San Francisco

"Not in my back yard..."

San Francisco is one of the most progressive cities in the nation, especially when it comes to national immigration, notes San Francisco Chronicle's Vincent Woo.

We believe so much in the natural right of people to join us here in America that we fought to keep our status as sanctuary city even in the face of being federally defunded for it. We pride ourselves on our rejection of plans to tighten immigration controls and deport undocumented immigrants.

Starting Wednesday, Uber is expanding its tests of self-driving vehicles to San Francisco allowing the public to ride in autonomous Volvos. Test drivers will be present in the SUVs in case a human needs to intervene. Tests will be limited to downtown San Francisco in about two dozen Volvos.

What is surprising about Uber's decision is that it is launching the rollout without the prior permission of the California DMV.

On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in an insider trading case for the first time in two decades, upheld the conviction of a Chicago man - Bassam Salman - in a decision that could make it easier to prosecute people accused of profiting from confidential information.

Last week we reported, that in an unprecedented attempt to breach the personal privacy of users of the largest bitcoin exchange in the US, Coinbase, the IRS filed papers seeking a judicial order to serve a so-called “John Doe” summons on the San Francisco-based Bitcoin platform.

We have frequently written over the past couple of quarters about the bubbly San Francisco housing market that looks set for another epic reversal as home prices have reached staggering new highs just as employment levels seem to be rolling over.  With home prices now implying that only 10-20% of residents can afford the "median" priced home, it's certainly not difficult to understand why demand may be waning.