San Francisco’s appalling homeless problem seemed to worsen only modestly compared to the rest of the Bay Area when the city released its preliminary homeless-count numbers in May. The first glimpse showed a 17% uptick — not great, sure, but not as bad as Alameda County’s 43% rise. Or Santa Clara’s 31% increase. Turns out the news wasn’t quite so rosy.The final report released Friday, in the middle of a holiday weekend, shows that the street-count increase would actually be 30% if the city had used the same standards for counting as it had in past years. San Francisco now has 9,784 unhoused...…San Francisco’s appalling homeless problem seemed to worsen only modestly compared to the rest of the Bay Area when the city released its preliminary homeless-count numbers in May. The first glimpse showed a 17% uptick — not great, sure, but not as bad as Alameda County’s 43% rise. Or Santa Clara’s 31% increase. Turns out the news wasn’t quite so rosy.The final report released Friday, in the middle of a holiday weekend, shows that the street-count increase would actually be 30% if the city had used the same standards for counting as it had in past years. San Francisco now has 9,784 unhoused...WW…

9Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was recalled from office by the voters Tuesday, two years after he set off national outrage by sentencing a Stanford athlete to six months in jail for sexually assaulting and attempting to rape an unconscious woman., 59 percent of the county’s voters favored recalling Persky while 41 percent opposed the recall. On the same ballot, Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson led civil rights lawyer Angela Storey, 70 to 30 percent, in the election to serve the last four years of Persky’s term.Takeaway: Persky, a judge for 15 years, is...…9Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was recalled from office by the voters Tuesday, two years after he set off national outrage by sentencing a Stanford athlete to six months in jail for sexually assaulting and attempting to rape an unconscious woman., 59 percent of the county’s voters favored recalling Persky while 41 percent opposed the recall. On the same ballot, Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson led civil rights lawyer Angela Storey, 70 to 30 percent, in the election to serve the last four years of Persky’s term.Takeaway: Persky, a judge for 15 years, is...WW…

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2010California may be the most-populous state, but its 529 college savings plan is dwarfed by those offered by six states including Nevada, Utah, Maine and New Hampshire.That’s partly because California does not market its plan nationally, and it doesn’t sell it through brokers or advisers who earn a commission. But it’s also because California has never offered residents a state-tax incentive to invest in its plan, called ScholarShare.A bill introduced in the Assembly last month would create one. would let Californians deduct the amount of their annual...…Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2010California may be the most-populous state, but its 529 college savings plan is dwarfed by those offered by six states including Nevada, Utah, Maine and New Hampshire.That’s partly because California does not market its plan nationally, and it doesn’t sell it through brokers or advisers who earn a commission. But it’s also because California has never offered residents a state-tax incentive to invest in its plan, called ScholarShare.A bill introduced in the Assembly last month would create one. would let Californians deduct the amount of their annual...WW…

The competition between the nation’s two highest-profile plant-based burgers has escalated with the news that Impossible Foods has released a new, gluten-free version of its Impossible Burger, just six weeks after Beyond Meat premiered its newly redesigned Beyond Burger.Like Apple does with its operating system, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are replacing their flagship burgers with updates, with every confidence that consumers will approve of the switch. Each company promises that its “version 2.0” — a term both use — tastes even more like real beef.And as their markets expand,...…The competition between the nation’s two highest-profile plant-based burgers has escalated with the news that Impossible Foods has released a new, gluten-free version of its Impossible Burger, just six weeks after Beyond Meat premiered its newly redesigned Beyond Burger.Like Apple does with its operating system, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are replacing their flagship burgers with updates, with every confidence that consumers will approve of the switch. Each company promises that its “version 2.0” — a term both use — tastes even more like real beef.And as their markets expand,...WW…

He is our Jack the Ripper. Fifty years ago this week, a psychopath with a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol sneaked up on two high school students parked on a windswept lover’s lane in Benicia. Shot down as they scrambled in terror, the young couple died in a spray of gunfire. It was an unusually messy crime scene.The killing on Dec. 20, 1968, of David Faraday, 17, and his 16-year-old date, Betty Lou Jensen, marked the beginning of what became the twisted legend of the Zodiac Killer. By the time he was done, five more victims across the Bay Area would be shot or stabbed — three of them...…He is our Jack the Ripper. Fifty years ago this week, a psychopath with a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol sneaked up on two high school students parked on a windswept lover’s lane in Benicia. Shot down as they scrambled in terror, the young couple died in a spray of gunfire. It was an unusually messy crime scene.The killing on Dec. 20, 1968, of David Faraday, 17, and his 16-year-old date, Betty Lou Jensen, marked the beginning of what became the twisted legend of the Zodiac Killer. By the time he was done, five more victims across the Bay Area would be shot or stabbed — three of them...WW…

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering diverting millions of dollars from San Francisco Bay shoreline restoration and flood control to help build the president’s wall on the southern border — part of a bigger plan under consideration to move disaster relief money to the project.The White House is looking at nearly $2.5 billion allocated for California projects being worked on by the Army Corps of Engineers as possible sources to fund President Trump’s wall, according to a list of targeted projects obtained by The Chronicle from a source familiar with discussions. The White...…WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering diverting millions of dollars from San Francisco Bay shoreline restoration and flood control to help build the president’s wall on the southern border — part of a bigger plan under consideration to move disaster relief money to the project.The White House is looking at nearly $2.5 billion allocated for California projects being worked on by the Army Corps of Engineers as possible sources to fund President Trump’s wall, according to a list of targeted projects obtained by The Chronicle from a source familiar with discussions. The White...WW…

3In a major win for California’s fight against global warming, the state appears to have hit its first target for cutting greenhouse gases — and it reached the goal early.Data released Wednesday by the California Air Resources Board show that the state’s greenhouse gas emissions — the latest year available — to 429.4 million metric tons.That’s slightly below the 431 million metric tons the state produced in 1990. And California law requires that the state’s emissions, which peaked in 2004, return to 1990 levels by 2020.Since the peak, emissions have dropped 13 percent. The 2008 financial...…3In a major win for California’s fight against global warming, the state appears to have hit its first target for cutting greenhouse gases — and it reached the goal early.Data released Wednesday by the California Air Resources Board show that the state’s greenhouse gas emissions — the latest year available — to 429.4 million metric tons.That’s slightly below the 431 million metric tons the state produced in 1990. And California law requires that the state’s emissions, which peaked in 2004, return to 1990 levels by 2020.Since the peak, emissions have dropped 13 percent. The 2008 financial...WW…

Photo: Courtesy Oakland A’sOpponents of the Oakland A’s waterfront ballpark have filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court seeking to derail the team’s bid for an exemption from state law AB734.An AB734 exemption would mandate that lawsuits challenging the A’s environmental impact report would need to be adjudicated within 270 days, if possible. Without the exemption, legal challenges to the ballpark development could go on for years.Ballpark opponents contend that the large crowds and traffic generated by the 34,000-seat stadium and adjacent hotel, housing and office development will...…Photo: Courtesy Oakland A’sOpponents of the Oakland A’s waterfront ballpark have filed suit in Alameda County Superior Court seeking to derail the team’s bid for an exemption from state law AB734.An AB734 exemption would mandate that lawsuits challenging the A’s environmental impact report would need to be adjudicated within 270 days, if possible. Without the exemption, legal challenges to the ballpark development could go on for years.Ballpark opponents contend that the large crowds and traffic generated by the 34,000-seat stadium and adjacent hotel, housing and office development will...WW…

Coronavirus is bruising San Francisco’s tech industry.Yelp is laying off 1,000 workers and furloughing another 1,100, roughly a third of its staff, the company said Thursday. Eventbrite laid off 450 employees, or nearly half of its workforce, on Wednesday.Airbnb, which planned to go public this year, raised $1 billion this week as bookings . The company enacted a hiring freeze for most jobs and paused marketing in an effort to save $800 million this year, tech news website the Information .The three companies, which are all headquartered in South of Market, are reliant on industries that...…Coronavirus is bruising San Francisco’s tech industry.Yelp is laying off 1,000 workers and furloughing another 1,100, roughly a third of its staff, the company said Thursday. Eventbrite laid off 450 employees, or nearly half of its workforce, on Wednesday.Airbnb, which planned to go public this year, raised $1 billion this week as bookings . The company enacted a hiring freeze for most jobs and paused marketing in an effort to save $800 million this year, tech news website the Information .The three companies, which are all headquartered in South of Market, are reliant on industries that...WW…

6If it seems like all the big homeless tent camps in San Francisco have suddenly vanished, that’s because it’s true. City officials are delighted, and street activists are livid.The transformation has actually been gradual, as a unified push by teams of street cleaners, police officers and counselors ramped up over the past year and a half to dismantle 30 of the city’s biggest camps. Since the last large camps were removed last week in the southern part of town, none with more than 10 tents has been allowed to spring up.Mayor Mark Farrell inherited the cleanup from the late Ed Lee when he...…6If it seems like all the big homeless tent camps in San Francisco have suddenly vanished, that’s because it’s true. City officials are delighted, and street activists are livid.The transformation has actually been gradual, as a unified push by teams of street cleaners, police officers and counselors ramped up over the past year and a half to dismantle 30 of the city’s biggest camps. Since the last large camps were removed last week in the southern part of town, none with more than 10 tents has been allowed to spring up.Mayor Mark Farrell inherited the cleanup from the late Ed Lee when he...WW…