Business reporter

Ethan Baron

Ethan Baron is a business reporter for the Bay Area News Group and a native of Silicon Valley before it was Silicon Valley. Baron has worked as a reporter, columnist, editor and photographer in newspapers and magazines for 25 years, covering business, politics, social issues, crime, the environment, outdoor sports, war and humanitarian crises. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a BA in humanities and MA in journalism.

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Language: Spanish (Some)

Award: California News Publishers Association awards for business and wildfire coverage

Expertise: Technology industry, Bay Area economy, California and federal courts, wildfires

Gerry Gregg, Marine veteran from Sacramento, pets Sophie O’doodle, the 8-year-old doodle, next to her handler Claire Rhodes, San Jose, during a Furry Friends Pet Assisted Therapy session at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)

South Bay’s Furry Friends brings fuzzy love to South Bay kids, seniors, patients, families, veterans, inmates

December 24, 2025 at 7:06 a.m.

Facilitating meaningful contacts between human and beast is central to the mission of Furry Friends.

Caution tape closes off part of Lover's Point in Pacific Grove, Calif., on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, after Erica Fox, 55, the co-founder of the Kelp Krawlers, an open water swim group, went missing on Sunday. Fox went missing around the time a shark sighting was reported, authorities said. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Suspected shark attack at Lovers Point occurred in time and place where large sharks come to feed

December 26, 2025 at 4:33 a.m.

Five white sharks were recorded in the area this month, and those were just the ones with tags.

A Waymo vehicle sits idling at an intersection with no operating traffic lights due to power outages, in San Francisco, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Waymo robotaxis blink out and block traffic in SF blackout. What happens in the next emergency?

December 23, 2025 at 1:39 p.m.

Saturday brought dystopian scenes of robot cars parked in thoroughfares with hazard lights flashing and angry motorists honking.

Data centers are built on a site just across Santa Teresa Blvd from a neighborhood in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)

San Jose races to become Bay Area’s data center capital — PG&E customers could pay the price

December 21, 2025 at 11:16 a.m.

Cities' rush to capitalize on the AI boom means some projects are moving forward despite findings of negative impacts.

Fire captain hit at crash scene in Contra Costa County; Vasco Road closed, then re-opens Friday afternoon

December 14, 2025 at 7:32 a.m.

Vasco Road was closed in both directions between Livermore and Brentwood on Friday afternoon.

H-1B application documents in 2000 (Meri Simon/Bay Area News Group)

H-1B: Federal government to check applicants’ social media, orders accounts set to ‘public’

December 7, 2025 at 9:07 a.m.

State Department's move echoes a policy imposed earlier for student visas

Congolese children watch the deployment of government and UN troops outside Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, as M23 rebels are reported to close in on the town. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Apple, Tesla accused of profiting from horrific abuses, environmental destruction

December 4, 2025 at 5:43 a.m.

Lawsuits focus on Democratic Republic of Congo, where large reserves of minerals used in many consumer-technology products have led to bloody conflict and a massive humanitarian crisis.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes arrives at the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, March 17, 2023. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos fraudster, argues damning evidence against her was ‘false claim’

December 3, 2025 at 9:09 a.m.

Holmes' attack on evidence that led to her conviction comes amid an apparent campaign to obtain a pardon from President Donald Trump.

Alumis CEO Martin Babler inside a lab at his company Nov. 20, 2025, in South San Francisco, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Trump administration science assault slams major Bay Area economic engine, threatens ‘amazing innovations’

December 1, 2025 at 6:53 a.m.

Investors and young scientists are pulling back from biotech, amid broader attacks on science under Trump, industry representatives said.

Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, left, is escorted by prison officials into a federal women’s prison camp on Tuesday, May 30, 2023, in Bryan, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Is Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes angling for a pardon from President Trump?

December 1, 2025 at 7:21 a.m.

One post from Holmes' account, referencing an anti-abortion post featuring Trump, accused federal prosecutors of suggesting she get an abortion.

All Stories