Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water: Initial reports indicated that a very minimal amount of the substance, now confirmed to be Toluene, was able to reach the San Pablo Bay. However, upon further investigation workers discovered that an unknown quantity of the chemical was able to seep into the surrounding marsh and wash into the Bay. The chemical that has reached the San Pablo Bay is expected......

After someone supposedly stole brass fittings from a chemical company, toluenediamine, a flammable substance that causes irritation by inhalation, was released. Oops. Contra Costa County authorities have asked residents of over 1,500 homes in Richmond "to stay indoors while authorities investigate a chemical leak." According to the Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials Team: The chemical spill occurred at an unconfirmed time this past weekend. The spill has been fully contained by booms and absorbent......

Poor BVHP. Can't they get a break? It seems that today's hazardous material spill snafu was due to a leaking drum at a Bayview-Hunter's Point city corporation yard. The spill "prompted a shelter in place warning." That tis to say, it's time time to go inside, close doors and windows, turn off air conditioning or heating systems, and flip on the radio or TV for further info if you're near 2121 Evans Street. According......

New feature alert, folks! Ever want to know more about your local library? Or anything about libraries of the world. The art of receiving a masters in library sciences? Or why people use the Main Library bathroom as their own personal, um, spa? Well, send us your bibliotech-y questions. We've got a real-life librarian who will answer your many queries about documentation, fact-finding, library culture, annals, stacks, record-keeping, donations, cruising, Internet usage etiquette at......

The Holiday season is in full swing in NYC, with holiday lights in Brooklyn, a giant snow globe in Bryan Park and Chanukah specials for ham. One citizen decided to go vigilante on annoying car alarms, a murder suspect used a fake Asian accent on the stand and a video of a man being beaten up by teenage girls on a subway shocked the city. And we interviewed soon-to-be-leaving-Gawker editor Choire Sicha, who said,......

According to CBS 5 (interrupting us right in the middle of The People's Court, no less!) "East Contra Costa County residents are being evacuated from an area near the unincorporated town of Knightsen because of a possible explosive device found inside of a residential motor home." Motor homes and explosive devices? Who could've imagined!? Anyway, that's all the info posted so far. We'll update as soon as more info becomes available. Update: Taken (again!)......

-- Carmen Jones: Based off of Georges Bizet's famous French opera Carmen, the adaptation was made into a successful Broadway musical, and then a '50s film staring Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, and Pearl Bailey. Now, see it again on stage right here in SF. The curtain goes up tonight at the African-American Art & Culture Complex (762 Fulton); $15. -- The Halloween Friday Night Skate: Rollerskate (or blade) in your Halloween costume without breaking......

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. Tim Redmond says the Navy is the gayest armed services branch. Well, sure. Cars are worse than homeless people, says a letter writer. Halloween will suuuuuck. A former director of Intersection for the Arts died in a car crash. The new crackdown on homelessness, and why aren't people more upset? Cover article: Our pals at SwapSF make the cover! About the whole freetail trend! Yay SwapSF! (and other freegans!)......

"A deep and powerful earthquake beneath the Pacific in the Northern Mariana Islands" sent waves a rollin', reaching as far as Emeryville today with a total score of somewhere between 3.8 to 4.2. Nothing to freak out over. Yet. Alarmist alert: as always, you should be prepared for the big one, and 72 Hours is a good place to start.......

As much as it amuses us to know how many of our straight male friends will actually click on a link promising naked pictures of teenage girls, we really feel the need to implore all of our MySpace friends out there to resist the temptation. You see, links like this serve one purpose. Even though we know that the internet is primarily for porn and reading SFist, there are evil people out there who......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

The Sacramento-based chapter of the National Organization of Women is targeting Big Brother's resident "rocker" and asshole, Evel Dick. NOW has issued an alert asking the public to send letters of protest to CBS about Dick’s abusive behavior in the Big Brother house. NOW is responding to Dick’s tirades against Jen from a few weeks ago. Dick showered a mélange of offensive words at Jen, including, but not limited to; bitch, cunt, whore, and crusty......

"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.) In case you missed them, or in case the quality of life sect tore them down, the missives cried out: Cult Alert! Please be advised: Youth With a Mission (YWAM) has been under investigation......

In all the marches in of the cities in all the world, a march to City Hall is taking place today for one of the most noble causes in San Francisco to date. 100 or so golfers will be marching to the Board of Supervisors meeting to demand their voices be heard on the topic of shutting down public courses in the city. 100 golfers – wow. Is Van Ness wide enough to handle......

Your Black Muslim Bakery update: the business is being liquidated in an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding (they have almost $1 million in debt) after a number of unnamed potential buyers dropped out, and the 19-year-old arrested for shooting journalist Chauncey Bailey now says (video clip) he was beaten and coerced into a false confession to the murder. The Oakland PD homicide officer assigned to the case says that's false and they have a taped confession where......

In this week's installment, we take on the dog days of summer with dog related questions....

It must be oddly freeing to have an ongoing, very public work-related crisis, because Officer Andrew Cohen seems to have a lot to say these days. And why the heck not? It's an interesting opportunity to take a look into the mind of what a veteran police officer -- one that no longer has to play politics -- really thinks. We got his opinion on the recent 'use of force' at AT&T Park. ...

When you wake up tomorrow, the world will be unrecognizable: Muni is adjusting the behavior of several lines! We made an easy-to-look-at map to help you figure out your changing landscape. It only took us about half and hour to do -- why didn't Muni make such a map? Because they're lazy! Ha ha ha, just kidding, of course we all know Muni isn't lazy. Feel free to speculate in the comments what the......

Put down the hamburger: Trader Joe's is recalling some ground beef and onions. Generally we love Joe's food, but listeria monocytogenes? Ick! In fairness to TJ's, all supermarkets go through recalls now and then, and it could be far worse -- at the Safeway in the Mission, we've seen them changing ceiling tiles above the uncovered produce. Frequent TJ shoppers can get alerts whenever the company issues a recall, but it's slightly hard to......

Got Milk? Almost 90,000 cups of soy yogurt do. And they aren't supposed to. ...

--...and as promised, here's the back of the Ed Jew calendar, from reader Jake. Thanks, Jake! Irony alert! Can you guys see the "please contact me if you have problems or if issues concern you" tagline? --Fog City has heard rumors that Peskin might make Daly give up his position as chair of the Budget and Finance Committee. Meanwhile, the Sentinel reports that Daly misread the press release that Newsom's people sent out, and......

Ed Jew alert! Friend-of-SFist Dan N. (or, if you like, D. Noyes) alerts us to a brand spanking new Ed Jew interview on the I-Team's website! Oh, faithful I-Team. Here's the juicy bit: Ed Jew: "I do reside there, yes." ABC7's Dan Noyes: "You do now, but did you at that point in time?" Ed Jew: "I do reside there." ABC7's Dan Noyes: "Now, but did you before, when you signed up to be a......

Yay, Tapioca Ed! We're counting down the days until he's scheduled to get back! (5 days to go.) Today's Chronicle runs a story about how Ed Jew's travails have been covered in the Chinese-language local media. Man, we are sorry we didn't study the characters harder in our Mandarin Chinese classes (which -- fame whore alert!! -- we took with a certain elected Newsom city official) because their coverage sounds awesome. The World Journal reports......

The city's disaster-alert network just texted us an alert! It would seem that the City College of SF (Phelan Campus) is having some electrical problems, and may not have their power switched back on until 4pm. "DO NOT CALL 9-1-1 for more information," the alert insists. REMAIN CALM. DO NOT PANIC. TOAST YOUR BREAD ELSEWHERE; OR BREAK OUT YOUR EMERGENCY BREAD-TOASTING BUTANE LIGHTERS. This is the first exciting alert for AlertSF since last December's......

This is sort of out of SFist's coverage area, but in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, and because the perpetrator is from Hayward, we're going ahead and putting something up: there was a shooting last night at Fresno State and one person is dead. The shooter, Jonquel Brooks from Hayward, is still at large and considered armed and dangerous. From the information the police have released, Brooks got in a fight with three......

SFist Jenna enjoys leather seats, lots of legroom, and DirecTV for every passenger! Also -- those Teddy Bears are awesome. Don't feel like taking advantage of free first Tuesdays at the MOMA, De Young, Yerba Buena, Legion of Honor, Conservatory of Flowers or Asian Art Museum? Try these on for size. Bargain Alert! Wino Tuesdays: Head over to Levende Lounge for half-priced bottles of wine with dinner, 5-11pm with downtempo house with resident DJs.......

Dazzle yours senses with SFist tonight's picks... Music by the Eyeful The first of three concerts featuring inventions in visual audio, exploring the moving boundaries between music, film, optics, graphics, loops and reels. Guest curated by Suki O'Kane [www.myspace.com/sukiokane], musician and curator of The Illuminated Corridor, an outdoor cinema project in Oakland. Event starts at 8pm with a $6-$10 sliding scale. Luggage Store Gallery, 1007 Market Street, SF. Celebrity Chef Alert! Join Food Network's Tyler......

More mysterious criminal events in Fremont! This time, someone dropped a five-foot tall safe off a truck in the middle of the road. The safe had been pried open, revealing...... a collection of about 70 Star Wars action figures, still in their original packaging. Somewhere, a broken-hearted fan weeps. The yutz alert is on high after the horrific Virginia Tech tragedy: the UC Berkeley law student who posted a fake threat on a blog that......

In a totally shocking expose, the Examiner reports that there's not a lot of enforcement out there of speeders. Considering there's not enough enforcement of parking scofflaws, sidewalk parkers, illegal handicap parking stickers, and pretty much everything else, this can't be considered a surprise. The reasons cited: not enough cops...blah..blah...blah...no money....blah...blah...blahbity...blah. ...

Okay, this is what we mean when we say that it's totally impossible to get reliable, useful information out of Muni. Even when they do offer up little tidbits of data, it's squirreled away and confusing and the only reasonable response is, dude, WTF? For example, did you know that "On Cesar Chavez Day, March 30, 2007, weekday non-school schedules will be in effect"? Oh, you didn't? That must be because you don't check......