SF News

Woman Sets Her Hair On Fire On BART Train In East Bay, Video Lands On TikTok

An upsetting situation which, for lack of better information, we're going to chalk up to possible mental illness or intoxication and an accident involving an open flame, unfolded on a BART train on Tuesday afternoon and was posted to TikTok. Welcome to July, 2020!

Bay Area Sports

SF Giants and Oakland A's Will Play Two Pre-Season Exhibition Games Next Week

The Bay Area will have some live sports to look at for the first time in four months starting next Monday, July 20!

SF Politics

Ongoing FBI Corruption Probe Hits Three More SF City Departments With Subpoenas

The Planning Department, Department of Public Health, and the City Administrator's Office have all been hit with subpoenas stemming from the sprawling federal investigation into corruption in San Francisco government.

SF News

SFO BART Station Closed Due to 'Police Matter,' Reopened Wednesday Morning

No trains were going in or out of BART's SFO Station for about an hour Wednesday morning due to an unspecified "police matter" that has yet to be made public.

SF News

First Coronavirus Vaccine From Massachusetts Firm Releases Highly Promising Phase 1 Results

The first coronavirus vaccine we wrote about back on March 17, developed by Massachusetts-based biotech firm Moderna, is already in its second phase of testing and about to enter its third later this month. And a report on the first phase is being called a "triumph" by one Stanford expert.

SF News

Humpday Headlines: Berkeley Approves Removing Cops From Traffic Stops

The SF School Board is moving ahead with a distance-learning plan, arsons have been ticking up in the city during the pandemic, and the Berkeley City Council voted last night on a measure to create a new non-police department in charge of traffic stops.

SF News

Day Around the Bay: COVID Hospitalizations Hit New Bay Area Peak

An SFPD officer suspected of domestic violence and sexual assault in San Mateo County will not be prosecuted, California may shift its COVID testing strategy, and the Bay Area just hit a new record of hospitalizations with 673.

SF News

Butte County Suspect In Murder Of East Bay Doctor Also Charged With Robbing a Gold Mine

It may sound like a headline from 1850, but it's indeed a headline today in 2020. The suspect in the July 3 murder of Danville doctor Ari Gershman was just charged with murder, attempted murder, and burglarizing a gold mine.

Business & Tech

Airbnb Gets Dragged For Asking People To Donate Cash To Homeowner Hosts

It certainly isn't the first utterly tone-deaf thing that Airbnb has done as a company, but amid a global pandemic and recession, it seems wildly inappropriate and dumb to be asking customers to pad the pockets of hosts — i.e. homeowners — who are suddenly out their side income.

SF News

Trump Administration To Bypass CDC With COVID-19 Data, Raising Alarm Bells About Distortion of Numbers

The Trump administration has issued an order to hospitals to begin reporting their COVID-19 patient data directly to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), bypassing the politically neutral Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

SF News

Update: Metallic Balloon Causes Swath of North Beach and Russian Hill to Lose Power

Approximately 7,600 PG&E customers lost power Tuesday morning just before 11 a.m., and the company says the cause of the outage remains under investigation.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Louis' Diner at Lands End To Close After 83 Years

Another SF icon, albeit a humble one, is biting the dust after 83 years of continuous business. The owners of Louis' Restaurant at Lands End, perched above the Sutro Baths around the bend from the Cliff House, announced Monday that they are closing permanently.

SF News

Tuesday Morning Topline: Oakland Police Release Crime Report Ahead of Defunding Talks

Someone Zoom-bombed a Sonoma organization's meeting with lynching images, Squaw Valley Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe may change its name to Olympic Valley, and the Oakland Police Dept. is being accused of stoking the politics of fear with a new report.

SF News

Day Around the Bay: Dominique Crenn Says Restaurant Industry Is 'Kaput'

Sup. Matt Haney's proposal to create a new Department of Street Cleaning moves forward, a new UCSF study finds that young people have a 1 in 3 chance of having a serious COVID case, and the Bay Area is starting to see serious testing delays.

Arts & Entertainment

SFMOMA Senior Curator Resigns Following Uproar Over Comment About White Artists

Yet another management figure at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has resigned amid roiling controversy among the museum's staff over race and representation.

SF News

Health Director Predicts Between 900 and 3,000 COVID Deaths In SF By Year's End Without Infection Slowdown

As the city of San Francisco approaches its 5,000th confirmed case of COVID-19, likely sometime this week, Mayor London Breed and Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax issued some grim predictions for the second half of the year, if infections don't slow down.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Newsom Issues New Statewide Order Closing All Indoor Restaurants and Bars, Makes Further Mandates For Watch List

Governor Gavin Newsom just issued a broad, statewide order covering counties both on and off the public health department's watch list, ordering many reopened businesses to close once more.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Philz Coffee Lays Off 181 Workers After Protests Over Safety Practices, Discounts For Cops

Tensions have been brewing (sorry) at locally founded Philz Coffee for several months both due to pandemic concerns and what workers claim are unsafe practices inside the companies' coffeeshops. And now the company has announced its first round of layoffs.

SF News

54-Year-Old Woman Goes Missing On Solo Camping Trip In Sierra National Forest

A woman left behind a "disheveled" campsite and a smashed-up car after being on a solo camping trip near Chiquito Lake in the Sierra National Forest two weeks ago.

SF News

Monday Morning Links: Sonoma County Closes Bars, Tasting Rooms, Indoor Dining

Three more San Quentin inmates have died of COVID-19, an unidentified woman who was brought in to SF General Saturday night has been ID'd, and around 500 people took part in a Black Lives Matter march in Martinez on Sunday.

SF News

Day Around The Bay: Head to Marin For Drive-Thru Fair Food

Facebook might ban political ads (but only just before the election), California is looking to release 8,000 inmates from state prisons, and it's going to be HOT around the Bay this weekend.

Bay Area Sports

Bye, Buster: Perhaps Wisely, Posey Says He's Opting Out Of the 2020 MLB Season

The San Francisco Giants will be short a star catcher for their abbreviated, 60-game season beginning in two weeks, as Buster Posey just announced that he will be sitting this one out.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Chez Panisse Lawsuit Against Insurer Who Denied Pandemic Claim Could Become National Case

Earlier this week, iconic Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse filed suit against its insurance company for denying a vital interruption-of-business claim. Founder and owner Alice Waters says she wouldn't be going to court unless this were a serious matter.

SF News

Nurses At SF Hospitals Should Be Getting Regular COVID Tests. Why Aren't They?

A spike in COVID-19 cases is happening among the staff at Zuckerberg SF General Hospital, and neither there nor at Kaiser Permanente's hospital in San Francisco are nurses who deal with COVID-positive patients getting mandatory, regular tests themselves. Why?

Arts & Entertainment

Crowd Gathers For Annual 'Dolores Hill Bomb,' Smashes Windows Of Vehicle That Drove Into the Fray

Thursday night was chosen as the occasion for the now annual skater community ritual of the Dolores Hill Bomb, in which daredevil skateboarders bomb their way down the hill on Dolores Street between 21st Street and 18th Street — sometimes ending in injury.