Oh, jeez, here we go again. Santa Clara County health officials have put together a PSA warning teens about the dangers of ecstasy, in response to some surveying that found that one in four teens in the county had tried the drug at least once. more ›

A 42-year-old man was shot and killed by a police officer during a routine traffic stop Saturday night around 9:45 p.m. in Santa Clara. The policeman, a 2-year veteran of the force, pulled the man over on suspicion of a DUI on the 2400 block of Karen Drive. As the Chron reports, the cop said the man became uncooperative, and the cop called for backup. Then the suspect reached for a loaded revolver, and the cop shot him in self-defense. He was pronounced dead at the scene. more ›

While the San Francisco 49ers were gearing up to clinch the NFC West, Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews was confessing to the Chronicle on Saturday that he is just, "not that interested in football." On the other hand, Mayor Matthews is definitely interested in the $850 million dollar bank loan his town has secured from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, and U.S. Bank. (Evil 1% banks, the lot of them.) more ›

At the risk of raining on the victory parade, Santa Clara just approved a $10 million plan to prepare construction for the shiny new 49ers stadium, which will be located right next to Great America. Oakland Tribune reports, "the work includes moving utilities, installing sidewalks, adding extra parking and other work needed before construction on the stadium can begin." more ›

In the latest aggressive attack on Bay Area waterfowl, someone in Santa Clara is attacking innocent ducks with a blowgun. Property managers at an apartment complex where the ducks like to hang out spotted at least 4 or 5 of the poor creatures walking around with darts stuck in their faces. One duck has died from the injuries, but the good folks at Wild Rescue on the case, devising a rescue strategy that won't further injure the poor creatures by jostling the precarious pin pricks. No suspects at the moment, but Wild Rescue explains the seriousness of the crime: more ›

To drum up support and ticket sales before packing up the Niners and hauling them off to Santa Clara in a couple years, Jed York has built an entire website to showcase his architect's vision for the new stadium. Appropriately located at 49ersNewStadium.com the flash site showcases delightfully awkward renderings of the new spaces while a voiceover from Jed himself tells fans just how lucky he is to have "the greatest job in the world" followed by some of the most dramatic background outside of a Michael Bay film. more ›

Thousands of Santa Clara, San Benito, and Santa Cruz county residents are currently without phone service this morning. They can't even call 911 in case of an emergency. Why? Because of an old, AT&T-owned fiber optic line (leased out to Verizon) that went bust. "Verizon is completely down; other carriers are intermittent at best," said Zachary DeVine, a Santa Clara County spokesman. If residents of Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Martin and Santa Cruz County cannot make a call to 911, officials "are urging people to go to their nearest fire or police department or local hospital or flag down an emergency vehicle." more ›

Further proof that engineers and Peninsula tech folk are scary Asperger Syndrome types from which you should stay far, far away, Santa Clara police claim that the shooter who murdered his family in a murder-suicide over the week was an engineer at Yahoo. KCBS reports that police identified the gunman as 42-year-old Devan Kalathat (nee Raghavan Devarajan). While Kalathat's wife managed to escape, he successfully took the lives of his 11-year-old son, Akhil Dev; 4-year-old daughter, Negha Dev; his brother-in-law, 35-year-old Ashok Appu Poothemkandi; his sister-in-law, 25-year-old Suchitra Sivaraman; and the couple's daughter, 11-month-old Ahana Ashok. more ›

A South Bay man sits in jail today after killing a transient man for trying to wash his car windows at a Salinas gas station. Orion Moore, 29, drove up to refuel at Pilot Truck Stop when a 60-year-old homeless man approached him and asked if he could clean his windows for a small fee. Moore said no, but the elderly man persisted. Peeved, Moore allegedly then "ran out of the Pilot and knocked the transient to the ground. The man struck his head on the pavement and was transported to a nearby hospital." Moore was arrested at the scene. more ›

If you've noticed over the past couple of days, it's smells a bit smoky, a bit ashy in Baghdad by the Bay. It seems, according to CBS 5, Northern California is suffering from about 950 wildfire right now.The top half of the state is, in essence, on fire. Yikes! So far, Carmel Valley residents have been forced from their homes due to the massive blaze in the Los Padres National Forest over in Monterey County, which is the largest blaze yet. more ›

Last night's five-alarm wildfire in the San Bruno Mountains, which threatened homes in South San Francisco, has been 75 percent as of this morning. The crisp weather and fog -- which has mercifully killed this past weekend's vile heatwave -- has helped firefighters attack the blaze successfully. more ›

Alas, it was not a good weekend for cyclists of the Bay Area. more ›

We hate shit like this. more ›

Yesterday's near perfect weather is now but a sepia-toned memory. Reports of a strange, icy substance, often referred to as "snow," is falling on Mount Diablo, Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara County, Mount Hamilton, and (any minute now) Mount Tam. It's also blanketing the eerie Santa Cruz Mountains, resulting in the closure of Highway 9. It looks like many of you will have to take Highway 17. If you dare. more ›

Here's what's been going on in the wide world of sports while we've been fighting off the flu... more ›

According Eric Thomas from ABC 7, who went into mighty graphic detail about what happened, a suspect was arrested today for the kidnapping and rape of a 17-year-old Palo Alto teen. A press conference is scheduled at noon (now!), where even more details, names will surely unfold. This past Wednesday a teen was kidnapped in Palo Alto, taken to Sunnyvale (on the 500 block of Fair Oaks Avenue), and then sexually assaulted. She survived... more ›

At Pine and Divisadero on Wednesday afternoon, a man severely slashed a woman with a box cutter (some reports we saw said she might die, while others said the wounds were not life-threatening); the cops subsequently caught him. more ›

-- Democrat fundraiser Norman Hsu is on the run! [Chron, KGO] more ›

Offside! Penalty -- three months. Any talk of the Niners moving from San Francisco down to Santa Clara is before the snap (did we get our convoluted football metaphor right? SFist Jon's out on vacation this week so we can't check), now that the City of Santa Clara's experienced yet more delays in completing the required feasibility study about how they're going to raise their $160 million share for the stadium. more ›

A four-year-old boy drowned to death in the 2-foot deep section of the wave pool at Great America in Santa Clara yesterday. There were six lifeguards on duty at the time, but there are no age limits on who can use the pool. Authorities have not identified the boy, or said whether or not he was supervised at the time of the accident. This is the first drowning at Great America but not the first death -- the Chron lists the other four people who've died since the park opened in 1978 (one person hit by a roller coaster, two people fell out of rides, and one person was killed when two roller coaster trains collided.) more ›

We always thought that a story regarding an organization called "welovejam.com" would be NSFW. But this is actually pretty innocent. These two fellows, Eric Haeberli and Phineas Hoang, started an operation in the Santa Clara Valley with a very simple concept. See, there's apricot called the Blenheim that's been proclaimed to be endangered by Slow Food USA. It's very fragile. Haeberli and Hoang are trying to preserve this flavor in the form of preserves. Jam. They make the Blenheim into jam. more ›

--Have you checked out the footage (above, 4:34) of someone driving their Prius into the N Judah tunnel? The derisive laughter as the driver sheepishly gets out of the car is ) is genius. (We don't know how to get rid of those white edges on that YouTube screen.) [N Judah Chronicles.] more ›

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--A day of physical activity! Bikers set off for LA for the AIDS ride, and those not content just to bike did the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. more ›

--Meet Tapioca Ed's "consultant" friend. more ›

Hey -- more free ice cream! This one's not left to chance, like that whole "Dreyer's" thing. Anyone and everyone that shows up at Haagen-Dazs on May 15 between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. gets a free cone. The only caveat? It must be one of the company's special new flavors, "cinnamon dulce de leche," or "sticky toffee pudding." more ›

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Here's today's news more ›

On Tuesday, the 49ers unveiled their shiny new plan for a stadium in Santa Clara. The whole thing will cost about $854 million with Santa Clara pitching in what is said to be $160 million, although Santa Clara still might have to throw down for another $20 million to move the substation that's on the grounds of the proposed stadium. The rest of the money, $694 million, will come partially from the Niners ($363.3 million) and partially through the usual assortment of things, mainly naming rights and fan gouging. more ›