A federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday blocking ICE from re-detaining a 66-year-old nanny from Russia, who immigration agents first arrested outside her employer’s Diamond Heights home two weeks ago.
The nanny has an active asylum case and no criminal record, according to immigration attorney Ghassan Shamieh, who was retained by the woman’s employer immediately following her arrest.
That same day, Shamieh filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of her detention – called a “habeas corpus petition” – and ICE was forced to release the nanny within hours in response to a judge’s order, which called the arrest “inexplicable.”
Immigration attorneys across the country have been filing immigration-related habeas petitions in record numbers in response to the wave of ICE arrests since President Donald Trump began his second term.
Shamieh said his client was already being transported to the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.
ICE did not respond to NBC Bay Area’s request to discuss the case, but argued in court following the nanny’s release that the agency has the discretion to hold her in detention as her asylum case moves forward.
In Wednesday’s order, however, federal Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley disagreed that the agency could detain the woman absent a bond hearing.
“If the government seeks to re-detain Petitioner, it must provide no less than seven days’ notice and a pre-detention hearing during which a neutral decisionmaker must consider whether Petitioner is either a danger to the community or flight risk such that her physical custody is required,” Corley wrote in her order.
Former employees of Lane Fertility clinic say its founder, Dr. Danielle Lane, failed to pay them thousands of dollars in wages and expenses–adding to a growing number of legal complaints previously raised by egg donors, vendors, and landlords.
The new allegations come months after NBC Bay Area first reported that more than a dozen women who donated eggs through Lane Fertility accused Dr.Lane of not paying them as agreed, despite signed contracts promising compensation within 90 days of their donations. Several donors told NBC Bay Area they were ignored or blocked when they attempted to collect payment and were only paid after threatening legal action or filing lawsuits.
Former Lane Fertility accountant Carol Holmes said she worked at the clinic from 2022 to 2025 and is now seeking nearly $20,000 in unpaid wages, unreimbursed expenses and penalties through a complaint filed with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, which is currently under investigation.
Holmes said she repeatedly asked to be paid and at one point used her personal credit card to cover the phone bill, while Lane was traveling overseas.
“I wasn’t going to keep working for free,” Holmes said. “I had to leave so I could look for another job.”
Holmes also said she received calls from egg donors and vendors who were distressed about not being paid.
Another former employee, Ann DeGuire, said she worked remotely for seven months as a donor coordinator screening potential egg donors and went at least12 weeks without receiving pay. DeGuire left the position last March and later filed a lawsuit.
Court records show DeGuire was awarded a $12,500 judgment for back pay last November after Lane failed to appear in court. DeGuire said she has not received the money, but recently she heard back from Dr.Lane who agreed to commit to a payment plan.
NBC Bay Area previously uncovered documented complaints from egg donors recruited by Lane Fertility through social media, where Dr. Lane promotes egg donation with videos promising payments of up to $10,000. Donors from across the country said they completed egg retrievals procedures at Lane Fertility clinics in San Francisco or Novato but were later ghosted when they sought payment.
Egg donor Kaitlyn Becker told NBC Bay Area she was blocked and ignored before finally receiving compensation nine months after her donation, following NBC Bay Area’s investigation.
Court records reviewed by NBC Bay Area show at least two dozen lawsuits filed against Lane alleging nonpayment or breach of contract by former employees, patients, vendors, and landlords. While Lane has denied most allegations in court filings, many cases ended in judgments or settlements against her without an admission of wrongdoing. Several plaintiffs told NBC Bay Area they are still attempting to collect on those judgments.
Lane is also facing lawsuits from two former landlords. One is seeking $144,000 for unpaid rent of an apartment she leased in the city for 17 years and nearly $117,000 for her San Francisco clinic. She vacated that location back in October following an eviction lawsuit. In the new complaint her landlord is also accusing her of fraud noting that her failure to pay rent “is part of a broader pattern of fraudulent conduct and failure to pay debts and obligations”. Lane has not responded yet to either complaint.
Multiple attempts were made to reach Lane for comment by phone and email. NBC Bay Area approached her outside a San Francisco courthouse last October, where Lane said she had “so much to say,” but she did not return after the hearing and has not responded to follow-up inquiries.
Despite the lawsuits, the California Medical Board currently lists no disciplinary action against Dr. Lane. According to their website it can take up to 1.5 years to file a formal accusation and between 3-5 for a full investigation and resolution depending on the complexity of the case. In a statement, the Board said that to discipline a licensee, it must obtain clear and convincing evidence that they violated the Medical Practice Act. The clear and convincing evidence standard is a higher burden of proof than required by most other states.
Dr. Lane remains active on social media, is listed as a medical consultant with Conception Fertility, and her Novato clinic continues to operate.
Since NBC Bay Area’s last report, additional egg donors have come forward alleging nonpayment, and at least two more have been awarded court judgments against Lane. Like many others, they said they are still waiting to be paid.
Tourism in San Francisco still hasn’t fully recovered since the onset of the pandemic more than five years ago, but declining crime rates could help revitalize the city’s image and welcome back the millions of visitors who have yet to return to the city since the spread of COVID-19.
A review of San Francisco police records by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit shows the most serious and prevalent crimes across the city are all down by double digits compared to last year, that includes homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, car theft, and car break-ins.
San Francisco crime rates during the first 10 months of this year have declined significantly compared to the same time period last, according to data from the San Francisco Police Dept.
“We are at historic lows in multiple of these categories,” said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. “We can have compassionate values, but we cannot subvert the fundamental things people deserve like … living in their homes free from attack, victimization, and crime.”
Mayor Lurie recently described the city’s declining crime rates as the “lowest…in decades,” adding that car break-ins are at 22-year lows, and homicides at 70-year lows.
Jenkins credits the crime reduction to a stronger police presence across the city and her office’s commitment to successfully pursue criminal cases.
“We have been able to prosecute more effectively – the people who are doing the most damage in our city, prolific and chronic offenders and keep many of them in custody, which disables them from breaking into 20 cars per day around our city.”
It was just a few years ago when the Investigative Unit reported on San Francisco’s all-time highs for car break-ins, that totaled more than 70 per day – roughly triple the rate of other major cities, including Houston and Los Angeles.
Today, the city averages closer to 15 car break-ins per day, with 4,549 smash-and grabs reported in the first 10 months of this year, according to San Francisco police.
“You definitely have to be cognizant of it,” said Cole Bernabei, who lives in the city’s Marina neighborhood, which has historically had some of the most car break-ins in the city. “We don’t have a specific parking garage in the city, so we park on the street and before we go home for the night we try to clear out our car as best we can.”
Bernabei lives within San Francisco’s Northern Police District, which remains the epicenter for car break-ins in the city.
“We’ve seen on our block shattered glass and a lot of windows that have been broken into,” he said. “It’s definitely always on the back of my mind.”
The city’s Northern Police District reported 868 car break-ins from January to October of this year, while 1,530 incidents were reported during the same 10-month period last year – reflecting a 43% decline.
“In no way do we believe that this data says that our work is done,” Jenkins said. “We know there are still many communities that are struggling — the foot is still on the gas.”
Sources told NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit that despite recent successes in solving cold cases, the Oakland Police Department Cold Case Unit is on life support.
With only one investigator remaining, the unit may be eliminated entirely by the end of the year, becoming a victim of budget cuts and attrition.
Jaxon Van Derbeken has the report on the video above.
The man now held in the fatal shooting of Laney College athletic director John Beam allegedly confessed to homicide investigators and acknowledged owning the gun seized from a duffle bag he had when he was arrested, according to the affidavit in support of the charges filed Monday.
Cedric Irving Jr., 27, is expected to be arraigned Tuesday in Alameda County court in connection with the shooting of the 66-year-old Beam in the coach’s office at Laney College last Thursday. Beam was pronounced dead a day later.
According to the affidavit filed in the case, Irving was seen on campus video surveillance leaving the scene of the shooting last Thursday morning.
“Surveillance footage from the incident was reviewed, and a potential suspect was identified,” the affidavit noted. After he was arrested at the San Leandro BART station early Friday, Irving was interviewed by investigators.
“During an interview, Cedric Irving was admonished of his rights and acknowledged them before providing a statement,” the affidavit says. During the interview, police showed Irving a handgun they found in one of his bags, according to the document.
The documents go on to say, “Irving admitted that the gun located in his bag belonged to immediate possession. When shown a photograph of the handgun that was recovered, Irving admitted that the firearm belonged to him.”
Irving will be charged with murder, with the special allegation of using a firearm. He is also accused of attacking a “particularly vulnerable victim.” Prosecutors say Irving’s alleged violent conduct poses a “serious danger to society.”
The City of Fairfield has agreed to pay more than $1.7 million to settle a gender discrimination and harassment lawsuit brought by Battalion Chief Jessica Fleshman, the first woman ever to reach that rank in the Fairfield Fire Department.
The settlement was reached last month without any admission of liability by either party.
Fleshman, a 20-year veteran of the department, alleged in her 2023 lawsuit that her historic promotion to battalion chief was met with resistance by some in the department.
According to Fleshman’s lawsuit, the battalion chief faced harassment and retaliation, creating a hostile work environment that “undermined her authority, interfered with her job, and derailed her career.”
Fleshman, who oversaw training for the department, said she joined Fairfield Fire after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, then rose through the ranks until her promotion to battalion chief in 2021.
But Fleshman alleges the promotion quickly became a source of turmoil.
“I was in my chief’s office two or three times a week having to answer for some allegation brought forth against me,” Fleshman said. “It’s well over a hundred [complaints], a couple hundred… My male counterparts weren’t treated the way that I was.”
Like most fire departments across the country, the Fairfield Fire Department is overwhelmingly male. Women make up fewer than 5% of firefighters in the department’s ranks, according to department data from last year. Nationwide, female firefighters remain underrepresented, comprising about 9% of all firefighters, according to the National Fire Protection Association and Women in Fire. The number is even smaller when removing volunteer fire departments from the equation.
In 2024, NBC Bay Area surveyed major Bay Area fire departments on the number of women they employ. You can see that story by clicking here.
Fleshman described some of the complaints against her as silly, but said others were serious and accused her of putting firefighters in harm’s way.
Investigative Reporter Hilda Gutierrez explains Fairfield’s first female battalion chief lawsuit against the city.
“From me wearing sunglasses during training and being intimidating, to severe things like safety concerns that I’m putting people in danger by holding trainings when it was too hot, or that I got people burned,” Fleshman said.
She said she was also accused of being “too direct” and causing “hurt feelings”, according to her lawsuit.
According to Fleshman, each complaint was determined to be unfounded, and she was never disciplined. The Fairfield Fire Department declined to comment on a question from NBC Bay Area concerning the outcome of those complaints.
“What happened to Chief Fleshman is what I’ve seen over and over again,” said civil rights attorney Deborah Cochin, who represented Fleshman in her lawsuit against the city. “She reached a level, and she reached that level because she was amazing. And then she had to speak out, and nobody had her back.”
In 2022, according to Fleshman’s lawsuit, she reported the alleged harassment to the department’s chief. But records from the city show her complaint was not sustained and Fleshman said nobody ever faced discipline. The city investigated a second complaint in 2024 from Fleshman about how she was being treated, and city records show her allegations were again determined to be unfounded.
“By not doing anything, what happened is it emboldened those people,” Cochin said.
In a statement to NBC Bay Area, Fairfield Fire Chief John Sturdee said the city “hired multiple independent and neutral investigators” to review Fleshman’s complaints, and none found evidence of sex discrimination or a hostile work environment. He emphasized that Fleshman’s allegations “have never been proven in court.”
Some advocates for women in the fire service say it’s common for complaints like Fleshman’s to go nowhere, and they fear it sends a bad message across an industry where women are heavily outnumbered.
“There has to be some kind of accountability instead of just ignoring [the issue] and hoping it will go away,” said Lauren Andrade, an Orange County fire captain and the president of Equity on Fire, a nonprofit advocating for underrepresented groups in the fire service. “Because it’s not. You can’t just not address these big issues. It continues to leave the door open for more of the same behavior.”
Fleshman said the experience took a heavy toll and left her feeling isolated.
“Not one person in that agency reached out or tried to help me through it,” she said. “I was really dead to the organization at that point.”
Andrade, however, was one of the few people Fleshman said she could lean on for support as she went through the legal process with her department.
“Most of these people, all they want is to be treated the same as their male counterparts,” Andrade said. “Just the same, right?”
Fleshman said she knew suing the city and speaking out could end her career, but she stands by her decision.
“We need to change the culture of the fire service,” she said. “It’s one of the last cultures to change, we women are just as capable as our male counterparts to do the job.”
Under the terms of her settlement, Fleshman will remain on paid administrative leave until her planned retirement next year. She’s currently teaching as an adjunct fire instructor at Solano Community College.
To contact investigative reporter Hilda Gutiérrez about this or other stories, email hilda.gutierrez@nbcuni.com
Hilda Gutierrez, Michael Bott, Alex Bozovic and Robbie Beasom
After going through the arduous and sometimes painful process of donating their eggs to a Bay Area fertility clinic, a growing number of women allege they were paid late or never paid at all by the clinic’s owner.
Despite legal agreements with Lane Fertility stipulating they would be paid within three months of post-donation follow-up visits, nine separate women who spoke to NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit described being ghosted by Dr. Danielle Lane when their compensation was due.
While some of the women were eventually paid by Lane Fertility, they said that only happened after attorneys wrote demand letters to the clinic on their behalf.
A handful of women say they were ripped off by a Bay Area fertility clinic. Investigative Reporter Hilda Gutierrez reports.
“On this most recent cycle, I was counting on my compensation to pay for my schooling and pay off the remaining debt so I could sign up for more classes,” said Kaytlyn Becker, who said she wasn’t paid for her latest egg donation until NBC Bay Area reached out to Lane Fertility about her case. “And I’ve missed that deadline.”
Becker, 24, donated for the first time three years ago, inspired to go through the process after someone close to her faced infertility. She chose to donate through Lane Fertility, which operates clinics in San Francisco and Novato, after coming across an ad for the clinic on social media, where Lane frequently posts videos encouraging women to donate their eggs.
“They ask you about your GPA, if you have any special talent, your health history, all sorts of stuff to see if you qualify for being an egg donor,” Becker said. “And if you pass the health background for genetic diseases, then they move you on to the next process.”
But Becker said the process takes a toll, describing hormone injections that led to side effects such as extreme bloating, cramps and headaches.
While she alleged she was paid late after her first donation back in 2022, Becker decided to go through the process for a third time with Lane Fertility earlier this year, saying she signed an agreement with the clinic that would pay her $6,000 within 90 days of her post-donation follow-up visit.
As of early September, Becker said that payment was five months behind schedule.
“They blocked my phone number,” Becker said. “They don’t respond to my emails. I am struggling to get in contact with Dr. Lane. And when I do get in contact with her, it’s just her saying, ‘We’ll pay you later, we’ll pay you later.’”
Becker said she was finally paid in September after NBC Bay Area reached out to Lane Fertility multiple times about her accusations, though the clinic never responded to NBC Bay Area’s questions about Becker’s case and those of the other donors.
Becker is far from alone. Her story has been echoed by several other patients of Lane, some of whom traveled from other states to donate their eggs through the fertility clinic.
“They never paid my medical debt,” one of them said. “And they never reimbursed me for transportation or the food costs that were fronted from out of pocket.”
Another patient, speaking Spanish, said, “We go through pain with no reward.”
Several women said they were only paid after threatening Lane Fertility with legal action through a demand letter.
“I looked for an attorney and threatened to sue because I felt scammed,” another woman said, also speaking in Spanish.
One donor said she wound up in the emergency room due to complications from her procedure. A written agreement viewed by NBC Bay Area showed the clinic agreed to assume financial responsibility to cover such complications through an insurance policy, but the woman said that never happened.
“I was just miserable,” she said. “It was a physically draining thing. It was very painful, poking your belly, getting full of hormones. And I feel like my body forever changed from that experience.”
Los Angeles-based attorney Dean Masserman has intervened on behalf of a growing number of Lane Fertility donors, writing demand letters to the clinic after he said they failed to pay his clients.
“I got a call from a donor who said I did this and Dr. Lane’s refusing to pay me,” Masserman said. “Then I got another call and another call. Now, I’m up to about 12 to 15 women, which means it’s not unintentional, it’s not negligence. She’s intentionally not paying these women.”
Lane’s alleged track record of stiffing donors also led the Florida-based egg donation agency Eggvise to sever ties with Lane Fertility.
“There is always an excuse,” said Eggvise founder and CEO Kilmar Ramirez. “I have confronted her over email, I have confronted her over the phone, and there’s always an excuse. She always has something to say, somebody else to blame about compensation or payments.”
For Ramirez, egg donations are personal. She said the compensation she received from donating her eggs years ago helped her migrate to the U.S. and start her business.
“Maybe you were going to get a car to go to a new job, maybe you are going to pay for your tuition, maybe you wanted to move to another part of the city with that compensation, and that compensation never gets to you,” Ramirez said.
A review of lawsuits filed in San Francisco found Lane has been sued at least 10 times for non-payment or breach of contract in recent years. Among those seeking to collect in court are Lane Fertility vendors, a former employee, and her landlord, who is actively attempting to evict her for months of unpaid rent, according to the civil complaint.
Court filings show Lane has denied the accusations against her in most of the lawsuits, though she’s been hit with at least a half-dozen judgements totaling close to $80,000 and has settled three other cases without an admission of guilt.
Years later, some of those plaintiffs said they’re still attempting to collect on their judgments.
Lane’s clinic is now operating under a new name: Conception Fertility. Despite the controversy, Lane continues to advertise the clinic on social media, where she’s gained more than 100,000 followers.
Becker said she hopes her message reaches all of them.
“You’re helping families achieve their dream of having a child,” Becker said. “Walking away feeling bitter about it is not something I want for anybody. It’s a special process and I want to protect women and have them be informed, because I wasn’t.”
Hilda Gutierrez, Michael Bott, Jeremy Carroll and Robbie Beasom
A winery contract worker told fire investigators that he put water on the ashes he discarded not long before the Pickett Fire broke out, according to the spokesman for the Calistoga winery at the center of the fire probe.
That fire has since burned nearly 7,000 acres, but is now largely contained.
The unidentified contract worker, who had long been employed as a handyman for the previous owner, had just prepared a newly built outdoor fireplace for routine use.
To do that he set a small, “basketball sized” fire, said Sam Singer, spokesman for the LLC owned by Hundred Acre Wines vintners Jayson and Helen Woodbridge.
“He [the contract worker] told firefighters that he removed the ashes from the outdoor fireplace, put them in a bucket and poured water on them,” Singer said. “He believed the ashes had been extinguished.”
Singer acknowledged the fire broke out “relatively soon” after those ashes had been discarded on winery property. He noted the initial fire in the fireplace was intended to “temper” or cure the bricks for routine use. The outdoor fireplace had been fully permitted when work started in April, Singer said.
Shawn Zimmermaker, Cal Fire’s Northern Region deputy chief of law enforcement, confirmed discarded ashes as one potential cause that remains under investigation. He did not detail other possible causes.
Zimmermaker noted that treating ashes with water alone is considered insufficient to render any outdoor campfire site safe. Ashes should be checked to ensure they are cool to the touch and then buried to avoid restarting a fire.
San Francisco’s office market is looking emptier than ever before. New data from real estate firm CBRE shows last quarter’s vacancy rate of 36.6% moved up to a record high 37% in the second quarter of 2024—the highest of any major market in the country.
But the incremental increases of just .4% between the two quarters indicates the market is beginning to stabilize, according to CBRE experts. In comparison, in 2023 there was a 6.8% increase between the first quarter’s (24.8%) and the second quarter’s (31.6%) office vacancy rate.
“We’re finally starting to see signs that the office market is stabilizing where the amount of vacant space coming onto market has slowed down pretty significantly,” said CBRE’s executive director of Tech Insights Center, Colin Yasukochi.
But the office market has been struggling for years and vacancy rates have been unticking quarter after quarter.
Yasukochi said despite the climb, another positive sign is the rising tenant demand of 6.9 million square feet— it is almost back to the 7 million square feet average demand of 2019. Driven by discounted rents and other concessions, more leases were completed this year than in the previous quarter, according to CBRE’s report.
“So the amount of space that tenants have signed leases for has increased by about 25% through the first half of this year compared to last year. So, we’re expecting again to see more companies acquire office space for their employees this year than they did last year,” Yasukochi said.
CBRE says AI companies are the driving force behind the demand. The top lease this past quarter was acquired by Scale AI, followed by the city of San Francisco, HR management company Rippling, and global law firms Orrick and Jones Day.
Average rents declined about 30 cents to $68.25 quarter-over-quarter.
Yasukochi said the city is still always off from achieving net positive office absorption again, but they’re very optimistic about AI companies as a catalyst for growth in the future considering San Francisco is a leader in artificial intelligence.
CBRE’s report also revealed that San Francisco is still very oversupplied.
This is all part of a long process, that experts say, is going to take years for city vacancy rates to fall under double digits, as it was before the pandemic, when office vacancy rates were considered relatively healthy.
Antioch Unified School District Director of Maintenance, Operations and Facilities Kenneth (Ken) Turnage has been placed on administrative leave following an NBC Bay Area investigation into employee bullying claims.
According to an AUSD board member, the district’s five board trustees received a message from their human resources director saying Turnage was placed on leave three days after this news organization’s report on April 17.
The story spotlighted allegations that Turnage moved a maintenance worker’s desk to a roof to humiliate him – on district time and using school resources. NBC Bay Area confirmed at least nine other district workers have reported Turnage to district officials for bullying. The accusations span months and include claims that Turnage constantly demeaned, insulted and shouted at them. Three workers said they had to go on medical leave for stress caused by Turnage. One employee said he felt physically threatened when it appeared Turnage charged at him during an argument.
AUSD Director Kenneth Turnage and the desk he’s accused of putting on a roof.
NBC Bay Area has reached out to Turnage several times but has not received a response.
Several of the workers who spoke with NBC Bay Area say Turnage was not held properly accountable, and they know why.
“Oh, because of his relationship with the superintendent,” said Steve Hessler who is a carpenter for AUSD.
“Because of this relationship with the superintendent’s husband and the superintendent,” said Bruce Courtemanche who said he was forced to retire early as the district’s locksmith after being mistreated by Turnage.
“Ken Turnage is still there because of his relationship with the superintendent,” said Jim Kesser who is the AUSD maintenance worker whose desk was moved to the roof.
Since NBC Bay Area’s report, the Board President Antonio Hernandez has called for Superintendent Stephanie Anello’s resignation, which she has not publicly responded to. In an internal email to other district officials, Anello said she called for two independent investigations into the allegations. One investigation will be on the overall employee concerns, Anello wrote, and another will look at specific complaints filed against Turnage detailed in NBC Bay Area’s report.
After concerns of Anello’s involvement in the investigations surfaced – since she would be one of the subjects of the investigation – Anello recused herself from the process. AUSD’s Human Resources Director Robert Martinez said in a press release that he will assume the responsibility of overseeing the investigations and communication with board members.
Both Anello and Martinez have said the investigations will be independent and conducted by a third party, but when the Investigative Unit repeatedly asked who will be conducting the investigations, neither Anello nor Martinez responded the question.
AUSD Superintendent Stephanie Anello
At the school district’s next school board meeting this Wednesday at 7pm, Board President Hernandez told NBC Bay Area he plans to call for a vote to remove Superintendent Anello from her position over these allegations.
NBC Bay Area has reached out to Anello for comment but has not received a response.
Candice Nguyen is leading this news investigation. If you’d like to contact her about this story or have another investigative tip, e-mail candice.nguyen@nbcuni.com.
The skyrocketing popularity of weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro is making it nearly impossible for some diabetes patients to access their prescriptions, according to one of the drug manufacturers and local endocrinologists.
“A lot of my patients have been going through the same struggles,” Dr. Marilyn Tan, chief of the Stanford Endocrine Clinic, said. Some of her patients with diabetes have recently called her for help frantically. A number have ended up the emergency room, she said, with high blood sugar levels because they weren’t able to get their Ozempic or Mounjaro prescriptions.
Semuglutide injections – branded as Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy – have been used to treat type 2 diabetes for years. Combined with diet and exercise, doctors say the injections help control blood sugar.
Carlos Balladares from Concord said he needs Mounjaro to treat his diabetes, but pharmacies have been out for months.
But the drugs have gained an incredible amount of mainstream attention for their popular side effect: weight loss. This year alone, social media, Hollywood and even a recent Oprah special have added to the prescription diet pill trend. Dr. Tan said it’s also likely not a coincidence the current prescription shortage coincides with Hollywood’s movie awards season, specifically the Oscars earlier this month.
Three days before the Oscars, Mounjaro’s manufacturer, Lilly, released an open letter saying it “stands against the use of its medicines for cosmetic weight loss.’ According to Lilly, Mounjaro is meant “for the treatment of serious diseases.”
But the FDA has also approved Mounjaro for “chronic weight management.”
Carlos Balladares is from Concord and said, to the everyday person, this feels like mixed messaging. He said it’s impacting diabetes patients like him.
“For the last ten months, I’ve been trying to get my Mounjaro prescription, and all the pharmacies have been out of it,” Balladares said. He’s not Dr. Tan’s patient, but he is trying to manage his diabetes as well as recover from triple bypass surgery in early March.
“In my recovery with my heart surgery, I need to have normalized blood sugar,” he said. “People don’t care about people with diabetes. They just care about their own self, about losing weight.”
Balladares is recovering from triple bypass surgery and trying to manage his diabetes.
Dr. Tan said it’s the role of the licensed healthcare provider to properly prescribe drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro, but even then, patients will see commercials for compounded semaglutides or buy the drugs on the black market.
“I hear about patients buying it on Facebook. Patients end up sometimes buying various medications online. And then I’ve also heard about patients going to, for example, Mexico and buying it at the airport in Cabo San Lucas,” Dr. Tan said.
Dr. Tan shared a picture her friend took of a drug store selling Ozempic and other semuglutides inside Cabo San Lucas’ airport in February. That friend told NBC Bay Area the drugs were advertise for at least half of what they cost out-of-pocket in the U.S.
Photo taken in February of Ozempic being sold at a drug store inside Cabo San Lucas’ airport.
“These medications are prescription medications and should be recommended under the direction of an experienced healthcare provider because there are certainly contraindications. And there are patients that I have who really should not be on them. And I will tell them that. So, for example, somebody who’s had recurrent pancreatitis should not be on this medication,” warned Dr. Tan.
Overall, treating obesity with prescription drugs can help with a host of other medical issues. A licensed healthcare provider can also help find drug alternatives if the prescription shortage continues.
Dr. Tan also warns about off-brand compounded weight loss drugs, meaning it’s combined with something else. According to Mounjaro’s manufacturer, in at least one instance, the compounded product was nothing more than sugar alcohol.
The skyrocketing popularity of weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro is making it nearly impossible for some diabetes patients to access their prescriptions, according to one of the drug manufacturers and local endocrinologists. Raj Mathai speaks with Candice Nguyen on this,
Candice Nguyen, Alex Bozovic, Michael Horn and Robbie Beasom
James Durgin, whose complicated and controversial life was chronicled in NBC Bay Area’s streaming series ‘Saving San Francisco,’ is scheduled to be released from jail Saturday. Durgin, who says he’s been arrested more than 100 times over the years for a range of crimes, will soon be a free man after serving the maximum allowable sentence for a probation violation. Durgin, however, could still face even more time behind bars as the result of a recently filed federal charge that accuses him of defacing homes in San Francisco’s Presidio neighborhood with cryptic messages written on people’s front doors.
Watch our entire series
A quiet San Francisco Presidio neighborhood is polarized when a homeless, meth addicted man with mental health issues takes up residence in the woods nearby. At first, packages are stolen, and kids’ toys disappear. But then, ominous notes, and an apparent obsession with one woman lead to confrontations with police, and eventually, a man hunt is underway across the city. Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban brings us Episode 1 of Saving San Francisco: ‘The Man in the Woods.’
Is he violent and dangerous or harmless and misunderstood? A homeless man, who has been living in the woods of San Francisco’s Presidio, has divided a small-knit community. Some fear for their safety and want him locked up, while others believe he is being unfairly targeted and a victim himself of deep-rooted problems that continue to plague the city. Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban brings us Episode 2 of Saving San Francisco: ‘In Sickness and in Health.’
Charges for hate crimes and violence land a homeless man in jail, once again, but who was he before his lengthy criminal record? A trip across the country to his hometown reveals a witty, gifted, and charismatic young man, whose college classmates believed was destined for success, even fame. One close friend is convinced opening the wrong door on a single night may have triggered decades of drugs, crime ,and homelessness. Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban brings us Episode 3 of Saving San Francisco: ‘Big Angry Monsters.’
Investigating one man’s journey through homelessness and the criminal justice system in San Francisco exposes deep-rooted and systemic problems that have plagued the city for decades. Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban brings us Episode 4 of Saving San Francisco: ‘Beautiful People, Wasted.’
A San Francisco woman, frustrated and fearful, says city leaders have failed to protect her from a man she believes has become dangerous and unpredictable. She’s now taking matters into her own hands. Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban brings us Episode 5 of Saving San Francisco: ‘Why Should I Live in Fear?’
Inside the San Francisco County jail, a homeless man finally agrees to talk with the Investigative Unit about his crimes, drug addiction, and alleged obsession with a woman in the woods. Sometimes lucid and confident, at other times disconnected and desperate, he shares a twisted tale that intersects with many of the deep-rooted problems ailing San Francisco. Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban brings us Episode 6 of Saving San Francisco: ‘I’m Not That Guy.’
Long hailed as an impossibility, harnessing nuclear fusion to power homes, businesses, cars, and even airplanes is now widely viewed by scientists and engineers as a very real prospect that would undoubtedly and dramatically reshape energy consumption around the world.
“It’s tremendously exciting in that we would have virtually limitless power,” said Carl Bass, chairman of the company Alpha Ring, which is working to capture the power of fusion through miniature nuclear reactors. “It will happen in our lifetime – really, the question for me is just the scale at which it happens.”
Carl Bass, chairman of Alpha Ring, invited Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban to tour his Berkeley manufacturing facility, where prototypes of Alpha Ring’s miniaturized nuclear reactors are being constructed.
Tech companies race to harness nuclear fusion
Globally, over 40 companies – including several in California – are now experimenting with more than 20 different methods to harness what is believed to be a cleaner and potentially cheaper energy alternative in nuclear fusion. The race to harness fusion comes as fossil fuels, including oil, coal, and gas, continue to drive climate change with the pollution they emit.
“We really can produce energy at a fraction of the cost with almost none of the problems of the current energy infrastructure,” Bass said. “You could imagine a small reactor in a vehicle, certainly in a boat or a ship – almost everywhere where we need to use either heat or electricity, we could produce it differently and much more cleanly.”
We really can produce energy at a fraction of the cost with almost none of the problems of the current energy infrastructure.
Carl Bass, chairman of Alpha Ring
Alpha Ring’s method, considered by industry leaders to be unconventional, is known as “electron-catalyzed fusion.” The process relies on what the company describes as “miniaturized” nuclear reactors, which are designed to be small enough to fit on a tabletop, but large enough to power entire communities.
“It’s a very complicated technology,” said Steve Hwang, chief operating officer for Alpha Ring, who oversees the company’s laboratories in Monterey, Los Angeles, and Taipei. “If we can produce abundant energy, that’s how we’re going to change the world.”
Steve Hwang, chief operation officer for Alpha Ring, oversees the company’s laboratories in Los Angeles, Monterey, and Taipei.
Can nuclear fusion ever be commercially viable?
Despite the benefits, one major complication remains – no one has ever been able to turn nuclear fusion into a viable and sustainable energy source. The only place fusion occurs regularly is among the stars – powering, most famously, the sun.
Today, America’s more than 50 nuclear power plants utilize nuclear fission, where atoms are split apart to produce massive amounts of energy, but the process can also emit harmful radiation. Nuclear fusion, on the other hand, relies on atoms being fused together to create bursts of energy. Fusion doesn’t emit carbon or radioactive waste, and the materials needed to create the reaction are plentiful and found all throughout the world.
Unlocking the ability to harness nuclear fusion has largely remained a mystery, however, scientists believe we are the closest we have ever been to creating and sustaining that kind of power.
“Not a matter of if, but when,” said physicist John Edwards, who is a senior advisor at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Edwards led the team of government scientists that made history in Dec. 2022 after achieving what was hailed to be the first-ever nuclear fusion reaction inside a lab, where more energy was produced than what it took to jump start the reaction.
“That showed, in principle, you could actually light this fusion fuel in a controlled environment on the earth, and that’s the first step that you would need to take to be able to potentially produce this clean, limitless energy for the future.”
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has successfully hosted five nuclear fusion reactions inside its Bay Area lab since Dec. 2022.
The ignition was sparked by 192 lasers, which used its beams to create temperatures topping 180 million degrees – six times hotter than the center of the sun. The Livermore lab was able to reproduce that success earlier this month, when it achieved a nuclear reaction for the fifth time in 14 months.
While the milestones have proved to be monumental, the amount of energy produced has been far from substantial. Even the lab’s most successful fusion ignition only produced enough power to barely heat up two pots of coffee. In addition, the actual reaction only lasted less than a billionth of a second. To be considered commercially viable, the process would need to generate about 100 times more energy, according to Edwards. Plus, the frequency of reactions would have to increase exponentially – essentially running nonstop.
During the lab’s most recent experiment on Feb. 12, the fusion reaction produced 5.2 units of energy, known as megajoules. That represented a net gain of energy when compared to the 2.2 megajoules the lasers “delivered” to spark the reaction, however, it took about 300 megajoules of power to energize the lasers enough to produce the ignition.
Edwards believes it will require more than just the work of the federal government to dramatically increase efficiency in the process and truly transform fusion into a major energy source that can be utilized across the globe.
“If we want to do this relatively rapidly, it’s going to be critical that we will be partnering with the private sector,” Edwards said. “It’s a consumer product, so without the private industry I don’t see how we get there.”
John Edwards is a physicist and senior advisor at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Private companies received $6 billion in investments last year to solve nuclear fusion dilemma
Last year alone, private companies centering on fusion saw an influx of $6.2 billion in investments – that was $1.4 billion more than the previous year, according to the Fusion Industry Association, which represents more than 100 companies activity experimenting on nuclear fusion or working to support the industry, including Mitsubishi Corp. and Google.
“This was something that was always done by governments,” said Andrew Holland, the association’s CEO. “Now the private industry is coming in and saying we see a pathway to making money on this — and not in 30 years, but in the timeline of a normal venture capital fund, which is a 10 to 15-year fund.”
Holland believes “pilot plants” could begin to pop up over the next 15 years, which would be the first to introduce energy generated by nuclear fusion into the power grid, meaning the process could finally be used to create electricity for homes and businesses.
“Solving that problem would change life in a fundamental way,” said Ed Morse, a Berkeley Professor, engineer, and author on nuclear fusion. “It changes a lot of things.”
Morse, however, said he remains skeptical about tech companies touting scientific solutions to complicated problems that have remained unsolved for decades.
“If anything sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” he said. “Some of these concepts are really bad…others are passable.”
If anything sounds too good to be true, it probably is
Ed Morse, Berkeley professor and engineer, commenting on the surge of tech companies touting their own scientific solutions for how to harness nuclear fusion into a commercial energy source
Engineer and Berkeley Professor Ed Morse said he remains skeptical about whether an influx of tech companies hoping to tackle nuclear fusion will be successful in figuring out how to actually commercialize the energy source.
Alpha Ring vows to submit findings to independent researchers for review
Alpha Ring said its science has led to more than 15 nuclear reactions inside two of its labs. The energy generated each time has generally only been enough to power a light bulb overnight, but the company says some of its reactions have lasted more than 19 hours – which represents a significant increase from the reaction time achieved at the nation’s premiere government lab in Livermore that measured less than a fraction of a second.
“The accomplishment of this is just such a big deal,” Bass said, who also acknowledged the skepticism he and his company face in asserting such a milestone. “One of the important things when you make a claim like this, where many people will be skeptical, is that this will be able to be reproduced by others.”
To prove the company’s nuclear fusion reactions can, in fact, be reproduced, Alpha Ring plans to submit its findings to a slew of scientific journals for review. The company hopes independent researchers will eventually vouch for the technology and its ability to bring star power to Earth.
“This is a huge claim,” Bass said. “So they rightfully are going to take their time, be very skeptical, try to poke holes in it in every way they can because the accomplishment of this is just such a big deal.”
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) is starting to take first steps to properly retire 95 paratransit cars and vans after a Jan. 7 news report by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit. The investigation revealed that VTA left the vehicles to depreciate for at least four years.
On Feb. 9, the agency started moving some of the cars to prepare for auction. The actual auction will start in April, VTA said.
Dozens of the deserted vehicles, paid for by taxpayer dollars, have been sitting in VTA’s Cerone Division Lot off Zanker Road in San Jose since at least 2020, satellite imaging reviewed by NBC Bay Area reveal.
In a recent interview with the Investigative Unit, VTA board chairperson and Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said she is concerned the agency may have missed a critical window.
“As you’ll recall, during COVID, there was a big strain on supply chains, and there was a high level of interest to be able to buy used automobiles,” she said.
Chavez also said she and other board members had no idea of the problem until they saw the news report.
“I was not aware of the issue. I had a chance to watch your story, and that gave me an opportunity to have a conversation with the staff, so thank you for that,” Chavez said.
Chavez added she is now speaking with the VTA staff about creating new internal checks that would remind the agency when a retired car is ready for auction.
“We need to make sure we apply that across the agency in terms of even asset management, which is certainly something that I’ll make sure VTA pursues. And it’s something that’s instituted as soon as possible,” she said.
The 95 abandoned VTA ACCESS paratransit vehicles were used. Most have more than 100,000 miles on them after driving around some of the South Bay’s most vulnerable passengers, such as elderly or disabled riders who qualify for the program. VTA said it retired the vehicles when they were “past their useful life.”
Rather than starting the auction process when staff decommissioned the cars, VTA left the fleet in two South Bay lots. Adding to the vehicles’ loss in value, in 2022, catalytic converter thieves targeted some of the paratransit Toyota Prius vehicles, costing taxpayers at least $10,000 more in security enhancements, VTA maintenance records obtained by NBC Bay Area show.
When NBC Bay Area asked about the fleet, VTA staff declined an on-camera interview but said in an email that the initial auction process was delayed due to staffing changes and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our obligation is to get as much money back that we can because those were public dollars that were spent,” Chavez said.
Eugene Bradley, founder and CEO of Silicon Valley Transit Users, a VTA watchdog group, said the agency has more than missed a window to sell the vehicles; he feels VTA compromised the cars.
“Now that this auction will finally happen, who would buy vehicles that have been exposed to the elements for up to four years? I believe only scrap metal companies would buy these vehicles,” Bradley said.
According to VTA, on Mar.18, advertisements will begin for the vehicles and the auction. The actual auction will take place on Apr. 30. If the cars don’t sell, they will go back into the auction process again.
NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit found 95 decommissioned VTA paratransit vehicles left in a South Bay lot for over four years. Raj Mathai speaks with Investigative Reporter Candice Nguyen about the VTA’s response to the story and what comes next.
Candice Nguyen, Jeremy Carroll, Allison Hoff and Robbie Beasom
