What a soothing thing for a Muni bus driver to announce. What are we talking about? This: Civic Center Blog has a first-hand account a benign bomb threat that happened Wednesday at--where else?--the Civic Center. CCB was riding the 5-Fulton when it came to a stop and the non-explosive drama ensued. But the best part? The nifty little robot that checked the area for any potential ka-booms. This little guy is checking out a......

Offices in Capitol Hill received a manila envelope with a letter claiming responsibility for today's bombing of a landmark military recruiting station in Times Square, NYC. Our parent site, Gothamist, tells us that "WNBC reports that the letters, which arrived today, included a photo of the Army recruiting center 'before it was bombed and...the words 'We did it.'" Which group is claiming responsibility, exactly, remains to be known. According to the AP, Senator Dianne......

Eeps! The bomb squad has been called over to the Oakland Marina this afternoon. It seems, according to Wendy Tokuda, that a box has been found, adorned with the text "81 millimeter mortar shells." Check out the live, alarmist web cast of the situation in progress here. Is it explosive? Is it a hoax? Will it blow? We'll update you when we find out more, or hear a loud "ka-pow" off in the distance.......

Update: Sen. Barack Obama's campaign office in Rochester and John Edwards' offices have also been evacuated. Our sister site, Bostonist is live-blogging the situation right now. Apparently, a man wants to "speak to Hillary Clinton. He has two hostages (maybe more) and [allegedly has] a bomb strapped to his chest ... police have asked the media not to take live shots of the building." Yikes. A little bit of breaking news well outside of......

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!)......

-- Awesomeness: GG Park road to close on Saturdays! Yay! Mind the bison! [Examiner] -- Narcs! Mandated by federal law, the Coast Guard failed to drug test the Cosco Busan crew within 32 hours. [SFGate] -- Still need your crab fix? Try this handy map. [Gridskipper] -- Ka-blamo! Bomb scare temporarily halts eBay. [ValleyWag] -- Saving rent control. [Beyond Chron] -- Ship's radar, it now seems, was working juuust fine. [Oakland Tribune]......

EBay's company headquarters on Hamilton Avenue in San Jose, California has just been evacuated due to a suspicious looking package...

With a cool $5.4 million in new state bond money, according to the Chronicle, "BART will upgrade and expand its security camera system" to the likes of which you've never seen before! Dangerous sounding "smart cameras" will litter BART cars, stations, parking lots, and even inside of the Transbay Tube. The new surveillance system will be "helpful in preventing crime, improving emergency response and helping police identify suspects," according to BART General Manager Dorothy......

It appears to be bomb day here at the ole 'Fist as we have yet another bomb story to relate to y'all. This one involves a die-hard (seriously die-hard) Giants fan who called in bomb threats at Turner Field in Atlanta. ...

Good Lord, Bay Area residents. It seems that we had not one, but two bomb scares yesterday....

-- They're not mad at you, they're mad at the dirt: unkempt offices at the Chronicle and elsewhere. [SFBG] -- Fire danger in Mill Valley. Hot. [SFGate] -- More on Milk Club Migden Madness. [BeyondChron] -- Bonds Responds. [Examiner] -- Soprano Katharine Tier playing ping pong. While looking amazing. [CCBlog] -- "Payback's a bitch." [Chron] -- Ka-blam! Man detained at Fremont home for possible blowing-up-bomb-like behavior. [Oakland Tribune]......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

Hey, remember angry Sarah Nome, the lady who refused to move out of the Kaiser hospital in Marin for over a year, and ran up a $1.4 million bill? Well, Kaiser's 1) gotten ownership of her house in San Anselmo and 2) will be auctioning it off to pay off her tab. Kaiser was awarded the house after Nome was put in the care of the state (after her daughter refused to take her in),......

Seattlest watches as a S.L.U.T. is born and Seattle Flickr users go nuts over a local art installation. A restaurant critic demands a Diner's Bill of Rights over a gnat next to her drink, and, in lieu of a Portlandist, Seattlest debates with itself over the identity of the Northwest's crown jewel. Seattlest also joins the guys from Fantagraphics for an ill-fated gun party in the woods. LAist saw national headlines soar this week with......

-- 19-year-old lad from Felton -- a fascinating, frightening place -- calls cops after his weed gets pinched. Which he was trying to sell in downtown Santa Cruz. And doesn't get arrested. [Chron] -- Same-sex marriage bill OK'd, ready to be TKO'd by Arnold. [Chron] -- Obama in SF! [Examiner, via BCN] -- Boom! Bomb threat forces Southwest Airlines jet back to Oakland Airport. [CBS5] -- Hsu caught, in hospital after falling down on...train......

Alarmists of SF: We just received an word via AlertSF that: 6th Street between Market and Mission closed to all traffic due to police activity. Do NOT call 911 for information regarding this event. Sounds scary. Like, worse than when they closed that same strip to film that God-awful Rent. We hear it's a bomb threat, possibly at the Seneca Hotel Desmond Hotel. Any news? Deborah blames a paranoid tweaker. Let us know if......

Here's todays sports news...

As already mentioned in Blotter's comments and in our tips section, Your Black Muslim Bakery on San Pablo Avenue (hot fish sandwiches -- mmm) was raided this morning, resulting in the arrests of over a dozen people. Police, bomb units, and SWAT teams came down on the bakery and several other "related locations" in North Oakland and Emeryville at 5 a.m. (Read Chron's article about it here, Examiner's here.) Police claim that this was all......

SFist Wendy skips Harry Potter for the SF Jewish Film Fest! Who woulda thought. . . . we weren’t the only ones not completely immersed in isolation with the final Harry Potter book this weekend... although we did see a couple books neatly tucked under the seats at the Castro Theater on Saturday at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. If you weren’t there, well, then you missed out on a couple of good romantic......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

Submit your Bay Area finds to found at sfist dot com or tag them as sfist on Flickr! Let us know where and when you found them and any other interesting info. Hey, Mark, is that you, to the right? If so, we're sorry for the snark, and also, SFist reader crow soup has a picture of you in his possession that you might want back. Here's what crow soup had to say about......

Look what we just got in the SFist editor's inbox!! Jury Duty with Ed Jew! This juror, being a good citizen, had to wait two days before the case resolved before being able to talk to us about it. We love you, juror reader! By now, you’ve heard it reported that Ed Jew got called up for Jury Duty on Monday. Well, I was actually in his juror pool and got to see the whole......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

--Gavin Newsom had another Project Homeless Connect event. Reader Elihuh2001 sends along this picture, along with the note that Gavin refused the free coffee provided, in favor of a more corporate flair. --A Pirates of the Caribbean ship sails through Oakland. --San Francisco comic artist Justin Hall gives a superhero lecture at ToonFetish, a conference in Hollywood which SFist MattyMatt assures us is about exactly what it sounds like it's about. --Gay bomb, gay bomb,......

With "Survivor" out of the way, we can now concentrate on "The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman." Oh joy! We'll admit we've been reading a lot of gossip about the show, rife with spoilers, and while those spoilers might not be true, we kind of think they are. We won't spill the beans here, but we'll just say it's kind of taken the suspense out of the whole thing. And we'll also add: we......

It's a tough biz, the tourism industry -- the cops had to break up a fight between the Bush Man, the Clown Man, and the Fisherman over who got to work what turf on Fisherman's Wharf last weekend. Doesn't the Bush Man just sneak up on the other guys' turf when they're not looking? A large mysterious package in the Sunset on Noriega and 24th occasioned a call to the SFPD bomb squad. Turned......

The nicer the weather gets, the busier we get across the Ist-A-Verse. But we like being busy. Here's a peek at what we've been up to since last week! Chicagoist had an interview with Audrey Niffenegger, whose popular book, The Time Traveler's Wife, was based in their fine city. They also had a heated discussion about Rush Limbaugh's controversial Barack Obama parody, talked about whether Uncle Julio's Hacienda is a good place to get......

From the Daily Show to the Googleplex -- Republican presidential hopeful Walnuts John McCain, struggling in the polls and in fundraising, gamely stopped by Mountain View yesterday afternoon for an hourlong forum with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Google employees. The questions were respectful but tough from the fairly-liberal crowd, touching on McCain's flip-flopping reembrace of religious fundamentalists after calling them "agents of intolerance" in 2000, his support of the Iraq war, the firing......

We found this vintage clip of our favorite hellraiser/Facebook Friend, Dan Noyes, dropping the F-bomb. We're not sure why the dude holding the yellow sign in the background thinks KGO is "bad news," but the rest of the video is priceless. ...

Okay, we're still freaking out about the Macarthur Maze collapsing, but here's the other news we were trying to compile when we found out about it this morning. --Civic Center SFMike went to check out Impeach Beach and caught this picture of an adorable doggie! Thanks for letting us use it, Mike! --Bevan Dufty said something mean about Gavin Newsom. He's since called to apologize. --Biotech's moving to San Francisco. --Liveblogging the baby eagle......