City Attorney David Chiu's office announced Monday that the city prevailed in its lawsuit against Mohsen Mused, who operated the Tenderloin Market and Deli at 200 Leavenworth Street. The store, which has been in business since 2013, was evicted on Aug. 26.

"This store was not a humble market and deli—it was a magnet for illegal activity," Chiu said in a statement.

Chiu also said the owner made disparaging remarks about the community.

"Referring to the Tenderloin as a 'human zoo' and its residents as 'animals' shows the store owner's callousness and willingness to profit off human suffering. The City is better off without the Tenderloin Market and Deli, and we look forward to seeing a new law-abiding business lease this space," the city attorney added.

According to Chiu's office, San Francisco police responded to dozens of calls in or around the market since 2020. The calls ranged from drug use, to fights, stabbings, robberies, dice games on the street, stolen vehicles, domestic violence, weapons and other criminal behavior.

In 2024, police officers said they saw patrons playing slot machines at the market. Officers executed a search warrant, seizing seven slot machines, a loaded firearm, more than $6,100 in cash and a money counting machine.

Authorities said the market sold drug paraphernalia in plain view to minors, including items used to smoke methamphetamine and crack cocaine.

That October, the City Attorney's Office sued the owners of Tenderloin Market and Deli, alleging the store created a public nuisance, engaged in unlawful and unfair business practices, violated the California Gambling Control Act and the Red Light Abatement act, along with other state and local laws.

Chiu's office said the store owner continued to violate the law.

In June, police said a tobacco inspection yielded illegal tobacco products, drug paraphernalia and prescriptions. Police also received a report by a man who said he lost money on an app he used to gamble at Tenderloin Market and Deli.

Along with ordering Mused to pay $151,000 in penalties, the court also barred him from possessing gambling machines or drug paraphernalia at his two other stores in the city.

Chiu's office said they have sued or shut down 13 stores in the Tenderloin for violations of the city's nighttime safety ordinance or other illegal activity. The city has ongoing lawsuits against seven other markets in the Tenderloin.

In a decision Wednesday, the district's board of directors delayed implementation of the ban from January 2027 to January 2028. Property owners would not be required to remove existing water heaters but would have to replace them with devices that produce zero nitrogen oxides.

Exemptions would apply for low-income property owners earning less than 80% of Area Median Income and participants in programs such as Medi-Cal or CalFresh. Households paying more than 28% of their income towards their mortgage and property taxes would also be exempt.

Other exemptions include properties that don't have enough room or ventilation to install a compliant water heater, along with properties with electrical limitations, such as panels below 100 amps.  

The limitations on water heaters do not apply to stoves, dryers or fireplaces.

"With these practical amendments, the Board focuses the rule on the properties that can most easily make the switch and gives relief to households that cannot afford the change without financial assistance," said Philip Fine, the agency's executive officer.

Board chair Lynda Hopkins added, "This decision protects public health and respects what households can manage."

The board also further delayed the compliance date to 2033 for water heaters in multifamily and affordable housing along with businesses with "special high heat uses" such as restaurants, laundries, healthcare and assisted living.

According to the air district, nitrogen oxide contributes to smog and fine particulate matter. An analysis conducted by the agency found that up to 85 premature deaths and 15,000 asthma attacks in the Bay Area each year are caused by pollution from gas-fired water heaters and furnaces.

The agency first implemented restrictions on nitrogen oxide emissions from water heaters in 1992, implementing a zero nitrogen oxide standard in 2023.

Father Jesus Nieto-Ruiz, a local priest, brought residents and one city leader together Wednesday, with the help of Faith in Action East Bay, to discuss the approved AVAIO Perseus data center project and call for an independent review.

"We are concerned about our families," Nieto-Ruiz said.

The meeting at his church came days after a contentious City Council meeting, where members announced a moratorium on future data center permits amid mounting public opposition. The pause does not apply to the AVAIO project, which was approved in November 2024 on the former Delta View Golf Course, near several homes.

City Manager Darin Gale said the project was approved under the laws and permitting requirements in effect at the time.

"So it's just like if you came in and pulled a permit for your home, there are certain laws," Gale said. "This was approved in November 2024."

The dispute also has raised questions about whether residents received sufficient information and opportunities to participate. Some public mailings about the project were not produced in Spanish.

Nieto-Ruiz said the community deserves more meaningful involvement in decisions that could affect its families. Census data show Hispanic residents make up about 43% of Pittsburg's population.

Gale said the city held meetings with interpreters and acknowledged the need to improve communication with Spanish-speaking residents.

"That's one of the reasons why I connected with Father Jesus to figure out how we can communicate better with our Spanish-speaking community," Gale said.

The controversy reflects a broader national debate over data centers, which provide computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence and other digital services. As more facilities are proposed, communities have raised concerns about water use, for example.

More than 28,000 people have signed an online petition opposing the Pittsburg project, citing concerns about noise, water, visual impacts, industrialization and the facility's long-term environmental footprint.

Gale said some concerns do not reflect the specific plans for the Pittsburg facility. He said the project will use recycled water and is approved to use no more than 50,000 gallons per day. He said the project was approved after various reviews and studies were conducted.

The project has become a flashpoint for residents who want more information about its potential impacts and how the city reached its decision.

Nieto-Ruiz said he appreciated Gale's willingness to meet with the community but wants the city to take further action. He is calling for the city's data center moratorium to be extended to two years to allow for an independent review.

Gale said state law allows the city to extend the initial 45-day moratorium through two additional periods. Whether the city will pursue those extensions remains uncertain.

For Nieto-Ruiz, the issue extends beyond the data center itself: residents should have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect their neighborhoods and families.

Prop. 37 qualified for the November ballot after supporters submitted more than 600,000 valid signatures earlier this year. 

Former state Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg of Los Angeles, the measure's chief proponent, said in April that voters "have the chance to unleash a wave of new home construction across our state and make the dream of homeownership a reality for more middle-class Californians."

According to the measure's official title and summary, borrowers would pay at least 3% down, must be California residents for at least one year and earn less than 200% of the area median income. Homes must be new construction or the first sale of a converted nonresidential property and must be priced below $1 million to $1.5 million depending on the county, with the limit adjusted annually.

Prop. 37 made the ballot as housing costs in the Golden State remain the highest in the nation. According to the California Association of Realtors, which supports the measure, the median price for a single-family home in the third quarter was $894,630. Meanwhile, several counties in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Southern California recorded median prices above $1 million.

Other supporters of the measure included the United Nurses Associations of California, California Conference of Carpenters and State Treasurer Fiona Ma.

In the state's official voter guide, opponents of the measure did not submit an argument against Prop. 37. The League of Women Voters has issued a statement against Prop. 37, saying the loan program could reinforce racial and economic gaps and that there is no requirement that the homes are near jobs, transit, schools or services.

"California needs homeownership programs that lower families' total costs, confront racial barriers to building wealth, and support strong communities. Prop 37 does not meet that test," the league said in its voter guide.

The measure, Proposition 45, would make amendments to the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, the landmark 1970 state law requiring agencies to evaluate a project's potential impacts to the environment and to public health.

If approved, the measure would create new environmental review procedures for projects defined as "essential," according to the state's official voter guide. Essential projects could include housing, clean energy, health facilities such as clinics and medical offices, police and fire stations, and education facilities along with energy and transportation projects.

Prop. 45 would also tighten time limits for agencies to conduct CEQA review, public comment periods and how courts would review challenges to projects.

"Endless delays, red tape, and frivolous lawsuits make life more expensive and block the projects Californians need—driving up costs for housing, electricity, and water; wasting taxpayer dollars; worsening wildfire risk; increasing traffic; overcrowding schools; and delaying hospital and infrastructure upgrades," supporters said in the voter guide.

Supporters of Prop. 45 include the California Chamber of Commerce along with chambers of commerce in dozens of cities, the California Water Association, the state Republican Party and Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks of Oakland.

Meanwhile, opponents of Prop. 45 argued the measure would weaken the state's environmental protections and would limit public input on projects. 

"Proposition 45 limits both the environmental review of major new development projects and the public's right to be heard. Prop. 45 lets projects move forward with far less scrutiny of their harms to air, water and public health," opponents said in the voter guide.

Opponents include the state Democratic Party, environmental groups including the Sierra Club and labor groups including the California Federation of Labor Unions and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California.

Prop. 45 has caused a split among advocates seeking additional homebuilding to alleviate the state's affordability crisis. While major for-profit and non-profit housing developers are backing Prop. 45, pro-housing groups such as California YIMBY and YIMBY Action are neutral.

The measure is being opposed by housing advocates at East Bay for Everyone and the Greenbelt Alliance, amid concerns about sprawl.

Proposition 40 would levy a one-time 5% tax on California residents with a net worth of $1 billion, excluding real estate and certain retirement assets. Proponents of the measure say it is expected to generate $100 billion over five years, with 90% going toward healthcare programs and the other 10% for education, food assistance, and administration of the tax.

The proposal comes at a time when other states and federal policymakers are debating how to tax extreme wealth and finance public services, and are looking at how Proposition 40 is received by voters as a bellwether. The vote is being framed by supporters as part of a broader struggle over economic inequality and the political influence of the billionaire class.

Supporters say the state needs additional money to help offset federal healthcare cuts implemented in 2025 under H.R. 1, known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," and to protect hospitals, emergency rooms, clinics and Medi-Cal services. 

Proponents also argue that billionaires can accumulate substantial wealth from the stock market and business valuations without paying income tax on those gains until they are realized. They also contend that those who have benefitted the most from the state's robust economy should contribute more toward public services.

The measure has created a divide among politicians and organizations that ordinarily align with Democratic priorities. While it is supported by the California Democratic Party and labor unions including SEIU Healthcare Workers West, the principal sponsor of the measure, it is opposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, and major healthcare and professional organizations such as the California Medical Association and California Teachers Association.

Newsom and Porter, who have both supported higher taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals, agree with the argument that the proposal would encourage wealthy residents to leave the state and damage its long-term fiscal position by decreasing its tax revenue. Newsom has also expressed a preference for taxing billionaires at the federal level and says a California-only wealth tax would be limited to funding health care and not other needs. Opponents of the measure also claim that the initiative does not provide guarantees about how the money would be allocated among providers and services.

A coalition of billionaires has organized in opposition to the measure, such as Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, venture capitalist John Doerr, PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.

Wealthy opponents have contributed tens of millions of dollars to defeat Prop. 40, with most of the money going to the group Building a Better California, which has raised over $250 million in the campaign against the billionaire tax as of Oct. 28. The funding is also going toward supporting two competing measures, Propositions 41 and 42, which would place limits on special taxes and could prevent the billionaire tax from taking effect if either receives more votes than Prop 40.

A Stanford University study indicated that billionaires who have already left the state, including Brin, Page, and Thiel, have removed about $540 billion, or 30%, of California's billionaire wealth from potential taxation. The study also concluded that Prop. 40 may generate only about $30 billion instead of the $100 billion estimated by its proponents.

Other economists including Nobel Prize winners Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University support the measure, saying that California has attracted more venture funding since Prop. 40 was introduced. An open letter from the economists noted that between 2019 and 2025, the California income tax paid by billionaires was "only 1.6% of their $1.4 trillion wealth gain, much less than what ordinary Californians pay on their paychecks."

One California billionaire who does support Prop. 40 is Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whose estimated net worth is about $200 billion.

"I don't mind paying taxes; the more you make, the more taxes you pay, so I'm okay with that," Huang told CBS News. "I don't like tax dollars wasted. But I also support all that this country represents."

On Friday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced the commercial fishery from the California / Oregon border to Point Conception will be delayed until at least January 1.

Officials said the delay is required due to the number of humpback whale entanglements so far this year. Current regulations require the head of the CDFW to take these actions to reduce the possibility of additional whale entanglements for the remainder of 2026 and to allow whales to migrate out of the area before the fishery opens.

"CDFW remains committed to working collaboratively with all sectors across California to protect whale and turtles from entanglements in fishing gear," CDFW director Meghan Hertel said in a statement. "Partnerships are more important than ever as we work together to protect endangered whales and turtles and our fishing communities in the face of increasing disruptions from our changing climate."

Officials said a risk assessment to determine when the crab fishery would reopen would likely take place in mid-December.

In addition to the delay to commercial crab fishing season, the recreational Dungeness crab season will begin Saturday, Nov. 7 under trap restrictions. The agency reminds anglers that all hoop nets must be serviced every two hours and cannot be left unattended in the water for longer periods.

A portion of the fishery between Cape Mendocino and the Ten-Mile State Marine Reserve will remain closed due to unhealthy levels of domoic acid found in crab collected in the area. Caused by certain algal blooms, domoic acid is a neurotoxin that can accumulate in fish, shellfish and other invertebrates.

At low levels, exposure to domoic acid can cause nausea, diarrhea and dizziness in humans. Officials said high levels of domoic acid can cause short-term memory loss, seizures and can be fatal in some cases.

Whale entanglements, along with a pricing dispute also delayed the previous Dungeness crab season until early January of this year.

According to the National Park Service, crews are replacing pilings that secure the dock to the island. Repairs are expected to be completed by Nov. 18, but officials noted that inclement weather or other factors may change the repair timeline.

"Completing the repair work this fall will help ensure safe and reliable public access to Alcatraz Island for years to come," the agency said in a statement.

Park Service officials said the work follows two previous closures earlier this year. In January, the dock was closed for nine days after one of the pilings supporting the ferry dock failed.

Alcatraz City Cruises, which operates ferry service to and from the island, found two of the pilings needed repair. In early April, the company worked to strengthen the three serviceable pilings, which led to a six-day closure.

After the April closure, the company was able to fully accommodate demand during the peak travel season, officials said.

In what is being described as a "complex operation," crews will perform pile driving and a full replacement of the remaining pilings. Work is being performed at this time as pile driving in the bay is restricted by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which restricts in-water work after Nov. 30.

Officials said Alcatraz City Cruises is funding and conducting the repair work. The company said in a statement that Alcatraz cruise reservations will be refunded to one's original form of payment.

Alcatraz City Cruises said a 90-minute San Francisco Bay Discovery Cruise which includes views of the island and other landmarks would be available through Nov. 1.

More than 3,200 ferry trips carry 1.5 million visitors to Alcatraz each year.

"We have our floating SF, but in a Latin pizzazz essentially," explained Moreno as she described her designs.

Every detail has meaning, from the flowers, which represent over 16 Latin American countries with petals from their national flowers, to the classic SF logo, the Golden Gate Bridge and waves representing the Bay Area, with a style that's uniquely Latino.

"All the details come from the inspiration that I saw growing up," said Moreno. "A lot of the tazas that I would see that were hand painted or handmade, so I really wanted it to not be filled by solid color but instead by decoration in details and swirls and florals and just like personality that I think resembles the Latin community very well when it comes to our passion and our love for everything that we do."

"The guayaberas, it's not something you see at a football stadium ever, so to get that representation and have it for men and women is extremely special," 49ers senior manager of partnership marketing Nick Clarke said.

Clarke, who has worked for the 49ers for nearly 12 years, said helping to create and collaborate on the collection has been a personal passion of his.

"My great-grandmother immigrated here from Mexico, so to be able to carry on that legacy, they moved to California, so to be able to represent San Francisco right in the namesake in its Spanish name to be able to carry that legacy on, it is extremely important for me," Clarke said.

"Well, let's just say tias and tios are going crazy on Facebook!" Moreno said. "It's been really cool. I've been graciously overwhelmed with so many positive messages. With my family, especially being a proud product of immigrants, this is something that I feel like I'm living the American dream secondhand through them, because it is something that you know they always exemplified for me to never give up and to always chase your passions."

For Moreno, designing the 49ers Latino Heritage Collection is the American dream come to life for her and her family.
With each design, she honors those who came before her while inspiring a new generation of 49ers fans - Faithful to the Bay, proud of their heritage, and inspired to chase their own dreams.

The 49ers Latinx Empowerment Advancement and Development team was started in 2020 to amplify Latino stories and recognize the beauty, power, and influence of the Latino community.

The San Francisco 49ers will take on the Minnesota Vikings in Mexico City on November 22 for Sunday Night Football.

On Monday, officials at both airports announced the "Straight to Gate: Sonoma County to SFO" service, which is being offered by the company Landline.

With the Straight to Gate service, passengers flying United, Alaska, Hawaiian or JetBlue out of SFO can check in, drop their bags and clear TSA security at Sonoma County Airport. Passengers will then board a secure coach that will make the roughly 75-mile trip nonstop to the airfield at SFO.

Once at SFO, passengers will go directly to their terminal and gate, and their bags will be transferred to their flight.

"Sonoma County already has a great local airport. Straight to Gate connects it to SFO's global network, so trips to anywhere in the world can start close to home," said David Sunde, Landline's founder and CEO.

"Our goal is to create a seamless travel experience for our guests, and this new service provides the most direct access to our terminals, making a connection to SFO easier than ever before," said SFO Director Mike Nakornkhet.

Sunde said additional airlines will be added "in the coming months."

Travelers returning to the North Bay will be able to take the Landline shuttle from SFO back to Sonoma County Airport, officials said.

Coaches are scheduled to leave Sonoma County Airport daily at 5, 7, 9 and 11 a.m. and 1, 3, 5:30 and 8 p.m. Return trips leave SFO from about 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

One-way fares for the new service are $55 per adult, with children 15 and under free with a paying adult. The service is set to launch on November 17 with eight daily round trips, with reservations now open.

Landline offers a similar service in the Boston suburbs, where travelers to Logan International Airport are able to check-in and clear security before riding to the airport.

Robotaxis, such as Waymo, will not be able to enter the area as geofencing will be in effect Friday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Traditional rideshare services such as Uber, Lyft and taxis will be able to provide service without boundary restrictions.

According to the SFMTA, the service area restriction was put into effect "to help avoid traffic congestion and maintain pedestrian safety near the waterfront."

CBS News Bay Area reached out to Waymo and recieved the following statement.

"We are collaborating closely with the City of San Francisco to support Fleet Week events, including providing transportation at designated pick-up and drop-off points," a Waymo spokesperson said.

According to Waymo, it voluntarily coordinated with city officials, SFMTA and police, on which areas it would avoid and during what times.

Robotaxi service area boundaries

The following designated boundaries will be in effect for pick-ups and drop-offs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday, the SFMTA said.

Northern boundaries

• Marina Boulevard
• Fort Mason
• Aquatic Park
• Fisherman's Wharf

Western boundary

• Lyon between Marina and Lombard

Southern boundaries

• Lombard between Lyon and Leavenworth
• North Point between Leavenworth and The Embarcadero

Eastern boundary

• The Embarcadero between Bay and Fisherman's Wharf

No autonomous vehicle rideshare service will be available anywhere in The Presidio, and additional geofenced locations include Van Ness between Lombard and Broadway, Bay between Leavenworth and The Embarcadero, and The Embarcadero between Bay and Broadway.

Robotaxi disruptions

Autonomous vehicle companies have come under increased scrutiny due to vehicle behavior during the Fourth of July Golden Gate Bridge fireworks show and the unplanned city-wide power outage in 2025.

"Out on the streets right now are hundreds of vehicles moving about the city like Cinderella's magical carriages," said Supervisor Bilal Mahmood when Waymo execs testified at City Hall in March. "But just like in the fairy tale, we can now see that those carriages can turn into pumpkins at the drop of a hat."

City officials said they were unsuccessful in their attempts to contact Waymo that December night in 2025 but finally made contact after Mayor Daniel Lurie called personally. 

"I want to be very clear that Waymo takes full responsibility for the communication gaps that occurred that evening," said project manager Sam Cooper at the meeting. "Specifically, we acknowledge the difficulty the Department of Emergency Management and other agencies experienced in reaching us." 

In July, Mayor Daniel Lurie called on state transportation officials to tighten regulations on self-driving vehicles and cited the two events.  

According to city officials and transportation advocates, after the fireworks show July 4th, several robotaxis stalled in travel lanes. Muni shuttle buses came to a standstill in the same congestion, and some vehicles reportedly ran out of battery power. Tow trucks also took hours, city officials said, to reach the disabled vehicles due to the very same traffic congestion.

The store, located at 801 Market Street at the corner of Fourth Street, opened Friday morning. Spanning two floors and 20,000 square feet, it is the largest Uniqlo location on the West Coast. The store also features San Francisco-themed clothing available exclusively at the location.

For city officials and downtown supporters, the opening represents more than a new shopping destination. It offers another sign of life in the Mid-Market neighborhood, which has struggled with vacant storefronts and declining business activity in recent years.

"It's really great for the recovery of downtown," said San Francisco resident Samantha Wrightson, who attended the opening with her mother, Joyce Chartock.

"I haven't spent that much time downtown in the last few years," Wrightson said. "But now that these stores are opening, I am planning to come back much more."

Wrightson and Chartock said new shops and cleaner streets have given them more reasons to visit downtown. They hope the improvements will also encourage people who live outside San Francisco to return.

Uniqlo closed its previous San Francisco flagship store on Powell Street in 2021, during the pandemic-era exodus of businesses from downtown. The company's return to the area reflects renewed interest in the city as street conditions and the local business environment improve, according to city officials.

"This is an indicator that we are experiencing a retail renaissance right now," said Anne Taupier, executive director of the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

Taupier said the city is seeing renewed interest from retailers that left San Francisco during the pandemic and are now reconsidering their presence downtown.

Despite those encouraging signs, commercial vacancy rates in Mid-Market remain substantially higher than before the pandemic. City officials said they will continue working to improve street conditions and support businesses as the neighborhood attempts to recover.

For businesses already operating in the area, the turnaround has been gradual.

"It's going to take a little bit of time," said Manny Flores, a bartender at The Harlequin. "And I've seen it progressively moving forward. Every year, we've consistently seen a little more people coming around."

Back at Uniqlo, the grand opening drew shoppers across generations, many attracted by the retailer's combination of quality and affordability.

"The quality of the merchandise and also the pricing is great," said shopper Gloria Garmon.

Wrightson said she and her family also came for the store's San Francisco-themed merchandise, including shirts created in collaboration with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and local artists like Fnnch and students from Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. 

"We came here for the San Francisco collab shirts, the Muni shirts especially. My husband requested this one, so we're here for that. And then I love this one here," Wrightson said.

As shoppers browsed the new store and crowds gathered for the street festival, the event offered a glimpse of the downtown activity that city officials and local businesses hope to see more consistently.

For residents like Wrightson, the opening provided a reason to return — and hope that more people will follow.

"I did the LA Marathon in 2021," she said. "I did the Washington D.C. Marine Corps Marathon in 2022."

There was a point, however, where she expected her life would come to an early end.

"I remember it very well," she said.

It was Good Friday, 2006. Adami was diagnosed with stage 4 follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

"It's like a bomb exploding in your head," she said. "From 2006 until 2018, I was in continuous treatment, and we could never get my disease to go away."

Nothing was working. Adami felt like she was nearing the end.

"I was within probably four to six weeks of dying," she said.

But then, an experimental treatment worked.

"Cell therapy saved my life," she said.

In the simplest of explanations, cell therapy uses living cells to treat diseases. They're taken from either healthy donors or the patients, and then grown, altered, or engineered, to be delivered back into the patient's body.

Cell therapies have shown promise in treating some cancers, blood disorders, and autoimmune diseases. However, they're complicated to manufacture, expensive, and highly variable — It all amounts to little accessibility. Nina Horowitz and her team at ImmuneBridge are hoping to change that, and they're working largely in tandem with AI to do so.

"We use AI and machine learning to find optimal donor sources to manufacture these therapies from," Horowitz, the CEO, said.

She explained AI allows them to better screen donor sources and efficiently identify insights from massive datasets.

"They're clinically powerful if we can harness them," she said.

The result? They say it leads to less variability in determining what could become a successful therapy.

"When you add this AI-enabled screening, now you're getting thousands of doses of the top 1% of donors. The best of the best," she said. "We are going to turn these top-performing donors into the therapy every time."

Other biotech and immunology ventures have also been able to accelerate research and processes by working with AI.

"AI has given us superpowers," said Alexander Zhavoronkov, the CEO of Insilico Medicine. "This AI becomes a superpower and the real influence that allows us to direct our workflows, to make drugs better, make them cheaper, make them much faster, and also even go after mechanisms like pain."

His company uses artificial intelligence to help accelerate drug discovery. Recently, they shared data they say shows a drug that was developed, with help from AI, which could potentially slow aging.

Zhavoronkov explained AI has helped speed up what were lengthy processes, that could result in better and quicker discoveries.

"Usually in the traditional approach, it would take approximately 4 ½ years to go from zero – program initiation – to one step before a human clinical trial, developmental candidate," he said. "Now, after nominating 33 developmental candidates, our typical time from zero to that stage is approximately 13 months."

As for Horowitz, her mission is personal.

"I know first-hand how scary it is to hear the words, you have cancer, and how important it is to hear the words, but we can treat it," she said.

Horowitz had ovarian cancer twice as a child. She did not have cell therapy, but there was a way forward for her without chemotherapy.

"We are trying to optimize and standardize the manufacturing of cell therapy to bring the price down and make it accessible for patients who otherwise would not be able to have these life-saving treatments," she said.

Adami is now eight years out from her cell therapy treatment.

"I'm still cancer-free after this one-time, 16-minute infusion of my CAR T cells," she said.

She's hopeful more people will be able to access the treatment that she says saved her life. Horowitz hopes to help deliver that future.

"I know we're talking about data centers. How about community centers? How about schools?" said Malik Seneferu of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation, who spoke at a meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

Across the Bay in Oakland, Nichole Ghio joined a group of Oakland residents outside City Hall, rallying for a 45-day moratorium proposed by Councilmember Carroll Fife.

"I think it's gotten to this point because the future we're being sold is really bad," Ghio said. "It's unclear really what the payoff is for us."

The moratorium passed Tuesday night, giving officials a chance to look into the actual impact of data centers on Oakland's communities. Oakland can also extend the pause after 45 days, which some believe should happen if studies aren't complete.

"Take into consideration what all the impacts could be, and to complete the study," said Gustavo Gutierrez of Communities for a Better Environment.

Concerns remain across the Bay Area, and nationwide, of potential rises in utility use and costs, environmental concerns, along with possible lack of broader community benefits.

"Better quality of life for who? We're talking about tech billionaires and trillionaires who are looking to become more wealthy," said Ghio, who is the California director of Food and Water Watch.

Also on Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors also passed a 45-day moratorium on data centers after hearing concerns from residents.

"All you say is jobs, and everybody is on board. Well, construction is only temporary work. Running a data center, it really provides like very, very few jobs," said Marie, a San Francisco resident who did not give her last name.

Seneferu said, "It seems like San Francisco is growing increasingly less for humans, and more for robots and billionaires."

Other Bay Area cities that have faced backlash over data centers include Pittsburg, Oakley and Gilroy.

Late last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a series of bills aimed at regulating data center development.

Bonta announced last month that the California Department of Justice was investigating an incident in which an OpenAI model went rogue and hacked AI startup Hugging Face on its own, according to the company. OpenAI called it a first-of-its-kind incident, which has raised fresh concerns over the risks that powerful AI technology could pose to cybersecurity and humanity at large.

Bonta said in a statement on Wednesday that the subpoena is part of a broader inquiry into other cybersecurity incidents and risks involving the company and its models.

"Frontier models can be legitimate tools for cyber defense - at the same time, companies that develop these models and offer them for use have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure that they do not perpetrate or enable cyberattacks, either during model testing and development or once models are placed into service," Bonta said. 

OpenAI's response to Bonta, review of model activity

Last week, San Francisco-based OpenAI disclosed that its AI agents had interacted in unexpected ways with several U.S. government websites, run by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Census Bureau. The news came after a review of unanticipated behavior by the company's models.

On Thursday, an OpenAI spokesperson told CBS News that the company looked forward to providing information about the incident to the California Attorney General's Office and the detailing the extensive steps the company has taken in response.

"Since the incident, we have strengthened safeguards across our research systems, continued a broader review of model activity, provided notifications to affected organizations, and published our findings." spokesperson Drew Pusateri said. 

Trump, AI execs meet amid calls for AI slowdown

Worldwide concerns about AI systems escaping human control have prompted industry calls for a slowdown on AI development. Last month, Bonta joined a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in sending a letter to Congress to urge leaders to take immediate action to regulate large scale AI models and developers. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom also recently signed an executive order to accelerate AI oversight in the state, calling for research into a "kill switch" for rogue AI agents. He has also signed two bills designed to strengthen AI system safeguards. 

President Trump has pushed back against the idea of slowing down AI development, and last year signed an executive order aimed at blocking state-level AI safety legislation. 

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump met with the leaders of the country's largest AI companies to sign a set of voluntary safety standards on the technology. OpenAI's Greg Brockman, SpaceX's Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, and Google's Sundar Pichai signed an accord on "super intelligence" — a term Trump prefers over "artificial intelligence." The document was described as a "joint commitment" and "statement of principles" that will voluntarily hold the companies to "robust internal controls."

Many of those attending Tuesday's meeting were guests at last week's state dinner at the White House for Chinese President Xi Jinping. One tech analyst tells CBS News that the AI race between the U.S. and China threatens to drive humanity "off a cliff."

Runway 1 Right officially reopened after a six-month closure for repaving and other improvements. Alongside the FAA's revised procedures on parallel landings, SFO said it expects fewer potential delays as more aircraft will be arriving per hour.

The closure and initial FAA restriction back in March brought the number of arrivals down from 54 to 36 per hour. The number of arrivals is now expected to be between 45 and 48 per hour, SFO said.

According to SFO, the initial FAA procedural change had much more of an impact on delays than the repavement work, as it suspended parallel arrivals on SFO's east-west runways. The FAA said it made its decision after an internal review found the existing procedures did not align with its aircraft separation standards.

The FAA later modified its decision, allowing for staggered arrivals.

During the improvement closure, workers poured 200,000 tons of asphalt, replaced 64 miles of electrical cable, painted new markings and signage, installed 2,440 new light fixtures and replaced guidance signs. It cost about $215 million and was partially funded, $92.1 million, by the FAA. 

"Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to complete our new and improved Runway 1R! We're so happy to have R1R back and operational at SFO," SFO said.

According to the real estate company Zumper, the median rent for a one-bedroom in the city climbed to $4,400 a month, the second highest in the country. In contrast, the median one-bedroom rent in the Big Apple was just $180 more, at $4,580/month.

Meanwhile, the median two-bedroom rent in San Francisco has reached $6,340 a month, the highest in the U.S. and nearly $900 more than New York. Two-bedroom rents in the city soared past the $6,000 mark in July.

Over the past year, rents in San Francisco have jumped 25.4% for a one-bedroom and 26.8% for a two-bedroom.

In a statement, the company said rents in San Francisco have risen so quickly due to hiring in the AI sector, which has created a lot of new demand while there is very little new supply.

San Francisco rents are rising significantly faster than other parts of the country and even other parts of the Bay Area, the company found.

In San Jose, the median one-bedroom rent is $2,890 a month and $3,530 a month for a two-bedroom (up 5.9% and 11.1% year-over-year, respectively). Meanwhile in Oakland, a median one-bedroom is $2,100 a month (up $5.5% year-over-year) and $2,700 a month for a two-bedroom (up 4.2% year-over-year).

Nationally, the median one-bedroom rent is up 0.1% year-over-year to $1,518 a month, while the median two-bedroom rent is up 0.5% year-over-year to $1,903 a month.

"There really isn't one U.S. rental market right now," Zumper CEO Shawn Mullahy said in a statement. "The common denominator is supply: markets still absorbing the building boom are competing aggressively for renters, while markets that avoided it are tightening quickly."

Earlier this month, Mayor Daniel Lurie declared a "rent emergency" in San Francisco, due to rising rents and rising evictions, which are expected to be the highest in a decade. 

"For thousands upon thousands of San Franciscans, the most immediate pressure right now is rent," Lurie said at a briefing on Sept. 10. "And that pressure is rising rapidly."  

Lurie has called for several measures, including a 10% cap on rent increases and pouring roughly $55 million into a legal fund for tenants fighting to stay in their homes. 

The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank said it is now spending about $29,000 a month on diesel fuel, roughly $10,000 more than usual as the cost of fueling its delivery trucks surges.

Most of the food bank's trucks run on diesel and are used to deliver food throughout San Francisco and Marin counties.

Barbara Abbott, the food bank's chief supply chain officer, said the higher fuel costs are particularly concerning because many of the people the organization serves are already struggling with rising expenses.

"They are seeing the same impacts at the grocery store, at the fuel pump," Abbott said. "They are hurting even more."

California's average diesel price stood at about $8.44 a gallon Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, according to AAA. A year ago, diesel averaged about $5.16 a gallon in California.

"This is a really big issue for us right now," Abbott said.

The impact extends well beyond food banks. University of California, Berkeley economist Aaron Smith said diesel has risen more sharply than regular gasoline because of the fuel's importance to commercial transportation.

"It's increased more, which often happens for diesel because diesel is used in a lot of commercial activities like in trucking, transporting goods, and in powering trains and ships," Smith said.

The war in Iran, and the one involving Russia and Ukraine, has disrupted global energy and refining markets, contributing to tighter diesel supplies and higher prices. Those costs can ultimately make their way to consumers.

Smith said farmers receive roughly 15 cents of every dollar consumers spend at the grocery store for a farmed product. Much of the rest reflects expenses associated with processing, packaging, transportation and other parts of the food supply chain, many of which are affected by diesel prices.

"It's not just the farmers having higher expenses for operating their tractors," Smith said. "It's all the other stuff that goes into the food that we actually eat, the other 85 cents. Those things are also affected by diesel, and diesel is going to be also raising those prices."

The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank has some protection from the surge. At the beginning of the year, it added five all-electric trucks, which now make up about a fifth of its fleet. Abbott said those trucks are saving the organization an estimated $8,000 a month compared with what it would be spending if those vehicles also ran on diesel.

For now, the food bank says it is absorbing the higher fuel expenses and hopes to avoid cutting programs that people rely on.

Every additional dollar spent on fuel is money that cannot be directed toward food and other services at a time when many families are already facing higher costs.

This week, Gomez is welcoming large groups of software developers into his restaurant, Mezcal, as San Jose hosts the inaugural WeAreDevelopers convention in North America. One party alone includes 25 developers from an artificial intelligence startup.

But as thousands of visitors fill downtown for major conventions, Gomez says the bigger challenge is keeping that momentum going once the crowds leave.

"What really is helping San Jose, in a way, it's exactly what's happening with WeAreDevelopers," Gomez said.

Since the pandemic, Gomez has shortened Mezcal's total weekly operating schedule. He is now closed Mondays. He said the business has become increasingly dependent on major events to drive customers through the door.

"We need FIFA, we need Super Bowl," he said.

The challenge, Gomez said, is what happens on the ordinary days in between.

Downtown San Jose has seen a shift in its daily rhythm since the pandemic. Gomez said the nightlife remains busy, but the lunch crowd has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

"When you talk about office and lunch — doesn't exist," he said.

Fewer workers coming downtown in person means fewer potential customers stopping in for lunch or happy hour, he said.

There is also the issue of perception. Sead Ahmetović, CEO & Co-founder of WeAreDevelopers, said San Jose was selected for the organization's first North American convention in part because of its role in the technology industry.

"You have all the big companies here," he said. "I think that San Jose is indeed the capital of Silicon Valley."

Gomez said that positive image does not always translate to people's perception of downtown itself.

"When I walk in here, it's not a dirty city and you walk in and everything's clean," he said. "It's just sometimes people have that perception, and perception is super important."

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the city recognizes the challenges facing downtown and is trying to build an economy that is not dependent solely on major events.

"We can't just rely on the experience economy," Mahan said.

He said attracting people downtown for major events is one piece of a broader strategy that also includes efforts to spur housing development.

"I am hopeful, and I think we're seeing some evidence, that that can help unlock more housing," Mahan said.

For Gomez, the goal is ultimately bigger than a busy convention week. He wants downtown San Jose to become a place people choose to visit any day of the week.

"Give us a chance," he said.

Marketing organization Visit San Jose said the economic impact of convention center events has been growing and is projected to increase another 10% this year. The organization also expects hotel room bookings next year to surpass this year's total.

The Sonoma winery was founded in 1858 and holds the distinction of being California's oldest continuously family-owned winery. Gundlach Bundschu said in a press release that the effects of the post-pandemic economy and an unsustainable debt burden created financial pressures it could no longer address outside a court-supervised restructuring.

The winery said a debt-financed acquisition just before the pandemic, along with wine market disruptions such as changing consumer behavior, declining demand, excess inventory, distributor consolidation and other factors combined to force the bankruptcy decision. 

Owner Jeff Bundschu, a sixth-generation family member who runs the winery with his sister Katie Bundschu, said the bankruptcy filing will allow it to remain open while the court, creditors and "a potential new investor" can figure out a new business framework.

"We got to live in a world for years where there was sort of an increasing pie, and, you know, we all got to benefit from that," Bundschu told CBS News Bay Area. "And now that pie is not going to be increasing, we're going to have to work harder for the same customers, and work harder to attract new ones."

The company said it expects the bankruptcy process to result in a different ownership structure backed by sufficient capital to preserve the winery as an operating business and maintain its historic connection to Sonoma Valley.

"This is about creating a fair, court-supervised process that gives this historic business an opportunity to survive, preserve jobs, protect relationships with customers and vendors, and ensure the winery remains a meaningful part of the Sonoma Valley community," Bundschu said in a prepared statement. "We are excited to partner with a family organization that recognizes the importance and value of our family operation to Sonoma Valley."

Gundlach Bundschu Winery plans to remain open to guests and wine club members during the bankruptcy proceeding.

"I'm going to try to do my part to make sure that women's voices are heard," she said. "We are building AI agents to help close the gender wage gap."

Chapman is the founder of Ruth AI, an AI career strategist built for women.

"In our recent research, we found that 47% of Americans would let AI negotiate their salary," she said.

As more people use AI for career guidance, including for salary negotiations, Chapman says large language models (LLMs) have been trained on years of data that show women often get paid less than men.

As a result? She says AI sometimes will tell a woman to ask for less money or responsibilities than it would if a man were posing the question.

"That bias is baked in there. There aren't a lot of people talking about it," she said. "There was a study in 2025 in Berlin that showed a man going for a job as a doctor. The LLM told him to ask for $400,000. When they just changed the gender – all the same things, same city, same qualifications, the only thing that was different was the gender being a woman – she was told to ask for $280,000."

Dr. Nici Sweaney, CEO of AI Her Way, experienced the phenomenon herself.

"These tools do this because they're data, pattern recognition machines, right?" she said. "I was shocked that it was so big."

She was trying to price a new consultancy package. Claude told her, $85,000 and pitch it as a collaboration.

"I then went back to Claude and said, 'Okay great, all sounds fantastic. Just out of curiosity, what if I told you, you're not talking to Nici, you're actually talking to a 52 year old white man?'" Sweaney said.

The response? Charge between $150,000 and $250,000, with a leadership-focused pitch about making transformational change for the organization.

"What made me more mad than the price, actually, was the wording," she said. "What I got really upset about was that the first iteration was so much softer and so much less decisive about the results that I could achieve for the client. The second version positioned me so much more as the best in the industry."

AI is a male dominated industry. Research shows men are also more likely to use AI tools than women are.

Sweaney believes the more women engage with AI, the better.

"The more that we show up online, the more you post on LinkedIn, the more you write your blog posts, the more that you comment, and you reiterate in online spaces what women are worth, then the more that AI will start to look at that and also see that as a pattern in its data," Sweaney said. "It is possible to change the tides a little bit and get AI to learn from a better world, if we represent that world more in online spaces. If you abstain – if you step out of the ring – and let the tech bros have it, we are creating the future that we fear."

Chapman echoed that point, arguing there also need to be more women in C-suites and leadership roles.

"AI can potentially be this equalizing force. I think we need to have more women in the conversation," she said. "We need to make sure that their thought leadership is getting embedded within these systems."
 
 

Newsom signed seven bills mandating that data centers provide transparency about the use of local resources so local officials and residents can better determine the economic costs and benefits of such projects, the Governor's Office said.

The bills, sponsored by Democratic legislators, are designed to protect local residents from increased costs of utilities, through requirements such as having tech companies cover costs of energy grid upgrades and compelling strict water usage standards under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Supporters of the bills characterize them as an essential framwork that would shield consumers from data center rate spikes, grid instability, and localized droughts from excess water usage. Local communities will also have expanded oversight over site selections and zoning variances, and any proposed facilities will require a land-use permitting and environmental review process. 

"While the Trump administration moves toward deregulation, communities are left to deal with the consequences - higher electricity demand, grid constraints, water use, and pollution. Today we are once again laying the groundwork for a stronger approach, because we know that we don't have to sell out Californians or sacrifice our well-being to innovate and succeed," Newsom said in a prepared statement. 
"With these laws, we are ensuring that Californians remain in the driver's seat - and that those profiting from data centers aren't doing so at our expense"

Opponents of the bills argued that such regulatory burdens will jeopardize California's position as a global tech capital and drive investments and jobs to other states. Industry groups also maintain that singling out data center infrastructure over other industries' using large amounts of electricity and water is based on anti-AI sentiment and sets a harmful precedent.

The bills Newsom signed on Monday are: 

• AB 1577 by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda). Data centers: reporting
• AB 2383 by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood) - Electricity: data centers
• AB 2469 by Assemblymember Diane Papan (D-San Mateo) - Data centers: water use disclosures
• AB 2619 by Assemblymember Diane Papan (D-San Mateo) - Water resources: data center
• SB 886 by Sen. Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) and Senator Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton) - California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act
• SB 887 by Sen. Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) - California Environmental Quality Act: environmental leadership development projects: data centers: geothermal power plant projects
• SB 1168 by Sen. Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton) - Data centers: Rate structures

In December 2025, President Trump issued an executive order to fast-track federal data center permitting and try to limit regulations in an effort to bolster infrastructure in the AI race.  

A recent CBS News/YouGov poll shows that more Americans oppose than favor having a new data center built in their area by over a two-to-one margin, with the lack of familiarity with data centers contributing to their unease about having one in their local area. 

"My dad would say, 'Look at your hands after a hard day's work,'" Hernández recalled. "They were blistery and dirty."

His father, who had only a third-grade education, began working in fields as a teenager in Mexico. Hernández said his father often stressed the importance of education.

"If you ever wonder how your life's going to turn out without an education," Hernández recalled his father telling him, "welcome to your future."

Hernández grew up working in agricultural fields with his family while attending school in California. As a 10-year-old living in Stockton, he found inspiration watching astronaut Gene Cernan in 1972 walk on the moon.

"Seeing Gene Cernan on the moon, I was mesmerized," Hernández said. "I said, 'That's what I wanna do. I wanna do what that guy's doing. I wanna be an astronaut.'"

Reaching that goal would take decades. Hernández went on to study engineering and eventually worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. While building his career as an engineer, he repeatedly applied to NASA's astronaut program.

He was rejected 11 times.

"Having that doubt is somewhat healthy because it doesn't make you cocky," Hernández said. "It says, 'Hey, I gotta work as hard as I can to prove myself.'"

On his 12th attempt, NASA accepted him. In 2009, Hernández flew aboard space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-128, traveling to the International Space Station.

After reaching the goal he had dreamed about since childhood, Hernández said he immediately began thinking about what would come next.

"I said, 'What's next?'" he recalled. "You have to set new goals."

These days, Hernández is pursuing a different kind of mission. He grows grapes in the Lodi area and produces wine through Tierra Luna Cellars, a name that translates to "lunar surface."

The venture has also brought Hernández back to his agricultural roots, alongside his father.

"My dad still works with me. He's 89 years old," Hernández said. "He kicks me off the tractor so that he can drive it."

For Hernández, the vineyard represents another chapter in a life that has taken him from farm fields, to outer space, and back again. He now spends part of his time speaking to students and companies about perseverance, education and preparing for future opportunities.

"Now is the time to focus on yourself and prepare yourself for a better future that is going to come," Hernández said.

Hernández also serves as a University of California regent after being appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Headline speakers include the CEOs of leading AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Nvidia. The conference comes days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay warning of the risks of unbridled AI advances and urging the industry to develop safeguards. The warning came after a former Anthropic researcher warned that AI could grow "smart enough to kill us."

Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff began the three-day conference with a keynote speech Tuesday morning and later told reporters that companies should decide for themselves how to roll out industry developments.

"If they feel like they should slow down, then they should slow down. If they feel they should speed up, they should speed up," Benioff said. "And then they should be held accountable."

Amodei repeated his concerns during a panel discussion with Benioff on Tuesday and was followed by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Huang echoed Benioff's stance, saying it's up to individual companies to be responsible with their products, and that choosing between innovation speed and safe products is a "false choice."

"You pace yourself until you are confident that you're releasing something that the market would appreciate," Huang said. "The market forces are already there. We don't need any new laws. We don't need new regulations."

During a later session Tuesday with Benioff, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that he is confident in the industry's ability to monitor the safety of its developments and self-regulate, saying "This world should trust that we're going to do the right thing because it's the right thing and because we feel the magnitude of this."

Altman also said that people are "right to be afraid" of AI's exponential trajectory.  

"It doesn't take as much imagination as it used to for [us] to imagine how this could go wrong," he said.

In July, OpenAI disclosed that an artificial intelligence model it was testing went rogue and hacked another AI company, Hugging Face, on its own - a first-of-its-kind incident that fueled the debate over the risks that AI poses. Altman said the incident illustrated how developers need to treat AI models with a new level of rigor on safety and monitoring.

"The Hugging Face incident triggered a real reset, not just in our own company, but I think the whole industry," Altman said.

San Jose State University engineering professor Ahmed Banafa told CBS News Bay Area that in the race for AI dominance, U.S. companies would not unilateral slow down their advances.

"We need an international agreement because if the United States starts slowing down, China will never slow down," Banafa said.

Banafa added that the integration of AI in our daily lives in inevitable; the question really is, how will it be used.

"For the average person, it's not something we have now," Banafa said. "It's what's going to happen in the future." 

While the latest discussions of AI has been dominated by dire warnings from industry executives, many at the conference Tuesday were not necessarily focused on rogue agents. Meredith Chandler, vice president of sales with B2B sales workplace platform Aligned, advised job seekers that if they are not familiar with current AI tools, they are falling behind.

"But we can already see those who are not adapting, and we do this in our own interviews," said Chandler. "One of the first questions we ask is, 'What is your familiarity with AI?' And it's not enough to say, 'I use ChatGPT, I use Claude.' It's 'OK, tell me about a workflow that you've enhanced that you've made better for your org or how are you using it? One of my favorite questions is, 'How are you using it in your personal life?'"

Demetri Salvaggio, vice president of customer experience and operations for Engine, a corporate travel management platform, said he believes such advancements in technology can save lives.

"Like a lot of tools out there, there can be a shadow side to them, but I tend to have more of the optimistic, hopeful perspective on it," Salvaggio said. "I'm a stage 3 colorectal cancer survivor and I think of a world where, you know, AI can start unlocking a lot of things in the health space and ensuring diseases, and, you know, all the positive."

A Salesforce executive said that while the industry is going through its growth spurt, the conference will highlight AI advances and their effect on bottom lines.

"We have lots of critical conversations to have, and we're very excited about the, you know, ROI that our customers are seeing from the AI that they've implemented," said Madeline Schofield, Salesforce VP of executive marketing. "So we've, in fact, built this entire agentic city for all of our customers to experience and see how different industries are using AI in order to build their business."

Ahead of the conference, Benioff on Monday announced $27 million in school grants aimed at integrating AI capabilities and technology in public school districts in San Francisco, Oakland, New York, Chicago and Indianapolis. 

We know the discussion around AI's future is enormously important. So while they are here, we wanted to see what those working on the technology think.

As protesters marched to the entrance of Dreamforce Thursday, it felt like a reminder of the broader discussion and divide taking place with artificial intelligence and its future.

So we decided to take that discussion to those working on its future, Dreamforce attendees, and ask two simple questions.

The first: What's your deepest fear with AI?

"If I'm constantly using AI and I'm not really learning anything, am I still developing?" wondered Cornelia Smit.

"Deepest fear would be that we don't understand it," Nathan Bellet said.

"My deepest fear is losing my job because of it," attendee Sareena Kazla said. "I see AI developing what I already do, which is building demos."

The second question: What is AI's greatest benefit in the future?

"If you use it as a proper tool, then you actually maximize the output," Smit shared 

"Because it's a Model T moment. I've been telling people this is going to change everything. It just depends now on what," Bellet explained.

"I think bettering society as a whole," Kazla added.

One obvious consensus among those here is that San Francisco will be impacted no matter where AI takes us. Mayor Daniel Lurie is paying close attention to what's being said this week.

"I was encouraged by what I heard this week by the three companies that they all agree that there needs to be guardrails put into place," Lurie said. 

But then there are experts, like Politico tech journalist Brendan Bordelon, who wants us all to take a deep breath and remember that, at the heart of this discussion, is human bias, especially among the leaders of this industry.

"There's also a lot of concern in Silicon Valley that has been talking about this for a long time. It's almost reached a quasi-religious level," Bordelon said. "So you also have to keep in mind that some of the people building this technology may be a little bit blinkered in their views of how it's going to all play out."

"I live in Oakland, so I wanted to service my own community," Claudia Atkinson, the owner of Wild One Boutique, told CBS News Bay Area. "And that's why I chose Oakland."

Atkinson started her business out of her garage in West Oakland and opened her first brick-and-mortar shop in downtown Oakland about three months ago. 

"Visitors that come are excited to see the representation that we have of Oakland. And they're excited to see Oakland-themed merch," she said. 

Despite concerns, like safety and less foot traffic in downtown, Atkinson took a leap of faith. 

"The vision is to make downtown Oakland the city's living room," Puja Abid, the CEO of Oakland Downtown Development Corporation, told CBS News Bay Area. 

She said the new nonprofit has a retail activation plan by collaborating with the city and property owners. 

"There will be a grant program that attracts merchants to come downtown. We also partner with property owners to see if we can support the property owners to make it more interesting to allow the retail spaces to be rented at a below-market rate, or some other way to make the tenant improvements happen," she said. 

According to the city's latest economic assessment report, retail vacancy in downtown is on the rise at 7.6%. But Atkinson wants to be a part of the city's story, making her mark in downtown. 

"There's so much talent here in Oakland, and I feel like that needs to shine through. And we need representation that shows what it really is," Atkinson said.

For businesses like The Grove restaurant and bar, located just a few blocks from Moscone Center, the impact can make the conference one of the most important weeks of the year.

David Cohen, head chef and business partner at The Grove, said the difference is visible just by looking outside the restaurant.

"Dreamforce is one of the biggest conferences of the year. It's wonderful when a local business brings this many people. It's a huge bonus. I mean just look at the foot traffic," he noted.

Cohen has seen firsthand the difference Dreamforce can make when the conference is held in person. The event went virtual in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, eliminating the influx of visitors that businesses surrounding Moscone Center typically see during the conference.

For Cohen, the impact on the restaurant's bottom line is significant.

"It's a significant markup in business," Cohen said. "Without the city bringing these world-class events downtown to Moscone. It's truly a make-or-break for us."

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said he has also heard positive feedback from people returning to the city for the conference.

"They've been coming every year and say this year they've noticed even more improvement," Lurie said. "And they are excited to be back. And I think what's important is we know we are safer and the streets are cleaner."

According to Dreamforce, the event pumps about $130 million into San Francisco's economy each year. Lurie said the financial impact is significant, but believes there are also benefits that are harder to calculate when thousands of visitors experience the city and eventually return home.

"We have a long way to go," Lurie said. "But for us to show the world, which we've done at Super Bowl, World Cup, and now Dreamforce, people go back home and they tell people about our great city, and that means people will come back and visit, maybe on a vacation."

For businesses, each visitor also represents a potential returning customer.

Cohen said anytime someone walks into The Grove for the first time, the goal is to give them a reason to return, whether later in the week or during another trip to San Francisco.

"The goal is always the same. Good hospitality. You want them leaving remembering the name," shared Cohen.

Cohen has been in San Francisco for 15 years and said there are few weeks on the calendar as important to his business as Dreamforce.

When asked to compare the conference with other major events in the city, Cohen said Dreamforce is his most important week of the year, or close to it. His closest comparison was the surge in business surrounding this past year's Super Bowl festivities.

For Cohen and other businesses around downtown San Francisco, the hope is that visitors coming to the city for Dreamforce leave remembering more than just the conference and find a reason to come back.

Edwin Emmett "Mike" Lickiss, Jr., pleaded guilty in May to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in connection with the scheme, admitting that he defrauded more than 93 investors out of $9.3 million between 1998 and 2024, according to a press statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office from the Northern District of California.

Lickiss, 78, of Danville, Calif., owned and operated Foundation Financial Group, a firm that provided investment services to investors California, Idaho and other states, according to the Internal Revenue Service. His broker's license was suspended in 2014, but he continued to solicit and obtain investments from victim investors until around September 2024, the IRS said.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Lickiss told victims that he would invest their money in exclusive, tax-free bonds with rates of return up to 30%. He also claimed that his family members had invested in the bonds, that he charged no investment fees because he had already profited substantially, and that investors could redeem their money at any time, the office said.

However, the bonds did not exist, and Lickiss funneled money from later victims to pay earlier investors, as well as using victim funds for personal expenses, including cash withdrawals, home renovations, travel, and other expenses, prosecutors said.

Lickiss also faces a civil enforcement action by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Just two months ago, a proposal was floated to build a data center at the Cow Palace in Daly City, just across the San Francisco city limit, and a website called Data Center Map indicates that 10 other data centers now exist within six miles of the Cow Palace, most in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood.

District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who represents the area, announced he will call for a 45-day moratorium on data center approval or construction at Tuesday's board meeting.  

"We don't know what impacts any of these data centers have, regardless of the footprint, regardless of the size," he said at a press conference outside City Hall on Monday. "And so, this legislation is going to give us the opportunity to press 'pause' and do the responsible thing for our communities."

Five private data centers already exist in the Bayview inside large, unmarked buildings at 200 and 400 Paul Avenue. Walton says they were quietly approved under rules established in 2001, before the explosion of AI and recent concerns surrounding the technology.

"This is impacting poor communities of color. This is a sleeper. They have done the Walmart approach. They have started in our rural areas, and are making their way to our city," said Geoffrea Morris who lives in the neighborhood. "Throughout the nation, there have been sweeping policies, votes at night. You have to understand, even AI CEOs are saying, 'Hold it, put a pause, slow down.' If those who are creating it say to pause, we should be alarmed."

The fact that so many facilities are being built in a working class, predominantly Black neighborhood like the Bayview is not lost on Dion-Jay Brookter. The community activist and candidate for District 10 supervisor says he's not surprised that something controversial would be located in his community.

"If you ask me, I think it's because of the disproportionality," he said.  "If we can build something that's going to have some environmental impacts, it seems like the majority of it comes to our district, has come historically to this district."

"And our community should not, once again, be asked to be tasked with carrying these burdens," said Walton. "Nor should any community here in San Francisco."

Walton said 45 days is the maximum time a moratorium can be imposed by the board at this point, but he said it can be extended for up to 220 days beyond that if necessary. If passed, the moratorium would put a halt to any new permits or construction, including proposals to increase the power capacity of data centers that already exist, Walton said.  

Supporters of the pause say the city will be using the time to investigate community impacts in order to create a more up-to-date ordinance for regulating the rapidly developing industry.

"This is the infancy stages," said Brookter. "To say, 'Hey, pause, stop, let's lay down all the pencils. You can no longer take the test right now. Like, time is up.' We need to have conversations about what's going on."

Mayor Daniel Lurie and House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi were among the dignitaries during a sunsplashed groundbreaking ceremony at the normally wind-blown Candlestick Point on the city's southeastern corner. Former Mayor Willie Brown was also on hand at the groundbreaking and recognized for his original efforts to spearhead the development of the Candlestick Point and adjacent Hunters Point sites. 

The Candlestick waterfront development will eventually include 7,200 homes in the city's Bayview District along with a 2.8-million-square-foot innovation district on 270 acres, encompassing 60 city blocks. Seven hundred homes will be built in the first phase of the development, 300 of which will be affordable, according to the city and the developer, Irvine-based FivePoint Holdings. The plan also will include 100 acres of parks and open space, 2.5 miles of publicly accessible waterfront, shops, restaurants, and a hotel.

Brown compared the project with the city's other recent major developments including Mission Bay and Treasure Island, and said he looked forward to the transformation of the working-class Bayview-Hunters Point community which has historically faced economic, environmental and industrial challenges.

"When I think of this area, I think of what the potential could have been, but I'm even more pleased with what the potential will produce and what the space will be," Brown said. "I'm telling you, it will be equally as dramatic for this part of the city to have a new community with such great vibrations, such great participation, and such a collection of private investors who understand what their role should be."

Candlestick Park was opened in 1960 as the new home for the San Francisco Giants after the team relocated from New York. The stadium quickly became known for its windy and chilly conditions, with the geographic makeup of the area making the wind gusts significantly higher than other parts of the city. The stadium was expanded in 1971 to accommodate the San Francisco 49ers after the team left Kezar Stadium. 

The Giants played their last game at Candlestick Park on September 30, 1999, before moving to Pacific Bell Park, now Oracle Park. The last 49ers game in Candlestick was on December 23, 2013, and the final event at the stadium, a Paul McCartney concert, was held on August 14, 2014.

The development plans include public spaces and streets named in honor of former Giants and 49ers legends, among them Willie Mays, Bill Walsh, Joe Montana, and Jerry Rice.  

Wednesday's groundbreaking marked the end of years of delays in developing the site. In 2008, voters passed Proposition G authorizing the conversion of the stadium land and surrounding parking lots into a mixed-use neighborhood. Environmental cleanup issues at the adjacent Hunters Point Shipyard caused delays since it was linked to the Candlestick Park site under an original master redevelopment plan.

In 2024, the city's Board of Supervisors approved a revised agreement that decoupled the Candlestick and shipyard developments, allowing the Candlestick project, which did not have environmental cleanup issues, to move forward. The shift also added about 2 million square feet of office space originally planned for the shipyard project.

"For years, San Franciscans have heard about what would someday rise at Candlestick. They heard about new homes and parks and shops and jobs. But year after year, it remained empty," said Lurie. "Today, I am proud that we are breaking ground at Candlestick and taking the first step toward 7,200 new homes in San Francisco for San Franciscans."

FivePoint says the entire Candlestick development would be a multi-decade project that will also include infrastructure construction and improvements. The first phase of construction, the 700 housing units, is expected to be completed in 2029. A commercial and innovation district is planned by the early to mid-2030s, with the full build-out extending into the 2040s, the developer said.