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Are San Francisco straight men that hard up for a date that they need women to be flown in from elsewhere? Apparently, according to one dating site: the Dating Ring. Currently still in the fundraising stage (Really, we're fundraising for dating sites now?), a post on SFGate notes "Love-lorn young ladies can reserve a spot on the trip by simply anteing up $1,000, which will net them a flight, housing, three dates and two parties." Don't make us gag. Judging from the comments on our recent post disputing NerdWallet's findings that San Francisco is the best place to be a...

Randy Kenney says Myers started the spree in 1968, at age 17, after he broke up with a girlfriend. Kenney says other evidence shows his friend, who died in 2002, committed at least the five murders. An upstate New Yorker claims his best buddy was the notorious Zodiac Killer, who paralyzed California’s Bay Area with fear during the late 1960s. The reason the man, then a teen, went on his bloody spree of at least five murders? Over a girl, Randy Kenney says. “That's what the deal was with the couples," Kenney told KGO-TV. The still-unsolved killings terrorized the region....

Time-lapse footage captured by an NBC Bay Area weather camera shows rain and wind as it moved across the San Francisco Bay on Friday afternoon. Friday's storm is part of a second round of rain this week to dump down on the region. The storm sparked a barrage of trouble, including the death of a motorist in Oakland, the rescue of a person from "frigid" waters in a San Jose creek, widespread flooding and power outages. Bay Area Wet Weather Sparks Crashes, Flooding, Rescues, Outages The rain, which is much needed as California is suffering through a drought, is now...

San Francisco is not the city that knows how to tip, according to a survey. A poll of coffee purchases made by Square reveals that only 34.2 percent of San Francisco purchases were accompanied by a tip, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. That was the eighth-lowest out of nine cities surveyed. In Tampa, 62 percent of coffee drinkers tipped on a Square purchase, according to the survey. Even New Yorkers did better, with about 41 percent of coffee drinks topped off with a tip. Only Chicago was worse -- there, baristas get extra cash 12.3 percent of the time,...

A warning for dog owners--poisoned meatballs have been found in the Twin Peaks neighborhood again. San Francisco Animal Control officers spent hours Saturday morning looking for them. They found 21 meatballs that are similar to the ones found last summer. Most of them were found near Crestline Drive and Parkridge Drive. Officer have posted dozens of signs to alert pet owners. So far, they have not heard of any pets sickened or killed by the meatballs. But at least one dog died last July after eating poisonous meatballs. Those meatballs left to poison dogs then were potentially lethal to humans.

We've had several reports that Silicon Valley is moving north to San Francisco, but one report asks, "Why not Oakland?" Oakland is cheaper than San Francisco and easy to commute to and from, argues GigaOm editor Tom Krazit, and despite its problems boasts a central location and a "vibrant" community. Krazit doesn't oversell Oakland, in fact, he mentions it "isn't exactly paradise." However he does tout the culture, restaurants, weather and plenty of vacant commercial real estate. The main commercial district of Oakland — which for the sake of this discussion we’ll consider the area roughly bordered by Jack London...

OAKLAND -- Steve Kopff was one of many San Franciscans who cascaded last year into sunnier, cheaper, hipper Oakland. He bought and began restoring a historic but rundown mansion. He planted vegetables, raised backyard hens and bees, launched a neighborhood newsletter and peppered his Facebook account with paeans to his new city. But this year, Kopff became a scorned symbol of the angst over Oakland gentrification. He wrote an online essay describing his diverse, working-class neighborhood east of Lake Merritt as "mostly undiscovered" and a "virtual food desert" in need of an organic supermarket, better restaurants and "a coffee kiosk...

A group of passengers who departed San Francisco yesterday aboard Cathay Pacific Airways landed in the hospital after the plane hit some mega turbulence, tossing passengers from their seats. CBS delivered the scary news this morning, detailing the overseas trip which got a lot bumpy as the plane cruised over Japan. The 747-400, which was carrying 321 passengers and 21 crew members, encountered the turbulence near Hokkaido around noon Hong Kong time Tuesday. It lasted about two minutes. At least one passenger described the flight as a roller coaster ride. Passengers were tossed from their seats, and some were thrown...

Politics comes down to people.  Some of them are real people, and some of them are invisible.  This is true even in the case of sophisticated legal appeals to the 9th district court.  Bill Gore is the Sheriff of San Diego County.  He said he wanted to issue licenses so citizens could carry a concealed weapon in public.  He really wanted to.  That is what he told me.  He said, sadly, that California law prevented him from granting those licenses.  That is what his un-named lawyer told him.  I’ve had legal experts tell me otherwise, but it is hard to...

Christopher Porter-Bailey, the man arrested in a brutal robbery and attack during San Francisco Pride weekend, has been found guilty in the assault of the woman, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Thousands of San Francisco Bay Area residents may have been exposed to measles last week when an unvaccinated student at the Unversity of California, Berkeley, attended classes and rode the area's BART transit system. Public health officials in Contra Costa County, outside of San Francisco, said anyone riding BART from Feb. 4 to Feb. 7 during the morning or late evening commutes could have been exposed to the highly contagious respiratory virus. The young man in his 20s lives in the county and was confirmed to have measles on Wednesday. He was likely infected while traveling recently in Asia, health...

Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier is gearing up for what she hopes is the next big fight in Congress — balancing out the growing economic inequality that has ravaged the middle class for years — so she reckoned she’d do a bit of ground-level research first. And since you can’t get much more ground level than a homeless shelter, that’s where she went last Friday — to spend the night. The Maple Street Shelter in Redwood City was the destination. Speier had actually been there a week before to chat with the residents, and the fact that a well-off Hillsborough member...

Believe it or not, San Francisco meter maids have interests and hobbies outside of ruining your lives. For instance, they like to dance. Sometimes they like to dance alone. As seen in this entertaining video shot by an amused driver who was able to capture the rarely seen tender side of our parking police. Watch: Paul Rose, spokesman for the SFMTA, viewed the brief video and made the following observation: "Those moves aren't half bad considering the size of those tiny GO4s," Rose told us.

<p>Can't post that Bloomberg text shite on here. Follow the linkie.</p>

Regarding your editorial "Censors on Campus" (Jan. 18): Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich."

San Francisco’s fire chief made a special visit to the North Bay on Friday to celebrate the birthday of one of the two known survivors of the 1906 earthquake. Bill Del Monte turned 108 years old this week. He was just three months old when the earthquake devastated San Francisco. He now lives in a retirement home in Greenbrae. That’s where San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White met him for lunch, catered by John’s Grill. Over some steaks and a glass of scotch, Del Monte recalled his mother’s memory of the moments after the 1906 quake, when he was just...

A former high-ranking San Francisco government employee convicted of felony possession of child pornography will continue to receive his government pension because, according to city regulations, evidence of “moral turpitude” is required to revoke a pension yet viewing violent kiddie porn does not qualify as moral turpitude. As reported here in the Tatler, Larry Brinkin, a prominent San Francisco Human Rights Commissioner and nationally known gay rights advocate, was arrested in 2012 for possessing and possibly distributing videos and images of babies being raped by adult men. Because of Brinkin’s “iconic” stature in the community as the person who pioneered...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A former San Francisco gay rights advocate who was arrested after police said they linked him to an email account that had sent and received images of toddlers engaging in sex acts with men has been convicted of possessing child pornography.

A former San Francisco Human Rights Commission employee pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony possession of child pornography. Larry Brinkin, 67, agreed this morning to a plea deal with San Francisco prosecutors, who dropped a second charge of distributing child pornography.

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — A famed actress is facing backlash in San Francisco’s Latino community, after she voiced support for a conservative candidate for California governor. Maria Conchita Alonso starred in a campaign ad for Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County, a Tea Party favorite who is seeking the Republican nomination. Donnelly has voiced strong views against illegal immigration and was once involved with the Minutemen Project, a group that patrolled the border with Mexico to catch immigrants coming across. “Politicians and big government are killing our prosperity, pushing welfare costs through the roof and driving our schools...

Actress Out Of San Francisco Production After Endorsing Tea Party Candidate January 18, 2014 12:09 AM SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — A famed actress is facing backlash in San Francisco’s Latino community, after she voiced support for a conservative candidate for California governor. Maria Conchita Alonso starred in a campaign ad for Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County, a Tea Party favorite who is seeking the Republican nomination.

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have taken aim at anti-abortion banners placed on busy Market Street. Supervisor David Campos and six other supervisors are supporting a resolution opposing the banners and questioning their legality. The banners were put up by Walk for Life West Coast, a San Francisco based anti-abortion group that holds an annual rally in the city, scheduled for January 25th in Civic Center Plaza. --SNIP-- Eva Muntean of Walk for Life said her group obtained a permit and met all the criteria for their banners. --SNIP-- Muntean said the resolution...

Assuming the 49ers win on Sunday, fans wanting to cheer on the Niners in the January 19th NFC Championship Game in Seattle will not be able to buy tickets through the Seahawks, as the team is restricting sales to only zip codes in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of Canada. Tickets go on sale Monday, and California residents can still purchase tickets through the secondary ticket market like NFL Ticket Exchange, Stub Hub and others, or with a friend who has a credit card billed to an address in the Pacific Northwest.

How far will the government go to infringe on your rights? In San Francisco, residents aren’t even allowed to store their own belongings in their home. Residents of the liberal city are banned from using their garage to store any personal property other than a vehicle. Chapter Six of the San Francisco Housing Code states, “Private and public storage garages in apartment houses and hotels shall be used only for storage of automobiles.” Those who violate the law can be slapped with a $500 fine.

(01-09) 14:08 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A bicyclist who was struck by a tow truck in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood was traveling in the wrong direction on a one-way street, police said Thursday. The bicyclist, a 31-year-old woman who has not been identified, was hit at Seventh and Folsom streets at about 5 p.m. Wednesday. She had been riding west on Folsom, which runs one way in the opposite direction, said Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman.

Buy a pack of cigarettes, and a printed warning from the surgeon general will remind you that smoking causes cancer. Obviously, you’ve chosen to smoke anyway. But perhaps one day you’ll look at that message, printed on the pack, and resolve to change your ways. Now, apply that idea to global warming. A group of Bay Area environmentalists wants to slap warning stickers on gasoline pumps, telling drivers that the fuel they’re buying is cooking the planet. The stickers would constantly remind consumers of the link between driving and climate change.

California’s ludicrously ambitious plan to build a high-speed railway connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco has been besieged with all kinds of problems from almost the moment of its official conception, but let that not restrain California Democrats from doubling down on what they seem to view as their iliadic quest to make high-speed rail happen. Back in August, a judge declared that the project had already violated the 2008 ballot initiative that first authorized the $10 billion in bonds for the 500-mile train, because the state didn’t actually having funding sources on the books for the $31 billion required...

Tesla is happy to do things differently than other automakers, from the company-owned stores to the all-electric drivetrain. It also doesn't use union workers at its factory in Fremont, California (the former NUMMI plant, pictured). But now the United Auto Workers (UAW) is testing the waters for representation at the plant, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle. UAW President Bob King has revealed that the UAW has created an organizing committee in Fremont. How this would change things at Tesla – and whether it would be a good or bad thing – is not really known, but...

The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges today issued a ruling that City College of San Francisco, which is already under threat to lose its accreditation this summer, is too poorly managed to join an academic boycott of Israel. "Independent of its academic value, we know how important boycotting Israel is to San Francisco," says ACCJC Chair Sherrill Amador. "We know how many local jobs depend on condemning Israel, how many nonprofits use it to fundraise, and how many members of the Board of Supervisors view it as a priority. But City College is simply too much of a...

One may think twice after receiving unsolicited advice from a laundromat. And yet, the joint at Hayes and Laguna made a fair point. Locals toting sacks of soiled clothing or just out for a stroll while wondering what the neighborhood washeteria would demand of them were regaled by the Don't Call It Frisco Laundromat. Obeying the pronouncements of a laundromat is a matter of personal choice. But it's less so when the identical dictum emanates from the mouth of a judge — which happened in San Francisco. A 1918 article in the Examiner recounts the opprobrium heaped upon a divorce...

SNIP We now know the source of the mysterious crop circle that turned up in the small town of Chualar, about two hours south of San Francisco. And it turns out a lot of the speculation about what the viral photo might be was correct. NBC Bay Area was originally tipped off by an anonymous source, who said Silicon Valley chipmaker Nvidia was behind the crop circle that was first spotted toward the end of 2013 by a photographer named Julie Belanger. We now have confirmation from the inside. The company plowed through the farm to (eventually) get publicity for...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A suspect wanted in connection with the killing of a German tourist near Union Square in 2010 has been arrested, authorities said Friday. Devante Laws, 21, was spotted in Hayward on Thursday and taken into custody by members of a task force led by the U.S. Marshals Service. Laws, suspected of being a gang member, was sought on suspicion of being an accessory to murder in the August 2010 shooting that killed Mechthild Schroer, who was visiting with her husband to celebrate her birthday and anniversary.

According to a statement released by a Chinese Consulate spokesperson on the consulate’s website Thursday morning, a person emerged from a minivan parked in front of the consulate’s main entrance at about 9:25 p.m. and poured two buckets of gasoline onto the front door before setting it on fire.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The front door of the Consulate General of China in San Francisco was found ablaze on Wednesday night and is being investigated as arson, according to a fire dispatcher. The blaze was reported to be at the front door of the structure, located at 1450 Laguna St. in the city's Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood, a dispatcher said.

San Francisco veterinarian Jill Chase had just finished hosting a birthday party for her son 10 years ago when her dog went limp. After investigating what might have caused the problem, she discovered the culprit: cannabis-infused butter that a neighbor had dumped in the garbage down the street. Her dog, a Tibetan terrier who was a habitual trash surfer, had eaten a large dose.

Monday night will be an emotional one for the San Francisco 49ers and their fans, as the team's matchup with the Atlanta Falcons will be the last regular-season game at Candlestick Park. For Tony Gonzalez, who will be on hand with the visiting Atlanta Falcons, it will also mark his final visit to the site where he experienced what he calls the "strangest thing that ever happened to him." On a conference call with Bay Area reporters, Gonzalez recalled how during a game between his then-team, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the 49ers at Candlestick Park he was pushed out...

Santa Claus came early to San Francisco this year, but he forgot his long pants. As did quite a few of the hundreds of other Santas, and several of their helpers, who gathered by the Christmas tree in Union Square on Saturday. The Santas were kicking off the start of this year's SantaCon, a worldwide event that features a daylong bar crawl that sends many of its participants to the naughty list. The jingling bells, holiday-colored sequins, mistletoe and fake, cottony beards met in Union Square before heading off to the bars in various other neighborhoods throughout the city. Many...

The Liberal Bastion Of San Francisco Suspends A Shocking Number Of Black Kids For 'Willful Defiance' The Center for Public Integrity Susan FerrissDec. 12, 2013, 9:57 AM One of America's most liberal bastions — San Francisco — has cut student suspensions by nearly a third in three years but continues to struggle with grossly disproportionate suspensions of black students. District data obtained by Public Counsel, the country's largest pro bono legal group, and community organizers in San Francisco show that African-American students represented only 8 percent of the city's public high school kids last school year. Yet 50 percent of...

Real-life wild dogs are on the prowl in San Francisco, which has itself a coyote problem. "More than 100" coyotes are alive in well in the City by the Bay, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which notes a marked increase -- there was just 15 "a little more than a year ago," according to outdoors writer Tom Stienstra. That figure is based on "crops of pups" as well as a field study and photography by Natures Lantern, the newspaper reported. Coyotes have been seen crossing busy streets like Sunset Boulevard, and have been seen in populated areas from Telegraph...

Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Franklin evidently failed to envisage today’s postmodern left. For the conservative, there exists at least one other certainty, and it is this: The degree to which “progressives” attack you corresponds precisely to the degree with which you challenge any among their assorted, distorted and sordid sacred cows. What would you call a 33-year-old man who both had and axiomatically acted upon a deviant sexual appetite for underage, drug-addicted, runaway boys? (No, not Jerry Sandusky.) What would you call a man of whom,...

Ticket sales for President Obama’s big fundraiser Monday at the SFJazz Center are so sluggish, organizers are cutting the price of some tickets in half. The cheap seats for the Democratic National Committee luncheon — the ones that were going for $1,000 — have been reduced to $500, according to an e-mail to potential donors sent out Monday by Ella Arnold of Buell Private Political Management in San Francisco. Arnold added, “We are thrilled to announce that if you have already purchased a $1,000 ticket … your seat will now be upgraded to VIP, which includes rope line access!” We’re...

A plan to squeeze most residents of the San Francisco Bay Area into multifamily housing offers a test case of whether land-use bureaucracies nationwide, encouraged by the Obama administration, should be allowed to transform American lifestyles under the pretext of combating climate change. Currently, 56 percent of households in the nine-county Bay Area live in single-family homes. That number would drop to 48 percent by 2030, under a high-density development blueprint called Plan Bay Area, recently enacted by the Association of Bay Area Governments and the region’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Plan Bay Area has already drawn several legal challenges, and...

A plan to squeeze most residents of the San Francisco Bay Area into multifamily housing offers a test case of whether land-use bureaucracies nationwide, encouraged by the Obama administration, should be allowed to transform American lifestyles under the pretext of combating climate change. Currently, 56 percent of households in the nine-county Bay Area live in single-family homes. That number would drop to 48 percent by 2030, under a high-density development blueprint called Plan Bay Area, recently enacted by the Association of Bay Area Governments and the region’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Plan Bay Area has already drawn several legal challenges, and...

Five-year-old cancer survivor Miles Scott recently delighted America when his wish to become Batman was granted by the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area Foundation. Social media exploded and the adventures of "#SFBatkid" were followed by millions of people as he saved a damsel in distress and rescued the mascot of the San Francisco Giants. Over 12,000 volunteers helped make Miles' wish come true, and numerous articles were written about how faith in humanity seemed to be restored. San Francisco city supervisor Eric Mar seems to have missed the heartwarming lesson behind the day, and instead decided to politicize the event....

Katherine Ann Power’s story plays out like a Hollywood movie: the radical anti-war college student participated in a Boston bank heist in 1970, intending to help fund a revolution. The heist went horribly wrong; her co-conspirators were arrested, and Power — the getaway driver — hid from the FBI for more than two decades under a different identity, spending some of that time working and raising a family in Lebanon, Corvallis and Albany. The difference, Power said, is that she is not a movie protagonist, and Boston Police Officer Walter Schroeder, who was shot and killed during the heist, was...

San Francisco architect Lee Hammack says he and his wife, JoEllen Brothers, are “cradle Democrats.” They have donated to the liberal group Organizing for America and worked the phone banks a year ago for President Obama’s re-election. Since 1995, Hammack and Brothers have received their health coverage from Kaiser Permanente, where Brothers worked until 2009 as a dietitian and diabetes educator. “We’ve both been in very good health all of our lives – exercise, don’t smoke, drink lightly, healthy weight, no health issues, and so on,” Hammack told me. The couple — Lee, 60, and JoEllen, 59 — have been...

Photo of JoEllen Brothers and Lee Hammack via ProPublica. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Loyal Democrats thought they could simply elect their progressive messiah and social justice would flood the land as sea levels dropped. Everyone knew that the U.S. healthcare system was imperfect, so just let Obama make a few quick changes and, voilà, better care for less money! Sure the guy had never run so much as a county fair’s funnel cake concession, but how tough could healthcare reform be? The president’s most ardent fans are now learning that magical thinking and good intentions don’t amount...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Self described “big proponent� of Obamacare says he is “surprised� that his family’s premium and deductible went up KQED reports:The notice from Kaiser came in the mail about ten days ago.Luke Donavan’s health insurance premiums were going up. A lot.Donavan, 41 of San Francisco, is self-employed and buys his own health insurance. Currently he pays $841 per month for insurance for himself, his wife and three young children. But, Kaiser is canceling that policy and offering him a new one that fully complies with the Affordable Care Act. Effective Jan. 1, his family’s premium is going...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hasn’t even started her 2016 presidential campaign yet — and she’s already shutting out the press. Clinton’s speech at the Moscone Center on Saturday will be blacked out — closed to the media. So will her big fundraiser Saturday night with Chelsea Clinton, a “Millennial Network” event to benefit the Clinton Foundation. Seriously? In San Francisco? The easiest Democratic audience in the country? This is the progressive bastion where — as one political wag put it – the biggest problem may be how many chairs to remove so Hillary fans can better prostrate themselves...

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. Earlier this week, a 38-year-old man dressed as Julius Caesar was arrested after allegedly channeling his inner tyrant and fighting with San Francisco cops in the Richmond District. According to police, the incident happened at about 3:20 a.m. on Sunday when the suspect had hopped a ride with a Lyft driver at 26th Avenue and Geary Boulevard. The Lyft driver called the cops after the fake Julius Caesar allegedly made drunken advances toward him, making things a little uncomfortable in the car. Police arrived at the scene where they found the suspect just...