San Francisco Bay Area

A newly detailed account revisits the 1950 Operation Sea-Spray, in which the US Navy sprayed Serratia marcescens bacteria over San Francisco from ships offshore to study how a biological attack might spread. The tests exposed an estimated 800,000 residents to the bacteria without their knowledge, and have since been linked to infections and at least one death. Readers are debating the ethics of secret government experiments on civilians and what accountability, if any, followed.

A new report alleges that so-called AI party houses in the San Francisco Bay Area, where young tech workers live and host events tied to the artificial intelligence boom, have been the site of wild parties, sexual harassment and rape. The allegations are drawing attention to the culture of the closely connected AI startup scene and raising questions about safety and accountability in these communal living arrangements.

An upscale retirement community in the San Francisco Bay Area is dealing with a series of disturbing incidents, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The report says the community is grappling with the events, which have unsettled residents and drawn attention to safety at the facility. Details of the individual incidents have not been fully laid out.