Sell our trade secrets ... that's one way to ensure China's economy surpasses the U.S.

​A San Francisco federal grand jury has charged five people and several companies -- some located in the Bay Area -- with espionage and selling American trade secrets to help companies in China quickly flourish.

According to the indictment, China decided that it wanted to develop chloride-route titanium dioxide (TiO2) production capabilities, without investing the time and research. TiO2 is a commercially valuable white pigment used to color paint, plastics, and paper. To quickly pave the way for this development, companies controlled by China conspired to illegally obtain the TiO2 technology that had already been developed by the U.S.-based E.I.du Pont de Nemours & Company, also known as DuPont.

The companies used their employees, who obtained the TiO2 trade secrets and then allegedly sold trade secrets to the Pangang Group to help it develop large-scale chloride-route TiO2 production in China, including 10,000 planned factories.

In exchange, the companies and their employees received in excess of $20 million, according to the indictment.
 
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For those with Kezar Stadium memories, losing the 49ers hurts. So does knowing the city can no longer afford the team.

​Following that rarest of things -- a Super Bowl that came down to the final snap -- New England Patriots fans will be endlessly playing over the events in their minds. If only that ball had fallen one foot closer to Rob Gronkowski. If only Gronkowski hadn't momentarily paused. If, if, if. 

Fans of the San Francisco 49ers were thinking "if, if, if" throughout the entire game. If only for so many factors, that could have been our team out there. Naturally, fans start to dream about next year and the year after that. But, in the 49ers' case, this becomes awkward. When imagining a future championship, should we dream of a victory parade through San Francisco, or Santa Clara -- where the team is all but certainly headed -- or both?  When one's sporting fantasies begin to resemble a divorced family's holiday logistics, you've reached an uncomfortable place.

What's most uncomfortable is not just that San Franciscans will be kissing their team goodbye -- but that this is the right thing to do.

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I prefer a dumb boss to a mean one

​Now this is what you call an abusive manager.

Police say a man was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of hitting one of his employees in the face after he fired her.  According to police reports, the man asked his employee to meet him at a coffee shop on Tuesday afternoon. When she showed up, he informed her that he was firing her.

He then asked her to sign some paperwork acknowledging the termination. He told her he also wanted to get some things from her house that belonged to his company. The woman went to her house on the 400 block of Madrid Street and gathered his property. Her now former boss showed up with a witness to collect everything.

According to police, the woman then handed her former boss a letter of her own regarding her termination, which she asked him to sign. The man got angry, refused to sign, then punched the woman, causing her head to hit the wall.

Perhaps he just didn't like being bossed around.
 
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More appetizing than anhydrous ammonia

​For Bay Area shoppers, staring into the eyes of Christopher Columbus' homely visage is a nostalgic experience. Columbus Salame, like Mother's Cookies or even the It's-It, is a company that deserves the title "local institution." Ice cream and cookie companies may hold a more special place in the heart, however, than processed meat facilities.

Also, the good people at Mother's and It's-It never leaked clouds of noxious chemicals into the region, sickening the locals.

Alas, Columbus Salame did just that. Today the Environmental Protection Agency announced the venerable company will fork over nearly $700,000 in penalties on top of a $6 million upgrade to the refrigeration system that twice failed in 2009, leading to around 420 pounds of gas spewing out of the South San Francisco plant.

Association of the term "anhydrous ammonia" with its products does not figure to be a branding boon for Columbus. How to recover? We asked a branding expert.

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Nancy Pelosi

​Members of Congress are taking up legislation this week aimed at dealing with allegations that a form of "insider trading" is taking place among lawmakers whose knowledge of pending bills could give them a leg up in the stock market.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act would bar members of Congress from using non-public information -- for instance, about pending laws that would affect the financial-services industry or other sectors of the economy -- to make decisions on stock investments. It would also require them to disclose such investments within 30 days.

The bill comes in the wake of a 60 Minutes report last fall exploring whether House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi helped craft legislation that might have benefited stock investments by her husband, San Francisco businessman Paul Pelosi. The news program also examined investments by House Speaker John Boehner.

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​The office of California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced today that a popular manufacturer of hair products, Brazilian Blowout, has agreed to pay $600,000 in fees, penalties, and costs because some of its merchandise allegedly emits formaldehyde gas.

The website for Brazilian Blowout advertises its hair-smoothing treatments as "the ONLY Professional Smoothing Treatment that actually improves the health of the hair," assuring "No Damage!" The products lead to "smooth, healthy, frizz-free hair with radiant shine," the website promises.

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Bet you won't find this guy in Seattle

​Hey, Seattle, get your own damn tourists!

Seattle's Convention and Visitor's Bureau has launched an annoyingly clever campaign to poach tourist away from San Francisco, because apparently they can't convince the international masses that Seattle -- not San Francisco -- is the place to be.

The 2DaysInSeattle.com campaign will infiltrate San Francisco tomorrow night, when posters advertising Seattle and all its coolness will be draped across San Francisco's most obvious tourist hubs, including the Powell Street BART station.

Essentially, Seattle hopes that come Wednesday morning, tourists will take one look at those posters and jump right out of their cable car to make that 12-hour (beautiful) trek to Seattle where it's probably raining.
 
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​A Lativan man is being accused of a massive online hijacking scheme where he manipulated stock prices, making more than $850,000 in illegal profits from trading firms, including one in San Mateo.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in San Francisco this week, claiming Igors Nagaicevs' clever but illegal scheme was a violation of the Securities Exchange Act, and cost his victims more than $2 million in losses.

According to the claim, Nagaicevs, 34, hijacked online accounts at least 159 times over the course of a year, and then traded secure stocks as an authorized trader as a way to manipulate the prices.

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Jose Cruz's kick-ass van

​Power may be the ultimate aphrodisiac, but success is a hell of a salesman. So with the 49ers coming off of one of the most thrilling wins in franchise history and poised for an epic showdown with the New York Giants in Sunday's conference championship, now's the time to start hawking Niners tickets -- or any Niners-related paraphernalia -- for top, top dollar.

Those hoping to attend Sunday's contest without tickets in hand are learning a grim lesson on the meaning of the term "leverage." At this time, internet jackals can be disarmingly candid about the markup they'll be adding to your desired goods. Take this glib Craigslist profiteer. He desires $6,000 for four tickets that he overtly advertises as having a face value of $299 per. "Am selling at premium to cover the costs of the season. ... If you're looking for a discount, these seats aren't for you," he writes. "Ideally sell to Niner fans who will get on [Giants QB Eli] Manning," he notes.

Yes, that would be ideal!

The highest price for a Craigslist ticket as of Wednesday appears to be $5,000 apiece. That said, others are taking advantage of the team's success to hawk $8,000-a-pop season ticket rights (just the rights). That's the exact price, incidentally, of Jose Cruz's custom 49ers van.

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​The "hacktivist" network known as Anonymous has stepped into the fray in the battle among legacy media companies, Internet firms, and politicians over the federal Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

The controversial proposed legislation would make it more difficult for websites to display pirated content, but many tech companies -- including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, and others -- argue that it is overkill, and would unfairly restrict information-sharing.

Now another group with an interest in making sure that the Internet remains as free as a lawless Caribbean sea has added its voice to the debate: the hackers of Anonymous.

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