• A multi-unit, 20-occupant building in SF’s Duboce Triangle was evacuated and two people were taken to the hospital due to a sulfur dioxide leak from an aging refrigeration unit. [NBC Bay Area]
• Two-year-old Jaxon Juarez died in foster care in Santa Clara County last week after he was placed with a relative who had a prior felony conviction for child endangerment; her 17-year-old son was charged with six counts of sexual assault of Juarez. [KQED]
• Longtime SF angel investor and political campaign donor, Ron Conway, announced Friday that he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and will begin year-long treatment immediately.

National:

• NPR has received $113 million in two major donations — largest in the network’s history — to boost digital innovation, expand audience engagement, and help sustain public radio after the loss of federal funding. Philanthropist Connie Ballmer contributed $80 million for technology upgrades, while an anonymous donor gave $33 million to develop shared tools for stations nationwide to better understand audiences, market themselves, and raise funds. [NPR]
• The National Weather Service failed to predict five tornadoes that hit Kansas City Monday night, which was likely due to changes in staffing and weather balloon releases. [NBC News]
• The civil negligence trial is set to begin this fall against actor Alec Baldwin on the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the Rust movie shoot, as the judge denied a request to dismiss the case Friday. [The LA Times]

Video of the Day:

An adorable baby sea lion was found wandering around the Outer Sunset at Irving Street and 48th Avenue  early Thursday morning. Responders from the Marine Mammal Center, SFPD, and SF Rec and Park worked together to catch the pup, which they named “Irving,” so it could be transported to the Marine Mammal Center’s veterinary hospital in Sausalito.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

• A driver was killed Tuesday morning after crashing a speeding Toyota RAV4 into multiple parked Caltrans vehicles near the San Mateo Toll Bridge Plaza, prompting a CHP investigation and a three-hour shutdown of eastbound SR-92 lanes. Authorities say the SUV veered off the road into a Department of Transportation lot for reasons still under investigation. [KRON4]
• A Twin Peaks condo once home to disco legend Sylvester is on the market for $1.7 million. Neighbors remember the late icon as an unforgettable presence in the community. [SFGate]
• The embattled Antioch Police Department has sworn in Joe Vigil as its new permanent chief, marking a “new chapter” focused on accountability and reform following scandals involving officer misconduct, civil rights violations, and corruption. Vigil brings 25 years of law enforcement experience and aims to restore community trust after FBI investigations exposed widespread abuses within the department. [KRON4]
• Salesforce is acquiring cloud data management firm Informatica in an all-cash, $8 billion deal approved by both companies’ boards, aiming to enhance its AI and data capabilities across sectors like healthcare and finance, with the deal expected to close in early fiscal 2027. [NBC Bay Area]
• The Berkeley Flea Market, a 50-year-old institution at the Ashby BART station, may close by June 28 due to ongoing financial losses and declining vendor participation, according to flyers distributed by market staff. [NBC Bay Area]

National:

• The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Apache Stronghold seeking to block a copper mine on Oak Flat, a sacred site in Arizona, effectively allowing the land transfer to Resolution Copper to proceed. Justices Gorsuch and Thomas dissented, calling the refusal a “grave mistake” that disregards the Apaches’ religious freedoms and the cultural significance of the land. [CBS News]
• NPR and three Colorado public radio stations have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging an executive order that bars federal funding to NPR and PBS based on alleged bias, arguing it violates the First Amendment. The suit accuses the administration of retaliatory censorship and usurping Congress’s authority over funding decisions, threatening public media’s ability to provide independent news. [NPR]
• The U.S. State Department has temporarily paused scheduling new visa interviews for foreign students while expanding social media screening, a move that could delay enrollments and impact universities relying on international students. [Associated Press]

Video of the Day:

• Stunning footage by photographer Eric Thurber of some of the dancers who performed in last Sunday’s Carnaval parade:

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A post shared by Eric Thurber (@thurber_shots)

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

The winner of the 2025 Tiny Desk Contest, from NPR Music, is East Bay-born Filipina American rapper, spoken word artist, and singer Ruby Ibarra.

"This is a dream come true," said Ruby Ibarra upon hearing Tuesday that she had won the Tiny Desk Contest. NPR Music's Robin Hilton and Bobby Carter delivered the news in a video call, which was posted to their Instagram.

Ibarra's track "Bakunawa," which you can hear below, was recorded live in Oakland and features a band and backup singers that includes Han Han, June Millington (from Bay Area 70s rock band Fanny), and Ouida. The song was one of over 7,500 entries to the contest this year.

"Ibarra stunned the contest judges with her passionate delivery, intergenerational band and genre-defying sound," says NPR Music.

The song tells the story from Filipino folklore of the Bakunawa dragon who swallows the moon, and Ibarra said she was inspired to write the tri-lingual song (English, Tagalog and Bisaya) after the birth of her first child, whom she was pregnant with when the above recording was made.

"This song interprets the story as a metaphor for resistance and a battle cry against erasure," Ibarra tells NPR. "Much of Philippine history consists of colonization, imperialism and martial law — but on the other side of that is a rich history of Filipino people who have long resisted, organized and led revolutionary uprisings. This song, for me, is a statement that my daughter is my revolution and my hope that she will be liberated from the effects of our cultural history."

Ibarra was born in the Philippines and grew up in San Lorenzo, and attended UC Davis for college. She previously entered the Tiny Desk concert and impressed the panel with her song "Someday" in 2019.

"Ruby is blazing a trail with a sound that many more people need to hear," says Tiny Desk host Felix Contreras.

Ibarra will be coming to NPR Music's offices next to perform her own Tiny Desk Concert, and then will be embarking on a ten-city tour this summer, which will include a stop at Lagunitas Brewing Company in Petaluma on June 13.

• A 29-year-old San Francisco woman was arrested after allegedly pulling the tail of a horse during a child's riding lesson at Thornton Beach Recreation Area in Daly City, causing the child to be thrown off. The woman was charged with suspicion of felony child endangerment and booked into San Mateo County Main Jail in Redwood City. [NBC Bay Area]
• The saga involving the Antioch Police Department continues with an upcoming federal criminal trial of two former Antioch police officers who were charged with conspiring to repeatedly use excessive force against suspects and destructing, altering, or falsifying an arrest record. The pair reportedly often made racist comments about the suspects they were targeting. [KQED]
• Police uncovered "thousands of child sexual abuse material in various forms" from the home of Michael Ross, who's currently out on bail, a 67-year-old man who's worked as a substitute teacher and tutor throughout San Mateo County. [KRON4]
• Berkeley police are searching for missing 12-year-old, Princeugene Rockwell, who was last seen at 3 p.m. Saturday, possibly heading to San Pablo Park. [SFGate]
• Classes at a Rohnert Park elementary school in Sonoma County were canceled today after vandals broke into the school and caused extensive damage; they're set to resume on Tuesday. [CBS News]

National:

• While donning a "Make America Goth Again" hat, Cassandra Peterson, also known as Elvira Mistress of the Dark, donated her Tesla to NPR over the weekend. Peterson had previously painted “Elon Sux” on the Tesla. [Yahoo News]

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A post shared by Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark (@therealelvira)

• Trump has issued an executive order calling for swathes of US national forests and other public lands to be used for timber, evading rules to protect endangered species. Some of the most ecologically important trees in the country could potentially be razed. [Guardian]

Videos of the Day:

• [Update] Fake GoFundMe CEO Dan Spoon gives an interview so convincing he had us thinking it was real. (Thanks for the heads-up, down the memory whole!)

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A post shared by Sarah Silverman (@sarahkatesilverman)

• Lovely footage of Dolores Park at night.

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A post shared by ਕਵਨ 🗣️k+oven ✨kawandeep (@whichlight)

Image: 12th Street Oakland Station; Leanne Maxwell/SFist

The Twitter account for National Public Radio has been labeled with the “state-affiliated media” designation used for Russian and Chinese propaganda, but Musk’s critics point out that his companies get a hell of a lot more federal subsidies than NPR does.

One can’t help but get a sense that many of Elon Musk’s out-of-the-blue provocations on the Twitter platform he now owns are just distractions meant to deflect attention from the site’s failure to execute on technical goals. For instance: Last weekend was supposed to be the removal of blue checks from verified accounts, so that only people who paid the $8 a month subscription would be left with blue checks. Yet the deadline came and went, and the platform has still not removed the blue checks from previously “verified accounts.” So Musk huffily removed only the New York Times’ blue check, apparently just to prove he could do it to someone.

Another completely unprovoked bit of shit-stirring developed Tuesday, as KPIX reports that Twitter labeled the National Public Radio (NPR) account as "U.S. state-affiliated media," which KPIX explains is “the same icon placed on outlets like Russia's state-owned news agency TASS or China's New China News Agency, the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China.”

We will get meta again and refer to NPR’s own reporting on NPR being labeled as “state-affiliated media.”

"NPR operates independently of the U.S. government," that outlet says. "And while federal money is important to the overall public media system, NPR gets less than 1% of its annual budget, on average, from federal sources."

"NPR officials have asked Twitter to remove the label," NPR adds. "They initially assumed it was applied by mistake, NPR spokesperson Isabel Lara said. 'We were not warned. It happened quite suddenly [Tuesday] night.'"

NPR CEO and president John Lansing said in a Wednesday statement that “We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as ‘state-affiliated media,’ a description that, per Twitter’s own guidelines, does not apply to NPR.”

About those guidelines: As seen above, Twitter actively changed their guidelines simply to remove NPR. The guidelines originally said “State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US for example, will not be labeled.” The site apparently scrubbed NPR from that description hours after slapping the “‘state-affiliated” tag on their account.

NPR apparently operates on a roughly $300 million a year budget, or at least, its revenue and expenses are both at around $300 million. So that’s about $3 million from the federal government per year, if we take them at the 1% figure. Meanwhile, Musk's own companies SpaceX and Tesla have received more than $5 billion in government support, raising some fair questions about who, exactly, is the “state-affiliated” one here.

Related: Disgruntled Former Employee Allegedly Leaked Twitter's Source Code on GitHub [SFist]

Screenshot via NPR

"I don't know why I'm so invested in women cumming," said sex advice columnist Dan Savage last night at San Francisco's Castro Theatre. "There's nothing in it for me!" But Dan did have "magic/silver bullet" advice for women who might arrive at partnered sex without the, as he puts it, expertise in their own bodies that young men might have.

As for getting past such inhibitions, Savage recommends — conservatives will love this — marijuana. "I have a pro-pot bias," says Savage, who currently hails from Washington State where recreational pot use is legal and frequently prescribes a little pot to his callers with hang-ups.

To top it off, this was all at a taping of NPR's Ask Me Another quiz show, hosted by the charming Ophira Eisenberg, as part of the ongoing Sketchfest festivities. Next thing you know Paula Poundstone will be toking up (and getting off?) on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.

French Laundry and Per Se chef Thomas Keller, who has earned three Michelin stars for both of those restaurants, appeared in a quiz segment on the syndicated NPR show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" over the weekend. The appearance was in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of Keller taking over the Laundry, which happened in 1994, and Keller brought along one of his signatures that is still served at both restaurants — the salmon "ice cream cone," which the hosts joke about being too tiny.

Keller insists that an amuse-bouche like this is "one of the most important parts of the meal," serving as an ice-breaker in what could be an intimidating place for some. "Not only does it make them smile...but because it tastes like something familiar that they've had in the past, basically a cracker with sour cream and salmon on top, and because it's familiar they like it."

Also, Keller jokes, that you'd better "come to French Laundry or Per Se with somebody you like," given that meals take a minimum of three and a half hours.

In response to a question, "Why did you call it The French Laundry?", Keller explains that the name was not his doing, recounting that the Yountville restaurant initially opened with that name in 1978 (under the ownership of Don and Sally Schmitt, now of Philo Apple Farm). And the name had been inspired by one of the original uses of the stone building, as a French steam laundry in the 1920s.

Then the show's hosts set about quizzing Keller on the topic of actual laundry, and clothes-cleaning, because these are the sorts of things that amuse the dorks and elderlies who regularly listen to this show.

In related news, as Eater reports, the website for the The French Laundry and the one for his Thomas Keller Restaurant Group were hacked by apparent Syrian hackers over the weekend, from the Syrian Electronic Army.

And thus the wars of the Middle East have finally made it to Napa.

[NPR]
[Inside Scoop]
[Eater]

Friday, the local music scene takes us by storm with MiGGs over at Red Devil Lounge and Maldroid at Bottom of the Hill. Both bands are from Oakland, though technically Don Miggs just moved South. It's a hard choice, but we're off to Red Devil Lounge. It looks like MiGGs got a record deal and are working on some new stuff. There'll be a new single and video in March.

Basia Bulat, a Canadian pop music singer/songwriter will be headlining at The Bottom of the Hill on Saturday night. "Oh My Darling," her first full-length album, was released earlier this month on Rough Trade Records. You can watch the video to "In the Night" here. We have a feeling that she's gonna be the "Feist of 2008." Grupo Fantasma, the finest and funkiest latin orchestra to come out of the United States in the last decade is playing at Slim's. They were just featured as NPR's "Song of the Day" and Prince is apparently in-love; how sweet.

The real excitement this weekend is at Great American Music Hall where St. Vincent (seen below) and Foreign Born are playing. Foreign Born (die-hard Obama fans) have been working on "shit tons of new material" which will land in stores fall 2008. Hopefully, they will play some new material. St. Vincent, (aka Annie Clark, along with her full band) is known for her work with Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. New York Times called her recent release "an extravagant collection of songs..." We just can't get enough.

Take the jump for full listings...

The absurdity of SF's parking ticket-dispensing habits aside, this is awful.

A year ago, we saw a couple of altercations on Valencia Street, with vile douche bags puffing up their flaccid feathers at hard-working meter maids (meter-men? parking attendants?), but we had no idea that this was getting physical, increasingly so.

NPR also claims that the California Assembly plans to "double the maximum fine for assault on parking enforcement officers."

Thanks to one of our tipsters for the info.

One name that has already been bandied about is noted toe-sucker and Fox News suckup Dick Morris. Palfrey dropped his name but Morris denied it, even though he supposedly admitted to it in 1996. Side note-- we love how A.P covered their tracks on this, repeating the charge before saying it's not true. It's kind of an easy way to get around completely unsubstantiated charges. Like they could say, "we'd like to issue a correction-- Dick Cheny does not eat babies" but now the word is out that somebody thinks Dick Cheney eats babies.

In terms of what she's got, she apparently has forty-six pounds of records; including phone numbers around 10,000 clients. It is not known whether she is going to receive any money from any of this, but her lawyer said she got plenty of offers for it.

Palfrey also filed a suit against one of her escorts for having "illegal" sex with a client. She's claiming that her escort service was on the up-and-up except for this one client who had sex with people and, well, there's the illegality. That darn rogue hooker.

First, a clarification. The egg yolks in the center of the moon cakes that prompted your concern, and presumably the concerns of many others (statistically, for every letter written to a congressperson, the government assumes 9, or 99, or some other amount of people feel the same way — and so shall we), are not raw.

Moon cakes contain cooked egg yolks, recalling the shape of the moon. We apologize for not being clearer about this detail.

Also -- Gene's supporting point, regarding mayonnaise and spoilage, got us thinking. We vaguely recall Chef Lars at telling us in our Introduction to Professional Cooking class that mayonnaise keeps for at least a week on the countertop. Now we would never hold him to this in a court of law (for one thing, our brain is a tad unreliable in the memory department, and plus we can't find that advice in our old, yellowing notes), but the thought did prompt us to take a wander around the Internet on the topic, where we found this NPR feature, debunking the myths about mayonnaise on its 250th birthday.