Hawkeyed Emergency Scanner listener and unintentionally humorous tweeter @Emergency_in_SF is reporting that the roof of Pier 29 on the city's northern waterfront is on fire. ABC7 confirms the structure fire, which has just been upgraded to 2-alarms.

PIER FIRE: fire crews arriving on scene at Pier 29 where roof is fully engulfed in fire.

— Emergency_In_SF (@Emergency_In_SF) June 20, 2012

We'll update as we know more.

The cavalry has arrived: California Beat reports the SFFD have brought in the fire boat Phoenix, which hasn't seen much use lately, to help douse the flames that are now engulfing two stories of the waterfront warehouse. Pier 29 was scheduled to be a main hub for events during the upcoming America's Cup as well.

UPDATE: SF Fire Boat Phoenix helping fight growing 2-alarm fire at Pier 29. Fire reported in the 1st & 2nd floors of engulfed warehouse.

— California Beat (@californiabeat) June 20, 2012

ABC7 has live video from the air.

Update 2:20 p.m.: A third alarm has been called, meaning there are over 100 firefighters on the scene. Also, F-Line trains aren't running along the Embarcadero and are turning around at the Ferry Building. Shuttle bus service is in place and Muni recommends riders take the cable cars or the 30/45 bus lines to get to Fisherman's Wharf.

2:30 p.m.: California Beat reports that the firefighters are evacuating the warehouse as the fire has engulfed the Embarcadero portal of the pier.

2:45 p.m.: A fourth alarm has been called for the first that has been burning for over an hour now. Most of the roof of the pier has collapsed. According to ABC7's live feed, there are no injuries reported yet, but the smoke may be especially toxic due to the oil-based coating used to waterproof the wood.

As of about 3 p.m., SFFD reports that the fire is under control. The official line from the America's Cup people confirms Pier 29 is part of the America's Cup village, but it was not under construction when the fire broke out this afternoon.

And look: there's a rainbow!

Due to police activity, part of the 101 has been temporarily shutdown today. "On Monday, June 4th at 1:57pm, a severe traffic alert is in effect on northbound US-101 entering at eastbound I-80 in San Francisco. All lanes are blocked due to police activity. Motorists are advised to expect delays and to avoid the area. There is no estimated time of opening," notes 511.

Please be advised.

Whoa. According to Rachel Swan at East Bay Express, the SF Examiner just bought alternative weekly SF Bay Guardian. "The owners of the San Francisco Examiner just bought the San Francisco Bay Guardian, according to two sources," reports Swan." "Known as the oldest alt-weekly in the Bay Area, the Bay Guardian was founded in 1966 and has been a vociferous defender of progressive politics for several decades." And the Examiner was founded by the Hearst family before being recently purchased by Canadian investors.

We can only assume that, perhaps, one of said sources was former longtime EBX editor Stephen Buel? Maybe. Who knows. He recently left the East Bay publication to head SF Examiner. It's all so... strange. And practically unbelievable. But there you have it.

We'll update as soon as we know more. Until then, we can classify it under the labels "rumor mill" and "OH MY GOD!"

Update: East Bay Express posted an update to their original story, noting: "San Francisco Bay Guardian Executive Editor Tim Redmond told the Express this afternoon that he's 'optimistic' the deal will be signed soon. 'I think we'll probably sign a deal, but it's not yet done.' "

Update II: Examiner president and CEO Todd Vogt seems doubtful. He tells SF Weekly: "Huh. That's very optimistic on their behalf...I've met [Guardian founding editor] Bruce Brugmann twice in my life. When I heard he might be interested in selling, that was one of the two times." He adds, "If Bruce and [his wife] Jean are gonna sell, we'd be interested."

Vogt also chatted with Joe Garofoli, pretty much saying the same thing.

Update III: Oh good heavens! SF Examiner editor and frequent internet commenter Stephen Buel sent us a lunatic email this morning, emphatically proclaiming our assumption as "bullshit." He writes, "I do not appreciate you 'assuming' that I was a source of Rachel’s story, which is utterly untrue and lazy as shit." SFist mildly regrets assuming that Buel, the former editor of the East Bay Express, would have done his alma mater the courtesy of the scoop in this story.

[EBX]

Part of San Francisco International Airport was evacuated a little before noon today after authorities discovered a suspicious package in a screening area. The closure shut down Terminal One, boarding area C, the Delta Airlines terminal.

“The package went through one of the X-Ray machines,” airport spokesman, Mike McCarron told CBS 5. “The operator didn’t like what they saw as far as what was inside the package, asked for assistance, and it was very suspicious.”

According to AP, "passengers are being redirected to other boarding areas, then bussed to their Delta flights...some flights have been delayed because of the lockdown." And while a very serious manner, today's SFO closure isn't nearly as interesting as what happened at JFK Airport. According to Gothamist, "An individual who had been flagged by the TSA and was asked for a secondary screening apparently walked away around 5:20 a.m., causing security to shut down Terminal 7, clear it out, and then re-screen all the passengers." This caused The View's Sherri Shepherd to go on a delightful Twitter rant.

The package and the package's owner are now under investigation. SFO has yet to open the terminal. We'll update as soon as they do.

Below, CBS 5 report:

Update: The terminal has since reopened.

We received an alert from the handy AlertSF.org (where were you, Emergency_In_SF?!) that there was another underground fire that occurred several hours ago in the Civic Center area, on Polk Street between Grove and McAllister, which has been closed to traffic. PG&E might need to cut power while authorities investigate. The air reportedly smelled like burned plastic, but there was no visible smoke. A hot dog vendor at Civic Center Plaza reported seeing smoke coming from a manhole, but he didn't hear an explosion.

PG&E will investigate whether there's any connection between this incident and the Civic Center vault explosion in June. And how about the explosion near Ross that occurred a mere three weeks ago? Now, Newsom must really want answers.

Oh Lord. Is this for real?

From the SFist inbox this morning we received alarming news that Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel, like, totally hate Africans, or something like that. After the New Year's Eve announcement that the two were to enter holy matrimony, one concerned reader called "Mayor Newsom's Communication Office," wondering if the "rock he bought for his fiancee was not a blood diamond."

After talking to an "incompetent" Newsom staff member - kudos to the unfortunate staffer who had to field this call - the blood diamond crusader was told to call Tiffany & Co. to find out more about the possible sanguinary gem adorning the future First Lady of San Francisco's dainty hand. (Funny, Jen and Gav seem like a Zales kind of couple to us.) After being "put on hold for 10 minutes until a recorded announcement said no one could take [her] call," we here at SFist got to the bottom of this international scandal percolating right before our eyes. (Africa isn't in California, right?)

According to CommonDreams.org ("Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community"):

Out of 30 companies that were asked about their policies on conflict diamonds by letter and a follow-up telephone call, only five responded, according to Global Witness. They included Fortunoff, Pampillonia, Tiffany & Co., the Signet Group, and Zale Corporation.

Of those five, Global Witness said, Tiffany stood out because it described how it has tried to strengthen its sourcing and auditing policies precisely to ensure that it was not dealing in conflict diamonds.

So...there you have it. We can all sleep at night now. And why Tiffany & Co. didn't just explain the above right away is beyond us. But we suspect the human rights advocate personality on the other end of the conversation might have had something to do with it. (Who we officially love, by the way.) We're just saying.

To read the accusatory email in its entirety, follow the jump.

Blazers 105 Warriors 95- See what happens when everyone gets all giddy after beating the Spurs? They lose to the Trail Blazers. If you want to feel better, for those of you who haven't read this yet, check out J.A. Adande's story on the Warriors on ESPN.com. Money quote:

Think about what life would be like if the world operated under the same principles as the Golden State Warriors. Hot fudge sundaes would be nutritious and help you lose weight. Whale-sized sport-utility vehicles would get 50 miles per gallon. "I Love New York" would be up for an Emmy... The thing about the Warriors is they make no sense

-Hey, the Giants signed somebody, Aaron Rowand, who was signed for five years and $60 million bucks. This after being named as possible suitors of every possible free agent and signing absolutely none of them. Rowand's not bad-- he's a pretty decent hitter-- but is known mainly for running into a fence and breaking his nose trying to catch a ball. We're guessing Sabes is thinking the old axiom that you need strong defense up the middle and Rowand is some strong defense up the middle. He is also known as "Gamer," for what’s that worth. The good thing is that with six outfielders on the roster already, they have another one. Who doesn't like an an entire team of outfielders? Still, we're holding our fire on this signing as we don't think it's the only move they'll make, just the first in a long series of moves to make the team halfway decent. They will make those moves, right? Right?

Anyways, if you want to read to really good articles about the mess the Giants have made for themselves, check out Ann Killion and Tim Kawakami's articles in the Merc.

Like the bad ass she is, occasional San Francisco resident and current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has written to the "Homeland Security Department's inspector general requesting an investigation of preparation for and response to last month's oil spill in San Francisco Bay," according to CBS 5. In a wordy missive to Inspector General Skinner, she fired off over a dozen issues she wants taken care of right-quick.

A couple of points she needs to know about why over 60,000 gallons of fuel spilled into the San Francisco Bay: 1) If the Coast Guard had adequate authority to guide such large ships though the Bay, and 2) if the "hours-long delay in notifying the public about the magnitude of the spill adversely impacted the response."

She wants Skinner's homework on her desk by no later than February 1st as well as a "follow up with a written report 60 days later."

Image credit: FreakingNews.com

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 the Bay Area jurisdiction: as of this morning, several people are still being held hostage at Hillary Clinton's campaign office in New Hampshire. According to CNN:

The affiliates said the incident began about 1 p.m. at the headquarters in Rochester. WMUR in New Hampshire said the hostage-taker was an armed man ... a witness, Lettie Tzizik, told the station she spoke to a woman shortly after she was released from the office by the hostage-taker, saying "[a] young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, 'You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,'" the Web site reported."

Clinton was in the Washington area at the time of the incident.

More on this later. Now back to NorCal-y tidbits. (And perhaps this will stave off a day of Robert Morrow's ever-amusing "Hillary Is A Bull-Dyke" emails? We hope so.)

Also, although we doubt it will have the same OJ Simpson-Al Cowlings-White Bronco appeal, you can read more about it and watch it live here.

Audet & Partners, LLP filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of commercial fishers and crab-based (?) businesses in San Francisco on November 20. Today on their site they claim the following, "Breaking News: Cosco Busan Vessel Arrested." Which? Okay then. We have yet to see footage of the vessel getting cuffed by the fuzz with its shirt off, and we can't imagine it heard its Miranda rights being read, but seeing as how we're prone to hyperbole, we'll go with their verb choice. Anyway, you can read more about it here on the law firm's disgustingly .pdf-happy site.

Ultimately, it seems that this is one of two reasons why the ship has yet to leave the Bay. (The first being that the Coast Guard isn't sure if the Busan can safely navigate out of San Francisco waters.) We've been checking BoatingSF for the last few days, wondering why the Cosco has been docked near China Basin for the last couple of weeks. And now we know. So...there you go.

Bonds' attorney issued a statement, calling malfeasance on everyone involved, except his client, and now wants to go after the Justice Department for doing all sorts of bad things to his boy. Bond's flunky, Greg Anderson, was also released from prison, and speculation is that either that the Government doesn't need him anymore. (Or that he finally sang like a bird.)

And just to be clear, the indictment says they have proof Barry was on the juice.

Reaction, of course, abounded. The Giants issued a statement saying it was a very sad day. Bud Selig issued a statement saying it was a very sad day. George Mitchell of the Mitchell investigation issued a statement saying it was a very sad day. Even the President, who as owner of the Texas Rangers had a veritable drug bazaar going on with his team, weighed in to say it was a...very sad day. And somewhere out there, Henry Aaron jumped up and down shouted "take that, bitch." On local message boards, the reaction was everywhere, from a shrug variety to apologist to disgust at everyone and everything. Elsewhere, noticeable glee can be discerned.