According to San Francisco Crime (via Bay City News), at 9:05 a.m. this morning, Sacto resident David Bryant, 51, jumped over the counter at Wachovia Bank (at 200 Pine Street) and snatched some cash. He then fled the scene, all while cartoonishly leaving behind a trail of escaped dollar bills, and then tried carjacking two people with a knife. (Chortle.) He succeeded on the third attempt, kidnapping a cabbie at Bush and Sansome Streets, who drove him a few blocks away. Then, "police were able to stop and arrest Bryant on Leavenworth Street at 9:15 a.m." more ›

Submit your Bay Area finds to found [at] sfist [dot] com or tag them sfist and found on Flickr! Let us know where and when you found the item and any other helpful info. We've gotten some great submissions in the last week, and we'll be getting those up shortly. But here's one we had to "get up" right away! This was spotted on Pine Street by eclipsetuliphead, who also captured the car with "Nothing... more ›

We get a lot of press releases that are basically sneaky requests for free advertising, and they usually get labeled "ignore". But when someone offers us free coffee, we have a hard time ignoring it. more ›

The Recorder, Northern California's legal newspaper, breaks the news that mop-topped progressive pixie Matt Gonzalez is starting a law firm (subscription required) with his old Stanford Law School roommate and former SF public defender colleague, Whitney Leigh. The law firm of Gonzalez and Leigh, LLP will be opening its Pine Street offices on March 1. (We're sure the name Gonzalez goes first purely on an alphabetical basis.) They're hoping to become the city's next high-level trial-oriented civil and criminal defense shop, like prestigious shop Keker and Van Nest, started by former PD John Keker (and where Leigh used to work). Mr. Van Nest is all for it, "The one difference is that Gonzalez has been successful in politics, and John [who lost a supervisor election back in the 70s] hasn't." Ouch! Mr. Van Nest, you'll no doubt be seeing a sharp reduction in your share of the partnership profit distributions next week. Gonzalez will be handling the criminal side and Leigh the civil (since civil, you know, brings in the money). Leigh also hopes to do pro bono progressive work with the Green Party. The other partners on deck in this Superfriends' Hall of Justice are: Aquaman Nima Nami (special powers of financial transactions), Batman Bryan Vereshagin (with the utility belt of insurance fraud, personal injury, and toxic torts). No Wonder Women yet. And filling the Wonder Twin associate role is Enrique Pierce, who previously managed Gonzalez's campaign. (Funny, Pierce is not registered with the state bar. Shape of: a malpractice claim?) more ›