Politics

Two Articles Claim Scott Wiener Misused Funds

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Pelosi’s Potential Successor Is Pushing the Limits of Super PAC Coordination

By Mark Alfred : washingtonsun – excerpt…

A 2024 Federal Election Commission advisory opinion opened the door to super PAC-campaign coordination when it comes to paid canvassing activities, but federal election law typically does not permit campaign committees and super PACs to coordinate efforts beyond that… (more)

Election Extra! Saikat Chakrabarti files illegal-coordination complaint about Scott Wiener PAC

by Io Yeh Gilman : missionlocal – excerpt

Former congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission about Sen. Scott Wiener’s campaign. The complaint alleges that Sen. Scott Wiener’s congressional campaign may have illegally shared expenses and coordinated with a PAC, Families for an Affordable San Francisco.

The alleged coordination was the subject of an article in the Washington Sun on Oct. 15.

Among other issues, the complaint flags that several staff members are paid by both the PAC and the campaign, an arrangement that the complaint says could mean that the PAC has paid for work that is not canvassing related… (more)

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CA, CEQA, Planning, Politics, water

San Francisco’s Luxury Tower Flooded From the 35th Floor Down — Twice — And Sat Empty for 19 Months

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Falling Mansions

A catastrophic mechanical failure inside a modern high-rise can turn multi-million-dollar real estate into an uninhabitable disaster zone overnight. This investigative documentary explores how high-pressure infrastructure failures gut luxury developments, why city building departments issue red-tag evacuations, and how corporate landlords use legal address rebrands to mask structural history from prospective tenants.

We examine the physics behind catastrophic skyscraper floods, the legal loopholes that leave luxury renters without municipal rent-board protections, and the prolonged courtroom battles over multimillion-dollar remediation efforts.

Viewers will discover the hidden construction risks embedded within modern residential glass towers, the financial realities of extended building red-tags, and the digital marketing tactics developers deploy to reset public perception.

This channel explores architectural failures, high-end real estate developments, and structural engineering controversies through documented public records and forensic investigative reporting… (more)

Looks like the lemon law only applies to used cars. Perhaps it should be extended to housing and other products that are damaged, fixed and put on the market as “new” undamaged goods.

Pacific Ocean, water

California’s oceans have become shockingly warm. And strange things are happening

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By Anthony Edwards : sfchronicle via calmatters (audio)

Ocean temperatures off the California coast are surging to shockingly high levels as a historic El Niño grows even stronger.

On Monday, a sea surface temperature of 74.5 degrees Fahrenheit was measured at the Scripps Pier in San Diego. It’s the highest temperature measured this late in the year at the pier in more than a century of records. Daily records are being set as far north as Point Reyes, with temperatures running as high as 9 degrees above normal in Monterey and Santa Barbara.

The unusual heat is drawing tropical fish coastward, killing kelp forests, pushing tides to record high heights and providing extra fuel for storms.

Here are things scientists are monitoring with the record heat.

Warm seas, high tides

A major reason for the record warmth is a coastally trapped Kelvin wave, a hallmark of El Niño.

This Kelvin wave originated at the equator this summer before reaching California earlier this month. Its energy pushed the thermocline — the transition zone between warm surface water and cold water below — hundreds of feet deeper. That makes winds, waves and currents less effective at mixing cooler, nutrient-rich water to the surface… (more)

Scientists predict:  intense downpours and tornadoes, and effects of wildlife. A recent trip to ocean beach confirms the warmer water, a strong undercurrent higher than normal tides.

Energy, Politics

60 Minutes Transcript: Helium in short supply as Iran war continues, with spot prices tripling

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By Jon Werhaim and Lucy Hatcher :  cbsnews – excerpt
(link to 13 minute sequence)

Helium, key for semiconductor manufacturing and medical equipment (and munitions) , faces shortage | 60 Minutes 

You’ve no doubt noticed that since the war with Iran broke out, gas prices have spiked: up more than 50% since January. But there’s another, less well known, natural resource also impacted by the conflict: helium. The world — and the war — don’t function without it. No helium? No new cellphones, laptops, cars, MRI machines, missiles: all require this finite and irreplaceable resource. The closing of the Strait of Hormuz in February trapped one-third of the global helium supply. Then just weeks later: Iranian strikes on Qatar’s major gas facility further rattled the supply chain. With the extent of the damage unknown, American industry is left desperate for answers as the helium crisis remains up in the air… (more)

Qatar is a major supplier and nothing is leaving their ports now.

 

 

CA, CEQA, deregulated housing bills, Planning, Politics

As new North Bay neighborhood nears approval, environmental concerns weigh heavily

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By Keith Mizuguchi : kqed – excerpt

For the past 11 months, Jennifer Sullivan has been anxiously trying to sound an alarm. The Esmeralda Land Company has proposed building a resort hotel, hundreds of homes, an event center, a preschool and a public park on a 266-acre property that once housed a wood treatment plant.

Tucked in the Sonoma County town of Cloverdale, the 8-acre plant was known to use harmful chemicals and discharged them into the soil and groundwater, she said. Sullivan worries that disturbing the site with new development could resurface those chemicals and expose current residents to new harms. “This is the community that I live in,” Sullivan said. “The decision to approve this development is serious — it’s got serious consequences for our water, for public health.”

On Wednesday, the Cloverdale City Council will consider whether to approve the project — one of the largest developments in the city’s recent history — along with its extensive community benefits package and already-completed environmental reviews, essentially clearing the path for its eventual construction. As it does, however, council members are weighing the homes, jobs and tax revenue such a project might generate against a new wave of concerns from residents over environmental harms.

Esmeralda CEO Devon Zuegel said she generally understands those concerns but argues the project has already undergone extensive environmental reviews. “This site has been studied for over two decades continuously,” Zuegel said. “And if 20 years is not a long enough review, I just don’t understand, is 100 years enough — 25 years? What is the point where it becomes enough?”

Still, Sullivan isn’t satisfied. And she’s preparing to take the fight to voters. If the city council approves the Esmeralda development as is, Sullivan wants a referendum and said she’ll start collecting signatures to place such a measure on a ballot… (more)

Anybody see a reason to vote NO on Prop 45 to make these projects more transparent? And a reason why half the cities in California are ready to fight the Wiener bills that overplayed the state’s hand by removing local control?
Efforts by Our Neighborhood Voices to reverse the trend are paying off. 

CEQA, Energy, Planning, Politics, water

AI Data Centers Have a Heat Problem

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US data centers convert vast amounts of electricity into waste heat, which can raise temperatures in nearby neighborhoods. Researchers in Phoenix found temperatures increasing downwind of one data center there.

As the artificial intelligence boom drives greater power use and the expansion of data-center clusters near urban areas, cooling alternatives and heat-reuse systems offer potential solutions. But cost, infrastructure and limited incentives have slowed their adoption.

AI Data Centers Release Heat, Posing New Problem for Cities: https://bloom.bg/4jk7YmS

As facilities to power artificial intelligence grow larger and are built in clusters, they are sending hot air into surrounding neighborhoods.

CA, Politics

Governor Newsom Signs AB 1265

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by California Preservation Foundation

A Major Victory for Historic Preservation in California – Extending California’s Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Through 2031 
New law extends California’s Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit through 2031 and strengthens a critical tool for adaptive reuse, housing, downtown revitalization, and reinvestment in historic places.

Preservation as a Tool for California’s Future

AB 1265 does more than continue an existing preservation program. It more closely connects historic rehabilitation with some of California’s most pressing housing and economic-development needs.

Historic rehabilitation projects frequently face financing gaps because of the added costs involved in adapting older buildings for contemporary use. By helping close those gaps, rehabilitation tax credits can make otherwise infeasible projects possible—creating housing through adaptive reuse, revitalizing downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts, supporting construction activity, and returning vacant or underused buildings to productive use… (more)

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CEQA, deregulated housing bills, Housing, Politics

There may be a buyer for the site of the proposed 39-story skyscraper

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By Norah Sheppards-Hutchins : padailypost – excerpt

There may be a potential buyer of the 80 Willow Road property in Men1o Park where a Russian billionaire wants to build a 39-story skyscraper, Councilman Drew Combs said Wednesday.

Over the last several weeks, Combs and Mayor Betsy Nash have been involved in discussions with the potential buyer, Combs said in an interview with the Post.

“They have presented themselves in their interactions with the city that it’s not an effort that looks to redevelop the property in the near term,” Combs said…

“They have indicated that their intended use of the campus could be accommodated with only minimal interior modifications,” Combs said… (more)

CEQA, deregulated housing bills, Politics

Silicon Valley congressman alleges major project is tied to Russian oligarch

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By Anabel Sosa : sfgate – excerpt

U.S. Rep Sam Liccardo, a Democrat whose district covers the city, asserted in a letter Wednesday to Department of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the development’s land is owned by Vitaly Yusufov, a Russian whom Liccardo says has been sanctioned by Ukraine and has acted on behalf of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. He said the project’s location near tech companies raises national security concerns…(more)

Politics

Menlo Park rejects state’s demand to approve Sunset magazine high-rise as a new property buyer emerges

by Arden Margulis and Hannah Bensen : almanacnews – excerpt (audio)

Current property owner has alleged Kremlin ties

The Menlo Park City Council is ready to fight the state to prevent a high-rise development on the former Sunset magazine campus, even if it means cutting local services to fund the effort, Mayor Betsy Nash announced on Sept. 29. Hours later, Councilmember Drew Combs dropped a bombshell in his newsletter: a “serious” buyer is interested in purchasing the property at 80 Willow Road from the Russian oligarch who reportedly owns it.

“The City Council believes it is important to get this right, even if there are financial consequences and service impacts for the city that may be triggered by our effort to vindicate our rights and protect the Menlo Park community,” said Nash at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. The read-out from closed session is the first report of the council’s closed-door meetings with legal counsel since the state attorney general’s office threatened Menlo Park with fines for its handling of the controversial development application in a July 29 letter…

While there may be interest in buying the property, it would require the current ownership to want to sell. A Sept. 23 letter from Rep. Sam Liccardo that calls for Yusufov to face economic sanctions may be a contributing factor. Liccardo sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging him to investigate the financial backing of 80 Willow and pursue sanctions in hopes of stopping the 80 Willow Road project… (more)