Leapin' lizards! Estimations for the suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge, which initially ran anywhere from $15 million to $25 million, would now cost around $50 million, at least according to environmental assessment released Monday by the Golden Gate Bridge District. The pimped out bridge might include the following: An 8-foot vertical fencing system to the existing 4-foot-tall hand railt; an 8-foot-tall horizontal fencing system to the 4-foot-tall hand rail with a "winglet" or......

Remember the man accused of killing two strip club patrons earlier this week in Sunnyvale? Well, last night the suspect, 29-year-old Matthew Andrew O'Reilly, was spotted by the fuzz, a chase ensued onto the westbound Interstate 380, O'Reilly crashed right into the center divide at El Camino Real, and then turned a gun on himself. CBS 5 goes on to say that "units created a perimeter around the scene and attempted to extricate the......

While most mainstream media didn't cover last week's suicide, which happened last Thursday on Powell Streets H&M/The Odeon building, an SFist commenter pointed out that the Examiner did. Their article on the noontime tragedy was quite revealing: ...

We just received the following, rather tragic alert from a reader:...

An unidentified man killed himself this morning after running his car into parked cars at 80 mph at Yolo and the Alameda. Just before the fatal wreck, it seems, he was sitting in his car in North Berkeley and in the process of taking his own life, via a tube coming out of the car's exhaust pipe. A homeless man noticed what was going on, removed the tube. The homeless gent then flagged down......

According to KCRA 3, a 64-year-old man with a "Free Tibet" strung around his neck killed himself "late Monday night outside the Marina District home of his former landlord." It seems that the still unidentified man used a gun to take his own life. Described as an "Asian male," police spokesman Sgt. Wilfred Williams says that the man "'appeared to have committed suicide' at about 11:46 p.m. in the 2200 block of Beach Street."......

Some of you may remember a couple of weeks ago, when we were on a Caltrain that struck and killed a woman near 22nd street. Well, we were on the train again this morning, and when we got on at mountain view, a very familiar voice came over the PA. "Ladies and gentlemen, we're sorry," said the voice. "But there has been a fatality involving a train ahead at Menlo Park, and we will be......

Marin County coroner's office identified that the body found atop Mt. Tam this past Sunday afternoon as female and, yes, Veronica Ruiz. It seems that she "the Internal Revenue Service agent's service weapon was found at her side and her U.S. Treasury Department photo identification was found in her purse at the place of her death," according to a report on CBS 5. (IRS agents have issued arms? Huh.) It appears that she died......

A few things here: 1) It's a free ride when you've already paid, etcetera, etcetera, and so forth. 2) Is this fake? We called the number and the voice on the other end responded, "Golden Gate Bridge" - "Sorry, wrong number. We're totally not trying to kill ourselves, BTW!" we responded in panic mode - but the font on the sign above the phone looks a little off. A bit slanted. Then again, the......

Well, the bad news is still that we've hit a 12 year high for homicides in the City and County of San Francisco, with two weeks left to go in the year. On the statistical side, though, the SFPD year to date murder count has moved down by three victims, from 100 to 97. What happened to those three victims? Well, they're not any less dead, unfortunately. Rather, three of them were reclassified into non-murders.......

The sexy cats over at ValleyWag have the fresh MySpace office shots that you want. Or not. Formerly the home of LookSmart, the new space will be able to call other fresh, hip, cutting edge, perpetually hungover, youth-oriented spots like Current TV, SF Weekly, Wired, Chronicle Books, Sammy Hagar's place to do body shots, that abnormally chic pet store, Happy Donut, Nova, and even the flophouse that also known as SFist as their neighbors.......

-- A Vallejo husband and father, Kevin Owens, 41, went though with a murder/suicide pact (with himself, we guess) on Friday night. He shot and killed his wife, Stacey Owens, 38; wounded his two-year-old daughter; and then turned the gun on himself (right after "a big Thanksgiving dinner at their home Thursday night.") This happened on the 300 block of Carousel Drive. Owens' 10-year-old son managed to escape the bloodbath, run to a neighbor's,......

Yesterday, an Oakland woman called 911 late afternoon and informed the dispatcher that she had just drowned her 16-month-old son in their bathtub at their "nice, well-kept" Lake Merritt.apartment. According to the Chronicle, "when police and paramedics arrived at the family's apartment on the 1100 block of Third Avenue, they found the child dead, Holmgren said. The mother had injuries 'consistent with somebody who possibly tried to hurt themselves.'" Yes, this is depressing as......

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did......

Today, a little before noon, a suicide attempt occurred at Hastings Law School. We received the information via our Contribute section (which, by all means, do) and from Introducing Ashley. (Aw) She reports that a "female student had attempted to jump from the 21st floor. Luckily, her friends and local police were able to talk her back inside."...

Why? Because a body has been found under one of the BART trains. How the body ended up there or its current condition is unknown at this time. But a medical examiner has been called onto the scene, so...sounds like a not-alive body to us. Sadly....

Luis Alvarado, 18 -- one of the two men charged with kidnapping, raping, and stabbing to death Sany San -- committed suicide in his jail cell using a bedsheet today. San, a Cambodian immigrant who had survived the Khmer Rouge, led an incredible life. (As Rita already urged you to before, San's story is worthy of a moment's attention, for sure.) According to the San Jose Mercury News, "a note on yellow binder paper......

-- Halloween in the Castro, or lack thereof. [The Snitch] -- 50K a year and living in SF? How vulgar. [SFGate] -- Jarring and attractive LSD-y visuals. [SFBG] -- Marquee preservation. [CurbedSF] -- RIP: One-time Harvey Milk campaign manager Jim Rivaldo dies. [FCJ] -- Bart worker gets a cool $1.27 million for on-the-job racism. Bitchin. [SFGate] -- If you like drugs, pussy, punk-rock, and suicide, have we found the band for you to join!......

With Facebook winning over many of its users these days, MySpace is all set to open up a San Francisco location near AT&T Park in an effort get hip, or something like that. What's more, the Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation-owned site plans to hire over 200 new employees, redesign the site, and allow users to add widgets. Fear not MySpace suicide contemplators; you might not have to take jump. This comes on the heels......

-- Girlfight tonight! Well, not tonight, but some nights ago, one presumably drunk girl stabbed another in the eye her stiletto heel at (ugh) Slide. [The Snitch] -- "Chili finger woman" may get a more mild sentence. Hey, we thought she had a good idea there, but...alas. [CBS5] -- No really, did Gavin think about this? [SFBG] -- Democrat fundraiser cum fugitive Norman Hsu's suicide attempt. [Chron] -- Ed Jew pleads not guilty, won't......

Someone in Vallejo (or San Francisco?) thinks he's freakin’ hilarious flooding 911 with crank calls. The crank caller has been using a donated cell phone, perhaps one that was donated to the homeless (why do the homeless need cell phones?), to call in fake emergencies. The man, known as “Nomar” has made around 2,000 calls to 911 since March. Calls, it seems, are made in San Francisco, but are about incidents in Vallejo. These......

Larry Craig's police interrogation audio -- Senator Larry Craig still a lying homosexual. [Examiner, via AP] -- Tony Hall calls it quits. [Chron] -- Jackson West's last column for now. Good luck on the other coast, Jackson! Weep, weep. [Chron Blog] -- Harvey Milk Club hearts Tommy Ammiano and Kamala Harris. Of course. [Left in SF] -- Cupertino/Stevens Creek Canyon fire contained. [SJ Merc] -- BM suicide. [Chron Blogs] -- AIDS housing advocates and......

It looks like Black Rock City visitors now have an actual tragedy on their hands. One for them to eventually personalize, of course. Today, sadly, someone hanged himself to death at Burning Man. His dangling body -- which was viewable to partygoers for about two hours inside of a two-story tent, according the Justin Berton -- went unnoticed by many. Passersby and friends, it seems, thought the dead body was an artistic statement of......

We've talked about the controversial documentary The Bridge here on SFist before, but for those who couldn't bring themselves to see the film in a theater, you've got your chance for a cozy TV viewing on IFC tonight at 7:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. At least at home you can cover your eyes and scream "OH MY GOD!" without bothering a theater full of people. We watched the movie on DVD recently, and that......

We've got some follow-up news on Blotter items covered previously! 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......

More blotter-type news today -- sorry they're kind of downers. 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......

-- 8.8-foot-long Smart Fortwo cars in SF. Squash. [Chron] -- No surprise: Gap Inc. sales suck. (Hint: Burn all billboards promoting horizontal pastels.) [Examiner] -- Hayward murder-suicide.[Chron] -- Barry Bonds bash. [Examiner] -- Wall Street went up and down a lot today, or something. [Chron] -- Hey! If it ain't the ol' pro-Blue Angels switcheroo. [BeyondChron] -- Devaughndre Broussard asked to take the fall? [ABC 7, Oakland Tribune] -- RIAA brings their silly war......

We're going to do this a little differently this time around as we don't know who really cares that much about either team right now. Instead, we're going to point out why you should still care. So here’s our Top 5 Reasons to Still Watch the Giants. ...

Film School, Ali Liebgott, Facing East, Xocolate Bar...

-- Trannyshack's Siouxsie and the Banshees Night: Trannyshack icon and Scissor Sisters [NSFW] star Ana Matronic returns home to help Heklina host tonight's Siouxsie tribute. Also, we heard a rumor that Ana likes to watch live Broadway musical clips on YouTube. (i.e., str8-gay hipster suicide.) Is this true? We don't believe it. But if she does, she just landed herself a new stalker. Music starts at 10 p.m. and the show begins at midnight......