It might be time for companies in San Francisco to call employees' bluff

The question, and one asked this week by the San Francisco Chronicle, is why San Francisco isn't bouncing back in the same way. As reporter Roland Li writes: "There's always been a disparity -- New York has 10 times the population of San Francisco -- but the coastal tourism and economic hubs have diverged in striking ways as they recover from the pandemic." Consider, writes Li, that while the construction of major commercial property projects in Manhattan were completed during the pandemic -- and while much of that new office space is almost fully leased -- over in San Francisco, projects have stalled and existing buildings struggle to find tenants because of work-from-home policies.

Charlottesville's First Black Woman Police Chief Fired As Officers Refused to Comply

After a midsummer meeting in June 2021, newly hired police chief RaShall Brackney felt the need to double down on her personal safety, unholstering her gun as she left headquarters. Brackney's fear however was not prompted by the activity on the streets, or even the ongoing public threats made against the police department over the years. Instead, she found herself afraid of her own subordinates, cops who wanted her gone after making some controversial, yet necessary shake ups throughout the force.

Florida Has An Outrageous New Law Targeting Teachers. Here's Why I'll Be Breaking It.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit held at the Tampa Convention Center on July 22 in Tampa, Florida. In a couple of weeks, I'll walk back into my college classroom and continue my second decade of teaching at one of Florida's universities. Despite the recently passed HB 7 Amendment (Stop WOKE Act), I won't be adjusting my syllabi to remove readings or discussions that make students “uncomfortable,” and I won't pretend that systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia and other forms of oppression do not exist.

Emmy-nominated 'Daily Show' correspondent Jordan Klepper talks MAGA rallies, Trump rhetoric: 'It's melting their brains'

I'm talking to a father and his son about how Donald Trump is in charge of the military right now. And these fringe ideas are being codified by a guy like Donald Trump and a bunch of cowards who don't have the guts to stand up to him. He speaks to Americans and then he sends them away from sources that could maybe give them a broader perspective and just into the cesspool of the internet … It's melting [their] brains.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: 'Why can't we get it through our thick skulls?' America boosting oil and gas production is 'not against' climate change

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon spoke to wealthy clients on a call Tuesday, Yahoo Finance reported. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said this week that US natural gas production does not conflict with long-term emission reduction targets, Yahoo Finance first reported. The problem with that is because of high oil and gas prices, the world is turning back on their coal plants.

Norway puts down Freya the walrus that drew Oslo crowds

Authorities in Norway have euthanized a walrus that had drawn crowds of spectators in the Oslo Fjord after concluding that it posed a risk to humans. The 600-kilogram (1,320-pound) female walrus, known affectionately as Freya, became a popular attraction in Norway in recent weeks, despite warnings from officials that people should refrain from getting close and posing for pictures with the massive marine mammal. Freya liked to clamber on small boats, causing damage to them.

In her own words: SC Mega Millions winner’s testimony shows how she lost $83 million to NY attorney

On the morning after she became a multi-millionaire, a South Carolina woman drove by the KC Mart No. in Simpsonville where she bought her lottery ticket, to see if anyone was there, just in case she had made a mistake and didn't really win. It was the largest Mega Millions jackpot to be won by a single ticket — more than $1.5 billion — and she had seen the numbers reported on television.

Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe says Trump has been 'basically at war' with the Iaw enforcement agency since 2016

Former FBI deputy director McCabe said Trump has been "basically at war" with the agency since 2016. McCabe said the sustained attacks have had "a corrosive effect" on morale within the agency. Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe on Friday said that former President Donald Trump has been "basically at war" with the law enforcement agency since 2016 and warned of the risks posed to agents after the former president's Mar-a-Lago residence was searched by federal officials last week.

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  Why did the FBI search Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate? 5 potential explanations

  Palm Beach Daily News
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  Trump warrant: Why did the FBI search Mar-a-Lago and what was found?

  BBC

California governor proposes $1.4 billion loan to keep nuclear plant open

California Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing to give PG&E Corp a $1.4 billion government loan to extend the life of a nuclear power plant it runs by as much as a decade as the state seeks to shore up electric reliability while moving away from fossil fuels, his office said on Friday. The proposal, which would have to be introduced as a bill in the state legislature, is the latest in a series of steps California has made this year to reconsider its 2016 decision to retire the Diablo Canyon power plant by 2025. California wants to produce all of its electricity from clean sources by 2045, but has faced challenges with that transition, such as rolling blackouts during a heatwave in 2020.

47 of the world’s biggest 200 companies still haven’t left Russia. Now the Kremlin is preparing ‘expropriation blackmail,’ an expert says

In the six months since Russia invaded Ukraine, around 300 global companies have exited the Russian market, and another 700 have halted new investments and projects, or curbed operations in the country. Western firms from the U.S. and Europe dominate the long list, which includes banks Citi and Goldman Sachs, apparel brands like Burberry and Adidas, and technology giants like IBM, Intel, Snap and Twitter, according to research from the Yale School of Management. The large-scale corporate exodus, alongside tough western sanctions, has devastated the Russian economy—reversing decades of foreign investment and cooperation—despite the Kremlin's continued petrodollar inflow and its insistence that Russia is faring just fine.

'What is wrong with this state?' Holland resident might leave Michigan after housing nightmare

"What I had left evaporated into nothing," he said. "I had to try to find work here in West Michigan and there was nothing in Holland, so there was Muskegon or Grand Rapids." But job after job didn't pan out.

Italy's Lake Garda shrinks to near-historic low amid drought

Italy's worst drought in decades has reduced Lake Garda, the country's largest lake, to near its lowest level ever recorded, exposing swaths of previously underwater rocks and warming the water to temperatures that approach the average in the Caribbean Sea. Tourists flocking to the popular northern lake Friday for the start of Italy's key summer long weekend found a vastly different landscape than in past years. An expansive stretch of bleached rock extended far from the normal shoreline, ringing the southern Sirmione Peninsula with a yellow halo between the green hues of the water and the trees on the shore.

The US could lose up to 900 warplanes fighting a Chinese invasion of Taiwan but would emerge victorious, says think tank

A think tank ran war game analyses for a conflict between the US and China over Taiwan. One of the analysts told Insider the US and Taiwan would likely succeed in beating back a Chinese invasion. The US and Taiwan would likely be able to fend off a Chinese invasion, but it would come with heavy losses on both sides, a think tank analysis finds.

Gang of female shoplifters stole thousands of dollars worth of men's Nike boxer shorts from Kohl's stores, investigators say

Police say three women stole about $1,800 worth of men's underwear from a Kohl's store in Newnan, Georgia. Kohl's says they stole Nike men's boxer shorts, which cost between $26 and $40, per Fox 5 Atlanta. More than $6,000 worth of high-end men's underwear has been stolen from Kohl's stores in the area, say police.

Are naps actually good for you? Here’s what sleep experts say

Taking a nap when you're sick is a sign that your immune system is doing its job, Waters says. "When you are sick, your immune cells release chemical messengers to direct the body's response and healing," she explains. "These messengers also make you sleepy."

Abbott lead over O’Rourke steady in new Texas poll

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has maintained a 7-point lead over Democratic nominee Beto O'Rourke in the Lone Star state's governor's race, new polling shows. The Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll showed Abbott's 46 to 39 percent lead over O'Rourke remained steady since May. Abbott pulled the bulk of his support from the state's Republican constituents in the new survey, with over three-quarters saying they “approve” or “strongly approve” of his handling of the governorship — compared to just 22 percent of Democrats.

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  Jack Fink's one-on-one with gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke

  CBS-Dallas
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  Beto O’Rourke urges common ground in Fort Worth Rotary Club address

  Fort Worth Star-Telegram

J.J. Watt feels like ‘a wimp’ after bathroom drama at home

J.J. Watt had an unwanted guest in his bathroom Saturday morning. The Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman is ready to handle anything and everything on the field. What he wasn't about to handle, touch or get near was the “baby rattlesnake” curled up in the corner of one of the bathrooms at his home.

Ukraine targets Russian soldiers accused of threatening nuclear plant

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Russian soldiers who shoot at Europe's largest nuclear power station or use it as a base to shoot from that they will become a "special target" for Ukrainian forces. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the establishment of a demilitarised zone at the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine amid fears of a nuclear catastrophe over renewed shelling in the past days, for which Russia and Ukraine blame each other. Zelenskiy, who did not give any details, reiterated that he considered Russia was using the plant, which it captured early in the war but is still being run by Ukrainians, as nuclear blackmail.

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  Ukraine says it is targeting Russians shooting at, or from nuclear plant

  Reuters
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  Ukraine targeting Russians shooting at nuclear plant -Zelenskiy

  Reuters Videos

Experts warn California of a disaster 'larger than any in world history.' It's not an earthquake.

Megadrought may be the main weather concern across the West right now amid the constant threat of wildfires and earthquakes. Climate change is increasing the risk of floods that could submerge cities and displace millions of people across the state, according to a study released Friday. It says that an extreme monthlong storm could bring feet of rain – in some places, more than 100 inches – to hundreds of miles of California.

Azov Regiment Commander Prokopenko taken to Russia his wife

SUNDAY, 14 AUGUST 2022, 12:23 Russian media have reported that Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment, has been taken to Russia, but government agencies and the Red Cross have yet to confirm this. Source: Kateryna Prokopenko, wife of Azov Regiment Commander Denys Prokopenko, in interview for Suspilne Quote from Kateryna: "I only know that he was taken to Russia and, generally speaking, this has not been confirmed yet. I found out about Denys's whereabouts through Russian media.

Arizona won't wait for feds, starts filling border wall gaps

Arizona began moving in shipping containers to close a 1,000-foot gap in the border wall near the southern Arizona farming community of Yuma on Friday, with officials saying they were acting to stop migrants after repeated, unfulfilled promises from the Biden administration to block off the area. The move by Arizona comes without explicit permission on federal land, with state contractors starting to move in 60-foot-long (18.3-meter-long) shipping containers and stacking two of the 9-foot-tall (2.7-meter-tall) containers on top of each other early Friday.

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  Arizona deploys shipping containers in border wall

  Associated Press Videos
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  Arizona to close border wall whether Feds like it or not

  KGUN - Tucson Scripps

Former homeland security adviser for Mike Pence said she once 'found classified documents in the ladies' room'

A former White House adviser said she once found classified documents "in the ladies' room." Olivia Troye served as homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence. A former homeland security adviser during the Trump administration said she once found classified documents "in the ladies' room" at the White House.

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  What to Know About Classified Documents After the Trump Raid

  The Daily Beast
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  New details about classified documents FBI took from Trump's home

  CBS-Newyork

Two road bridges to Russian occupied territory in Kherson Oblast out of use, UK says

The two primary road bridges giving access to the pocket of Russian occupied territory on the west bank of the Dnipro in Kherson Oblast are now probably out of use for the purposes of substantial military resupply, British military intelligence said on Saturday. Even if Russia manages to make significant repairs to the bridges, they will remain a key vulnerability, the UK's Ministry of Defence said. "Ground resupply for the several thousand Russian troops on the west bank is almost certainly reliant on just two pontoon ferry crossing points," the ministry said in an intelligence update.