A 61-year-old woman was shot and killed in her Santa Rosa home Sunday afternoon, just before the Super Bowl kickoff around 2 p.m. Neighbors heard a gunshot, followed by a woman screaming, and saw a man between the ages of 35 and 40 leave the apartment at 934 Clark Street and drive off in a silver car. The motive for the killing is still unknown. more ›

Noted chicken sandwich makers and anti-gay corporation Chick Fil-A wants to open a spot up in the North Bay. According to Grub Street, "A rep at gay-averse chain Chick Fil-A says that they are continuing to expand their 'footprint on the West Coast,' and they have their eyes on a former Burger King at 1452 Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa now." more ›

Members of the Santa Rosa SWAT team were at the South Park Day and Night Festival on Saturday. They were there to demonstrate to attendees what they do and, most notably, to show off their big weaponry. Many participants, it seems, were furious over the fact that they allowed children to hold their guns. Some as young as 5. more ›

Christened the Cyclisk, two California artists, Mark Grieve and Ilana Spector, built this obelisk made entirely out of (unusable) bike parts in Santa Rosa. According to Inhabitant (via Wired), who have other images of the artwork, "the monument is an ode to bike culture constructed from 340 bicycles and one tricycle." more ›

Oh, the zany things that happen north of San Francisco. And by "zany," we mean "methy." Presumably. Take, for example, a naked man who "ran up and down Lemur Street in west Santa Rosa, breaking into homes Saturday night before being chased back into his own house by a group of teenagers wielding a baseball bat." more ›

A less-than-professional father and son bank heist team was arrested in Santa Rosa yesterday, shortly after the son walked into the Wells Fargo on Oakmont Drive wearing a mask and carrying a realistic-looking pellet gun. It seems the father, Michael Fuesz, who drove the getaway truck, then let the son, Jason Fuesz, out of the car down the road apace before getting nabbed by coppers on Highway 12. After going all SWAT and K-9 and shit, Sonoma County sheriffs found Jason hiding in some bushes with all the cash still on him. Look for more great and bumbling stories like this one on this season of The Great Recession. more ›

A small shaker hit The Geysers near the border of Sonoma and Lake counties at 6:28 a.m. this morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. No one was hurt. It was a mere wisp of a quake, really. But these small shivers are always a good reminder to get prepared for The Big One. Tips, emergency numbers, do's, dont's, etc. are as follows: more ›

If you recall, last Thursday a mother, while loading groceries into her car at a local Safeway, was approached by a man, carjacked, taken to a secluded area, and then sexually assaulted as her daughter was in the car.

Between the oil spill and Barry being his Bonds self, crime has been a wee bit sloooow over the past few days -- well, at least reports of foolish mischief seem sluggish. -- Santa Rosa fuzz have a suspect in the robbery/shooting death of Gurdip Singh, which took place at Bill's Market far away in the land of Santa Rosa this past Monday. Javier Pena, 37, is now in custody. Good ol' CBS 5... more ›

Why, we've been so preoccupied with murder right down the street from SFist, we forgot that the rest of the Bay Area is also littered with shootings and bloody tomfoolery. Forgive us, won't you? Ahem: Two employees of Bill's Friendly were shot last night during a botched robbery attempt. One of the store's employees was killed, the other taken to a nearby hospital. (At right: the lone gunman's fierce image.) Another shooting in the... more ›

-- The Breasts of Sherry Glaser: The protest-y Miss Glaser's comedy and peace activism show runs the gamut from her unsheathed mammary glands to an interpretation of 9/11 and the Twin Towers falling down. Oh my. (Warning: audience participation will occur!) Starts at 7:30 p.m. at The Marsh; $10-15. more ›

In response to allegations by deceased Stanford engineering grad student May Zhou's father earlier this week that his daughter's death was a homicide and not self-inflicted, the Santa Rosa police released additional information from their investigation. Namely, they said they have videotape and receipts of her buying four bottles of sleeping pills from local drugstores in two days, and they have an email she sent to her younger sister a few days before she disappeared that reads like a suicide note. Three of the bottles were found in the trunk along with her body. more ›

First up, remember May Zhou, the Stanford graduate student who was found dead in her car trunk in Santa Rosa? Well, her father remains convinced it was not a suicide, and cites a private autopsy report he's commissioned that shows blunt force trauma injuries. The offical police report, by contrast, showed no trauma injuries but did indicate toxic levels of Benadryl in her system. Zhou's father will not name the pathologist who conducted the private autopsy, or release his report to the police, though, saying it would jeopardize the investigation. The police say they will certainly look into the matter again and see if a murder was in fact committed. more ›

That may be our favorite performance-disclaimer ever, surpassing even "the front rows WILL be splattered with watermelon." The theater department at Santa Rosa Junior College is launching an ambitious presentation of a Norwegian fairy tale that is, in their words, "Lion King-like." Ooh! Creepy masks and giant puppets are promised. (Santa Rosa's a little burg close to Calistoga and Guerneville, in case you were wondering.) more ›

Here's todays news more ›

Here's todays news more ›

Let's face it, in the peloton of American spectator sports, cycling got cracked off the back on the first climb out of town and is just now working its way back into the rear of the pack. Even with eight straight years of Americans winning the Tour de France, the biggest event in the cycling world, cycling has only the most tenuous of holds on the American consciousness. O'er the pond, the Europeans have more than a century of rich road racing history and cultural lore out front making a passionate pace.

One of the problems is that American race promoters and fans haven't quite figured out how to wrest maximum entertainment value out of a professional cycling race. Organizers of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California (TOC) understood this issue and came up with a great solution: circuit laps to finish the stages. Brilliant.

Stage 1 of the Amgen Tour of California (TOC) started out in the brilliant sunshine of Sausalito but ended 156.2 kilometers (km) later under a cloud of controversy in downtown Santa Rosa. In between, riders faced heavy winds, multiple crashes, and an entertaining collection of breakaways and points sprints. When it was all said and done though, Levi Leipheimer was still the hometown golden boy.

This was a stage for cycling geeks to Tivo and watch over and over. From a rolling start, the peloton quickly pulled a Category 4 climb up and over the shoulder of Mt. Tam and down the Panoramic Highway to Stinson Beach, following Highway 1 through beautiful West Marin. Local roadies finally got a chance to see how the international cycling elite handle our regular rides. On the Versus network television coverage, legend Phil Liggett praised the beauty of the Panoramic Highway, but commented that it was a little narrow to ride when open to vehicle traffic. Ha!

For most of the day it looked like a total Cinderella story for unknown Jason Donald, but when the very last rider of the 2007 Tour of California (TOC) prologue crossed the finish line Sunday, it was Levi Leipheimer who had tears in his eyes.

A Credit Agricole rider suffers his way up the last 300 meters to the finish line atop Telegraph Hill. Photo from SF_Chris.

Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony and the national anthem, Jean-Marc Marino of team Credit Agricole rolled down the starting chute at 1:00 p.m. sharp and the prologue was on. In a time trial like Sunday's prologue, riders race alone and against the clock rather than against each other en masse. Following Marino, 144 more riders attacked the course at one-minute intervals for the next two hours.

Clip in sports fans, between the weather and the Amgen Tour of California (TOC), it's going to be a great weekend for cycling in the Bay Area.

Whether you're tackling Mt.Tam on your Saturday morning club ride or comparing yourselves to the pros with a summit of Stage 3's infamous Sierra Hill climb, pack the sunscreen today and leave the rain shell behind.

On Sunday at 1:00 p.m., the TOC starts with the prologue, a 3.0 kilometer time trial from the Ferry building to Coit Tower.

A Stanford graduate student missing for five days was found dead in the trunk of her car in Santa Rosa, in what authorities are saying looks like a suicide. She was an PhD candidate in electrical engineering with two degrees from MIT and held several patents in the field of digital imaging. Her grieving parents only learned of her death when reporters contacted them. more ›

-Falun Gong not allowed in this year's Chinese New Year parade. -Almost half of the hospitals in California won't be earthquake compliant by 2012. -A car crash on Highway 101 near Santa Rosa kills four and injures two others. more ›

>-Steve Jobs might still be in a little bit of trouble. -It may not be as cold as a witch's tit, but it's still pretty damn cold. more ›

We got two interesting web sites/Google Maps to let everyone know about. more ›

-Berkeley joins in on the Stadium fun. -Dems already start in with in-fighting: Pelosi backs John Murtha over Steny Hoyer. What kind of name is Steny anyways? more ›

It is kind of silly to assign politics to restaurants or diets. But Cha-Ya, a relatively new Japanese restaurant serving only vegan food, struck us as a magnet for people left of the Kucinic wing of the Democrat party. Maybe Green party supporters or unrepentant Chomskyists. Or just basic wanna-be commune-living combi-driving Berkeleyans, as Cha-Ya is the sister restaurant of the similarly named Shattuck Ave eatery. Of course, this being SF, the place is packed. more ›

Some time ago, we met Steve Ford, who, among other things pulls a great shot of espresso. We met him during his tenure with the stalkerriffic Blue Bottle Coffee Company; since our encounter, he's moved onto another coffee-related venture as a roaster at Ecco Caffe in Santa Rosa. Steve recently had a not-so-pleasant experience--he fell out the third-story window of the Burlington Hotel in Port Costa, Calif. more ›

For 127 of the best road cyclists in the world, it was five minutes of pain. For Americans Levi Leipheimer, Bobby Julich, George Hincapie, and Floyd Landis, it was a little less. For the American cycling peloton, veteran cycling announcer Paul Sherwen called it the Holy Grail they've been seeking. For the spectators, it was an instant classic. more ›

A 3.4 magnitude earthquake hit the Hercules area of the East Bay around 10 a.m. this morning. But we didn't feel anything here in San Francisco, how about you? This report states that it was felt "as far north as Santa Rosa, as far east as Rancho Cordova, and as far south as Redwood City", so maybe we're just not that observant. more ›

We don't know that it'll necessarily have any bearing on the discussion over the landmarking of San Francisco's Doggie Diner sign, but SFist wanted to note the passing of the sign's designer last weekend. more ›