Day Around the Bay: RIP, Jeannette Etheredge, Grand Dame of North Beach

Local:

• Farewell to Jeannette Etheredge, the longtime impresario and manager of Tosca Cafe, who died last week at age 85, according to her son. She held court with celebrity friends and politicos at Tosca’s bar, and in its formerly VIP-only back poolroom, for decades, and was friends with Sean Penn, Francis Ford Coppola, Tom Waits, and Sam Shepard, among others. She ultimately sold the bar in 2011 before its transformation into a restaurant in 2013 under chef April Bloomfield. [Chronicle]
• The backers of the billionaire tax signaled Thursday that they’re willing to negotiate with Governor Gavin Newsom to remove the initiative from the ballot in exchange for a more modest measure. On the table now is a 2% one-time tax on people with over a billion dollars in net worth. [Chronicle]
• An audit found that data from the SFPD’s Flock license-plate-reading camera network was improperly searched by federal and out-of-state agencies 300 times during one year. [KPIX]

National:

• Former President Barack Obama presided over the opening of his presidential center/library in Chicago today, which was attended by three other other former presidents but not you know who. In his speech, Obama urged Americans to reject cynicism and resist despair in these horrible times. [CNN]
• Funding for a series of security upgrades for Trump’s new ballroom is apparently coming out of the Secret Service’s budget, i.e. taxpayer dollars. [New York Times]
• Luigi Mangione will reportedly not be pursuing an “emotional disturbance” defense that could have lessened the charges against him from murder to manslaughter, in his trial for the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. [NBC News]

Video:

• Steph Curry dropped in at the South San Francisco Costco Wednesday as part of a promotional effort for his Gentleman’s Cut Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, which is now on sale there.

Top image: Musician Tom Waites with guest Jeannette Etheredge at the 46 San Francisco Film Festival awards night at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, on April 23, 2003 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images )