SAN FRANCISCO — It has been a bad week for robots in the San Francisco Bay Area. A Silicon Valley company that used robots to make its pizzas closed this week, and three coffee shops in downtown San Francisco that used robots as baristas also shuttered. Zume Pizza said it...
Los Angeles Tourist Car Burglaries Linked to Bay Area Gangs
LOS ANGELES — A surge of thefts from vehicles parked at tourist locations on the west side of Los Angeles has been linked to San Francisco Bay Area gang members, authorities say. The Los Angeles and Beverly Hills police departments and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are trying to stem...
Man Stabbed to Death Aboard San Francisco Area Train
SAN FRANCISCO — A man who was stabbed to death aboard a San Francisco Bay Area commuter train Tuesday may have been trying to stop the theft of another rider’s shoes, authorities said. The man was stabbed around 1 p.m. aboard a BART train pulling into a Hayward station. Police...
PG&E Says Power Lines May Have Started 2 More Fires
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. power lines may have started two wildfires over the weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area, the utility said, even though widespread blackouts were in place to prevent downed lines from starting fires during dangerously windy weather. The fires described in PG&E...
2 Guilty in $1B Fraud as Feds Auction Burt Reynolds Trans Am
SACRAMENTO — Two employees of a San Francisco Bay Area solar energy company pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in what federal prosecutors say was a massive scheme that defrauded investors of $1 billion. While the company’s owners have not been charged, they agreed to let the government auction their collection...
Earthquake Probed as Possible Cause of So. California Fuel Fire
CROCKETT — Officials were trying to determine Wednesday if a 4.5 magnitude earthquake triggered an explosion at a fuel storage facility in the San Francisco Bay Area that started a fire and trapped thousands in their homes for hours because of potentially unhealthy air. The earthquake struck about 15 miles...
US Citizen Accused of Spying on Behalf of Chinese Government
SAN FRANCISCO — A California man who operates tours for Chinese students and visitors was charged with being an illegal foreign agent and delivering classified U.S. national security information to officials in China, U.S. government officials announced Monday. U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson accused Xuehua Edward Peng, 56, of a...
Man Charged in Kidnapping of Bay Area Ride-Share Driver
RICHMOND — Authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area have charged a man in connection with the alleged kidnapping and attempted murder of a Lyft driver last week. The Richmond Police Department said Wednesday prosecutors charged Marcus Dean with kidnapping and attempted murder after he allegedly held a gun to...
California Warehouse Fire Limps on After Hung Jury
OAKLAND — An emotionally taxing criminal case over the deaths of 36 people trapped in a fire inside a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse nearly three years ago will continue after a jury acquitted one defendant and deadlocked on the other. Jurors deliberated over a two-week period before they acquitted...
Walters: It's Time to Derail the Bullet Train
A decade ago, shortly after California voters narrowly approved a $9.95 billion bond issue to finance a statewide high-speed rail train system, an official involved in early planning for the project confided a dirty little secret. While a 200-mph bullet train was the sizzle sold to voters, he told me,...