Let's catch up.
California Bans Travel to 4 States With Anti-LGBT Laws, Advocate
California has banned state-funded and state-sponsored travel to North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kansas. The ban is the result of Assembly Bill 1887, in which the state's legislature determined "California must take action to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people." The bill, signed into law in September 2016, went into effect January 1, 2017. It was co-sponsored by Equality California and co-authored by Assemblyman Evan Low, who is gay, in response to discriminatory legislation in North Carolina. Read more.
Dead Whale Towed from Oakland to Angel Island for Necropsy, East Bay Times
A whale that was found dead near the Howard Terminal in the Oakland Inner Harbor over the stormy weekend was towed to Angel Island Monday morning.
The U.S. Coast Guard reported seeing the whale carcass floating upside down Saturday morning, said Giancarlo Rulli, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Center, a Sausalito-based nonprofit that rescues and rehabilitates marine mammals.
The whale is a young female between 40 and 60 feet long. Officials believe it is a fin or blue whale because it has grooves on its throat and underbelly.Read more.
Curious why everyone is headed to Iceland? Explore it for yourself. (Brandon Presser)
Wow Air Flight Deal: $69 to Europe from the West Coast, Conde Nast Traveler
The $69 flights are available from both San Francisco and Los Angeles to Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Bristol, England, while Wow's famous $99 flights are still available from New York, Boston, Miami, and Pittsburgh. Read more.
A Guide to America's Next Great Art Neighborhood, New York Times
While its name conjures images of roving canines, the only wild things you're likely to find in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood are the gang of intrepid young art dealers who have set up shop in the formerly forgotten bayside section of the city. San Francisco is an important market for collectors and institutions — all the more so since SFMOMA's splashy, Snohetta-led reopening last spring — but despite East Coast attempts to colonize, the city's market has yet to be totally conquered. "We have a lot of creative freedom," explains Claudia Altman Siegel, among the city's pre-eminent gallerists, who's boosted hot artists including Josh Smith and Trevor Paglen and who recently relocated to the Dogpatch. "Right now, there's a lot of attention on S.F., but we're not in a Chelsea-like environment with 100 galleries and hundreds of critics all watching what you're doing. Here, you just do whatever you want." Read more.
SF Orders 3 Warehouses to Vacate Following 'Ghost Ship' Fire,
...Bohan lives in one of an unusually high number of warehouses that fire officials have inspected since a deadly blaze tore through the "Ghost Ship"warehouse in Oakland on Dec. 2, marking the worst structure fire in California since 1906.
The inspections are part of a heightened response to fire safety hazards in warehouses from city government that many expected following the fire. Meanwhile, artists and others who live in makeshift conditions in San Francisco and Oakland because of the affordability crisis fear they will lose their homes.
Fire Marshal Daniel De Cossio told fire commissioners Wednesday that the San Francisco Fire Department has investigated 15 complaints regarding the illegal use of warehouses following the Ghost Ship fire.
Of those complaints, fire officials issued notices to vacate to tenants at three of the properties in San Francisco, including one with a basement packed with beds and styrofoam walls, where De Cossio said a fire likely would have killed someone. Read more.
