Shot at Ardenwood Farms in Fremont, Flickr user sunmallia captured this group of monarch butterflies. "It took me a long while to really see them as they look like a clump of dead leaves but when I did see them it was amazing," sunmallia said, adding, "they mostly stayed in clumps and every now and then the clumps would flutter. Am amazing site to see for sure." more ›

An estimated 5,000 people are without power this morning care of PG&E. According to this map, four outages resulted in a major outage for many folks. Power should be restored... soon, hopefully. more ›

In Fremont, the Food and Drug Administration has decided that one local man, a sperm donor who has fathered 14 children, should be legally classified as "a manufacturer of human cells" for his frequent gifts of genetic material to childless couples. Rather than work through clinics or donor services, Trent Arsenault (the donor in question) runs the website TrentDonor.org where couples seeking help with their babymaking can check his medical records and request his services. But according to the FDA, those services are the sort of things that require bureaucratic oversight and government inspections. more ›

Fremont, that oft-ignored city to the east, will get its very own Occupy movement starting today at 10 a.m. A march is set to begin at Walnut Avenue and Fremont Boulevard with marchers stopping at area banks "to say a prayer and voice their concerns about the growing gap between rich and poor." more ›

A modest, some might say small, earthquake rumbled along the Hayward Fault just before 4 a.m. this morning, measuring 2.8 on the Richter scale. Unlike the previous half dozen or so small quakes on the fault in recent weeks, this one was not centered under Berkeley but further south, about two miles north of Fremont. more ›

With full support from Republicans (and none from Democrats, naturally), the House voted today to subpoena the White House for any and all records regarding Solyndra, the Fremont, California-based solar company that imploded this year after receiving a $535 million loan from the Obama administration in 2009. more ›

On Sunday, a group of 15 men armed with automatic rifles and handguns jumped six employees of Unigen, the Fremont-based maker of memory cards and wireless internet adapters, in an early-morning heist at the company's loading docks on Warm Springs road. (Note: maybe take down those driving directions?) Unigen employees were tied up and locked away while the robbers loaded their loot into a moving company truck. Cops, including CHP's cargo theft task force are investigating. more ›

Obama's proposed budget has some numbers in it that local transit-o-philes will either love or lambast, depending on how quickly they want to get from Chinatown to the Ballpark and how they feel about the 30-Stockton: The President's budget sets aside an easy $200 million to fund the city's central subway, which would put it on track for full funding according to CBS5. more ›

Alameda Country authorities are looking for Manuel Trujillo, 62, and Mohammed Kahn, 47, who allegedly kidnapped and killed 27-year-old Francisco Lopez "after mistakenly believing Lopez wanted to steal their marijuana." According to AP/CBS 5, "Lopez and his brother, Fernando, had gone to a home where Kahn and Trujillo were to buy the drug, not steal it on Feb. 26. The brothers were apparently tied up and beaten. Fernando Lopez was eventually able to get away." Lopez, however wasn't so lucky. His decomposed body was found on Aug. 26 near Niles Canyon Road. If you have any information about the case, call the Alameda County Sheriff's Office Tip Line at 510-667-3622. more ›

A manhunt is underway for a felon who allegedly shot and wounded a Fremont undercover police officer outside a liquor store in Oakland this afternoon. According to Oakland Tribune, "After shooting the officer, the gunman fled to a liquor store in the 8600 block of Bancroft Avenue where he carjacked a car after shooting at the driver. The driver was apparently only hit by broken glass. The vehicle the gunman was in was last seen going westbound on Bancroft." more ›

At long last, another new leg of the BART system is about to see the light of day, this time on the Fremont line. The Warm Springs extension project, which will extend BART through the Irvington district of Fremont, under Stevenson Blvd. and the city's Central Park, to the Warm Springs district. As early as this Friday, traffic on Stevenson Blvd. will be reduced to one lane in each direction as digging begins on a 40-foot-wide trench that will eventually accommodate the train tunnel. See the full map below. more ›

Toyota has announced that it will cease production at the Fremont-based assembly plant known as NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.), effective March 2010. This follows on GM backing out of the same facility following their own bankruptcy, and liquidating their stake under court supervision. The NUMMI plant was started in 1984 as a 50-50 joint venture between the two auto makers, and it is the sole auto manufacturing facility on the West Coast. The plant employs 4,600 people, and should no other auto maker emerge to take over the facility, it will mark the end of auto production in California. Per Beth Spotswood's comment as she pointed to this story on SFGate, yes, the East Bay is now Detroit. more ›

On Monday, the Oakland police department and Crime Stoppers offered up $10,000 for information leading to the return of five-year-old Hassani Campbell, the 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy who went missing a week ago. If you recall, Hussani vanished from the parking lot of the Shuz of Rockridge shoe store at around 4:!5 p.m. last Monday. According to reports, "Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason said that police have only received about 50 tips, which he said is unusually low for a week-old missing child case." And, really this is a good chunk of change. So, if you know the whereabouts or any information on Hussani, who usually wears leg braces and arch supports on his feet, call the Oakland Police Department or Crime Stoppers at 510-777-8572 or 510-777-3211. more ›

You've heard this story too many times. A parent leaves their young offspring inside of their car (or worse, their pet dog) with the windows up, the car sits in the sun, the car gets too hot, and then the kids gets toasted to death. It's a sad tale, one that almost happened Friday after Fremont police arrested "a woman who left her two children in a parked car where the internal temperature had reached 107 degrees." Fortunately, the kids, who were "sweating profusely," were rescued before they croaked from heat exhaustion. The mother, it seems, left the inside the vehicle "for more than half an hour." How does this thing happen, Bay Area parents? Does it happen often, accidentally leaving the tykes in the Prius? Please advise. more ›

A couple weeks ago we mentioned this disturbing-though-not-deadly situation on I-680 where drivers were getting shot at, apparently by an air rifle and maybe by a teenager, and getting their car windows shattered. Well, two 21-year-olds have been arrested and they're facing 40 some odd counts of assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism, among other things. We know that these air rifle things are weapons, and maybe deadly if they had actually caused someone to crash, but can we technically call them "deadly weaspons"? Perhaps that's beside the point. And anyway, drivers on 680 can rest easy, and though not teens they were still just a couple of asshole kids having target practice. more ›

A sadistic teenager / psychopathic "gunman" has been shooting at cars as they pass between Washington and Mission Boulevards on 680 near the Fremont-Sunol border (i.e. boonies adjacent). No one has been hurt, but ten cars in total have had windows shot out over the past week and a half, five of which happened during the same five-minute span on Saturday morning around 11:45. more ›

According to a White House report, "Energy Secretary Steven Chu today offered a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, Inc. to support the company’s construction of a commercial-scale manufacturing plant for its proprietary cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels. The company expects to create thousands of new jobs in the U.S. while deploying its solar panels across the U.S. and around the world." more ›

Over at the Niles Banquet Hall in Fremont on Saturday night, five men were stabbed (while a sixth suffered a serious head injury) after five uninvited guests tried crashing a wedding. After being asked to leave, it seems, the creeps got brutal after one member of the clan pulled out a knife. According to the Oakland Tribune, "one victim was found lying facedown on the sidewalk and stabbed in the back several times. Another was found with blood on the inside of his leg and several stab wounds." more ›

Over at the Papyon Terrace condominium complex in south Fremont, James Henderson--a 39-year-old man--raped, pistol whipped, and beat a woman early this morning, prompting a standoff with the police. (He lives in the garage of his family's condo, it seems. Charming.) Police still have him barricaded within Papyon Terrace's walls, according to the Oakland Tribune, and SWAT teams have surrounded the complex. Unfortunately, Herderson has yet to be apprehended or fatally shot. more ›

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

After House Democrats rescued him from censure today, Fremont Democratic Representative Pete Stark then apologized to members of the House and President Bush for his recent remark about "'soldiers getting their heads blown up...for the President's amusement." more ›

Who knew that one of the five islands in San Francisco Bay was privately owned? Even stranger, "Red Rock Island" is now up for sale, for a paltry $10 million. The last time we remember one of our islands changing hands was way back in 1847, when Captain John C Fremont bought Alcatraz for $5000. Fremont was in town, as you no doubt remember, as the head of a surveying expedition. A man of... more ›