State

SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco Board of Supervisor for District 3, Aaron Peskin, has proposed legislation that would work to reduce single-use foodware and disposable cups. The legislation was announced on Tuesday, July 23 and would require all food vendors to charge their customers 25-cents for to-go disposable cups and plates. Businesses would provide reusable dishes for customers dining in, but in...

SAN FRANCISCO—The Bay Area experienced a 4.3 magnitude earthquake near the fault line of Livermore on Tuesday, July 16 at 1:11 p.m. The earthquake had a 12.4-kilometer depth and was rated as a level 6 in terms of intensity on USGS’s shakemap. The main earthquake was followed by a 3.4 magnitude aftershock at 1:24 p.m. in the same area. No...

SAN FRANCISCO—Pacific Gas and Electric company (PG&E), California’s largest natural gas and electric utility, announced their Community Wildfire Safety Program’s progress in a news release on Monday, July 15. The program was introduced in February 2019 and its main objective is to “enhance, accelerate, and new programs that PG&E is and will aggressively continue to implement to prevent wildfires...

CALIFORNIA—On Wednesday, July 10, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will offer assistance to undocumented adults from lower-income communities and families between the ages of 19-25 to have healthcare. The bill is on route to go into effect in 2020. The state of California offers Medicaid to individuals under the age of 18, whether they are undocumented or a...

SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco billionaire and philanthropist, Tom Steyer, announced his campaign for the 2020 presidential election on Tuesday, July 9 after denying his interest to run earlier this year. Steyer joined the race a day after Eric Swalwell, the 37-year-old congressman and Democratic presidential candidate dropped from running. Steyer will replace him as the 23rd presidential candidate on an already...

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA—A 5.4 aftershock earthquake hit Southern California one day after the 6.4 earthquake occurred in the isolated Mojave Desert Thursday, July 4. On Friday, July 5 at approximately 11:07 a.m., an aftershock with a magnitude of 5.4 occurred in the desolate Searles Valley in Southern California. The quake was 7 kilometers deep and was rated as “very strong” on...

SAN FRANCISCO—Major Bay Area transit agencies just raised their fares as On Monday, July 1, transportation fares increased for Muni, AC Transit, San Francisco Bay Ferry, and Golden Gate Transit. BART and Caltrain prices have not increased, but with the increase in other transportation fares, it is more expensive to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. California drivers are being hit with...

UNITED STATES—On Thursday, June 27, NASA announced that it’s dispatching a drone named Dragonfly to examine Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. With the help of propellers, Dragonfly will fly and land on various areas on the icy moon to analyze if it can assist microbial life. The nuclear-powered expedition is part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, which lofted the New...

SACRAMENTO—A Sacramento police officer was shot and killed Wednesday, June 19, after responding to a domestic abuse call. Tara O’Sullivan, 26, died at the UC Davis Medical Center after being rushed to the hospital following an hours-long shootout. The Sacramento Police Department received a call regarding a domestic dispute between a man and a woman at approximately 11:43 a.m. Two officers,...

SAN FRANCISCO—On July 1, the city of San Francisco will become the first city to implement a new “open-source bias mitigation tool” using artificial intelligence (AI) to remove racial bias from prosecutor’s charging decisions. The new tool was developed by the Stanford Computational Policy Lab at a no-cost charge to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. According to a press...