• Both houses approved a bill Wednesday that would reverse the new 19% state excise tax rate on cannabis products back to 15%, which took effect in July. The measure was introduced by Assemblymember Matt Haney who says the new hike has impacted sales negatively statewide. [KPIX]
• The Associated Press awarded Golden State Valkyries Coach Natalie Nakase “Coach of the Year” Friday, and Vs guard Veronica Burton received “Most Improved Player.” With Nakase’s guidance, the team has “wildly outperformed expectations” and is the first expansion team in history to make it to the playoffs in its first year. [ESPN]
• Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm is pushing shareholders to approve Elon Musk’s nearly $1 trillion pay package, while critics point to Tesla’s falling sales, shrinking profits, and the flopped Cybertruck. [New York Times]
• Legislators have approved a bill that would ban local, out-of-state, and federal law enforcement officers from wearing face masks, which awaits Newsom’s decision. [NBC Bay Area]

• Here’s a reminder that not too long ago a large number of cities in the Bay Area were once considered sundown towns where Black, Latino, and Asian Americans were strictly allowed to enter for work during daytime hours and then escorted out by police at dusk. [Paralegal_ via Bay Area Alert]

National:

• In some strange news, two Cornell students legally hunted a black bear and brought it back to their dorm to skin and butcher, prompting complaints but no charges. Bears have long been part of Cornell tradition, appearing in school imagery and on fan gear, though not as the official mascot. [NBC News]
• A new study suggests that allergy nasal sprays containing the ingredient azelastine may significantly reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19 and other respiratory infections, though it’s not FDA-approved for that use. [CNN]
• A federal judge in Arizona has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting dozens of Guatemalan and Honduran children in U.S. shelters and foster care, extending the order until September 26. [Associated Press]

Video of the Day:

The clowns are yucking — and mucking — things up in front of the SF Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery Street every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Join them!

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Something funny's going on in Visitacion Valley, where a new venue called Church of Clown is right on the nose with clown troupe performances, and clown classes for both youth and adults.

There’s a long-vacant spot in Visitacion Valley, at the corner of Bayshore Boulevard and Leland Avenue. Its last tenant nearly 15 years ago was something called the Shun Lee Market, which was in business long enough to generate precisely one Yelp review. Back in 2017, someone was trying to put a marijuana dispensary in the location, but the SF Planning Department shot that idea down because it was too close to a community youth center. (There were a number of appeals.)

But a funny thing happened on the way to the dispensary deal falling apart. The Chronicle now reports that the 2400 Bayshore Boulevard location recently reopened as a clown performance venue called Church of Clown. The venue, which opened in September, was founded by Davd Griffiths,  who once ran the S.F. Circus Center’s Clown Conservatory.

“I’ve had the honor of meeting and sharing my work with clowns and communities across the globe,” Griffiths says in a statement on the Church of Clown website. “With the launch of Church of Clown I’ve found a home for my work, helping others to share their talents, gifts, and magic.”

The Church of Clown offers clown classes geared toward both youth and adults. But it also features live clown performances, and has been running its inaugural Flop Festival performance fest every weekend since opening in mid-September. This weekend wraps up the Flop Fest with Griffiths himself in Gastro Absurdo (November 3-5), and previous performances included Tabletop Theater Company's Box Life, and cabaret artist and comic Wendi Wynazz, who's been described as “Lady Gaga meets Mister Rogers.”

Church of Clown is at 2400 Bayshore Boulevard, at Leland Avenue. Upcoming events here, upcoming youth classes here, and upcoming adult classes here.

Related: U-Haul Truck Full of Shadow Puppets Found Abandoned In Richmond, Puppeteer Very Grateful [SFist]

Image: Church of Clown via Facebook

Market Street's troubled Westfield Centre narrowly missed another blow to its reputation Sunday, when mall security guards reportedly thwarted a possible armed robbery by a gang of, I kid you not, men carrying "creepy clown" masks.

As you of course know as a citizen of the internet, the national creepy clown phenomena has hit the Bay Area big time, with one threatening to visit a Fairfield school, a Concord woman alleging an abduction attempt at their hands, and a robocall from the San Francisco United School District encouraging parents to discuss this trend with their kids.

And in the latest bit of SF clown news, three men carrying clown masks characterized by San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Officer Carlos Manfredi as "very scary" were spotted in a stairwell at Westfield Centre by guards on patrol.

KRON 4 reports that the creepiness went down at 3:15 Sunday, when the guards "saw three suspects, two clown masks that they were holding, and one of the three brandished a gun," Manfredi tells the Ex.

The men, who were huddled in one of the mall's emergency stairwells, fled through the mall's Powell and Market exit when they spotted the guards, Manfredi says.

KRON 4 reports that "According to police, they believed that the suspects were getting ready to commit a robbery inside the mall," which would have been the latest in a recent string of violent incidents at Westfield Centre. On August 10, the body of local chef Frank Galicia was found in a mall stairwell, a death police eventually classified as "suspicious." That incident has been followed by several brutal muggings, including a school supply shakedown and the theft of multiple laptops from mall patrons.

But in this case, at least, trouble was averted — and the SFPD is watching, with Manfredi telling the Ex that even though by the time police were called the suspects were “already gone...anytime there is a call with a person with a gun, you get every single unit available in that district.”

For their part, Westfield remains tight-lipped on the incident, saying Sunday that "There has been no incident at the center today but earlier this afternoon security officers observed suspicious activity that was reported to the San Francisco Police Department.”

As of Monday morning, the mask-bearing gunmen remain at large, according to the SFPD.

Related: SF School District Robo Dials Parents To Address 'Clown Rumors'
Girlfriend Of Chef Found Dead At Westfield Center Alleges Mall Management Cover-Up

The baffling and ultimately ridiculous creepy/violent clown trend may be just a twisted hoax gone viral, but it has come to the Bay Area and it's resulted in at least one creepy clown trying to take a woman's one-year-old daughter from her arms, or so she claims.

Earlier this week we had a report on clown-related threats being made on social media at a school in Fairfield, and that followed on numerous incidents nationwide that seem to have been inspired by a national news segment on NBC in August about reports of scary clowns trying to lure kids into the woods in Greenville, South Carolina. And now even Stephen King is telling people to cool it.

The Chronicle reports that 24-year-old Tiffany Martin was sitting at a bus stop near a Denny's in Concord with her one-year-old daughter Kissanni at 1 p.m. Wednesday afternoon when a man in a blue wig and clown suit — no make-up — came and sat beside her. They were chatting about all the creepy clown sightings on the news, when all of a sudden the man allegedly grabbed at the little girl's arm and gave it a tug. "The clown comes up and sits down, all friendly and smiling,” Martin tells the Chronicle. “I pay no mind to it until I realized he snatched my daughter’s arm. He pulls her arm, and I kicked him in the private parts." He then, apparently, ran away, but can we definitely call this an attempted kidnapping? Unclear.'

Also, Concord police told ABC 7 that Martin's initial report was that she kicked the clown in the shin two times.

Reportedly, per KRON 4, "schools in San Mateo, Fairfield, Oakland and Antioch have all [also] been targets of social media clown threats."

AND, in recent days a fake news site called the Daily Finesser has put out a story that spread widely that Congress passed a law authorizing people to shoot suspicious clowns.

Both the Chronicle and KRON 4 call in experts to explain the phenomena, and they each say something a bit different. KRON 4 talks to psychology professor Guarav Suri, who probably sums it up best saying, "It’s mostly about attention. The internet also adds sort of steroids to this phenomenon because even if it’s not being covered on TV it's covered on someone’s Facebook page and that thing goes viral and all of the sudden that is more of a motivation for someone who is seeking attention to want to dress up in a clown outfit."

The Chronicle's expert is SF State University psychology professor David Matsumoto, who gets a bit more basic about the costuming itself. "[The clown suit] provides de-identification [for the wearer]," he says, saying that anonymity fuels offensive and bad behavior. "Identity is a large part of how society regulates behavior,” he says.

King, author of scary clown bible It, the upcoming remake of which has been blamed for inspiring this recent phenomenon, chimed in this week on Twitter.

Also, embarrassingly, as the Chronicle notes, the clown thing came up in a White House press briefing, with press secretary Josh Earnest saying, "Obviously this is a situation that local law enforcement authorities take quite seriously. And they should carefully and thoroughly review perceived threats to the safety of the community."

Can we blame the Juggalos yet?

Update: Unfortunately, an Arizona woman is now starting a Clown Lives Matter movement, to stop the besmirching of good clowns.

Previously: Bizarre Scary Clown Trend Hits Fairfield, Prompts Police Response

Photo by Troy Holden.

We are a regular at the SOMA Whole Foods, but we failed to come across this bit of spookery. Doug Madey (of Ice Tubes), however, did. He writes, "Whole Foods SOMA has the most frightening sandwich board. Hands down." And how.

With a tagline of "Seeking a cure for Multiple Sclerosis, one laugh at a time," you can't mock San Francisco Clown College's Naked Clown Calendar 2009, which they've recently unleashed. While decried by The Village Voice as a "disappointment," the calendar isn't half bad. (For a truly bizarre moment, check out the video promoting the calendar, which goes from loud clown circus act to off-off-off-off-off Broadway musical in seconds.)

To order your this calendar, go here.

If semi-naked mimes don't do it for you, we direct your attention to the Men on a Mission 2009 calendar, featuring a bushel of barely legal, semi-nude LDS boys. You're welcome.