Morning Digest: 10 Stories You Should Know About Today

Senator Al Franken, Chairman of the Subcommittee On Privacy, Technology, and the Law, has posted a public letter to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in which he addresses many of the claims made over the past few days that the company has consistently compromised user privacy as a matter of course. Full story

"I am writing in regard to reports of recent comments and actions by top Uber executives concerning journalists. The reports suggest a troubling disregard for customers' privacy, including the need to protect their sensitive geolocation data. ..." Full letter

The group of occupiers, who hail from an array of progressive organizations, started with about 50 individuals but more than quadrupled in size by midnight. About 7:45 a.m. Thursday, protesters voted on whether to fully occupy the hall but instead resolved to declare an “open university,” allowing students access to the building for classes. Full story

Windy City preservationists are suing to block the construction of a so-called “Star Wars” museum after Mayor Rahm Emanuel offered to let George Lucas build the $400 million project on publicly owned lakefront land. The mayor has defended the proposal to lease the prime real estate to the billionaire Lucas for just $1 a year. ... What he hasn’t mentioned is the almost $50,000 worth of campaign donations he has received from those with vested interests in the project. One of those donors is ... Mellody Hobson, a prominent Chicago businesswoman. Full story

After Jacqueline Woodson accepted the National Book Award in young people's literature for her memoir Brown Girl Dreaming last night, host Daniel Handler shared a "joke" about her with the audience: she's allergic to watermelon. Get it? Because she's black. You can feel the tension in the room through your screen. Full story

A $350 million “pop-up” stadium in a Brisbane field. Beach volleyball in front of San Francisco City Hall. Table tennis in Chinatown. San Francisco is officially bidding on the 2024 Olympics, organizers have disclosed to The Chronicle, and their pitch for the Summer Games will focus on the Bay Area’s distinctions, ingenuity and character. Full story

Street robberies in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale have been targeting people of Indian descent wearing gold jewelry, the Santa Clara Police Department announced Wednesday. Suspects in the robberies will come up to their victims on the street and either grab the jewelry and run or brandish a handgun and demand the victims' jewelry and wallet, according to police. The robberies have been reported both during day and evening hours, police said. Full story

Truckers at the Port of Oakland were turned around on Thursday after arriving to news that union workers were staying home to mourn the death of a colleague who died on the job. International Longshore and Warehouse Union member Thomas Hoover died Thursday while doing work on a ship in Benicia, union spokesman Craig Merrilees said. Hoover suffered distress while on the ship, but Merrilees did not have details about what happened.Full story

... Dryly urbane, Mr. Nichols had a gift for communicating with actors and a keen comic timing, which he honed early in his career as half of the popular sketch-comedy team Nichols and May. In films like “The Graduate,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Carnal Knowledge” and in comedies and dramas on stage, he accomplished what Orson Welles and Elia Kazan but few if any other directors have: achieving popular and artistic success in both film and theater. He was among the most decorated people in the history of show business, one of only a dozen or so to have won an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy. Full story