• Mild showers are slated to wet the Bay Area early Sunday. A storm — remnants of a South Pacific typhoon — will bring both much-needed rain and allergy relief (via condensing and removing airborne pollen) to the San Francisco Bay Area, dumping over a foot of snow in the higher elevations of the Sierra; the expected blizzard conditions will also help replenish the rapidly dwindling snowpack in the High Sierras. [KPIX/Chronicle]
  • Now fully in vaccine open season, appointments for COVID-19 inoculations are becoming more abundant — but, in a complete 180 to earlier this year, they're also now harder to fill. [KRON4]
  • A reminder that there's a new pop-up vaccination site open in the Outer Mission at the San Francisco Christian Center on 5845 Mission Street today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; the site will have at least 50 Moderna vaccines to use for walk-ups on a first-come, first-serve basis. [Mission Local]
  • A visiting Asian American family of 18 were targeted in an attempted robbery in Fisherman's Wharf this past week, having filmed the entire encounter to help raise awareness on hate crimes against Asian Americans. [ABC7]
  • Richmond’s Hilltop Mall has a new owner... who plans to completely level the million-square-foot structure as part of a massive redevelopment of the site (which will still likely include some retail locations, eventually). [KPIX]
  • With this current moment in time backdropped by the climate crisis and a raging global pandemic, our planet's natural spaces are not "nice-to-haves," but rather "must-haves," if we want to course-correct our future. [Mongabay]
  • Speaking of the battle against the novel respiratory disease: India has set a new global record for COVID-19 cases with 346,000 recorded in a single day; the country is also experiencing a shortage in medical oxygen, prompting disheartening signs on hospital entrances that tell people to look elsewhere if they need said bottled element. [NYT]

Image: Getty Images/Sundry Photography