9 Stories You Should Know About Today

An anonymous artists’ collective has taken responsibility for the effigies strung up in nooses at UC Berkeley on Saturday. Full story

Free speech doesn’t mean that speech is free from consequences. A San Jose police officer is learning that lesson now, as the department investigates threatening comments he made online against people protesting the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police. Full story

Last month at the Institute for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence in Mountain View, an international group of scientists, linguists, philosophers and others convened in a workshop to discuss what might be the most challenging conversation in the history of humankind. Full story

Uber’s approach is brash and, so far, highly effective: It launches in local markets regardless of existing laws or regulations. It aims to build a large customer base as quickly as possible. When challenged, Uber rallies its users to pressure government officials, while unleashing its well-connected lobbyists to influence lawmakers. Full story

An Uber executive’s bare-knuckle approach to public relations appears to extend to his dealings with the landlord of his swank Pacific Heights condominium. Court records show that Emil Michael, an Uber senior vice president, filed for a restraining order against his landlord, tech industry attorney John Danforth, in fall 2013, alleging there had been a “repeated pattern” to “harass and intimidate me with the goal of driving me out of my dwelling.” Full story

"MARILYN P.: Great service, but I’m knocking off a star because the Taxi TV was nothing but holograms of people screaming as they paid their debts to the God of the Underworld." Full story

eBay reportedly is considering laying off thousands of employees as it prepares to shed its huge online payments division, PayPal. Citing unnamed "people familiar with the company's thinking," the Wall Street Journal said this week that the layoffs could total at least 3,000 -- about 10 percent of the San Jose online retailing site's workforce -- when it splits next year. Full story

Employers are rushing to embrace the Internet of Things, with its array of smart gadgets, to keep watch on their workers. Studies contend that these devices help reduce theft, boost productivity and weed out lazy, incompetent or abusive employees. ... But other studies conclude that such monitoring can be so intrusive it undermines an employee's work and well-being, producing anxiety or even depression. Full story

In a sign of the burgeoning marijuana cultivation industry and its mainstream acceptance, an estimated 10,000 people flocked to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds over the weekend to honor the growers behind some of the finest and most powerful strains of pot in Northern California. Full story