Free Republic

Add Macy’s to the long list of Union Square retail stores that have closed recently — the department store announced this week that it would close 150 locations in the coming years, including its flagship store in San Francisco.

Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Thursday joined other major-city leaders from her party supporting a California ballot initiative that would increase penalties for certain retail theft and drug crimes, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Our goal is not to keep people locked up,” said Breed, who is running for reelection in 2024, according to the Chronicle. “But when there are no real consequences for crimes that are committed in this city, that’s a real problem.”

Houseboat and yacht residents in the San Francisco Bay have sounded off about incidents of piracy skyrocketing by marauders pillaging and plundering from their watercrafts — and even stealing entire boats as The Golden City faces a crime crisis.

When CNN announced that former Bay Area reporter Sara Sidner would be coming to delve into San Francisco’s lethal cocktail of fentanyl and homelessness, I knew what to expect. For the May 2023 special, Sidner asked people living on the streets why they came to San Francisco to be homeless and got the same answers I’ve gotten for years: It’s easy. Easy to get drugs, do drugs, put up a tent, steal to support your habit — and San Francisco will pay you more than $600 a month for the pleasure. It may not come as a surprise, but cities...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday decried recent crime waves, including organized retail theft, in San Francisco and elsewhere in the U.S. as "outrageous" and decried "an attitude of lawlessness" she said is behind it. Pelosi, D-Calif., made the comments when asked about recent comments from San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who is pushing a renewed effort to "change course on how we public safety" and crack down on crime. "It's absolutely outrageous. Obviously it cannot continue," Pelosi said. "But the fact is that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from I don't know where… and...

Doctors can now prescribe Ivermectin. Philippine Secretary of Health, Dr. Francisco Duque III, said he had “no problem with doctors who want to use Ivermectin”. Sec. Duque made the statement at a 09 June 2021 public Congressional Hearing on Ivermectin (HR 1711). The hearings also revealed that medical associations that have been opposed to the use of Ivermectin had no objections to doctors prescribing Ivermectin if the latter is used on an individual basis. What these medical societies oppose is the issuance of a public policy allowing the use of Ivermectin on a national basis. But Duque affirmed that doctors...

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced Thursday the city has launched a guaranteed income pilot program for artists affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The six-month program will target artists in the neighborhoods hardest hit by the pandemic, providing 130 people with $1,000 each month. “The arts are truly critical to our local economy and are an essential part of our long-term recovery,” Breed said in a statement. “If we help the arts recover, the arts will help San Francisco recover.” To qualify, artists affected by the pandemic must be living in one of 13 chosen San Francisco ZIP codes and...

Landlords will be permanently barred from evicting tenants if they can’t pay rent due to coronavirus-related issues, like job loss or getting sick from the virus, under legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. The legislation passed 10-1, with Supervisor Catherine Stefani in dissent. Mayor London Breed already issued an emergency order banning evictions during the public health emergency — and for two months after — to help people avoid displacement during the pandemic. She also eliminated late fees and interest and gave tenants more time to pay back their rent. But many still worried about the looming threat...

Failure to enforce basic standards of public behavior has made one of America’s great cities increasingly unlivable. Everyone’s on drugs here and stealing,” an ex-felon named Shaku explains as he rips open a blue Popsicle wrapper with his teeth. Shaku is standing in an encampment of tents, trash, and bicycles, across from San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church. Another encampment-dweller lights a green crack pipe and passes it around. A few paces down the street, a gaunt man swipes a credit card through a series of parking meters to see if it has been reported stolen yet.

Next time you stop by a cafe and order a coffee to-go, you may need to BYOC. Earlier this year, some Bay Area coffee shops got rid of disposable cups and now even more will require customers to either bring their own or “rent” a mug. Berkeley is pioneering the new trend, having passed a disposable cup fee, and shops will begin charging customers 25 cents for every disposable cup used beginning this January. Ahead of the change, the city has piloted a program that lets customers rent real mugs and be able to return them at 11 locations throughout...

A top U.S. Border Patrol official on Thursday testified that Francisco Erwin Galicia, an 18-year-old American citizen who was detained by immigration services for more than 20 days, did not tell officers he was from the U.S. "I can give you some prelim: individual came through the Falfurrias checkpoint, he came through with the other illegal aliens, the individual claimed to be a Mexican national who was born in Reynosa, Mexico," Brian Hastings, chief of law enforcement at the U.S. Border Patrol, told the House Judiciary Committee. "Throughout the process, and while he was with Border Patrol, he claimed to...

Standing in front of a group of potential donors in a well-appointed home, Chesa Boudin began a stump speech that would perhaps only fly in what was once the epicenter of the counterculture. “I was in diapers when my parents left me with the babysitter to participate in an armored car robbery,” he said. “They never came home.” Mr. Boudin, 38, is campaigning for an unlikely role for someone whose parents, operatives in the 1960s radical left-wing group the Weather Underground, went to prison for their roles as getaway drivers in a botched stickup that left three men — including...

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- The Justice Department's rules of succession dictate that Solicitor General Noel Francisco would be next in line to take over for Rosenstein. - Francisco's track record as a lawyer mirrors Trump's rhetoric against intelligence authorities, with cases that include rebukes of the FBI and a defense of executive authority. Francisco served as White House counsel under George W. Bush and was a DOJ lawyer until 2005, when he joined Jones Day, where he worked with several future Trump appointees, including White House general counsel Don McGahn, who is expected to leave the Trump administration this fall, and took stances...

A robot patrolling a street in San Francisco to ward off homeless people has been removed after complaints from locals, who also knocked it over and smeared it with feces. The Knightscope K5 security robot was deployed by the San Francisco branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to deter homeless people from sleeping and loitering near its building.

Judicial Watch today announced that the Superior Court of California, San Francisco County overruled San Francisco Sheriff Vicky Hennessy’s move to end a Judicial Watch taxpayer lawsuit challenging the Sheriff’s sanctuary policy. The lawsuit challenges restrictions on the ability of sheriff’s deputies to communicate freely with Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) about inmates’ citizenship, immigration status, and release dates (Cynthia Cerletti v. Vicki Hennessy, Sheriff (No. CGC-16-556164)). The November 21, 2017 ruling came in a December 2016 lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch on behalf of California taxpayer Cynthia Cerletti. The lawsuit alleges Sheriff Hennessy’s restrictions on communications with ICE conflict...

A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Shanghai, China was diverted from flying over Russian airspace for "diplomatic reasons" early Wednesday morning, passengers on the flight say.Those diplomatic concerns forced the flight to refuel at Tokyo's Narita airport, the flight's captain told passengers, several of whom posted about it on social media. On @United 857 enroute to PVG, diverted to NRT. Captain: Due to diplomatic reasons, Russia denied access to air space. Now refuelling-- brianlinca (@brianlinca) April 12, 2017 One passenger named Andy Brown says that the airplane almost ran out of fuel before landing at Narita. "Then they...

The parents of Kathryn Steinle, who was shot to death on a San Francisco pier in July 2015 by an immigrant with a record of deportations, can sue the federal government for negligence because a ranger allegedly left the gun used in the shooting in his unlocked car, a federal magistrate ruled Friday. U.S. Magistrate Joseph Spero dismissed the parents’ claims against the city of San Francisco, which had released Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez from custody less than three months before the shooting without notifying immigration authorities. But Spero said the parents may be able to prove that the federal government...

Over 100 protesters marched through Oakland on Sunday against police brutality. The demonstrators held signs and blocked traffic while being followed by dozens of cops from the Oakland Police Department. The protest was mostly peaceful, but there were some tense moments and three demonstrators were detained by officers. The demonstrators held signs that read: "Black Lives Matter," noted USA Today. About 50 demonstrators performed a "die-in" outside a local Walmart and chanted "poverty is violence," while 100 people disrupted shopping in Emeryville, California, by blocking traffic and yelling, "Stop shopping. Shut it down." The protests were planned to coincide with...

Two longtime members of The City's little-known Patrol Special Police resigned in recent weeks after administrative charges were filed against them with the Police Commission, but then apparently rescinded their resignations, opting instead for a leave of absence. The resignations or leaves of absence of brothers Todd and Scott Hart brings the already dwindling number of Patrol Specials down even further. Once numbering in the hundreds, they now stand at fewer than 10. "They were brought up on administrative charges, not criminal charges," said Alan Byard, president of the Patrol Special Police Offcers Association. "They have resigned so everything is...