Yikes. So, a 59-year-old San Rafael woman died in recent weeks of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and a second woman in Marin County has been diagnosed with it. According to ABC 7, there is no known connection between the two women, however cases of the disease have been so rare that the proximity of two cases like this is cause for some intrigue, if not panic just yet. more ›

The hostage standoff at an Extended Stay Deluxe in San Rafael that lasted for two days and held up traffic ended this afternoon when police entered the hotel room to find an already deceased suspect. Police haven't released the cause of death for the gunman, one 38-year-old Peter James Thomas, who was also wanted on a $70,000 warrant in Marin for burglary, weapons and drug charges. The woman who was with him (Thomas' girlfriend, allegedly) was found unharmed, although the cops are currently holding her for questioning. more ›

If you were trying to get anywhere between the East and North Bays yesterday you might have noticed miles of traffic snaking up 580, where police shut down a section of the freeway in San Rafael near the foot of the Richmond Bridge and forced all traffic to take a big detour -- all because of a gunman holed up in a hotel near the freeway... and he's still there, holed up! The gunman is a guy who, on Sunday, is believed to have stabbed two workers at a nearby grocery store after they apprehended him for shoplifting food and alcohol. more ›

Pizza Orgasmica opened a new shop in San Rafael recently. In an ode to Brazil's soccer team, they used garish yellow and green paint for the exterior. This, it seems, didn't sit well with Marin's tender aesthetic sensibilities. "The board on Wednesday asked city planners to work with Pizza Orgasmica & Brewing Co. owners Taylor Maia and Gina Gochez on a plan to soften the yellow and green tones, reduce the paint's reflectivity, improve its finish and restore the building's accents," reports Marin Independent Journal. "It also suggested adding a third paint color to the front and limiting the use of bright yellow in the rear." Well then. more ›

San Rafael-based Autodesk released a new web service called Project Dragonfly that lets users build virtual rooms, fill them with virtual furniture and appliances, and ultimately view them in three dimensions. more ›

Alfonso Israel De Leon, 34, was arrested on charges of tossing a two-year-old boy from a car in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday. While police wouldn't "disclose the children's relationship to De Leon," it seems the man was passing through the scary state of Texas with two children, the little boy and a four-year-old girl, when he threw the kid, as well as other objects, from the moving car. The boy is expected to survive. more ›

What a pretty name for a barge, yes? more ›

According to the Coast Guard, "a barge has hit the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge" around 6 p.m. this evening. Yikes! The barge, reportedly carrying 63,000 barrels of heavy black oil, hit the east piling of the west span. So far there are no reports of any injuries or leakage. more ›

While not on par with Christmas Day tsunamis, this storm is pretty nifty, huh? Golden Gate transit buses have stopped, power has been knocked out to hundreds -- yes, hundreds! - of thousands of people, and surely snow is falling really hard atop a mountain somewhere. more ›

What a perfect meeting of past, present, and future glories. Former Santana guitarist/now-and-forever Journey member Neal Schon is coming back to the North Bay (where he grew up and leaned how to strum) to help launch the first-ever Gibson Robot Guitar. Just what is the Gibson Robot Guitar, you ask? We have no idea. But let's go to the press release to find out! more ›

Readers responded with light speed and razor-sharp accuracy (more or less) when it came to detailing last night's devastating -- body-wash-plummeting-to-the-earth devastating! -- 5.6 quake. We will all look back on October 30, asking ourselves, where were we when the great 5.6 quake of '07 hit? Well, after sending out the we-hope-you're-still-alive-and-kicking call to the SFist team at large, they responded. Here are a few of the shattering moments in the lives of some... more ›

Harbor seals near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge are now being studied to determine the effects of such exposure. Researchers hope that this new study will enlighten the scientific world, not just in terms of how toxic chemicals affect harbor seals, but how such chemicals can affect harbor seals and the people who love them, or don't (aka Canadians). more ›

San Rafael-based Edutopia Magazine, which is brought to us by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, looks to the future in its latest issue, identifying 10 ideas or trends that its experts believe can improve K-12 education. We found them thought provoking, and hope you agree. more ›

From the SFist Tips line: yet another daytime shooting yesterday, this time at 23rd and South Van Ness around 1:45 p.m, by the post office, and fatal. In a particularly brazen act, the shooters then drove by the SFPD Ingleside Station to drop off the body about an hour and a half later. You'll all be pleased to hear that the cops did at least manage to catch the person driving the car. more ›

Who woulda thought. . . . we weren’t the only ones not completely immersed in isolation with the final Harry Potter book this weekend... although we did see a couple books neatly tucked under the seats at the Castro Theater on Saturday at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. If you weren’t there, well, then you missed out on a couple of good romantic comedies and one hilarious kiss-off -- and not the kind of kiss-off you might think we’re talking about. more ›

We could've gone with a YouTube clip of the video for Love Is A Battlefield (totally one of the best videos ever), but we went instead for the Benatards doing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" at the Eagle Tavern -- that's right, Pat Benatar's playing a show tonight! If you can get up to the Marin County Fair in San Rafael, Ms. Benatar and her husband Neil Girardo will be performing hits like "Heartbreaker," "Invincible," and "We Belong," among many others starting at 7:30 tonight. Concert is free with fair admission ($13), at 10 Avenue of the Flags. more ›

Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and RiffTrax returned to the Bay Area this holiday weekend for two live shows. We went to the Sunday show at the Rafael Film Theater in San Rafael, (a much more comfortable place to see the guys than Cobb's, even if it is booze-free). Like their previous San Francisco engagement, the shows were sponsored by the San Francisco Sketchfest, and we hope they continue to have a good relationship and bring more live shows to San Francisco, because this one was almost as fun as the last one. more ›

Okay, when those wayward whales were in Sacramento, we were like, whatever -- but now that the mommy and baby are past the Carquinez Bridge and going in the correct direction, we're all excited! (Over here at excessively-locally-focused SFist, you gotta get into our media coverage zone before we start paying attention.) more ›

--They reopened the Macarthur Maze! And of course, now the bridge is backed up. more ›

Oh hi Al Gore! Welcome to San Rafael, land of pleasure and delight. While you're here, don't miss the Marin Center Veterans' Memorial Auditorium. It's a lovely place -- just right for Keynote presentations and beards. more ›

Drove out to China Camp State Park with Sufjan Stevens on the stereo singing about Chicago. The air sat heavy with oil from the Eucalyptus trees and salt from the Bay. more ›

As we mentioned earlier, those winds from last night's storm were awfully loud and when the wind is awfully loud, that means they're awfully strong. Like between 40-50 MPH strong. We're actually a little surprised we still have power as usually the power goes out at SFist HQ if there's even a mild gust. But while we still have power, there are plenty of people who don't have any right now. According to the latest news, about 52,000 people around the Bay Area are just this very minute wondering what one does without cable TV and the internet. This includes about 17,000 in the Santa Cruz and Monterey county areas and about 1,400 here in San Francisco. more ›

Last week's winner, the East Bay Express. Rad dream cartoon this week. Feeding your pets raw meat. Are people trying to sneak into the Berkeley school system? Cover article: not sending juvies to jail. The Dixie Chicks play Oakland this Friday. The Slits are in town. A review of Xyclo -- Oakland Vietnamese restaurant, with a cool name. Old people went to the Rolling Stones show. And Tenacious D. more ›

Yo, we've all thought about it, but it's not right to go and do it: irate MUNI passenger punches a bus driver, sending the driver to the hospital. The passenger's girlfriend got stuck in the rear door (it's unclear whether she was getting off or sneaking on) and the driver started driving. When the driver stopped 15 feet later, the boyfriend hit the driver in the face. The boyfriend faces felony charges. more ›

As if the Cal Greeks didn't have enough to worry about with the undercover cops swarming in -- the ladies of Alpha Omicron Pi got an unpleasant surprise as they answered their door yesterday morning at 2:30 a.m. to a young man, who then died from a gunshot wound. The Berkeley police had received a tip that there might have been a shooting earlier that night at the site of the former Tower Records on Durant, and the sorority released a statement that contrary to previous reports, the sorority was not having a party that night. more ›

Man, if you want to go drag-racing, don't kill members of a royal family -- the 18-year-old suspect burst into tears after a judge in San Mateo County refused to lower her bail from $3 million. The DA was unmoved, saying, "Highway 101 is not a video game and it's not a racetrack." That's right -- that's what 280 is. more ›

Submissions go to Yvesdroppings at gmail dot com. more ›

Christopher Wilson, The kid who was driving the getaway car in the strange shooting of Dartmouth student Meleia Willis-Starbuck in Berkeley after a confrontation with several Cal football players this summer pled no contest to felony accessory to murder, and will testify against shooter Christopher Hollis. Wilson faces up to three years in prison. The facts of the situation that night get murkier and murkier, with people saying that Willis-Starbuck was "amped" and that she announced "That's my little brother right there" as the first shot was fired. For his part, Wilson says Hollis proudly said, "I just scared them cats away" after they took off, not realizing that he had shot his friend. Folks who can't just let the past be the past up in Marin -- a recently-graduated senior from San Marin High school pled guilty to causing $140,000 damage to his alma mater by turning on all the fire hydrants and releasing about a million gallons of water, which flooded the library, while another man was arrested for violating a stay-away order and kidnapping his ex-girlfriend on the campus of Dominican College in San Rafael. Fellas, you just gotta move on! And a man quietly eating an early lunch on Pier 28 (probably at Red's Java House) on Wednesday morning looked out over the beautiful blue bay and saw.... a floating dead body. Aaaaagh! Authorities are trying to identify the body, a 5'8" male weighing 175 pounds and approximately 25-40 years old. ...and after the jump, a summary of all your Blotter photos since November. Previous summaries here, here, and here. more ›

As many legal observers expected, Gov. Schwarzenegger denied Stanley "Tookie" Williams's request for clemency, ">stating that (.pdf) there was strong evidence supporting the jury's guilty verdict, and that he doesn't really believe that Tookie has really reformed (various Nobel Prize nominations notwithstanding) because Tookie has never apologized for the killings for which he was imprisoned, and has never explicitly apologized for the murders committed in the name of the Crips. (Also, Tookie still supports George Jackson, who the governor says shows that Tookie continues to advocate for "violence and lawlessness."). Williams's attorney will file a renewed petition for clemency this afternoon, and can still appeal to the US Supreme Court. Meanwhile, his supporters are planning a 8 p.m. rally outside San Quentin. There's also a "walk for abolition," which started at 7 a.m. today at the Palace of the Legion of Honor and will end at San Quentin at 6. They should be around St. Paul's Church in San Rafael right about now if you want to meet up with 'em. We can't find any info on any pro-death penalty rallies but presumably, they'll be happening around the same time and at the same place as the anti- ones. more ›

We here at SFist are looking forward to the The 21st Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema, which runs from Nov 3-9 at the Kanbar Hall and the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco, at the Parkway in Oakland, and at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. more ›