"Actor Brian Baumgartner of 'The Office' [the TV Show] was spotted by Tom Fuller at the Oxbow Public Market in Napa." - Leah Garchik, illustrating either: a) even the Chronicle has slow days, b) the Oxbow Public Market is actually boring or c) this Tom Fuller is a huge The Office fanboy. [Chronicle] more ›

As of noon today, the District 4 seat formerly occupied by Ed Jew is now empty, and the Sunset has no representation on the Board of Supervisors. Quick, everyone, now's the time to put a toxic waste dump on 26th and Wawona! (We just like saying the word "Wawona" is all.) more ›

What's on the cell phones of those who survived the recent tiger attack? more ›

Starting out this week, Peck the Town Crier is celebrating his sophomore CD, Groundhog's Day by performing at Pier 23. You can hang out with this San Franciscan native from 7:30-10:30 for absolutely nothing - it's free. "Recorded at the famed Hyde St Studios in San Francisco, Groundhog’s Day blends Peck’s unique story-raps and verbiage with hand played instrumental arrangements that pull from the gambit of [great] American music..." It's a bit weird, a bit... more ›

We were trolling around on the Interweb the other day and caught notice of this banner ad, which immediately depressed us, given that: 1) Somebody at MUNI thought that monthly passes make an awesome Christmas gift and 2) That person paid money for these banner ads, money that was probably just sitting there in the "spend money on stupid crap" folder that MUNI obviously keeps in the office, right next to the reception desk... more ›

Update: Sen. Barack Obama's campaign office in Rochester and John Edwards' offices have also been evacuated. Our sister site, Bostonist is live-blogging the situation right now. Apparently, a man wants to "speak to Hillary Clinton. He has two hostages (maybe more) and [allegedly has] a bomb strapped to his chest ... police have asked the media not to take live shots of the building." Yikes. A little bit of breaking news well outside of... more ›

Bush Man Scares People - Watch more free videos Sure, he's old news, but his comedy is timeless. That's right, timeless. As much as we love The Office and 30 Rock, nothing pleases us more than the AFV-ish antics of people either falling on their asses or having the crap scared out of them. Do take a moment to enjoy the latter. (And people even pay him for it! Brilliant.)... more ›

Monica Lewinsky's interest level in working for SF city government just went up a notch, as the SF Board of Supes overwhelmingly voted down Chris Daly's proposal to ban office affairs between supervisors and supervisees. (No, not affairs with supervisors like Chris Daly is a supervisor, affairs with supervisors like your boss. We could probably get a proposition on the ballot barring affairs between the San Francisco Supervisors and their constituents, though -- because, come on, ew.) more ›

We came across this wonderful blind item over at ValleyWag (via Overheard in the Office). It seems that someone on the Board of Supes doesn't know the difference between a placeholder name and their signature, euphemistically. Do you know who it was? We're going to go ahead sweepingly generalize that it was either Ammiano or Dufty, because gays only care about little boys and baggies, shiny objects, and unicorns. more ›

As Financial District blocks go, the 200 block of Front St. is notable for the human scale on which it’s built. The tallest buildings here between Sacramento and California rise a mere five stories. There’s plenty of potted foliage to counteract those “concrete jungle” accusations often lobbed this neighborhood’s way. No less than three popular, sit-down restaurants line its sidewalks. And unlike how things get on canyon-shadowed Sansome St. two blocks to the west, sunlight enjoys more than 15 minutes of daily fame on this stretch of Front. There’s more white-collar bustle than hustle occurring here toward the latter end of the lunch hour on an autumn Friday. Women slow their usual breakneck gait on the return to the office, while men dressed down to the eights in business-casual wear (it is a Friday, after all) appear to have dialed down their strides as well. Some women are decked out in heels and skirts, while others go less formal in flats and pants, but to their credit, it’s clear there’s no single look among them. The men? Not quite. We see the same striped shirt (always tucked in, of course) on three different men between the ages of 25-40 in under an hour. more ›

Here's todays sports news more ›

The Office of the Controller and the Office of the Legislative Analysit want to know: what's up with special events? Apparently, Bevan Dufty's been poking around, asking questions; and at his behest, a couple of government-types banged out a report about how the city could do a better job of managing events. The report asks, and we paraphrase: could SF make itself more attractive by attracting more attractions? Can events be improved by fixing the setup process? Can the city do a better job of getting and spending events-money? The answers may surprise you! more ›

After last week's dueling press conferences and memo-leakage, the Homeless issue is becoming the Issue du Jour, leading to a full-fledged reporter dogpile. First came CW Nevius who weighed in with yet another story on the issue, this time saying that even in liberal, tolerant, San Francisco, residents might not be feeling so liberal and tolerant when it comes to dealing with the homeless. As evidence, he points to one of those online polls SFGate ran about the issue in which 90% of the people said they wanted something to be done. We, as a rule, hate those "polls" because it's actual scientific value is nil as it's all determined by people who were motivated enough to play along and doesn’t factor in those who were too lazy to. more ›

Whoa. Guess it's time to get rid of the bad blood at City Hall. Beginning last Friday, Mayor Newsom asked for resignation letters from his senior staff, city department heads, and those that he had anointed to serve on a city commission or board. Although he has zero competition during this race -- so it's not a move spurred by fear on his part, it seems -- he wants to start off fresh for his second term. So...watch out. (Also, why can't he just fire the undesireables, have them pack up their Swinglines, and have security escort them out of the office, like every other boss does?) more ›

In our continuing effort to pay for things around the office, we'd like to take a moment to thank the advertisers on SFist this week: more ›

WE LOVE IT WHEN ROSS MIRKARIMI SAVES THE DAY!!!!!! Remember when he stopped a robbery? And then when he saved the life of a guy in Buena Vista Park? And today, he caught two people involved in a drive-by shooting!!! (Thanks to commenter Rah for calling our attention to the story!) more ›

Andrew Frame was recently named by BusinessWeek as a "top entrepreneur under the age of 30". He's aiming to fulfill that promise with ooma, a company he founded in 2005 that has a whole new take on telephony. It enables unlimited U.S. domestic calls to any wireless or landline phone number . ooma's gotten media play for a couple reasons -- for one thing, much has been made in the press and on the podwaves about the involvement of Ashton Kutcher in the company. more ›

Self-consciously located on the none-to-glamorous Howard Street strip between Seventh and Eights Streets, yet close enough to downtown and its blue-glass splendor, Hillary Clinton’s campaign headquarters opened up yesterday (complete with a Breasts Not Bombs melee [NSFW]) for those of you who want to volunteer, get a "Hillary 4 Prez" poster or five, or gawk. more ›

Here are some of your favorite NBC stars from many, many years ago, singing one of the weaker ditties from Dreamgirls. Who knows? Maybe this will jumpstart cast members from The Office and Heroes to promote their shows with something from Spring Awakening. more ›

The rumblings from a week ago have been confirmed: Josh Wolf, on his blog, has declared his intent to run for mayor. more ›

Menlo Park-based Accountemps came out with a survey indicating that most respondants feel their work productivity improves when they feel their coworkers are also friendly. The survey, administered by by an independent research firm, included responses from 150 senior executives across many departments and 519 full- or part-time front-line office workers. more ›

>While most of you have been analyzing the last five minutes of "the Sopranos" (soon to be the most analyzed piece of video since the Zapruder film) over-and-over again to figure it out, we got answers from our Muni Driver as to what a day in the life of a Muni driver is like. And since there's so much to his response, we'll do this in two parts. Today, the shifts. Next week-- bathroom breaks! more ›

Well, it's about time! As the progressives run around in a circle waving their hands around in terror for another week or two until June 2, the more right-leaning folks have decisively made their move! Former supervisor and sometimes lounge singer Tony Hall has filed his paperwork to run for mayor. more ›

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-Down, down, down go the Warriors ,who lost their fifth straight, losing 106-97 to the Knicks in New York. more ›

-Let's get the Barry news (that being Barry B.) out of the way first. Essentially, George Mitchell, the guy supposed to look into the whole steroid thing, told everyone he wants Barry to cooperate. Barry told him to go suck an egg. Well, not really, but he basically said that he can't while he's still under investigation for perjury. You know, we think if there's any good thing to come out of being under investigation, it's that you don't have to answer anything. Did you accidentally delete "Grey's Anatomy" off of TiVo? Can't comment on that because it might interfere with the investigation. Did you steal my turkey on swiss from the office fridge? Can't comment on that due to the pending investigation. See what we mean? more ›

Snoo-zer. Aside from the final five seconds of the race, the most exciting part of Thursday's Stage 4 in the 2007 Amgen Tour of California was the scenery. Relatively undistinguished topography and the desire of most riders to save themselves for tomorrow's critical individual time trial turned yesterday's stage into little more than a placeholder in the week-long tour.

It was a day of defensive rest, with everybody working extra hard to do the least amount necessary to maintain the status quo and playing it as safe as possible while doing so.

There was some nominal bad weather to keep the racers on their toes, a lukewarm breakaway led by Hilton Clarke of the Navigators Insurance team, a minimal response from Discovery Channel and the peloton, and a rather pedestrian, if not historic, sprint finish capped by Paolo "the Cricket" Bettini's (Quick Step-Innergetic) technically brilliant track throw to nip Gerald Coilek (T-Mobile) at the tape. Other than that, we loved it, thanks for asking.

While there's nothing big going on with the story, there is some more details coming out. Actually, there's a theme to all of this and that theme is frustration. The lawyers are frustrated that the three Marines are overseas and can't be questioned by the cops, Dan Noyes is frustrated that Kamala Harris won't answer any questions, the families of the singing group are frustrated no arrests have been made, and Ken Garcia is just plain frustrated. more ›

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In another embarrassing story involving the SFPD, the SFPD decided not to discipline any officers who made a gay men who urinated against a wall mop it up with his hair and his shirt. The reason is that mainly the correct paperwork wasn't filed in enough time and it's past the point anyone could be disciplined. Lovely. more ›