The chimps at the Oakland Zoo got to open their Christmas presents early this year, and even though this is just a baldfaced publicity stunt, we really want to see them get in that plastic car and drive around. [ABC 7] more ›

A man in a wheelchair was hit by a cargo train rolling through Jack London Square in Oakland early this morning and subsequently trapped underneath the "cow-catcher" on the front of the train. The man was injured but perhaps not severely, and was conscious and talking to rescuers during the 45-minute-long effort to jack up the 130-ton train engine a few inches in order to pull him out. (We will refrain from speculating as to whether the man was intoxicated and/or home-challenged at the time of the accident.) The man was taken to a hospital, and ABC 7's Terry McSweeney, getting into the holiday spirit, says, "this is about as close to a miracle as we're going to get today." more ›

So, somebody launched a missile on Monday night, pretty damn close to Los Angeles, and neither the Defense Department or the Pentagon is saying what the hell it was about. The Navy and the Air Force both say they didn't touch a button or launch a thing. NORAD says, "We simply do not have a definitive answer at this time," whatever that means. more ›

A dead black bear, apparently shot, was dumped outside a taqueria at a strip mall in San Leandro on Sunday, and this all happened during business hours. ABC 7 has the story, and there are a number of unknowns. Authorities are trying to figure out who dumped the bear, but the only lead they have so far is that it might have been a dude in a pickup truck. It is black bear hunting season, but they don't really think a licensed hunter would discard a 300-pound trophy like this. See the news video below. more ›

You know how the Board of Supervisors are trying to make up for some $17 million spent annually on medical care and law enforcement related to alcohol abuse by taxing all alcohol sold? Well, as ABC 7 reports, another controversial method they have of lowering the taxpayer burden for caring for drunks is setting up a "wet house," something Seattle has already done, where chronic inebriates who mostly live on the streets can receive free housing and medical care, while they continue drinking. more ›

As SFist reported a couple weeks ago, SF resident Mary Bollero discovered that her missing dog, whom she called "Little Girl," was actually treated for an ear infection at a San Mateo pet clinic and released to the man who brought her in, despite the fact that they found a microchip in the dog's ear identifying Bollero as the owner. Little Girl had been missing for seven years, since disappearing from Bollero's home in 2003, and the man who brought her in said he had found her only a month before, and that he wanted to keep her. more ›

A new study apparently says that teenagers are losing their hearing at a rate 1/3 higher than in years past, however very little data or backup information is given in this ABC 7 report on the topic. more ›

SFist has a new hero, ladies and gentlemen, and her name is Estrella Benavides. Estrella has lately been calling a forty-foot stretch of sidewalk in Belmont home, after becoming homeless several months ago. She is very likely schizophrenic, and has been a well known "character" around town for years who once used her house, her car, as well as another home in San Mateo (as SFist first reported in 2007) as canvases for lengthy, scrawled messages of protest about believing in God, and various other things about witchcraft and government conspiracies. more ›

A possibly drugged up mother fell asleep last night in Petaluma and lost track of her two-year-old daughter, only to have the tyke end up wandering the streets of town by herself, unable to point her way back home. more ›

Multiple news outlets this morning are reporting on the Mercedes SUV that rolled into Samovar in the Castro yesterday, injuring both the driver and a woman sitting outside who was pinned to the wall by the car. ABC 7 has quotes from witnesses in the video above. SF Appeal reports that the woman behind the wheel was having a seizure at the time of the accident. UPDATE: Now KCBS is reporting that a total of five people were injured. more ›

Some Stanford graduate students have created a concept vehicle that may see some large-scale production and distribution. It's called the WENG, which stands for Where Everyone Needs to Go, and it's a four-seater, golf-cart like vehicle with some design-y elements meant for short trips near home. As one of the team members, John Stanfield, says, "Why are people driving 4 to 6,000-pound internal combustion cars to the grocery store?" more ›

You know how pets here are officially called "companions" and not "pets"? Well now the city is considering a proposal to ban not only the sale of cats and dogs, but also rats, Guinea pigs, chinchillas and other "pocket pets." ABC 7 alerts us to this disturbing story, and the reason for the proposed ban is that these pocket pets keep showing up in shelters where most people don't even know they're available for adoption. Fight for your right to buy a chinchilla, and to buy local! more ›

A "7 On Your Side" report alerts us to the sad story of fifteen homeowners who, out of fears of foreclosure, signed over the deeds of their homes to a group called United Investments of Hayward, only to have their homes foreclosed upon anyway. In at least several cases, homeowners paid $2,000 to the firm to take their home off their hands, only to find out that the firm was not making mortgage payments. In other cases, United Investments offered to sell homes as short sales, moving the owners out and moving in new tenants as renters, only to collect the rent and not make the mortgage payments, with the bank ultimately serving eviction notices to the tenants. more ›

A Berkeley woman was attacked by a deer yesterday while walking her dogs. Actually, the dogs, Chihuahuas, were attacked first, and the owner, Sarah Lopus, was only kicked by the deer after she crouched down to cover and protect the dogs. She suffered a puncture wound, and one dog suffered some scraped up foot pads. more ›

Five teenage boys showed up at school yesterday at Live Oaks High in Morgan Hill wearing American flag t-shirts in order to express their "patriotism" on Cinco de Mayo. The school principal called them all out and told them they were going to have to turn their t-shirts inside out, calling the shirts incendiary, and concerned that they were trying to start a fight with a group of Mexican-American students. more ›

We haven't so much been covering this story over in Richmond about the sinkhole that appeared along the residential road Via Verde, but now that it's been ongoing and getting worse we'll give it a few column lines. The sinkhole first appeared on April 15th, sucking a car down with it, and now a few more inches dropped off last night. more ›

The Icelandic volcano that no one can pronounce and that has paralyzed European air travel for the last five days continues spewing ash into the air, but some airlines like KLM and Air France have been getting flights out of SFO in the last 24 hours. more ›

Warning: Muni fare evasion police are on high alert as folks from the outer reaches of the region (we'll avoid the use of "B&T" here because we know how some of you cry foul) come to enjoy the great American pastime on opening day in fine weather. ABC7's got the story of the sold-out stadium (with people from Danville dropping a cool grand), and we're sure Public House is packed. more ›

An Amtrak passenger train collided with a stalled AC Transit bus near the Oakland Coliseum early this morning. Above is some raw video of the scene from ABC 7. The Appeal reports that there were no passengers on board the the bus, and that the driver was unharmed. more ›

Oh, how we love stories like this. A cat burgler by the name of Pooja Ghandi has been terrorizing San Francisco's trendier boutiques and cleaning out the closets of wealthy ladies, stealing thousands of dollars in high-fashion merchandise, as well as computers, iPods, etc. Her Polk Street apartment was searched by police after fingerprint evidence at a recently burgled home pointed to her. Ghandi and an accomplice were able to infiltrate apartment buildings by piggy-backing through the front doors of other residents entering, and then she would break in to empty apartments that were up for sale. She has also been known to steal from hair salons and retail stores. Police are saying that if you were robbed in the last six to eight months, you might want to call them... they may have that lost pair of Louboutins. [ABC7] more ›

In another nod to their Boomer parents, a gang of tuition-hike protesters at Berkeley turned their political act into a rowdy party last night, invading a building that's under renovation with spray-paint cans, a sound system, and some 40s of O.E. (or similar), and eventually spilling out onto Telegraph Avenue and vandalizing a sandwich shop. We're sure the UC Regents are listening to your demands now! [ABC 7] more ›

What's up with all the home invasions lately? A suspect by the name of Juan Carlos Vasquez was arrested in the Mission yesterday in connection with a five-hour (!) home invasion robbery in South San Francisco that put a 74-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman in the hospital with beating injuries. Police identified Vasquez by his car, a Ford F-150. [ABC7] more ›

You'll recall the home invasion robbery we mentioned last week, which happened in a Sunset district home, and in which one 40-year-old man ended up dead. As SFist commenter Joel was quick to point out, this was mostly likely not a "home" and it was not a "familiy" that was reportedly tied up during the crime, but a "group of individuals." It turns out it wasn't a grow house, as Joel guessed, but a brothel (though ABC 7 and the cops "aren't prepared" to call it that yet). According to cops the suspects appear to be Hispanic, and about 5' 6" and 5' 7". They're hoping someone will recognize them from the tapes and report their identities to the SFPD. more ›

Some kids at James Logan High in Union City have been buying and eating what they thought were pot brownies, going to class, and then succumbing to some crazy mini-seizures and nod-offs and ending up in the hospital. School officials believe (though they haven't confirmed) that the brownies were laced with heroin, and everyone is appropriately up-in-arms. Apparently the going rate for the treats is $7 to $10, which is a fair amount higher than the market rate for similar (non-heroin-laced) baked goods in Dolores Park. Watch ABC 7's full coverage after the jump, and remember kids: You never know what the fuck is in there until you make Stevie the Stoner try it first. more ›

Due to this storm thing that's happening outside, about 26,000 PG&E customers lost power between last night and this morning. Of those, the majority are on the peninsula and in the South Bay, with only about 500 customers powerless in the East Bay and 100 or so in SF proper. Also, as ABC 7 reports, the storm(s) and high surf are causing erosion concerns along several bluffs in the Bay Area, and there have been a bunch of traffic accidents and various reports of flooding as well. Welcome back to winter, everyone! more ›

The new inquiry points the blame at several commanding officers in the Oakland Police Department for the shooting deaths of four cops by Lovelle Mixon in March 2009. more ›

Last night at around midnight a 19-Polk bus collided with a small pickup truck at 18th and DeHaro and ended up off the road in some bushes. The driver of the pickup truck was seriously injured, and six of the passengers aboard the bus were injured and hospitalized as well (two more passengers were injured but not hospitalized). According to a cop on the scene, it did not appear that either the bus or the pickup had come to a stop at the four-way stop-sign intersection. Muni and the SFPD will, obviously, be investigating. [via ABC7] more ›

The brave kid who talked to news reporters and described to authorities the graphic scene of the homecoming dance gang rape in Richmond last month, has now gone missing. KCBS reports that Salvador Rodriguez Jr. has been missing since December 6th, and relatives reported that he'd been receiving threats on his life. more ›

During the week between Christmas and New Year's, Yahoo! is furloughing most of their 13,000 employees or forcing them to use remaining vacation days, in order to trim costs on their end-of-year balance sheet. Though it's not uncommon for Silicon Valley companies like Apple and Adobe to shut down during this last week of the year, tech expert Rob Enderle notes in the above segment from ABC7 that, as a media company, this shut-down is a little more awkward than it would be at a software or manufacturing company. more ›