Meanwhile, the latest San Jose Inside Power Poll finds that voters don’t much care about the fate of the former city hall.

In a stunning announcement this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco is leading the prosecution of a Russia-based mastermind accused of running Hydra, the world’s largest and longest-running illegal 'darknet' crptocurrency market, which federal agencies say they have put out of business.

The number of Justice Department and other police requests has soared in recent years to thousands a week, putting Apple and other tech giants like Google and Microsoft in an uncomfortable position between law enforcement, the courts and the customers whose privacy they have promised to protect.

California is one of four states, including Oregon, Minnesota and Tennessee, along with Washington, D.C., that have proposed new laws.