Issues
Tech
AI is compressing software development timelines by 100x, reshaping who gets to build—a quarter of YC startups now have 95% of their code written by AI, with some teams hitting $10M in revenue with fewer than 10 people. The binding constraints have shifted upstream: from writing code to knowing what to build, from compute to the power grid that runs it, from model capability to memory architecture that persists across sessions. YC's S26 batch reflects the new priorities, with a hard-tech pivot toward energy and AI-native service companies attacking trillion-dollar industries still running on human labor.
$215 Billion New City Gets Historic Labor Deal
Jan 28, 2026
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 06, 2026
Airbnb's Cofounder Is Redesigning America
Feb 06, 2026
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 13, 2026
Washington's Tax Blitz Could Kill the Sonics—And the Startup Economy
Feb 19, 2026
Bernie Sanders Can't Explain American Innovation
Feb 21, 2026
Anthropic's War on Its Own Power Users
Feb 25, 2026
Brain Computer Interfaces Are Now Giving Sight Back to the Blind
Mar 06, 2026
New York Wants to Ban the AI That Outscores Doctors
Mar 13, 2026
The BASED Act Comes for Big Tech
Apr 02, 2026
SFO Is Trying to Bury Waymo
Apr 07, 2026
From AI Doomerism to Molotov Cocktail
Apr 20, 2026
The Compute Is Ready. The Grid Isn't.
Apr 30, 2026
Personal AI Is in Its Homebrew Computer Club Phase
May 02, 2026
The Seeker and the Builder Are the Same Person
May 07, 2026
Miss the YC Deadline? Gustaf Is Watching Friday.
May 05, 2026
Your AI Forgets Everything. GBrain and MemPalace Don't.
May 06, 2026
State Capacity
Sacramento lawmakers killed two bipartisan bills that would have made lobbyist letters public in real time—joining a separate move to shield taxpayer-funded immigration nonprofits from journalistic scrutiny under penalty of $4,000 fines. Together, the two stories reveal a Legislature that is actively blocking the tools citizens need to see how decisions get made. Meanwhile, recent reporting on SFMTA's phantom housing promises and a court-delayed disease outbreak in Berkeley show what that accountability vacuum costs in practice.
Sacramento Sabotages Prop 36 After Voters Spoke
Jan 20, 2026
Oakland's Coliseum Fiasco: Managed by Clowns
Jan 27, 2026
Stanford's Fake Disability Crisis Is America's Future
Feb 03, 2026
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 06, 2026
Airbnb's Cofounder Is Redesigning America
Feb 06, 2026
This Citizen's Union Is Throwing a Party March 4 in Mountain View, California
Feb 11, 2026
BART's 'Leave Them Be' Order Burned the Transbay Tube
Feb 25, 2026
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 01, 2026
Lurie's Charter Reset Is a Masterclass
Mar 05, 2026
Why Is Los Angeles Spending $20M on 32 Empty Housing Units?
Mar 26, 2026
BART Paid Consultants to Say Fare Evasion Didn't Matter — Then Lost the Receipt
Mar 26, 2026
California Auditors Confirmed Billions in Fraud. The State Ignored Them.
Apr 03, 2026
SFO Is Trying to Bury Waymo
Apr 07, 2026
A Tropical Disease Hit a Berkeley Homeless Encampment. Courts Blocked Cleanup.
Apr 12, 2026
SFMTA Promised 465 Affordable Units. There Was Never a Plan to Pay for Them.
Apr 17, 2026
After a Rigged Review Process, SFUSD Just Approved Its New Ethnic Studies Curriculum
Apr 28, 2026
Exposing Nonprofit Fraud Could Come With a Price Tag
May 01, 2026
Half a Billion in Lobbying, Zero Transparency
May 22, 2026
Public Safety & Policing
Anti-AI violence escalated dramatically in April 2026 when a 20-year-old tied to PauseAI threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's home and threatened to burn down OpenAI headquarters—part of a pattern of ideologically motivated attacks that also includes a shooting targeting a city councilman over data centers. Meanwhile, San Francisco's public safety infrastructure shows deepening dysfunction: its courts resolve just 32% of cases and have submitted zero data to the state in five years, stolen wine sells openly at 7th and Market while legal sellers wait six months for permits, and a leptospirosis outbreak at a Berkeley encampment festered for months as courts blocked cleanup.
Oakland's Crime Crisis by the Numbers
Jan 05, 2026
Lawsuit Wants to Ban the Tech That Caught My Wife's Hit-and-Run Driver
Jan 31, 2026
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
NYC's Socialist Mayor Raids the Piggy Bank
Feb 18, 2026
While SF stopped Prosecuting Drug Dealers, 3,700 People Overdosed
Feb 24, 2026
Richmond Cut Its Crime Cameras. Car Thefts Jumped 33%.
Mar 05, 2026
A parole officer sent an email: "Agents must not search for violations." Then two women died.
Mar 05, 2026
Chinatown Stabbing Victim Got No Press Conference
Mar 06, 2026
Yes, Fare Gates Actually Reduce Crime
Mar 13, 2026
He Killed Grandpa Vicha. Tomorrow, He Walks Free
Mar 24, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
Richmond Just Voted to Reinstate Their Flock Cameras After Crime Spiked
Mar 28, 2026
SF Courts Won't Show Their Work
Apr 08, 2026
The Easiest Way to Sell Wine in San Francisco Is Illegally
Apr 01, 2026
A Tropical Disease Hit a Berkeley Homeless Encampment. Courts Blocked Cleanup.
Apr 12, 2026
Oakland Has a Gang Problem Disguised as a Gun Problem
Apr 08, 2026
From AI Doomerism to Molotov Cocktail
Apr 20, 2026
State Politicians
California's Legislature is under fire on multiple fronts: lawmakers killed two bipartisan transparency bills that would have exposed lobbyist influence in real time, while the state grapples with a structural deficit running $20–30 billion annually after spending outpaced revenue growth by 10 points under Newsom. Meanwhile, a bill that could expose journalists covering immigration nonprofits to $4,000-per-violation fines is one committee vote from the Assembly floor, and a landmark antitrust bill targeting Apple, Amazon, and Google is working its way through Sacramento after DC failed to act.
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
Mahan wants to fix the waste. Steyer just wants to raise taxes.
Feb 19, 2026
Steyer's $20 Billion "Trump Tax Loophole" Is a Lie
Feb 25, 2026
The Builder Class vs The Luxury Beliefs Class
Feb 27, 2026
The BASED Act Comes for Big Tech
Apr 02, 2026
California Auditors Confirmed Billions in Fraud. The State Ignored Them.
Apr 03, 2026
Exposing Nonprofit Fraud Could Come With a Price Tag
May 01, 2026
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
May 07, 2026
Half a Billion in Lobbying, Zero Transparency
May 22, 2026
Merit & Excellence
Paul Graham is pushing back on AOC's claim that billionaires can't earn their wealth, arguing his two decades evaluating thousands of founders at Y Combinator proves the opposite. Meanwhile, SFUSD just voted 6-1 to approve an ethnic studies curriculum backed by a review process critics say was rigged from the start — with a legal challenge already filed the same night. Both fights are part of a broader California battle over whether outcomes should be shaped by merit or by political design.
UC Regents Knew SAT Ban Was Wrong—Voted for It Anyway
Jan 23, 2026
Blanket Visa Bans Punish America's Best Immigrants
Jan 28, 2026
Stanford's Fake Disability Crisis Is America's Future
Feb 03, 2026
Noam Chomsky Denied a Genocide, Advised Epstein, and Paid No Price.
Mar 05, 2026
California Will Lose a Million Students
Apr 23, 2026
After a Rigged Review Process, SFUSD Just Approved Its New Ethnic Studies Curriculum
Apr 28, 2026
Yes, You Can Earn a Billion Dollars
May 08, 2026
Techno-Optimism
AI is now writing 95% of code at a quarter of YC startups, compressing two-day engineering tasks to 15 minutes and enabling teams under 10 people to hit $10M in revenue—a shift Garry Tan argues moves the scarce resource from technical skill to taste and judgment. The energy grid powering this boom is straining to keep up, with US data centers projected to consume 10% of national electricity by 2028, while Germany's nuclear phase-out stands as a cautionary tale: Chancellor Merz now calls it both "a serious strategic mistake" and "irreversible."
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 13, 2026
Anthropic's War on Its Own Power Users
Feb 25, 2026
Brain Computer Interfaces Are Now Giving Sight Back to the Blind
Mar 06, 2026
The Compute Is Ready. The Grid Isn't.
Apr 30, 2026
Personal AI Is in Its Homebrew Computer Club Phase
May 02, 2026
The Seeker and the Builder Are the Same Person
May 07, 2026
Your AI Forgets Everything. GBrain and MemPalace Don't.
May 06, 2026
Asset Seizure Taxes
AOC's claim that "you can't earn a billion dollars" sparked a direct rebuttal from Y Combinator's Paul Graham, who argues his two decades of evaluating founders proves billionaires are made through value creation, not exploitation. That debate lands against a backdrop of congressional proposals to tax unrealized gains on illiquid assets—a policy already tried and abandoned across Europe—while California's own nonpartisan analysts confirm the state's spending grew 10 points faster than revenue, making new wealth taxes a shaky fix for a structural problem. The core question driving every story here: does taxing wealth destroy the engine that creates it?
The NIMBY Millionaire Behind California's Asset Seizure
Jan 27, 2026
The Wealth Exodus Is Live: Watch California Die
Feb 11, 2026
Washington's Tax Blitz Could Kill the Sonics—And the Startup Economy
Feb 19, 2026
Mahan wants to fix the waste. Steyer just wants to raise taxes.
Feb 19, 2026
Bernie Sanders Can't Explain American Innovation
Feb 21, 2026
Asset Seizure: A One-Act Play
Mar 03, 2026
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
May 07, 2026
Yes, You Can Earn a Billion Dollars
May 08, 2026
Criminal Justice
Oakland's gang violence data shows less than 2,000 residents drive the majority of the city's gun homicides — and targeted intervention, not gun control, is what cut shootings in half. Meanwhile, San Francisco's criminal justice system is under scrutiny on multiple fronts: a judge just released the killer of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee on probation after pretrial credit math erased his sentence, and the city's courts haven't reported a single data point to the state in five years while resolving just 32% of cases filed.
Sacramento Sabotages Prop 36 After Voters Spoke
Jan 20, 2026
A parole officer sent an email: "Agents must not search for violations." Then two women died.
Mar 05, 2026
Chinatown Stabbing Victim Got No Press Conference
Mar 06, 2026
He Killed Grandpa Vicha. Tomorrow, He Walks Free
Mar 24, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
SF Courts Won't Show Their Work
Apr 08, 2026
Oakland Has a Gang Problem Disguised as a Gun Problem
Apr 08, 2026
Housing & YIMBY
California is projected to lose nearly one million public school students by 2031—a 15.7% enrollment collapse driven by the state's housing affordability crisis chasing families to Idaho, Florida, and beyond. Meanwhile, San Francisco just gutted 365 of the 465 affordable units promised atop the Potrero Yard bus facility, exposing a pattern of housing commitments made without funding to back them up. From nonprofit LLCs obscuring taxpayer money to progressive rent-freeze proposals that economists say will kill new construction, California's housing dysfunction runs deeper than any single policy failure.
The NIMBY Millionaire Behind California's Asset Seizure
Jan 27, 2026
$215 Billion New City Gets Historic Labor Deal
Jan 28, 2026
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
California Taxes Affordable Housing Into Oblivion
Feb 10, 2026
NYC's Socialist Mayor Raids the Piggy Bank
Feb 18, 2026
The Builder Class vs The Luxury Beliefs Class
Feb 27, 2026
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 01, 2026
The Left's Housing Math Doesn't Add Up
Mar 07, 2026
SFMTA Promised 465 Affordable Units. There Was Never a Plan to Pay for Them.
Apr 17, 2026
California Will Lose a Million Students
Apr 23, 2026
Budgets & Fiscal Policy
California's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office just confirmed what critics have long argued: state spending grew 10 points faster than revenue since the pandemic, producing structural deficits of $20–30 billion every year with no end in sight. The same period saw $20 billion in EDD fraud, an unpaid $21 billion federal loan, and a BART transit agency that hired consultants to argue against fare enforcement—then lost the invoice. From Sacramento's budget hole to SF's 540-page charter, California's fiscal dysfunction is no longer a warning sign; it's the operating condition.
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 06, 2026
California Taxes Affordable Housing Into Oblivion
Feb 10, 2026
The Wealth Exodus Is Live: Watch California Die
Feb 11, 2026
NYC's Socialist Mayor Raids the Piggy Bank
Feb 18, 2026
Mahan wants to fix the waste. Steyer just wants to raise taxes.
Feb 19, 2026
Lurie's Charter Reset Is a Masterclass
Mar 05, 2026
BART Paid Consultants to Say Fare Evasion Didn't Matter — Then Lost the Receipt
Mar 26, 2026
California Auditors Confirmed Billions in Fraud. The State Ignored Them.
Apr 03, 2026
California Will Lose a Million Students
Apr 23, 2026
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
May 07, 2026
Homelessness & Drug Crisis
A tropical disease common in the developing world is spreading through a Berkeley homeless encampment while courts block cleanup—the latest sign that legal injunctions are now a bigger obstacle to basic public health than the crises themselves. Across California, the failures are compounding: Los Angeles spent $20 million and four years to produce 32 empty housing units, a homeless RV fire knocked out BART's Transbay Tube for 12 hours after officials knew about the hazard and did nothing, and data shows San Francisco's collapse in drug enforcement coincided with overdose deaths tripling to 810 per year. The thread connecting all of it is a system that spends enormous sums, tolerates preventable harm, and answers for none of it.
Housing Won't Fix This. It's the Drugs.
Jan 15, 2026
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
Chan and Fielder Vote to Keep People Dying on Sidewalks
Feb 11, 2026
BART's 'Leave Them Be' Order Burned the Transbay Tube
Feb 25, 2026
While SF stopped Prosecuting Drug Dealers, 3,700 People Overdosed
Feb 24, 2026
Why Is Los Angeles Spending $20M on 32 Empty Housing Units?
Mar 26, 2026
A Tropical Disease Hit a Berkeley Homeless Encampment. Courts Blocked Cleanup.
Apr 12, 2026
Media & Narrative
Garry's List is launching its inaugural Civic Impact Awards to spotlight the newsletters, reporters, and creators helping Californians make sense of the June 2 primary — nominations are open now. Meanwhile, a bill moving through Sacramento could expose journalists covering immigration nonprofits to $4,000-per-violation fines with no press exemption, raising serious free speech alarms as it nears the Assembly floor.
The NIMBY Millionaire Behind California's Asset Seizure
Jan 27, 2026
Noam Chomsky Denied a Genocide, Advised Epstein, and Paid No Price.
Mar 05, 2026
Most Democrats Want Normal. Nationally It's Going Bad. In San Francisco, There's Hope.
Mar 07, 2026
From AI Doomerism to Molotov Cocktail
Apr 20, 2026
Exposing Nonprofit Fraud Could Come With a Price Tag
May 01, 2026
Introducing the Garry's List Civic Impact Awards
May 11, 2026
Asian American Issues
Antoine Watson, the man who killed 84-year-old "Grandpa Vicha" Ratanapakdee, walked free on probation this week after a San Francisco judge suspended his sentence—an outcome made mathematically inevitable by California's pretrial credit system, which converted five years of detention into ten years of credit against a four-year maximum. The case never included a hate crime charge, despite occurring at the peak of anti-Asian elder violence. Meanwhile, Sacramento is moving ACA-7 toward the November ballot, which would strip Prop 209's K-12 protections and allow race-based preferences in gifted programs—a policy voters have already rejected twice.
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 01, 2026
A parole officer sent an email: "Agents must not search for violations." Then two women died.
Mar 05, 2026
Chinatown Stabbing Victim Got No Press Conference
Mar 06, 2026
He Killed Grandpa Vicha. Tomorrow, He Walks Free
Mar 24, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
SF Politicians
San Francisco's housing credibility is in tatters after SFMTA admitted it never had funding for 365 of the 465 affordable units it spent years promising atop the Potrero Yard bus facility — then voted to eliminate them after the community had already spent eight years planning around them. Meanwhile, Mayor Lurie is pushing the city's first comprehensive charter reform in 30 years while picking fights with progressive supervisors Chan and Fielder, who are the lone holdouts against his drug treatment shelter program. The gap between what SF politicians promise and what they deliver has never been more measurable.
CA Ballot Measures
Tom Steyer is running a 2026 ballot campaign to close what he calls the "Trump Tax Loophole" in California's property tax law—but critics say he's misrepresenting both the history of Prop 13 (a 1978 Democratic law) and the potential revenue, inflating the state's own $8–12.5 billion estimate to $20 billion. Meanwhile, a competing battle is playing out over SEIU-UHW's proposed billionaire wealth tax, which even Governor Newsom warns will accelerate the exodus of high-net-worth residents already fleeing the state—taking an estimated $16.4 billion in annual tax revenue with them.
Elections & Voting Integrity
California lawmakers killed two bipartisan bills that would have put lobbyist influence letters online in real time — a reform already standard in at least ten other states — while Sacramento processes half a billion dollars in lobbying with no public visibility. With the June 2 primary approaching, the channel is also tracking how special interest unions are shaping the governor's race and whether Democratic voters' clear preference for moderation will survive a primary system dominated by the party's loudest fringe.
This Citizen's Union Is Throwing a Party March 4 in Mountain View, California
Feb 11, 2026
The Builder Class vs The Luxury Beliefs Class
Feb 27, 2026
Most Democrats Want Normal. Nationally It's Going Bad. In San Francisco, There's Hope.
Mar 07, 2026
Introducing the Garry's List Civic Impact Awards
May 11, 2026
Half a Billion in Lobbying, Zero Transparency
May 22, 2026
Business Taxes
San Francisco voters will decide in June 2026 on Proposition D, a so-called "CEO tax" that critics say would deliver an 800% gross receipts tax hike on grocery stores, pharmacies, and coffee shops while exempting major tech companies entirely. The measure arrives as downtown SF struggles with one-third vacancy rates and ongoing debate over how to recover economically. Meanwhile, gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer is pushing a separate business tax agenda built around what critics call a misleading "$20 billion" estimate of revenue locked behind California's Prop 13 commercial property rules.
The 'CEO Tax' Scam That Will Crush Your Grocery Bill
Jan 24, 2026
Art Won't Save Downtown From an 800% Tax Hike
Jan 25, 2026
The "CEO Tax" Doesn't Tax CEOs. It Kills SF.
Jan 21, 2026
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 13, 2026
Steyer's $20 Billion "Trump Tax Loophole" Is a Lie
Feb 25, 2026
SF's "Overpaid CEO Tax" Will Hammer Grocery Stores and Coffee Shops
May 14, 2026
Federal Politicians
AOC's claim that "you can't earn a billion dollars" is drawing sharp pushback from Y Combinator's Paul Graham, who spent two decades evaluating founders and says the data flatly contradicts her. The clash is the latest flashpoint in an ongoing debate over wealth, innovation, and how federal politicians understand the economy they're regulating. Sanders and Khanna's proposed 5% annual wealth tax on unrealized gains—a policy that already failed across Europe—is also back in the mix, raising the stakes for Silicon Valley founders and the companies that employ them.
Small Business & Regulation
San Francisco's restaurant permitting maze is back in the spotlight: legal wine service requires six months of waiting and fees across four agencies, while stolen bottles trade openly two blocks from City Hall. Richmond, meanwhile, just voted 4-3 to reinstate the Flock camera network it disabled last fall—a reversal driven by a 33% spike in car thefts that hit immigrant shopkeepers hardest. Across California, the question is the same: who does the regulatory system actually protect?
Transit & Safety
SFO is forcing Waymo to operate from the remote Rental Car Center while Uber and Lyft handle 800,000 monthly trips from the main rideshare garage — a policy critics call naked incumbent protection. Meanwhile, BART can't account for a consultant payment it made to argue fare enforcement was pointless, even as its own data shows new fare gates drove a dramatic 2025 crime drop. Both fights are the same fight: entrenched interests using bureaucratic friction to slow down what's working.
SF Ballot Measures
San Francisco's Proposition D, the "Overpaid CEO Tax" on the June 2026 ballot, would impose an 800% rate hike on gross receipts taxes while exempting major tech companies — hitting grocery stores, pharmacies, and coffee shops hardest. Despite its populist branding, the measure doesn't touch CEO paychecks; businesses pay it on total revenue, meaning costs get passed to consumers. With one-third of downtown office space already vacant and companies like Stripe and Schwab having fled SF's existing tax burden, critics warn Prop D could accelerate the city's economic decline at the worst possible time.
Tech & Startup Regulation
New York's S7263 — which would ban AI from answering medical, legal, and other licensed-profession questions — is headed for a full Senate floor vote after clearing committee 6-0, even as studies show AI outperforming doctors on diagnostic tests. Meanwhile, Anthropic and Google have moved to lock paying subscribers out of third-party tools, and a San Francisco lawsuit is challenging the license plate camera network that law enforcement credits with solving 10% of reported crime nationally. The fight over who controls AI — companies, regulators, or users — is moving fast and the outcomes will affect everyone.
Skilled Immigration
Blanket visa bans tied to nationality are blocking even model legal immigrants from basic family visits — a San Francisco family that has personally stopped robberies and saved overdose victims can't bring grandma to meet a newborn because all Venezuelan nationals are reportedly being denied. The case highlights a growing tension between sweeping immigration enforcement and America's tradition of attracting and retaining exceptional talent and citizens. Critics argue blunt nationality-based bans punish exactly the people the system should reward.
Tech Antitrust & M&A
California is moving to do what Congress couldn't: SB 1074, the BASED Act, would ban Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft from self-preferencing their own products, mining competitor data, and tying marketplace access to other services. Introduced last week by State Senator Scott Wiener with Y Combinator's backing, the bill targets companies with over $1 trillion in market cap and opens enforcement to private lawsuits, not just regulators. If it passes, it would be the most significant platform antitrust law in the country.
CA Prop 36 (2024)
California voters passed Prop 36 overwhelmingly in November 2024, but Sacramento is refusing to fund it—effectively nullifying the will of the electorate by starving the criminal sentencing reform of implementation dollars. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who has emerged as a leading Prop 36 champion, is now parlaying that fight into a 2026 gubernatorial run, arguing that Sacramento's defiance of voters is exactly the kind of dysfunction his "Back to Basics" governance would end.
CA Prop 47 (2014)
California's 2014 criminal justice reform measure is drawing renewed attention as street-level fencing of stolen goods — including wine openly traded near SF's 7th and Market — illustrates the law's real-world consequences a decade later. Critics argue Prop 47's misdemeanor threshold for theft under $950 has created a system where law-abiding businesses face months of permitting hurdles while open-air black markets operate without consequence. The tension between regulatory burden and enforcement gaps is fueling fresh debate over whether Prop 47's tradeoffs are working as intended.
SF Prop M (2024)
San Francisco's business tax overhaul, passed as Prop M in November 2024, is now at the center of a fierce fight over the city's economic future. Supporters of a new "CEO Tax" proposal want to layer additional gross receipts taxes—up to 800% higher for companies with large pay ratios—on top of Prop M's reforms, while tech advocates argue SF is the only major city with *growing* startup formation and risks squandering its AI boom lead. The debate has become a proxy war over whether City Hall will capitalize on SF's dominance in early-stage venture funding or drive the companies driving that growth out of town.
San Francisco
San Francisco's June 2026 ballot will ask voters to approve an "Overpaid CEO Tax" that critics say is designed to exempt the tech industry while hitting grocery stores and pharmacies with an 800% rate hike. Meanwhile, SFUSD's board just voted 6-1 to adopt an ethnic studies curriculum through a review process with no defined passing standard—and a legal challenge was filed the same night. Across both stories, the pattern is the same: city institutions making consequential decisions through processes rigged to produce predetermined outcomes.
The 'CEO Tax' Scam That Will Crush Your Grocery Bill
Jan 24, 2026
Art Won't Save Downtown From an 800% Tax Hike
Jan 25, 2026
The "CEO Tax" Doesn't Tax CEOs. It Kills SF.
Jan 21, 2026
Housing Won't Fix This. It's the Drugs.
Jan 15, 2026
Lawsuit Wants to Ban the Tech That Caught My Wife's Hit-and-Run Driver
Jan 31, 2026
Chan and Fielder Vote to Keep People Dying on Sidewalks
Feb 11, 2026
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 13, 2026
While SF stopped Prosecuting Drug Dealers, 3,700 People Overdosed
Feb 24, 2026
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 01, 2026
A parole officer sent an email: "Agents must not search for violations." Then two women died.
Mar 05, 2026
Lurie's Charter Reset Is a Masterclass
Mar 05, 2026
Chinatown Stabbing Victim Got No Press Conference
Mar 06, 2026
Most Democrats Want Normal. Nationally It's Going Bad. In San Francisco, There's Hope.
Mar 07, 2026
Yes, Fare Gates Actually Reduce Crime
Mar 13, 2026
The BASED Act Comes for Big Tech
Apr 02, 2026
He Killed Grandpa Vicha. Tomorrow, He Walks Free
Mar 24, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
SF Courts Won't Show Their Work
Apr 08, 2026
The Easiest Way to Sell Wine in San Francisco Is Illegally
Apr 01, 2026
SFO Is Trying to Bury Waymo
Apr 07, 2026
SFMTA Promised 465 Affordable Units. There Was Never a Plan to Pay for Them.
Apr 17, 2026
From AI Doomerism to Molotov Cocktail
Apr 20, 2026
California Will Lose a Million Students
Apr 23, 2026
After a Rigged Review Process, SFUSD Just Approved Its New Ethnic Studies Curriculum
Apr 28, 2026
SF's "Overpaid CEO Tax" Will Hammer Grocery Stores and Coffee Shops
May 14, 2026
SF Bay Area
Garry's List is accepting nominations for its inaugural Civic Impact Awards, recognizing the newsletters, reporters, and tools helping Californians make sense of the June 2 primary — readers pick the finalists. Meanwhile, BART is under fresh scrutiny after a public records request revealed the agency can't locate the invoice for a consultant report it commissioned to argue fare enforcement was pointless — even as it pursues a new tax measure. The region's dysfunction runs deeper: encampment fires knocked out the Transbay Tube for 12 hours in February despite BART knowing about the hazard in advance.
UC Regents Knew SAT Ban Was Wrong—Voted for It Anyway
Jan 23, 2026
The Wealth Exodus Is Live: Watch California Die
Feb 11, 2026
BART's 'Leave Them Be' Order Burned the Transbay Tube
Feb 25, 2026
Steyer's $20 Billion "Trump Tax Loophole" Is a Lie
Feb 25, 2026
Brain Computer Interfaces Are Now Giving Sight Back to the Blind
Mar 06, 2026
Why Is Los Angeles Spending $20M on 32 Empty Housing Units?
Mar 26, 2026
BART Paid Consultants to Say Fare Evasion Didn't Matter — Then Lost the Receipt
Mar 26, 2026
Introducing the Garry's List Civic Impact Awards
May 11, 2026
South Bay
Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna just introduced a 5% annual wealth tax on unrealized gains — and Khanna represents CA-17, home to roughly a third of U.S. stock market cap by value. Meanwhile, the governor's race is sharpening into a clear choice: San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who turned zero market-rate homes into 2,000 by actually cutting fees, versus Tom Steyer, who's spent $27 million on ads while pushing more taxes into a state already bleeding $20-35 billion a year in structural deficits.
Sacramento
Sacramento is quietly killing transparency: lawmakers just blocked two bipartisan bills that would have posted lobbying letters online in real time, even as California spends half a billion dollars on lobbying with zero public visibility into who's pressuring whom. Meanwhile, a new legislative analyst report confirms the state's structural deficit runs $20–30 billion annually — the result of spending that grew 10 points faster than revenue under Newsom — and a pending bill could let taxpayer-funded immigration nonprofits sue journalists who report on them. The capital's pattern is clear: protect insider power, expand spending, and limit accountability.
Sacramento Sabotages Prop 36 After Voters Spoke
Jan 20, 2026
$215 Billion New City Gets Historic Labor Deal
Jan 28, 2026
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 06, 2026
Exposing Nonprofit Fraud Could Come With a Price Tag
May 01, 2026
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
May 07, 2026
Half a Billion in Lobbying, Zero Transparency
May 22, 2026
New York City
New York State's S7263, which would ban AI chatbots from answering medical, legal, and other professional questions, is headed for a full Senate floor vote after clearing committee 6-0 — this as studies show AI outperforming doctors on diagnostic benchmarks. Meanwhile, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pushing rent freezes, eliminating gifted school programs, and raiding reserve funds to cover budget gaps, running an experiment that economists widely predict will hollow out the city's housing stock and accelerate the flight of middle-class families to private schools.
Oakland
Oakland's gun violence crisis is more targeted than most realize — new analysis of the city's Ceasefire program confirms that fewer than 2,000 residents drive the majority of homicides, and that focused intervention (not gun control) cut shooting victimizations in half. Meanwhile, the city is grappling with cascading failures across public safety, infrastructure, and civic management: a 12-hour Transbay Tube shutdown after BART warned Oakland about a dangerous encampment and was ignored, a Coliseum sale on the verge of collapse with no buyer in sight, and a property crime solve rate of just 0.5% — the worst of any major American city.
Berkeley
A leptospirosis outbreak at Berkeley's Harrison Street encampment—a tropical disease rarely seen in developed nations—exposed how court-enforced injunctions left the city powerless to address a public health crisis for over a year. The case has intensified debate over homeless encampment policy statewide. Meanwhile, Berkeley figures are at the center of two other major controversies: a UC Regents cover-up over the SAT ban, and a proposed wealth tax championed by a Berkeley professor earning nearly $400,000 a year to teach one class per semester.
East Bay
Richmond voted to reinstate its Flock Safety cameras after car thefts jumped 33% following a shutdown over ICE concerns—concerns that turned out to be moot, since the feature in question had already been disabled months earlier. Meanwhile, Berkeley spent sixteen months blocked by courts from clearing a homeless encampment where rats tested positive for leptospirosis, a tropical disease rarely seen in the developed world.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles is facing fresh scrutiny over a $20 million homeless housing project that left 32 units empty for four years at $625,000 per unit — after the city shut down a building that was already housing people. The debacle is fueling a broader debate over LA's approach to homelessness as mayoral candidate Nithya Raman pushes a platform combining rent freezes with pro-construction policy — a combination critics say is mathematically self-defeating.
Seattle
Washington State's proposed 9.9% income tax on millionaires is threatening to derail the return of the Seattle SuperSonics, with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver warning that investor flight and athlete recruitment challenges could sink the deal. The tax's per-household threshold means it hits dual-income tech couples and pass-through business owners—not just the ultra-wealthy—prompting founders and investors to plan exits to Florida and other states. Meanwhile, Seattle's homelessness debate is shifting: street outreach workers are openly contradicting the city's housing-first strategy, reporting that many people living and using drugs publicly already have taxpayer-funded apartments.
Peninsula
A viral debate over Stanford's disability accommodation system is drawing attention to the Peninsula's most prominent institution, after data showing 38% of undergraduates claim disability status sparked accusations of widespread gaming of the system. Critics argue the gap between Stanford's rate and community colleges' 3-4% exposes how affluent students exploit mental health and disability frameworks for perks like single dorms and extended test time. The controversy touches a broader question about elite institutions and the erosion of systems designed to help those who genuinely need them.