In a bit of fallout from the California congressional redistricting, Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley just switched his affiliation to Independent, thinking maybe that will save his job in a gerrymandered, Democratic-leaning district.

Kevin Kiley is a California Republican in the US House of Representatives, and his District 3 represents nearly the entire California-Nevada border from the Tahoe area all the way down to Las Vegas. But his district is effectively being eliminated by all of the redistricting craziness happening this election cycle.

So maybe to stay in Congress with the new highly Democratic-leaning congressional districts, he can just claim he’s an independent and hope no one notices his voting record for the last two years?

That is exactly what Kevin Kiley is going to try to do. The Associated Press reports that he is Kiley is switching his affiliation to Independent in hopes of winning what will now be a largely Democratic Sixth District that will be centered in the Sacramento area. (He opted not to run against fellow Republican Tom McClintock in what will be a Republican stronghold district, post-redistricting.)

"I will be the sole Independent member of the House of Representatives," Kiley told Politico.

Technically true, but Kiley will only be an Independent in the sense that he calls himself one. He will still likely vote with the Trump agenda 100% of the time! But it does trim Speaker Kevin Johnson’s Republican parliamentary majority down to 217-214, which  creates some technical problems for him.

As for Sacramento area voters, let's say that Kiley is not likely to be the favorite in his race.

Related: Republicans Sue to Try to Stop Prop 50 From Taking Effect  [SFist]

Image: WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WEST VIRGINIA - MARCH 14: U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) listens during a discussion on “Battling Bidenomics” with members of the press at the Greenbrier Hotel on March 14, 2024 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. House Republicans are holding their “2024 House Republican Issues Conference,” also known as the annual House GOP retreat, in West Virginia from March 13-15. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

As West Wing and Thirtysomething actor Timothy Busfield faces child molestation charges in New Mexico, a 25-year-old investigation has surfaced involving the actor at the regional theater he co-founded in Sacramento.

Emmy-winning actor turned television director Timothy Busfield, 68, has been facing some serious allegations out of New Mexico that he groomed and inappropriately touched two twin boys. And a court filing this week surfaced a 25-year-old investigation that occurred at Sacramento's B Street Theatre, which Busfield co-founded with his brother in 1992 — after they had previously launched a children's theater there.

The more recent allegations come from the set of the Fox series The Cleaning Lady, a four-season drama set in Las Vegas that has shot in New Mexico. Busfield has directed six episodes of the series between seasons two and four, and the allegations relate to twin boys who share the role of the main character's son — referred to in court pappers as VL and SL — a role that was recast in Season 4, the final season, reportedly because the twins had aged out of the role.

According to Busfield and the lead actress on the series, Elodie Yung, the mother of the twins had expressed anger about the role being recast, and had allegedly vowed to get revenge on Busfield — though, presumably, the decision was not only his, as he is one of a dozen executive producers and over a dozen directors who have worked on the series.

As Deadline reports, a "torpid" investigation was launched by Albuquerque police over a year ago after allegations made by the boys' mother that Busfield had inappropriately been tickling and kissing the heads of the boys on set. This then escalated in September when the mother re-contacted police, adding that one of her sons claimed Busfield had touched his genitals.

As Bay Area News Group reports, the 2001 internal investigation at the theater in Sacramento stemmed from an incident involving a 16-year-old girl who was auditioning or working at the theater. According to the girl's father, who contacted New Mexico authorities about the incident this week, Busfield allegedly kissed the girl and put a hand down her pants, and after the incident was reportedly, Busfield begged the family not to report it to police, promising to seek therapy. The girl's father, a therapist himself, agreed that this was the best course of action at the time.

The B Street Theatre confirmed that an internal investigation had taken place in 2001, and that Busfield has not been involved with the theater since 2001.

Deadline also reports on two other, additional sexual assault allegations for which Busfield was never charged, which apparently occurred in 1994 and 2012. The earlier incident involved a 17-year-old girl, and the later one a 28-year-old woman. In the 1994 case, Busfield reportedly was ordered to pay out $150,000 in legal fees following an unsucessful countersuit.

Busfield has adamently denied the new allegations, but entered no plea at a hearing in Albuquerque on Wednesday, per Deadline.

Busfield posted a video online before turning himself in, saying, "They’re all lies. I did not do anything to those little boys, and I’m going to fight it. I’m going to fight it with a great team, and I’m going to be exonerated."

Busfield will remain in custody likely until a court hearing next week, after which he may make bail.

Top image: Melissa Gilbert and her husband Timothy Busfield attend the "Busfiled/Gilbert" photocall during the 62nd Monte Carlo TV Festival on June 20, 2023 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Now that the A’s have moved to Las Vegas, they can’t even trademark their own new name, as the US Patent Office has rejected their request, and bootleg shirt makers are licking their chops.

Ever since the Oakland A’s left Oakland to become the Sacramento/Las Vegas A’s, their exploits both on and off the field have been a litany of hilarious embarrassments: the radio broadcast hardware in the new Sacramento ballpark has repeatedly gone on the fritz, the team ranks dead last in Major League Baseball attendance, and who can forget the time they printed up A’s hats that actually said A’ss.  

Now there is a new hilarious embarrassment for the team that will eventually become the Las Vegas A’s. The New York Times reports that the US Patent Office has rejected their attempts to trademark their own new team names, “Las Vegas Athletics” and “Vegas Athletics.” Without those trademarks, the A’s have no legal ability to protect any ownership of those names, so bootleg t-shirt and ballcap makers can pretty much have a field day creating and selling their own Las Vegas Athletics merchandise.

In the words of the US Patent Office, the name is just too vague to patent, because it could mean so many things other than just a sports team.

“ATHLETICS means activities such as sports, exercises and games that require physical skill and stamina,” the US Patent Court wrote in their ruling, according to the Times. “Therefore the prior registration do not support applicant’s claim of acquired distinctiveness and the claim is not accepted.”

This is particularly interesting, because as the law firm Gerben IP writes, the A’s organization does own the trademarks and patents on their (many) previous franchise names, such as Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Athletics, and Kansas City Athletics. And they do still own the trademark on that cursive “Athletics” logo that appears on their jerseys. But the Patent Office would not let them patent the words “Las Vegas” or “Vegas” on that logo.

“The marks in the prior registrations do not support applicant’s claim of acquired distinctiveness because they are not the same marks,” according to the Patent Office’s ruling.

We mentioned that the merchandise bootleggers are likely going to look to make a fortune selling (not illegal!) Las Vegas Athletics gear. The Oakland fan group Last Dive Bar, who’ve organized many humorous reverse boycotts and other fan protests, anticipated this and started selling Las Vegas Athletics shirts months ago. Which is clever, but we have to say, there are a few other Las Vegas A’s mocking t-shirts they sell that we find to be even funnier.

Related: Oakland A’s Mistakenly Print Up “A’ss” Hat, Quickly Remove It, Now It’s Selling for $5,000 on eBay [SFist]

Image: MINNEAPOLIS, MN - AUGUST 21: A detail view of the Las Vegas patch on the Athletics jersey against the Minnesota Twins on August 21, 2025 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)

• Suzie Smith, the nurse who was aboard the medical helicopter that crashed on Highway 50 in Sacramento Monday has died. Smith helped people around the world as a long-time traveling nurse before settling down in Sacramento for two decades. [CBS Sacramento]

• Six people were killed and at least 10 others were injured in a shooting in Leland, Mississippi Friday night at a gathering that followed a high school homecoming game. Additionally, two others were killed in a separate Friday night shooting on the grounds of a high school in Heidelberg, Mississippi. [ABC News]
• Perla Rosario Henriquez Ulloa, 21, of San Francisco was arrested and booked on multiple charges Thursday relating to the hit-and-run crash in Bernal Heights that killed Binod Budhathoki, a 30-year-old Nepalese immigrant, last weekend. [Chronicle]
• About 100 people on skateboards, bikes, and roller skates took part in Saturday’s city-approved hill bomb in Twin Peaks, a big contrast to the unsanctioned 2023 hill bomb that resulted in 100 arrests. [Chronicle]

• The Bay Area is expected to see rain with possible thunderstorms and lightning Monday morning, which could potentially cause minor urban overflow and small stream flooding. [KPIX]
• Oakland’s 17th Street serves as an example of how creating a walkable city without addressing the inevitable increase in cost of living leads to widespread vacancies and fractured communities. [Cities by Diana]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

After a first interim season in the state capital, the former Oakland Athletics are still not going to start calling themselves the Sacramento A's in 2026, but they will have 'Sacramento' emblazoned on their alternate jerseys, in a nod to the local crowd.

The team took some shit for trying to go city-less this past season, officially being known as just The A's, with just a tiny patch that said Sacramento on the sleeve of their jerseys. But next season, as the team just revealed, the A's will have gold colored alternate jerseys — worn for Saturday home games and certain other games — that say 'Sacramento' right across the front.

As the Associated Press reports, the minor gesture in the direction of Sacramento fans, as the team waits for their Las Vegas stadium to be built, may not do much to help their league-low attendance rates at games — but it might help a bit!

"The new ‘Sacramento’ jersey is our way of … saying thank you to the fans, businesses and community leaders who helped bring Major League Baseball to town," said A’s President Marc Badain in a release.

This season, the cityless A's saw an average of 9,487 fans at every home game, per the AP, which is even lower than the low average of 11,529 per game last year at the Oakland Coliseum. And that was even lower than another team playing in temporary digs, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who saw an average of 9,713 attendees at their games being played at the Yankees' spring training grounds, Steinbrenner Field — due to damage from Hurricane Milton to their Tropicana Field.

As the AP notes, the only thing that may have saved the A's from even lower attendance this season was the relatively mild summer we had across California. Sacramento didn't see anything like the scorching temperatures it had in 2024, with the high temp for a home game being just a modest 90 degrees. The team's hottest game was actually one that they played in 99-degree heat in Atlanta on July 10.

Previously: A's Likely Dreading Playing on Hot Turf For 3 Years In Crummy Triple-A Stadium In West Sacramento

A Sacramento man who was arrested last week for firing a gun at the headquarters of a local ABC television affiliate — in the wake of the Jimmy Kimmel/Charlie Kirk controversy — apparently had written messages critical of the Trump administration, and made a note to himself about doing something "scary."

Not long after a drive-by shooting Friday at ABC10's headquarters in Sacramento, we learned that a local man had been arrested. On Sunday, we learned the suspect's name — he is 64-year-old Anibal Hernandez Santana of Sacramento, and he was identified by his vehicle. He was also re-arrested on Saturday by the FBI, about four hours after making bail, and now possibly faces both state and federal charges.

Thankfully, no one was injured in the shooting, but the station headquarters was occupied at the time, and a bullet hole was visible in its front window.

The immediate question went to motive — was Hernandez Santana a MAGA guy who wanted to punish ABC for being the home of Jimmy Kimmel, perhaps, after he made comments about how Republicans were looking to cast blame for Charlie Kirk's shooting? Or was he, like many liberals, appalled by the free-speech implications of ABC silencing Kimmel?

As Bay Area News Group reports, via Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, investigators allegedly found an anti-Trump book in Hernandez Santana's car, as well as a handwritten note that said, "For hiding Epstein and ignoring red flags." The note also reportedly mentioned FBI Director Kash Patel, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi, and suggested that they were "next."

Investigators also reportedly found a calendar note stuck to the suspect's refrigerator at his home, indicating Friday's date, September 19, and the phrase, "Do the next scary thing."

Hernandez Santana was charged Monday in state court with assault with a deadly weapon, negligent use of a firearm, and shooting into an occupied building. And in federal court he's been charged with interfering with a federally licensed station, and discharging a firearm within a school zone.

According to the DA, Hernandez Santana "was also looking at other places" as potential targets for violence, and the shooting appears to have been politically motivated.

Hernandez Sanata's defense attorney, Mark Reichel, says his client is "innocent unless and until he is found otherwise," and he expects that the Trump Department of Justice will use the case to make an example of Hernandez Santana's politics.

"I am certain the Trump administration and his DOJ dislikes his political posts on social media, and they will take any opportunity to take a state crime committed by someone who is considered ‘liberal’ and make it a federal offense to use it as political fodder for their never ceasing attempts to demonize those who disagree with the President’s policies," Reichel said, per Bay Area News Group.

A legal expert, Michael Wise, told KPIX last week that he was surprised by the FBI's involvement, given the minor nature of the federal charges, and suggested that regardless the state charges would carry far more serious potential sentences.

Hernandez Santana's Xitter account, which remains live, has been seized upon by Trump supporters for its litany of anti-Trump posts, including one from last Thursday in which he asks "Where is a good heart attack when we need it the most?? Please Join in my thoughts and prayers for the physical demise of our fearful leader."

Also, on Friday, presumably not long before he allagedly took a shot at ABC10's headquarters building, Hernandez Santana posted about a Republican congressman calling Charlie Kirk the "13th apostle," writing, "This is Blasphemy. can't believe these Republicans sucking up to their own twisted show."

As the New York Times reports, Hernandez Santana is a retired lobbyist in Sacramento who spent 20 years working as a legislative advocate for health care, tribal, and labor interests. He is a Puerto Rico-born Army veteran who got his law degree from the former UC Hastings, now University of California Law San Francisco.

Previously: Shots Reportedly Fired at ABC Affiliate In Sacramento

• The Department of Defense released a memo Friday tightening up media access to the Pentagon, including prohibiting journalists from quoting unnamed military sources. Additionally, all media entering the Pentagon must send their stories covering the US military to officials for approval prior to publishing, including unclassified information. [CBS News]
• Daniel Patrick Rodriguez Jr., 42, who is suspected of fatally stabbing Robert Paul Byrd II, 35, in an SF crosswalk on September 10 while Byrd was walking his child to school, pleaded not guilty to murder and child endangerment charges Friday. A physical fight reportedly broke out between the two when they brushed shoulders in the crosswalk, and bystanders had to pull them apart before Rodriguez broke away and allegedly stabbed Byrd once in the chest. [Chronicle]
• Sacramento police arrested 64-year-old Anibal Hernandez Santana of Sacramento in connection to Friday’s shooting at the ABC10 news station; he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, shooting into an occupied building, and negligent discharge of a firearm. [KRON4]
• More than 500 cars took part in Saturday’s epic Lowrider Parade in the Mission — San Francisco’s first official lowrider parade. [Bay Area TV]

• The South Bay city of Milpitas is expanding its SMART (Simple, Mobile, Access to Reliable Transit) program, an on-demand rideshare service for transit-dependent residents, by 50% thanks to a $2.77 million grant from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. [Bay Area News Group]
• Justino Lopez-Perez, 31, of Bay Point, Erickson Melendez, 23, of Concord, and a third unidentified suspect were charged Friday in connection to the shooting of three people in a Concord parking garage Tuesday night. [KTVU]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

One can only imagine the motivations for a person doing a drive-by shooting to send an apparent message at Sacramento's ABC10, the same week that Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off the air for comments about the Charlie Kirk shooting.

We're living in some scarily gun-crazed times, and that now includes a random drive-by shooting incident outside Sacramento ABC affilliate ABC10. As KRON4 reports, via Sacramento police, shots were fired around 1:30 pm outside the station's offices on the 400 block of Broadway, leaving three bullet holes in a window, but thankfully no one was injured.

"There is no suspect information to release," the Sacramento Police Department said on X. "At this time, our detectives have responded out and will processing this scene and conducting follow up."

Update: As of Saturday morning, Sacramento police said they had arrested a suspect, a 64-year-old Sacramento man, whose name has not been released. As ABC 7 reports, the suspect was identified by his vehicle.

The shooting comes amid escalating rhetoric from Republicans and conservative commentators about violence from the "radical left." And despite there being no clear statement of motive from Charlie Kirk shooting suspect Tyler Robinson, and signs that he clearly acted alone and had no particular group affiliations, President Trump and his allies have been promulgating a narrative that this was an act of political violence spurred by the larger Democratic Party.

On Wednesday, ABC announced the indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live after comments that Kimmel made Monday about the right wing's attempts to cast blame for Kirk's killing.

• CHP is searching for 38-year-old Coretta Gibson who was last seen in San Lorenzo around 8 pm on August 29. [KRON4]
• State lawmakers passed a bill Saturday that would provide safeguards surrounding the state’s vaccine policy to prevent interference by the federal government. [KGO]

• San Francisco held the ribbon-cutting for Cityside Park on Treasure Island Saturday, which will start out as a 6-acre park and then grow to eventually extend along the entire west side of the island. [KPIX]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

This week: Michelle Tea’s Valencia turns 25, and California turns 175; Boozie Brunch boosts local restaurants while Culinary Cinema pairs films with three-course meals; a state park thrives post-wildfire and Point Molate is opening to the public; plus, puppy yoga, cat Pilates, and Bay Area makers.

Boozie effect

Local influencer Novi Mitchell, who’s Oakland born and raised, has built a 169,000-strong Instagram following with her Boozie Brunch account by spotlighting Bay Area restaurants big and small.

Between a full-time job at Microsoft and weekend filming, she turns casual food adventures into a platform that boosts mom-and-pop spots. One rave review can transform business overnight — Samara’s Southern Creations says reservations haven’t slowed since she posted their deep-fried waffles with peach cobbler butter. — KGO

Dinner and a movie, elevated

At Pruneyard Cinemas in Campbell, classic movies come with a side of chef-crafted flair. The Culinary Cinema series pairs films with three-course dinners inspired by the story, characters, or setting.

Think pink-hued appetizers for Legally Blonde, or a cannoli nod for The Godfather. Mixologist Jacqueline Aguirre tops it off with specialty cocktails echoing the films’ moods, providing a full sensory experience. — Bay Area News Group

New shoots, old giants

Five years after the CZU Lightning Complex fires, much of Big Basin Redwoods State Park’s forest floor is exposed to full sunlight where old-growth redwoods once formed a dense canopy. The trees are tapping into decades of stored energy, sprouting green shoots in a “bottlebrush” effect that hints at their resilience.

Down below, tiger lilies, California lilacs, huckleberry, blackberry, Pacific madrone and tanoak seedlings fill the gaps, stretching toward the sun. Birds, pollinators, and other small critters have moved in to stake their claim. As the canopy slowly rebuilds, the forest’s plant and animal communities continually respond and adapt. — Santa Cruz Sentinal

Michelle Tea’s Valencia, 25 years later

In her 2000 novel, Valencia, Michelle Tea captured San Francisco’s 1990s butch-dyke lesbian scene with a raw, immediate voice, gaining her widespread acclaim. The 25th-anniversary edition revisits the book’s impact, highlighting its cast of real-life characters and its portrait of a generation.

Valencia was later adapted into a feature film, which premiered at Frameline Film Festival in 2013, per SFist. Fast, chaotic, and unflinching, Valencia captures the streets, bars, and poetry readings of an iconic era in San Francisco. The book remains a touchstone of lesbian history, art, and rebellion. — Autostraddle

Point Molate preserved

After decades of plans, proposals, and lawsuits, 82 acres of Richmond shoreline at Point Molate have officially become open to the public. The East Bay Regional Park District bought the land from the Guidiville Rancheria for $40 million, securing space for trails, open access, and environmental preservation.

The site includes Ohlone shellmounds, the Winehaven castle, and former Navy warehouses. A 2.5-mile trail is in the works, connecting the area to the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge. Once complete, visitors will be able to explore a new stretch of Bay front open space. — SFGate

Sixteen artists in SOMA

September at Arc Gallery in SOMA blends small-scale art, music, and conversation. The FourSquared exhibition features sixteen Bay Area artists, each showing sixteen works under $800.

Events include Art & Sound with the Berkelium String Quartet on September 10, a SOMA West CBD Happy Hour on the 18th, and an Artists Talk and Reception on the 20th, all in the heart of Arc’s multi-gallery, studio, anyone d arts hub.

The show continues through October 4, alongside Arc’s supportive artist community, Kearny Street Workshop, and Café Suspiro. — Arc Studios, Cafe Suspiro

Berkeley vendor who gives

If you’ve ever bought an African hat or basket on a Berkeley corner, there’s a good chance it came from veteran street vendor Viveca Jones, who's been part of the community for nearly four decades. Jones tells Berkeleyside she was the first to use a cash register at the Berkeley Flea Market back in the ‘70s. These days, she can be found at Shattuck & Vine, Monterey Market, and the downtown farmers’ market.

Jones spends her earnings feeding people twice a day, setting out food boxes and fruit she’s picked from neighbors’ trees: “Helping others keeps me going.” — Berkeleyside

Puppy planks & cat pilates

Move, stretch, and find your balance—sometimes with a paw in the mix. The Bay Area’s animal-assisted fitness scene includes puppy yoga at The Puppy Sphere and Puppies & Yoga, cat-centered Pilates at KitTea Café, goat yoga at Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay, and even early-morning sessions among zebras at the San Francisco Zoo.

Mats, cuddles, and unexpected companions included — just be ready for a little animal-assisted improvisation. — 7x7

Presses, prints, and local makers

The Box SF’s historic 1920s building opens September 6–7 for its monthly fair, where local artists and makers fill two floors with handmade goods, crafts, and vintage finds. The ground-floor Pressroom and Mercantile, a museum-like antique letterpress shop, adds another layer of curiosity with restored printing presses and millions of pieces of printed history.

Free and open to the public, the fair turns the space into a hands-on, browse-and-shop experience celebrating Bay Area creativity. — The BoxSF, teresa.sw

California turns 175

California celebrates 175 years of statehood on Tuesday, September 9, at the State Capitol in Sacramento, featuring family-friendly activities, food trucks, birthday cake, and California-grown treats. A laser display follows 30 minutes after sunset. The State Library marks its own 175th birthday that same day with tours and cake.

Additionally, the California Museum will host a Statehood Celebration on September 6 with historic artifacts — including the original 1850 California Constitution — live music, dance, crafts, and a film screening.

The anniversary is part of a broader slate of in-person and virtual events throughout the month across the state. — CA.gov

Top Image: Lily Moon/Flickr

Previously: Field Notes: Muttville's New HQ, Tactile Maps, Pavement Plants, ‘Fairyland’ Flick, and a Hidden Mansion

In this week's Field Notes: from a chic Mission dog shelter and a mansion under the Bay Bridge to pavement plants and dahlias in Oakland. Also, tactile SF maps, Obon in the park, queer family stories, cat zines, and a Sacramento ghost town.

Inside Muttville’s chic new HQ

In San Francisco’s Mission, Muttville’s new shelter blends style and dog-friendly design with Missoni carpets, playful murals, and Zen rooms for newcomers to decompress.

Interior designer Ken Fulk helped furnish the space with stylish but functional donations from storage. The on-site vet clinic, grooming area, and open adoption rooms keep tails wagging and humans lingering — where short visits often stretch into hours of play and companionship. — Dwell, neemtravels

New film traces LGBTQ+ SF family life

Fairyland, opening nationwide October 10, tells the story of poet and activist Steve Abbott and his daughter Alysia as they build a life together in San Francisco after her mother’s death.

Based on Alysia Abbott’s memoir, the film follows their unconventional family through the city’s queer community of the 1970s and into the devastation of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. It shows how love and resilience carried people through a hard chapter in LGBTQ+ history. — Edge Media Network

A Japanese American celebration in Golden Gate Park

BonPOP reimagines the Obon festival with dance, taiko, and ritual led by Japantown artists and cultural practitioners in Golden Gate Park on August 31.

Obon, a 500-year-old tradition originating in Buddhist and Taoist festivals, is marked across Japan each August with temple visits, lanterns, and family gatherings in honor of one’s ancestors — and BonPOP carries that spirit into San Francisco. — BonPOP

Tactile maps

Maps you can feel, shapes that spark memory and imagination — Fully Tactile Art SF’s Exploring Maps exhibition turns navigation into touch, emotion, and connection.

A nonprofit dedicated to free public art, they create spaces that engage all the senses and let artists reimagine how their work is experienced. Runs August 30–September 7. — Fully Tactile Art

Zine dad

Oakland dad, preschool volunteer, and longtime arts and justice professional, Channing Kennedy, draws the family cats for his kids every school day.

He’ll be at Berkeley’s Zine Fest August 23 (sorry for the late notice) and SF Zine Fest next Saturday, August 31, with new zines, cute stickers, and pawsitive vibes. — Berkeley Public Library

Gold Rush underfoot in Old Sacramento

On Sacramento’s riverfront, Old Sacramento still has wooden sidewalks, brick storefronts, and the kind of Gold Rush atmosphere that feels almost staged — except it’s real.

Decades of digs have made it one of the country’s most intensely studied 19th-century sites, with archaeologists unearthing bottles, tools, and everyday scraps of life. A historic district layered over an excavation site turned tourist stop. — Secret San Francisco

Mansion under the bridge

From the road it’s easy to miss, but tucked on Yerba Buena Island there’s a full-size mansion sitting almost directly beneath the Bay Bridge. It looks out at the water but mostly lives in the bridge’s shadow. Built in 1900 for Navy commanders, the Nimitz House once hosted brass and dignitaries, and schoolkids used to stop by with birthday cards for Admiral Chester Nimitz himself.

For a time, the house served as an event venue, which was short-lived due to the constant hum of traffic. These days it’s just another relic on the island — weathered, quiet, and nearly invisible to drivers above. — SFGate

Life in the cracks

Biology educator Mr. Kelkar turns a crack in the Oakland pavement into a classroom, pointing out foxtail, barley seed, marsh parsley, and other hardy invaders.

His whirlwind lesson shows how a handful of species dominate urban landscapes — and what we lose when they crowd out native plants. — Oakland Now

Explosion of color at Lake Merritt

The Lake Merritt gardens are full of dahlias, lined up for the San Leandro Dahlia Society’s annual show. Rows of yellow, pink, purple, orange, and white flowers fill the space, many named after family members or grown from cross-pollinated varieties.

Award-winning blooms like Olivia Maureen and Verde sit alongside favorites like “Just Married.” Each flower must bloom for three years before it can be officially named, ensuring only the strongest varieties make the cut.

After the show, the plants continue to bloom until October, when tubers are dug up, stored, and replanted in spring. Bouquets are sold to support ongoing garden care. — The Oaklandside

Dancing with visitors

For one day only, Alonzo King LINES Ballet steps into Ragnar Kjartansson’s The Visitors, weaving live movement through the iconic video installation on SFMOMA’s sixth floor.

Dancers respond to and expand the work, turning projections into a stage where choreography becomes its own living conversation.

The Visitors installation itself runs through September 28, so catch it while you can. — SFMOMA

Top image: Muttville/Facebook

Field Notes: Recology AIR 35th, Aquatic Park Doc, Rodin with Pipe Organ, and Teen Chase Film

The month-long search for missing Sacramento mother of four, Whisper Owen, 36, and her baby daughter Sandra McCarty, 8 months, ended Sunday when they were found dead in their car, which was submerged in an irrigation canal under a bridge in San Joaquin County.

As Bay Area News Group reports, Owen and her baby were last seen on July 15 when they were visiting family in Fresno after a doctor’s appointment. They headed back to the Sacramento area around 5 p.m. As Sacramento’s KCRA reports, it’s believed that Owen took a backroads route through Stanislaus County, presumably to avoid getting a ticket for a broken tail light, as reported by SFGate.

KCRA writes that officers from the San Joaquin and Stanislaus County sheriff's offices had previously searched the area where the pair were found on August 8 with no success, prompting Owen’s family to seek additional assistance.

Bay Area News Group writes that Owen’s silver 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV was located on Sunday through a joint effort between underwater search-and-recovery team, Adventures with Purpose, which used sonar to pinpoint the vehicle’s location, and a diver from Angels Recovery.

As KGO reports, Owen tried to pull her daughter to safety, according to the searchers, but the pair became trapped under the bridge. What caused it is still unclear.

“Our hearts go out to the family,” said Heather Brent, spokeswoman for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office. “This is absolutely not the outcome that anybody anticipated or wanted.”

Bay Area News Group writes that Owen leaves behind three children, ages 3, 8, and 17.

“It means we can find some way to move forward and accept this loss,” Richard Owen, Whisper Owen’s brother, told CBS Sacramento. “She has other children that have to find a way to move on without their mother or their baby sister.”

Image: Fresno County Sheriff's Office

• Workers are unionizing at four Blue Bottle Coffee East Bay locations — a  Nestle-owned company, citing unsafe conditions, lack of benefits, and management neglect, including a sewage leak that required OSHA intervention. After a worker who read the union letter was fired and management failed to respond by the June 20 deadline, employees held pickets and filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. [Oaklandside]
• Despite ridership being up 55% since last year, Caltrain will raise its base fare by 25 cents starting Tuesday to help offset a projected $75 million annual deficit. The agency says it may face deep service cuts and station closures without additional funding. [East Bay Times]
• A man who ambushed and killed Sacramento police officer Tara O’Sullivan during a 2019 domestic violence call was sentenced to death Friday, though the execution is unlikely due to California’s moratorium. Officer O’Sullivan, 26, was remembered as a rising star, and a local bridge was memorialized in her name. [SFGate]
• Here’s a running list that tracks every person killed by San Francisco police since 2000, which is now at 65 — most of them young men of color, many with mental illness or experiencing homelessness. [Mission Local]
• Two more former guards at Dublin’s now-shuttered federal women’s prison — infamously dubbed “the rape club” — have been charged with sexually abusing inmates, bringing the total number of accused employees to ten in a scandal that has led to multiple convictions, lawsuits, and a $116 million federal settlement. [KPIX]
• After an elderly Pleasanton woman lost over $200,000 to a phone scam, police arrested a 35-year-old courier using a sting operation with fake cash during a planned pickup. [Bay Area News Group]

CBS News California’s Julie Watts and her daughter’s fifth grade class investigated the harmful “Sephora Kids” skincare trend aimed at tweens and helped bring attention to AB 728, a bill that passed a committee 4-2 but was quietly killed in Sacramento.

The students partnered with Watts and the CBS News California team to investigate a troubling trend: beauty brands marketing adult-grade skincare to tweens. Their reporting revealed that viral products — often promoted by kid-fluencers — frequently contain potent ingredients like retinol and alpha hydroxy acids, which dermatologists say can harm young skin.

Assemblymember Alex Lee of Milpitas, the youngest member serving on the Assembly, recently authored AB 728, which seeks to restrict the sale of certain anti-aging skincare products to children under 13.

“Lots of companies profit — they make money — off of things we don’t feel good about,” Lee explained to the fifth graders. “I think it’s really bad that companies make money off of children.”

11-year-old Scarlett Goddard-Strahan told the Assembly she unknowingly used a retinol product and developed painful side effects that left her unable to sleep for two weeks:

Years later, I still have bumps on my cheeks. If you look at my cheeks now, they get red and itchy when I sweat and when I am out in the sun. I used those products because I wanted to feel pretty and more confident. But now I feel embarrassed and pretty self-conscious.

During the report, other students pointed to how brightly colored packaging draws kids in, while health warnings are printed too small to notice.

SFist asked our own 11-year-old about her experience with beauty products, to which she responded, “The trends can trick our brains into wanting to try them.” She said she already knew to avoid retinol prior to the news report but not the other ingredients. "I got red bumps on my face one time."

But the bill faced pushback from industry groups and some health advocates. Margaret Gladstein, representing the California Retailers Association, warned it would be “impossible” for stores to enforce. Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan cautioned that defining “anti-aging” in law would be difficult, noting that many anti-aging ingredients have broader uses.

Although the bill cleared its first policy committee with a 4–2 vote, it was quietly shelved by Appropriations Chair Buffy Wicks, halting its progress for the year. The students, according to Watts, are still waiting for a response to their request to interview her.

Watts explained her core motivation for pursuing this story and deciding to cover it through their eyes, “If I, as an investigative reporter, can’t figure out which of these products are safe, then what about parents who don’t investigate for a living? What about your parents? And that’s the concern.”

While AB 728 may be off the table for now, the students’ campaign has already raised awareness around a growing concern: that children are being marketed — and sold — skincare products their bodies aren’t ready for, without clear warnings or oversight.

And if their early activism is any indication, these kids aren’t done yet.

Image: ATHVisions/Getty Images

A Laotian-born artist who previously lived in San Francisco, Somboun Sayasane, was reported missing the day after Christmas from his South Sacramento home, and now his roommate has been arrested in connection with his death.

Sayasane, 75, was reported missing on December 28 by family members after he was last seen on Christmas Day near his home at 40th Street and 41st Avenue in South Sacramento, and authorities listed him as an at-risk missing person, due to his age and health issues. Now, four months later, his body has been discovered in some woods in Placerville, about 45 miles away, and his 32-year-old roommate, Benjamin Dougherty, is in police custody.

As KCRA reports via court documents, authorities believe that Sayasane died on or around December 26. Authorities have not yet established a motive for the crime, but they say that Dougherty had help from his 74-year-old father, Robert Dougherty, in disposing of Sayasane's body around December 31.

The body was found near Old Toll Road in Placerville, in a remote part of the Sierra foothills, sometime around April 17, at which point this became a homicide investigation.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office tells SFGate that both Dougherty men were arrested in separate locations in Petaluma on April 17. Benjamin Dougherty has been charged with first-degree murder, and Robert Dougherty has been charged with being an accessory after the fact. Both are being held without bail.

KCRA reports that Robert Dougherty had a hearing before a judge today.

Sayasane, a refugee from Laos, was living in San Francisco 20 years ago and teaching art at the deYoung and the YMCA when he produced a book of paintings of Golden Gate Park titled The Park in the City.

He befriended Rolling Stone journalist Ben Fong-Torres around that time, and Fong-Torres wrote this brief profile of him and his love of karaoke. Both men frequented Yet Wah, the former Richmond District dim sum restaurant that had a karaoke bar, which closed in 2009.

As Fong-Torres tells SFGate this week, "Sayasane was one of the good ones. He was all about positivity and community, and he had great times expressing himself through art and music."