Free Republic

McDonald’s is planning to launch a crab sandwich in the San Francisco Bay area. The fast good giant says the sandwich consists of snow crab meat mixed with mayonnaise and served with tomato and lettuce on a sourdough bun. …

A little bird could become a big hold up for important upgrades on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. A path on the upper deck will enable bike riders to get across in both directions and a third traffic lane on the lower deck will ease congestion for drivers heading eastbound. The backhoes are waiting — the safety barriers are lined to go up — but thanks to a little winged friend, work on a key part of the $70 million Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Bridge re-do has been put on hold. Randy Rentschler, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission said, “In this particular case...

Pam Tebow, the celebrated mother of football superstar and Christian role model Tim Tebow,will share the story of her decision against an abortion as the guest speaker at the West Coast Walk for Life next month. Tebow will undoubtedly recount the story of her decision not to have an abortion. Tebow and her husband were Christian missionaries in the Philippines in 1985 and they prayed for “Timmy” before she became pregnant. Pam entered into a coma after she contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in a contaminated food or drink. The treatment for...

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - Charges against 25 protesters who stopped traffic on the Bay Bridge in January were dismissed this morning by a San Francisco Superior Court judge, according to an attorney representing the group. The group, known collectively as the Bay Bridge 25, was arrested on Jan. 18 on the bridge on suspicion of misdemeanors, including obstructing traffic on a freeway, public nuisance and unlawful assembly, in addition to having their cars impounded.

Election Day is nine days away and Bay Area supporters for both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are doing what they can to encourage people to vote. At the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, early voting was in full swing on Saturday. This, as both parties are taking nothing for granted, reminding voters they can’t sit this one out – especially as both presidential candidates face controversy. “It’s a sensitive time,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Honda. Honda is one of a few congressmen who were alerted by the FBI about the newly discovered Clinton emails. “This is just some...

Saying that consuming too much sugar is a serious health problem, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders told the soft drink industry to stop using his name in ads fighting proposed soda taxes in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Vermont senator said in a statement Thursday that campaign commercials and mailers implying that he opposes soda tax measures on the Nov. 8 ballot in San Francisco and Oakland are false. Neighboring Albany also has a penny-per-ounce tax measure on its ballot. …

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Black Lives Matter Bay Area organizers Friday said they were withdrawing as Grand Marshals for the weekend San Francisco Pride Parade in response to an increased police presence and security measures announced in the wake of a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Black Lives Matter was chosen as an organizational grand marshal for the parade in honor of its theme, “For Racial and Economic Justice.”

A study newly released by the California-based law offices of Graham Donath lists Vallejo as the fourth most dangerous city in the state. The list was determined after comparing a number of factors, including 2014 crime rates, investment in police presence, community risk factors and geopolitical issues. Coming in ahead of Vallejo was Modesto, which was ranked third most dangerous. Stockton took second place and San Bernadino took the uncoveted honors of first place. Oakland was ranked the sixth most dangerous city in the study despite having the largest amount of violent crimes. For every 100,000 residents, 1685 violent crimes...

Charles Edwards is a merry self-described hillbilly from Tennessee who knows much about Victorian-era railroads and not so much about political campaigning. But this year, the 77-year-old retired city gardener will be knocking on doors in Alameda to persuade voters of this maritime city on San Francisco Bay to support a citizen initiative to cap rent increases. Last June, the rent on his one-bedroom flat increased 24 percent to $1,300, leaving him $289 a month for utilities, food and other expenses. […] State legislation approved last week to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022 is...

Are the cons of living in the Silicon Valley starting to outweigh the pros? A new report based mainly on 2014 data has found that more Americans are leaving the tech hub than are arriving. Silicon Valley saw more than 7,500 U.S. residents move away in 2014, the first time since 2011 that the area has recorded a domestic net loss, according to the study by the Silicon Valley Competitiveness and Innovation Project (SVCIP). But a steady influx of foreign-born workers made up for the deficit, ensuring that the tech worker pool kept growing over the period.

Chinese Insurer Acquiring Santa Monica Resort, Hotel del Coronado In $6.5-Billion Deal The Loews Santa Monica Beach and the historic Hotel del Coronado near San Diego are being acquired by a Chinese insurance company as part of a $6.5-billion deal. Blackstone Group, a New York private equity firm, has agreed to sell its Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc., which owns 16 luxury properties, to Anbang Insurance Group, a person familiar with the transaction said Saturday The portfolio, according to Strategic's website, includes the Santa Monica hotel and the famed Coronado hotel, as well as two other Southern California properties --...

The continuing influx of well-heeled homebuyers from Asia has Bay Area real estate firms competing for a lucrative and growing slice of the region's residential market. "It has gotten big enough to where people are starting to pay attention to it," said James Yang, an agent with the Sereno Group. One Palo Alto real estate broker, Ken de Leon, bought a Mercedes-Benz van that seats 14 and is using it for tours of Palo Alto and Los Altos with a Mandarin-speaking agent. Palo Alto has become a point of interest for many mainland Chinese shopping for a second home or...

How And Why Buyers From China Are Snatching Up Bay Area Homes By Kathleen Pender November 29, 2014 The Lumina, a luxury condo development taking shape in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, is popular with overseas buyers. When Linda Vida sold her house in the Oakland hills this summer, she was hoping for a buyer who would live there, put kids in the local schools and “give back or participate in the community,” she says. However, “as is very typical these days, a woman from China paid all cash for the house, and is not going to live in...

The flood of Chinese money into Bay Area housing is coming not just from home buyers. Developers and investors are also building and backing large residential projects here. They mainly want to diversify away from China’s overbuilt market but also serve Chinese buyers wanting a home in the Bay Area.

The Crossroads of the West gun show is taking place at the Cow Palace in Daly City this weekend, where founder and owner Bob Templeton has plans to speak to the crowd about gun ownership and the executive orders President Barack Obama announced Tuesday.Saturday's event drew thousands of people, according to San Jose Mercury News, and thousands more are expected to pour in for Sunday's show. Last year, more than half a million people attended Crossroads events, the newspaper reported. In addition to founding Crossroads with his wife in 1975, Templeton is also the current president of the National Association...

Ending almost two years in limbo, the financially beleaguered Daughters of Charity Health System on Monday announced it has closed a $260 million investment deal with an East Coast hedge fund that will keep one of the Bay Area's oldest hospital chains afloat for at least three more years. The news came 11 days after California Attorney General Kamala Harris gave her conditional approval for the largest nonprofit hospital transaction in state history, and the first to involve a hedge fund. Unlike the controversy and staunch opposition generated by the hospitals' previous suitor, the deal with BlueMountain Capital Management registered...

San Ramon, California, appears to have broken a new earthquake record over the last two weeks: A total of 408 small quakes have shaken the East Bay city, almost four times the record set in 2003 in half the amount of time. "I've not felt so many tremors in decades," Mark Stone said outside a San Ramon Starbucks on Tuesday morning. "My dog, Gimmel, she's the first one to know a couple of seconds before." The U.S. Geological Survey reports that as of Oct. 13, the Northern California Seismic Network had detected 408 earthquakes – at least a dozen since...

New documents raise questions about the integrity of the steel rods that hold together the Bay Bridge eastern span and point to potentially widespread problems that experts warn could lead to premature failure.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Wood-burning heaters -- including modern pollution-fighting wood stoves -- will not be permitted in new homes built in the Bay Area starting next fall, as part of a first-in-the-nation ban approved by air quality regulators Wednesday. The new rules, approved unanimously by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, will also require every seller of an existing home with a wood-burning fireplace to give buyers a disclosure statement warning of the health risks of wood smoke. Even wood stoves certified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as low emission would not be allowed in new homes whose...

A magnitude 4.0 earthquake was reported Monday morning in Piedmont, Calif., near Oakland, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.