Category Archives: San Francisco

San Francisco police arrest pro-Palestinian protesters occupying Israeli consulate building

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Authorities confirmed 70 people were taken in to custody, cited for trespassing and released after they ‘refused to vacate’ the premises

Police on Monday arrested pro-Palestinian demonstrators who occupied the lobby of a San Francisco building that houses the Israeli Consulate.

Associated Press journalists saw police zip-tie the hands of about 50 people. Officers then put them in police vans and drove them away. San Francisco police later confirmed that 70 protesters were arrested and cited for trespassing after they “refused to vacate the building”. They have since been released from San Francisco county jail.

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California firefighters battle wind-driven wildfire near San Francisco

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Two fire workers injured after Corral Fire, which began Saturday afternoon, spread overnight east of San Francisco

California firefighters aided by aircraft battled a wind-driven wildfire that began Saturday and continued burning early Sunday morning in an area straddling the San Francisco Bay Area and central California, authorities said.

The Corral Fire began Saturday afternoon near the city of Tracy, 60 miles (96km ) east of San Francisco, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the city of Livermore, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection, or Cal Fire.

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David DePape apologizes for attacking Paul Pelosi and gets 30-year sentence – again

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DePape, who didn’t get to speak in court in original trial on assault of Nancy’s Pelosi’s husband, gets no change to original sentence

The man who was convicted of assaulting then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in 2022 was re-sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday, with no change in the original sentence after the case was reopened so he could speak during his sentencing hearing, local news reported.

David DePape was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison on 17 May for forcibly entering Pelosi’s home in San Francisco early on 28 October 2022 and clubbing her husband, Paul, in the head with a hammer in a politically motivated attack.

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Tech titan Mike Lynch testifies at fraud trial that Autonomy was ‘not perfect’

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UK founder, accused of inflating sales and misleading regulators, takes stand and says he wasn’t fully responsible for firm’s decisions

The British entrepreneur Mike Lynch took the stand on Thursday in a San Francisco federal courthouse as a key witness in his own criminal fraud trial, defending his role at Autonomy, the tech firm he co-founded and then sold.

The trial continued as planned Thursday despite the defense team moving for a mistrial over alleged improper questioning of a witness by the prosecution. Lynch’s defense team called the questioning, which indirectly referenced the tech titan’s extradition, “egregious” and ‘’highly improper” in a filing.

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Tech tycoon Mike Lynch, accused of ‘massive’ fraud, set to testify at US trial

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Lawyers for founder of software firm Autonomy, charged over $11bn Hewlett-Packard deal, suggest they may move for mistrial

The British entrepreneur Mike Lynch is expected to take the stand in a San Francisco federal courthouse on Thursday as a key witness in his own criminal fraud trial, which began in March.

US authorities have charged the former software tycoon with 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy relating to his company’s acquisition deal with Hewlett-Packard in 2011. If convicted, Lynch faces up to 25 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

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David DePape, who bludgeoned Nancy Pelosi’s husband, sentenced to 30 years

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DePape, a rightwing conspiracy theorist, broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home in 2022 and hit Paul Pelosi with a hammer

David DePape, a rightwing conspiracy theorist who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s northern California home in 2022 and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

A federal jury convicted him of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official in November 2023, just over a year after the attack in the former House speaker’s San Francisco home.

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Relief as San Francisco public toilet finally opens – and not for $1.7m after all

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Bathroom in Noe Valley neighborhood, which became focus of ire for reported $1.7m cost, actually came in at about $200,000

San Francisco made international headlines in 2022 when news broke that a project to build a public restroom in a town square would cost $1.7m. This weekend the toilet affair finally came to an end as the city celebrated its newest lavatory.

Residents gathered for a toilet-themed party in the Noe Valley town square on Sunday that was designed to poke fun at the whole saga and celebrate the long-awaited bathroom, which ended up costing far less than the initial price tag.

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Prosecutors say Mike Lynch firm ‘paid customers to buy software’ as part of revenue fraud

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New Jersey executive testified that the UK company Autonomy made millions of dollars’ worth of deals offering to fund purchases

The British technology firm Autonomy struck millions of dollars’ worth of “handshake deals” through which it paid customers to buy its software, the jury in the fraud trial of its co-founder Mike Lynch has heard.

Lynch, who co-founded and led Autonomy, has pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy. He stands accused of orchestrating a huge fraud before Hewlett-Packard’s blockbuster takeover of the company in 2011.

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Criminal fraud trial of UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch to begin

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Co-founder of Autonomy charged with 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy in 2011 sale of company to HP

A British technology tycoon once lauded as “Britain’s Bill Gates” was the “driving force” behind a “massive” years-long fraud, prosecutors alleged, as his criminal trial got under way in San Francisco on Monday.

Prosecutors said Mike Lynch, co-founder of the UK software company Autonomy, ruled the firm “with an iron fist” before its blockbuster takeover by Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

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Aircraft crashes on San Francisco Bay Area city street, killing pilot

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No one else on board single-engine plane that crashed at busy junction along golf course by Buchanan Field airport in Concord

The pilot of a single-engine plane was killed on Tuesday when the aircraft crashed on a city street near a small San Francisco Bay Area airport, authorities said.

The crash was reported at about 11am at a busy intersection along a golf course adjacent to Buchanan Field airport in Concord, officials said.

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Light aircraft that crashed into ocean off California could be built from kit

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Body of San Francisco woman, 27, recovered near site of crash involving single-engine plane believed to be carrying four people

A plane that crashed into ocean south of San Francisco on Sunday was a light aircraft that can be built from a kit, authorities have said.

Officials also said on Tuesday that they had identified a body that was found in the water near where the Cozy Mark IV plane crashed as a 27-year-old San Francisco resident.

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‘No Xmas as usual’: pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate in US cities

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Organizers focus on second-most popular shopping day in cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters waved the pan-Arab colors flag and wore the symbolic Palestinian keffiyeh in a series of coordinated “No Xmas as Usual in a Genocide” rallies and marches across the US on Saturday.

Organizers with Shut It Down for Palestine said the organization had focused its protests on the second-most popular shopping day of the year – the day before Christmas Eve – as part of ongoing civic and commercial disruptions. Organizers said they planned to “organize actions to boycott, disrupt and rally at commercial centers”.

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NBA indefinitely suspends Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green

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League announces penalty less than 24 hours after Green hit Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić and received foul and ejection

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green was suspended indefinitely by the NBA on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he hit Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić in the face and received a Flagrant 2 foul and ejection.

The league announced the penalty handed down by operations chief Joe Dumars and said the suspension begins immediately. It’s already Green’s second suspension this season.

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David DePape found guilty in hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband

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Rightwing conspiracy theorist convicted of attempted kidnapping and assault in 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi

David DePape, the rightwing conspiracy theorist who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband in their San Francisco home, has been convicted of attempted kidnapping and assault.

The federal jury’s decision on Thursday comes after a dramatic trial in which Paul Pelosi testified about the “traumatic” hammer attack he suffered on 28 October 2022, days before the midterm elections. DePape also took the stand in his defense, saying he had planned to interrogate the former House speaker and post footage of her online.

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Dozens arrested in San Francisco after ceasefire protest shuts down Bay Bridge

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Demonstration by about 200 people urging Gaza ceasefire shut down commuter route and formed a human chain between cars

Dozens of protesters were arrested on Thursday after shutting down a portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge as part of a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The protest blocked all westbound traffic on the bridge – a key commuter route into the city that sees roughly 260,000 vehicles daily – as San Francisco hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum. The city has seen numerous demonstrations in response to the forum from activists decrying corporate profits, environmental abuses and the Israel-Hamas war.

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‘Planet Earth is big enough for two’: Biden and Xi meet for first time in a year

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US and Chinese presidents meet in San Francisco to discuss the economy, climate, military relations and Taiwan

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in California on Wednesday, exchanging handshakes and smiles as they embarked on face-to-face dialogues that both sides hope will stabilise US-China relations.

The US president opened his remarks by saying that tensions between the two countries should “not veer into conflict”.

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Pelosi attacker planned to wear unicorn costume and post interrogation online

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David DePape, accused of attacking Nancy Pelosi’s husband in a home invasion last year, testified for an hour on Tuesday

David DePape, the man accused of attacking the husband of Nancy Pelosi with a hammer last year, told a federal jury how his fringe political beliefs brought him to the Pelosis’ home to interrogate the former house speaker.

In emotional testimony that lasted for more than an hour, DePape offered detailed insight into his motivations that evening in October, which he described as part of a bigger plan to end corruption in the United States.

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‘Traumatic’: Paul Pelosi testifies on being attacked by man with hammer

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Nancy Pelosi’s husband recounts publicly for the first time details of David DePape’s reported assault in their San Francisco home

Paul Pelosi has recounted publicly for the first time details of the harrowing night he was attacked by a hammer-wielding man in the San Francisco home he shares with his wife and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Testifying in the trial of David DePape, the man accused of attacking him last year, Paul Pelosi recalled his alarm at seeing a man standing in his bedroom.

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Shiny sidewalks, scrubbed walls: San Francisco aims to sparkle at Apec meet

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City’s mayor promoting beleaguered downtown as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is expected to draw nearly 20,000 people

With the world watching San Francisco this week as it hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, the California city has been making use of an opportunity to rehabilitate its reputation as a struggling metropolis in decline.

Apec – San Francisco’s largest international gathering since 1945 when dignitaries gathered to sign the charter creating the United Nations – is expected to draw 20,000 people to the city. The summit will bring together leaders from 21 member countries to promote trade and economic development in the Pacific region.

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Newsom 2024: could the California governor be a rival to Joe Biden?

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Amid concern over the president’s poll ratings, Gavin Newsom appears to be running something of a shadow campaign

One of the strongest candidates for US president in 2024 may be one who’s not yet in the race. There’s growing evidence that Gavin Newsom, the charismatic and energetic Democratic governor of California, is running something of a shadow campaign to Joe Biden and ready to step up if, or when, the incumbent is out of the running.

Several developments in recent days suggest Newsom, who romped to re-election a year ago without really campaigning, is ready to bring forward what was already expected to be a strong run for the presidency in 2028.

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