When San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellows present their annual “The Future Is Now” concert at Herbst Theatre on Wednesday, they will be taking part in an event with great history and at the fulcrum of Bay Area musical life. Opera director Kurt Herbert Adler created the Merola Program for young singers in 1954, naming it for company founder Gaetano Merola. In 1977, Adler added the “affiliate artists program” for more-advanced singers, and later it was named in his honor. Read More

With hordes of holiday travelers expected to flee from The City this week, the streets of San Francisco are likely to be filled with rows of empty cars.Usually, those vehicles just sit and collect dust for a few days, but this year their owners can make a few extra bucks by taking advantage of a new car-sharing system in San Francisco. Read More

An East Coast employee of Mountain View-based Primary Global Research was arrested this week on charges of insider trading for allegedly passing information on Broadcom’s revenue. The employee, Don Ching Trang Chu, reportedly closed his illicit e-mails to a hedge fund employee with, “As always, hope to assist you to make $$ in the market.” Read More

Like the heroin-addicted cop he plays in “Faster,” the aggressive new thriller in which he co-stars opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton rarely minces words. So when he volunteers an assessment of American movies today, you can expect nothing less than brutal candor. “We’re living in a time where we’re making the worst movies in history,” says Thornton, 55, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter and star of 1997’s “Sling Blade,” which he directed. Read More