NOVEMBER
High expectations
Anticipating legalization in 2016, Silicon Valley tech enters marijuana market. Tech startups like Eaze, Flowhub and Leafly all took turns trying to tip the cannabis cash cow in 2015, as the industry market grew by a reported 74 percent in 2014.
Small plate trend applied to housing and wages
Prosecutors accused TapaOle owners Esther Narbona-Sanchez, Paulino O’Farrill and Pedro Barea-Riva of staffing their Saratoga eatery and a local salon with indentured servants who were recruited from Spain with the promise of a decent job and a new life. Instead, authorities say, they were put up in coffin-sized rooms or a shed and reduced to slavery.
Google’s ghostride
Google’s self-driving car may be able to navigate the streets, but it apparently can’t avoid cops. A Mountain View policeman pulled over Alphabet’s adorable little prototype (inset) for slogging along under the 35 mph speed limit.
The fraud will be microblogged
Could a small-time fraudster upend the global economy in 140 characters or less? Apparently so. Nearly a decade after the advent of Twitter, the U.S. Attorney for Northern California indicted a Scottish man, 62-year-old James Alan Craig, for illegally manipulated stock prices with a couple Twitter accounts. While the markets evened their keel in minutes, Craig cost shareholders $1.6 million.
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