A Safeway supermarket in the Castro District of San Francisco just announced that it would be going from a 24/7 operation to closing early at 9 PM in an effort to deter shoplifters, becoming the latest chain store to make drastic changes in the city’s current retail crime wave.

According to a Safeway spokeswoman, the store will also be removing self-checkout lines as well as other operational changes due to the thefts.

Walgreens is shutting down five of its stores in San Francisco due to rampant shoplifting in the city, the company announced Tuesday.

A referendum called Prop 47 passed in 2014, raising the dollar amount for how much merchandise had to be stolen in order for shoplifting to be considered a felony. After Prop 47 passed, theft of commercial merchandise under $950 became only a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 6 months in jail. The referendum is called “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.”

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British politicians have long been admired across the Atlantic for their rhetorical flourish, and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson rose to the occasion during his opening address as the host leader at the U.N. Climate Change Conference that opened in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday.

Johnson opened with a clever analogy, welcoming the assembled delegates “to Scotland, whose most famous fictional son is almost certainly a man called James Bond.” Bond films, Johnson noted, often culminate with the hero “strapped to a doomsday device, while a red digital clock ticks down remorselessly to a destination that will end human life as we know it.”

“We are in roughly the same position, my fellow world leaders, as James Bond today, except this is not a movie, and the doomsday device is real,” Johnson said. “The clock is ticking to the furious rhythm of hundreds of billions of engines and furnaces and turbines that are enveloping the Earth in an invisible and suffocating blanket of CO2.”

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The law — which has been in effect for about two months save for a handful of days when it was blocked by a lower federal court — allows private citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who assists someone in obtaining an abortion, regardless of whether they live in Texas, know the patient terminating a pregnancy, or can prove any injury to themself from the procedure. There are no exemptions for cases of rape or incest.

People who successfully sue over an abortion in the state can win a minimum of $10,000, but those who successfully defend themselves from such a suit can claim no financial reward. And there can be limitless lawsuits filed in any Texas county over a single abortion, a factor Hearron referenced in Monday’s arguments as one reason the law creates an unconstitutional chilling effect.

“It turns the abortion provider into a permanent defendant,” Hearron said.

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At a news conference on Monday afternoon, Manchin laid out fundamental concerns over the approach that Biden and his party are taking in their sweeping agenda. He rejected the party's push to expand social programs and castigated Democrats for using "gimmicks" to hide the true cost of the plan and said far more time is needed to evaluate its economic impact to guard against potential negative consequences.

Despite months of a lobbying campaign by the White House to win over Manchin, including by cutting the price tag in half and making cuts to key programs, the West Virginia moderate's comments indicate that Democrats may never be able to win his support on this proposal.

"I'm open to supporting a final bill that helps move our country forward, but I am equally open to voting against a bill that hurts our country," he said in a warning shot to his party.

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To start today's Halloween edition of the John Rothmann program, he plays the introduction of Orson Welles' famed 'War of the Worlds' program. Though it played more than 80 years ago, the similarities in the way it alarmed listeners to their core are rather comparable to the propaganda pushed out by Tucker Carlson on Fox News. He'll take calls and give analysis on this riveting topic for the entire hour.

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Are you ready to get spooked? Because John is! He has Jan Wahl on to run down the 10 movies you need to see this halloween weekend. Among these are Beetlejuice, Adams Family Values and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. At the end, we all get to find out John's all time favorite Halloween flick! 

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Today, President Biden attended a summit at the Vatican. There, he met with Pope Francis, igniting a conversation nationally about Biden's faith and devotion to the church. Hear John's take on it, as well as several callers about the impact on the church in our modern lives.

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John discusses comments made by Mark Milley on the nuclear threat that China presents. He takes calls on the subject, and evaluated how we should negotiate with the foreign entity.

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A Virginia governor candidate is trying to ban a controversial book as part of his campaign, and John isn't having it. He'll take calls on it from different perspectives, and even take a deep dive on Ted Cruz defending parents' use of the Nazi salute.

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John gets into a discussion over gender identification on passports, and just in general. He'll hear from many sides and even discuss how some institutions like SF State already have gender neutral restrooms.

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