Meanwhile, in New York City: The National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center site opened today to the public. According to Gothamist, who made an appearance at this morning's somber opening, "Admission is free, but you need to sign up online for reservations, which are almost completely snatched up through the end of October." Here are some images from this morning's press tour, before the gates officially opened to the public. more ›

Rundown of Bay Area events and articles marking the 10-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks. A remembrance ceremony in the Castro, conspiracy theorists hold a film festival, SF Opera's "Heart of a Soldier," Muslims living in Berkeley, a veteran's view, and more. more ›

An allegedly frightened student at Selby Lane School in Atherton called 911 from the girls' bathroom after a teacher freaked out on his students and dropped/threw a desk. The 13-year-old girl, Maria Prado, claims her teacher, John Haynes, got mad and started swearing at students and "throwing furniture around." Police responded to the classroom, and after "investigating" they found that Haynes had only "dropped" a desk from a few inches above the ground, in order to get students' attention (we're picturing them tittering and texting), and the desk fell on its side. more ›

A Palo Alto 11 dispatch center got 566 phantom emergency calls in five hours, reports KTVU. "The siege of calls to the Palo Alto emergency communications center started Jan 13 at 8:30 p.m. when a dispatcher picked up the line to find no one on the other end. Twenty-seconds later, another phantom call came in." The potentially fatal snafu was =, most likely, due to "technology run amok rather than a prankster." [KTVU] more ›

"I can't believe no one thought of this before," exclaims Tabitha Russell who snapped this shot at Civic Center Plaza. And it's a great marketing scheme because any (crackpot) theory goes down better with cookies. more ›

Hollister resident John Patrick Bedell, 36, was shot and killed last night after pulling a handgun at the Pentagon entrance and firing at guards. Bedell held a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz (we're going to guess he was at Kresge), and also attended San Jose State University to study biochemistry. more ›

Hello. Today is the anniversary of the day when hijackers crashed four commercial planes into the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and the ground in Pennsylvania. That is to say, today is 9/11. Did you forget? Because you shouldn't. Ever. more ›

Laughing Squid featured a photo of a rather poetic letter that's posted in the window of the former See's Candies in Nob Hill written by the building's landlord, which explains that the business has been evicted due to their contribution to the “Enron-sponsored” 9/11 attacks. more ›

While hovering helicopters for TV shows alarm Bay Area residents, think about folks in downtown Manhattan who spotted a low-flying plane being tailed by fighter jets. Some buildings were evacuated while others told employees they were staying put—and then the FAA explained "the Defense Department is conducting a photo op that involves deploying two F-16s and escorting a Boeing 747 in the vicinity of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty... the maneuver was not an emergency and was coordinated in advance with the FAA and state and local officials." (The Boening 747 was one of the planes that the President uses, but President Obama was not on board.) Of course, the warning from NYC government came right at the same time as the maneuver, not in advance, because the feds apparently didn't want the flight to be disclosed. So, this is clearly a Department of Defense FAIL, right? Update: NYC Mayor Bloomberg is "furious" (apparently he didn't know about the flyover!) and now t he White House has apologized. more ›

At the bargain price of just $35 dollars down at City Hall this morning, authorities released the emergency 911 tapes of the San Francisco Zoo tiger attacks. The attacks, if you don't remember, occurred on Christmas Day, taking the life of Carlos Sousa Jr. and injuring the now (in)famous Dhaliwal brothers. The footage is raw, with the most unnerving robotic British female voice overlapping the frantic phone call, but to check listen to the audio, go here. According to the Gate: more ›

Less than a week after the fatal tiger mauling at the SF Zoo, much of the news that has (slowly) unraveled from the Christmas Day tiger attacks has been disheartening. From the downplayed info about the too-short tiger pen fence, conflicting evidence that the three boys taunted the Siberian tiger just before the attack, and that emergency protocol wasn't followed by SF Zoo employees, there are more chin-scratching facts to add to the list. Take, for example, the lack of concern the two brothers felt for their dead friend, Carlos. According to a law enforcement source, as the brothers were being transported from the zoo to the hospital, "one brother told the other not to talk to anyone." The source went on to say that "they were more concerned with their car in the parking lot and that it would be okay." (Sure, people have different reactions in time of grief, but still: Ouch.) more ›

-- The Breasts of Sherry Glaser: The protest-y Miss Glaser's comedy and peace activism show runs the gamut from her unsheathed mammary glands to an interpretation of 9/11 and the Twin Towers falling down. Oh my. (Warning: audience participation will occur!) Starts at 7:30 p.m. at The Marsh; $10-15. more ›

From Lady_K via Contribute page, who found this note on Church Street in front of the Blockbuster near Market -- also, how on earth does that Blockbuster remain open for business? -- she found this detailed 9/11 to-do list, presumably written today: more ›

Here's a video posted on YouTube by the San Francisco State College Republicans. Yes, boo, hiss, etc. -- BUT they were trying to co-host a peaceful memorial for 9/11 victims with their democratic counterparts. Extending the olive branch and, according to the speech the guy gives, trying to whitewash this of political partisanship to whatever extent possible. Of course, some protesters showed up, once again proving that there are just too damned many opinions constrained within this predominately two-party system of ours. more ›

Ann Sherry's North Beach mural "Gold Mountain," a work that depicts Chinese influence to San Francisco and American history, fell victim to hooligan defacing. Specifically, the recent addition of Betty Ong, a San Francisco flight attendant who died in the World Trade Center attacks. more ›

-- 9/11 felt around the Bay. [CBS5, Chron, Examiner, SFBG] more ›

Tomorrow BART celebrates 35 years of hauling your asses around. Revenue service began on 9/11 in 1972. Since then, according to BART Board President Lynette Sweet, BART has continued to "carry the Bay Area through good times and bad...[w]e were there to keep the economy moving when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake knocked out the Bay Bridge, and most recently when the MacArthur Maze connector collapsed." But most important of all, BART has also... more ›

Earlier this morning, Forensics Analytical Lab in Hayward called the fire department for help because they'd spilled a bunch of picric acid. more ›

"Cult Alert!" flyers garnished lamp posts on Third and Market Streets the other night -- a siren song if ever we've heard one. (It seems like forever since SF's been plagued with a jazzy, crazy-ass cult. No offense, L. Ron.) more ›

In case you missed it, President 25% Approval Ratings was able to ram through some legislation revamping all those FISA laws you keep hearing about. It's hard to make heads or tails of what the bill says as the administration, in a surprise to no one, won't tell anyone what it says, but it involves making warrants kind of unnecessary, the monitoring of anyone suspected as a "terrorist" and-- get this-- the oversight by one Alberto "Fredo" Gonzalez. That's more than letting the fox guard the hen house, that's letting Michael Vick run the SPCA. more ›

Duck meatballs from the Oakland Tribune. more ›

Jerry Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority, was found dead in his office earlier today. Our condolences go out to his family and loved ones. more ›

Last week, the Washington "Moonie" Times wrote a story saying that, in effect, that Nancy Pelosi requested that the Air Force provide her flights to and from Washington whenever she actually deigns to come home to the City by the Bay. The story is potentially embarrassing to Pelosi as it plays on the caricature of her being shrewish bitch who requests military planes while our brave sons and daughters are dying to fight the war on terror even though Iraq has nothing to do with it and even Republicans wish the war would end but they're still going to stop non-binding resolutions to stop it. Or something like that. As these things tend to happen, the story got out into the Republican echo chamber and you know what happens whenever that occurs-- the press has to cover it like it's an important story. Also, so called blabber mouths in politics and cable news spout it off like it's the unbridled truth without actually investigating it. more ›

We're not big fans of airport security. We know, we know, post 9/11 reality and we must put up with whatever to make the world safe for democracy and all that. And we'd be down, really, if the measures made sense but they don't. They're all pretty stupid, actually. Like that liquid ban which was done after that alleged plot involving liquid explosives. That's a total joke because the reality is that in order to build the bomb the terrorists would have to have created some sort of chem lab in the airplane in order to build it. We just don't see that working And don't even get us started on the whole shoe thing. If we ever ran into the alleged shoe-bomber, we'd personally beat the snot out of him for making it so we had to take off our shoes everytime we boarded a plane. Talk about dumb ass. more ›

Few things are more annoying than a government that touts a righteous altruism then acts in ways that brazenly contradict it, and then seeing the news media deliberately let them get away with it. When the world's sole superpower toys around with foreign nations as if they were little army men on a map, they must stymie their opposition with duplicity and mistruths, which is exactly what the Bush Administration has done. more ›

We had a great time at the Between the Bridges reading/concert on Friday night and got all excited about the upcoming week. So what else is out there in Litquake World? more ›

-Dick met Bush yesterday and in one of his speeches Bush talked about how he's going to end poverty and bring world peace. No, just joking, he talked a lot about terrorism, Iraq, 9/11 blah, blah, blah. But that's not the big thing. No, the big thing is, and we kid you not, there is an actual George W. Bush Elementary School in Stockton. And the library is the Laura Bush Library. We'll leave it up to you to make with the jokes, but if you want a starter joke, the obvious one is if the library carries "My Pet Goat?" more ›

-HP Chairman (Chairwoman?) Patricia Dunn will step down in January for all the craziness HP has been involved in lately. We're sure that with all the scandal swirling about that she's sort of responsible for, HP will give her a package commiserate with the mess, like say only several millions of dollars. more ›

Those season premieres are trickling in, with the big gusher arriving next week. We'll try to come to you daily next week with coverage and (hopefully) some actual reviews of pilots, but for this week we offer a slightly briefer rundown. more ›