- The US Bureau of Prisons has agreed to pay $116 million to the sexual abuse survivors of the shuttered FCI Dublin women’s prison. The money will be split among 103 victims, with the women receiving anywhere from $500,000 to $1.6 million. [KTVU]
- The Hyatt Regency Downtown SF SoMa hotel, the hotel across from the Moscone Center that was formerly the Park Central Hotel, has been surrendered to its lender. It’s San Francisco's sixth-largest hotel with 686 rooms, and was purchased for $315 million in 2018, but its owners were $290 million behind on mortgage payments. [SF Business Times]
- San Francisco-based Databricks just announced it is raising $10 billion in Series J funding, and its valuation has now soared to $62 billion. It's one of the biggest venture capital rounds in Bay Area history for the data management company that largely serves the AI industry. The company’s CEO declared "It's peak AI bubble," in words that might prove ironically prescient. [Axios]
- Remember that “black spatula” scare right before Thanksgiving that had people throwing away their cookware? The whole thing may have been based on a math error, and the level of flame retardants the cookware emits is likely only one-tenth of what the original research indicated. [Chronicle]
- In light of Oakland’s massive budget deficit, the Oakland City Council has voted to send a half-cent sales tax measure on the April 15, 2025 special election ballot, which happens to be the same electiuon where Oakland voters will vote on a new mayor. [NBC Bay Area]
- Trump is suing the Des Moines Register over a pre-election polling error that showed Kamala Harris winning the state, in his ongoing war with media outlets that do not give him universally flattering coverage. [NY Times]
Image: Joe Kukura, SFist
