Starting sometime in April, library books will be available at Contra Costa County BART stations via "ATM style lending machines." A new program called Library-a-Go-Go, along with the Contra Costa County Library, will allow BART riders to simply swipe a card, select a book, wait for said book choice to drop, and then return the book after the rider is finished reading their literary gem. The machines will "hold around 400 popular and best-selling......

Oh shit. After an alert system SNAFU failed to notify workers at a Marin County treatment facility about a sewage overflow on Thursday night, the San Francisco Bay is now the proud recipient of 2.7 million gallons of both "raw and treated" sewage. Lovely. Although sunbathers are few and far between this time of year, signs are posted all over Crissy Field, Baker Beach, Aquatic Park, and China Beach to keep people from swimming......

On Friday night at around 11:30 p.m., the intersection of Leavenworth and O'Farrell played host to a shooting. It seems that shots were fired from one car into another, leaving two males seriously injured. No deaths, no arrests. Not to be outdone, Hyde and Turk set the stage for a stabbing on Sunday, 2:20 a.m. The victim was rushed to SFGH. Again: no death, no arrests.San Mateo saw its first homicide since 2006. A......

While not on par with Christmas Day tsunamis, this storm is pretty nifty, huh? Golden Gate transit buses have stopped, power has been knocked out to hundreds -- yes, hundreds! - of thousands of people, and surely snow is falling really hard atop a mountain somewhere. But what must actually suck is this morning's nightmare traffic caused by the raindrops falling on our heads. Ahem: Marin/Contra Costa County: E-580, Richmond-San Rafael Bridge closed due......

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!)......

Why, we've been so preoccupied with murder right down the street from SFist, we forgot that the rest of the Bay Area is also littered with shootings and bloody tomfoolery. Forgive us, won't you? Ahem: Two employees of Bill's Friendly were shot last night during a botched robbery attempt. One of the store's employees was killed, the other taken to a nearby hospital. (At right: the lone gunman's fierce image.) Another shooting in the......

Harry Ramsay, a former Contra Costa County sheriff who served in the mid 1970s, went missing the other day after leaving his house on foot, and no one has heard back from the 85-year-old man. According to the the Chronicle, he has "mild dementia and vision problem" -- just like us....

-- Temporary victory is ours: Giants 8, Brewers 0. [Chron, Examiner] -- Four people -- Contra Costa County Fire Protection Captain Matt Burton, Fire Engineer Scott Desmond, Delbert Moore, and Gayle Moore -- die in early morning San Pablo fire. [Chron] -- Farewell, Pete. [KGO] -- Bizarre staging of Taming of the Shrew gets lots of love from Chloe Veltmen. [ASD] -- Scott Beale snaps shots from today's blogger-littered WordCamp 2007. [Laughing Squid] Image: Michael......

A truck filled with 60 cows tipped over in Contra Costa County yesterday. Ha! Despite our most diligent efforts, we are unable to find any pictures from the scene, so we're going with the "Cow Crossing" sign you see to your left. One person is dead after a dramatic shooting in the Sunset early Monday morning -- the shots were fired at a moving car, which then flipped over and crashed. The Chron has some......

Han Shin showed up in court in Contra Costa County yesterday to plead not guilty to the charges that he tried to run over an ex's roommate with his car in San Ramon. He smiled and wished the judge a good day. Meanwhile, the authorities also arrested an Oakland man who's been stalking Schwarzenegger. Good ol' Dan Noyes! His I-Team's sued MUNI to get access to bus safety records, and they just won an order......

So we're reading this morning in the Chronicle about the "Frozen Bun Run" on Bethel Island in Contra Costa County, where fun-loving polar bears go water-skiing on the Sacramento River every New Year's Day. And here's the paragraphs that caught our eye: Take Josh Wolf. With the water at 47 degrees and the air outside at a comparatively balmy 49.2 degrees, Wolf decided he didn't need to wear his shorts while wakeboarding in front of......

Two small plane crashes -- one into a tank of raw sewage in Gilroy, and another onto Highway 4 in Contra Costa County. The Highway 4 crash involved a pilot who misjudged the location of the landing runway in the low cloud cover Thursday, and tied up traffic for miles. They're still investigating the Gilroy crash; investigators got a later start because they had to drain and disinfect the tank before it was safe to......

You know that totally obvious idea of creating some sort of general pass that works on the plethora of public transportation options? And you know how it's so obvious that you want to bang your head against the table that it hasn't happened yet. Well, it's happening, finally. Or at least a trial run of it....

And for those people feeling smug about all those people who were stranded on BART this morning (not that it would be us, of course), here's something to make you feel smug back. According to a new study, traffic congestion increased by 9% over the past year, the biggest jump in congestion since 2000. Traffic congestion had decreased over the past few years due to the sucky economy, but now that the economy is somewhat (somewhat) better, it's getting worse again. It's still not as bad as it was back in the day, when it took us days to get from the city to the Peninsula and the smog from the exhaust fumes caused darkness to fall sometime in the mid afternoon and acid rain burned our skins, but it's getting there. ...

Two places in the East Bay have decided to start thinking about the children and are proposing new rules and regulations on fast-food joints to help fight the supposed epidemic of fattie children. First up is Oakland which is thinking about taxing certain merchants a few extra bucks to help clean up the messes left by customers, something that is apparently becoming a problem. The legislation is primarily aimed at fast-food joints and conveyance stores, especially near schools, as that's where most of the mess is. Which raises the question what is wrong with the kids today? Can't they pick up after themselves or are they to fat these days to bend over and pick something up? Why, when we were kids, we'd walk three miles in the snow to pick up our KFC boxes. Merchants, of course, do not like the new legislation and think it could hurt business. That sound you hear is the sound of the world's smallest violin playing a sad symphony for McDonalds. ...

-The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that an East Contra Costa County school can teach Islam by having the students pretend to be Muslim for three weeks. As part of a history course at Excelsior School for seventh graders, a teacher had students role-play being Muslim to help learn Islam. So the kids adopted Muslim names, read religious poetry, gave up something to simulate Ramadan, and stoned girls for not wearing burkas......

Today we questioned the very being of this column. Why do we write it again? Is it an act that improves the world or diminishes it? Should we keep doing it? You'll have your own opinions, but you get to read and we have to write, and while we love both, the reading is invariably easier. Still, what's the point in diving into the depths of off-Broadway service journalism? Why do we torment these poor......

Bay Area crime roundup...