Five remaining tree climbers over at the University of California at Berkeley -- you know, the ones who have been protesting the school's plan to tear down the Memorial Oak Grove to put in a shiny new ball-throwing stadium -- are being threatened to come down via 25 police officers and a cherry picker. According to UCB officials, the tree protesters might have to come down as early as today, Tuesday, or be removed......

It's your last chance to give your opinion to the feds regarding off-leash dogs at Ocean Beach...

A group of people having a bonfire at Ocean Beach early this morning--in this weather?--came across the body of a dead man, which they found above the high tide line across from the Beach Chalet and Golden Gate Park. Of average height with no identification or clothes, "U.S. Park Police are investigating the death, but have few leads." The group had their fire lit outside the designated area...and were asked by police a little......

Evidence of a wintry day...

Huge waves hit Ocean Beach....

San Francisco is America's most "walkable" city...

Oil Spill Volunteer Training 2nite. ...

After a few days of obsessively keeping up with reports of the oil spill clean-up efforts, we gathered up our oldest, least fashionable, and/or most mishapen clothes, along with a pair of rubber gloves and trash bags, and set out for Ocean Beach today. It turns out our old Doc Martens are oil-resistant -- we just might have to invest in some new soles for those disaster-ready babies. Check out more photos and details after......

A photo of beaches affected and unaffected by the recent oil spill...

And by "van-burners," we don't mean the variety that park by Ocean Beach in their VW van toking while watching the sunset. Or maybe we do… Authorities think a UC Berkeley campus security van torching that happened in the wee hours of the morning might be related to a citation and an arrest made earlier in the evening. The torched van was discovered at 6 a.m. this morning. The vandalism occurred after two tree-sitters, or......

Photo of a new fire pit at Ocean Beach...

A photo of a shooting star...

San Francisco was once pretty much a giant sand dune. We've even heard it said that the very name derives from the once common epithet "sands-can-drift-so", but we're pretty sure that this tale is apocryphal. Okay, we're positive, but a sunny weekend of wandering through Golden Gate Park prompted us to drift back to those early, sandier days. Golden Gate Park was established in 1868, and a local newspaper described it as a "dreary......

Let's see… big event? Check. Lots of people involved? Check? Lots of drunk people involved? Double check. Muni somehow screwing the pooch? Check, check, checkity check....

Every now and then, when the sand moves, you can see the remnants of shipwrecks on the shore of Ocean Beach -- and yesterday, folks enjoying the warm weather at low tide caught a glimpse of the remains of the King Philip clipper ship. A pirate ship? A tragic capsizing? What's the word? Well, the King Philip sailed in the mid 1800s, and primarily carried guano or lumber. On its final voyage, it (she? Is......

Oh sure, the earlier attempt at getting Bush impeached by lining up a whole bunch of bodies to lie on Ocean Beach didn't work, but that doesn't mean it won't work a second time. ...

Here's todays wrapup of the news...

An update on the rare snowy plover birds in S.F....

After a competition featuring thirty entries, various organizations in support of keeping bonfires on Ocean Beach have selected five winning entries. The contest was held after park authorities were convinced by the Ocean Beach Foundation, Burners Without Borders and the Surfrider Foundation to keep them open and to sweeten the pot, said they'd come up with cool designs in which to build the bonfires. Now, all they need to do is raise $45,000 to pay for the bonfires. ...

We're covering for SFist Jon today! --Left in SF asks progressives to play nice in the Migden-Leno race. Hilariously, Chris Daly refuses, twice. --Beyond Chron gives the lowdown on David Latterman and Rich DeLeon's SPUR talk about recent city voting trends. --PartyParty is unhappy about Gavin Newsom's plans to veto the 6 month trial of car-free Saturdays in Golden Gate Park (despite reports saying that it doesn't reduce the number of park visitors). --Getty v.......

-California is leaving a lot of children behind. -Hillary doesn't care about ethnic reporters....

It's looking like a plan is afoot (or in this case apaw-- thank you, we'll be here all night) to make Ocean Beach change hands from the Park Service to the City. Because the city does such a good job on everything else that they can totally take over the beach? Nope, it's because a bunch of dog owners are up at arms. ...

-Officer shoots and kills a man for allegedly trying to rob a pizza place....

When we last left the bonfire debate at Ocean Beach, it was looking like there was going to be a crack down. Considering we have friends who went down to the beach over the weekend to burn some Christmas trees, we don't think anything has happened as of yet. Well, it looks like a compromise is set to take place as officials are in talks with "bonfire advocates" to build about twenty fire rings where bonfires could be held. ...

Here's a bizarre story to say the least... A man was found buried to death by sand on Ocean Beach this morning. Apparently, he was sleeping on the beach and, well, we actually have no idea how this happened, it's all so James Bond-ian. You know, like there's a villain out there, Sandfinger. ...

The good news is, it's a photograph-oriented flashmob. Yay! The bad news is, nobody's going to be made to take off their clothes. Boooooo. Clear your weekend calendar, because Cab-Driver-About-Town Brad Newsham is busy organizing all impeachment-minded San Franciscans for an art project, which is precisely the sort of thing that has had so palpable an impact on national politics. This Sunday (the 10th) at 10:30am on Ocean Beach, Brad's going to get a......

There was a sewage spill on Ocean Beach last night. Wasn't Daniela Kirschenbaum just talking about this? A manhole cover blew out around 11 p.m., which allowed not only water but what we'll delicately call "SFSOS effluvia" to leak onto the beach. The affected area is about 150 feet of the beach, from the base of the Cliff House going west. There's a whooping cough outbreak at Palo Alto High -- one student managed to......

Firefighters in Redwood City had to call the humane society at the scene of a fire on Sunday, to rescue three snakes in a cage. One snake was saved but two died. Merriment (in a respectful way to the dead reptiles) ensues on the Chron's NWZCHIK blog. Okay, here's the depressing news. The dead body of a San Francisco woman was found in a trash can in Oakland, there's a rapist doctor from Dublin on......

We're positively reeling from anticipation of all the fun and excitement promised by this weekend's events. Not since we spent Halloween weekend in Las Vegas a few years back have we done so much reeling - though that was mostly due to our alcohol consumption and our difficulty finding an exit out of the New York New York casino. Tonight Hey, it's Halloween weekend, how about a creepy movie: Street Trash, described as "Eraserhead......

In an interview with the Chronicle last week, Gavin dropped some more Green-related news. Turns out he's looking into dropping turbines into both the ocean and the Bay to generate enough energy to feed the city and to maybe sell off to others. The Olympic Guys should love that. ...