Sure, we've all gone out of our way to get the top-shelf Halloween treats from the rich neighbors down the street, but we never lived down the street from Steve Jobs' home on Palo Alto's Waverly Place. The late Apple CEO had a tradition of opening up his home to the local children on Halloween and this year was no exception. Despite the apple trees in the front yard, the Jobs' home didn't force any fruit on the eager youngsters. more ›

The California High-Speed Rail Authority says it was caught by surprise this week with a letter from the Bay Area Council and regional transportation agencies calling for a revised high-speed rail plan on the Peninsula, including slowing down the speed of the high-speed trains and not building any new overpasses so that Peninsula communities won't feel so put out. more ›

In a highly scientific study released by GQ, noted Palo Alto community college Stanford came in as the 4th douchiest college in the country. Notable douchbag alums include: Herbert Hoover, Mike Mussina, John Elway, William Rehnquist, and Tiger Woods. (Notable non-Summer's Eve alums include the delectable Sergey Brin and daring Jennifer Siebel-Newsom!) GQ describes the learning institution thusly: more ›

As we've discussed earlier, wealthy Peninsula communities like Palo Alto and Menlo Park have been seething for years about the plan to bring the LA-SF high-speed rail line through their pristine environs. They've filed some lawsuits that would require the CA Rail Authority to rewrite their environmental impact studies, and brought a 1,000-year-old tree into the argument. The latest lawsuit contends that the authority "gamed" their computer models that predicted ridership demand for the train in order to prove that it was necessary to route the train south from S.F. to San Jose, over the Pacheco Pass to the Central Valley, rather than east and over the Altamont Pass, following the route of 580. You see, some people in Palo Alto would rather see them build another damn bridge over the Bay than have the train come anywhere near them. more ›

A Palo Alto 11 dispatch center got 566 phantom emergency calls in five hours, reports KTVU. "The siege of calls to the Palo Alto emergency communications center started Jan 13 at 8:30 p.m. when a dispatcher picked up the line to find no one on the other end. Twenty-seconds later, another phantom call came in." The potentially fatal snafu was =, most likely, due to "technology run amok rather than a prankster." [KTVU] more ›

Described as "an intentional act" by Caltrain authorities, an unidentified 19-year-old Palo Alto man was struck and killed this morning by a train in Palo Alto. Happening just after midnight, "the man was hit on the train tracks about four-tenths of a mile north of the California Avenue station at a location where there is no vehicle or pedestrian crossing." more ›

The cities of Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Atherton, along with five environmental and citizens groups, filed suit Monday to stop the proposed high-speed rail that will rip through their quiet enclaves, if and when its built. The towns have banded together to call bullshit on an environmental impact report produced by the California High-Speed Rail Authority, claiming that the report shows inflated ridership numbers. In legalese, here's what they said in the suit, "The defective and inaccurate ridership and revenue information ... resulted in the [Authority] not being able to make accurate and informed choices among various project alternatives and in not being able to properly or accurately determine the financial feasibility of various project alternatives and mitigation measures." more ›

With a a movie about the 26-year-old Facebook CEO's life due in theaters this year, it makes sense that Mark Zuckerberg, a billionaire-cum-celebrity who made millions off of your privacy, would have his invaded. And Gawker's Valleywag did just that, posting a slew of paparazzi-like photos of Zuckerberg and his daily life in Palo Alto. (Seeing as how he is -- let's face it -- kinda hot, it's a shame photographer Nick Stern didn't capture one with Mark's shirt off. Alas.) There are some interesting shots: Zuckerberg hanging out with his girlfriend, Zuckerberg's house on College Avenue (ick), Zuckerberg texting with his iPhone, Zuckerberg hanging with his brodeo, and more. Check them out. more ›

Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard plans on exfoliating some 9,000 jobs this year to save "about $500 million to $700 million a year" via the implementation of automated data centers. Associated Press (via CBS 5) reports: "The Palo Alto technology company says it will invest $1 billion in its enterprise services unit, over a multiyear period. The company says the job cuts will be the result of productivity gains and automation." more ›

Horrors! In addition to privacy erosion, Facebook stopped using union drivers to shuttle their geek-chic brethren to and fro the Palo Alto office. SFist's contributor Cedric sent us this flyer he picked up from a former Facebook shuttle driver at the Palo Alto Caltrain station this morning. more ›

The federal funding of $465 million which Tesla Motors scored in June of last year is now officially official. The first $100 million is dedicated to building Tesla's powertrain while the remainder will actually build the car. All in all, the loan will create 1,600 new jobs in the Bay Area. more ›

After four students at Gunn High School committed suicide "at or near the same Caltrain crossing in Palo Alto," a group of area parents have asked Caltrain to reduce the speed of trains to a staggeringly slow 5 miles per hour. more ›

The area just south of the East Meadow Drive crossing in Palo Alto has turned into something of a destination spot for depressed teenagers looking to end it all. Since May of this year, there have been three teen suicides at the spot. Last night, at around 10:50 pm, it played host to its fourth. more ›

And now, for a dramatic morning dose of the macabre, we present too you a story about a man accused of attacking a colleague with a meat cleaver in Palo Alto. Happening at "fine Shanghai cuisine" restaurant Jade Palace on California Avenue a little after 7 p.m. last night, the fuzz "found an Asian man in his late 40s or early 50s in the kitchen area with three to four stab wounds to the face and torso from a cleaver," after reporting to the scene. According to Mercury News, the victim was simply drenched in blood. "It was all over the place. It was all over his back," said Richard Reyes, owners of nearby business. "You could see some of his muscles hanging out." more ›

Old hippy dude throwing down with a yuppy at a Michael Pollan talk. In Palo Alto! A small skirmish errupted when the bolo tie wearing hippy was upset by the yuppy not volunteering a saved seat (turns out was saving it for his mom) for an elderly gentleman. Things got good when sunglasses were grabbed, and Stanford students intervened. Isn’t eating well supposed to make you less angry? Oh, and the talk was really good—see him speak at Cal tomorrow, or read his books. more ›

How will this weekend's Transit Camp affect you, the average beleaguered bus rider? In lots of ways: better websites, nicer maps, smarter rides, and information customized exactly to your transit needs ... which all adds up to you getting where you're going, faster and happier. Or at least, that's how it'll be if the Transit Camp evangelists can convince transit agencies to play along. The event is a sort of meeting-of-the-minds between transit-happy hackers and transit officials; the officials own the resources and data, and campers want to liberate it for you. more ›

Wow, one show on Monday and twelve on Friday. This week we definitely start off a bit slow, but by the end of the week, we have a ton of choices. more ›

San Francisco's musical offerings were bountiful Wednesday night ranging from Film School to Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings to The Thermals. It seems, though, that most of you made the correct choice: Vampire Weekend. Now we don't doubt that the other shows weren't amazing -- we were pretty miffed that there were so many choices on one night -- but clearly if you are anybody then you were wearing a blue pin-striped shirt, dark... more ›

Pitchfork has a rich article Fugazi's Joe Lally having thousands of dollars worth of equipment stolen from his touring van while it was parked on Valencia Street. Overnight. more ›

No, there was no collision involving a train. However, a garbage truck apparently struck a bridge in San Mateo, holding up all southbound traffic for about 20 minutes. At first, our weary-sounding conductor said that we would have to wait for a track inspection to determine when we could depart from San Francisco -- "if at all," he added ominously. more ›

Three weeks ago, a Caltrain conductor told the San Jose Mercury News that "Trains stay on tracks and if you stay off the tracks, it's very easy not to get hit by a train" ("Family of Man Killed in Caltrain Accident Files Suit"). more ›

Todd David Burpee, the man who kidnapped and raped a Palo Alto teen last week, just busted out a heavy confession detailing the hour-plus moments he spent with his victim. It seems that this was all because he was upset and "just [wanted] someone to take out his frustration on after a fight with his girlfriend," reports the San Jose Mercury News. They go on to say that "angry after a fight with his... more ›

According Eric Thomas from ABC 7, who went into mighty graphic detail about what happened, a suspect was arrested today for the kidnapping and rape of a 17-year-old Palo Alto teen. A press conference is scheduled at noon (now!), where even more details, names will surely unfold. This past Wednesday a teen was kidnapped in Palo Alto, taken to Sunnyvale (on the 500 block of Fair Oaks Avenue), and then sexually assaulted. She survived... more ›

Readers responded with light speed and razor-sharp accuracy (more or less) when it came to detailing last night's devastating -- body-wash-plummeting-to-the-earth devastating! -- 5.6 quake. We will all look back on October 30, asking ourselves, where were we when the great 5.6 quake of '07 hit? Well, after sending out the we-hope-you're-still-alive-and-kicking call to the SFist team at large, they responded. Here are a few of the shattering moments in the lives of some... more ›

A Palo Alto high school girl survived a kidnapping and sexual assault yesterday afternoon, an ordeal that went on for 90 minutes. At 3 p.m. yesterday, a teen was on the "500 block of Arastradero Road near El Camino Real...near her home, when a man accosted her from behind, hit her in the face several times and dragged her into his car," according to Palo Alto police officer Dan Ryan. The city of Palo... more ›

Update: Oh damn! The video's not working. It's a compilation of all the various calls we've gotten. We'll try re-uploading it when we get home from work. more ›

-- Good God, Genesis (alas, the band) is back. [BeyondChron] more ›

Andrew Frame was recently named by BusinessWeek as a "top entrepreneur under the age of 30". He's aiming to fulfill that promise with ooma, a company he founded in 2005 that has a whole new take on telephony. It enables unlimited U.S. domestic calls to any wireless or landline phone number . ooma's gotten media play for a couple reasons -- for one thing, much has been made in the press and on the podwaves about the involvement of Ashton Kutcher in the company. more ›

Wow, sorry all the news we're posting today is such a downer, but San Jose is reeling from the news of the brutal sexual assault and murder of Sany San, a recent Cambodian immigrant who had survived the Khmer Rouge. more ›