San Francisco Online Rental Company Airbnb Gets New York Setback

Add your comment

Short-term rentals just got harder.  A New York judge has ruled against Airbnb, an online service that connects people with space to travelers who need lodging.

Although the ruling in New York doesn't immediately affect other cities where Airnb operates, it's a set back for the San Francisco-based company which hoped to make New York a test case.

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

From CNET:

As Airbnb continues to shake things up for the hotel industry, it's increasingly running into issues with the law, particularly in areas where the law is not clear cut. It's not just in New York -- officials in the company's hometown of San Francisco are concerned about property owners potentially using its service to get around local tenant protections and land use codes.

The New York case of Nigel Warren shows how easily an Airbnb user could fall foul of the law, the New York Times reports.

... when he returned from a three-night trip to Colorado, he heard from his landlord. Special enforcement officers from the city showed up while he was gone, and the landlord received five violations for running afoul of rules related to illegal transient hotels. Added together, the potential fines looked as if they could reach over $40,000.

The Business Insider provided this statement from Airbnb: Continue reading »


Bay Area Awarded Super Bowl in 2016

Add your comment

Super Bowl L will be held in San Francisco—or actually Santa Clara—in 2016.

The 49ers success in recent seasons contributed to the Bay Area's selection as host of the Superbowl. (Chris McGrath)

The 49ers success in recent seasons contributed to the Bay Area's selection as host of the Superbowl. (Chris McGrath)

National media has referred to "San Francisco" in reporting the selection, but the National Football League championship game will actually take place in Santa Clara, where the 49ers are planning to be playing by next year.

Only once has the Bay Area hosted a Super Bowl, in 1985 at Stanford Stadium, where the 49ers beat the Dolphins 38-16.

"I think with the new stadium ... we can host a Super Bowl there," Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice told The Associated Press. "It's going to be awesome ... To stay competitive in the NFL, this is something we have really needed for a long, long time, and I think it's going to be awesome."

Continue reading »


CEO Defends Apple's Tax Maneuvers

Add your comment

by Marcy Gordon and Peter Svensson, AP Business Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate dragged massively profitable Apple Inc. into the debate over the U.S. tax code Tuesday, grilling CEO Tim Cook over allegations that its Irish subsidiaries help the company avoid billions in U.S. taxes.

US-POLITICS-TAX-IT-APPLE

Apple CEO Tim Cook testifies before the U.S. Senate. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

Cook said the subsidiaries have nothing to do with reducing its U.S. taxes, a message he struggled to convey to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

"We pay all the taxes we owe — every single dollar," Cook said. "We don't depend on tax gimmicks."

It was the first time an Apple CEO testified before Congress. Cook did so voluntarily.

The senate subcommittee released a report Monday that held up Apple as an example of the legal tax avoidance made possible by the U.S. tax code. It estimates that Apple avoided at least $3.5 billion in U.S. federal taxes in 2011 and $9 billion in 2012 by using its tax strategy, and described a complex setup involving Irish subsidiaries as being a key element of this strategy.

But Cook said the Irish subsidiaries don't reduce the company's U.S. taxes at all. Rather, the company avoids paying the 35 percent federal tax rate on profits made overseas by not bringing those profits back to the U.S., a practice it shares with other multinationals. Continue reading »


Workers Start 2-Day Strike at UC Hospitals

Add your comment

LOS ANGELES (AP) — University of California medical center workers began a two-day strike Tuesday that could involve thousands of employees and prompted postponement of some surgeries.

Striking workers whistled on the picket line at UC San Francisco. (Andrew Stelzer/KQED)

Striking workers whistled on the picket line at UC San Francisco. (Andrew Stelzer/KQED)

The union representing some 13,000 hospital pharmacists, nursing assistants, operating room scrubs and other health care workers began the walkout at 4 a.m. Tuesday at medical facilities in cities including San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Francisco and Sacramento, home to UC Davis Medical Center.

Green-shirted picketers were in place at the Los Angeles facility.

The union is battling over staffing and pension issues.

"We care about our patients and we feel that we're chronically understaffed and we need additional help," Ruben Gomez, a radiation therapist in Los Angeles, told KCBS-TV. Continue reading »


Proposed California Gun Laws Aim at Safe Storage

Comments (3)

by Elaine Korry

A simple cable lock (in red) looped through the action of an unloaded AR-15 semiautomatic rifle renders the weapon inoperable, in case a child or other unauthorized person gains access to it. (Elaine Korry/KQED)

A simple cable lock (in red) looped through the action of an unloaded AR-15 semiautomatic rifle renders the weapon inoperable, in case a child or other unauthorized person gains access to it. (Elaine Korry/KQED)

Accidental gun deaths have topped news headlines lately, with young people the most likely victims. In Sacramento, several Democratic state lawmakers are sponsoring bills to cut down on these tragic accidents, by making gun owners more accountable for how their weapons are secured.

One measure would make gun owners liable for any harm done by their firearms—regardless of who caused it. Right now they can be held liable if a child gets a hold of their loaded weapon and harms someone. But the proposed law goes further, in that gun owners could be penalized if they leave a loaded weapon unsecured, so that a child simply could access it.

Assembly Whip Jimmy Gomez, a co-sponsor of AB231, wants gun owners to take more precautions. “Keep your gun in a lock box, have a trigger lock, keep the bullets away from the gun itself, and that way if something happens and somebody tries to use your gun, it’s less likely that they’ll be able to get a hold of it, and then actually do something dangerous with it,” said Gomez.

Many gun owners say of course they’re responsible for their firearms, but they don’t need new laws to spell out how to make them safer. “If you have a gun, common sense, without anybody even telling you anything, is to lock it up so there’s no access from anybody that’s not authorized to use a firearm,” said Scott Jackson, a firearms owner and safety instructor in the Bay Area city of Burlingame.

Continue reading »


California Senate OKs Regulations for Medicinal Marijuana

Add your comment

by Don Thompson, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California would take steps to regulate the sale of medical marijuana under a bill approved Monday by the state Senate, restricting cannabis dispensaries that federal prosecutors say have grown out of control.

richard lee oaksterdam

Richard Lee's Oaksterdam was among the marijuana dispensaries targeted by federal agents.(Manny Crisosotomo/Sacramento Bee/MCT via Getty Images)

California voters first supported legalizing marijuana to treat illness in 1996, but federal prosecutors recently cracked down. They said the industry has grown enormously profitable and has made marijuana essentially available for recreational use.

The Senate sent the bill to the Assembly on a 22-12 vote and without any Republican support.

The legislation makes it clear that dispensaries cannot operate at a profit, but that the owners can receive reasonable compensation and reimbursement for expenses.

"This bill is not about the legalization of marijuana,'' said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "It does seek to assure that patients who need medical cannabis have access to it. It is intended to assure that drug cartels and other criminals do not benefit from the lack of regulation.'' Continue reading »


Following the Money, Obama Returns to Bay Area in June

Add your comment
President Barack Obama is greeted before his State of the Union. (Charles Dharapak-Pool/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama is greeted before his State of the Union. (Charles Dharapak-Pool/Getty Images)

President Barack Obama is returning yet again to the Bay Area in early June to raise money for Democrats in the U.S. Senate, according to party officials.

He was last here in April, when he attended  Democratic fundraisers in San Francisco and on the Peninsula.

Obama will be attending fundraising events on June 6 in Palo Alto  and Portola Valley on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The President's trip will include a 5 p.m. reception at the Palo  Alto home of tech entrepreneurs Marci and Mike McCue, of Flipboard.

He will then travel to Portola Valley for a 6:30 p.m. dinner and  discussion at the home of venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and his wife Neeru.

Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., are  also expected to attend both events, as party leaders continue to solicit support from the wealthy enclaves of Silicon Valley.

Tickets for the dinner cost $32,400 per person, and tickets for  the reception start at $2,500, according to the invitation.


Bay to Breakers 2013: Not Without Incident, Full of Color

Add your comment

For many participants, what didn't happen at the Bay to Breakers this year mattered more than what did happen: no bombs went off.

Security staff kept a watchful eye over the racers. (Lauren Benichou/KQED)

Security staff kept a watchful eye over the racers. (Lauren Benichou/KQED)

The bombings at the Boston Marathon raised fears that copy-cat attackers would target San Francisco's highest-profile footrace.

Race organizers and local authorities beefed up security. The measures included extra surveillance cameras, cops in civilian attire, and restrictions on backpacks. And no terrorists appeared.

That doesn't mean nothing happened. Continue reading »


Tumblr Joins Flickr Inside Yahoo, But Where Is the Money?

Add your comment
Marissa Mayer

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer speaks at a WIRED business conference on May 7, 2013 in New York. (Brad Barket/Getty Images for WIRED)

Update at 3 p.m.:

Flickr has announced an upgrade to its service just hours after its owner, Yahoo, announced it is also buying Tumblr. Flickr is in fact getting "biggr," now offering a free terabyte of storage space for photos and videos. From the company announcement: "Just how big is a terabyte? Well, you could take a photo every hour for 40 years without filling one."

Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr for $1.1 billion is the latest of many attempts over the past two decades by established Internet companies to keep up with technology trends and user behaviors that continue to shift and evolve.

The main question for a publicly traded company like Yahoo is how to turn Tumblr into a revenue producer that contributes to its bottom line.

Tumblr is best known as a microblogging and social networking service that facilitates creative multimedia postings. As of today, the site boasts 108.7 million blogs and 50.9 billion posts, and launches about 900 new posts per second.

Tumblr thus joins Flickr as another member of Yahoo’s Web 2.0 family with a name sporting a dropped “e.” Continue reading »


Corrosion Problems on New Bridge Date Back 9 Years

Add your comment
The old and new eastern spans of the Bay Bridge

The old and new eastern spans of the Bay Bridge. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)

Update at 1:10 p.m: Caltrans has responded to the Sacramento Bee report: "All the Skyway tendons are stressed, properly grouted, and performing as designed and will do so for the next 150 years."

Update at 10:15 a.m: Governor Jerry Brown said that he takes safety concerns about the Bay Bridge "very seriously, and that thing's not going to open unless it's ready."

Corrosion problems have plagued the construction of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge for years before anchor bolts snapped in March, the Sacramento Bee’s Charles Pillar reported this weekend:

• Beginning in 2004, inspectors frequently warned Caltrans about water leaks and corrosion.

• Experts blamed water problems on design or construction errors. Leaks of grout—a cement-based filler that normally prevents or halts corrosion—between hundreds of ducts forced long construction delays that left steel tendons exposed, making further corrosion likely.

• Caltrans used the wrong tests for corrosion, resulting in "essentially useless" findings, said UC Berkeley engineering professor Thomas Devine, an authority on corrosion-caused cracking in metals. He called the agency's research "woefully inadequate" for detecting "environmentally assisted cracking," which can worsen as tendons fatigue under stress, and can ultimately cause breaks.

This Caltrans video discusses the role of the various components, including the steel tendons meant to give the bridge ”extra strength and lift.”

A related video, dramatically called "The War on Corrosion" is also available on YouTube.

In a written statement in response to the Bee's report, Bay Bridge project spokesman Andrew Gordon stated: "Corrosion has been an issue since the first steel bridge was built, and what we learned from this particular challenge six years ago is that we're never going to be done fighting the battle against corrosion in the San Francisco Bay."