State

SAN FRANCISCO—Andres Roemer, Mexico’s Consul General in San Francisco, invited Donald Trump to attend the MEX I AM festival next week during an interview with KGO-TV. The MEX I AM festival, which debuted last year, is a week-long event that celebrates Mexican culture. Roemer emphasized that the festival could help alter the Republican presidential candidate’s feeling toward Mexicans. “Oh, he's more than...

SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco couple’s divorce has taken an ugly turn following the breakout of a legal and ethical fight over the fate of frozen embryos they created five years ago. The issue began shortly after Dr. Mimi Lee, 46, received a breast cancer diagnosis back in September 2010 that prompted her and her husband, executive Stephen Findley,...

SAN FRANCISCO—A new addition to the San Francisco skyline was approved by the San Francisco Planning Commission last week. Park Tower, planned to be used predominantly for office and retail space, is to be the last of three similar projects currently under way in the area to be opened for leasing. The other two, Salesforce and 181 Fremont Towers, will...

SAN FRANCISCO—Mayor Edward Lee will travel to the Vatican later this month to discuss climate change and human trafficking with United Nations leaders and Pope Francis. Governor Jerry Brown and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo will also be in attendance for the two-day event that begins on July 21. The Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, a scientific academy of...

SAN FRANCISCO—Humpback whales are often spotted during migration months from May to November. Citizens have been reporting a rise in humpback whale sightings off the coast near San Francisco. According to the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, 115 whales were seen in a 1 hour study off the Farallon Islands on July 4. Whales have also been sighted from planes arriving at the...

SAN FRANCISCO—The final flight for US Airways is scheduled to leave San Francisco on October 16 at 10 p.m. and land in Philadelphia roughly five hours later. A separate flight departing from Phoenix is scheduled to arrive in Denver shortly before the final flight reaches Philadelphia. The announcement was officially made by American Airlines on July 10. US Airways merged with...

SAN FRANCISCO—Reddit’s Interim CEO, Ellen Pao, has resigned from the post she held for eight months following increased scrutiny by the Reddit user community. In recent months, Pao became a controversial figure among users due to her exercises in leadership that proved unpopular. Reddit, which is based in San Francisco, will see its original co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman return to...

SAN FRANCISCO—The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has approved an ordinance establishing The Cannabis State Legalization Task Force to advise the city on the local impact of proposed legislation legalizing adult use of cannabis. Members of the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the ordinance on a second reading during Tuesday’s meeting. Supervisor Scott Wiener, who was one of three...

SAN FRANCISCO—The body of 14-year-old San Francisco teenager Marquette Gross was found and identified on Monday, July 6 at Lake Sonoma following a swim on the Fourth of July. Gross hailed from Vistacion Valley, San Francisco and attended Vistacion Valley Middle School as a seventh grader. Just before 4 p.m. Gross, who did not know how to swim, joined another boy on...

CALIFORNIA—On June 3, 2014, tax officials sent a 16-page report to Blue Shield California, the state’s third largest insurer. The tax board did not comment on why blue shield was audited, but after consideration it was decided that the non-profit health plan provider would now have to pay state taxes. They had earlier cited confidentiality reasons for not making...