The dog is named Sandor, and he was with Bankman-Friend when he greeted a writer for Puck at his parents’ home near the Stanford campus earlier this month. Bankman-Fried “certainly is a young man in need of both defense and a friend,” Theodore Schleifer wrote. He explained how Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, the parents of the disgraced FTX founder, are paying for 24-hour security around their house and purchased the dog soon after their son was released on a $250 million bond.

Bankman-Fried has become a “public enemy” and has reportedly faced death threats since the collapse of FTX and his arrest in the Bahamas in mid-November. The 30-year-old mop-haired entrepreneur is charged with eight felony counts pertaining to what federal prosecutors have called “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”

During his visit to Bankman-Fried’s home, Schleifer said he saw neither Bankman nor Fried, who, up until their son’s notoriety, were popular, longtime professors at Stanford Law School. The couple may have retreated to another part of the house, while Bankman-Fried, wearing a T-shirt, shorts and a GPS monitor strapped to his ankle, escorted the writer into the kitchen.

During the more than two-hour interview at the kitchen table, Bankman-Fried “evinced his loneliness and his isolation, but also a hint of mysterious confidence, as if he could somehow wiggle his way out of his current predicament as he had in the past,” Schleifer said. Bankman-Fried expressed repentance but also seemed incredulous that his $32 billion company had gone bankrupt and that his legal troubles “might bleed his parents dry of cash and ruin the lives of the entire Bankman-Fried family.”

About home confinement, Bankman-Fried said, “It doesn’t feel like being bored during a vacation. It feels simultaneously, very antsy and frustrating and stressful. And a lot of trying to find anything I can do, to the extent there is anything. But what I can do is limited.”

Bankman-Fried spends his days going “stir-crazy,” eating vegan burgers delivered to his home, playing video games, “voraciously consuming Twitter,” and studying up on federal wire-fraud laws ahead of his trial, Schleifer said. Indeed, Bankman-Fried seems more consumed by learning about the law than about the people who lost money on FTX, Schleifer added.

During the interview, Sandor rested near the kitchen table as Bankman-Fried declined to talk about his brother, Gabe, and admitted that he had not spoken to any of his former colleagues at FTX and Alameda Research, his trading firm.

“A lot of the people who I was closest to were my colleagues,” Bankman-Fried said when asked whether he still had any childhood or high school friends living nearby. “Most of the people who I was friends with are not talking to me.”

“For a number of years, I was incredibly lucky and fortunate in terms of a lot of the relationships and support that I had,” Bankman-Fried continued. “Now there’s basically nothing left.”

One of those friends who presumably no longer speaks to Bankman-Fried is Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House spokesperson and founder of SkyBridge Capital. At a crypto panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Monday, Scaramucci said that he, Bankman-Fried and Joseph Bankman were once close, but he said he now views Bankman-Fried as a “fraud,” Insider reported.

FTX reportedly bought 30% of Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital investment firm for $45 million, while SkyBridge Capital bought $10 million of FTX’s cryptocurrency; The token’s value has since fallen 90%, Insider reported.

“I made a mistake being involved with Sam,” Scaramucci said, according to Insider. “I thought Sam was the Mark Zuckerberg of crypto, I did not think he was the Bernie Madoff of crypto. And I got that wrong.”

Bankman-Fried confirmed to Schleifer that the only people he talks to are his attorneys and his parents.

“He is a public enemy, defended by a German Shepherd, a few lawyers he will eventually struggle to afford, a pair of loving parents, and basically no one else,” Schleifer said in the conclusion of their interview. “All he has left to bet on is himself, an instinct that worked in the past. Until, one day, it didn’t.”

The Tesla Model S that braked sharply and triggered an eight-car crash in San Francisco in November had the automaker’s controversial driver-assist software engaged at the time, according to data the federal government released Tuesday.

The Tesla Model S slowed to 7 mph on the highway at the time of the crash, according to the data. Publicly released video also showed the car moving into the far-left lane and braking abruptly.

The Tesla’s driver told authorities that the vehicle’s “full self-driving” software braked unexpectedly and triggered the pileup on Thanksgiving day. CNN Business was first to report last month the driver’s claim that “full self-driving” was active.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration then announced that it was sending a special crash investigation team to examine the incident. The agency typically conducts special investigations into about 100 crashes a year.

The pileup took place hours after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that its “full self-driving” driver-assist system was available to anyone in North America who requested it and had paid for the option. Tesla had previously restricted access to drivers with high scores on its safety rating system.

“Full self-driving” is designed to keep up with traffic, steer in the lane and abide by traffic signals, but despite Tesla’s name for it, it requires an attentive human driver prepared to take full control of the car at any moment. It’s delighted some Tesla drivers but also alarmed others with its flaws. Drivers are warned on an in-car screen by Tesla when they install “full self-driving” that it “may do the wrong thing at the worst time.”

Tesla generally does not engage with the professional news media and did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

“We are proud of Autopilot’s performance and its impact on reducing traffic collisions. The benefit and promise of Autopilot is clear from the Vehicle Safety Report data that we have been sharing for 4 years,” Tesla said this month in an update to its vehicle safety data.

Traffic safety experts have long questioned the merits of Tesla’s findings, which show fewer crashes when the driver-assist technologies are active, because among other things they’re generally used on highways where crashes are already rarer.

Tesla’s driver-assist technologies, Autopilot and “full self-driving” are already being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration following reports of unexpected braking that occurs “without warning, at random, and often repeatedly in a single drive,” the agency has said in a statement.

The agency has received hundreds of complaints from Tesla users. Some have described near crashes and concerns for their safety.

Bryan Reimer, an autonomous vehicle researcher with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab, told CNN Business the revelation that driver-assist technology was engaged raises questions about when NHTSA will act on its investigation, and what the future holds for Tesla’s driver-assist features.

“How many more crashes will there be before NHTSA releases findings?” Reimer said.

Reimer said it remains to be seen if there’s a recall of any Tesla driver-assist features, and what it means for the automaker’s future. Musk has said before the company would be “worth basically zero” if it doesn’t provide “full self-driving.”

Getty Images announced a lawsuit against Stability AI, the company behind popular AI art tool Stable Diffusion, alleging the tech company committed copyright infringement.

The stock image giant accused Stability AI of copying and processing millions of its images without obtaining the proper licensing, according to a press release issued Tuesday. London-based Stability AI announced it had raised $101 million in funding for open-source AI tech in October and released version 2.1 of its Stable Diffusion tool in December.

“Getty Images believes artificial intelligence has the potential to stimulate creative endeavors. Accordingly, Getty Images provided licenses to leading technology innovators for purposes related to training artificial intelligence systems in a manner that respects personal and intellectual property rights,” Getty wrote in the statement. “Stability AI did not seek any such license from Getty Images and instead, we believe, chose to ignore viable licensing options and long standing legal protections in pursuit of their stand-alone commercial interests.”

Getty declined to comment further on the suit to CNN, but said that it requested a response from the AI firm before taking action. Stability AI did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

AI art and traditional media suppliers have struggled to coexist in recent months as computer-generated images grow more available and advanced, using human-created images and art as data training.

Once available only to a select group of tech insiders, text-to-image AI systems are becoming increasingly popular and powerful. These systems include Stable Diffusion and DALL-E, from OpenAI.

Shutterstock, a Getty Images competitor and fellow stock image platform, announced plans in October to expand its partnership with OpenAI, the company behind DALL-E and viral AI chat bot ChatGPT, and enhance AI-generated content while launching a fund to compensate artists for their contributions.

These tools, which typically offer some free credits before charging, can create all kinds of images with just a few words, including those that are clearly evocative of the works of many, many artists, if not seemingly created by them. Users can invoke those artists with words such as “in the style of” or “by” along with a specific name. Current uses for these tools can range from personal amusement and hobbies to more commercial cases.

In just months, millions of people have flocked to text-to-image AI systems which are already being used to create experimental films, magazine covers and images to illustrate news stories. An image generated with an AI system called Midjourney recently won an art competition at the Colorado State Fair, creating an uproar among artists, who are concerned that their art can be stolen by these systems without due credit.

“I don’t want to participate at all in the machine that’s going to cheapen what I do,” Daniel Danger, an illustrator and print maker who learned a number of his works were used to train Stable Diffusion, told CNN in October.

Stability AI founder and CEO Emad Mostaque told CNN Business in October via email that art is a tiny fraction of the LAION training data behind Stable Diffusion. “Art makes up much less than 0.1% of the dataset and is only created when deliberately called by the user,” he said.

“The holiday shopping, dining and self-care season is a critical time for the viability of small businesses. It was wonderful to work with (former) Mayor Schaaf and the Oakland Police Department in receiving a grant to fund the full-time, on-street safety ambassadors,” Swafford said. “The hope is that the public saw the broad effort to make commercial districts, and in this case the Montclair Village shopping area, places we can come to with a sense of safety.”

Safety ambassadors during the 30-day trial period that ended Saturday were on the streets eight hours a day, seven days a week except for Christmas and New Year’s days. Direct mobile phone numbers were made available to the public for requesting assistance, and flyers explaining safety ambassador services were delivered to merchants. Kevin Gilmore, of Oakland, served as one of the ambassadors. In an interview Jan. 13, the second-to-last-day of the program, he reflected on the experience.

“I come from the inner city, so coming up here was entering a different walk of life,” Gilmore said. “At first, it was touch-and-go if I was going to do it. But once I was up here and felt welcome, it made me want to do it and to live up to their expectations.”

Gilmore downplays his skills when asked what he brought to the position, mentioning only that he has experience in security work.

“To be honest, it was just me being me. It’s not one set skill; I just take my job seriously,” he said. “I know not to judge but to observe and not act on impulse. Like with certain style cars, a person can be judgmental. But coming from the inner-city, I can feel a person out, and 95% of the time, I can use instinct.”

Gilmore’s interactions ran a gamut, from escorting people to vehicles and reminding shoppers to place purchases in trunks instead of on car seats to providing directions to parking locations to reporting suspicious or actual criminal action to Swafford, who then communicated the information to Oakland police.

“I approached one circumstance in a way so the police could get there,” he said. “I can’t say the specifics, but let’s just say security isn’t about putting your hands on people. If you talk to people, if you tell them you don’t have to do this or that, once you make them feel you’re not judging them, it makes a situation way better. There’s no violence.”

Asked if he will participate if the program receives more funding and continues, Gilmore responded in the affirmative.

“Yes, hands down. Why? Because not only from the good business perspective but in the way the community and Dan have welcomed me, I feel comfortable. People in the community say they see a difference. Merchants thank me, and there are even people who come check on me and bring me coffee when I’m working. Just making a little difference along the line, we might make a bigger difference to keep people from hitting on the elderly or other people or doing crimes.”

Swafford said Gilmore was an ideal candidate for a position that required people who are outgoing, able to communicate effectively and quick to establish and reliably maintain relationships with local merchants.

“We leaned on Bay Alarm Company supervisors who knew the people best suited for these posts. We had to move quickly, and so we relied on their partnerships for referrals.”

Montclair Village regularly engages with Bay Alarm for safety patrols in the district. Limor Margalit, Bay Alarm’s director of sales and security agent services, said that in setting up safety ambassador service for Montclair, one of three districts covered by the company, his role centered on working closely with merchants. By addressing their concerns with the on-street presence of a uniformed ambassador during the holiday season, Gilmore said residents and visitors also benefited.

“Long-term merchants told us having a guard trained to help in different situations was important,” Gilmore said. “For people shopping, the guards made them feel safe by walking with them. Escorting someone to a car is just one example of something they did that the police cannot do.”

Swafford walked the shopping district;s streets during the holidays, introducing the ambassadors to owners and staff at key businesses. He held briefings and relied on digital reporting from the ambassadors to receive updates and provide feedback.

“There was an auto burglary and we advised (that) they connect with a neighboring business and relay that to me so I could get any camera images to pull and relay that to OPD,” Swafford said. “That happened on multiple occasions, unfortunately. We also saw shoplifting and theft that spills beyond store security.

“In one case our ambassador provided information that led to an arrest. Proactively, we consulted on casing the neighborhood. Kevin just being present on the street led to deterring crimes and also he reminded people to put items in secure places out of sight.”

Swafford hopes the program will continue.

“I’d love to take the feedback and report what the ambassadors were able to do to the mayor,” he said. “We had boots on the ground, investment in crime reduction and a good partnership with OPD that allowed them to be more efficient. These are the obvious gains. We don’t have the budget for it, so we’ll look to funding from the city of Oakland and put whatever resources we have in the (Montclair) Village toward continuing it.

“Merchants in the area are still struggling, and, to be honest, some might not make it, so we don’t want to see people taking their money out of the area because they don’t feel safe. An investment in this type of program in Oakland’s General Fund will pay for itself with increased economic activity throughout the city. If given the opportunity, that’s how I will present it to city officials.”

Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Contact her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.

Disneyland reopened the online sales window for Magic Key annual passes on Tuesday, Jan. 17, according to the official Disneyland Magic Key Instagram page.

Sales will be limited and could end at any time. Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro announced last week that Magic Key sales at Disneyland would resume “from time to time.”

Don’t expect the online sales window to remain open for long. Magic Key annual pass sales were reopened for about a day in November before being paused again.

The Magic Key virtual queue had an approximate wait time of more than an hour at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

New Magic Key pass sales will pause each night at 10 p.m. and resume each morning at 9 a.m. Pacific time until the sale ends. Shoppers in the virtual queue will hold their place in the virtual line overnight as long as they keep their browser window open.

The $1,599 Inspire Key, $1,099 Believe Key and $449 Imagine Key were still available for purchase, according to an update posted to the Disneyland Magic Key website. The $699 Enchant Key was available for renewal only.

SAN JOSE — Google has pushed ahead with efforts to salvage parts of older buildings as well as rescue complete historic structures that are within the footprint of the search giant’s downtown San Jose transit village.

The tech titan has offered the public pieces of the now-shuttered Patty’s Inn, whose roots as a downtown San Jose watering hole date back to the Great Depression.

Google also offered up for salvage sections of the former Sunlite Bakery Bread Depot building and will rescue the ornate entryway to the old structure, preserving the entrance elsewhere in the company’s project footprint.

Across the street from the bakery site, the old Hellwig Iron Works at 150 South Montgomery Street is expected to be preserved and creatively reused as a key component of Google’s new Downtown West neighborhood of office buildings, homes, shops, restaurants, hotel facilities, open spaces, entertainment centers and cultural loops.

“Google taking the time and opportunity to offer salvage of older buildings is commendable,” said Bob Staedler,  principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy. “It takes quite a bit of time and energy to make those salvage items available to the public. This effort shouldn’t be taken for granted.”

One of the numerous documents prepared in connection with the Downtown West proposal addressed Google’s plans to preserve several key buildings in the footprint of the game-changing project, where the search giant eventually intends to employ 20,000 to 25,000 tech workers.

The former Hellwig Iron Works building, constructed sometime around 1935, is one of the buildings that’s expected to be reused as it exists, although it’s likely some additions could be made to the structure.

After the ironworks closed its doors, Navlet’s Florists and a Taiko performance studio also operated in the distinctive brick building.

“150 South Montgomery Street, last occupied by San Jose Taiko, is being repurposed for adaptive reuse,” a Google spokesperson said.

It’s likely that the Hellwig Ironworks could be expanded as part of the building’s reuse, according to documents on file with city officials.

“One or more additions and adaptive reuse of the building to accommodate new arts and cultural uses” are envisioned as part of the Hellwig structure’s future, the city documents show.

Among the other historic or noteworthy buildings that are being retained, reused adaptively, or relocated:

• Kearney Pattern Works and Foundry at 40 South Montgomery Street, constructed in 1922. The historic sections of the building will be relocated about 30 feet to the south. “Once relocated, the building would be expanded and adaptively reused to accommodate new retail, cultural, arts, education, and/or other active uses,” the city report stated, with the new frontage on Montgomery Street. The non-historic portions of this building on South Autumn Street would be demolished.
• San Jose Water Works building at 374 West Santa Clara Street, constructed in 1934. The building is being preserved and renovated.
• Stephens Meat Co. “dancing pig sign.” Google removed and preserved the iconic sign that for decades was a fixture near the Diridon train station and the SAP Center. The sign, temporarily at San Jose History Park, will eventually find a permanent long-term home in the Downtown West project.
• Sunlite Bakery at 145 South Montgomery Street, constructed in 1936. Google has decided to rescue the Art Moderne-style entrance of the structure and relocate it elsewhere in the company’s new transit-oriented neighborhood.

The office building is slated to become “a cornerstone of the Downtown West neighborhood that we are developing,” Kent Walker, president of global affairs of Google owner Alphabet, said in April 2022 during a San Jose event to discuss the tech titan’s investments in the Bay Area.

The preservation of so many historic and existing prominent buildings will help Google’s new neighborhood to blend in with the existing areas on the western edges of downtown San Jose, in Staedler’s view.

“This shows a commitment to honoring the historical elements of San Jose while making way for the next evolution of the Diridon Station area,” Staedler said.

If you’re not financially prepared to pay up, late fees or other charges can bury you deeper in debt. Circumstances can change over a matter of weeks through financial setbacks like unemployment, an unexpected bill, a family emergency or other events.

When you’re feeling the financial squeeze of those pay-in-four buy now, pay later plans — and possibly other debts — it’s important to create a plan to pay down balances.

Here are a few options to consider as you strategize your way out of debt.

1. Update your budget

Review your budget and trim unnecessary expenses or swap services for less costly alternatives. Cancel unused subscriptions, for example, or switch to a cheaper streaming service.

If you’re also struggling with credit card debt that may take three to five years to pay off, consider consulting an accredited nonprofit credit counseling agency about a debt management plan, which can consolidate some balances into a single low-interest payment. Note that accounts enrolled in the plan are typically required to be closed, which could affect your finances in the short term.

2. Change your payment due date

Some lenders like Klarna and Afterpay allow you to change the payment due date or request an extension.

Klarna customers using a pay-in-four loan can extend the due date of a payment for each order once by 14 days, according to the company’s website. Afterpay may provide more leeway, allowing changes to the payment due date up to six times per year in the app, according to Amanda Pires, a company spokesperson.

Lender policies may differ, so read the plan’s terms or ask the lender about your options.

3. Communicate with lenders about hardships

If a financial setback or emergency keeps you from making payments, the buy now, pay later lender may offer some relief.

Major buy now, pay later companies with hardship policies typically encourage you to contact customer service as soon as possible about hardships.

“Affirm users experiencing financial hardship can contact us through our help center so we can work with them to identify an available repayment option that best meets their personal needs,” Casey Becker, a company spokesperson, said via email.

Terms vary by lender.

4. Consider a balance transfer credit card

If you have good credit (a FICO score of 690 or higher), a few issuers may offer a 0% introductory annual percentage rate on a balance transfer credit card to be used to pay buy now, pay later debt. That might buy you some time if you’re struggling to meet a plan’s payment deadlines, but there are some things to know.

Balance transfer credit cards are designed to help you save on interest charges for a designated time frame, so they might not make sense for certain buy now, pay later plans that don’t charge interest to begin with. Plus, you can move a balance only as high as the card’s credit limit allows, and there’s typically a fee charged on the amount you transfer, usually between 3% and 5%. Compare potential buy now, pay later costs against these factors.

The process and terms will vary among the card issuers that allow this, so ask what to expect. Wells Fargo, for instance, may allow you to use a balance transfer to pay buy now, pay later debt.

“The most common practice is to transfer balances from another credit card issuer to their Wells Fargo account to save on interest,” Sarah DuBois, a Wells Fargo spokesperson, said via email. “If there is a creditor that is not technically considered a retail or bank card issuer, customers do have other options for how to take advantage of their balance transfer offer (i.e. using a balance transfer check that is generally issued with the offer).”

If a credit card issuer offers a balance transfer option in the form of a check, your ability to use it may also depend on the lender’s ability to accept that payment method.

5. Weigh the pros and cons of a personal loan

A personal loan can consolidate multiple debts into a fixed monthly payment with a low interest rate over a designated period. If the funds are sent to your bank account, it’s generally possible to use them to pay any creditors, including buy now, pay later lenders. A good credit score may qualify you for a lower interest rate.

But again, it’s not ideal to pay off debt with credit, so it’s important to calculate whether the proposed interest rate offers savings compared with any potential charges on buy now, pay later plans. If your buy now, pay later plan doesn’t charge interest or fees, paying it off with a personal loan may not be ideal. But it might be worth using the loan to consolidate other debts — if that can free up money to pay off buy now, pay later plans.

This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press. 

More From NerdWallet

Either way, if you weren’t a dessert person before this, you will be after reading this take on the region’s hottest new bakeries — from a Walnut Creek shop crafting Romanian specialties to an Oakland cheesecake house and a Santa Clara bakery where a couple has found their encore career in Portuguese recipes.

East Bay Bakery, Danville

Across the street from Blackhawk Plaza, this stand-out bakery with the simple name has been wowing locals with its sweet and savory offerings since it opened in July. Glass cases display in jewel-like fashion the laminated croffles, curry puffs and pretzels that have become proprietor-baker Gaby Lubaba’s signatures. East Bay Bakery has no seating but the counter offers views of the open kitchen, where the bakery crew prepares Lubaba’s unique spins on danishes, cookies and croissants. (We recently spied both a baklava croissant and a pastrami-cheese version.)

Lubaba, who made our 2022 list of Rising Stars, offers a wide selection of classic treats and fresh baked breads, too, including rye brownies and a craveable olive fougasse. But there is a certain magic in the seasonal items — hello, pistachio chocolate escargot — and treats inspired by her native Indonesia. Be sure to get your hands on the crispy beef curry puffs filled with real curry leaves. They go fast.

The treat: Made from buttery croissant dough, the croffle ($5) is a crowd-favorite that taps into something deeply nostalgic. The crispy, almost caramelized outside leads to a chewy, satisfying interior that’s buttery and not too sweet. Perfection.

Details: Open 8 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. weekends at 6000C Crow Canyon Road in  Danville. Also Saturdays at the Orinda Farmers Market and Sundays at the Walnut Creek Farmers Market; https://theeastbaybakery.com

LeLe Cake, Los Gatos

Elena Leskina says she’s pretty fearless when it comes to challenges — whether it’s “new business, new skills, new country.” An electrical engineer by trade, she taught herself how to bake intricate desserts by watching YouTube videos during her young daughter’s two-hour naps back in Moscow. When she and her family immigrated to the U.S. five years ago, she opened a commercial kitchen.

Last June, she launched LeLe Cake, a cute all-day cafe where brunch is as popular as the pastries and custom cakes. It’s worth waiting for a table to try one of the Euro-style dishes that customers rave about — the Syrniki (Russian cheese pancakes) with berries, perhaps, Homemade Salted Salmon Toast or the Gruyere Waffle with goat cheese and onion marmalade.

If you didn’t save room for dessert, stop at the bakery case for a takeout order of, say, Kartoshka (chocolate cake “truffles” topped with fruit), Pavlova or Trifle. The full-size cakes are multi-layer, highly decorated beauties with selections such as the Choco Girl, Poppyseed & Lemonade, flaky Napoleon cake or the Sever, a Norwegian national favorite topped with meringue.

The treat: The star is Leskina’s version of the Medovik, a Russian honey cake layered with fresh raspberries and a light white chocolate and sour cream frosting. It’s available by the slice (three layers) or as a full-size cake (five or six layers).

Details: Open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at 14178 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos; https://lelecake.me/

Crumble & Whisk, Oakland

Charles Farrier’s somewhat random entry into the bakery world came when a coworker asked if he could contribute to a potluck dinner. “I was like, ‘Sure.’ I brought a cheesecake. Everyone loved it,” he recalls.

That revelation triggered a slow and deep dive into the art of baking, with Farrier studying cookbooks, experimenting with different styles of cheesecakes, and then distributing them at barbershops and businesses along Oakland’s MacArthur Boulevard and later at farmers markets. This December, he opened a brick-and-mortar location in the Laurel District, where he prepares not just the confection that put him on the map but scrumptious pastries, artfully decorated cookies and so much more.

“This is about building up community, so people can get to know me as a neighborhood staple,” Farrier says. For his breakfast peeps, he has coffee cake, overnight oats and huge cinnamon buns with a jiggly, custard-like frosting. (Try to get them hot.) Folks celebrating a special occasion – or who just want to treat themselves – can order his super-creamy cheesecakes in full and puck-sized versions, with vegan options to boot. And for dinner, you can pick up a flaky-crusted pot pie and a banana pudding that’d fool your Southern grandma, with vanilla wafers and the obligatory toupee of whipped topping.

The treat: The much-lauded cheesecakes are not dense but rather melting, creamy delights with seasonal surprises. Cold weather might see a maple-pecan crumble or apple-cider cake version with chunks of fruit. In the summer folks, rave about the blackberry and corn cheesecake, made with a puree of off-the-cob kernels, thyme and brown butter.

Details: Open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at 4104 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland; www.crumbleandwhisk.com.

Little Sky Bakery, Menlo Park

For years, Tian Mayimin was focused on the law. Since 2017, it’s been all about leavening.

In the beginning, the self-taught baker delivered her naturally leavened breads, baked in her Menlo Park home kitchen, to neighbors. Then she became the darling of the Peninsula and South Bay farmers market circuit with her creative lineup of loaves. Next came pop-ups. And soon she set her sights on a dedicated brick-and-mortar.

Last March, she and her team opened a storefront location on Santa Cruz Avenue near the Caltrain station. Late in the year, she expanded the hours of their indoor pop-up at the State Street Market in Los Altos, all while maintaining a strong farmers market presence. They staff 16 markets every week, with four seasonal ones starting up again this spring.

With the expansions came more innovation. Pistachio Bundt Cakes and Caramel Nut Tarts for the holiday season. Roman-style flatbreads. Baozi, yeast-leavened, filled buns. Open-face lox sandwiches on European rye. Jalapeno Cheddar Rings. A signature Challah made with orange juice and honey and brushed with olive oil. And Volkornbrot, the hefty German loaf nicknamed the king of seeded breads. Some creations are available weekly; some rotate into the lineup.

The treat: The popular Raisin-Walnut loaves go fast. And keep your eye out for batches of the Provencal herbal flatbread called fougasse.

Details: Open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at 506 Santa Cruz Ave. in Menlo Park, with a permanent indoor pop-up at State Street Market in Los Altos; https://littleskybakery.com/

European Delights, Walnut Creek

Since opening in July on Walnut Creek’s east side, this bakery has become a haven for European expats and others craving Italian coffee and classic pastries without gobs of frosting or other sugar bombs. From the open kitchen, Romanian co-owner and head baker Rica Zaharia, a native of Transylvania, greets customers with a smile and talks them through the day’s fresh bakes while the Lavazza brews on the counter.

The glass case holds a medley of goodies, like almond and honey shortbread, apple morning buns and giant, 7-inch cookies packed with caramel and chocolate chips. Some items, like the covri dog, a frankfurter wrapped in golden pastry dough, are a nod to Zaharia’s Romanian roots. Others are collaborations between Zaharia and staff baker, Vida. One such creation, the tiramisu cookie, features pastry cream sandwiched between soft, round ladyfinger-like cookies.

The treat: We’re big fans of the börek. Thin, flaky, phyllo-like pastry dough is filled with ham, vegetables, cheeses and other savory ingredients. Our favorite is the mushroom ($5), which has flecks of herbs and a distinct truffle flavor. Keep an eye out for heart-shaped treats in February.

Details: Open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday and until 2 p.m. Sunday, at 2236A Oak Grove Road in Walnut Creek; https://european-delights.com.

Max’s Cakes, Hayward

This classic, family-owned bakery opened five weeks ago and has already added much-needed pizzazz to downtown Hayward. Horchata cheesecake and café de olla and buñelo cupcakes, nods to baker Max Soto‘s Mexican-American heritage, line the pastry case alongside cookies and brick-sized slices of his Instagram-famous layer cakes. Those cakes come in five flavors, including coconut cream, burnt almond and confetti, and are already proving to be top sellers.

After ordering your dessert, take a seat — or a selfie inside the giant picture frame against the white subway-tiled wall. Or spend some time admiring the historic black and white photos of downtown Hayward lining the walls. Soto appeared on Buddy Valastro’s “Big Time Bake” in 2020 and became the youngest contestant ever to win a “Food Network” competition. There are some pretty cute photos of him eating cake as a baby, too.

The treat: You have to get a slice of cake ($8). Two, actually. The 24-Karrot cake is super moist, topped with cream cheese frosting and brimming with shredded carrots and toasted walnuts. If you’re a lemon fiend, Lemon Supreme, a lemon cake layered with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream, is your jam.

Details: Opens at 11 a.m. Wednesday-Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday-Sunday at 1007 B St., Hayward; https://maxscakesofficial.wixsite.com

Portuguese Tasty Desserts, Santa Clara

What’s new in Santa Clara is delightfully old school: a bakery specializing in nostalgic Portuguese recipes that made their way from the Azores to the Bay Area many decades ago.

When Teresa and Nelio Defreitas retired from school district careers (she as a kitchen supervisor, he as a campus maintenance manager), they decided to resurrect her parents’ Portuguese Bakery, which had been in business locally for more than 40 years. They found a spot and opened a year ago.

“This is what we love to do, especially the interaction with the customers,” she said. “We have such an amazing mix in this community.”

Customers come from as far away as Sacramento for the pillowy Portuguese sweet bread, pastel de natas (custard tarts), rice pudding, a rich, smooth flan and other goodies. The malasadas — the Portuguese doughnuts so popular in Hawaii — are available in 12 flavors (including guava and custard) on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Know you won’t have time to cook for that upcoming potluck? They will bake to your specifications. “Bring me your Pyrex dish and I’ll fill it up with rice pudding,” Teresa said.

The old-school touches extend beyond the recipes. Walk in and you’ll be welcomed, as all customers are, with a complementary cup of coffee, sweet bread samples and conversation. You won’t walk out empty-handed.

The treat: Biscoitos, the not-too-sweet cookie rings, come in almond, lemon, cinnamon, anise, chocolate and other flavors and are perfect for dunking in coffee or snacking.

Details: Open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday at 1085 El Camino Real, Santa Clara; www.facebook.com/PortugueseTastyDesserts/.

Simurgh, Emeryville

If you took a bagel, crusted it in sesame seeds and stretched it out like one of those old-timey hoops kids pushed with a stick, you’d get simit. Every Turkish city has shops hawking simit – and around here, there’s no better place to try them than Hatice Yildiz’s cafe that opened on San Pablo Avenue in late 2022.

A daughter of Istanbul restaurateurs who took an interesting journey to baking – she got a PhD in religious studies in Berkeley – Yildiz makes simit that’s crackling outside, soft and stretchy inside and kissed with the smoke of the oven. Order it with lox and cream cheese or, more traditionally, with tahini and grape molasses. There’s charred-top rice pudding, too, and baklava with housemade phyllo and imported “emerald” pistachios, famous for their startling green hue and nutty-fresh taste. Try the chocolate version, whose honey and bitter cocoa notes somehow improves on the original.

A heartier bite can be found in boreks, quichelike pies with fillings of goat cheese, mushrooms and kale, and stuffed eggplants that were sun-dried in Turkey. Yildiz plans to diversify her savory side this year with lahmacun, as well, a thin flatbread topped with minced beef, peppers and herbs and baked to perfection. (Just don’t call it “Turkish pizza.”)

The treat: The Russian/Ukrainian honey cake is a masterfully constructed slab of housemade graham crackers, condensed milk and brown butter. The sweet-sensory overload is like sticking your head in a honeybee hive, without the bees.

Details: Open daily from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at 4125 San Pablo Ave. in Emeryville; www.simurghbakery.com.

Forest & Flour, Fremont

Many Bay Area residents with dietary issues have found sweet salvation at Sway Soturi’s farmers market booths over the past few years. Now the San Jose wellness entrepreneur can offer a larger menu of organic and gluten-free, dairy-free, peanut-free, soy-free and corn-free savories and sweets to a broader audience at her new cafe in Fremont’s Mission San Jose district.

“We try to make things that people would miss,” said Soturi, who started baking allergen-friendly fare for herself. Take, for example, monkey bread and soup. Her Monkey Party muffins are as ooey-gooey as expected, thanks to a coconut-sugar caramel. The creamy, satisfying Clam Chowder is made with chicken broth, coconut milk and cashews, which naturally add an interesting nutty tone.

You’ll also find gluten-free muffins (carrot, matcha and seasonal), baguettes, brioche, chocolate chip cookies and more. For lunch, she and her team offer congee and French toast too.

By the way, this greenery-filled cafe is located near Mission Peak, which is good to keep in mind if you need fuel for a trip up or replenishment after coming down.

The treat: The big hit is the aromatic Lavender-Lemon Bread. It’s available by the loaf or as a small toast order, with a side of locally made Rose Petal Jam. Soturi also showcases other like-minded Bay Area purveyors.

Details: Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Friday and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday at 43587 Mission Blvd., Fremont; https://forestandflour.com/.

Bake Sum, Oakland

As a kid, Joyce Tang loved to eat at bakeries in Oakland’s Chinatown. “When I got older, I didn’t really feel like I saw anyone iterating those types of flavors at the patisseries I’d visit around the Bay Area,” she says.

Her solution: Quit a Facebook job, land an internship at a three-star Michelin restaurant in Spain, then come back and start her own bakery specializing in memories from her childhood. The philosophy at Bake Sum is pastries should not just be beautiful (though they are, wonderfully so), but also meaningful to a staff of predominantly Asian and female bakers.

“We always try to find nostalgic flavors that speak to us and our upbringings,” Tang says.

Walk into the charmingly decorated shop in Grand Lake and you might see lilikoi “mochi bites” and loco-moco danish with a meat patty, gravy and runny egg. There’s a croissant and Spam musubi crossover called a “crusubi” and an okonomiyaki danish with garlic oil-roasted mushrooms, Kewpie mayo and furikake. It all sounds hearty, but with the skill of the bakers in making delicate, flaky doughs, you’ll be ready for seconds in no time.

The treat: The green-onion croissant is a popular offering that blends two styles of scallion pancakes from Northern and Southern China. It has a pleasantly bready, oily and crunchy exterior, with a soft interior of scallions, toasted sesame oil and sea salt.

Details: Open 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday-Sunday and 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday and Monday at 3249 Grand Ave. in Oakland; www.bakesum.com.

Moves, expansions and other new-ish bakeries to check out:

Lolita Bakery Cafe: Silvia Leiva Browne has supplemented her Hillsdale Shopping Center location, which opened in 2018, with a larger retail shop where fans of Argentinean baked goods can find her alfajores, empanadas and more. 3790 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo; www.lolitaalfajores.com

Republic of Cake: This longtime Orinda bakery known for cupcakes moved to Danville in 2022, expanding its offerings to include more pastries, quiches, sandwiches and ice cream. 730 Camino Ramon, Suite 196, Danville; www.republicofcake.com

Wingen Bakery: Peek into a new bread room and enjoy extra seating with a bistro-style menu of breakfast and lunch items at this recently-expanded Livermore bakery known for bread and pastries. 50 S. Livermore Ave., Livermore; www.wingenbakery.com

Ono Bakehouse: The East Bay’s only dedicated Hawaiian bakery has been open since Dec. 2020 and continues to wow with malasadas, savory ham-and-pineapple buns and tropical Queen Emma cake. Best to pre-order. 1922 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley; https://ono-bakehouse.square.site

Sunday Bakeshop: StarChefs 2022 Rising Star Award winner Elaine Lau marries classic French training with the Asian flavors of her childhood for magically nostalgic treats that have mass appeal: White Rabbit cookies, a char siu croissant, Thai tea milk buns and halo halo cake are all stunners. 5931 College Ave., Oakland; www.thesundaybakeshop.com

”Survey says” looks at various rankings and scorecards judging geographic locations while noting these grades are best seen as a mix of artful interpretation and data.

Buzz: Economic reality has hit California landlords, and their tenants are the winners with four consecutive months of falling rents.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet looked at December’s estimates of lease rates for new tenants in 56 large California cities, compiled by ApartmentList.

Topline

California big-city rents ran $2,110 a month, according to my populated-weighted average of the cities. That’s down 1.1% in a month as 88% of the big cities tracked had falling rents for the month. Rents are off $86 or 4% since August.

And December’s rent was up only 2.4% in a year. That’s the smallest year-over-year increase in 19 months.

But let’s note this recent dip doesn’t wipe away pandemic-era pain for renters. California rents are still up 13% in three years, or $240 a month.

Topline

Let’s look at some extremes among the 56 California cities tracked for December …

Where were the largest rent declines?

1-month drop: Oceanside, off 3.9% to $2,622.

12-month drop: Ventura, off 4.4% to $2,063.

3-year drop: Oakland, off 15% to $1,628.

And which cities had the biggest rent gains?

1-month gain: Ventura, up 1.3% to $2,058.

12-month gain: Escondido, up 11.8% to $2,231.

3-year gain: Escondido, up 40% to $2,231.

And the monthly rent extremes?

Priciest city? Irvine at $3,068.

Cheapest? Fresno at $1,299.

Consider that rents fell in December in nine of California’s 10 most-populated cities. Here are the cities, ranked by one-month rent change …

Santa Ana: $2,111 monthly median new lease rate, down 1.9% in a month, up 0.5% in a year, and up 22% in three years.

San Francisco: $2,196 monthly, down 1.7% in a month, up 2% in a year, and down 13% in three years.

San Diego: $2,345 monthly, down 1.4% in a month, up 4.6% in a year, and up 27% in three years.

San Jose: $2,386 monthly, down 1.3% in a month, up 6.6% in a year, and up 3% in three years.

Los Angeles: $1,873 monthly, down 1% in a month, up 1.7% in a year, and up 6% in three years.

Long Beach: $1,678 monthly, down 0.9% in a month, up 4% in a year, and up 17% in three years.

Sacramento: $1,624 monthly, down 0.8% in a month, down 1.8% in a year, and up 20% in three years.

Oakland: $1,628 monthly, down 0.7% in a month, down 2.8% in a year, down 15% in three years.

Fresno: $1,299 monthly, down 0.2% in a month, up 1.6% in a year, and up 23% in three years.

Anaheim: $2,227 monthly, up 0.2% in a month, up 3.8% in a year, and up 26% in three years.

Bottom line

Ponder 2022’s economic timeline: Reduced coronavirus fears. Workers going back to the office. Students return to classrooms. On top of that, toss in some economic anxieties.

That nudged many renters, or potential renters, to think they no longer needed separate or larger living spaces. This took the steam out of demand for housing, translating to extra empty rentals for many landlords.

So now we’re seeing a sale on rents – discounting that could run throughout much of 2023.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

It took only a couple of tweets to plunge Elon Musk into the morass of a securities fraud trial that could cost him billions of dollars from his rapidly diminishing fortune.

The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer is set to be the star witness at a jury trial that starts Tuesday in San Francisco federal court over his infamous tweets 4 1/2 years ago about a plan to take the electric-car maker private with “funding secured.”

Lawyers for the shareholders will try to show jurors that Musk lied in the statement, and that it caused them deep losses from wild stock price swings over a 10-day period before the plan was abandoned. Musk’s defense team will work to tear down that narrative.

Losing a class-action case of this magnitude could put Musk on the hook for damages in the billions of dollars, according to Adam Pritchard, a professor at University of Michigan Law School.

“Elon enjoys a good fight,” Pritchard said. “He has a lot of money, and is apparently willing to take substantial risks with that money.”

The trial comes as Musk’s wealth has dwindled from a peak of $340 billion in November 2021. He became the first person in history to lose more than $200 billion, all while he spent $44 billion to acquire Twitter Inc. Last month, he was dethroned as the world’s richest person and Tesla’s stock plummeted 37% since Dec. 1, with the electric car maker facing increased competition and a looming recession.

The stir created by the August 2018 tweets is best remembered for throwing Musk into the orbit of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It resulted in a pledge from Musk to have his future social media posts screened by a Tesla lawyer.

Investors must prove Musk knew his tweets were misleading, and that they were “material,” or important to a reasonable investor. Shareholders would also need to tie Musk’s tweets to their trading losses.

US District Judge Edward Chen has already hobbled Musk with a pretrial ruling that the tweets were reckless and false — and he will tell the 12-member jury to assume that from the get-go, to set the parameters of the trial.

That instruction to the jury puts Musk at a “huge disadvantage,” Pritchard said.

To beat back the allegations he was deceitful, Musk has said in court filings he may call on others who can vouch for the take-private plan, including friend and confidant Larry Ellison, as well as executives at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and private-equity firm Silver Lake Management.

Musk’s lawyers have failed repeatedly to persuade Chen not to share his finding with the jury, saying as recently as last week that it could be “highly prejudicial” to the CEO’s defense.

A lawyer for Musk declined to comment before the start of the trial and an attorney for the shareholders didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Musk has insisted his short-lived plan to take Tesla private was solid based on discussions he had with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. He subpoenaed the governor of the Kingdom’s Private Investment Fund to testify at the trial, but withdrew the request after attorneys for Yasir Al-Rumayyan argued he isn’t legally obligated to show up.

Proving Musk’s state of mind will be nuanced and tricky. Ordinary investors understand that deals can get done even if they’re not 100% nailed down, Pritchard said. Musk might have believed in his ability to take Tesla private, even if he wasn’t across the finish line yet.

“Elon Musk is an achiever, he gets things done,” Pritchard said. “If he says he’s going to take Tesla private, in his mind he’s going to take Tesla private. Did you ever decide that you were going to put a rocket in space? Elon did. He did it. He believes in Elon. He’s a little crazy. Which is part of the secret of his success. He might believe that because he’s Elon Musk.”

–With assistance from Pierre Paulden.

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