Since San Diego is SF's sister down south, and seeing as how our coastline has seen its fair share of large fish attacks, we thought we should mention what happened today. Dave Martin, 66, a retired veterinarian (ironically) and a member of a triathlon club was killed by a great white shark in Solana Beach, 150 yards offshore....

The Library Tower (AKA the U.S. Bank Tower) in Los Angeles could soon be the second tallest building west of the Mississippi thanks to San Francisco's proposed Transbay Terminal. While the Library Tower, located in downtown Los Angeles, stands at an alluring 1,018-feet tall, the Transbay Terminal is primed to win the measuring contest at 1,200-feet. You know, we're just saying. Not to brag or anything. Anyway, our tallest skyscrapers so far are as......

It's going to be a grand ole party (sorry, we had too...) over at Bottom of the Hill on Sunday night where Grand Ole Party will be headlining. They just finished a very successful tour with Rilo Kiley and Vampire Weekend and are celebrating the physical release of their debut album, Humanimals (which came out earlier this month). Check out three of their recently recorded songs over at Daytrotter; it's pretty damn cool. Hailing......

Former editor of The Arizona Republic, vice president of The Cincinnati Enquirer, and top editor for the Reno Gazette-Journal and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Bay Area's Ward E. Bushee was just named executive VP and editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. After graduating from San Diego State University (dude!) in 1971 with a degree in history, Bushee started his career at The Salinas Californian in 1975 and then over the Marin Independent Journal. Then,......

The rock et roll pioneer and hardcore curmudgeon died today in San Marcos, San Diego. He made a name for himself when he discovered a young Tina Turner, and the rest is Academy Award-nominated history. Toward the end of his life, he was remorseful about his treatment of Tina. "I know what I am in my heart. And I know regardless of what I've done, good and bad, it took it all to make me what I am today." We hear you, Ike. We hear you....

Here's todays sports news...

Joe Gallagher says, "Waaaah!" Don't forget, in just a couple of hours, Ted Strawser, founder of SFPartyParty, will be moderating a Halloween and Public Events debate between the Mayoral Candidates in the Castro at the Harvey Milk Plaza (Castro Muni Station). Watch as they call each other names and declare/deny next Wednesday's (un)Halloween in the Castro to be a disaster area the likes of San Diego!......

But some good news: The LA Times has a helpful breakdown worth a moment of your time, on how you can help people (and pets!) in need right now. We've re-printed it for your convenience: ...

Whether you like it or not, SoCal is a part of us. So, this one is going out to our lower half: stay safe, San Diego and SoCal. Fueled by disgusting, freakishly warm Santa Ana winds, coastal and inland areas are on fire. La Gov declared a state of emergency last night for San Diego and seven surrounding counties. Work and school has been canceled; people evacuated. Ugh. In a rare state of concern, we......

It really is all about the other side of Market Street now. Along with neighborhoods that we've heard of before like Pike Place in Seattle; Hillcrest in San Diego; and Park Slope in Brooklyn, N.Y. -- our xenophobia runs deep, folks -- as well as hoods that we've never heard of such as Chatham Village, Pittsburgh; Eastern Market neighborhood of Washington, D.C.; Elmwood Village in Buffalo, N.Y.; and Old West Austin in Austin, our......

-- Norman Nsu to return to Redwood City. [ABC7] -- Beth Spotswood writes in real-time about this year's Macy's Passport, with SFist aluma Eve Batey as the Virgil to her Dante. [Chron] -- Ed Jew trail delayed. [Examiner] -- Press conference of San Diego's mayor reversing his decision on same-sex marriage after his daughter comes out. Really, it's amazing footage. [CBS5] -- The U.S. (well, the South) keeping us safe from teens' exposed underwear.......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

All this kafuffle over the Patriot's version of sex, lies, and videotape can only remind us of one thing-- the Greatness of the Raidahs. What other football team is so synonymous with cheating? It's part of their legend, their mystique, their je ne sais quoi. Hell, even Lisa Simpson even knows this. Or, as John Madden put it: "everybody says the Raiders cheat...OK, we cheat. So, what are you going to do about it?" ...

-- Democrat fundraiser Norman Hsu is on the run! [Chron, KGO] -- Fred Thompson to run for Prez. [CBS5] -- Now more than ever before, San Diego sucks. [CBS5] -- Cruising, it seems, also sucks. [SFBG] -- More and more murder. (Weren't we guaranteed something about a murder-rate reduction last year?) [Chron] -- Santa Clara fire stills rages. [KRON4] -- History of the Cadillac Hotel at Eddy and Leavenworth. [BeyondChron] -- Vallejo giraffe dead.......

Today's the day! They've finally restarted Southwest service out of SFO, so those of you who hate to schlep all the way to Oakland so you can stand in line for a non-guaranteed seat assignment can rejoice. Gavin Newsom said it was good for the environment to have Southwest at all three Bay Area airports so people can go to the airport closest to their house. We hope Gavin's taking BART or Caltrain to his......

Hey, all you singles in San Francisco/Oakland, looks like you live in the right place. Our fair city was tops in Forbes 7th Annual Best Cities for Singles Report....

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

Remember Marcus Thiele and Kevin Buckley (perhaps this interview will refresh your memory)? They are the co-creators of "The Strange and Many Eyes of Dr. LeFaux," a comic book property that has just landed them in the Top 10 of AT&T and Platinum Studio's "Comic Book Challenge" contest, in which the winner receives a "multi-media development and publishing deal."...

You know how sometimes we point out when an out-of-town publication takes an outside-in look at our fair city? We've pointed to such pieces in the L.A. Times and the Economist even recently. Well, our lovely sister site, LAist, did much the same, criticizing San Francisco Chronicle Food Maestro Michael Bauer's recent take on the L.A. Food scene. ...

We've a tip that the well-respected pollster, Field Research Corp. (who generate the oft-cited "Field Polls"), is closing its San Francisco offices. ...

Platinum Studios, a comic book publisher (KISS 4k (yes, about the band) and Hero by Night) is hosting a sort of "American Idol" for comic creators. A few of those contestants are from right here in the Bay Area. Kevin Buckley is the writer on this project and an artist in his own right, though Marcus Thiele, his partner, is the artist on their pitch: "The Strange and Many Eyes of Dr. LeFaux." Kevin and Marcus took a few minutes to talk about their art and living in the Bay Area. ...

We mentioned a few weeks ago that the funding for California's oft-proposed bullet train system is suspect. Things are looking up in a way, as the High Speed Rail Authority approved the project's first phase. However, the Fresno Bee recently reported another wrinkle: Since the management for San Diego, the Southern California Association of Governments, is pushing for "magnetic levitation trains," rather than steel-wheeled ones, that city may get left on the boarding platform. ...

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation dotted the eyes and crossed the tees for Sir Richard Branson's airline, Virgin America, to begin flying out of SFO, which will actually be its home base. Huzzah, more local jobs! The company is planning a mid-summer launch....

While intra-city burrito debates are a San Francisco tradition, we were a bit shocked to come across this article from a San Diego-based pub in which a "burrito expert" of sorts totally disses the San Francisco burrito! ...

We think everyone knows things are pricey out here, and Forbe's is utilizing some interesting methodology to glean "overpricey' from the "pricey," and turn it into everyone's favorite, a Top 10 list. Well, we weren't the worst; that honor went to San Diego. ...

Royals 2 A's 1- So who is this Jack Cust and where the hell did he come from? He's from New Jersey and was drafted in '97 by the Dbacks. He then went from Arizona to Colorado to Baltimore and to San Diego and his only major accomplishment in the bigs up until this past week was tripping on the basepaths during a rundown when he was on the Orioles. All along, he was known......

Continuing a string of semi-interesting news regarding lower-cost airlines, Southwest has announced that it's starting serveice directly to and from SFO on August 26....

SFist Wendy takes a trip to the other San Diego (not the one with the fish tacos!). The Road to San Diego, at the SFIFF, is the story of Tati, from Pozo Azul, a small town in the Northeast Argentinian Misiones province (between Paraguay and Brazil), who embarks on a spiritual quest to deliver a timber statue of his hero and idol, the notorious soccer player, Diego Maradona, to Maradona himself. Tati, who is......

Set the rumor mill to spin: the latest word we're hearing is that everyone's favorite unstable gum-chewing rehab-graduating baldie mommy Britney Spears is making an attempted career revival at the Red Devil Lounge Monday night. You gossip mavens probably already know that Ms. Spears performed lip-synced a brief but dance-intensive 15 minute set in San Diego and LA earlier this week, under the name "the M+Ms." Well, guess who's listed on the marquee at the......

The Alternative Press Expo is this Saturday and Sunday, and hot damn we're psyched. Who better to help kick off our celebration of alternative press than one of the guys doing comics right? Larry Young is a fixture at APE -- his company, AiT/Planet Lar has been presenting there for years, exhibiting a diverse and interesting line of OGNs ("Original Graphic Novels") and other comic books. We spoke to Mr. Young about his company and pending projects....