Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Years/173

2017
 * January
 * After a series of storms hit California, including January storms causing flooding on the Russian River, Northern California, including the Bay Area, is no longer in drought
 * The Land Trust of Napa County, with The Trust for Public Land, secures the largest conservation easement in its history, 7,260 acres northeast of Calistoga known as Montesol Ranch, near Mount St. Helena, and contiguous to Robert Louis Stevenson State Park
 * Kevin Starr (pictured), American historian and California's State Librarian, best known for his multi-volume series on the history of California, collectively called "Americans and the California Dream", dies in San Francisco, the home of his birth as a seventh-generation Californian
 * Protests of the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump occur in cities across the Bay Area (SF protest pictured), including local versions of the Women's March on Washington , a human chain along the span of the Golden Gate Bridge (pictured) , and a 90% no show of dockworkers at the Port of Oakland
 * Due to severe storms, Governor Jerry Brown declares states of emergency in multiple counties, including all nine Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties
 * The cities of Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Berkeley affirm their formal (for San Jose, informal) status as Sanctuary cities, after a Trump Administration executive order is issued that will require cities to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement orders, or face cuts to federal spending, more than $1 billion in the Bay Area alone
 * Pacific Gas and Electric is ordered by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson to publicly advertise its guilt in violating pipeline safety laws, and obstruction of justice, in the 2010 San Bruno explosion (fires that night pictured), pay $3 million in fines, and make its employees perform 10,000 hours of community service, including at least 2,000 hours by high-level officials
 * Google, Inc. recalls all staff travelling overseas who may be affected by President Trump's executive order suspending all entry of citizens from certain Middle Eastern nations, out of concern they may be barred from re-entry to the US


 * Protesters of the executive order suspending entry of certain foreign nationals are joined at San Francisco International Airport by Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and president of Alphabet, who states "I'm here because I'm a refugee", while the airport issues a statement in support of the protesters, saying "We share their concerns deeply, as our highest obligation is to the millions of people from around the world whom we serve. Although Customs and Border Protection services are strictly federal and operate outside the jurisdiction of all U.S. airports, including SFO, we have requested a full briefing from this agency to ensure our customers remain the top priority. We are also making supplies available to travelers affected by this Executive Order, as well as to the members of the public who have so bravely taken a stand against this action by speaking publicly in our facilities." (protesters pictured)
 * San Francisco becomes the first city to sue the Trump Administration over his executive order to deny federal funds to sanctuary cities, joining 2 states that have sued
 * February
 * The University of California, Berkeley cancels a talk by inflammatory speaker and Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos, and puts the campus on lockdown, due to massive protests, violence, property destruction and fire-setting
 * Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguín receives thousands of hateful, racist, abusive and threatening messages, including death threats, following his criticism of Milo Yiannopoulos' attempted talk at UC Berkeley, initially describing him as a white nationalist, then apologizing and changing the description to “alt-rightist”
 * Thousands attend a protest at Civic Center, San Francisco to protest the immigration/travel ban on seven majority-Muslim nations (US Representative Mike Honda, pictured at event), one of a number of nationwide protests against the ban
 * In San Francisco, three judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reject the US Government argument that a stay of the executive order barring nationals from seven majority-Muslim nations should be lifted, stating that any argument limiting or dismissing the courts ability to serve as a check on Executive Branch power “runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy”
 * Historically strong Pineapple Express storms bring flooding and mudslides to the Bay Area, destroying homes and closing numerous roads, including State Route 17, State Route 35, State Route 37, Interstate 80, State Route 12, State Route 1, State Route 84, State Route 9, and State Route 152 (storm systems pictured)
 * California Governor Jerry Brown requests a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration from President Donald Trump, following a series of storms that hit California, including the Bay Area
 * The Kunal Patel San Francisco Open has its first tournament, at the Bay Club SF Tennis Center, part of the ATP Challenger Tour
 * The United States Patent Office rules that the Broad Institute's patent claims on the CRISPR gene manipulation technology are valid for Eukaryotic cells (plants and animals), ruling against claims made by the University of California, Berkeley, and granting UC Berkeley a patent limited to its use on Prokaryotic cells (bacteria)
 * Thousands gather at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, to stand together in protest against Donald Trump and spell out the word "Resist !!", with overflow crowds creating an underline
 * A Day without Immigrants, modeled on the Great American Boycott of 2006, protesting the Trump Administration immigration policy, has businesses across the Bay Area closing in solidarity with the nationwide day of action
 * San Francisco is ranked third in traffic congestion of all major US cities, according to the traffic and driver analytics company INRIX (Third Street congestion pictured)
 * More than 200 residents are rescued by boat, in the Rocksprings neighborhood of San Jose, due to flooding at Coyote Creek from storm water released at Anderson Lake (dam and spillway pictured). Over 14,000 households are subject to mandatory evacuation due to widespread flooding that exceeds the 100-year flood zone
 * Richmond is the first city in the United States to pass a resolution calling on the United States Congress to investigate, and if necessary, impeach, President Donald Trump, for violating the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution in his international business relations
 * Santa Clara County is the first county in the nation to file a motion requesting that a Federal judge halt implementation of the Trump Administration's executive order withholding federal funding for sanctuary cities
 * The Jewish Anti-Defamation League offices in San Francisco receive two consecutive bomb threats, as do other Bay Area Jewish community centers, part of a widespread wave of over 100 threats and criminal actions directed against the US Jewish community in 2017
 * March
 * House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, from California's 12th congressional district in San Francisco, and other senior Democratic congressional leaders, call on United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, following reports that he had lied under oath to Congress about phone contacts he had had with Russian officials prior to taking his post, and during the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, for who he campaigned
 * Violence at a Berkeley March 4 Trump rally results in injuries to 7, and the arrests of 10 people
 * The Warm Springs / South Fremont Bay Area Rapid Transit station (pictured) begins operating in Fremont
 * Berkeley is the first city in the US to declare they will refuse to conduct business with companies that are involved with the US/Mexico border wall proposed by President Trump, and will move to divest from those companies that they have investments in
 * The National Football League approves the Oakland Raiders move from Oakland to Las Vegas, Nevada, once a new stadium is constructed there, despite efforts by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to create financing for a new stadium complex in Oakland
 * April
 * A collection of the works of Arthur Szyk (work pictured), consisting of 450 paintings, drawings and sketches owned by Burlingame Rabbi Irvin Ungar, is purchased for $10.1 million by the University of California, Berkeley's Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, through a donation by Taube Philanthropies, the largest single monetary gift to acquire art in UC Berkeley history
 * Santa Clara County and San Francisco ask U.S. District Judge William Orrick to block an executive order by President Donald Trump that threatens to deny federal funding to sanctuary cities and counties, arguing that it violates the Constitution and federal laws
 * Suicide barriers begin to be installed under the Golden Gate Bridge after years of debate and delays.
 * At least 21 people are arrested, and 7 hospitalized, at a clash between approximately 200 Pro-Trump and Anti-Trump demonstrators in Berkeley, at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, during which numerous fights broke out, with reports of the use of firecrackers and pepper spray
 * Computer scientist Robert W. Taylor (pictured), who was integral in the development of the Internet, and who founded the Digital Equipment Corporation Systems Research Center in Palo Alto, dies at his home in Woodside
 * Women's clothing retailer Bebe begins closing all 175 of its stores, to become an exclusively online retailer
 * The area's first officially sanctioned "Weed Day" takes place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park
 * Tens of thousands turn out in San Francisco on Earth Day at the local March for Science, to protest federal budget cuts to science research, with Mythbusters host Adam Savage saying "The enemy of science isn't politics or a party or an ideology or a law — it is bias, and bias is everywhere. Science is the rigorous elimination of bias. That is a good thing."
 * In response to requests by Santa Clara County and San Francisco, U.S. District Judge William Orrick temporarily blocks Executive Order 13768, which had threatened to deny federal funding to sanctuary cities, writing "The statements of the President, his press secretary and the Attorney General belie the Government's argument in the briefing that the Order does not change the law. They have repeatedly indicated an intent to defund sanctuary jurisdictions in compliance with the Executive Order."..."The threat of the Order and the uncertainty it is causing impermissibly interferes with the Counties’ ability to operate, to provide key services, to plan for the future, and to budget."
 * May
 * At least 80 leopard sharks wash up dead on the shores of San Francisco Bay, possibly due to a fungal infection, with likely as many as 1,000 dying and sinking since early March
 * June
 * The Golden State Warriors become NBA champions over the Cleveland Cavaliers, with Kevin Durant earning the Bill Russell M.V.P. Award, with coach Steve Kerr joking, “We have very little talent, actually, it was most coaching”
 * A gunman kills 3 people at a San Francisco UPS facility before killing himself
 * July
 * The Tesla Model 3 electric car begins production at the Fremont Tesla Factory (customers pictured)
 * Air Canada Flight 759 narrowly misses a runway incursion at San Francisco International Airport that one retired pilot called "close to the greatest aviation disaster in history".
 * August
 * Bay Area rapper Keak Da Sneak is shot and critically injured in Richmond, in a targeted attack
 * The Consulate-General of Russia in San Francisco is ordered to close by the Trump Administration, in retaliation to Russia ordering staff reductions at the US Embassies there
 * September
 * San Francisco reaches a daytime temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit, its highest recorded temperature since record keeping began in 1874
 * Hiking and mountain bike trails open to the peak of Mount Umunhum in San Mateo County, a spur of the Bay Area Ridge Trail
 * October
 * Fourteen large wildfires, including the Atlas and Tubbs Fires, spread over a 200-mile region north of San Francisco, in Napa, Sonoma and Yuba counties, kill at least 10 people and destroy over 1,500 structures (satellite image of smoke from fires pictured)
 * November
 * A rare mountain lion spotted in San Francisco is tranquilized and released into the wild, far south of the city
 * The wealthiest 1% now owns more than 50% of the world's wealth, with younger people suffering some of the worst inequality. Per the Credit Suisse report, "The outlook for the millionaire segment is more optimistic than for the bottom of the wealth pyramid." The Bay Area remains part of the world, according to most experts.
 * The La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve, a 6,142-acre open space reserve in San Mateo County, California, part of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, opens to the public
 * Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an undocumented immigrant, is found not guilty of murder for the 2015 shooting of Kathryn Steinle on a San Francisco pier, in a case that had touched off a national immigration debate.
 * December
 * A data breach at Stanford University reveals that the university secretly ranked fellowship applicants on their potential value to the university, rather than the university's publicly stated method of by need
 * Silicon Valley software engineer Susan Fowler and San Francisco lobbyist Adama Iwu are featured, with other women, on the cover of Time's 2017 Person of the Year issue, this year given to "The Silence Breakers", people who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment
 * San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the city's first Asian-American mayor, dies from a heart attack, with San Francisco Board of Supervisors president London Breed (pictured) sworn in as acting mayor
 * Senator Dianne Feinstein formally asks Immigration and Customs Enforcement to investigate the West County Detention Center, where multiple federal detainees have stated that they were not allowed to use restrooms. Feinstein wrote, “It has been reported that the conditions are so deplorable that detainees are requesting deportation over pursuing claims in immigration court”
 * Buddy's Cannabis Shop, in San Jose, is the first California business to obtain a state Marijuana Micro-Business License, which, along with a city business license, will make it the first fully licensed recreational marijuana shop in California, when it becomes legal on 1 January 2018
 * Everitt Aaron Jameson, a 25-year-old former marine, is arrested by the FBI on suspicion of planning a terror attack in the Pier 39 area of San Francisco over Christmas