Are the rich kids of Instagram the supermodels of today?

As the 1990s unfolded, fashion designers began dumping supermodels as their human clothes hangers in favor of movie starlets, and the public, as it always does, got bored and moved on to the next big thing — a revolutionary concept called The Internet.... Read More

Business

Time for online sales taxes

By John Zipperer

If your local retail owner is smiling a little more than normal the next time you buy something, he might not be flirting with you. He’s probably happy about some legislation... Read More

Business, Finance

Celebrating small business

By Jim Maxwell

May brings spring flowers, and also the annual San Francisco Small Business Week. While National Small Business Week does not begin until June, here in the City where we love our u... Read More

Science, Technology

Saved by Goldilocks

By Greg Dalton

When people at Miami cocktail parties learned that John Englander was writing a book about sea level rise, many people took him aside and quietly asked him a question. “If I ... Read More

The Wild Wild Web

How ads targeting the marriage-minded wound up on a page about serial killers

By Susan Dyer Reynolds

Nestled in the northern foothills of San Benito County, Léal Vineyards sounds like a beautiful place to get married. “Our spectacular Barrel Room can be custom catered to cr... Read More

Finance

Mind the Gap!

By Alan Silverman

The London Underground Railway System (lovingly known as The Tube) opened in 1863 and soon carried about 25,000 passengers a day. It now carries more than 1 billion passengers per ... Read More

Finance

Too big to jail?

Why crime still pays

By Alan Silverman

Willie Sutton was a famous bank robber who is alleged to have said, in response to a question asking why he robbed banks, “Because that’s where the money is.” Whe... Read More

Socially Responsible

Walt Disney Family Museum thrives at the Presidio

By Marilyn Damon Diamond

Nearly four years ago, those of us who are fortunate enough to write about innovative programs in San Francisco were treated to the site of carpenters, electricians, and painters r... Read More

Finance

Free assistance in preparing your taxes

Tax Season

By Assembly Member Phil Ting

It’s March, which means the deadline for filing your personal income tax returns is just around the corner. Tax Day, April 15, will be here sooner than you think. It’s ... Read More

Finance

As San Francisco leads a new economic upswing in the state, it’s time to act unnaturally

By John Zipperer

The $25 million man, as I called him, was the symbol of California’s boom-or-bust economy. In the early 1990s, when California was struggling through one of its cyclical bust... Read More

Finance

Chutzpah: Businessmen behaving badly

By Alan Silverman

Chutzpah is a Yiddish word that does not have a simple English synonym. It combines the concepts of insolence, gall and audacity. An example is the young man who murdered both his ... Read More

Dollars & Sense

Understanding 401(k) fees

By Jason Alderman

If you’re like many Americans – 71 percent, according to an AARP survey – you might be under the impression that your 401(k) plan administrator doesn’t char... Read More

Socially Responsible

Presidio’s Fort Scott to house new leadership program

By Marilyn Damon Diamond

Fort Winfield Scott stands in one of the northernmost spots of the Presidio, where the ocean almost meets the Bay. Its buildings and grounds were once the home of the United States... Read More

Finance

Frothy coffee: Letting off steam

By Alan Silverman

The U.K. Parliament recently held hearings concerning the amount of tax paid in the U.K. by the subsidiaries of international companies. They called on Starbucks, Google and Amazon... Read More

EarthTalk

Seeing the forest through the trees

By roddy scheer & doug moss

Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that cutting and burning trees adds more global warming pollution to the atmosphere than all the cars and trucks in the world combined? – Mitch... Read More

Business