By Gabe Fernandez, Sports Reporter April 24, 2026 (SFGate.com)

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr against the Phoenix Suns during the second half of an NBA basketball play-in tournament game, Friday, April 17, 2026, in Phoenix.Rick Scuteri/AP

Whenever Steve Kerr publicly expresses a political opinion, he opens himself up to criticism from online comments sections, the Oval Office and even the Warriors’ front office.

According to multiple reports, some people at the top of Golden State — perhaps one person, but more on that later — have not been too happy with his political commentary. Kerr has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, openly supported the “Black Lives Matter” movement and has been a staunch advocate for gun control (which is deeply personal to the head coach, given his family history). This information comes amid uncertainty about whether Kerr will return to coach the Dubs next season.

The first mention of this came from ESPN’s Marc Spears, who appeared on 95.7 The Game on Tuesday and touched on this when asked why Kerr would consider leaving the Warriors. After noting that Kerr understands “the weight of the job” in the way he speaks out about political and social issues, Spears said, “And I’ve heard a little bit that maybe he’s being stifled a little bit in that regard.”

When host Mark Willard asked him who “stifled” the coach, Spears said he wanted to “dig deeper” on that topic to confirm it. But when Willard again pushed on Spears to say who, the veteran sports reporter just looked at the camera and smiled without saying anything. To really drive home the point, Dan Dibley filled in the blank and said, “Right. Like maybe somebody who, I don’t know, signs his checks, if they still do that, or is in charge of his direct deposit.”

While Spears did not directly confirm the person in question was owner Joe Lacob, as Dibley heavily implied, he continued on this topic. Using Kyle Korver’s “Black Lives Matter” jersey in the Orlando COVID-19 bubble as an example, Spears spoke highly of Kerr as an example of a white man using his voice to amplify the struggles of people of color. But not everyone is as supportive of what he’s done.

“I have heard that maybe, maybe there’s some people that are tired of his voice,” Spears said. “If that is true, then maybe that’s something that could add to Steve’s fatigue as well, because he’s a great man. He’s not just a great white man, he’s a great man, he’s a great human, and he cares about other people. So I don’t think he would compromise that.

“So if that is true, that people want him to be a little bit more quiet, I’m sure that might not sit too well with him.”

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Then, on Thursday, Nick Friedell of the Athletic published a report that also noted this internal storyline, which has apparently been talked about over the past year.

“League and team sources said throughout the season that Kerr’s desire to speak candidly on social and political issues has at times caused internal frustration,” Friedell wrote in a story headlined, “Steve Kerr can leave the Warriors, but can he leave Steph Curry?”

Whether that “internal frustration” leads to a split between Kerr and the organization he’s been with for 12 seasons will have to wait until next week, at the very least. An anonymous source told ESPN’s Anthony Slater, “It’s April. We don’t need to rush.”

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April 24, 2026

Gabe Fernandez

Sports Reporter

Gabe Fernandez is an award-winning sports reporter at SFGATE and has been yelling about sports online since he first had an internet connection. A Maryland native, Gabe graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He’s covered sports — focusing on football, basketball and sports history — for Sporting News, Deadspin and CBS Sports. You can reach him at gabe.fernandez@sfgate.com.

By Alexei Koseff, Staff Writer April 23, 2026 (SFChronicle.com)

Gift Article

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, center, chats with Supervisor Connie Chan, left, and then-Supervisor Aaron Peskin during the Legion of Honor’s 100th anniversary celebration in San Francisco on Nov. 9, 2024.Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle

WASHINGTON — With primary ballots due to arrive in a matter of weeks, voters wondering who former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to succeed her in San Francisco’s congressional district are stuck reading the tea leaves.

Supervisor Connie Chan — one of several leading Democrats vying for the retiring Pelosi’s longtime seat — visited with Pelosi during a trip to Washington, D.C., this week and even scored an appearance from the potential queenmaker at a campaign fundraiser hosted by Chan’s congressional supporters.

That is not an endorsement of Chan, however. Pelosi spokesperson Ian Krager declined to comment on the time they spent together and referred the Chronicle to a statement from November, when Pelosi told a reporter that it was “not my current plan” to endorse a replacement.

Chan could probably use Pelosi’s blessing as she tries to break through a crowded Democratic field to finish in the top two in the June primary. She is competing for San Francisco’s progressive base with former tech executive and political operative Saikat Chakrabarti, who has poured millions of dollars of his own fortune into the election. She also significantly trails state Sen. Scott Wiener and attorney Marie Hurabiell in cash on hand, according to recent campaign finance disclosures.

Chan was in the nation’s capital this week for North America’s Building Trades Union annual legislative conference, spokesperson Julie Edwards said, and was “very honored” to meet one-on-one with Pelosi at her office on Tuesday. Pelosi also made an appearance at a fundraiser for Chan on Wednesday night, hosted by California’s Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and several other members of Congress, which was first reported by the San Francisco Standard.

Edwards said she did not know for how long Chan and Pelosi met or what they discussed, but “we’re pleased any time we have a chance to speak with Speaker Emerita Pelosi.”

“Supervisor Chan has always said she would be honored to earn Speaker Pelosi’s endorsement just as she is working hard to earn the support of the voters in the district,” Edwards said.

While she has not yet weighed in on her own seat, Pelosi has endorsed in several other House races across the country, including two in New York and one in Maryland.

April 23, 2026

Alexei Koseff

Staff writer

Alexei Koseff is the Washington, D.C., correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, chronicling President Donald Trump’s policies targeting California and the tension between the state and the federal government, as well as how powerful Bay Area figures are shaping — or thwarting — solutions in Washington.

He is rejoining the Chronicle from CalMatters, where he covered Gov. Gavin Newsom and state government. Previously, he served as a Capitol reporter for the Chronicle and spent five years in the Capitol bureau of the Sacramento Bee. Alexei is a Bay Area native and attended Stanford University. He speaks fluent Spanish.

ACLU Mar 27, 2018 This video is part of the Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) series “We Have Rights,” a national empowerment campaign to inform immigrant communities of what to do when interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Narrated by Jesse Williams. For more information visit: www.aclu.org/we-have-rights.

• Google AI Overview

Tom Steyer generally supports taxing billionaires and has frequently stated that he is “fine” with being taxed more himself to address inequality. However, in his current 2026 campaign for California Governor, he has expressed significant reservations about a specific proposal currently being debated in the state—a one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires. 

Tom Steyer | Substack +3

His nuanced position can be broken down as follows:

General Support for Taxing the Wealthy 

• “Tax People Like Me”: Steyer often uses the slogan that he is the “billionaire who wants to tax billionaires”.
• Fair Share: He argues that the wealthy have an obligation to contribute more to fund essential services like education, healthcare, and climate action.
• Long-Term History: During his 2020 presidential run, he was one of the first candidates to propose a federal wealth tax (1% on net worth over $32 million). Tom Steyer | Substack +4

Opposition to the Current “Billionaire Tax Act” 

Despite his general stance, Steyer has criticized the specific California Billionaire Tax Act (a one-time 5% levy) on the following grounds: 

• Temporary Fix: He views it as a “one-time” solution to “permanent, structural problems”.
• Design Concerns: He has called the current version of the bill a “temporary fix” to backfill budget cuts rather than a durable reform.
• Impact: While he says he would still vote for it if it reached the ballot, he argues it is “not the answer” compared to his own proposals. Tom Steyer | Substack +3

Steyer’s Alternative Proposals

Steyer advocates for different methods of raising revenue that he considers more sustainable: 

• Closing Corporate Loopholes: His primary focus is on ending the “water’s edge” loophole for multinational corporations and increasing taxes on commercial property.
• “Split Roll” Property Tax: He proposes revisiting Proposition 13 to tax commercial real estate at current market values, which he claims would bring in more permanent revenue than a one-time billionaire tax.
• Corporate Accountability: He emphasizes making “polluters pay,” specifically targeting oil and utility companies. Instagram +4

AI can make mistakes, so double-check responses

Photo illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images

• By James Salazar | Examiner staff writer
• Apr 23, 2026 (SFExaminer.com)

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said he wants city departments to come together and share their plans for shaping the future of Market Street.

The District 5 representative on the Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing at the Land Use and Transportation Committee meeting on Monday to discuss how local leaders plan to make concentrated investments along the corridor that connects the Civic Center area with downtown.

City officials have made changes to the corridor over the past year. In August, ride-hail vehicles were re-introduced to the corridor from Van Ness Avenue to the foot of Market Street following a five-year ban. Earlier in 2025, public-transportation service in the area was reduced, with buses turning around before reaching the eastern end of Market Street.

Mahmood said Monday’s hearing will focus on how investments in public transit, outdoor spaces and small businesses can meet the needs of an evolving area.

“When we have a vision of connecting one end of The City to another, Market Street has to be at the core of that vision,” Mahmood said.

Six years ago, local leaders developed a plan to transform more than two miles of Market Street between Steuart Street and Octavia Boulevard as part of the Better Market Street project. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the project’s start date.

In recent years, crews have modernized traffic signals, made sidewalks more accessible, added foliage to provide shade and cooler temperatures, and shortened the distance pedestrians have to cover when crossing intersections.

Mahmood said the upcoming hearing will give city agencies and departments opportunities to see how previous projects and others in The City’s pipeline can support future ideas, such as the supervisor’s recent push to create a Mid-Market theater arts district.

City departments will focus on Market Street between 5th and 9th streets because “when people think of downtown San Francisco and sometimes the negative perception about it, they’re really thinking about the Mid-Market area,” Mahmood said.

“Unless we solve the Mid-Market area, we’re never going to change the perception of San Francisco,” he said. “That is the image people see on TV.”

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency plans to discuss how sharing the street with ride-hail vehicles has influenced the degree to which people use alternative transportation methods such as buses or bicycling.

Mahmood said he also wants to see whether or not the Better Market Street project goals conceived in 2020 are still capable of meeting present community needs, such as making roads safer for pedestrians.

‘Unless we solve the Mid-Market area, we’re never going to change the perception of San Francisco.’

Bilal Mahmood, District 5 supervisor

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The San Francisco Planning Department and the Department of Public Works are expected to provide updates on how their agencies’ investments in publicly accessible spaces such as sidewalks, plazas and other areas are enhancing the quality of life for people who live, work, commute to and visit the Mid-Market Area.

The Office of Economic and Workforce Development is set to detail how the department is investing in small businesses, whether through filling vacant storefronts or providing grant money and other funding to established neighborhood proprietors.

To bring foot traffic into the area, OEWD worked with other city leaders to create the Mid-Market Entertainment Zone. During special events, visitors can enjoy to-go drinks outside while perusing nearby businesses.

Fernando Pujals, executive director of the Mid-Market Business Association and Foundation, said the area’s momentum has trended positively in recent months.

The area is home to five major live-entertainment venues, all of which combine to draw over one million visitors a year to the area. Pujals’ foundation has worked with other community organizations to enliven city streets by bringing in artists and performers on a weekly basis. In addition to new business openings, six buildings in the neighborhood changed hands last year, according to the association.

“What we need now is a significant increase in public investment, with all city departments moving together under a unified approach,” Pujals said.

Pujals said a vibrant Mid-Market area is one that can support the large cultural venues that call the neighborhood home, as well as elevate its cluster of independent arts groups, local shops and restaurants, individual artists, and other small businesses.

“Some of this is happening, but the scale and coordination aren’t there yet — and that’s what this hearing should address,” he said.

With local officials and elected leaders pouring attention and resources into other parts of San Francisco such as The Embarcadero and the area near Powell Street’s cable-car turnaround, Mahmood said that San Francisco has an opportunity to presently tap into an “energy in The City right now around economic revitalization around downtown.”

He said conversations with his constituents have reinforced the belief that areas near Mid-Market, such as the Tenderloin and Civic Center, should be part of San Francisco’s overall renewal.

“Without a Tenderloin or Civic Center revitalization, you will not have a downtown revitalization,” Mahmood said.

James Salazar

Neighborhoods & Culture Correspondent

California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer is trying hard to get voters to look past his previous investments in coal and private prisons.David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images

By Anabel Sosa, Lester Black April 23, 2026 (SFGate.com)

Tom Steyer’s resume sounds like a progressive’s worst nightmare: a private equity billionaire who invested in coal and private prisons now using his personal fortune to buy public office.

Yet Steyer has managed to win over far-left groups and rise to the top of the crowded pack of Democrats in this year’s governor’s race.

Steyer has consistently been leading among the Democratic candidates in polling for the past month, and the businessman has recently won several key endorsements, including from major climate and labor unions. The progressive group Our Revolution backed the businessman Monday, and former state Controller Betty Yee endorsed Steyer on Tuesday after she ended her own gubernatorial campaign. 

Our Revolution, which was founded by Bernie Sanders and vehemently opposes billionaires’ involvement in politics, defended its endorsement by saying Steyer is working “to challenge the very system that benefits people like him.”

The endorsements won’t hand Steyer the race, but they are the clearest sign yet that Steyer may be successfully shedding his venture capital baggage. 

Steyer has spent the past six years arguing that he’s a good billionaire and that his current policy positions, including his support this year of a wealth tax and single-payer health care in California, speak louder than his previous actions. He’s even framed his previous massive investments as the reason he got into politics. The businessman invoked the Bible when asked by SFGATE in February about his previous investment in for-profit prisons, saying the experience spurred him into public service.

“It was a wake-up call for me,” Steyer said. “Should I be doing this job? I mean, there’s a reason that I walked away from my business. There’s a reason that I walked away from all that money.”

From Manhattan to SF hedge fund

Steyer grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and graduated from Yale in 1979. He moved to California to get his MBA at Stanford, and then in 1986, he co-founded his own hedge fund, Farallon Capital, headquartered in San Francisco.  

He managed Farallon for nearly three decades before his pivot into politics. During that time, the company invested in a wide range of industries, including many that have gone on to haunt his political career, like Farallon’s involvement in an Australian coal mine deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the New York Times.

Then there’s Farrallon’s 2004 and 2005 investment in the nation’s largest for-profit prison contractor, Corrections Corporation of America, now named CoreCivic. This investment has drawn perhaps the most controversy. The firm invested nearly $90 million in the company, which currently owns an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Kern County — the state’s largest ICE detention center. That facility is now at capacity and has been described as having “inhumane” living conditions.

Steyer was criticized nearly as soon as Farrallon made the investment. In 2004, a Yale union demanded that the university divest from Farallon for its link to private prisons. Steyer initially responded in 2004 by writing a letter to Yale’s students saying, “We are proud of the work we have done, and continue to do,” according to Politico. 

Farrallon sold the prison stock in 2006, and Steyer stepped down from the firm and sold his ownership stake in 2012. But his time at Farrallon made him incredibly wealthy. He is worth an estimated $2.4 billion, according to Forbes.

In a TV ad that his campaign started airing this month, he is shown at what is depicted as a town hall responding to a question about his CoreCivic investment. He says nearly the same thing he told SFGATE in February: “It was a wake-up call. I felt like I was not going to be living my values the way I wanted to.”

Decades of apologies

Steyer quickly transitioned from businessman to philanthropist and Democratic mega-donor after he left his private equity job. By 2014, he had already given $75 million to various causes, and he’s gone on to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on electing liberals across the country. He’s also poured cash into progressive causes, especially environmental protections, making that the centerpiece of his 2020 presidential campaign.

Despite his willingness to spend his own money on Democrats, Farallon Capital’s investment in the private prison company has long been a thorn in Steyer’s side. Former President Joe Biden, his Democratic opponent in the 2020 primary, accused the businessman during a debate of investing in prisons that had “hog-tied young men.” Steyer responded by saying he had sold the stock and has since worked to end private prisons in California.

Steyer’s investment record didn’t become a much bigger issue in his presidential primary campaign, likely because it ended before he won a single state primary. But as his name rose in California’s crowded gubernatorial race last year, Democratic rivals like former Rep. Katie Porter have attacked him for profiting off the allegedly inhumane facilities and accused him of being hypocritical for attacking ICE after having invested in its detention centers.

X post: https://x.com/katieporterca/status/2044491721413947572?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2044491721413947572%7Ctwgr%5E6585d092d4c90de3b893f6d7b95c35e0b01ae580%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfgate.com%2Fpolitics%2Farticle%2Ftom-steyer-billionaire-calif-governor-22221062.php

In addition to his “wake-up call” line, Steyer has responded by touting his past support for criminal justice reform, including lobbying for a policy to end cash bail, a collaborative effort with then-Assemblymember Rob Bonta, now serving as the state’s attorney general. 

These admissions are perhaps what it takes for a billionaire to make voters — at least Democratic ones — comfortable with his financial past. Steyer has also promoted progressive policy ideas like dismantling the PG&E monopoly, banning social media use for minors under 16, and supporting single-payer health care.

Since he jumped into the governor’s race in November, he’s been endorsed by Smart Justice California, a progressive criminal justice advocacy organization, and Courage California, another progressive group, which specifically cited Steyer’s vision for “abolishing ICE.” Assemblymembers Isaac Bryan, Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and Mia Bonta — all members of the Legislature who have sponsored high-impact prison reform bills in recent years — have also endorsed him. 

Still, the Democratic field remains overcrowded. Steyer has maintained his place at the top, but a recent surge for rival candidate Xavier Becerra, the former health secretary in the Biden administration, shows that Steyer could yet again burn nine figures on a failed campaign.

In the end, Steyer says the prison investment was what pushed him into politics. In the February interview with SFGATE at this year’s California Democratic Convention, Steyer invoked the biblical story of Paul’s conversion to a follower of Jesus Christ to explain his transformation.

“For those of you who are familiar with the story of Damascus, when Paul was crossing the bridge as the strongest opponent of Christ, and on the road to Damascus, he decided he was the strongest backer of Christ. So at some point,” he said, “I just decided this is not for me.”

More Politics

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April 23, 2026

Anabel Sosa

Senior California politics reporter

Anabel Sosa is the senior California politics reporter at SFGATE. She previously covered the statehouse and elections for the Los Angeles Times. She has a masters degree in investigative journalism from UC Berkeley. You can reach her at anabel.sosa@sfgate.com.

Lester Black

News editor

Lester Black is a news editor at SFGATE. He has written for FiveThirtyEight.com, High Country News, The Guardian, The Albuquerque Journal and The Tennessean. He previously worked at The Stranger and the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle.

Our Revolution is hoping to rally Democrats to Tom Steyer to prevent a Republican from taking the governor’s mansion.

Akela Lacy

April 20 2026 (TheIntercept.com)

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer speaking at a town hall meeting in Culver City, Calif. on March 14, 2026. Photo: Ted Soqui/SIPA USA via AP Images

Our Revolution, the progressive group founded by Bernie Sanders as an outgrowth of his 2016 presidential campaign, is endorsing its first billionaire as the race for California governor tightens. 

Tom Steyer, a hedge-fund billionaire and philanthropist, won the group’s endorsement on Monday. Our Revolution said its decision to back Steyer was driven in part by the shakeup over Rep. Eric Swalwell’s exit and fear that if progressives fail to consolidate around a candidate, they’ll hand the gubernatorial seat to a Republican.

“The worst thing that could happen is a Republican winning.”

“While yes, he is a billionaire, and that’s a real and important concern, it’s equally important to recognize how he’s used his wealth and power,” said Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese.

Steyer, he said, is the candidate most ideologically aligned with his group’s pledge to fight corporate power in politics — and the most likely to win.

“The worst thing that could happen is a Republican winning,” Geevarghese said. “Strategically, Steyer and his campaign is best positioned to make sure that does not happen.”

When California voters cast their ballots in the June 2 primary, the two leading candidates will advance to the general election — no matter their party affiliation. Since January, polling has shown two Republicans candidates — former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — in the lead. President Donald Trump endorsed Hilton earlier this month. 

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Left-leaning voters remain split across a wide Democratic field, with Swalwell and Steyer as frontrunners until last week. Swalwell pulled ahead in some polls in March, before dropping out of the race and resigning from Congress last week amid a series of allegations of sexual assault and harassment. 

Since Swalwell’s exit, Steyer has risen in polls, along with former Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif. But with Republicans still leading, progressives are now grappling with how best to achieve their policy priorities in a pool of candidates from which a clear favorite has yet to emerge. 

Geevarghese said that Steyer aggressively sought Our Revolution’s endorsement throughout the race. Porter also sought the endorsement, but hasn’t pulled ahead or demonstrated a clear path to victory, Geevarghese said. 

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Porter, a progressive who flipped a Republican seat in Orange County campaigning on fighting corporate power, faced backlash last year after videos surfaced of her yelling at a staffer during a television interview. While she has the longest progressive record in office of the Democratic candidates in the field, left voters haven’t necessarily been convinced by her campaign. Porter has been endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., former New York Rep. Mondaire Jones, Emily’s List, End Citizens United, and several California unions, but has hovered behind behind Hilton, Bianco, Swalwell, and Steyer in recent polling. 

“We do have a concern about whether she would be the stronger candidate in the field to consolidate for progressives,” Geevarghese said. He added that even before the implosion of Swalwell’s campaign, Our Revolution would not have supported Swalwell.

After previously having coalesced around Swalwell, some allies of Gov. Gavin Newsom are now considering backing another more moderate Democrat, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. Becerra has also risen in polling since Swalwell’s exit. 

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Why Is Billionaire Tom Steyer Running for President?

Steyer has spent $120 million of his own money on ads for himself, more than any other campaign in the country this cycle, Politico reported. While he’s been mostly known in politics for his advocacy on climate change and a failed 2020 presidential bid that cost him more than $300 million, Steyer has leaned heavily into economic populism during his gubernatorial bid. He says he will support a wealth tax and has called for billionaires and corporations to pay more in taxes. He has also focused much of his criticism on Trump. 

One policy shift since his failed presidential campaign is Steyer’s position on single-payer health care. 

“In 2019, I didn’t think we needed single-payer health care,” Steyer said in a campaign video earlier this month. “Boy was I wrong, and boy was Bernie right. I’ve looked at the data. We don’t have a choice. For us to provide health care to everybody who needs it, we’ve got to go to single-payer. And there’s no other way.”

Geevarghese said Our Revolution, which counts the most members in California after New York, sees the race as an opportunity to elect someone who will both push back on Trump while advancing an aggressive progressive policy agenda at the state level. The group is also backing a Sanders 2020 campaign alum to run California’s insurance system, and working to pass a proposed state tax on billionaires via ballot measure. Steyer is the candidate most aligned with those priorities, Geevarghese said. 

“He’s been a partner in the movement,” Geevarghese said. “Most billionaires have used their wealth and privilege to lock in the status quo. And Tom has done the opposite, right? He is actively using his position to upset the system.” 

Steyer has given millions of dollars to philanthropic ventures over the years, including funding research on sustainable energy and launching a PAC to help elect candidates running on fighting climate change. Steyer has also faced criticism for benefiting from policies meant to help billionaires pay lower taxes and having an investment firm with money in the Cayman Islands, a known tax haven. 

Our Revolution is Steyer’s first major endorsement from a national progressive group. He’s also been endorsed by the California Teachers Association, another progressive advocacy organization called Courage California, and four Democratic state assembly members. 

“We stand a risk of giving California to the Republicans. And that would be the worst outcome possible,” Geevarghese said. “Democrats could do themselves in here and be their worst enemy.” Share

I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.

We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.

In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.

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Contact the author:

Akela Lacyakela.lacy@theintercept.com@akela_lacyon X

Former Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois.

 (Photo by Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“We who are prudent would like to know what mistakes were made that thrust us into this nightmare we are living.”

Brad Reed

Apr 23, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)

The Democratic National Committee is still refusing to release its internal “autopsy” report about Democrats’ defeat in the 2024 election, but at least one progressive advocacy group isn’t letting party leaders off the hook.

RootsAction has organized a letter writing campaign encouraging supporters to email the DNC demanding release of its analysis of how Democrats in 2024 lost the presidential election to twice-impeached convicted felon Donald Trump.

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The group has put together an editable template letter for supporters to use, and it makes reference to a February report from Axios claiming that the DNC found that the Biden administration’s support for Israel during its years-long assault on Gaza cost Vice President Kamala Harris votes among young people and progressive voters.

“The truth is not just embarrassing but also inconvenient to those who want to persist in making the same mistake, in arming Israel, in shifting more and more of our resources into wars that devastate millions of lives,” the letter states. “But the truth is better than continuing to lose. It would be hard not to blame future defeats on your refusal to allow examination of past defeats.”

Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction, noted that the DNC “spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at least doing interviews in 50 states,” to conduct its autopsy, but has nonetheless decided it won’t “tell the millions of people who donated money to the Democratic Party candidates in the last few years” what it learned from that internal review.

RootsAction senior strategist India Walton said it was political malpractice for the DNC to continue suppressing the report.

“We who are prudent would like to know what mistakes were made that thrust us into this nightmare we are living,” she said. “Now is not a time for saving face. Releasing the autopsy will help us understand what voters really want heading into midterms and the next presidential election. That’s the least we deserve.”

RootsAction last year released its own autopsy of the 2024 election, which found that the Biden administration’s support for Israel hurt it among voters, while also blaming the party’s strategy of courting corporate donors instead of organizing working-class voters who shifted to Trump.

“This was a preventable disaster,” said journalist Christopher Cook, who authored the report, “but Harris and the Democratic Party leadership prioritized the agendas of corporate donors and gambled on a centrist path, while largely abandoning working-class, young, and progressive voters.”

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Brad Reed

Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

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Michael Tilson Thomas rehearses Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the San Francisco Symphony. Liz Hafalia/S.F. Chronicle

Michael Tilson Thomas was an American conductor, composer and pianist. He was artistic director laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy in Miami Beach, Florida, which he founded in 1987. Wikipedia

Born December 21, 1944, Los Angeles, CA

Died April 22, 2026 (age 81 years), San Francisco, CA

23 April 2026/Arts & Entertainment/Jay Barmann (SFist.com)

Michael Tilson Thomas, Beloved Composer and Conductor of SF Symphony, Dies at 81

Michael Tilson Thomas, who served as music director of the San Francisco Symphony for 25 years and became a preeminent figure in the global classical music scene, has died at age 81.

Thomas died Wednesday of complications from brain cancer, five years after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form, glioblastoma multiforme. The death also comes less than two months after the unexpected death of his husband, Joshua Robison, who died from complications due to a fall in their Pacific Heights home.

MTT, as he was known, conducted his final concert at Davies Symphony Hall almost exactly one year ago, celebrating his 80th birthday and presenting works by Benjamin Britten, his mentor Leonard Bernstein, and several of his own works. In February 2025 he had announced that his cancer had returned, and that he would be winding down his public appearances, culminating with concerts with Miami’s New World Symphony, which he co-founded, and the final concert at Davies.

During his long tenure at the SF Symphony, Thomas’s name and San Francisco became “synonymous in the world of classical music,” as the Chronicle notes today.

“MTT didn’t just lead the Symphony,” says Board Chair Priscilla Geeslin in a statement to the paper. “He became part of the cultural fabric of San Francisco itself, expanding what it meant to be an orchestra in a city like ours. His impact reached far beyond the concert hall, touching the life of the city in ways both visible and deeply personal. We were, quite simply, so lucky to have him.”

Thomas was born in Los Angeles on December 21, 1944 to an entertainment industry family. His father worked in movies and television in Hollywood, and had been a producer at New York’s Mercury Theater Company — founded by Orson Welles and most infamous for “The War of the Worlds” radio broadcast. Thomas’s mother, Roberta Thomas, was the head of research for Columbia Pictures, and his grandparents Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky had been big in the Yiddish theater world.

Thomas met Robison when they were in a junior orchestra together, at ages 11 and 12, and spent 70 years at each others’ side.

Thomas was considered a piano prodigy from a young age, attending the USC Thornton School of Music, and becoming an Assistant Conductor of the Bayreuth Festival in Germany in his 20s, as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1969, at age 24.

Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, who was a mentor and friend of Thomas, told the New York Times Magazine in 1971, “I don’t fling the word genius around lightly, but I fling it around about Michael. He reminds me of me at that age, except that he knows more than I did. Not only music, but things like the functions of the brain, cerebrology, physics, biochemistry.”

After founding the New World Symphony in 1987, to serve as an orchestral academy for gifted young musicians and prepare them for leadership roles in symphonies around the world, Thomas took on the role of principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1988 to 1995.

Thomas maintained ties to San Francisco throughout his life, having first conducted Mahler’s 9th at the SF Symphony when he was 29 years old, in 1974. But once he landed in the role of music director in 1995, he became completely attached to and of the city for the remainder of his life.

He was known as a champion of Mahler as well as American composers like Charles Ives and Henry Cowell, and contemporary composers like Steve Reich, John Cage, Steve Mackey, and Mason Bates.

Speaking to the Associated Press in 2004, Thomas said of classical music, “It’s meant to have various intriguing and alluring, questioning things that you hear on first hearing. But by its very nature it’s holding a lot of other secrets or a lot of other perspectives much closer to its chest, which only with repeated hearing you start realizing are there.”

A planned celebration of Thomas’s 25 years at the SF Symphony had to be moved online due to the pandemic in 2020, after which he formally stepped down as music director.

As he told the Chronicle that year, “I’m happiest when I feel the music gets to a place where no one is really quite sure who is making the music. It just seems to be happening wonderfully, miraculously, rather than as a result of someone who’s saying, ‘Follow me.’”

Below, a CBS Sunday Morning segment in which Lesley Stahl spoke to Thomas last year, on the occasion of his 80th birthday and his “final bow.”

As he said when he made his farewell statement of sorts last year, “A coda can vary greatly in length. My life’s coda is generous and rich. Life is precious.”

Previously: Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts Final SF Concert, Takes the Applause For His 80th Birthday

Top image: Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is honored during the 11th Annual California Hall of Fame ceremony at The California Museum on December 5, 2017 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)