Free Republic

Kamala Harris was frequently absent for California Medical Assistance Commission meetings, even though she was appointed to the position by her boyfriend at the time and then-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. Harris and Brown dated for about a year when she was a 29 year old lawyer for the Alameda District Attorney's office and he was the powerful speaker who ran for mayor of San Francisco at the age of 60. Brown appointed Harris to the CMAC position in 1994, drawing some criticism for impropriety despite Brown’s willingness to publicly flaunt accusations of political patronage. Harris had already served six months...

When Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, it marked a new era for the struggling San Francisco company. Twitter, now known as X, is expected to close its San Francisco headquarters this month, leaving behind the Mid-Market neighborhood it has called home since 2012. The company is reportedly moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas, but plans to relocate its San Francisco employees to San José and Palo Alto, ... ... another blow to a city...buffeted by high-profile business departures and once held up Twitter as a key part of its revival. Downtown San Francisco's vacancy rates have ballooned... Confronted...

Former President Donald Trump’s Sunday golf outing at his Trump International Golf Club was a last-minute decision, sources told CNN.​This unscheduled appearance has ignited speculation and questions regarding a security incident that occurred at the club earlier that day.Sources revealed that the golf outing was not on Trump’s public schedule, raising concerns about how an individual was seemingly able to time an incident during Trump’s presence at the club.

Moderna Inc.’s cost-reduction plans, pipeline cuts and reined-in financial guidance, unveiled Thursday, triggered a wave of downgrades as analysts focused on longer timelines to launch some products and questioned when the company will return to profitability.One key concern: The company’s full-year 2025 revenue guidance, issued Thursday, is nearly 8% lower, at the midpoint, than its full-year 2024 guidance — which was recently trimmed back. The 2025 forecast, on the heels of the 2024 guidance cut issued when Moderna reported second-quarter earnings, “is likely making investors lose confidence” and battering the stock, Evercore ISI analyst Cory Kasimov said in a research...

A former Miss Switzerland finalist was strangled and savagely dismembered by her husband, who then “pureed” her remains in a blender, Swiss officials revealed.Kristina Joksimovic, 38, was found slain in her home in February in Binningen, near the city of Basel in Switzerland.Her 41-year-old husband, who was only referred to as “Thomas” in local media reports, was taken into custody but had appealed for his release, which was rejected on Wednesday by the country’s federal court in Lausanne after he confessed to the killing.

In this video, I am waking in downtown San Jose, California a large city in Silicon Valley, a major technology hub in California's Bay Area. But after the major layoffs in the tech industry, street conditions and changes in consumer habits downtown is desolated hardly anybody on the streets and most of the stores, restaurants, banks, coffee shops are closed . I have to warn you this video is very impressive to see what used to be a vibrant downtown , now abandoned

Retail stores are fleeing San Francisco in droves as the California city collapses under the weight of rampant crime and theft. And rather than deal with the crime problem, city leaders instead want to punish the stores trying to leave. The so-called “Grocery Protection Act,” introduced by city Board of Supervisors member Dean Preston (Democratic Socialist), says stores that try to leave San Francisco would have to provide the city with six months’ notice, allowing city leaders time to look for a replacement retail tenant. This bill was introduced not long after Whole Foods Market closed down its flagship San...

35 years in business, family-owned market in South Beach is closing... Co-owner David Pesusic said high operation costs and mounting neighborhood crime were driving factors.Bayside Market, at 120 Brannan St. near the Embarcadero, will cease operations on Sept. 13. Some of its 12 employees will be transferred to RJ’s Market near Fisherman’s Wharf, the owners’ other location, but most will be laid off, Pesusic said. In addition to inflation-fueled bills and declining foot traffic, the small grocery and deli has suffered from “rampant” crime, near-daily shoplifting and three break-ins in the past couple years, Pesusic said. He blamed city officials...

Google prohibits ads with the image of Donald Trump. Change the image to Kamala Harris and it works. Election interference. "Google, you guys are nasty people."

The famed Langer’s Deli in downtown Los Angeles could close, its owner tells the Los Angeles Times.Norm Langer, 79, has spent almost his entire life growing up around and running the 77-year-old delicatessen.But with the persistent public safety and homelessness issues plaguing nearby MacArthur Park and the surrounding area, Langer is “considering closing,” he told Times columnist Steve Lopez, who called the possibility a “hole-in-your-soul development.”Langer added that he hopes city officials provide “improved lighting, increased police patrols, social services outreach and targeted clean-up efforts,” and Lopez noted that “the more I talked to Langer, the more I got the...

In the last month, two more major companies headquartered in the Bay Area announced that they would be leaving for presumably greener pastures out of state. One was the energy giant Chevron, and the other was X, the social media company that has been owned by Elon Musk since 2022. The Bay Area Council, a business advocacy group, seized on the moment to repeat a critique it has made on numerous occasions: “It’s an embarrassment for California that we’ve lost so many global companies because of misguided policies that make it incredibly difficult to do business here,” president and CEO...

A combination of high interest rates, lower office utilization and the retreat of major institutional investors from San Francisco’s commercial real estate market have conspired to create a once-in-a-lifetime situation. While most eyes see a crisis, a particular set of bargain hunters instead see an opportunity they cannot pass up. In the last two years, office buyers have been snapping up recently renovated buildings that, in some cases, are going for a quarter of the price sellers paid pre-pandemic.

All eyes are on the office sector as the future of commercial buildings in many cities depends upon its success, but the future isn’t looking too bright. Foreclosure rates on commercial properties have increased 48% from last year, according to a recent report from ATTOM. This rise in foreclosures is part of a larger overall trend. After reaching a peak in October 2014 with 889 commercial foreclosures, the numbers fell to a record low of 141 in May 2020 and then began rising again. Declining office performance likely attributed to the year-over-year increase in commercial foreclosures, said Joe Brady, former...

After his remark that California’s Kamala Harris was the “best-looking attorney general in the country” sparked controversy, President Obama apologized for what some deemed to be a sexist comment, and what others argued was a dumb, but harmless, compliment. The president called Harris to apologize for the comments hours after he made them on Thursday during a San Francisco fundraiser for the After his remark that California’s Kamala Harris was the “best-looking attorney general in the country” sparked controversy, President Obama apologized for what some deemed to be a sexist comment, and what others argued was a dumb, but harmless,...

Moderna’s stock price plunged more than 20% in Thursday morning trading after the company lowered its 2024 revenue guidance due to weak demand for its coronavirus vaccine in the second quarter. The vaccine producer netted $241 million in revenue in Q2, which aligned with analyst expectations. However, it was a significant drop from the $344 million generated during the prior year period. Moderna said the decline was due to decreased demand for its COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine generated sales of $184 million in Q2, a 37% decrease from the same period last year, but was higher than Jefferies’ estimate of...

From furniture installers to plant whisperers, businesses are reeling from record-high office vacancy rates.Bay Area carpet and flooring company Conklin Bros. has existed in one form or another for nearly a century and a half, starting with a mule-drawn wagon and weathering the 1906 earthquake and a constant cycle of economic booms and busts. An employee for the past 35 years, JoAnn Edson, can’t remember business ever being as slow as it is now. “We’re struggling,” she said. “We’re just trying to stay open and stay afloat.” Before Covid, Conklin Bros. bustled with flooring orders for local offices, hotels and...

Amid Friday afternoon’s heat, the five posh floors of Saks Fifth Avenue in San Francisco’s Union Square offered a cool elegance that belied the jarring news from the day before: the store is transitioning to an appointment-only model and laying off staff. What will it feel like to go on pre-arranged shopping trips inside a sprawling department store? That is an open question for customers and staffers. As part of the transition slated for Aug. 28, the store will lay off an unspecified number of employees, according to the Chronicle, which first reported the changes. The news comes at a...

The gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump fired from a rooftop that the U.S. Secret Service had declared to be outside its security perimeter -- a fatal omission that the agency should not have made, according to two of its former officials. Two local Pennsylvania police officers who went to check out a dispatch call of a suspicious person in the area were alone when one of them, hoisted up by a partner to check the roof, was confronted by the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe said in an interview.

“Fat Beach Day” events are appearing across the United States, aiming to create spaces for the plus-size community to gather — including one Saturday in Far Rockaway. “We’re going through something culturally that is impacting us every day on an individual level and a systemic level,” Jordan Underwood, the event organizer told the Guardian. “We’re really trying to open up a space for people to be themselves.” “I’m so self-conscious at the beach, and I’m never around people that look like me,” Emma Zack, who started Berriez in 2018, told the outlet. “I’m excited we’ve created this space for folks...

Google pulled out of a $15 billion investment in Santa Clara County after demolition had already begun. The company… By Maxwell Zeff On Friday, Google and real estate group Lendlease called off plans to build 15,000 homes in the San Francisco Bay Area, as housing developers continue to exit the troubled region. Google and Lendlease mutually ended a $15 billion agreement that was made in 2019 to build residential and retail space in Sunnyvale, San Jose, and Mountain View, where the search engine is headquartered. The plans for San Jose’s ‘Downtown West’ included 4,000 affordable homes, office space for 20,000...