new home before and wasn’t familiar with the area, according to Palo Alto Online.

In the days after Alice Ku was reported missing, her family hired Watters, along with San Jose attorney Todd Davis, who quickly uncovered details about her life that had been unknown to them, including her marriage to Herchen and that she had moved to Mountain View from her previous home in Sunnyvale without telling them.

Neighbors in Mountain View reportedly said Ku and Herchen frequently argued about money and a possible pregnancy. Herchen also lived primarily at a different residence in Palo Alto.

Additionally, Herchen was reportedly still married to his second wife, Melissa Yu, when he first met Ku. Yu died from cardiac arrest due to obstructive sleep apnea in 2017, with the medical examiner noting that there were multiple bruises on Yu’s body, but there was no mention of the cause of the bruises.

Per PA Online, investigators with Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau said records from hotel logs, surveillance footage, phone data, and internet activity contradict Herchen’s account of events. Authorities said Ku’s phone showed activity in Hualien but not near the train station where he claimed to have dropped her off, and Ku’s email activity stopped abruptly on November 29, breaking from her normal usage.

Lead investigator Li Tsung Su concluded she was killed on or before that date and identified Herchen as a homicide suspect, citing “critical inconsistencies” in his statements, as PA Online reports. Officials issued an arrest warrant in December 2020, which remains active, with assistance from the FBI and the American Institute in Taiwan, though they’ve been unable to extradite Herchen due to the lack of formal diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Taiwan.

“We have determined, based on our investigation including the above-referenced facts, that: Alice Ku is dead and is the victim of a homicide; that Alice Ku was killed on or before November 29, 2019, and that Defendant Harald Herchen is a suspect in that homicide,” said Yang Chi Lee, director of international criminal affairs for the agency.

Last summer, a Santa Clara County jury awarded more than $23 million last summer to Ku’s family in a wrongful death case filed in 2021, as the Voice reports.

Testimony from that civil trial led the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to pursue perjury charges against Herchen, citing inconsistencies in his depositions. Herchen was arrested at his Los Altos home last September and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, according to Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker.

Herchen’s defense has denied the allegations and said he plans to plead not guilty.

Information was added to this post after publishing explaining how Herchen can't be prosecuted in the US because he's a Canadian citizen, which was unintentionally omited.

The post was updated with additional information about the death of Herchen's second wife.

Image: Alice Ku's Family

Caltrans is doing ongoing construction on a section of I-80 through the middle of San Francisco, and a portion of eastbound I-80 will be completely closed for 55 hours this weekend, forcing motorists onto surface streets to get to the Bay Bridge.

Expect mass confusion and probably plenty of traffic around SoMa and mid-Market due to this two-day closure of I-80 in San Francisco which starts on Friday, April 17,  at 11 pm, and lasts until Monday at 6 am.

The video below explains how the detours are supposed to work for those traveling through the city and trying to get to the Bay Bridge, and those traveling north on 101 from the Peninsula and attempting to get to the Bay Bridge. In both cases, the section of eastbound 80 that runs between about 15th Street in the Mission to 5th Street in SoMa will be closed, and drivers will have to go around and get to the bridge either via the 5th Street onramp, or the Essex Street onramp.

If you want to get really turned around, check out this map of the situation from Caltrans, in which North is left, and East is up.

Caltrans is encouraging people to use public transit to get across the Bay during this closure, which again will start late Friday and go all the way until Monday morning.

Why is this happening? Well, Caltrans started a two-year project in January to to rehabilitate the Central/Bayshore freeway viaducts — so this isn't the last disruptive closure you can expect. The work this weekend includes "essential structural and bridge deck rehabilitation that will enhance safety and extend its life."

You can expect, at best, there will be some significant traffic backups on Folsom Street and near the Embarcadero/First Street getting to the Essex Street or First Street onramps, and a lot of traffic on Bryant Street as well getting to the 5th and Bryant onramp.

It's another adult scavenger hunt, kids, and the prizes this time are worth a grand total of $50,000, if you're the first to solve the riddles and find the coins.

Once again, Marina district coin dealer Witter Coin is putting on a scavenger hunt with real, high-value prizes to be found. And this year's treasure trove, if you found them all, are reportedly worth over $50,000 in today's dollars.

Witter Coin launched their first of these scavenger hunts in April 2024, with 11 coins hidden around the city, each worth a few hundred dollars up to $2,500.

The prize bounty has grown since then, and this year's hunt will occur on Saturday, April 25th, as Witter Coin owner Seth Chandler explains in a video announcement (seen below). Ten coins will be hidden around the city, with riddles for clues about the locations released every hour on the hour starting at 7 am.

One of the coins that will be hidden, the grand prize as it were, is a Gold Rush-era gold coin that is worth $25,000. Chandler says that all the coins will be hidden in "safe locations across iconic San Francisco neighborhoods," and "no digging or trespassing" will be required.

"We’re looking forward to making this one bigger and better than last year's," the announcement says. "So don’t be a spectator, be a prospector!"

The scavenger hunt coincides with National Coin Week, and serves as a marketing tool for Witter Coin, which says it is one of the oldest rare coin dealers in the country.

As Chandler tells KTVU, "We spend every day talking about the value and history of these coins. This time, we're putting them back into the city where the Gold Rush began."

Chandler is an outlier among rare coin dealers in that he's embraced social media to bring a new audience into the world of numismatics (coin collecting). As he told the SF Standard in 2024, he's lately been bringing in $4 million to $5 million in revenue by livestreaming and holding flash sales on the social shopping app WhatNot, selling things like Liberty Head nickels and Morgan silver dollars with bidding starting at just $1.

As he told the publication, about one third of the items he sells on the app go for very cheap, but a third sell at just about what they're worth, and others sell at even stronger prices.

The Walnut Creek driver who’s accused of fatally striking a two-year-old child in a Mission Bay crosswalk in February was charged with vehicular manslaughter, and the city recently installed safety improvements at the intersection.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced Monday that Merih Fssha Solomon, 47, of Walnut Creek was charged with vehicular manslaughter following an investigation into the collision that killed a two-year-old and seriously injured her mother in Mission Bay in late February.

As SFist reported at the time, the toddler and her mother were struck while crossing the street at Fourth and Channel streets. Jenkins reportedly said Monday that the mother and child had a green light when they were struck in the crosswalk. In late March, Solomon was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, red light violation, and failure to yield to pedestrians.

Solomon was scheduled to be arraigned at the Hall of Justice Tuesday at 1:30 pm.

As the Chronicle reports, city officials recently installed a permanent separated bikeway to improve safety at the intersection after the group Safe Street Rebel initially placed their own buffer posts there with the intention of inspiring the city to follow suit, as previously reported.

Additionally, Supervisor Matt Dorsey and other neighborhood leaders will be discussing additional safety improvements at a town hall meeting at the Southern District Police Station Thursday.

The case remains an active investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department tip line at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with “SFPD.”

Previously: Bystanders Describe Horrific Scene Where Toddler Was Killed In Mission Bay Intersection

Image: Safe Street Rebel/Instagram

A fifth accuser has come forward with potential criminal charges against former Congressman Eric Swalwell, one day after he announced his resignation from the House, and two days after he suspended his bid for California governor.

Lonna Drewes, a former model and software engineer, says that Rep. Eric Swalwell drugged and raped her in 2018, after they had met several times and he showed interest in helping her with her fashion software company. At a news conference in Beverly Hills Tuesday, with attorneys beside her, Drewes described having one glass of wine with Swalwell at a bar in Los Angeles, after which he asked her to accompany him back to his hotel room so he could retrieve something.

"I knew he was married at the time and that his wife was pregnant. He was my friend," Drewes said, per KTVU.

She claims that when she arrived at the hotel room, "I was already incapacitated and I couldn’t move my arms or my body." She remembers Swalwell sexually assaulting her, stressing that she "did not consent to any sexual activity."

"He raped me and he choked me," Drewes said. "And while he was choking me I lost consciousness and I thought I died."

Drewes explained that she did not undergo rape testing or make any accusations at the time for fear of retaliation. But she says she discussed the incident with close friends and noted it in her personal calendar.

"My delay in taking action was driven by fear, not doubt," Drewes said. "Fear of his political power, his background as an attorney, and his family law enforcement ties. I have never doubted what happened. I stand with the other women who have come forward."

As the New York Times reports, within two hours of Drewes making her accusation public, Swalwell announced that his previously annouced resignation from Congress would be effective as of 2 pm Eastern Time.

Drewes is the second woman to make an explicity claim of rape against Swalwell, and the fifth woman so far to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

One former staffer says she was 21 years old in 2019 when Swalwell, fresh off his short-lived presidential bid, assaulted her one night when she was blackout drunk in an East Bay hotel room. That woman, who has not been publicly named, gave her account to the SF Chronicle and subsequently to CNN.

CNN also reported on claims made by three other women, including one who had a similar story of waking up in a hotel room with Swalwell and not remembering what had occurred.

Two of the accusers, Annika Albrecht and Ally Sammarco, spoke to CBS News Monday saying they felt vindicated by the revelations of recent days.

Albrecht had helped spur the initially mostly right-wing rumors about Swalwell two weeks ago, when she shared a video describing misconduct by Swalwell. She tells CBS she felt compelled to do so because she was "physically sick and nauseous" at the idea that Swalwell could be elected governor.

Albrecht says that she was inundated within hours with messages from other women describing inappropriate behavior by Swalwell, including one who described "full-on assault," who may have been Drewes or the woman who came forward Friday.

"He thought he was untouchable," Sammarco tells CBS. "He acted with total impunity. He never thought that the consequences of his actions would follow him."

And, she added, "I think we just prevented another 30 to 40 years, potentially, of him harming people if he were to stay in Congress. As governor, he would have had even more power and more authority."

Swalwell now may face sexual assault charges in three jurisdictions, if not more. District attorneys in Alameda County and New York are investigating the claims made by the former staffer, regarding assaults that took place in 2019 and 2024, respectively.

Previously: Eric Swalwell Resigns From Congress, But Says That Effort to Swiftly Expel Him Is 'Wrong'