Jonah Owen Lamb

San Francisco

Senior Reporter at The San Francisco Standard

Senior reporter @sfstandard; former criminal defense investigator & reporter @sfexaminer & a couple McClatchy rags. On signal, send leaks.

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Articles

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie's 100-day progress report

1 week ago | sfstandard.com | Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez |David Sjostedt |Jonah Owen Lamb |Kevin Truong

By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, David Sjostedt, Jonah Owen Lamb, Kevin Truong, and Han LiPublished Apr. 14, 2025 • 6:00amIn politics, 100 days can seem like an eternity — has it really been only three months since Trump took office again? — or a blink. Assessing a mayor’s — or president’s — tenure at the 100-day mark is a convention, but an imperfect one, an exercise in judging beginnings without knowledge of the endings.
SF's new policing paradox: Mass arrests, no charges

3 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Noah Baustin |Jonah Owen Lamb

Loitering bookings rose 150% in the first three months of 2025. The DA contends it’s a new strategy. Experts say it doesn’t work. Drug possession. Public intoxication. Resisting arrest. At first glance, there was nothing unusual about the claims San Francisco police levied against 44-year-old Chaz Burnett during two February arrests near 6th Street that landed him behind bars. But among those run-of-the-mill offenses was a far rarer allegation: criminal loitering.
SF led the way for justice reform. Now its jails are at capacity.

1 month ago | sfstandard.com | Jonah Owen Lamb

Two months after inauguration day, San Francisco’s county jail population has surged by more than 10%. Depending on the day, the jails are officially over capacity, with upward of 1,300 incarcerated people and 1,236 beds. The locally incarcerated population had remained relatively stable for the previous six months, hovering just below the total number of available jail beds. Then, day by day, more beds became occupied.
Lawmakers demand answers on mass layoffs at agency probing Tesla

1 month ago | sfstandard.com | Jonah Owen Lamb

Two Democratic members of Congress are demanding that the acting Secretary of Labor explain planned mass dismissals and the dismantling of an agency that was reviewing Elon Musk’s Tesla for suspected discrimination. In a Feb. 27 letter obtained by The Standard, U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Robert C.
HUD staff cuts could disrupt millions in San Francisco homeless funding

2 months ago | sfstandard.com | Jonah Owen Lamb |Noah Baustin

Agency insiders say the firings would slow disbursement from the office that recently awarded San Francisco $56 million for housing services. President Donald Trump’s one-day freeze on federal spending in January unleashed chaos across agencies that rely on government funding. Though that impact was temporary, deep staffing cuts could mean new financial uncertainty for San Francisco’s homeless programs.
Men claiming to be DOGE flee City Hall after demanding records

2 months ago | sfstandard.com | Gabe Greschler |Jonah Owen Lamb |Josh Koehn

Three men claiming to be part of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, tried to enter San Francisco City Hall offices and demand records Friday, according to the Sheriff’s Department. The three men were wearing DOGE shirts and Make America Great Again hats when they demanded City Hall employees turn over digital information related to alleged wasteful government spending and fraud, a sheriff’s spokesperson told The Standard.
Trump dissolves agency reviewing Elon Musk’s Tesla for potential discrimination

2 months ago | sfstandard.com | Jonah Owen Lamb

A federal investigation of potential workplace discrimination at Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. has been halted after President Trump signed a Jan. 21 executive order that all but shut down the agency in charge of it, The Standard has learned. That Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs enforced equal employment laws for federal contractors.
A day in the life of San Francisco's ICE rapid response dispatchers

2 months ago | sfstandard.com | Jonah Owen Lamb

Four desks crowd the small second-floor office with one window and a view of passing traffic. By all accounts, it looks like any small business or nonprofit. But since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, it has been filled with drama, fear, anger, and most of all, confusion. 10:30 a.m.: Vivianna lifts a cellphone to her right ear and speaks in clear, accented English: “San Francisco Rapid Response.” She quickly switches to Spanish, “Hay una emergencia?” asking if there is an emergency.
Why do so few SFPD recruits become cops?

2 months ago | sfstandard.com | Jonah Owen Lamb

Mayor Daniel Lurie took to social media this week to laud an important milestone in his plan to rebuild the San Francisco Police Department: the largest academy class since 2018. "We are on the move," he said in a video posted to Instagram celebrating the 55 recruits in Class 285. "We are going to refill the ranks of our police department."What Lurie did not mention is that a big class doesn't necessarily mean a lot of new cops.
SFPD preps recruits to be 'indoctrinated into a paramilitary organization'

2 months ago | sfstandard.com | Jonah Owen Lamb

As the San Francisco Police Department attempts to close its 485-officer staffing gap, it is more than doubling the size of its academy classes. But that has not resulted in more graduates. The dismal performance of Class 283 - which completed training Jan. 6 with more than 70% of its hopefuls failing or dropping out and just 12 graduating - has kindled a debate about training curriculum, what recruits should learn, and what police officers are meant to be.