All the of drama surrounding Coit Tower, as well as June election's Prop B, are over after Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor David Chiu announced a $1.7 million fund to repair Coit Tower and, more importantly, renovate the tower's historic murals. "I have directed the Recreation and Park Department and the Arts Commission to work with the Board of Supervisors to find ways to restore historic Coit Tower," said Mayor Lee. "Together, we are building the momentum to further protect a treasured San Francisco landmark." more ›

We've made no secret here at SFist of our support for actual tall buildings in our fair city, where some dumb ordinance from the 80s created by people scared of shadows has kept all our office buildings as uniform boxes all the exact same height. Well, thankfully, the Planning Commission yesterday approved the environmental-impact report for the Transbay Tower and the adjacent buildings that will go with it, clearing the way for San Francisco to get a new tallest building. more ›

The big celebration this weekend also marks the unveiling of the new Golden Gate Bridge entry plaza and Bridge Pavilion, a red-painted visitor's center that's part of $6 million in improvements completed in time for the anniversary. Chron architecture critic John King is less than thrilled with the thing, saying "it's maddening" when a building project like this is "only good" when it could have been great. more ›

In Friday's brief morning links: DUI checkpoints, squatting at AOL's Palo Alto campus, underwear lost on Muni, neighbors dislike Google buses, and the Coit tower to get a facelift. more ›

In Thursday's evening roundup: Ross Mirkarimi for openness, Recology rates, tech gurus on the lam, Dita Von Teese sightings and where to charge your iPhone in Dolores Park. more ›

A 22-year-old San Rafael man thought that he could claim he was snorting Ajax and get off the hook after cops found him on the street in Sausalito with a bunch of blue powder all over his face. Turns out he was crushing up and snorting some blue oxycontin tablets, 'cause that's how he rolls. more ›

In January, Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan's son lost his iPhone. We've all been there, down that harrowing and unimaginably terrifying rabbit hole. So, like any nobel law enforcement official, Meehan had a 10 cops (some on overtime) look for his son's missing smartphone. Which, of course, is perfectly reasonable. So much so, in fact, that the "embattled" chief held a press conference yesterday defending his actions, saying that it was not "some kind of preferential treatment," but something his department "would do for anybody in the city." more ›

See yours? No? Well, there's a whole downloadable doc here at the Mission Police Station site where you can scan through to see if your bike is in there. Ingleside Station officers were responsible for the recovery of this cache of stolen bicycles, over 100 in all, found in Oakland. We're awaiting further information from the investigator on this ring of rampant bicycle thieves and we're unclear if they've been arrested or if this was connected to the Craigslist bust back in February. more ›

Facebook launched its fourth iPhone app today, the Facebook camera. The app is solely focused on pictures, and will allow users to upload a bunch of pics at the same time as well as edit and format. "When you launch the app, you'll see a feed of just great photos from the people you care about. You can swipe to see more of any album or tap to enlarge an individual photo," notes Facebook. more ›

Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuban president Raul Castro and niece of Fidel Castro, was granted a visa by the U.S. government this week, causing a stir among Republicans who want to paint Obama as a commie or something. Castro, 50, is the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education in Havana and has has been a vociferous advocate for LGBT rights in Cuba. She came with a contingent of Cuban academics, and her first stop was in San Francisco on Wednesday where she spoke at a panel at SF General Hospital on health care for transgender patients. more ›

Oh, brother. Daniel Frank, 21, of Santa Clara (surprise!) faces big-time adult charges after allegedly going on a brutal rampage during last weekend's Bay to Breakers race. While reportedly tripping on LSD, police claim that, among other things, Frank ripped out a female participant's hair, attacked other participants during the race, threw a woman to the ground and assaulted good Samaritan's trying to intervene, spat at a cop, and tore off a police officer’s badge while resisting arrest. more ›

In Thursday's morning roundup: a ridiculous Mission District rental process, SFPD reacts to Valencia St. Vandalism video, how slow is FasTrak, and more. more ›

Today in Day Around the Bay: Newsom's new show on Current recapped, Auga Vista Park, Colin Powell loves the gays, cats on cash, and more. more ›

A feminist, anarchist group from Los Angeles has posted a YouTube video titled "Scenes from a Black Bloc documenting protesters during the pre-May Day demonstrations that left the neighborhood trashed on April 30th. It's unclear whether this video was intended as editorial or to take credit for the actions of the black-masked demonstrators at its focus, but it does nothing to condemn the aggressive actions taken against local businesses that caused over $150,000 in damages. more ›

At least two women, and possibly a third, were shot in front of a taqueria during an apparent drive-by shooting in the Tenderloin aroudn 1 p.m. this afternoon. According to a witness, a white or gray van sped up Leavenworth towards Ellis when he heard gunshots and saw the van speeding away. The two victims we both shot in the lower parts of their bodies and were taken to S.F. General to be treated for their injuries which were not considered life threatening. more ›

According to AP reports this afternoon, Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard is slashing 27,000 jobs in an effort to save over $3 billion annually. The huge loss of jobs comes nine months after the world's largest PC maker installed failed gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman as chief executive. more ›

This seems perfectly normal: San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos tells the San Francisco Chronicle that he and his aides contacted Harvey Milk's ghost regarding a vote on a non-binding resolution to name a Navy ship after slain gay rights activist. How so? Using an Ouija board, of course. Avalos explains: more ›

As Facebook's stock fell just days after trading, three investors filed suit against the company today, along with underwriters Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, accusing them of withholding damaging information about the social network's IPO. Wednesday's suit, according to the Wall Street Journal, claims "the changes made to Facebook's offering document, which said that mobile-user growth could slow revenue growth, didn't accurately portray the impact on Facebook's revenue growth." This information, it seems, was "selectively disclosed" in an effort to boost the IPO price while harming public stockholders. And now that said stock is tanking? Investors are livid. more ›

Not satisfied with having only heard from her via that open letter to the Chronicle, ABC 7's Dan Noyes flew down to Caracas, Venezuela to tape an interview with Eliana Lopez, the wife of suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi. She recounts the story we've already heard Mirkarimi tell of their New Year's Eve fight, but from her perspective, and she admits that she may, yes, maybe, be divorcing him. more ›

Starting this Friday at 7 p.m., Muni will be shutting down the N-Judah and part of the J-Church for 10 days while they complete some ongoing track work on Carl Street and around Church and Duboce. Because space will be limited on the shuttle replacements, Muni Chief Ed Reiskin provided some helpful advice for dealing with the interrupted service: "We're asking everyone who can bike, walk or even work from home to ensure space on the Muni shuttle for those who cannot." more ›

The latest pageview-friendly Top Whatever List comes to us by way of Bicycling Magazine, who has done us a favor by rating America's Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities for this month's edition. San Francisco managed to break the Top 10 thanks to the settlement of that long-standing ban on new bike lanes, the new bike-friendly Market Street and one eighties movie starring Kevin Bacon as a day trader-turned-bike messenger. We should have known Kevin Bacon would fit in to this somehow. more ›

In Wednesday's morning roundup: one luxurious patio in Yountville, America's waning love affair with automobiles, the USS Harvey Milk, future BART, the new Mission playground and adorable baby ostriches. more ›

Today in Day Around the Bay: A new Mission playground, suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge remembered, the replacement of Giant Value, Hayward might get a Wal-Mart, Green Day at Mark's wedding, and more. more ›

A 22-year-old Richmond man was convicted today of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 19-year-old Lawon Hall outside Club Suede on February 7, 2010. The shooting caused an uproar about nightlife safety, and resulting in the closing of the club despite the incident happening outside on the sidewalk. The San Francisco Superior Court jury found Keandre Davis guilty of the murder, which also left three other people injured. more ›

The old Potrero Police Station (1912) at 2300 3rd Street in Dogpatch is on fire. This shot, snapped by Ariel Dovas at around 1:30 p.m., shows firefighters battling the blaze. No reports yet of any injuries. We'll update as soon as we know more. more ›

An afternoon brawl just south of the Ferry Building on Saturday left two victims with stab wounds and one in critical condition, Bay City News reports. The latest incident in 2012's knife crime epidemic started as a fight between two men in their 30s and the two victims in their early 20s, but ended quickly after the youngest got stabbed in the torso. The victim's 22-year-old companion apparently didn't have the first guy's back either — he was stabbed in the arm and the two of them quickly hailed a cab and headed to S.F. General Hospital. more ›

Thomas Langenbach, a vice president for software giant SAP's Palo Alto lab, was busted using counterfeit bar code stickers to get himself huge discounts on LEGO toys at local Target Stores. Langenbach was officially charged with four counts of burglary for seven boxes of the children's toy totaling about $1,000 worth of LEGOs. When police searched his multimillion dollar San Carlos home, however, they found "hundreds and hundreds" of LEGO boxes the software exec had been apparently selling for a tidy profit on eBay. more ›

A suit brought by four disabled Orange County residents arguing that the closures of marijuana dispensaries in Lake Forest and Costa Mesa violated their rights to access to treatment under the ADA was rejected by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit yesterday. The plaintiffs argued that California law and the anti-discrimination provisions of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act guaranteed them access to medical marijuana in the treatment of their illnesses, but two of the three judges said this would only apply "to uses specifically authorized under the federal Controlled Substances Act, such as an experimental test of a drug, and not to use of the drug under California's law." more ›

The Dumbarton Bridge, a 1.6 mile span from Menlo Park to Fremont and carries an estimated 60,000 vehicles daily, will close during Memorial Day Weekend. The bridge will be closed from 10 p.m. Friday, May 25, to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 29. It's all a part of Caltrans and the contractor to replace a major seismic joint on all lanes of traffic. According to the press release, "This will complete a significant milestone in the overall seismic retrofit of the Dumbarton Bridge, currently slated to complete in early 2013." more ›

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, Mayor Ed Lee and the Golden State Warriors front office are scheduled to make good on months of rumors by officially announcing a deal to bring the NBA franchise back to San Francisco proper. According to the Chronicle, the deal will bring a $500 million, privately financed 17,000 - 19,000-seat arena to Pier 30 along the southern Embarcadero. The new arena is expected to be completed in time for the team to start hosting home games on the waterfront during the 2017 - 2018 season. more ›

Two months after 15-year-old Sierra LaMar disappeared from near her Morgan Hill home on her way to school, investigators have finally made in a break in the case. Last night they arrested 21-year-old Antolin Garcia-Torres outside a Morgan Hill Safeway, and they gave a news conference this morning to reveal further details. more ›

In Tuesday's morning call: RPD upsets the slackliners' balance, John Madden on the possible Warriors move, WSJ on babies with iPads, remembering Park Bowl, the Gavin Newsom Show and Nancy Pelosi Drive. more ›

Today in Day Around the Bay: Solar eclipse time-lapse and finger fun, D5 supervisor hopeful, Michael Bauer in Dogpatch, and more. more ›

Despite seeming relatively normal, as far as the weddings of the rich & loaded go, Mark Zuckerberg's post-IPO nuptials drew plenty of speculation about whether the Silicon Valley wunderkind strategically timed the ceremony to keep his bride out of his new billions. But that's not how weddings work in California, says one bigshot divorce lawyer who TMZ happened to have in their rolodex. As Laura Wasser explains to the gossip site: more ›

A pedestrian running across the street (allegedly against the light) at 19th and Valencia was struck by a car Saturday evening around 6 p.m., sending him ten feet in the air and bouncing off a second passing vehicle, according to one witness. Witnesses say the car, Toyota Sienna, had the right of way, and that the victim ran out in front of the car, which was crossing Valencia heading west on 19th. more ›

Yesterday's spectacular solar eclipse has already been blamed for at least one car accident involving a 26-year-old female driver who claims to have been blinded by the sun just at the tail end of the event. She was driving toward the intersection of Grand and Walnut Avenues in South San Francisco when she collided with two pedestrians in the crosswalk, a 40-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter. more ›

After closing 23 cents above its record-breaking IPO price of $38 on Friday, Facebook's stock dipped 11 to 13 percent to $33.87, at least as of early this morning. Patience will most likely prevail and the stock will grow over time. Naturally. But that didn't stop the heaps of schadenfreudian headlines and articles posted today. "Facebook stock plummets on second day of trading," screams San Jose Mercury News' headline. While Bloomberg made it sound like company CEO Mark Zuckerberg could be spare-changin' outside of Tu Lan, saying, "Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune dropped $2.2 billion as shares of Facebook Inc. (FB), the world’s largest social-networking company, fell below the company’s $38 offer price in its second day of trading." more ›

A three-alarm blaze occurred early Saturday morning, around 4 a.m., in a small industrial space at 3050 Broadway on Oakland's Auto Row. Firefighters arrived to find flames shooting 20 feet in the air from a marijuana grow operation with upwards of 100 plants. more ›

California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom is learning what we've known for eons — namely, not having access to the Jetty sucks. On an airport tarmac somewhere last night, Newsom was none too thrilled that United Airlines kept him waiting. The former San Francisco mayor, who was returning home from filming an episode of This Week With George Stephanopoulos, fumed: "Inexcusable @united waiting for over an hour in seat for 'catering'-after almost 2hrs in seat waiting for mech fix & changing plane...you now have us in seats on tarmac approaching 2 hrs (second time) -I'll forgive the 5.5 hour delay-this time it's 'weights'!" more ›

In Monday's morning call: B2B winner unsatisfied, Tim Lincecum's rough start, Tony Bennett, Ed Lee's literary cameo, Chinese food in the Lower Haight, and Gavin Newsom angrily tweets from an airport runway. more ›

Mark Zuckerberg and longtime med student girlfriend Priscilla Chan got major status updates today as the pair celebrated Zuck's becoming a bajillionaire and crashing the Nasdaq with a small, 100-person wedding in the backyard of his home in Palo Alto. And look, he even put on a tie! more ›

In Friday's end of day roundup: Muni's fuzzy on-time data, hating Bono, Facebook miscellany, a solar eclipse this weekend and the "gay cure" doc finally apologizes. more ›

In the last minutes of trading today, a team of underwriters lead by fat cat brokerage house Morgan Stanley had to rush in to buy up shares of Facebook to keep their investment from dipping below the $38 share price set earlier this week. more ›

It's been a couple of hours since Mark Zuckerberg pulled the fire alarm rang in Facebook's fresh new stock from Menlo Park this morning. While the media is predictably crapping their pants over this whole thing, public opinion seems to fall somewhere between "Why should I care?" and "I'll just have my broker care for me." more ›

After running back to Washington with a sack of cash weighing in at about $15 million from that party at George Clooney's house, President Obama is scheduled to come to the Bay Area next week for a couple of private fundraisers down on the Peninsula. Next Wednesday he'll be at a $250-a-person fundraiser at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City, followed by a smaller, $38,500-a-person dinner at a private home in Atherton. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, in the treacherous no-man's-land beneath the freeway on 13th Street, a 45-year-old pedestrian was struck and killed by a large truck. The truck driver was making a right turn on to 13th Street from Folsom when the victim was run over. more ›

In Friday's Facebook-free morning roundup: Mythbusters, hand grenades, Yahoo Execs, traffic cameras, traffic disruptions, $1 pastries and a nationally famous bus-riding iguana. more ›

OMG OMG OMG—Facebook's initial public offering is today, with sales of the social media stock going on sale at 8 a.m. PST. But founder Mark Zuckerberg and many others are becoming super rich off the $104 billion valuation. So what's left? Well, Zuck's new status update is "Listed a company on NASDAQ." more ›

In Thursday's roundup: possible Zodiac killer updates, weepy Golden Gate views, no more billboards, a rude prostitute, pig's blood candy, and cocktail awards for local bars. more ›

Facebook will unleash its historic initial public offering at $38 a share. Billed as the largest internet IPO in history, the deal should garner the social networking mammoth around "$16 billion in proceeds," and place the company at more than $100 billion value-wise. CNBC reports: "Including the overallotment (a 30-day option underwriters have to include an additional batch of shares in the deal), Facebook could raise up to $18.4 billion, which would make it the second largest IPO in U.S. history, behind only Visa, which raised $19.7 billion when it went public in 2008." more ›

Yikes. Several Mission District residents were held at gunpoint on Wednesday night during a home-invasion robbery. The frightening crime, reported at around 9:30 p.m., occurred on the 1400 block of York Street. "The suspects, two men believed to be in their 30s, came through the front door carrying handguns and ordered everyone inside onto the floor," notes SF Appeal. "The victims included an 18-month-old girl." more ›

This month, in addition to the big celebrations for the 75th birthday of the Golden Gate Bridge happening over Memorial Day, it's also the anniversary of the opening of what was once known as the New Mint, the fortress on Hermann Street above the Safeway, near Church. Did you know they started minting quarters there again this year after not doing so for 60 years because of their value to collectors? They also do a lot of commemorative coins, and it's really nice inside. more ›

Spotting lewd, counterfeit ads Muni vehicles is San Francisco's new favorite pastime, apparently. The latest reported fake ad comes from Muni Diaries reader Lixy, who noticed some R-rated modifications to an official advertisement for tours aboard the historic USS Pampanito submarine parked in Fisherman's Wharf. more ›

A 39-year-old Livermore man caused a stir at Motel 6 over there early Wednesday after another motel guest saw him hurl a tiny chihuahua off a second-story balcony. The dog landed on its feet and was unharmed, but the incident sparked an altercation between the witness and the culprit, who turned out to have a recent arrest under his belt for child endangerment and assault. more ›

A 32-year-old woman was robbed at gunpoint in front of her garage in the Marina District Tuesday evening. The woman was opening the door to her garage at Divisadero and Bay Streets just before 9 p.m. when two suspects, one brandishing a firearm, approached her and reportedly told her to hand over "everything she had." more ›

In Thursday's morning call: LinkedIn attempts to break their own Bay to Breakers record, skeeball set to sweep the Mission, another parking lot for food trucks, people are still waiting in line for pizza, fire at Kokkari, and cupcakes return to Pac Heights. more ›

Today in Day Around the Bay: doll crimes befall the Mission, a fire closes down a downtown restaurant, SFist wins (another) award, and more. more ›

In Stockton, California a meth-addled tuberculosis patient has been tossed in lockup after refusing to take the medications that would keep his active pulmonary TB from becoming contagious. 34-year-old Armando Rodriguez apparently missed one of his self-administered treatments because he went on a meth-fueled alcohol binge and, as he told a nurse, he didn't want to hurt his liver. more ›

A 42-year-old man became the latest victim of 2012's wave of knife crime after exiting a 14-Mission bus after 1 a.m. Tuesday morning. The victim was reportedly harassed by four suspects on the bus who asked for the man's gang affiliation. When the man got off the bus at 26th and Mission, the suspects followed him, punched him and then stabbed him in the chest. more ›

Firefighters dousing a one-alarm electrical fire in Richmond early this morning uncovered a large-scale marijuana grow operation of "possibly over 1,000" plants. According to KTVU, the security guard on duty last night was asleep when the fire started, but she woke up after one of her pitbulls started whining. She called in the fire around 3:30 a.m. this morning after she noticed smoke coming out of the door of the warehouse. more ›

Responding to ShotSpotter over on the 1700 block of Sunnydale Avenue just after midnight, authorities found a 23-year-old man was shot. The unidentified victim, suffering from life-threatening injuries, was whisked to San Francisco General Hospital. He later died at the hospital. more ›

In the Wednesday's morning roundup: a lengthy hearing for the 8 Washington project, sexy animal costumes, pressing $1 coins at the US Mint, no one likes your startup and a rant from The Dead Milkmen. more ›

We came across this large poster-board note atop a car at Congo and Mangels in Glen Park. It seems that the driver of this vehicle has had quite enough of getting their side view mirror ripped off by careless drivers using the narrow street, so they left this very large, very curt note. But wait, there's more.... more ›

In Tuesday's roundup: coyotes, burritos, Roseanne Barr, Vernon Davis sending kids to school, Lake Merced cleanup and one hungry member of Green Day. more ›

Hilarious: This genius child, 3-year-old Emmy-Lynn Retger, who became the youngest person ever to be admitted into MENSA for scoring 135 on an IQ test, was on the Today Show yesterday with her parents, and just as her mom was talking about what an extraordinary vocabulary she had at a very young age, the girl starts whining about how she really has to go poop. "Maybe too many doughnuts in the green room," says host Natalie Moralez, who really just wants to get through the segment. more ›

It seems that each year or so we get another claim about the true identify and/or whereabouts of the Zodiac Killer. Today another claim presents itself for your consideration: According to former California Highway Patrol officer Lyndon Lafferty, who wroite a new true (?) crime book titled The Zodiac Killer Cover Up, the infamous 1970s serial killer, now an alleged 92-years-old, is alive and living in Solano County. "No doubt in my mind at all. I would say that I am 95 positive we have the right man," Laferty explained to CBS 5. "I know for a fact that he does." more ›

As Mark Zuckerberg continues to make up for all the fun he missed out on in college by taking a roadtrip with a few of his best executive Facebook buds, the touring dog and pony show has apparently led to an increase in interest from investors around the world. With the new wave of interest comes rumors of a higher starting price — 38 bucks per share, which is a decent bump up from the $28-$35 range we saw last week. While Facebook must be confident in their asking price, other active investors are calling out the price bump as a symptom of yet another overhyped tech stock. And outside of the financial types interest in Facebook's actual product is about as mediocre as it always was. more ›

Though he hasn't held elected office in well over a year, Chris Daly's mug is still being co-opted by more conservative candidates to represent the "zany ideas" and "guerrilla tactics" of S.F.'s progressives, like banning Happy Meals and yellow pages. As Mission Local shows us, voters in the California State Assembly's 19th District (which includes western parts of the city along with Daly City, Colma, and part of South S.F.) have recently gotten a mailer from Assembly candidate and multi-generation San Franciscan (and son of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer), Michael Breyer. more ›

Last week, a female driver on Scott Street allegedly used her vehicle to take a swipe at a cyclist heading northbound on the Wiggle. The cyclist, also a woman, was entering the bike lane on Scott near Fell Street around 9:15 a.m. last Tuesday, when she had to swerve to dodge the vehicle. According to a police report from Park Station, when the cyclist rode by the vehicle, she had a few words for the driver, which launched a full-on driver-vs-biker rage episode. more ›

Police need the public's help in finding the person who struck an elderly man on Saturday night and then fled the scene. A 62-year-old man was walking east across Columbus Street "outside of a crosswalk" when he was hit by a white SUV heading north on Columbus. The injured pedestrian was taken to a nearby hospital where he remains in critical condition. The suspect evaded the scene just after hitting the man. more ›

In Tuesday's morning call: speeding up Muni on Van Ness, turning a Mission alley in to a thriving plaza, symphonic softball, more food on Valencia, Scott Thompson's nonexistent severance, and a great white shark attack. more ›

Proving that there is a better life after local media, former San Francisco Examiner executive editor (and all-around swell human being) Deirdre Hussey has been hired on as Lieutenant Gavin Newsom's deputy chief of staff. She will be in charge of communications, social media, and help with public policy and strategy. Hussey spent a decade at the SF Examiner prior to her new gig with Newsom. (Crankypants commenter Stephen Buel currently mans the paper's editorial voice.) more ›

Today in Day Around the Bay: Getting a liquor license in the Mission is hard, TV season finales explained, facial detection cameras at your favorite bars, and more. more ›

Famed Apple engineer/cofounder and living teddy bear Steve Wozniak said that, if he does plan on buying, he would purchase coveted shares in Facebook when it goes live this week, no matter the cost. When Facebook's IPO goes live on May 17th, the company will offer 337.4 million shares to the public at $28 to $35, putting it somewhere in the $96 billion range, market value-wise. "I would invest in Facebook," Wozniak said in an interview with Bloomberg on Sunday. "I don’t care what the opening price is." more ›

Today in easily condensed magazine articles: Fast Company has unleashed their list of the 100 Most Creative People In Business. Besides making for an easy read, Fast Company's list gives us our daily affirmation that San Francisco is still a town full of creative-thinking business types (and business-minded creative types). Local honorees on the tech-heavy list include everything from the usual suspects (hello, Twitter) to an unexpectedly disruptive local grocery store. more ›

Alamo Square neighbors tired of tour guides on loudspeakers, exhaust fumes from idling buses and people setting up cardboard cutouts of the Full House cast in front of their homes have apparently had it with the obnoxious people movers rolling through the neighborhood. Since previous efforts to to block or even charge tour companies for parking near the postcard vista fell through, Alamo Square neighbors have taken it upon themselves to curb the nuisance in the best way they know how: by publicly shaming them on Facebook, obviously. more ›

On Tuesday, a promising new social media thingamajig will go live in San Francisco, one that set you and several of your followers or friends up on a date. It's called Grouper and it works like this: Grouper is an invite-only social club pairing up two groups of three friends (3 guys and 3 girls, or 3 guys and 3 guys, etc.) from Facebook, and sets them up for drinks at a venue around the city. They use a criteria of age, sexual orientation, educational background, and careers to screen potential matches, and the pairing can take anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks to configure. Furthermore, you should totally do this! Summer is coming and you could use more friends. And maybe even a lover. more ›

James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln notwithstanding, Newsweek has officially (and somewhat confusingly) declared openly straight Barack Obama the first gay president after last week's historic announcement on gay marriage. More of an ode to Bill Clinton being labeled the first black president than a nod to Barack's sexuality, Andrew Sullivan writes: "When you step back a little and assess the record of Obama on gay rights, you see, in fact, that this was not an aberration. It was an inevitable culmination of three years of work." Sullivan goes on to point out that Obama has much in common with LGBT ilk, noting, "He had to discover his black identity and then reconcile it with his white family, just as gays discover their homosexual identity and then have to reconcile it with their heterosexual family." more ›

While the city's new boutique and upscale bowling alleys have enjoyed the spotlight for a minute, Daly City's much mourned authentic dive bowling experience is looking to make a comeback of it's own. Serra Bowl, which closed its doors last month after losing their lease, is now looking to opening a new set of lanes in or around the city proper. more ›

After dodging accusations of resume padding, Yahoo's barely-there CEO Scott Thompson announced over the weekend that he is stepping down from the post he's held for barely four months. While Yahoo declined to give a reason for Thompson's departure, the Wall Street Journal reports that his decision to leave the company was at least partially influenced by a recent thyroid cancer diagnosis. more ›

After hearing a woman's cries for help at Fremont and Mission Streets at around 10:40 p.m. Sunday night, officers found a woman struggling with a man attempting to mug her. And that's not all. After the woman broke free from her assailant, he brandished a handgun. Which is never a good idea. "One of the officers fired at the man, who then dropped the gun and was arrested without further incident," notes SF Appeal. more ›

For the second time in a week, UC police donned riot gear and descended on the Gill Tract in Albany in the early morning hours today to clear out the remaining, stalwart Occupy the Farm protesters. The most ridiculous part: They assembled about 100 officers from multiple UC campuses for the operation, all to clear out a group of fewer than 10 protesters who were asleep in their little camp. more ›

First Twitter gets a big tax break, now the MTA is going to be considering adding a new express bus route to Muni's roster at their meeting tomorrow: the 83X. The line is already being nicknamed The Twitter Bus because it would run from Caltrain at 4th and Townsend to Market between 8th and 9th, which is now being thought of as "a booming employment center," because Twitter is about to move to Market and 10th. more ›

In Monday's morning roundup: taking a look at Civic Center plaza's latest art installation, behind the scenes with the Entertainment Commission, pop-up fashion in Dolores Park, sandwich jokes, free pizza and Yosemite via webcam. more ›

In today's Day Around the Bay: UC Berkeley students graduate, candy kitten feces, fashion in the Mission, RIP Clown Alley, and more. more ›

First Team Mirkarimi tried every legal maneuver in the book (not to mention crying on radio) to get out of the misconduct hearing, currently before the Ethics Commission. Then Mayor Lee fired back with the allegations of conspiracy. Then nobody could say the guy's name right. And now we have officially arrived at the point where we can start calling this thing "a circus." more ›

After Yahoo stakeholders at activist hedge fund Third Point called out Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson for a padded resume last week, Thompson has taken to pleading ignorance in the matter. His latest defense claims he never actually submitted a resume for the gig or faked a degree. Actually, he has no idea how that extra Computer Science degree got on there. more ›

You know that house at the corner of 15th and Dolores that's been totally gutted and lifted off its foundation like it's going to be moved somewhere? Well, today Curbed (and SFist commenter MrEricSir) bring us some history on the site, where a Lutheran church once stood that survived the 1906 earthquake only to be burned to the ground in 1993 the day after it received an angry letter from the Aryan Brotherhood regarding their liberal stance on gay people. more ›

Mary Jamis, 52, a lesbian who attempted to obtain a marriage license in North Carolina on Thursday, was arrested along with a heterosexual friend for refusing to leave a government office. Several other gay couples showed up that day in an attempt to get marriage licenses too. It was all part of a protest following the passage of the state's Amendment One, a ban that not only bars gay marriages but any type of civil union. more ›

Like many local medical marijuana dispensaries, the Berkeley Patients Group officially closed its doors last week under pressure from U.S. Attorney General Melinda Haag. For Haag, who's been on a bit of a rampage sending threatening letters as of late, the concern was that dispensaries are often the target of violent crime and armed robberies, and that closing BPG would make the neighborhood safer. It's an argument that has been heard plenty of times, but for Tracey Taylor, whose three kids attend a nearby elementary school, the dispensary's security is the least of her worries. As she writes in an opinion piece for Berkeleyside: more ›

Two horrible teenagers were arrested for robbing a woman at Dolores Park this week. Mission Local reports: "A 39-year-old woman was sitting at a park bench when an 18-year-old male suspect approached her and put a knife next to her. A second male suspect, 17, approached the victim and demanded her cellphone, which she gave to them." more ›

In Friday's AM roundup: Create & Barrel co-opts Dolores Park, where to get flowers and brunch for Mother's Day, Pizza Friday and a kitten on Muni. more ›

The 24th Street BART station had to be temporarily shut down this morning after a woman stabbed a male victim around 4:40 a.m. Trains passing through the station filled with commuters who must go to work at that ungodly hour were not permitted to stop while police investigated. more ›

Today in Day Around the Bay: Gavin Newsom's first guests include an athlete and a Googler, activists are cranky about the Wells Fargo donation to Valencia Street businesses, hero teen in Guy Fieri's Lamborghini appear in court, and more. more ›

The historic, Art Deco Pacific Telephone & Telegraph building at 140 New Montgomery is undergoing a major renovation as we speak, and they just signed their first major tenant: Yelp. As the Chron reports, the citizen-review behemoth just inked a deal for 100,000 square feet of space in the building, a third of the total available, and they plan to relocate there from their current headquarters at 650 Mission next fall. more ›

Down in the land of flip flops and fish tacos, Harvey Milk's legacy will be honored via a new street name. San Diego will rename a street in honor of the slain gay rights leader and former San Francisco supervisor, making the southern California city the first to name an avenue after Milk. Why San Diego? According to the BAR, San Diego's queer community thinks of Milk as one of their own. "He was stationed in San Diego in the 1950s when he served in the U.S. Navy, leading local activists to recently launch a campaign urging Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to name a naval vessel the USS Harvey Milk." more ›

In light of this week's announcement that Barack Obama supports gay marriage, making him the first-ever sitting U.S. President to make such a profound statement, response to the news has been mostly positive. Even noted conservative and Hunky Jesus hater Andrew Sullivan described himself as "uncharacteristically at a loss for words," adding, "Obama did more than make a logical step. He let go of fear. He is clearly prepared to let the political chips fall as they may. That's why we elected him. That's the change we believed in." Following are other reactions to Obama's "evolved" stance on same-sex marriage. more ›

A cyclist riding near 13th Street and South Van Ness yesterday morning collided with a PG&E van and sustained critical injuries that are life-threatening. The van was traveling south on South Van Ness and turned left onto 13th, where the crash occurred. The cyclist was taken to S.F. General, and there is not yet an update on his condition. more ›

We imagine many of you were waiting to see how The Daily Show and The Colbert Report reacted to President Obama's historic endorsement of gay marriage yesterday. Well, in case you missed them, here they both are... more ›

In Thursday's morning roundup: Hollywood stars schmoozing around San Francisco, a dangerous tree threatens Divisadero, vegan soul food exists, Gavin Newsom's hair weighs in on Obama's announcement, and bowling for the Golden Gate Bridge. more ›

Who said online petitions don't make a difference? According to a press release put out by Change.org and Groundswell, SF MOMA announced on Monday that the museum is immediately suspending its advertisements with SF Weekly as a result of the alleged sex trafficking controversy surrounding Village Voice Media-owned Backpage.com. The press release states that SF MOMA made the decision after Change.org and Groundswell members had brought the issue to their attention. more ›

A guy who was a 'person of interest' in a Rohnert Park homicide was in a two-hour standoff with police inside a building at Post and Hyde. And he is now deceased. more ›

Today in Day Around the Bay: Glitter Wizard, chocolate-stuffed cereal isn't as good as it sounds, that lot on 15th and Dolores, anger at Obama's support of gay marriage, and more. more ›

Venture capitalist and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel is inching closer towards realizing his dream of creating a government-free floating island utopia for tech startups off the coast of San Francisco. When last we checked in with Thiel and his cohort, former Google engineer and seasteading activist Patri Friedman, the idea was little more than a libertarian speech with some artist's renderings attached. Now, riding a wave of investment capital from Thiel, the project has a website, a course to set sail, and a lineup of nearly 100 international technology companies that are ready to literally get onboard. more ›

Having stomped off and given up on developing a new movie studio on property he owns in Lucas Valley, filmmaker George Lucas is waving a figurative middle finger back at the NIMBYs who made his life difficult over the last fifteen years by converting the land into (gasp!) low-income housing instead. Marin County is notoriously short on housing that's affordable to non-millionaires, and if Marin residents had their druthers, all of it would be in a dark corner of San Rafael where no one had to look at it. Now, Lucas has partnered with the Marin County Foundation and they are reportedly "looking into" the affordable housing option for the property. more ›

Edwin Ramos, the the MS-13 gang member accused in the 2008 murder of Tony Bologna and his two sons, was just found guilty of first-degree murder after a trial that's lasted four months in San Francisco Superior Court. The jury returned with their verdict at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon, and reports are still coming back from the courtroom regarding the other counts Ramos was charged with. more ›

In an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts this afternoon, President Obama announced that he has "always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally." After speaking with many folks on his own staff in committed monogamous, same-sex relationships, the President explained, "I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married." more ›

We know that you've all been dying, since yesterday, for an update on embattled and suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi and his plight to keep his job amidst an Ethics Commission hearing. Well, here you go. There was a hearing in Superior Court yesterday, and the judge decided to delay for another week deciding whether to make Eliana Lopez and/or Ivory Madison hand over the much publicized video to Mayor Ed Lee and the city attorney's office for use in the Ethics Commission hearing. Also, Mirkarimi's attorneys used the opportunity to file a brief once again arguing that the Mayor's actions are "transparently political" and "absurd" in light of historical precedent. more ›

On Earth Day, a couple of hundred protesters descended on some UC Berkeley-owned property in neighboring Albany and began planting beans, and raspberries. The protesters, along with some neighbors in the area, want to preserve the open space for an urban farm rather than let the University develop it as Little League fields as it proceeds with its University Village redevelopment project, the final phase of which is not yet complete. This morning at six a.m., UC police kicked the Occupy the Farm folks off the land after their two-week campout, and the University says that they'd like, instead, to have a "dialogue" about urban farming. more ›

In Wednesday's morning extras: a noted punk rocker comes out as transgender, Duboce Park's new playground, helping fire victims, John Travolta's sexual assault charges, going to SF Traffic Court, robots, and... more ›

Each morning we watch/listen to KRON 4 Morning News via Ustream. Imagine our sheer terror at not being about to hear anchorwoman Justine Waldman for a good chunk of the morning after the their Ustream page fell victim to a massive DDoS attack. In fact, all of Ustream was temporarily janked due to planned multiple attacks targeting Russian opposition channels on Ustream. more ›

On Tuesday, voters in North Carolina approved Amendment One, amending that state's constitution to clearly define marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman. As the LA times notes, the amendment not only outlaws same-sex marriages (those were already illegal in the Tar Heel state), but it also eliminates civil unions and domestic partnerships — as well as the benefits and rights that come along with them — for every couple, gay or straight. more ›

Yikes: An unidentified man was stabbed to death in the city's South of Market neighborhood at around 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The incident occurred around the intersection 8th and Howard. According to SF Appeal, this is San Francisco's 22nd homicide of 2012. "No further information about the victim, motive or any possible suspects was immediately available." more ›

Nevada, America's one stop shop for all sorts of bad ideas, has issued a license to an autonomous vehicle that is most definitely not a human being. One of Google's driverless Priuses that we've been keeping a wary eye on for some time now recently passed road tests in Carson City and on the Las Vegas strip, earning itself the first autonomous vehicle license. This comes about a year after Nevada was the first state to pass legislation allowing self-driving vehicles on public roads, possibly in an attempt to obliterate that state's profitable limousine industry. more ›

Today in Day Around the Bay: Carrie Brownstein's pressing Soda Stream question, a new SoMa bar on Harrison, selling the A's, Mill Valley fast food snobbery, Central Kitchen's grub, and more. more ›

The Lusty Lady Theater, San Francisco and the world's only strip club cooperatively owned and operated by the women entertainers themselves, stands in danger of coming apart at the seams. As Uptown Almanac reports, the Lusty Lady's head Madam and all but one member of the club's worker cooperative board have quit. Without much direction or employees, the club (which just recently celebrated 15 years of being part of the SEIU) is now in a tight spot moving forward. more ›

The SFPD has been taking the rampant copper thievery around the Bay Area in the last year very seriously. Today we hear that they've been tracking the scavengers in boats near the Hunters Point shipyard (we earlier heard about these waterborne copper pirates), and even caught some red-handed after a break-in in the Bayview. Furthermore, they distributed flyers to junk dealers in and around the Bayview, asking them to stop purchasing the specific kind of copper cable that PG&E uses that is most commonly ripped out by thieves. Afterward, the conducted a sting in which undercover agents went trying to sell copper to the same four junk dealers, and two of them took the bait. more ›

The victim of Sunday's tragic pedestrian fatality in Laurel Heights has been identified today as 25-year-old aspiring architect Suzanne Monaco. According to authorities, Monaco was not in the crosswalk when she was struck by a pickup truck while crossing Masonic Avenue near Euclid Ave with an armful of groceries. Monaco succumbed to injuries from the crash about half an hour later at San Francisco General Hospital. more ›

Another victim has lost a wallet, a cellphone and an unspecified amount of blood to 2012's knife crime epidemic. According to police, the 24-year-old male victim was walking near North Point Drive on the lawless landfills of Treasure Island when two suspects snuck up on him, held a knife to his throat, punched him in the face and slashed his neck before knocking him to the ground. more ›

Though she's in exile (or, from another perspective, back home) in Venezuela, Eliana Lopez is still fighting, through her attorney, to keep Mayor Ed Lee from using the video she and neighbor Ivory Madison made on New Year's Day against her husband, Ross Mirkarimi. Her attorney Paula Canny says that "dissemination of photos and videos ... after a criminal case is concluded is detrimental to the crime victim." It's up to Judge Garrett Wong in a hearing today whether this case is concluded, and whether Lee has a right to subpeona such evidence in the upcoming, trial-like Ethics Commission hearing. more ›

San Franciscans talk about how we usually have to pay for it when we get weather like this. A couple of days of perfect park weather, or beach weather, or strolling-through-the-typically-foggy Sunset weather, are most often followed by days of rain, or socked-in fog, or impenetrable grayness that encourages emotional eating and destroys all springtime diets. Alas, we're being blessed this week with a steady blaze of sun, and from what we can tell we won't be paying for it... at least not right away. more ›

After an hour-long, one-on-one meeting with the likely GOP presidential nominee Friday, Rick Santorum finally announced his endorsement of Mitt Romney. In his letter to supporters yesterday, Santorum explained he felt a "deep responsibility to assess Governor Romney's commitment" to conservative issues like pro-family initiatives and ensuring that his legion of social conservatives and tea party supporters would have their voices heard under a Romney administration. more ›

A family newly arrived in the Bay Area from Missouri experienced a tragedy last night. 28-year-old Christopher Burton says he arrived home from work to find his wife, Amy Freeman Burton, 37, dead of a gunshot wound, along with 13-year-old daughter Ainsly Freeman, also shot. Freeman was still alive when ambulances reached the home, but died a short while later at Castro Valley Medical Center. more ›

In Tuesday's morning roundup: breaking down Obama's personal stance on gay marriage, the Castro's new meat district, Hawaiian food in the Richmond, happy birthday SF Mint, and kitschy Muni transfer art. (Also: bikini butts.) more ›

Last week's climactic worldwide May Day events, in which police and protesters clashed and black bloc protesters caused thousands of dollars worth of property damage, revived the nation's waning interest in the Occupy movement long enough for everyone to ask, "What next?" more ›

Today in Day Around the Bay: A boy was grabbed inside a bathroom at a McDonald's, Mayor Lee meets with BOS, live like a hipster for a price, and more. more ›

The Chron made the rare move of trying to see the plight of vandalizing anarchists from their side of things today, but the story still ends up being an indictment of them as "Marin County trust-fund types" who just opportunistically appear at rallies so they can break stuff. That quote comes from Mitchell Langon, one of the managers of a sort of Riots 'R' Us store in the East Bay known as Berkeley Surplus. He doesn't seem too fond of these "types," but he sells them their black bandannas and gas masks nonetheless. more ›

The other week told you about how George Lucas, finally fed up with the rich Marin NIMBYs bitching about his LucasArts expansion plans in Lucas Valley, gave up on his plans to build there and is now seeking another city in which to build a huge new production facility. S.F. Mayor Ed Lee would like Lucas to do it in S.F., of course. But now Walnut Creek has written an empassioned plea to Lucas to take a bunch of vacant office and industrial property off their hands. more ›

"I'm no fan of law breakers, and especially those who is looking from a quick buck from elderly residents of my neighborhood," writes Agent Akit regarding these pieces of paper taped over curb addresses in the Outer Richmond. Why is it a problem, you ask? Akit explains: more ›

Because not a single week can go by without devastating news regarding your San Francisco Giants: sportswriter Jon Morosi reports the following bad news: "BREAKING: Guillermo Mota of #SFGiants receives 100-game suspension after testing positive for Clenbuterol, a performance-enhancing substance." Ugh. more ›

The messiah Mark Zuckerberg is poised to save California and its impending financial ruin. More or less. How so? Facebook will have to pay so very many millions in taxes after the initial public offering, which will go on to pay even more each year when April 15th rolls around. Zuckerberg's company could have to fork over $189 million in taxes after the IPR goes live, or so says PrivCo, which researches private companies. The approaching IPO could value Facebook at $96 billion. "The federal government will be in the money too, collecting an estimated $714 million in federal income taxes from Zuckerberg," reports NorthJersey.com. more ›

Despite being the most populous state — and one of the most diverse — California's opinion doesn't matter a lick when it comes to picking this year's Republican Presidential candidate. But nonetheless there's a primary happening on June 5, and the city of San Francisco wants you to "Be a Voter." (Some researchers, you see, have found that the phrase "Be a Voter" is more statistically encouraging than the more direct command of "Vote!") more ›

The owners of 639 Geary Street issued letters last month to 33 low-income tenants informing them that their rents were going to be raised to market rates after more than 20 years of being rent-controlled units. The city helped subsidize the development back in 1988 with the condition that 20 percent of the units in the building would be kept affordable — an agreement the landlord says expired in April of this year. In truly classy fashion, they wasted no time in informing all 33 of their less fortunate tenants that their rents would be promptly raised beyond their means. City Attorney Dennis Herrera is now stepping in to get a judge to rescind the rent increases until this can get worked out. more ›

An unidentified woman died late Sunday night after pick-up truck struck and killed her in Laurel Heights at Masonic and Euclid. The victim, heading west, was struck at around 5:30 p.m. as the vehicle was heading south on Masonic. According to the Chronicle, she was not using a crosswalk. more ›

In Monday's morning call: remembering witty KRON commentator Wayne Shannon, bringing the startup vibe to the homeless, cartoonish Dolores Park, robberies rocking the Lower Haight, Sam Walton's Hetch Hetchy fund, and... more ›

At least 37 were displaced over the weekend after a four-alarm fire tore through a Victorian on Valencia and Duboce just before 10 a.m. on Sunday. The residential building is located across the street from noted bar, Zeitgeist. "A total of 30 adults and 7 children were displaced by the blaze," reports SF Appeal. "All of those people have either been provided housing for the night or made their own arrangements." more ›

Today's Day Around the Bay: designer Animal Crackers boxes, more senseless knife crimes, Oakland wants to terminate the Goldman Sachs deal, the new Big Wave World Tour champion, and more. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on SFist. more ›

The Guardian tried to tell us Oakland was cooler than San Francisco a few weeks ago, and now Fast Company is selling folks on the idea that Oakland is where it's at for starting a business too. They note the presence of thriving startups like Pandora and the proximity of engineering talent at UC Berkeley. And they note that the office market over there is a lot cheaper than over here, and it's currently ranked the seventh best office market in the country by Grubb & Ellis, and No. 3 for industrial space. more ›

There's a curmudgeony piece in the Business section of the Chron today titled "Facebook must convince investors of its value" and goes on to quote one analyst who tries to compare Facebook's upcoming, mid-month IPO with those of Groupon and Zillow which have "burned" investors now that they're trading well below their IPO price. We don't claim to be stock experts, but won't people be climbing over each other to buy Facebook stock when it finally comes avilable, and isn't everyone pretty convinced of the company's value and inescapable power over us — even if there has been a little backlash in the press? This ain't no Zillow we're talking about here. more ›

Do you have $139,200 lying around to sink into a quirky piece of U.S. naval history? Well, you're in luck because the Navy is looking to unload this sleek piece of Cold War-era technology for a song. Dubbed the Sea Shadow, the stealth vessel was designed to evade enemy radar while running stealthy night missions. It cost DARPA and the Navy a cool $50 million to build the thing back in the early 80s, and the total price tag on the ship's development program eventually topped $195 million, making the price tag a relative steal. more ›

Darian Shirazi — a former front-end software developer for Facebook who now runs Radius, a small-to-medium business sales intelligence company located here in San Francisco — talked to Bloomberg West recently. During the interview, the young CEO called Facebook (that social media doohickey with which you may be familiar) "the most important company of our lifetime." And you know what? He's probably right. How so? Well, Shirazi goes on to point out that it's "integrated into every almost application," adding that Facebook might even be "more important than Google." more ›

Saturday night's full moon (i.e., a somewhat rare "super moon") promises to be 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than your average dingy full moon. Why? Well, according to NASA, it will hover about "50,000 miles closer than its farthest point in its elliptical orbit." Bay City News reports: "Other than its visual impacts, a super moon also creates especially exaggerated tides known as 'perigean tides,' with tidal waters rising about an extra inch, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration." The super moon can also make your pooch howl and/or cause Cher to slap you after coital bliss. more ›

In the latest update from 2012's wave on knife crime, here's another reason to never, ever attempt to use one of those green J.C. Decaux pay toilets around town: A 57-year-old man was attacked and robbed at knifepoint while attempting to find a little quiet time alone in the one at Larkin and Grove early Thursday morning. more ›

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson may not be quite the academic he professed to be. The excitedly-punctuated Sunnyvale company admitted today that, just four months into Thompson's tenure, their CEO's resume listed a degree in Computer Science that the executive never received during his time as an undergrad at Stonehill College. more ›

A "hydrogen-related" hazmat situation in Emeryville has prompted a shelter-in-place for residents as well as the complete shutdown for Emery Secondary School. The incident occurred at 45th and San Pablo. We'll update as soon as we know more. more ›

In Friday's morning call: Facebook's new photo filters, digging up history in the Lower Haight, plenty of MacBooks to go around in the Mission, a Journey documentary, Barry Bonds, and annoying intersections. more ›

An 18-year-old girl riding riding the 49 bus on Mission near Bernal Heights had her face slashed Wednesday evening by one of four assailants, described as two men and two women in their late teens or early 20s, all Hispanic. more ›

Today's Day Around the Bay: fire hydrants gone wild, fasting for peace, duck sightings in the avenues, Google+, and more. more ›

A transgender woman was shot and killed while sitting in her car in downtown Oakland last weekend, and it's taken a few days for local media outlets to catch up to the story. The case seems pretty obviously to be a hate crime, though police are not yet releasing a motive, and it's unclear if there are any suspects — though three other transgender women in the car at the time were witnesses. more ›

Airbnb, the legitimate way for people to get cash for letting people crash on their couch, just signed a 10-year lease in the Giftcenter building at 888 Brannan, for a space that's about five times as big as their current Potrero Hill digs. The move, says CEO Brian Chesky, "is a commitment not only to staying in San Francisco, but creating a lot of jobs." Maybe now the City will ease off of trying to collect hotel taxes from them? more ›

As Zuckerberg and Company gear up for their big debutante ball, when they'll spend the next two weeks meeting with investors and shopping their stock around, the company has released an estimated price range for the stock. When shares start trading on the 17th or 18th of this month, Facebook execs expect them to go for about $28 to $35 per share. In the middle of that range, that should raise about ten Instagrams for the Menlo Park company, putting it's total value somewhere north of $80 billion. more ›

While the High Speed Rail Authority figures out how to round up enough money to lay track and get travelers zipping down to SoCal, Chronicle columnist and noted Jimmy Buffett fan C.W. Nevius wants to know why we're not already sailing between San Francisco and other West Coast ports of call. The city is putting in all this infrastructure to cater to cruise ships before the America's Cup, and we love our tourists (or the $8.6 billion per year the city makes off of them, anyway) so what's keeping San Francisco from becoming a popular bermuda shirt destination? more ›

Eighth grader Heriberto Reyes passed away Monday afternoon after a brutal attack by a group of violent youths in San Jose's Roosevelt Park left him in critical condition Friday night. The park, which is both a popular hangout and known gang territory was reportedly packed with witnesses when the massive altercation broke out Friday evening, but police have yet to name any suspects in the homicide. more ›

Oh geez. The San Francisco Giants were dealt another blow after Pablo Sandoval, arguably the team's best hitter, fractured his left hamate bone. (It's the "small, hook-like bone at the base of the hand, near the wrist.") If you recall, Sandoval injured right right hamate bone last season, which resulted surgery and six weeks on the DL. As The Splash points out, "clearly this is another major, traumatic blow for a team that already has lost closer Brian Wilson for the season." more ›

A 25-year-old researcher at S.F.'s VA hospital died Saturday morning very shortly after showing the first symptoms of a serious meningitis infection, which he likely contracted from working with the bacteria in his lab. The man, who lives on Treasure Island with a girlfriend and roommates, began feeling sick Friday night and went to bed. When he awoke with worse symptoms (generally high fever, stiff neck, headache, vomiting) the next morning, he had his friends take him back to the VA hospital, where he died a short time later. more ›

Following Monday night's splinter group mini-riot that befell parts of the Mission (most notably on Valencia Street), Wells Fargo donated a whopping $25,000 to aid the more than 20 small businesses that protesters vandalized in the neighborhood. If you recall, members at a gathering in Dolores Park spilled down into the Mission, smashing car and restaurant windows, spray painting, and generally causing all sorts of terror. And, in a very clever move, Wells Fargo decided to help them out. more ›

In Thursday's morning roundup: ketchup and ranch duke it out at Dolores Park, a Bay Bridge construction milestone, losing Hawaiian food, Oakland protesters' beef with small business, another Mission geyser, and... more ›

Around 3:15 a.m. Sunday morning, a 23-year-old man was shot in Potrero Hill after the car he was riding in dropped off a friend near the Potrero Hill Playground. The driver attempted pull a U-turn and leave the area after hearing shots fired, but the victim in the backseat was struck by a bullet when the shooter open fire again. more ›

Today's Day Around the Bay: Cyclists' are allegedly being harassed by on-air talent, voting for Best of the Bay, loving Mill Valley, comparatively inexpensive FiDi properties, and more. more ›

In the latest news surrounding sidelined Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi's misconduct trial, it is the Mayor's turn to start lobbing out the pointed language and conspiracy theories. In an opening brief for the trial, Mayor Lee's office and a Deputy City Attorney accused Mirkarimi and his campaign manager of attempting to cover up the events from New Year's Eve. more ›

A BART station agent who took pity on an impoverished teen was fired yesterday, on his 66th birthday. Jim Stanek admits that he gave a 16-year-old boy $300 in paid BART tickets because he was having trouble paying for his commute to school. The tickets — collected from commuters who lost tickets and then bought these after exiting Stanek's station at Daly City and handed them over — had piled up in his booth, and he thought they'd be thrown away. more ›

Crazy person Sean Harris, senior pastor of the Berean Baptist Church in North Carolina, delivered a terrifying sermon on Sunday to his congregation suggesting that parents "crack" their fey sons' limp wrists, rein in daughters who appear butch, "punch" them if they act gay, and a slew of other child-abuse recommendations that are sure to horrify anyone with commonsense and a heart. Harris was speaking in support for North Carolina's Amendment One, the state's looming ban on gay marriage and civil union. Care of Good As You, who first reported the story, the transcript of the infamous sermon reads as follows: more ›

Since when are there more Occupy arrests in San Francisco on a day of planned action than there are in Oakland? Oakland Police clearly exercised much greater restraint than they did in 2011 as they dealt with the thousands of protesters who gathered yesterday and last night in downtown Oakland. They estimate that the crowd was about 3,500 strong last night at a rally in Frank Ogawa Plaza (which all the Twitterers and Occupy folk still insist on calling Oscar Grant Plaza), and of the many who squared off with police, tossing paint bombs at them, shoving up against police lines with anarchy-symbol shields, and even setting at least one police cruiser on fire, only 23 people were arrested. more ›

Speaking of being cruel to the homeless, the managers of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium have taken to using loud and offensive noise as a last-ditch effort to shoo homeless people away from camping under their big awning. They're blasting a bunch of "industrial" sounds taken off of iTunes, like revving motorcycles, chainsaws, sirens, and presumably the early-90s oeuvre of Nine Inch Nails out of their outdoor speakers after 11 p.m. in order to deter the dozens of people who like to call that sidewalk home. more ›

Scratch those breakfast plans. The Occupy SF commune at 888 Turk lasted just about as long as it did the first time around on April 1st. According to the Examiner, SFPD moved in around 5 a.m. this morning and arrested 26 Occupiers while Animal Care & Control carted off their two dogs. more ›

In Wednesday's morning roundup: Occupy SF serves breakfast, how you can donate to vandalized Mission businesses, a sausage and pie store, an unmasked food critic, a tragic wave at AT&T park, Upper Market developments, and something quirky they're doing Portland. more ›

Jeez. According to @abc7newsbayarea, this officer (one of several) was drenched in a substance believed to be yellow paint during today's May Day protest in Oakland. As SFist reported earlier that paint was used as a weapon during tonight's unrest. Following a scuffle between the fuzz and civilian, "fellow protesters responded by throwing bottles and paint balloons at officers. The officers responded by charging at the crowd and issuing a dispersal order." more ›

What looked like a relatively peaceful scene in Oakland in the evening escalated around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night as Oakland Police and Alameda Sheriff's deputies gave a dispersal order to protesters gathered at 14th and Broadway. At least one news outlet is currently reporting tear gas and flash bangs have been deployed, although that is still unconfirmed. more ›

After a day of shutting down traffic in the Mission some members of Occupy SF have returned to 888 Turk Street, which the group occupied in protest on April 1st. Although the occupation inside appears to be mostly peaceful at the moment, things have turned tone masked protester on the roof of another nearby building is currently antagonizing the scores of police currently stationed in the area. more ›

Today's Day Around the Bay: find out what's going on inside that white tent on Cesar Chavez, occupying the North Bay, Judy Davis dining in the Castro, Facebook's IPO date, and more. more ›

Richard Grenell, Mitt Romney's openly gay foreign policy spokesman, resigned from his post today after taking fire from anti-gay conservatives. Grenell was hired to help focus the Romney camp's messaging on foreign affairs less than two weeks ago, but quickly became the subject of attacks from right-wing publications who expressed doubt that he would stick around on Team Romney should President Obama come out in favor of same-sex marriage. more ›

Justin Beck's live coverage of today's May Day occupation continues. Right now, at around 3 p.m., cops have arrived in Oakland near Broadway and 14th, demanded protesters to leave or face "removal by force if necessary." The standoff seems pretty intense, even thought there aren't of protesters in the area right now. Then again, this is Oakland. If past Occupy-ish action in Oakland has told us one thing, it's that anything can happen. Even snacks aren't safe. more ›

A woman flying from Newark to San Francisco International Airport this morning apparently thought it would be an acceptable idea to stow some Claymore land mines packed with shrapnel in her checked luggage. more ›

The revolution will be Instagramed, as pictured here by Jen Ackrill, and nowhere else does that sentiment ring truer than in the heart of the city's Mission District. A May Day demonstration at 16th and Mission currently underway has effectively shut down the intersection today. Traffic is being diverted. If you plan on driving in the area... don't. more ›

A man was found critically injured from a stab wound just before 6 a.m. this morning on Folsom Street near Eighth. There aren't any details except that the victim was transported to the hospital. more ›

General Strike Day is well under way over in downtown Oakland, and we've got this almost-live picture of the scene, shot moments ago by SFist intern Owen. It's basically a street party right now, with music blasting and folks tooling around on their bikes. Elsewhere in town we think there are more specifically political/antagonistic actions taking place — at least one tweet from journalist Thomas Peele informs us of a march up 4th Street, near Jack London Square, that went past popular OPD cop bar The Warehouse, in which a marcher snatched the bar's American flag. Below, a quick video of the scene at 14th and Broadway. more ›

At least for now, a judge has ruled that the cell phone records of Ross Mirkarimi's former campaign manager can not be subpoenaed in the Mayor's Ethics Commission investigation of the suspended sheriff. Also, Eliana Lopez has been granted an extended stay, by court order, of an additional seven weeks in Venezuela, where she's been since March with her and Mirkarimi's son Theo. She'll be staying by her ailing father, and seeking work in the film industry there, since the couple has been left without income since Mirkarimi's suspension. more ›

In Tuesday's morning roundup: revisiting long lost ballparks, the worst place in the world exists in San Francisco, Stanley Roberts takes on Golden Gate Park bike lanes, Cajun food on Clement Street, and Guy Fieri's cartalk. more ›

A group of protesters showed up early for the Occupy May Day General Strike Monday evening. What started as a small after dark gathering of Occupiers over sandwiches and Capri Suns in Dolores Park ended with smashed windows and vandalism along Valencia Street. Although Occupy San Francisco released a statement condemning what appears to be a splinter group, last night's smash-up was apparently planned for weeks as a "ruckus [sic] street party to counter gentrification, capitalism, and the policing of our communities." more ›