Local:

  • After Jeffrey Tumlin’s retirement at the end of last year, Mayor Daniel Lurie has selected a new SFMTA director. And it’s the same as the old boss, as Tumlin’s replacement, interim SFMTA Director Julie Kirschbaum, has been given the job permanently. Kirschbaum becomes the first woman to hold the job on a non-interim basis, and faces the tall task of closing a daunting deficit and selling Muni service cuts to an exasperated ridership. [Chronicle]
  • In some positive retail store news for San Francisco, a new Polo Ralph Lauren store is opening in Jackson Square next month and will be SF’s first Polo Ralph Lauren. The store will be at 441 Jackson Street in Jackson Square, and will open sometime in March. SF used to have a Ralph Lauren store in Lower Pac Heights, but this one is a Polo Ralph Lauren, which is a different subsidiary. [KRON4]
  • A 15-year-old who was fatally stabbed on a Valentine’s Day date in San Jose’s Santana Row has been identified as David Gutierrez. This has not been confirmed by the county’s Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office, but instead the news comes in the form of a GoFundMe established by the victim’s aunt. [SFGate]

National:

  • California may be the latest state to crack down on data center power usage, as the AI industry is burning through incalculable amounts of power and water. There are three bills in the California legislature to make data centers more sustainable or transparent, after similar bills have been introduced in Texas, Ohio, and Virginia. [Chronicle]
  • Pope Francis is struggling with a nasty bout of "bilateral pneumonia" (meaning pneumonia in both lungs), and is hospitalized full-time at the moment. [NPR]
  • US District Judge Tanya Chutkan has declined to block Elon Musk’s DOGE team access to federal government systems in the short term, leaving open the possibility she might block that access in the future, but said 14 plaintiff states in a lawsuit have not produced enough evidence of wrongdoing to justify a restraining order. [Associated Press]

Video of the Day:

  • After Monday’s Delta Air Lines crash where the plane flipped upside down in Toronto, we have video from passenger Pete Koukov of exactly what escaping that crash looked like. (Note: There is plenty of profanity in this segment!)

Image: Paramount Pictures