San Francisco officials said they would investigate Twitter after six former employees alleged that the company broke laws by turning its headquarters into a ‘Twitter Hotel’

National Bureau of Economic Research

Decision to enact prohibition, forbid plastic straws lies with mayor

The flying kangaroo's debut Brisbane to San Francisco flight departed on Sunday in a new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner- an aircraft centred on cabin comfort.

Australia's largest airline Qantas is offering tickets to the United States for just $400.

Only those Indian nationals who show no signs of contracting the coronavirus infection and have been stranded in the US due to the lockdown are allowed to board the first repatriation flight of Air India from San Francisco to Mumbai and Hyderabad on Saturday. Over 10,000 registrations were recieved. People travelling under compelling circumstances were prioritised.

Yesterday, we heard about the hyper-loop, a system that could get you from L.A. to San Francisco in about 30 minutes without losing your eyeballs.

Steve Julian: Business analyst Mark Lacter, that might come in handy given how crowded California's air corridor has become...

Mark Lacter: We'll talk about the hyper-loop in a moment, Steve, but yes, the L.A.-to-San Francisco air route is the busiest in the U.S., and it's already the most competitive.  We're talking about more than 50 flights a day, which - if you spread them out between six in the morning and 10:30 at night - there'd be one flight every 20 minutes.  But, Delta obviously thinks there's room for more because it's announced an hourly shuttle between the two cities.  That's another 14 daily flights beginning September 3.  The airline will be using a somewhat smaller jet, and it sounds as if the focus will be on the business traveler, with free newspapers, wine, and beer.

Julian: How much will it cost, do we know?

Lacter: As usual, it's a lot cheaper if you make an advance purchase, but if you're buying your tickets at the last minute - which is what a lot of business travelers do - roundtrip runs a hefty $430.  Actually, this Bay Area shuttle is just the latest effort by Delta to expand out of LAX, which is different from other major airports in that it doesn't have any one airline that dominates (United has a slight edge in market share over American, with Delta about three percentage points behind).  American also has been adding flights out of LAX.

Julian: Sounds like the airline business is improving...

Lacter: That's what happens when you pack planes to the absolute max, which is bad news for travelers being crammed into coach seats.  But it's good news for LAX, which continues to be the airport of choice among airlines looking to add service - matter of fact, domestic passenger traffic was up almost 8 percent in June compared with a year earlier.  Some of those gains might be at the expense of service elsewhere - most especially Ontario Airport, which has seen a big exodus among airlines and passengers.  Ontario city officials have been trying to regain control of the airport, which has been operated by the city of Los Angeles.

Julian: Back to the hyper-loop - is this kind of transport possible?

Lacter: Well, it's the brainchild of billionaire Elon Musk, and you never say never with this guy.  He started the electric car company Tesla and the private space company Space X.  The hyper-loop is a high-speed system of passenger pods that would travel on a cushion of air (think of air hockey table).  The pods would travel at more than 700 miles per hour, but they wouldn't result in sonic booms that severely restricted the Concorde aircraft.  Of course, anything that promises super-speed travel is bound to get people talking - and, from what the physics professors are saying, the Musk idea seems feasible.

Julian: How would its cost compare to the bullet train?

Lacter: He says a lot cheaper.  The price tag on the train is $70 billion at last check; Musk says he can do his for $6 billion.  But, the issue isn't so much the cost or even the technology, but the politics.  As a rule, governments do not think outside the box, and that's what a project like this is all about.  Already, you have bullet train supporters saying that the hyper-loop is impossible, but what they're really saying is we have a lot riding on the train, and we don't want this guy to mess it up.

Julian: But, how much demand is there for high-speed transport?

Lacter: You'd think there would be a lot, but when Boeing came up with a nifty idea for a souped-up plane that would shave almost an hour from L.A. to New York, the airlines said no because it would require more fuel - and that would mean raising fares.  Musk says his system would be a lot cheaper than traveling by plane, which could be a game changer in the attitudes about going places.  But, those attitudes won't change until the thing is actually built, and that can't realistically happen until attitudes change.  That's the ultimate problem.

Julian: Hence, why we're content to squeeze into coach.

Lacter: Yep.

Mark Lacter is a contributing writer for Los Angeles Magazine and writes the business blog at LA Observed.com.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

For many Californians, last year’s wet winter triggered a case of whiplash. After five years of drought, rain from October 2016 to February 2017 broke […]

The post In San Francisco, one wet winter can switch up Bay’s invasive species appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Although nanomaterials are already in widespread use, their risk to the environment is not completely understood. Researchers in the US have developed a next-generation risk-assessment model to better understand nanomaterials’ environmental impact. Applied to the San Francisco Bay area, the model predicted that even soluble nanomaterials could accumulate at toxic levels.

This parking scheme could reduce the congestion and emissions associated with drivers endlessly circling, looking for a spot.

Even years after the onset of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, radiation is still making its way across the Pacific.

A nonbinding resolution calls for meatless options to be offered.

Following a 3-week stint, the very big bunnies will hop to other cities.

Complaints of sidewalk excrement have become so frequent that the city has established a team dedicated to clearing away number twos.

The U.S. Green Building Council's annual conference and expo will be held in San Francisco, California.

This California hotel that our food blogger stayed goes beyond LEED certification in its sustainability initiatives.

This isn't your grandfather's vegetation-topped, solar-powered, vegan pulled pork sandwich-selling football stadium.

The palatial Beaux-Arts beauty completed in 1915 is named the oldest LEED Platinum building.

Feel free to leave your heart in San Francisco, but don't forget to drop those old boxer shorts and blouses in one of the city's new textile recycling bins.

California's City By the Bay has dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions by switching to a mostly hybrid taxi fleet. It's a model for the rest of the country.

You've heard of cat cafes, but this might be taking things too far...

With newly passed legislation, San Francisco is now the largest city in the country to not require a minimum number of parking spaces for new developments.

Looking for subjects to photograph in the city of San Francisco is not at all hard given all these well-known attractions but to help you guide, here's a list of what's worth capturing.

Dolan Law Firm, PC, recognized as one of the best law firms in San Francisco.

Angel investors Zhenya Rozinskiy and Nick Bilogorskiy will introduce 15 Ukrainian startups during the most exciting tech conference in SF.

Certification ensures laundering processes effectively remove pathogens from health care textiles

USAO Northern District of California
Criminal Division
San Francisco, California

Assist Federal Prosecutors with prosecution and investigation of misdemeanors and felony offenses. Research and write legal briefs and memorandums of law.

Internship Location: San Francisco, CA or Oakland, CA

Minimum Weeks Required: The school year terms (Fall and Spring) require a commitment of 20-25 hours/week

Website: www.justice.gov/usao/can

USAO Northern District of California
Civil Division
San Francisco, California

USAO Northern District of California
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of California
San Francisco, California

Assist Federal Prosecutors with prosecution and investigation of misdemeanors and felony offenses. Research and write legal briefs and memorandums of law.

Internship Location: San Francisco, CA or Oakland, CA

Minimum Weeks Required: Summer Law Clerks must work full time for at least 8 weeks. 

Website: www.justice.gov/usao/can

CUMULUS Classic Rock KSAN (107.7 THE BONE)/SAN FRANCISCO morning show LAMONT & TONELLI have hired LORI LEWIS MEDIA as social media consultant. LAMONT HOLLYWOOD said that LEWIS will guide … more

The San Francisco Examiner is a longtime daily newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published continuously since the late 19th century.

The dates have been announced for WordCamp San Francisco 2013, an event which is often heralded as the annual WordPress conference. WordCamp San Francisco 2013 will be held on July 26 and 27 at the Mission Bay Conference Center with a Developer Hack Day on July 28. A list of speakers is not yet available, but they would like you to nominate your favorite past WordCamp speakers. Will you be attending WordCamp San Francisco this year?

Next week I will be at WordCamp San Francisco and a week later at the WooConf! Maybe one or antoher […]

How has the city of San Francisco changed in the last decade, and what will it look like in the future? Host Ethan Elkind sits down with retiring San Francisco Planning Director John Rahaim.

October 28, 2019: Next Tuesday, San Francisco voters go to the polls to vote on a slate of city officials -- many of whom are running unopposed -- and ballot measures that address housing, campaign finance, e-cigarettes and taxes on Uber and Lyft rides.

San Francisco's urban landscape has evolved significantly over the last decade. City Visions host Joseph Pace and our panel review some of the decade's most notable - and controversial - development projects.

This week on Open Air, KALW's weekly radio magazine of the performing arts, host David Latulippe will be talking with choreographer/performer Kathleen Hermesdorf about San Francisco’s 11th annual FRESH Festival of Experimental Dance, Music + Performance , held over three weekends from January 6 - 26 at the Joe Goode Annex (401 Alabama St.) in San Francisco.

This week on Open Air, KALW’s live radio magazine for the Bay Area Performing Arts in Times of Corona, the virtual stage of Open Air’s Corona Radio Theater features San Francisco Playhouse , and their production of one of the most celebrated plays in the history of American radio, Lucille Fletcher’s Noir thriller Sorry Wrong Number .

Birgit Soyka stands in a large warehouse amongst 68 bird cages, each holding an exotic bird. The walls are covered in photos of brightly colored parrots, and bird-shaped tchotchkes dot the room. She cradles Boogie, a Congo African gray, and a regular guest at the San Francisco Bird Hotel, a spa and resort for birds. “Hi Boogie,” Soyka says; the bird coos in response. As the owner of the San Francisco Bird Hotel, Soyka takes care of Boogie and up to 150 other birds at a time. Her bird-boarding business started back in 2006, when Soyka, who says she’s always loved birds, agreed to “bird sit” a friend’s pet. “It was the beginning of a big snowball and avalanche,” Soyka says. “Out of this one bird came three birds, then 10 birds, then 100 birds.” In 2014, her small business turned into a full-blown bird spa and resort. At the Bird Hotel, all the cages are named after castles around the world; there’s Charlottenburg Palace, Hearst Castle and the Taj Mahal, just to name a few. There are

How is the pandemic is changing immigration courts in San Francisco? We'll hear from Francisco Ugarte , an immigration attorney with San Francisco’s Public Defender’s Office. Then, after almost a month of sheltering in place, we’ll hear from people all around the Bay Area about daily life during the coronavirus epidemic.

(Supreme Court of California) - Held that it is constitutional for San Francisco to impose a tax on drivers who park their cars in paid parking lots, even when the parking lot is operated by a state university.

(California Court of Appeal) - Granting a writ petition in the case of a doctor who contested the introduction of arrest records relating to his conviction for possession of cocaine in professional misconduct proceedings and the tension between the Penal Code section stating that successful completion of a diversion program should not be used in a way that could result in the loss of a license and the Business and Professions Code section stating that the successful completion of diversion does not prohibit the agency from taking disciplinary action, holding that the latter statute was controlling.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In an en banc opinion, addressed the constitutionality of a San Francisco ordinance that requires health warnings to be included in advertisements for certain sugar-sweetened beverages. Industry groups challenged the ordinance, contending that it violates freedom of commercial speech. Finding this argument persuasive, the Ninth Circuit held that the district court should have granted a preliminary injunction against the ordinance.

(California Court of Appeal) - Construing the appeal of a trial court order requiring a party whose ownership interests were contested to be a petition for writ of mandate and holding that partition statutes don't allow a court to order the manner of a property's partition before determining the ownership interests of the property at stake, reversing the court's order.

(California Court of Appeal) - Held that ride-sharing company Uber must comply with administrative subpoenas issued by San Francisco's City Attorney seeking data submitted to the California Public Utility Commission. Affirmed the decision below, rejecting Uber's confidentiality arguments.

(California Court of Appeal) - Upheld San Francisco's decision to order a prime contractor on a public works project to replace a subcontractor. Reversed the trial court.

(California Court of Appeal) - Held that citizen groups could not proceed with their challenge to the environmental review conducted for a proposed mixed-use development project in downtown San Francisco. Affirmed the denial of writ relief.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that President Trump's executive order withholding all federal grants from so-called sanctuary cities was unconstitutional. California municipalities brought this suit arguing that the executive order violated the principle of Separation of Powers as well as the Spending Clause, which vests exclusive power to Congress to impose conditions on federal grants. In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit agreed and affirmed summary judgment in favor of the municipalities. However, the panel vacated the nationwide injunction based on an absence of specific findings justifying the broad scope, and remanded for further findings.

(California Court of Appeal) - Held that citizen groups could not proceed with their challenge to the environmental review conducted for a proposed mixed-use development project in downtown San Francisco. Affirmed the denial of writ relief.