Phil Matier

The severe flooding in San Francisco in the last few weeks has caused lots of damage to businesses and residents, but the city doesn't want to give payouts for those damages. For more KCBS Radio news anchors Margie Shafer and Eric Thomas are joined by KCBS Insider Phil Matier.

House members are about to begin their fourth day of voting on the new speaker, and Kevin McCarthy is still trying to gather enough votes by making even more concessions to the lawmakers blocking him.  For more, KCBS Radio news anchors Margie Shafer and Eric Thomas spoke with former SF Mayor Willie Brown and KCBS Insider Phil Matier.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed is downplaying a reported dispute with the National Weather Service over the agency's New Year's Eve forecast. Officials had predicted 2 to 3 inches of rain, but the City actually saw almost five and a half inches. The waters inundates some businesses South of Market. For more on this, KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart spoke with KCBS Insider Phil Matier. 

The City of San Francisco tried to blame the National Weather Service for its poor response to last weekend's big floods but the National Weather Service says the city was actually included in a flood watch and the agency had forecasted things could get bad. For more KCBS Radio Anchors Eric Thomas and Margie Shafer are joined by KCBS Insider Phil Matier.

Officials all across the Bay Area have been preparing for the storm which is now hitting the Bay Area. San Francisco is one of several agencies having trouble meeting the demand for sandbags. Some businesses in the City suffered pretty heavy damage over the last storm on New Year's Eve. So what can and can't the City do? For more, KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart spoke with KCBS Insider Phil Matier. 

San Francisco has an expensive 600 Million dollar plan to prevent flooding but so far, residents say it's not making much impact.  For more, KCBS Radio anchors Eric Thomas and Margie Shafer are joined by KCBS Insider Phil Matier.

Election officials in Santa Clara County are considering adopting ranked choice voting starting in 2024. The move comes after some community leaders in Alameda County raised concerns over the system following the recent elections there. Those who support ranked choice voting say it eliminates the need for run off elections, saving a lot of money, while critics say it's confusing. What are officials in Santa Clara saying?

Alameda County's new DA Pamela Price is stepping up to the plate and seems ready to "disrupt the system". However, she could face an uphill battle in keeping her campaign promises. For more, KCBS Radio anchors Eric Thomas and Margie Shafer are joined by KCBS Insider Phil Matier.   

A San Francisco landlord has filed a lawsuit with Twitter saying the company skipped out on over $135,000 in back rent. KCBS Insider Phil Matier joins KCBS Radio news anchors Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart for more. 

It may be a new year, but the same old issues are facing Governor Newsom and California lawmakers, from the ongoing drought to homelessness, all the way to not having the financial wherewithal to deal with these various crises. For more, KCBS Radio news anchors Margie Shafer and Eric Thomas spoke with KCBS Radio Insider Phil Matier.

New York representative-elect George Santos is coming under fire for lying about key aspects of his life, from embellishing his professional background to identifying as Jewish, which is now being called a deception by the country's most prominent group of Jewish republican political donors. For more we're joined in studio by KCBS Insider Phil Matier and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. should we be surprised by what we're finding out about Santos?

Lawmakers are honoring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by naming a building in San Francisco's South of Market after her. For more on this, KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart spoke to KCBS Insider Phil Matier.

An unusual court ruling last week could mean more delays for UC Berkeley’s student housing plan at People’s Park. For more, KCBS Radio news anchor Eric Thomas is joined by KCBS Insider Phil Matier.

A dedicated bike and pedestrian trail to connect Oakland and San Francisco has been in the works for more than a decade, but now there's an end date to look forward to.  By 2030, officials expect the Bay Bridge bike path to be completed and before that happens there's a lot of steps to be completed first. For more, KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart spoke with KCBS insider, Phil Matier

Downtown San Francisco has become some-what of a ghost town in recent years seeing vacancy rates soar since the beginning of the pandemic. New numbers are showing it's a bit worse than expected. For more, KCBS Radio Anchor Eric Thomas is joined by KCBS Insider Phil Matier.

An appellate court ruled this month against California legislators and the Newsom administration, saying they didn't meet environmental requirements in their multi-billion dollar plan to expand the State Capitol Building.  KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart spoke with KCBS insider Phil Matier for more information. 

San Francisco had budgeted more than 650 million dollars toward homeless services and 75 million dollars toward drug treatment programs in 2022. But as the city's homeless crisis seemingly continues to grow, many residents are asking where the money went.  For more KCBS Radio Anchor Eric Thomas is joined by KCBS Insider Phil Matier.

Despite a pretty hefty lead over his opponent in his last gubernatorial race, data is showing popularity for Gavin Newsom has been on a bit of a downturn. Several inland counties in Northern and Central California saw a drop in votes for Newsom by about 7% and while some counties that went for him back in 2018 flipped in 2022 altogether. Almost every California county lost at least small percentage of Newsom votes in that time frame. 

Oakland has laid out plans to build as many as 36,000 new homes over the next decade in a effort to ease it's growing housing crisis. For more, KCBS Radio Anchor Eric Thomas is joined by KCBS Insider Phil Matier.

Trump's tax returns could be in the public view soon, with Congress forcing his hand after years of him refusing to release them on his own. For more, we're joined by KCBS Insider Phil Matier and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.