San Francisco Chronicle

Do you own black plastic items? Throw them in the trash — as soon as possible, scientists say. Here are answers to questions you might consider about the risks of plastics and how to deal with them. Read more from Jessica Roy:?https://trib.al/uVtPQz7

Do you have a black plastic serving spoon kicking around in a kitchen drawer? Toy cars with black plastic undercarriages lying around your living room? A black plastic hairbrush on your bathroom counter? Throw them in the trash?— as soon as possible, scientists say. A new peer-reviewed study in?Chemosphere?found dangerous levels of flame retardants in black plastic kitchen implements, food servicewear, hair accessories and toys.

More Bay Area tech layoffs: The?Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the?San Francisco company?behind the Firefox browser, has laid off 30% of its workforce, citing the need to adapt to a rapidly evolving technology sector.?

Whale watchers on a trip out of San Francisco encountered two great white sharks Saturday in the waters surrounding the Farallon Islands, which are?known to be sharky?this time of year. “Both of them swam under the boat a few times, so the passengers got really good looks at them,” said Michael Pierson, a naturalist at the nonprofit?Oceanic Society, which leads trips to the islands. Pierson used a new GoPro camera to capture underwater video of the sharks. “Everybody was really excited.”??

Early Democratic voter turnout is much higher than it was in 2022 in several key California House races, which could give Democrats a shot at retaking the House.

Dropbox is cutting its workforce by approximately 20%, a move prompted by a slowdown in growth within the cloud storage sector, the company announced Wednesday.

Would you pay $700 for this? A housing startup has won approval for 30 sleeping pods in downtown San Francisco. The small cubic spaces with mattresses stacked across two levels is for rent now.

More than four years later, San Francisco is struggling to regain the jobs that were lost in the wake of the pandemic.?The city, hit hard by remote work, tech layoffs and strict public health orders, had a labor force in the first quarter that was 7.3% below its 2019 levels, or more than 45,000 fewer jobs. Use our interactive graphic to see employment trends in California by county: https://lnkd.in/gtvX87SU

EXCLUSIVE: Airbnb?is extending the lease on its San Francisco headquarters for another decade, putting to rest speculation that the tech company would be exiting the last remaining building of its once sprawling campus. Prior to the pandemic, Airbnb’s campus spanned five buildings, but the company has steadily relinquished its office space in recent years.?Airbnb will be taking slightly less space than the roughly 280,000 square feet it previously occupied in the building. Still, the lease renewal represents a “commitment to our hometown,” Airbnb said.?

An outdated Department of Motor Vehicles office in San Francisco is expected to become?one of the city’s largest affordable housing complexes, after?Gov. Gavin Newsom?announced a plan to transform the site Thursday.