Free Republic

California Senate candidate Rep. Adam Schiff faced a rude welcome in San Francisco as he was reportedly a victim of a carjacking just hours before a campaign dinner. Thieves broke into his car parked in a downtown garage, stealing his bags, leaving Schiff to attend the event in shirt sleeves and a hiking vest. Despite the setback, Schiff thanked supporter Joe Cotchett at the ritzy dinner in Burlingame, where he was commended for his resilience by Cotchett

Hello to the city, goodbye to your luggage. That was Senatorial candidate Adam Schiff’s rude introduction to San Francisco’s vexing reputation for car burglaries Thursday when thieves swiped the bags from his car while it sat in a downtown parking garage. The heist meant the Democratic congressman got stuck at a fancy dinner party in his shirt sleeves and a hiking vest while everyone else sat in suits. Not quite the look the man from Burbank was aiming for as he rose to thank powerhouse attorney Joe Cotchett for his support in his bid to replace the late Dianne Feinstein...

S&P Global Ratings announced yesterday that it was changing its outlook on San Francisco's debt from stable to negative.The outlook on the city-county’s outstanding general obligation and appropriation debt was cut to negative from stable this week by the ratings company. The weakness in the city’s commercial real estate market and tourism activity were factors that drove the move, S&P said. Adding to the city’s burdens, San Francisco’s budget expenditures outpaced revenue growth in fiscal 2023.To be clear, the ratings agency hasn't downgraded the city's credit rating, which is still at "AAA," the highest possible. A downgrade in the credit...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — As part of their mission to combat misinformation online and ensure accuracy of what people read, Snopes journalists announced plans to personally fact-check the entire San Francisco Poop Map. The initiative will allow Snopes to judge the legitimacy of user-reported sightings of human feces strewn along the city's roadways and provide residents with reliable information on the locations of publicly deposited poo. "Confirming the existence of reported dumps is important," said Snopes journalist Fred Larkin. "We simply cannot allow false reports of human waste to be propagated across social media. There are a lot of people...

Community Justice Exchange, part of the Soros-funded Tides Center, solicits legal defense donations for arrested protesters.. Scores of "Free Palestine" protesters across the United States took to the streets Monday to block major airports, highways, and bridges. Those who are arrested will receive bail money and legal support from a left-wing dark money behemoth funded by George Soros, an online fundraising page shows. The protests, which took place in dozens of U.S. cities including San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia, were organized by A15 Action, a newly formed group that worked to "coordinate a multi-city economic blockade on...

San Francisco has long been feared to be falling into a doom loop, a situation where taxpayers leaving the crime-ridden city results in lower tax revenues leading to cuts in services and rising taxes, making it even less desirable to live in. It can be especially devastating when a community's essential businesses, such as grocery stores, decide to leave. San Francisco experienced this last year when Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)-owned Whole Foods Market Inc. shut down its flagship store in the city after being open for just over a year, citing employee safety concerns. Nearly 570 emergency calls were reported from...

When you sup with the Devil, you must bring a long spoon. Berkeley law dean Erwin Chemerinsky has never been a favorite of mine, but I love irony, and this week he’s my avatar of people whose actions have come back to bite them. He has publicly bragged, for example, how much easier it is to avoid anti-discrimination laws in his faculty hires than it is in student admission, tacitly admitting that is what he has done and what he encourages others to do. But that seems to be of no avail to him now that he’s become a target...

The USS Hornet may be a decommissioned aircraft carrier, yet it has nevertheless become the launch-site for a controversial new war in the skies. The Marine Cloud Brightening Program's Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement project, led by researchers from the University of Washington, took to the deck of the Hornet Tuesday to launch streams of particles into the sky above the San Francisco Bay. Their ultimate objective is apparently to block and reflect sunlight in hopes of limiting "global warming." CAARE researchers behind the geoengineering scheme opted not to announce their experiment, reportedly citing concerns that there might be...

The share of San Francisco sellers losing money on their home sale is sitting near its highest level in more than a decade, largely because prices have come back down to earth after skyrocketing during the pandemic. Nationwide, the share of sellers losing money is much smaller (4%) because home prices remain near their record high. In San Francisco, the typical seller who’s parting ways with their home for less than they originally paid is losing $155,500. Nationwide, the median loss is roughly $40,000. New England sellers are least likely to lose money, with less than 2% of Providence, RI...

Want more food deserts in San Francisco?Here's how you get more food deserts in San Francisco.According to Reason magazine:The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering a remarkable policy that would allow people to sue grocery stores that close too quickly.Earlier this week, Supervisors Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin introduced an ordinance that, if passed, would require grocery stores to provide six months' written notice to the city before closing down.Supermarket operators would also have to make "good faith" efforts to ensure the continued availability of groceries at their shuttered location, either through finding a successor store, helping residents form...

A San Francisco supervisor wants to require grocery stores to provide six months of notice before closing a location A San Francisco lawmaker introduced a proposal that would require grocery stores in the city to provide six months of notice before closing a store and to explore a replacement supermarket at the vacated location. Dean Preston, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, introduced what he calls the Grocery Protection Act – which is based on a proposal the board approved in 1984 that was vetoed by then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. Preston's proposal would require grocery store...

A San Francisco supervisor wants to require grocery stores to provide six months of notice before closing a location A San Francisco lawmaker introduced a proposal that would require grocery stores in the city to provide six months of notice before closing a store and to explore a replacement supermarket at the vacated location. Dean Preston, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, introduced what he calls the Grocery Protection Act – which is based on a proposal the board approved in 1984 that was vetoed by then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. Preston's proposal would require grocery store...

When in doubt, blame businesses for closing their doors instead of the crime that has made it unsustainable for them to operate. San Francisco might even do you one better: force the businesses to stay open anyway. One of the 11 members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is floating reviving a vetoed 1984 law that would force grocery stores to stay open against their will. Supervisor Dean Preston calls it a “good idea” because of the risk of “food insecurity” that comes with grocery stores closing. The law in question would require stores to give a whopping six-month notice...

Several neighborhoods in San Francisco and Oakland had the most postal worker robberies in California in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Postal Service. According to the data analyzed by ABC7, about 61% of the 145 reported postal robberies across the state last year happened in the Bay Area. Robberies of postal carriers and drivers have increased across the country in recent years. Thieves, often armed with guns or other weapons, have stolen mail carriers’ master keys to gain access to large groups of mailboxes. The robberies have become an increasing concern since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic...

People are not satisfied with the San Francisco city government’s progress in providing reparations to descendants of African Americans who have suffered historical discrimination, according to a new report. Although a city government panel proposed monetary reparations for eligible Black residents last year – with some potentially receiving $5 million, "So far, all they’ve received is an apology," The Washington Post reported. The Post detailed how the city has had to cut funding for the project, and that people are growing frustrated over the lack of progress on reparations. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors put out an official apology...

A presumed mountain lion sighted this week walking atop a fence in South San Francisco turned out to be a large gray cat, police reported. “We were able to confirm the Big Cat was not a mountain lion,” the South San Francisco Police Department said in a post on its Facebook page. “We are happy to report there is no potential threat for the neighborhood.” The animal was spotted by a home security camera early Tuesday morning walking along the fence line separating two homes on the 200 block of Mansfield Drive. The photo of the cat was posted as...

The Meltdown of Commercial Real EstateIn case you’ve still got money in a bank, Bloomberg is warning that defaults in commercial real estate loans could “topple” hundreds of US banks.Leaving taxpayers on the hook for trillions in losses.The note, by Senior Editor James Crombie, walks us through the festering hellscape that is commercial real estate.To set the mood, a new study predicts that nearly half of downtown Pittsburgh office space could be vacant in 4 years. Major cities like San Francisco are already sporting zombie-apocalypse downtowns, with abandoned office buildings baking in the sun.So what happened? The Fed’s yo-yo interest...

City leaders in San Francisco, California, are working to install 400 license plate readers across the area to reduce criminal activity. Leaders and community groups held a press conference on Wednesday to highlight the technology for which the city received a $15.3 million grant to install, KTVU reported. Mayor London Breed (D) said, “This does not include speed cameras. This does not include facial recognition, but it will be useful for Amber Alerts. It will help us to find missing persons as well.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Police Chief William Scott have agreed to release surveillance video believed to show the moments in which an elderly Asian woman was shoved to her death last year. Key points: Yanfang Wu, 63, died after being shoved on a sidewalk in the Bayview neighborhood on July 3, 2023. No arrests were made and no charges were filed as the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) ruled the incident an accident. Thea Hopkins, 43, the person accused of shoving Wu, was arrested earlier this month for attacking a 71-year-old Chinese woman “without provocation.” The news prompted...

FRESNO, CA (KMJ) When Governor Gavin Newsom suddenly pulled the plug on Monday’s annual State of the State speech with no explanation, insiders and analysts were quick to assume the reason may be due to the extremely close vote on Proposition 1.More than two weeks after the primary election, the race is still too close to call. As of today, Prop 1, Newsom’s $6.4 billion plan to help California’s homeless and addicts leads by 17,000 votes with 200,000 yet to be counted. The tight race reportedly has Newsom’s group scrambling to find more “yes” votes to push it over the...