Starting today, eight Bay Area shelters are offering free spaying/neutering to pit bull owners. Although a few shelters, such as the East Bay SPCA offer the free service year-round, the organizers of Bay Area Pit Fix Week are hoping that by offering spaying/neutering this week, the lives of thousands of pit bulls (and the people they otherwise might maul if not for being fixed) will be spared. Thousands of pit bulls are euthanized in the......

Wee: Yellow Cab slip 'n' slide. [WhatImSeeing] The Glas Kat returns this week! (Death Guild fans of Walnut Creek the Bay Area, rejoice!) [Eater] Kill 'em with kindness. [BeyondChron] Novelists are smarter than you. [SFGate] One Ecker's early reveal care of the storm. [Curbed] Desktop of the now. So do it. Now. [Nature abhors a vacuum] An estimated 50 gallons of oil spills into San Francisco Bay after today's crane pratfall. [Examiner] 14,000 PG&E......

Attention conspiracy buffs: There's a secret project underway to seize control all of San Francisco's traffic lights, just like how the terrorists did in Live Free or Die Hard. Well, okay, the civic initiative (called "SFgo") isn't TECHNICALLY a secret; while it's true that nobody talks about it and current information is hard to come by, that's just because the project is really really boring. But here's something to spice it up: President Bush......

We just heart reading Two Cents to find out what people on the streets of the Bay Area think about a wide range of local, national, and international topics. The best comment of 2007, in our opinion, came from Rosey W. of Walnut Creek. The question was, "What do you want the next president to do about the federal law on marijuana use?" Rosey's reply: (Medical) marijuana use should be banned! Lives can be saved......

According to CBS 5 (interrupting us right in the middle of The People's Court, no less!) "East Contra Costa County residents are being evacuated from an area near the unincorporated town of Knightsen because of a possible explosive device found inside of a residential motor home." Motor homes and explosive devices? Who could've imagined!? Anyway, that's all the info posted so far. We'll update as soon as more info becomes available. Update: Taken (again!)......

It was Meet the Parents week on "The Bachelor" which is always good for a laugh. Or a cringe. And Brad's visit to Walnut Creek to meet Sheena's parents was mainly in the cringe-worthy department. The day started with Sheena's parents dragging her and her bachelor behind their boat in an inner tub. Which, you know, fine. Some people like that kind of thing. But then Sheena's mother started talking about astrology and the stars......

Either under the table for protection or hiding from someone sporting a fiendish fannypack-khakis combo, Catherine Kilkenny of San Jose's Willow Glen looks scared as all hell, doesn't she? Many people were. Last night's 5.6 earthquake, which we didn't feel but hear the majority of you did, tore nerves to shreds, shook the ground, and sent magazines flying to the floor. In a little over 12 hours, it managed to cause quite the stir.......

Last week on "The Bachelor," Sheena-From-Walnut-Creek was granted a coveted one-on-one date with Brad-the-Bachelor, and it turned out to be the Pretty Woman date in which Sheena got to choose her evening gown from a roomful of mannequins, ate dinner amongst balloons and a string symphony, and was given a pair of diamond earrings (which she got to keep). But the highlight of the evening, for us, was when Sheena walked down the stairs......

While the number of ladies on "The Bachelor" was cut down considerably at last week's rose ceremony, there are still way to many women to keep track of. Thankfully we only need to focus on Sheena, Queen of Walnut Creek. There was a bit of excitement in the house when some chick apparently fell down some stairs and Sheena found her and called the paramedics. Needless to say, she didn't go on the group......

Oh lordy, but Mondays are going to be a crowded night of television. Let's go through tonight's premieres network-by-network, starting with ABC. America's inexplicable love for dancing continues with another season of "Dancing With the Stars" at 8 p.m. You can find a complete list of the "stars" who'll be hoofing along this time around on the show's Web site, but we'll admit, we don't really have a horse in this race. Although as far......

[NSFW] -- Crank (prank?) calls to 911. [Chron] -- Wildfire still wild -- 7,000+ acres wild. [CBS5, San Jose Merc] -- Death, death, death, death... [Chron, Examiner] -- Fines to go up for carpool cheaters. Good. [Oakland Tribune] -- Scott Beale goes to this strange place called Fisherman’s Wharf and to San Francisco's only In-N-Out. Also: really, Snyder family? 524390645 Quizno's Subs just opened up on my block, so why can't you? [Laughing Squid]......

--One person is dead after a Caltrain hit a car in Palo Alto this afternoon. [CBS 5, Merc News.] --The Lauryn Hill show sucked. [The Chron, All Shook Down, the Inside Bay Area Buzz blog.] --What's Berkeley going to do after this Supreme Court ruling? [The Trib.] --Blogging from the iPhone line in Walnut Creek. [Contra Costa Times.] --A fight over a local grad student's blog post about racial and class divisions on MySpace and......

The other day, we told you our impressions of Naia Gelateria (nutshell: pretty good overall; you should particularly dig it if you enjoy having a ton of varieties to choose from). We wanted to know a little more about this Bay Area company, so we approached Trevor Morris, the company's general manager. He's been running the company since 2003, and had prior experience in the restaurant industry before that. He took the time to answer a few questions....

Tomorrow's the finals of the National Spelling Bee! We've already got our TiVo set for the semifinals (which happen while we're at work), we've cancelled all our evening plans for the finals (on ABC), we're already practicing not catching any spoilers of the event online throughout the day (your SFist updates tomorrow may be a little slow as a result), and we're trying to find a marimba player to play background music behind us all......

Dilbert artist and bay-area restaurateur Scott Adams poses a query to his readers: what can be done about the bone-crushing competition from chain restaurants? Just like Wal-mart, the Cheesecake Factory and PF Chang are putting the squeeze on locally-owned spots like his Stacey's Cafe in Pleasanton and Walnut Creek. So, to boost business, he's been trying to find a smart way to bring customers into his banquet halls, and he's turned to the internet......

--Chihuahua race! --And speaking of a chihuahua race, Gavin Newsom refuses to sign Chris Daly's budget proposal. We're hoping for a fight! (Daly has enough votes to override a veto.) --Drug-resistant TB hits San Francisco. --Awwwww. A seal joins in at a Marin school walkathon. --Don't feed the parrots. --Willie Mays signs autographs in Walnut Creek. --We didn't go to Fake Question Time 5 -- did you? Picture from the Chronicle by Lance Iverson.......

This Friday will be Critical Mass and everybody is curious to see what happens, not the least of which is the Mayor who supposedly has a lot riding on it (see, riding, get it? Get it? We made a pun!). We are told that if things go wrong, it could reflect poorly on the Mayor as it will show that he is unable to control simple things like several hundred anarchist bikers out loose on the streets. Hey, wouldn't that discussion only encourage bikers? You know, like a biker would start thinking "hey, if I scare some poor, unsuspecting family from Walnut Creek, Gavin's approval rating could go down to 60%." ...

Here's todays roundup of news stories...

Here's todays wrap up the daily news stories....

As if we don't have enough wars going on, the first shots were fired in yet another war, that being the War on Easter. Five years ago, at the behest of a Jewish resident, Walnut Creek decided to take the Easter out of Easter and replace it with spring. So the Easter Bunny became the Spring Bunny, Easter Egg Hung the Spring Egg Hunt and so on and so forth. This was no big deal until somebody wrote into a newspaper complaining about it. And somewhere out there, Baby Jesus started crying. ...

We got this forwarded to us in e-mail recently and it's kind of funny. Who doesn't love busting on people from the East Bay. Mattel recently announced the release of the improved limited-edition Barbie dolls for the East Bay market: "Walnut Creek Barbie" This princess Barbie is sold only at the Broadway Plaza Mall. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey and a cookie-cutter......

Hey, do you guys remember the story about estranged Daly City politico couple the Berlangas, where the ex-wife and the ex-husband were running against each other for a seat on the City Council and the ex-wife accused the ex-husband of doing it to intimidate her and got a restraining order against him for stalking her? Well, he was sentenced to 15 days in the county jail and 32 hours of anger management classes for violating......

That little protest in Lafayette with all those crosses symbolizing all the dead soldiers in Iraq was taken up a notch with the placement of a big, neon sign giving the numbers of dead solders. Previously, there was just a hand-painted sign....

While we're focused on the Mayoral race and the rest of the media is focused on the Presidential race (Lord, save us), the netroots are already focused on the next congressional race. In their cross-hairs? Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher (D-Walnut Creek). Her crime? Playing footsie with the President. Nobody wants to see that. ...

SFist Jon's away this week, so you're stuck with the former editor on your Day Around The Bay. --Robert Haaland comes clean about his vacation during the District 6 race. --Critical Mass in Walnut Creek last Friday didn't go so well. --In some kind of strange shout-out to the golden spike that connected the transcontinental railroad, a bunch of people in Palo Alto signed a wireless Internet transmitter that had been painted gold. Huh.......

A missing Savannah cat named Mondo has been returned home to San Anselmo after going missing for a three weeks. A Savannah cat is a cross between a regular domestic cat and the African serval, and the people who found Mondo thought he was either a baby mountain lion or some kind of cheetah or bobcat. Savannahs have long legs and friendly demeanors, and are considered very high-energy. Mondo also has very "chatty meows." [our......

Last week's winner, the East Bay Express: Hey, the EBX is starting a blog -- we hear those are very trendy. But they've got us listed as a link, right below the Culture Blog, so it's all okay! Bottom Feeder mocks the errors made by the Bay Guardian in its East Bay endorsements. Would you buy expensive organic meals prepared by these folks? Confrontational atheists meeting near Walnut Creek. Cover article: the woes of air......

Forget PTA bake sales, a coterie of SF's movers and shakers are hosting "Hot for Teachers," a party to benefit projects in Bay Area schools, at Club Mezzanine (444 Jessie St. near 5th and Mission). Enticements include: gourmet mac & cheese, a Van Halen tribute band, and a chance to win live auction "Hot for Learning" packages like ... "How to be Mayor." As Gavvy-N is on the honorary host committee, we're thinking we......

Okay, let's get all those big headline news items up and out of the way: Scott Dyleski is guilty of killing the wife of Susan Polk's lawyer; creepy John Karr who used to live around here remains creepy but is no longer considered the JonBenet Ramsey killer; and that guy they think maybe have molested over 100 boys is serving as his own lawyer at trial. Also, five murders in three incidents in SF over......

A few years back we had to spend some time in Vegas on business. This was before they had a Whole Paycheck. We were determined we were going to buy at least some local vegetables and tried to search out the farmer's markets. Silly us, Vegas really is in the middle of the desert, so the produce that some poor farmer schlepped in from California for the markets--not so much. This experience did, however,......