Yesterday while most of us were sweating it out on public transit on a particularly warm Spare the Air day, a San Francisco Shell gas station was giving away full tanks of gas to some 240 motorists in the Mission. Thanks to the unfortunate confluence of Shell's marketing machine and yesterday's breezeless day, the two events collided to give the Examiner a story on possible corporate misbehavior. more ›

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued the a Spare the Air Smog Alert for tomorrow, Wednesday, September 7. While no free-transit magic will happen tomorrow -- or, quite possibly, ever again -- the Air District urges residents to drive less and reduce their energy use in an effort to lower pollutions levels while temperatures rise. more ›

Just what we've always expected, driving in a 2011 BMW X5 is safer and healthier than riding your bike along city streets. According to the Chronicle, "A new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives showed a link between biking in heavy traffic and heart health risks, with cyclists having heart irregularities in the hours after their exposure to a variety of air pollutants on busy roads." Kind of like how being behind the trigger it safer for you than being in front of the barrel. Got it. more ›

The Coast Guard is currently broadcasting warnings and preventing some vessels from entering the Oakland estuary until a container that fell off a ship Saturday night can be located underwater. The container got knocked off a ship's deck by a crane around 8:30 p.m., and divers are now headed out to try to locate it. Given the shallow depth and the size of the thing, we figure this won't take long. Hope that container wasn't full of shampoo or something more toxic! [Examiner] more ›

CBS reports: "President Barack Obama said the United States, China and several other countries reached a 'unprecedented breakthrough' Friday to curb greenhouse gas emissions -- including a mechanism to verify compliance -- after a frenzied day of diplomacy at the U.N. climate talks." The agreement also includes "developing nations" India, South Africa, and Brazil. more ›

While transferring oil from a barge to an oil tanker a little after 6:30 a.m. this morning, oil spilled into the San Francisco Bay this morning, leaving a big sheen. (Ugh.) more ›

Noting that today's warm weather throughout most of the Bay Area is simply unbearable, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has declared today a Spare the Air Day. "Hot temperatures and light winds are expected to produce unhealthy air throughout the region, so the district is encouraging commuters to drive less, take public transit, walk, bike, carpool, link necessary trips and postpone errands, if possible," reports CBS 5. And, as always, there will be NO free transit. (Alas.) more ›

Ciy Attorney Dennis Herrera just announced a agreement with Mirant to close the Potrero power plant by 2010, one of the city's last remaining large power plants. According to our sources, Mirant will pay around $1 million to the city of San Francisco for "pediatric asthma and neighborhood improvements." (Ed Harrington, Sophie Maxwell and Aaron Peskin are "all on hand to receive plaudits for this agreement.") What's more, Mirant power plant folk will have to pony up $100,000 to city attorney's office for legal fees and costs. (Dennis Herrera is just really not someone you want to screw with.) In addition to its polluting smokestack, SF Chron reports, "part of the 40-year-old plant runs under an expired permit allowing it to draw in millions of gallons of water per day and return heated discharge to the bay, killing fish larvae." more ›

Treehugger informed us of the breaking news that the EPA will be moving forward with plans to declare that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases are harmful to our health and to the climate. This will enable the EPA to act on the Supreme Court's 2007 ruling that the Clean Air Act can be used to curb carbon pollution from cars, power plants, and other industrial sources. "Fortunately, [the plan] follows President Obama’s call for a low carbon economy and strong leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “This pollution problem has a solution - one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country’s dependence on foreign oil.” more ›

As particulate matter from the 850 wildfires has ruined our famously crisp and sought-after air in the Bay Area. On the plus side, though, it has made for some gorgeous sunsets. more ›

Perfect for celebrating Earth Day, Citizen Sugar is offering one lucky winner $500 in gas relief. ("Gas relief." Har.) All you have to do is register and take a brief quiz (e.g., "how much does it cost to fill up a 2008 Hummer 2 [H2]?"), and then you'll be be entered in lottery. And if you win, you'll can temporarily stop whining about the price of gas these days. more ›

Tonight, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has asked you, the Bay Area, to drive less as well as holding off on burning wood in fireplaces and woodstoves, which are a large contributor to airtime pollution level. (You hear that, Zuni Cafe and Chez Panisse, you depraved, Hummer-loving, slow-food bastards.) Read more about it here. Also, there's no free transit during winter/fall Spare the Air days. Bummer.... more ›

A photo of a shooting star more ›

Many believe that what it takes to produce, distribute, and recycle water bottles is wasteful when you think about all that fine drinking water that’s there for the taking from Hetch Hetchy. Joe Doss of the International Bottled Water Association argues, “The amount of resin needed to make the bottled water containers has been reduced by about 40 percent over the past five years.” Wow. That has absolutely no impact on how many people actually recycle their bottles. Nor does it take into account the pollution it takes to distribute them. And even if the water bottles were made of starshine, unicorn sprinkles, and fairy dust, we still won’t be forking over any dough for bottled tap water, thank you very much. more ›

For those of you that haven't seen the Top 5 feature before, this is where we recognize you guys for adding to -- or, in many cases, spawning -- the discussion on SFist's comment threads. Our inbox was flooded after we accidentally skipped last week, and we apologize; accordingly, we're highlighting a few extra for this week. It was appropriate though: you guys raised the game even higher than usual, so there's even more to highlight. more ›

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a picture displaying the woes of cruising in a tacky limo on the streets of San Francisco. more ›

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. Hey, why is Sucka Free City before the letters this week? Anti-Jewish slurs at Rainbow Grocery. The story behind that weird killing in Hayes Valley you guys got all worked up at us about (blah blah blah, hipsters, blah blah, SFist is racist, blah blah). Cover article: Disbar more lawyers. We are adoring the cautious yet game-for-adventure tone in this Southern Exposure pie delivery service piece! Meredith Brody bills the Weekly for her belly dancer. Hey, SFist Ced liked it! Let's Get Killed on the spate of bands coming in to perform single albums live, including Sonic Youth with Daydream Nation. We find that phenomenon so mysterious. The Bouncer passes along the theory that there are three types of bars in this city: Irish, hipster, and bars with two Asian women behind the bar. Also -- you may have heard the new Weekly web guy is now no longer with the Weekly -- best of luck to you, Matt Stroud! He was super super nice about the Day Around The Baymixup and we were looking forward to getting to know him! more ›

Say hello to your new next door neighbor: a parking garage. Petitioners are currently collecting signatures for a "build more parking" petition, but the terms are insane: it wouldn't just allow developers to install big garages, it would that all new homes build on extra parking, at the expense of living space. Require! As in, the government says that you don't have a choice! more ›

The University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute has just published a study on the effectiveness of a new method to reduce greenhouse gas emission in California . While it may seem strange that an out-of-state university is concerning itself in California's affairs, we'll take it: the findings are pretty encouraging. more ›

Belmont (the Utica to our Manhattan, if we may make such a daring analogy) is an on-the-go suburb, in love with its cars and asphalt, and with no time for such frivolities as . Mayor Coralin Feierbach is one of the only Bay Area mayors to refuse to sign the Sierra Club's Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement, objecting to the pledge to "reduce sprawl, preserve open space, and create compact, walkable urban communities." Those crazy Al Gore environmentalists want us to WALK? What next! more ›

For those looking to do some traveling over a bridge this New Year's, keep in mind that the fares are going to increase by a buck the moment the clock strikes 2007. The reason? Well, those Bay Bridge retrofits won't pay for themselves, you know. more ›

-Some toys for tots contain possible toxic chemicals. Everybody panic! more ›

-Watch out for those government benefit programs. -York disses Ronnie Lott and Joe Montana with his Santa Clara announcement. You wouldn't want to see Ronnie Lott angry. more ›

Our vegan co-editor and labor-activist editor-at-large are going to kill us, and snide food snobs are already saying, "It's 99 Ranch," but our parents call it Ranch 99 (like our relatives call it King Burger) and we love it. Ranch 99/99 Ranch is the Chinese grocery superstore, busy putting smaller local shops out of business by (presumably) not paying minimum wage and exploiting immigrant labor. They also contribute to environmental pollution by insisting on putting everything in like fifteen different plastic bags and then tying them all together in an intricate stays-put fake square knot. We do like how they've made concessions to the earth -- not by using fewer bags but rather, by now using fifteen bags emblazoned with the message "Don't trash California." Plus, the last time we went to the 9-9, we had a good time reading their health code citations form; we've never seen one that went on for five pages before! So why do we keep going to Ranch 99? Four words: Fry Your Own Fish. That's right! You can buy a fresh fish and at no extra charge, they'll fry it for you to take home. It smells so good (and we presume the frying action kills off any bacteria that might have been introduced from the health code citations). Sprinkle a little soy sauce and scallions and ginger on top when you get home, and you've got yourself a meal. more ›

Chinese artists have been painting the Yangtze River valley and its famous Three Gorges canyons for millennia, adhering to the tradition of painting not just what the valley looks like physically, but also aspiring to portray the spiritual essence of the rocks and gnarled trees. (Wow, it's good to see that we totally have not moved beyond our sophomore "Introduction to Chinese Painting" class in our level of art historical analysis.) more ›

Here we are playing the old curmudgeon again -- but, seriously, we can't stand being buzzed by those super loud, super scary Blue Angels as they practice their feats of derring-do around the oversized office bulding we work in. Last year we were spared their scare tactics, as they didn't come around for Fleet Week. This year, it looks as though we'll be hiding under our desk again every time they thunder by, just like we did in 2003. more ›

Watch out for that lady in the delivery room! A pregnant woman in San Mateo county, enraged at her baby daddy's constant exhortations to prenatal nutrition, stabbed him in the stomach with a serrated knife. The DA says she's had plenty of criminal cases with a pregnant victim, but never one with a pregnant perp. People in SF are wondering if a browned-out fire station on Market and Sanchez might have been able to save some of the people who died in the fire on Capp Street were it not for the budget cuts. Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White notes that the other fire stations responded within 2-4 minutes of the call and that the people who died had died immediately, but other firefighters are calling for a repeal of the brownouts policy. And glug, glug, glug -- a boat sank off the dock of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, leaving only an oil slick where the 30 x 80 foot barge used to be. The barge probably sank because it was constantly being banged around by its neighbor, the so-called "Artship," which had previously been moored in Oakland as an art gallery. The Artship's current caretakers have taken responsibility for the barge's sinking, and will take the appropriate steps to clean up any pollution caused. more ›

Bay Area crime roundup more ›