The Niners' attempt to build themselves some spiffy new digs took quite a twist recently as the plans were temporarily kiboshed when the neighbors of the purposed new stadium, the Great America theme park, said they weren't quite cool with the idea of a football stadium being next door. Too many loud parties on Sunday and all the guests tend to be loud, drunk and wear dorky jerseys. So rumors started up that the owners of Great America, Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. of Sandusky, Ohio, might be down for the stadium if and only if the Niners buy the amusement park. Well, it turns out that it's true-- Cedar Fair is willing to sell the park to the Yorks. ...

Offside! Penalty -- three months. Any talk of the Niners moving from San Francisco down to Santa Clara is before the snap (did we get our convoluted football metaphor right? SFist Jon's out on vacation this week so we can't check), now that the City of Santa Clara's experienced yet more delays in completing the required feasibility study about how they're going to raise their $160 million share for the stadium. The study was supposed......

So California is pretty much a Blue State, right? And it'll probably be bluer than blue over the next few decades or so considering the Republicans have been hell-bent on pissing off every Hispanic voter lately, right? So what's a Republican to do to change all that? Better ideas? Better Presidents? Better wars? How's about changing the rules so that the Republicans can get some of that California's electoral gold. ...

A four-year-old boy drowned to death in the 2-foot deep section of the wave pool at Great America in Santa Clara yesterday. There were six lifeguards on duty at the time, but there are no age limits on who can use the pool. Authorities have not identified the boy, or said whether or not he was supervised at the time of the accident. This is the first drowning at Great America but not the first......

Don't go buying your brand new "San Jose of Fremont by way of 92" or "Bay Area 49ers of Santa Clara" t-shirts just yet because we're still a long way off from the moving trucks appearing. Things just ain't as easy as it sounds....

Okay, here's today’s team on a move recap:...

Dr. John York, the accidental owner, met the press to detail the whys and whats of his announcement that he's leaving San Francisco and taking the team to Santa Clara. The reason? It's too expensive here, the schools are falling apart, and it's better to raise a family in the Peninsula and not the city....

SFist interviews Brendan Benson...

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly: Tommy Craggs, like Tony Toni Tone, has done it again! This week, he uses the Microsoft Word auto-summarizer to read last week's interminable Sean Penn in Iran articles from the Chron! Could it be that Mr. Craggs heard our desperate cries for help? In other news, Matt Smith hates on Chris Daly's Rincon Hill deal, the Infiltrator pretends to Christian rock, and the cover article's about heavy metal Thor. Savage Love: you know, if you start a letter to Dan with "I'm straight, I'm smart, I'm funny, and I'm hot," you kind of get what you deserve. Next: the Metro! RIP, Bob Moog. The war on terror seemed a little overblown in Lodi. Spongebob Squarepants at Great America! Cover: San Jose gang war. And Secret Asian Man eats your hate up like love. The Guardian and the East Bay Express after the jump, plus the pick of the week! ...

Last night we went to a see a new play called 'Sleeper,' written by the lovely and talented Samantha Chanse and directed by Friend of SFist Oliver Saria. We've seen Sam and Oliver slay an audience doing stand-up, so it came as no surprise that the play came with a healthy dose of laughs. There's one more show tonight and tomorrow at eight at Bindlestiff Studio, 6th and Natoma. Finally, some actual summer weather,......

Brief compendium of Bay Area crimes in the last few days....