san francisco – The News Desk

Biden’s $3.1 Billion Train Ticket to Nowhere

2Jan

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Health

Biden’s $3.1 Billion Train Ticket to Nowhere

It didn’t get a lot of attention, but last month the White House awarded $3.1 billion to the California High-Speed Rail project. This was supposed to be a bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours. Instead, its costs keep rising even as the state scales back the plan. Since 2008, when California voters authorized a $10 billion bond issue for the train, they’ve been sold a bill of goods.The original total estimated construction cost to taxpayers was $33 billion. That’s risen to at least $100 billion. The authority decided to offer service between San Francisco and Los Angeles in Phase I, then eventually extend the train service north to Sacramento and south to San Diego. Phase I was to have been completed by 2020. Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company...

Consulting firm McKinsey agrees to $78 million settlement with insurers over opioids

30Dec

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Money

Consulting firm McKinsey agrees to $78 million settlement with insurers over opioids

Consulting firm McKinsey and Co. has agreed to pay $78 million to settle claims from insurers and health care funds that its work with drug companies helped fuel an opioid addiction crisis.The agreement was revealed late Friday in documents filed in federal court in San Francisco. The settlement must still be approved by a judge.Under the agreement, McKinsey would establish a fund to reimburse insurers, private benefit plans and others for some or all of their prescription opioid costs. The insurers argued that McKinsey worked with Purdue Pharma – the maker of OxyContin – to create and employ aggressive marketing and sales tactics to overcome doctors' reservations about the highly addictive drugs. Insurers said that forced them to pay for prescription o...

Google to pay $700 million to U.S. states for stifling competition against Android app store

20Dec

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Money

Google to pay $700 million to U.S. states for stifling competition against Android app store

Google has agreed to pay $700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store — the same issue that went to trial in another case that could result in even bigger changes. Although Google struck the deal with state attorneys general in September, the settlement's terms weren't revealed until late Monday in documents filed in San Francisco federal court. The disclosure came a week after a federal court jury rebuked Google for deploying anticompetitive tactics in its Play Store for Android apps.The settlement with the states includes $630 million to compensate U.S. consumers funneled into a payment processing system that state attorneys general alleged drove up the prices for digital transactions within app...

17Dec

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Health

Wokesters Without Giant Endowments

Even liberals are getting tired of funding radical politics.

Google Loses Antitrust Case Brought by Epic Games

12Dec

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Technology

Google Loses Antitrust Case Brought by Epic Games

Updated Dec. 11, 2023 11:35 pm ETGoogle lost an antitrust case over the market power of its app store on Monday, a blow to the search giant as it faces other legal challenges to its search dominance and ad tech business.Videogame maker Epic Games sued the search giant in 2020, alleging it used its dominant position to squeeze excess profits from app developers. The San Francisco jury reached a unanimous verdict after deliberating for less than four hours. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

12Dec

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World

Google Loses Antitrust Case Brought by Epic Games

Updated Dec. 11, 2023 11:35 pm ETGoogle lost an antitrust case over the market power of its app store on Monday, a blow to the search giant as it faces other legal challenges to its search dominance and ad tech business.Videogame maker Epic Games sued the search giant in 2020, alleging it used its dominant position to squeeze excess profits from app developers. The San Francisco jury reached a unanimous verdict after deliberating for less than four hours. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

The Migrant Crisis and the Urban Death Spiral

11Dec

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Health

The Migrant Crisis and the Urban Death Spiral

Cities are organic entities. They have life cycles. They can thrive and grow or suffer and shrink. As secretary of housing and urban development, I learned this firsthand. Detroit wasn’t always the Detroit of today. San Francisco today is different from San Francisco 10 years ago. New York, Los Angeles and Chicago aren’t what they were 20 years ago. It’s time we opened our eyes to reality. Many cities are going backward.We are experiencing an unrecognized urban crisis as cities grapple with post-Covid realities. Cities were created primarily as locations for employment. Post-Covid remote work, Zoom meetings, abbreviated workweeks and increased mobility change the basic urban equation. Fewer people need to be in the city to work, and during Covid many adopted new lifestyles and locations. ...

San Francisco Is Building to Bring Residents Back

6Dec

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World

San Francisco Is Building to Bring Residents Back

Real-estate developers are launching a series of residential projects in San Francisco, responding to new efforts by the state and city to create more housing in one of the country’s most expensive places to live. In what would be the city’s most ambitious residential development in several years, local property developer Bayhill Ventures last month announced plans for a 71-story rental tower in San Francisco’s ailing financial district. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

San Francisco Cleans Up for Xi. Why Not for Thee?

13Nov

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World

San Francisco Cleans Up for Xi. Why Not for Thee?

After only recently agreeing to normalize trade relations with the United States, San Francisco now seems to be granting most favored visitors status to a group including a ruthless dictator. This week Chinese communist thug Xi Jinping will enjoy a city that has been spruced up for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. San Francisco residents are asking why they can’t enjoy streets that are safe and clean all the time.J.D. Morris reports for The San Francisco Chronicle:Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Placating Xi Won’t Change China’s Behavior

13Nov

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Health

Placating Xi Won’t Change China’s Behavior

In an article previewing President Biden’s meeting with China’s Xi Jinping this week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. has “a pragmatic economic strategy: one that protects our vital national security interests while seeking a stable and healthy economic relationship” with Beijing. But in the perilous and fast-changing world of late 2023, Beijing doesn’t seem interested in that sort of balance. From supporting other authoritarians’ military efforts to trying to displace the U.S.-led global financial system, Mr. Xi is undermining the security of America and its allies. But China’s weakening economy offers an opportunity to win meaningful changes in Beijing’s policies. It will take a hard-line approach to get China’s attention.Mr. Xi certainly won’t be soft in negotiations. He ...