-
CEQA Data Centers Graham Ostrowski Housing Inquirer Investigation Legislative Analyst’s Office Midterm Elections Proposition 45Would Prop. 45 fast-track data centers? The fine print, and the fight over it
An Inquirer Investigation reads the ballot measure’s broadband language, the Legislative Analyst’s review and a new Legislative Counsel opinion side by side, and finds a dispute that both campaigns say the text settles in their favor.
Top Stories
-
Electronic Arts cuts about 400 jobs and closes BioWare in first restructuring since its $55 billion buyout
The Redwood City game publisher, owned since August by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, is narrowing its…
-
More than 3 million Californians have already voted, and the early electorate skews older
A week before Election Day, about one in seven mailed ballots is back, and voters 65 and older have cast more than…
-
Afghan TPS bill co-led by Liccardo heads for a discharge petition when the House returns
Rep. Sam Liccardo says he will try to force a floor vote after Nov. 9 on a bipartisan bill that would restore…
-
In CA-01, McGuire has raised more money, while Gallagher has more cash for the final week
Federal reports through Oct. 14 show state Sen. Mike McGuire outraising Rep. James Gallagher in the redrawn 1st District, while Gallagher entered…
-
Alcatraz closes for nearly four weeks as crews replace the pilings under its ferry dock
The island is shut to visitors through Nov. 18 while Alcatraz City Cruises pays for new dock pilings, and Pier 33 businesses…
-
SMART signs a $190.5 million contract to carry its trains across the Russian River to Healdsburg
The North Bay rail line’s board approved the construction deal for 4.75 miles of track and two steel bridges, and Healdsburg says…
-
Appeals court dismisses Justice Department’s bid to set aside 20,000 California ballots, returning the fight to a trial judge today
A Ninth Circuit panel ruled 2-1 that the government moved before the district court could act, and Judge David O. Carter is…
-
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to let border barrier work resume in Texas’s Big Bend region
The government says a judge’s injunction has halted about 340 miles of planned barriers and roads, and its lawyers lean on a…
-
Flávio Bolsonaro drops call to annul Brazil’s election, vows abuse-of-power case against Lula
Brazil’s electoral court says a late two-hour voting extension did not change the result. President Trump, pointing to that extension, said the…
-
California’s share of Colorado River cuts starts Jan. 1, but the three-state deal behind it is still unsigned
The Interior Department’s 2027-28 rules would cut California’s Colorado River water by 440,000 acre-feet a year if Arizona, California and Nevada sign…
-
Six California lease sales remain in Interior’s offshore drilling plan as its October target passes
The Trump administration’s draft offshore program, which would hold the first federal oil and gas lease sales off California since 1984, is…
-
Chris Larsen has put $2.1 million into San Francisco’s November ballot
Ethics Commission filings show the Ripple co-founder bankrolling Mayor Daniel Lurie’s charter overhaul and a District 10 candidate, while his company backs…
-
Alcatraz closes for nearly four weeks as crews replace the pilings under its ferry dock
The island is shut to visitors through Nov. 18 while Alcatraz City Cruises pays for new dock pilings, and Pier 33 businesses are bracing for a quieter November.
-
Prop. E would remove most city contracts from supervisors’ review, analysts find
The Board’s own analysts say Mayor Lurie’s contracting measure would have removed 189 contracts and about $2.5 billion from supervisors’ review over three years, including deals the board cut or sent to…
-
A driver steered into the Muni subway at Embarcadero, fled, and left Market Street without trains until Sunday
A car that entered the Folsom Street portal Saturday afternoon shut the Market Street subway for the night, and police are treating it as a hit-and-run.
-
San Francisco declares a local emergency to speed storm buying before El Niño winter
Mayor Daniel Lurie’s proclamation lets departments skip normal contracting rules for pumps, flood barriers and generators, and lets him move money between departments, as forecasters warn of a wet winter and record…
-
Prop F would let San Francisco’s mayor remove Police Commission appointees without Board approval
Mayor Daniel Lurie’s charter measure would end a 2003 rule requiring the Board of Supervisors to consent before a mayor fires his own police commissioners, a change his campaign says creates clear…
-
The new San Francisco fortune: the 100 families who hold the city’s wealth
Of the $516.5 billion in estimated fortunes held by San Francisco’s 100 wealthiest families and individuals, more than a third now traces to artificial intelligence. A ranked guide, from Stripe and Anthropic…
-
San Francisco records its first death from a kratom-derived opioid sold as an herbal supplement
The medical examiner found MGM-15, a federally banned compound up to 50 times as strong as morphine, in a man who died in late September and in the “cat’s claw” tablets he…
-
San Francisco moves to auction a Sea Cliff house at the center of a deed-fraud lawsuit
Supervisors authorized the tax collector to sell a long-delinquent home on 32nd Avenue, a step neighbors see as a way out of a yearlong standoff, as the city attorney seeks a court…
Around the RegionMore Around the Region ›
-
SMART signs a $190.5 million contract to carry its trains across the Russian River to Healdsburg
The North Bay rail line’s board approved the construction deal for 4.75 miles of track and two steel bridges, and Healdsburg says it is ready, with one strong opinion about where the…
-
Santa Rita Jail’s fourth death of 2026 followed a release from custody while the woman was hospitalized
Jessica Watson, 36, was freed on her own recognizance the day after deputies found her unresponsive in her cell, a practice the State Auditor has warned can keep jail-related deaths out of…
-
Bird flu turns up in Canada geese at Alameda’s Crown Beach, and East Bay parks tell visitors to keep their distance
Geese collected this month at Crown Memorial State Beach tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, and officials say infected birds could appear anywhere in the East Bay.
-
Oakland’s 911 lines are back after cut cables, but the questions about its backups remain
Severed AT&T copper and fiber lines knocked out Oakland’s emergency and dispatch phones for about 36 hours. Police are treating the damage as a crime, and both of the city’s first fallback…
-
Oakland’s $30 minimum wage initiative qualifies, putting the next decision before the City Council
County elections officials certified signatures for a measure that would raise Oakland’s minimum wage from $17.34 to $30 an hour by 2037, leaving the council to adopt it, send it to voters…
-
Oakland moves to raise blight fines to as much as $10,000 a day, the first increase since 1968
The City Council gave initial approval to a plan by Councilmember Zac Unger that would raise the ceiling on daily penalties tenfold for owners who leave declared nuisances unfixed, with a final…
-
As Medi-Cal shrinks, Bay Area counties rebuild safety nets they scaled back after the Affordable Care Act
Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Francisco are expanding county-run care programs for people expected to lose coverage in 2027, but the documents behind those plans show the money covers only…
-
Hayward pauses new data centers as more Bay Area governments rethink the A.I. building boom
Hayward’s council adopted an immediate moratorium on the same night Richmond extended its pause to 2028 and San Mateo County began weighing zoning limits, while Santa Clara, home to one of the…
Special ReportThe Inquirer’s most ambitious journalism, and Inquirer Investigation reporting for subscribers
-
Anthropic Artificial Intelligence Business Cryptocurrency OpenAI Private Equity Real Estate Silicon Valley Special Report Venture Capital Wendell Yamashiro
The new San Francisco fortune: the 100 families who hold the city’s wealth
Read the report: The new San Francisco fortune: the 100 families who hold the city’s wealthOf the $516.5 billion in estimated fortunes held by San Francisco’s 100 wealthiest families and individuals, more than a third now traces to artificial intelligence. A ranked guide, from Stripe and Anthropic to the Gap and Levi Strauss.
Inquirer Investigation
-
Would Prop. 45 fast-track data centers? The fine print, and the fight over it
An Inquirer Investigation reads the ballot measure’s broadband language, the Legislative Analyst’s review and a new Legislative Counsel opinion side by side,…
-
Airtable files notice to lay off 190 at its San Francisco headquarters after Bending Spoons takeover
A state filing puts a number on the cuts Airtable’s new Italian owner announced this month, and the buyer’s track record suggests…
-
Prop. E would remove most city contracts from supervisors’ review, analysts find
The Board’s own analysts say Mayor Lurie’s contracting measure would have removed 189 contracts and about $2.5 billion from supervisors’ review over…
-
Santa Rita Jail’s fourth death of 2026 followed a release from custody while the woman was hospitalized
Jessica Watson, 36, was freed on her own recognizance the day after deputies found her unresponsive in her cell, a practice the…
-
Justice Department asks California counties to set aside ballots from 20,000 registrants it flags as likely noncitizens
Federal officials say holding those ballots until citizenship is verified would protect citizens’ votes without canceling any registration. State and county officials…
-
Inquirer Investigation: U.S.-Mexico trade talks slow over steel, aluminum and auto tariffs
Mexico wants relief from 50 percent U.S. duties on steel and aluminum and a cut in vehicle tariffs to 15 percent from…
-
Why California gas tops $6: refinery closures, imports and a widening margin
Federal and state data show that higher crude prices explain most of this year’s jump at the pump, but California’s gap with…
National NewsMore National News ›
-
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to let border barrier work resume in Texas’s Big Bend region
The government says a judge’s injunction has halted about 340 miles of planned barriers and roads, and its lawyers lean on a 2019 Ninth Circuit ruling from a San Diego border case.
-
Massachusetts gun owners face a registration deadline Wednesday, six days before voters decide whether to keep the law
Question 9 asks Massachusetts voters whether to uphold a 2024 law that created one of the country’s few statewide gun registries, a system that already reaches further than California’s.
-
Justice Department sues Alaska over a second Dan Sullivan on the Senate ballot
The suit asks a federal judge to hold certification in one narrow scenario if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses. Attorney General Todd Blanche says it only preserves information for state officials; critics, including…
-
Justice Department asks California counties to set aside ballots from 20,000 registrants it flags as likely noncitizens
Federal officials say holding those ballots until citizenship is verified would protect citizens’ votes without canceling any registration. State and county officials dispute the list, and a federal appeals court takes up…
-
Supreme Court lets New Hampshire bar student IDs at the polls, as California weighs its own voter ID measure
The justices paused a lower-court order on the eve of New Hampshire’s election, a ruling with no direct effect in California but one that previews questions the Legislature would have to answer…
-
Deportations near one million under Trump as arrests shift into communities, including the Bay Area
A Migration Policy Institute analysis of federal data finds that most removals still begin at the border, but arrests inside the country are driving a growing share, a trend Bay Area immigration…
-
A flaw in the code behind most websites sends governments and companies scrambling to patch
Federal agencies told organizations to update PHP immediately or take sites offline, a warning that reaches from state and city portals to the San Francisco companies that run much of the web’s…
-
California faces a $2 billion food aid bill unless it cuts an error rate. The deciding year just ended.
Federal error-rate data, state budget records and legislative testimony show how a 2025 law is already shifting CalFresh costs to Sacramento and the counties, why California would pay sooner than several states…
Trade and CommerceMore Trade and Commerce ›
-
Airtable files notice to lay off 190 at its San Francisco headquarters after Bending Spoons takeover
A state filing puts a number on the cuts Airtable’s new Italian owner announced this month, and the buyer’s track record suggests more may follow.
-
Electronic Arts cuts about 400 jobs and closes BioWare in first restructuring since its $55 billion buyout
The Redwood City game publisher, owned since August by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, is narrowing its focus.
-
Instacart explores a sale, and DoorDash is at the table
The San Francisco grocery-delivery company has hired bankers and held early talks with DoorDash after Uber walked away, according to reports, as slowing growth and a friendlier antitrust climate reshape the delivery…
-
PG&E puts a sale or spinoff of its gas business on the table in its strategic review
Chief Executive Patti Poppe told investors that the company’s four million gas customers pay junk-rated borrowing costs because of wildfire risk on the electric side, and that a regulator-approved separation is one…
-
Lam Research posts a record quarter, but supply limits send the Fremont chipmaker’s stock lower
The equipment maker’s sales jumped 54 percent from a year earlier on demand tied to artificial intelligence, but executives said shortages of parts and clean-room space would hold back shipments through the…
-
Why California gas tops $6: refinery closures, imports and a widening margin
Federal and state data show that higher crude prices explain most of this year’s jump at the pump, but California’s gap with the rest of the country has widened as two refineries…
-
The new San Francisco fortune: the 100 families who hold the city’s wealth
Of the $516.5 billion in estimated fortunes held by San Francisco’s 100 wealthiest families and individuals, more than a third now traces to artificial intelligence. A ranked guide, from Stripe and Anthropic…
-
Bloom Energy’s A.I. power boom lifts sales past $1 billion a quarter, but the cash is still catching up
The San Jose fuel-cell maker raised its forecast for the third time this year on data-center demand, while its own filings show how much money the growth is tying up in inventory,…
-
Would Prop. 45 fast-track data centers? The fine print, and the fight over it
An Inquirer Investigation reads the ballot measure’s broadband language, the Legislative Analyst’s review and a new Legislative Counsel opinion side by side, and finds…
-
More than 3 million Californians have already voted, and the early electorate skews older
A week before Election Day, about one in seven mailed ballots is back, and voters 65 and older have cast more than half of…
-
Three bond measures, three ways to pay: what Propositions 1, 37 and 38 would cost California
The November ballot asks voters to authorize about $44 billion in bonds for housing, down payments and medical research, but only two of the…
-
Proposition 2 would double California’s rainy-day fund cap, and the fight is over the spending limit
The Nov. 3 measure would let the state save up to 20 percent of its general fund and keep making extra debt payments through…
-
Newsom orders a statewide review of public-safety programs before he leaves office
An executive order directs state agencies to inventory their crime-prevention, victim-services and re-entry programs and report by Dec. 18, a plan the governor says…
-
Bonta charges 103 home-care workers in Medi-Cal fraud sweep as federal prosecutors trade blame with Sacramento
The attorney general charged 103 In-Home Supportive Services caregivers with billing Medi-Cal while clients were hospitalized, as federal prosecutors in Los Angeles criticized the…
-
California set a $21,000 Medi-Cal savings limit without a public count of who would lose coverage
Budget documents show how much the state expects to save by lowering the savings cap for older and disabled Medi-Cal enrollees, and how little…
-
California’s largest state worker union stages its first strike, pressing Newsom on pay and telework
Thousands of members of SEIU Local 1000 walked off the job on Wednesday in Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and both sides…
-
Appeals court dismisses Justice Department’s bid to set aside 20,000 California ballots, returning the fight to a trial judge today
A Ninth Circuit panel ruled 2-1 that the government moved before the district court could act, and Judge David O. Carter is scheduled to…
-
Trump’s America First Seafood Strategy promises relief as California’s fishing fleet waits on crab
The administration’s new plan pairs a U.S.-caught label, processing loans and regulatory review with tougher import enforcement, arriving as California boats face a delayed…
-
Divided Ninth Circuit panel rules Trump’s 2025 federalization of California National Guard exceeded his authority
A divided panel upheld the order returning the Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom, finding the Los Angeles unrest did not amount to a rebellion.…
-
As FEMA tightens its disaster reviews, California’s bid to extend help for fire survivors is still pending
The Trump administration says it is vetting aid requests more closely and has paid every dollar it approved for Los Angeles fire case management;…
-
Inquirer Investigation: In Bay Area immigration arrests, court records and DHS offer competing accounts of force
The Department of Homeland Security says its officers use the minimum force necessary and face a surge in assaults; court filings and immigration lawyers…
-
Oakland judge’s order halting DHS voter interviews takes effect today unless an appeals court steps in
The ruling shields citizens in California and eight other states from election-related field interviews through Election Day, but it rests on a narrower basis…
-
Trump administration holds back another $1.2 billion in Medicaid money for California home care
Federal Medicaid officials cited rapid growth in the state’s personal care services as grounds for a third deferral this year, without presenting evidence of…
-
Schiff tours SFO holding room and says detained travelers still cannot call lawyers or family
After a Tuesday oversight visit, Senator Adam Schiff said some people held by Customs and Border Protection at San Francisco International Airport are kept…
The Morning Edition
A new report from every desk — City Hall, Sacramento, Washington and the Bay Area economy — in your inbox at 3 a.m. Pacific.
-
Flávio Bolsonaro drops call to annul Brazil’s election, vows abuse-of-power case against Lula
Brazil’s electoral court says a late two-hour voting extension did not change the result. President Trump, pointing to that extension, said the vote “looked…
-
Lula wins a fourth term in Brazil’s runoff as Flávio Bolsonaro vows to challenge the result
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva overcame a first-round deficit to defeat the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro by about 3.6 points, setting…
-
Brazil votes today in a presidential runoff that final polls call too close to call
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro enter Sunday’s second round within the margin of error, with Brazilians in Northern California…
-
Inquirer Investigation: U.S.-Mexico trade talks slow over steel, aluminum and auto tariffs
Mexico wants relief from 50 percent U.S. duties on steel and aluminum and a cut in vehicle tariffs to 15 percent from 25 percent,…
-
Taiwan says Chinese coast guard ships trailed Japanese patrol vessels sheltering from Typhoon Champi
Eight Japan Coast Guard ships rode out the storm in the Taiwan Strait under Taiwanese monitoring, and Taipei says five Chinese vessels followed them…
-
Treasury proposes wider limits on American investment in Chinese technology, reaching into biotech
A draft Treasury rule would bar U.S. investment in Chinese developers of advanced A.I. and a range of biotechnologies, with consequences for Bay Area…
-
As Washington and Beijing spar over AI, OpenAI steps back from the fight over chip sales to China
The San Francisco company has stopped pressing Congress for tighter export limits, Politico reported, just as China protested a U.S. ban on DeepSeek and…
-
State Department says it has revoked more than 300,000 visas since January 2025
The figure, announced Tuesday, marks a sharp acceleration since summer and lands in the state that hosts more international students than any other.
-
Four turnovers end the 49ers’ unbeaten start in Atlanta; McCaffrey’s injury is a mild hamstring strain
Michael Penix Jr. threw three touchdown passes as the Falcons won 29-20. Kyle Shanahan said Monday he is “pretty optimistic” Christian McCaffrey will be…
-
Down 2-1 in the WNBA Finals, the Valkyries face a pivotal Game 4 in Atlanta
Golden State needs a win on Saturday to bring a tied series back to Chase Center, after two games in which turnovers and cold…
-
Valkyries head to Atlanta with WNBA Finals tied after Game 2 loss to the Dream
Angel Reese’s 30 points and 16 rebounds gave Atlanta its first Finals victory, sending the series east tied 1-1 as Golden State tries to…
-
Oakland to review $300,000 hotel-tax payout to Roots for hosting Australia’s World Cup team
A city report set for a public hearing on Tuesday says the subsidy paid for itself, as June hotel-tax receipts rose about $343,000 above…
-
Warriors open the season with Porzingis out indefinitely and a smaller lineup in his place
With Kristaps Porzingis sidelined by an undisclosed health matter and Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody recovering from knee surgery, Steve Kerr plans to start…
-
Unbeaten 49ers host Washington as Brock Purdy nears the top of the NFL’s passer-rating list
Five more attempts on Monday night at Levi’s Stadium would make Purdy, the final pick of the 2022 draft, the league’s career leader in…
-
Valkyries take Game 1 of the WNBA Finals as Gabby Williams carries a cold-shooting offense
Golden State, in only its second season, beat the Atlanta Dream 68-64 at Chase Center on Saturday, leaning on its defense and 26 points…