News: November 2009 Archives

Sixth suspect, Elvis Torrentes, 21, charged in Richmond HS gang rape. [SFGate]

According to The Oakland Tribune, Wycoff reads at a sixth grade level and kept books around the house like The Vigilante's Handbook and Techniques of a Silent Killer. He had killed at least 17 cats in his neighborhood in order to "protect other wildlife," and he said openly that he "could have been a serial killer" if it weren't his "good morals."

Now this? Is our kind of criminal. With no way to get to his auto-theft trial in Vallejo, tenacious Oakland resident Samuel George Botchvaroff did what comes naturally to him: he stole a car and drove it to the courthouse.

Well, well, well. What do we have here? Plastic bags. At the Masonic Lucky's supermarket. Destroying the environment. Making Ross Mirkarimi vomit.

Gavin Newsom, according to SF Examiner, has officially proclaimed Saturday as Burl A. Toler Sr. Day in San Francisco.

Yesterday, Richmond police released a recording of the 911 call made on October 24 by 16-year-old Margarita Vargas, who reported the now infamous Richmond High School gang rape.

Now that Gavin Newsom has dropped out of the governor's race (welcome back to work, Gavin!), rumors are swirling that Senator Dianne Feinstein might take a stab as the new "it" Democratic candidate. Or not. Who's to say for sure. This speculation pops up all the time with DiFi.

An unidentified male Muni ticket agent was arrested yesterday afternoon after allegedly punching a young woman.

• Just because: Princess Leia and her stunt double sunbathing on Tatooine while filming Return of the Jedi. [Laughing Squid]
• Downtown ice skating rink opens next week! [7x7]
• U.S. attorney targets white-collar crime. [WSJ]

Breaking news, folks. It looks like Newsom will return to San Francisco tonight, and be back to work come tomorrow morning. The mayor, if you recall, vanished from San Francisco and City Hall after announcing his withdrawal from the California's governor race.

       

Last year at this time, the gay community (and then some) lost their collective shit over the passing of Prop 8, a pro-discrimination measure that effectively pruned the rights of gay married couples. The passing of the anti-marriage confused and disturbing "Fuck Mormons" banner from his home, while blaming "middle class people" for Prop 8's passing(!); and this handy map of those who donated to Prop 8.

Is Newsom back home yet? Of course not. His ego is bruised -- for Gavin, dropping out of the California gubernatorial race is a bit like losing an Oscar, only not nearly as horrifyingly bad -- so he's drowning his sorrows in a little bit of R&R in the U.S.'s newest state.

Earlier this week we told you about the owner of Ocean Avenue Books who, after receiving a less than glowing Yelp review, went crazy on Yelper "Sean C.," showed up at his front door, and tried to attack him.

SFist brought you this news yesterday, but somewhere around "100 police officers, Muni inspectors and sheriff's officials were involved in Citywide Operation Safe Muni," conducted between 1 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday. CBS 5 reports that citations were issued for fare evasion, not having a pass or transfer, and eating/drinking on public transit.

How the Department of Correction did everything wrong with Philip Garrido. [SFGate]

SFist just received the following bit of information, one you Muni freeloaders should read. A reader, who we'll keep anonymous, tells us that there are "[u]ndercover pigs checking for fares around the city... hundreds of them today."

After today's profoundly disappointing news that gay marriage was repealed in the state of Maine -- alas, unadulterated hate wins again -- rallies will be held across the country starting tonight.

     

Yesterday, somewhere around 500 students, faculty, and community members showed up at a vigil at Richmond High School, where a 15-year-old girl was beaten and gang raped over over a grueling two-and-a-half-hour ordeal on October 24 during a homecoming dance.

The mentally unhinged man who jumped into the grizzly grotto at the SF Zoo on September 26 has been acquitted by a jury. Accused of "trespassing and disturbing dangerous animals," Kenneth Herron, 21, crept into the into the dwelling of" two 6-year-old, 500-pound female grizzlies at closing time," reports SF Chronicle.

August Coppola, who served as dean of the College of Creative Arts at San Francisco State and who created the famed Tactile Dome at the Exploratorium, died last week at his home in Los Angeles and the obit is just running today. The cause was a heart attack and August, brother to Francis Ford Coppola and Talia Shire and father to Nicholas Cage, was 75 years old.

SF Appeal brings it to our attention that smarmy San Francisco-based (located on Maiden Lane, specifically) "independent integrated marketing communications company," Criswell and Associates, earned about $700K in the past couple of months producing anti-same-sex marriage ads for Stand For Marriage Maine with the help of SF production company Coyote Films.

Where does one go to figure out what to do with the rest of their life? If you're former gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, you go to Hawaii. CBS 5's Joe Vazquez has first word that the San Francisco Mayor "left the city Tuesday to spend the rest of the week in Hawaii following his decision to drop out of the California governor's race."

ABC7 is reporting on a string of 10 car fires that broke out early this morning, beginning with multiple locations along San Pablo Dam Road in Richmond (that's the City of Richmond, not *the* Richmond where the SF carsonist frequently struck). Police seem to already be honing in on a suspect, and unlike the SF carsonist, this one was a little more aggressive and a little less wily. Assuming this is a different carsonist, what is it about 2009 that makes this the era of car fires?

The votes are in. Four out of five propositions passed. Here's how things went down after yesterday's election:

Coast Guard responding to runaway fishing vessel off California coast. [Pier System]

Oh oh. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums owes the IRS in back taxes. Lots and lots of back taxes.

Steve Rhodes reports that, by 10 a.m. this morning, only 60-plus people out of several thousand voted at this Bernal Heights polling place.

San Francisco-based non-profit agency Economic Opportunity Council (EOCSF) was expected to receive $159,000 in stimulus dollars for various/questionable "weatherization" projects. Today, however, those funds were yanked.

Ryan Tate at Valleywag has a phenomenal story about the sanity-estranged owner of Ocean Avenue Books. The owner, after reading a negative review on the interwebs about her store, found the reviewer and tried to assault him. At his home.

For your convenience, here's a handy voter guide.

A seventh arrest was made in the gang rape of a Richmond High School girl. A total of 10 men, police allege, beat and raped the girl outside her homecoming dance. Held on a $1.2 million arrest warrant, the unidentified 21-year-old allegedly played a significant role in the brutal attack.

The end of Pirate Cat Radio? [Appeal]

Hey kids! Tomorrow is Election Day across this great land of ours and you know what good citizens do on Election Day? They vote, that's what! Here is a quick run down of what we have to look forward to dealing with here in San Francisco as we engage in that great experiment this writer loves to call la democracia:

Radio station 92.7, once a gay-friendly station brimming with synthetic beats, was bought by new owners in September. Said new owners fired most of the staff and talent, replacing them with, for lack of a better word, dreck.

Here's the thing: I might have a slight emotional problem when it comes to watching football. One need only read my angry tweets on Sundays to realize this. Example: "Person who should die: Peyton Manning." (Really, Daisy? Really?) "Person I find whiny and annoying," maybe. "Person who failed to throw a TD pass for the first time since November of 2008," great.

Check out this shot of the Metreon, crammed right into the heart of bustling San Francisco at Fourth and Mission, this past Friday night. Where is everybody? Even the movie theater appears empty. It's like they turned the complex into a museum.

In even more depressing 49ers news -- more on yesterday's loss later, as soon as we coax Daisy down from the ledge -- former Niners great, BALCO fibber, and snitch Dana Stubblefield has been hit with a restraining order by his former fiancee. Why? Because, according to his ex, he's not a well man.

Attention anti-graffiti ilk: there's a new anti-graffiti Twitter feed for you to follow, @SFGraffiti. While still in its embryonic stage, it has @311 following it, which might very well result in some sort of tagging cleanup around the city if it gets enough people involved. So, send all your most irritable graffiti sightings (plus a picture, ideally) to @SFGraffiti.

Good news! The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will reopen by 9 a.m. today. Although it was initially reported that the bridge will remain closed during this morning's commute -- and, for the most part, it has -- it will open.

ABC 7 has this report about Halloween in SF, sans bridge traffic, and it turns out business was still strong at places like Rouge on Polk (which has $500 bottle service at the booths!) and Teatro ZinZanni, which both depend heavily on their East Bay following. The turnout in the Castro -- while still festively large with many gays doing their one night of drag for the year -- was not as huge and unruly as in previous years (one reveler in the video notes the lack of "riff-raff"), and there were plenty of cops on hand telling everyone to stay on the sidewalks.