Just outside of her Montclair home, Laura Belkin, 58, was stuck and killed by a hit-and-run driver this morning as she was getting her mail on the 5900 block of Zinn Drive off Snake Road in the Oakland hills. According to the Gate:

Police are searching for the driver of a dark, late 1990s to early 2000s sport utility vehicle, possibly similar in style to a Toyota 4-Runner, Banks said.

If any East Bay readers out there have any info, do give a call to the police: 510-777-8570.

And in more hit-and-run news, the fuzz in San Jose are looking for a silver pickup truck in another fatal hit-and-run. A woman, while "crossing the road improperly," was struck at Oakland Road and McKay Drive about 6:20 p.m. last night. You know something/ Well then, call San Jose police at 408-277-4051.

Last night 24-year-old Memorial Oak Grove tree-sitter Nate Hill fell on his tushie after plummeting 40 feet out of the tree. He suffered both a broken wrist and ankle, but is in fine, fighting, camera-ready condition.

He was trying to get out of the tree, via a traverse line, to visit his poppa waiting down below. But it seems that he was not, in fact, on the line, and then took a nasty fall while trying to ride the non-existent traverse. Ouch. According to NBC 11, "Hill said although he does not want to place blame he believes the accident would not have happened if the university had not put up a fence around the grove." Oh, come now. One, if Hill hadn't been 40 feet up high in a tree to begin with, succumbing to the temptations of gravity, he wouldn't have fallen. Two, he "thought he was connected to a traverse line but he was mistaken." So? It's your fault, you sexy, klutzy bear.

"UC Police Chief Victoria Harrison said that the school built the new fence as a security measure prior to the forcible removal of the protesters from the trees," which should be happening...sometime soon.

But here's to a speedy recovery, Hill. (Little tip: tell the doctors that codeine upsets your stomach, and you'll get the good stuff.)

image credit: NBC 11