-Three old ladies about start hugging trees in Berkeley. -City to step up fight against graffiti. -Beyond Chron wants Matt to run. -There was a kidnapping attempt in Marin. -The Alameda Main Street ferry terminal has been reopened. -The iPhone might not be so iGreat. -Man found dead under BART train at Pittsburg/Bay Point station. -Tim Goodman puts on the cranky pants today. We love when he puts on the cranky pants. ...

Ferry service to and from the Alameda Main Street Terminal will be shut down this weekend as crews will be out trying to figure out a problem with the pier that holds the walkway. As you might well imagine, having a pier that can't really support a walkway might cause problems with people getting on and off the pier. Apparently, the problem is with the piling the supports the walkway which is now out of alignment. ...

Less than an hour north of the City, a lonely wedge of land juts out into the teeth of the Pacific swell. Almost completely separated from the Marin mainland by the grinding force of the San Andreas Fault (SAF), the Point Reyes Peninsula is a focal point for all kinds of natural forces.

The 36th annual Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival kicked off Saturday morning to much fanfare and a crapload of pumpkins and pumpkin paraphenalia. Several blocks of the fog-shrouded farming community-cum-tourist giftshop's Main Street were closed to cars and packed with vendor booths and festival-goers.

Author Jami Attenberg wrote her first book, Instant Love right here in the Bay Area, so damn right it's an O Magazine What To Read This Summer pick. She's reading tonight at Book Shop West Portal (80 West Portal, sorry, no links to this new shop yet) at 7 p.m., and at 7 tomorrow night at Copperfield's Books (138 N. Main Street in Sebastopol), in an appearance sponsored by Napa's Pearl Necklace 'zine. Looking at......