Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park,\ already offers an undergrad degree in wine business -- but now the school is expanding its program. Graduate students cam now earn an MBA in Wine Business. more ›

A mortuary in Rohnert Park got a restraining order filed against them when it was discovered that they kept decaying bodies on their premises. The authorities were tipped off to the problem when people in the businesses next to the mortuary realized that the awful smell that was coming from next door was decaying bodies and not the KFC/Taco Bell also in the strip mall. So the city sent a couple of inspectors in to check out the sprinkler system and before you could say "abra cadevar," discovered two decaying bodies by a swamp cooler and two others in a garage area. Lest you think the mortuary, that being Abby Chapel of the Redwoods Mortuary, did nothing to prevent the bodies from decaying, the two by the swamp cooler were covered in baby powder. more ›

We were sitting at our desks playing on the computer (cough...surfing porn...cough...) when things start shaking and rolling. At first, we thought it was just some big huge gust of wind, something that can occasionally cause some rumbling. But when it didn't quite stop and picked up in intensity, we began to we realize it wasn't quite the wind and something else and should we then get under something like the coffee table or underneath or a door frame and OH MY GOD IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! more ›

Animal hoarding's always been a lurid fascination of ours, along with people who have sextuplets, and Chris Daly. So have you been following this story about the guy who had over 1000 rats in his house? The man, Robert Dier, had initially tried to separated them by sex in three of the ten cages in his house, but soon became "overwhelmed" (the euphemism of choice for hoarders, according to the episodes of Animal Cops we watch). Interestingly/entertainingly, he lives in Petaluma, which is where Marilyn Barletta, the famous 200+ cat hoarder, is from too. (Note to self: think about opening a Petco in Petaluma.) The man also had seven cats in his house. When asked why the cats didn't eat the rats, the Animal Services manager speculated, "Maybe it was like working in a deli. After a while, you get tired of deli food.") Now, rat fans are outraged that the Petaluma animal shelter euthanized over 1000 of the rats. The collectors say they were trying to mobilize people to adopt them. The animal shelter said in its defense that many of the rats were feral, severely sick (some missing eyeballs, and others with teeth growing into their opposite jaws), and not really adoptable. Nine rats have been adopted, 30 have been sent to LA, 4 are in Rohnert Park, and 150 of the rats are still up for adoption. The shelter says it's carefully screening people, ever since last year when they discovered that someone who'd adopted a rabbit from them was a hoarder as well. (Note to self: That Petco in Petaluma would do great). The final note in this story? The rat hoarder is a convicted armed robber whose home was used as a hideout in the 60s by people trying to kidnap Frank Sinatra Jr., and as the animal shelter manager said:

He's an intelligent man to talk to, but he smells like rat urine. He told me that when he had only 100 of them, he'd let them sleep with him in his bed. They'd get all in his shorts and stuff. And you can't potty train them, so you know they were urinating and defecating in there.

Bad karma, man! Someone stole an SF Fire Department SUV while its legitimate driver was responding to a medical call early Monday morning. SFFD policy is to leave the cars in the ignition so they can leave the lights on (maybe time to revisit the policy), but lock the doors (which the firefighter forgot to do). The 'jacker hit five other cars before abandoning the SUV at Fillmore and Golden Gate and running off with a bag of medical equipment. Roll these up and smoke 'em: A pound of pot found in a jauntily-attired teddy bear (check out the picture!) in Rohnert Park, and Barrett Robbins arrested again for pot possession while awaiting trial on attempted murder charges. The reward fund for the 10 ducks killed at the car wash has grown to around $10,000. They've used the money to start a tip line, at (408) 866-2729. ... and so much news, the Blotter goes to four paragraphs today! It's kind of busy over there at the SFPD: a body found in Chinatown, a body found in Buena Vista Park, and the cops found a rocket launcher in an abandoned car at Pier 70 in Dogpatch. more ›

Okay, did someone just flip a switch inside the brains of Bay Area pit bull mixes to the "kill the two-legged ones" setting? (Yes, we know, it's just excessive media attention and not some kind of new sinister trend.) Yesterday, yet another girl was attacked by a pit bull, this time in San Francisco, and a (neutered) pit bull with a history of aggression in Rohnert Park bit its owner and attacked two other dogs. Meanwhile, the pit bull that attacked the Santa Rosa girl last week (the one on the cover of the Chron) will be euthanized, but no criminal charges will be pressed. Authorities hypothesize that the dog just didn't like the little girl. Is that seven pit bull attacks in the last month? Well, if it's not pit bulls attacking children, it's San Francisco attacking smokers: don't forget the ordinance banning outdoor smoking in city-owned spaces goes into effect this Friday. And hey! Eric Anduri, the dude who threw the beer on Jason Giambi at the A's game last month pled not guilty. Not guilty? Didn't he do this in front of 20,000+ fans? Is he going to plead self-defense? Don't you think his father, the mayor of Lafayette, should be advocating a more manly acceptance of responsibility for his actions? more ›

In SF's first homicide of 2005, a 21-year-old woman from the Sacto area stabbed a high schooler from Novato to death outside the Denny's on Fisherman's Wharf. The high schooler and four of his friends were allegedly attacking the woman and her friends around 6 a.m. on New Year's Day when she pulled out the knife; other reports claim that racial epithets may have been used. There were about 88 homicides in SF in 2004 (scroll to item no. 6). A woman in Rohnert Park was killed in what looks like a drunk-driving accident on New Year's. We say "looks like" because the cops found not just an open container of alcohol, but also a live 3-foot boa constrictor in the car. The police believe that she was wearing the snake to a New Year's party -- an autopsy revealed that she was not, in fact, strangled to death. And in an enterprising effort, a man in southern Alameda County first stole a tow truck in San Mateo and then used the tow truck to steal a Corvette in Fremont. The police found the tow truck and the 'vette in the parking lot of a law office in Hayward, and cornered the man on the second floor. The man then bust through a window and fled, at which point the cops and the dogs set chase. They hunted him down into someone's back yard, where he began swinging lawn furniture at the officers. He was pepper-sprayed and brought in. more ›