CSFN

08/16/2026

Your PG&E rates are about to spike again. California pols have three ways to stem the bleeding

By Mark Toney : sfchronicle – excerpt (audio) PG&E claims its rates are stabilizing. The numbers say otherwise. According to an independent assessment by the California Public Utilities Commission’s Public Advocates Office, the state’s advocate for ratepayers, the average PG&E customer could pay $840 more annually by 2030, on top of the 69% rate increase during the past decade. As California lawmakers and Gov....

By Mark Toney : sfchronicle – excerpt (audio) PG&E claims its rates are stabilizing. The numbers say otherwise. According to an independent assessment by the California Public Utilities Commiss…

08/16/2026

What is Pushing Cities Over the Fiscal Cliff – Part 1

via email : excerpt Mark Moses has consulted California municipal governments in the areas of finance and administration since 2011. He also served municipalities in finance director roles. Prior, he spent two decades working directly for local government in senior management positions. His perspective on local government has been informed and influenced by his earlier career in small business consulting and banking and his interest in applied economics and philosophy....

08/15/2026

SF’s last nonprofit arts college succumbs to Big Tech takeover

Max Blue : sfexaminer - excerpt Scott's Wiener's AI campaign backfired on him and now his campaign is charged with misusing funds. Could AI have bungled what as well? He is a good example of what can go wrong if you unleash AI without guardrails. If you had told me when I moved here to attend the San Francisco Art Institute that a tech company would be bankrolling The City’s last remaining art school 15 years later, I wouldn’t have believed you....

Max Blue : sfexaminer – excerpt Scott’s Wiener’s AI campaign backfired on him and now his campaign is charged with misusing funds. Could AI have bungled what as well? He is a good…

08/15/2026

The center of California conservatism has shifted

By Tessa McLean, California Editor : sfgate - excerpt The state may be deeply divided but not on the issues you'd expect A recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California underscores many long-held stereotypes but also finds some key surprises... Even the most conservative regions, though, still typically agree with the rest of California on three policy issues....

By Tessa McLean, California Editor : sfgate – excerpt The state may be deeply divided but not on the issues you’d expect A recent report from the Public Policy Insti…

08/08/2026

Business and labor clash over antitrust proposal

by Yue Stella Yu and Maya C. Miller : calmatters - excerpt Lawmakers will determine the fate of a controversial bill that would give Californians the ability to sue large companies in state court for using monopolistic practices to stifle competition. The bill, known as the COMPETE Act, has infuriated the business community and set the California Chamber of Commerce on a warpath....

by Yue Stella Yu and Maya C. Miller : calmatters – excerpt Lawmakers will determine the fate of a controversial bill that would give Californians the ability to sue large companies in state c…

08/06/2026

He paid $6,000 for a prank SF billboard. He didn’t expect thousands of responses.

The message: ChatTJB.org is powered by AI (an average individual) is partially obscured by a tree... By Dan Gentile : sfgate - excerpt (audio) If you’ve walked down Folsom Street in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood in the past week, you might’ve passed a billboard for ChatTJB, marketed as “the leading chat interface powered by AI*.” A tree partly obscures the bottom corner of the billboard, where the asterisk indicates that AI stands for “average individual.”...

https://beauxartisans.wordpress.com/2026/08/06/he-paid-6000-for-a-prank-sf-billboard-he-didnt-expect-thousands-of-responses/

The message: ChatTJB.org is powered by AI (an average individual) is partially obscured by a tree… By Dan Gentile : sfgate – excerpt (audio) If you’ve walked down Folsom Street in San F…

08/06/2026

This New California Bill Could Help Fight Monopolies Like Amazon and PG&E

By Abraham Woodliff :brokeasstuart - excerpt One of the foundational ideas supporting capitalism is the idea of competition symbolized by the ‘invisible hand’ of the market. The idea is based upon the belief that companies with good ideas, products and services will beat out companies with bad ideas products and services. But in reality, that only works at the extreme infancy of industry....

08/06/2026

What it Was Like Being a Broke Artist in SF Back in the Day

By P Segal - Bohemian Archivist : brokeassstuart - excerpt Shuggie's North Beach 7 Reasons Phoenix Pool Parkside Holy Cow Sharkhouse Some of the funky spirit SF is/has lost in this new century bent on displacing our pastPhotos by zrants In The City That Was, Bohemian Archivist P Segal tells a weekly story of what you all missed: the days when artists, writers, musicians, and unemployed visionaries were playing hard in the city’s streets and paying the rent working part time....

08/05/2026

ARTS + CULTURECULTUREGAMINGNEWS + POLITICSBUSINESS + TECHLABOR

by Leah Isobel : missionlocal - excerpt They were hired to code themselves out of a job. Who did not see this Jobs displacement coming? First they took our cars, then they took your homes, and now your jobs are being displaced? Data centers don't need trees either. UVH-CWA aid initiative and innovative Necrosoft bundle aim to support affected workers from indie orgs and big corps....

by Leah Isobel : missionlocal – excerpt They were hired to code themselves out of a job. Who did not see this Jobs displacement coming? First they took our cars, then they took your homes, an…

08/05/2026

IS A CITY’S MAIN FUNCTION TO SERVE THE NEEDS OF BIG CORPORATIONS OR THOSE OF ITS RESIDENTS?

By Art B. Obviously a complex issue and causing some very heated and very real divisions. From what I can see here are two concerning things that explain some, if not most, of the high cost of SF housing, and current political trends. Big high-tech corporations have targeted their growth to just a few popular cities. They are essentially using the appeal of these places, San Franciso, Seattle, New York and others high on their list as a calling card to attract the high skilled high paid workers they need to grow their bottom line....

By Art B. Obviously a complex issue and causing some very heated and very real divisions. From what I can see here are two concerning things that explain some, if not most, of the high cost of SF h…