Sad news, nonconsensual bukkake aficionados. In one of the shortest debates to occur in the Oregon House, a specific type of gang initiation was called into question this week. A proposed new law would make it a second-degree sex abuse crime to fling "a dangerous substance at another person" in the state of Oregon. Said substance is semen or other bodily fluids tossed out of sexual desire or otherwise. (Think of that scene in Silence of the Lambs where that loony inmate hisses to Jodie Foster, "I can smell your [flower]," then tosses his juice at her.) more ›

Have you seen Tears of Joy Theatre's stolen puppets? According to an alert reposted at the the SF Bay Area Puppeteers' Guild, someone made off with the Japanese-style bunraku characters sometime over the last few weeks. It's a pretty devastating loss for the artists. more ›

A pod of orcas has been seen off the coast of Monterey Bay, way far south of where the whales normally travel. Scientists are guessing that the "collapse" in the chinook salmon population is responsible. Normally, these whales from the Puget Sound, never need travel south of the Columbia River, which empties on the border between Washington and Oregon. Since this is the sixth year the whales have been seen off of Monterey, the current salmon problem is looking more and more like a crisis. If Free Willy had enough to eat up in the Puget Sound, he wouldn't have to make such a long journey. more ›

Can you believe it's been a year since James Kim died in the Oregon mountains? We're very sorry to pass along the news that another Northern California family is missing in what we're hoping is not going to be another family holiday tragedy story. more ›

San Francisco is America's most "walkable" city more ›

My Morning Jacket's newest live recording entitled The 2006-2007 New Year’s Eve Skit Picture Disc Skit (Could they pick a longer title?) is available now through the band's website. The recording is from their New Year's Eve performance at the Fillmore last year. If you were there, you would know that it was a "Oregon Trail"-themed performance. (OMG, how cool is that!) But we're curious, how do you pull off an "Oregon Trail"-themed party?... more ›

SFist interviews Charlie M. from The Happy Hollows. They are playing the Fillmore tonight with the Silversun Pickups more ›

Since our trimethyldioxypurist is on the road for Labor Day, we're stepping in on the caffeine beat to pass along some sad news: Peet's Coffee founder Alfred Peet died earlier this week (Wednesday) in Oregon. more ›

While Hannah Watson's found tent camping to be just fine at Burning Man over the past several years, this year she had a vision -- an art instillation of her own that would "not only be beautiful but provide (her) with comfort and a home while out the desert." She found an old Oregon transit bus for sale on craigslist and, since last April, has spent every weekend getting the old girl ready to fly to Burning Man. We got to check out the bus this past weekend. more ›

--A guy jumped onto the field to say hi to Barry Bonds yesterday. Arrested, drunk. [The Chron photo pool, the Snitch.] more ›

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The North American debut of for the SF Int'l Film Festival premiered at the Castro Theatre Friday night and it must have been a sweet moment for Berkeley-born, Bay Area-raised, local boy Daniel Wu who directed and stars in the movie. After graduating from the University of Oregon, Daniel stumbled into modeling and acting gigs while backpacking through Asia and became a bona fide heart-throb in China. more ›

Here's todays wrapup of news stories. more ›

The first weekend of the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments is in the books -- are you still alive in your office pool? Not if you took the Road to the Final Four less traveled.

If you went with the favorites, chances are you're sitting pretty. With the exception of the toothless male Badgers of Wisconsin, all first and second seeds in both tourneys advanced to the Sweet 16. That's not to say that a few high seeds didn't get a scare or that some middling seeds will never get a chance to germinate into full-blown Cinderellas, but overall, both tournaments are sticking to the script.

Here's todays wrap up of all the sports stories more ›

-Cal took down #4 ranked UCLA in their quarterfinal match of the Pac 10 tournament. They had a big lead at halftime and blew the big lead but managed to hold on to force overtime. It sounds like a great game, actually, as UCLA fought their way back and then the teams traded leads up until the end. They now go to the quarterfinals and play #16 ranked Oregon. At 16-16, Cal has no way of making the Tourney unless they win the Pac 10 Tournament which seemed impossible before, but... more ›

Hey now-- the Warriors are on a bit of a roll as they won their second game in a row, beating the Nugs 110-96. Sure, Carmelo didn't play, but for the Warriors, they have to be happy with the game as it's the first time this season the exact same Warriors mentioned in the Warriors press guide actually all appeared in a game. All of this is making Bruce Jenkins and Tim Kawakami drink from of the very same sippy cup of Kool Aid SFist Chris drank from as they are all now having visions of being crushed by the Mavs in the first round of the playoffs. And hey, if that doesn't add some shine to your day, the Warriors, East Coast Edition, are sucking up the joint these days. more ›

-The NBA's 2007 All-Star Game is tonight in Las Vegas. Excitement aplenty, to be sure. Yet there're no Golden State Warriors on the West All-Star team. more ›

The Coast Guard is stepping up the search for a local computer scientist who has been missing at sea since Sunday. The man, Jim Gray, set off for the Farallon Islands and was supposed to return on Sunday. When he didn't, his wife called in the Coast Guard to let them know. They have not been able to find him yet. more ›

* Bay Area Wanderer: Diamond near Bosworth, San Francisco more ›

Last night, we went to last night's Warriors/Cavs game, a game the Warriors lost in overtime. Now, we'll let Basketball Chris do the analysis and post-game wrap up, but we wanted to make an observation of our own. Mainly, that we went to see Lebron and we were disappointed. But not surprised. more ›

-Judge rules lethal injection in California a not very nice thing to do. -$1 billion bucks to go to easing congestion through Interstate 580 between Alameda County and the Altamont Pass. more ›

Our thoughts, sympathy, and condolences at SFist go out to the family, friends, and coworkers of James Kim. more ›

Law enforcement officials have confirmed that James Kim has died. more ›

Update: They're waiting on confirmation of status. Rescuers are saying they saw a flash in a wooded area. Others are saying that they've heard news reports that he wasn't face down. All the news is kind of crazy right now; we're going to wait until we get something official before posting anything else. more ›

Update: They've got a scaled-down night crew working. Here's the most recent CNET article. Also, some biographical information about the couple. more ›

Update: Four-year-old Penelope told the nurses at the hospital "I love this place," and had hot chocolate, Cheerios, and a hamburger. James left the car on Saturday morning saying he'd be back by the afternoon but Kati and the girls haven't seen him since. They had gathered wild berries but were afraid to eat them in case they were poisonous. more ›

Nothing definitive yet on the missing Noe Valley family. Parents James and Kati Kim were traveling back from Washington in the family station wagon (license plate DOESF) with daughters Penelope and Sabine when they disappeared a week ago today on the way to the Tu Tu Tun Lodge on the Oregon coast. The weather was reported to have been very bad that Saturday. more ›

The SFPD has put out a missing persons bulletin on a local Noe Valley family, who haven't been heard from since last week. more ›

-The saga of that unfunny police video skit continues on more ›