9 Stories You Should Know About Tuesday

New Year’s Eve is a night of parties, revelry and drinks. That makes it a prime business opportunity for taxicabs and app-based ride competitors such as Uber and Lyft. In this increasingly competitive segment of the transportation industry, both startups and stalwarts are launching marketing blitzes leading up to a holiday when demand for rides can exceed the supply of drivers. Uber and Lyft will charge passengers much higher rates than usual to attract more drivers to meet the heavy demand. Cab companies, which have seen customers and drivers flee to the app-based ride companies, are girding for battle on New Year’s Eve with special promotions to underscore that their prices never rise. (In fact, they cannot because they are regulated.) Full story

San Francisco supervisors have passed a number of laws in recent years aimed at curbing evictions of rent-controlled units. Most of them put restrictions on what property owners can do with a building once they have forced a tenant to leave. Yet the city doesn’t actively track what happens with these buildings after someone is evicted, leaving it up to the former tenant, neighbors and the public to make sure property owners follow the law. Full story

After months of seeing gas prices sink ever lower, Californians will ring in 2015 by paying more at the pump as a result of the state's landmark greenhouse-gas emissions law. But how much more we'll pay, and whether it's worth it, remains bitterly debated among oil companies, some state lawmakers and environmentalists. Starting Thursday, gasoline and diesel producers will be subject to the state's cap-and-trade system, forcing them either to supply lower-carbon fuels -- which are more expensive to produce -- or to buy pollution permits for the greenhouse gases created when the fuel is burned. In the short term, at least, that will mean higher prices at the pump. Full story

More than a year after San Jose became the largest city in the state -- and perhaps the nation -- to dump foam food containers, the ban finally goes into effect Thursday for most smaller restaurants. About 500 businesses, from mom-and-pop restaurants and coffee shops to bars and food trucks, will have to switch out cups, plates, clamshell to-go containers and other "expanded polystyrene" materials, typically known as Styrofoam. The foam, which does not degrade and has become a huge source of litter, was already banned at chain restaurants in San Jose a year prior. Full story

December’s storms boosted water levels in state reservoirs, but unusually warm temperatures meant rain instead of snow for parts of the Sierra Nevada. “We still have a long ways to go,” says Roger Bales, Director of U.C. Merced’s Sierra Nevada Research Institute. “We need three to four more good storms in order for the snowpack to get up to average or above average levels.” Today, when officials announce this winter’s first snow survey, they expect to find it’s about half of normal for this time of year. Full story

A washed out section of Highway 1 that has cut off easy access to the community of Muir Beach might not be fixed until March as locals worry about traffic and emergency access. And some residents are taking matters — and safety — into their own hands by moving barricades to bypass detours. The Dec. 11 storm that flooded Marin wreaked havoc with the coastal highway that often has issues staying in one piece during heavy rains. During the storm earlier this month about 60 feet of earth under Highway 1 near Muir Beach at mile marker 4.1 washed away, according to Caltrans. Full story

Cal Fire officials put 16 workers on administrative leave Monday after receiving preliminary results of an investigation into allegations that firefighters had sex with prostitutes at the Fire Academy in Ione. The allegations surfaced after Orville Fleming, a former Cal Fire battalion chief, was arrested in May on suspicion of murdering his girlfriend, 26-year-old Sarah Douglas. Authorities said Douglas worked as a paid escort when she and Fleming met two years earlier. Full story

More than two years after BART piloted vinyl in place of fabric on the seats of 100 train cars in 2012, the agency today will remove the last of the wool seats in its fleet. BART has been replacing wool seats on each of its 669 rail cars since March 2012 after the first batch of vinyl seats rolled out to positive reviews from riders. The vinyl seats are easier to clean and have a longer life expectancy than the cloth seats, lasting up to 10 years compared to just three years for wool seats, according to BART. Full story

The 49ers have already been taking some criticism for Harbaugh’s departure since it was announced after the 49ers’ win Sunday, and that includes questioning that bordered on hostile from local sports media at a press conference Monday given by 49ers CEO Jed York and GM Trent Baalke. The presser shed little light on what ultimately caused the breach with Harbaugh, which York repeatedly said was “mutual.” When it was suggested that fans were mystified as to why someone with Harbaugh’s success would be let go after one bad year, the execs said they did not want to get into specific differences with the coach, but suggested they were unbridgeable. York and Baalke both said they would now look for a coach who would be a “teacher,” in the mold of former 49ers coach Bill Walsh, and that they did not yet have a short list. Full story