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1. 2015 San Francisco 49ers On this list we have seen examples of great players retiring suddenly in their prime, losing big-time players in free agency, the stunning departure of top coaches at or near their peak and legal troubles bringing down elite talents. The 49ers had a combination of all of those factors this offseason, I couldn't find another example of a team having so many various factors resulting in so many huge hits to the roster: Coach Jim Harbaugh was chased off to Michigan, guard Mike Iupati, running back Frank Gore and others departed in free agency, offensive...

STENCH AND THE CITY: SF’S SUMMER OF URINE If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to… plug your nose. By Debra J. Saunders – 8.10.15 How bad is the urine situation in San Francisco? This is not a joke: Monday night, a light pole corroded by urine collapsed and crashed onto a car, narrowly missing the driver. The smell is worse than I have known since I started working for The Chronicle in 1992. It hits your nose on the BART escalator before you reach Market Street. That sour smell can bake for blocks where street people sleep wrapped...

How bad is the urine situation in San Francisco? This is not a joke: Monday night, a light pole corroded by urine collapsed and crashed onto a car, narrowly missing the driver. The smell is worse than I have known since I started working for The Chronicle in 1992. It hits your nose on the BART escalator before you reach Market Street. That sour smell can bake for blocks where street people sleep wrapped in dirty blankets. I talked to Mayor Ed Lee and rode around with police to find out what can be done to clean up San Francisco....

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said that President Obama “can’t legalize” the illegal aliens in the United States, but then added that the president “can implement the laws as he believes they should be implemented." "Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution states that Congress has the power to make laws governing naturalization. Given this, does President Obama have the unilateral power to legalize illegal aliens?" CNSNews.com asked Hoyer. “I don’t think he does,” Hoyer responded, “and I don’t think that’s what he’s going to do. You’re right. He can’t legalize them.” “What the president can in fact do, however,...

The border security movement had been losing steam, but is being reinvigorated by the focus of presidential candidate Donald Trump, Politico reports. The Republican Party, hoping to lure more Hispanic voters, had not planned to focus on illegal immigration or border security during the 2016 election cycle, but that changed when Trump uttered the now infamous words about Mexican immigrants during his June 16 entry into the GOP race. "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," Trump said. "They're sending people that have lots of problems … They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some,...

Kimberley Chambers burst into tears as soon as she laid a hand on her crew's boat. The physical contact signaled the end of a record-breaking 30-mile swim from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge. Chambers, a New Zealander who calls San Francisco home, made history Saturday as the first woman to complete the swim. Chambers, 38, spent 17 hours and 12 minutes in a stretch of water notorious for its great white shark population -- but didn't encounter any. "I guess they don't like Kiwis," she quipped, adding that she "slipped off the boat" instead of jumping into...

Aldon Smith’s turbulent career with the 49ers ended Friday morning, shortly after his fifth arrest since 2012 and third instance of alleged drunk driving. The 49ers announced Smith’s release three hours after he posted bail, following Thursday night’s arrest by Santa Clara police for drunken driving, hit-and-run and vandalism. “This organization has tried very hard to help Aldon fight his issues,” an unattributed statement from the 49ers said. “Although he is no longer a member of this team, our support and concern for him will continue.”

In a court filing Tuesday, Chow’s legal team alleged that this time around, he was being “selectively prosecuted” by federal authorities ... FBI reports and wiretap evidence that suggest San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and others participated in public corruption schemes but were spared prosecution “due to their political affiliations.”

Concerns about San Francisco’s decaying light poles were ignited Monday night after one corroded by urine toppled onto a car, narrowly missing the driver. The three-story-tall lamp post at Pine and Taylor streets snapped around 6:30 Monday and landed on a nearby car, almost crushing the driver. No one was injured.

Donald Trump is many things, but a deep thinker with a nuanced grasp of the complexities of public policy is not one of them. Yet he stands firmly at the front of the GOP presidential pack largely because of one issue: immigration. And before you dismiss his thoughts on the subject as the rantings of a simple-minded xenophobe, understand that more than any other candidate, he's offering Republican primary voters some actual concrete ideas for how to address this challenge. That isn't to say that those ideas aren't insane and impractical, because they most certainly are. Trump wants to build...

San Francisco’s mayor was accused by the FBI of taking bribes in exchange for favors, attorneys for a defendant in an organized crime case centered on San Francisco’s Chinatown said Tuesday. In a court filing, Curtis Briggs, an attorney for Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, cites as the source of the FBI’s allegation documents turned over to him by the government as part of the process of mounting a defense for his client. Briggs is seeking to dismiss the indictment against Chow on the grounds that the government is selectively prosecuting him while letting other people caught in its probe go....

“I would hold them as an accomplice. Make them criminally culpable.” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told Boston Herald Radio on Monday morning that mayors of sanctuary cities should be arrested. “Absolutely, I would hold them as an accomplice. Make them criminally culpable,” the Republican presidential candidate said when asked if he’d arrest mayors of sanctuary cities . “I’d also make them civilly liable so that families, victim’s families could sue.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, is calling on mayors of sanctuary cities to be arrested as accomplices to the crimes illegal aliens receiving special treatment in their cities commit. “Absolutely, I would hold them as an accomplice,” Jindal said on Boston Herald Radio on Monday morning, as reported by BuzzFeed, Jindal said of mayors of sanctuary cities. “Make them criminally culpable. I’d also make them civilly liable so that families, victims’ families could sue. Especially if the prosecutor isn’t taking action or the mayor’s not changing their ways, I’d allow the families to go to court...

A large majority of Latinos view Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump negatively, according to a new poll, and more than half believe his recent comments about Mexican immigrants were racist and inappropriate. Trump, who is leading the Republican field in polls ahead of the first debate this week, has drawn both headlines and scorn for his incendiary comments about Mexicans and immigrants, saying during his announcement speech in June that Mexico is “sending people that have lots of problems… They are bringing crime. They’re rapists.” A survey of 250 Latinos found that 75% view the television star and real estate...

The FBI is reported to be investigating bombs that exploded minutes apart at two Las Cruces, New Mexico churches Sunday morning.

* Trump said Sunday that 'black people 'are worse now than just about ever' * Claims Obama has done nothing for low employment rates * Weekend poll showed Trump has his greatest support yet nationally He has a 24.9 percent vote among Republicans, according to poll Days after assuring that he has the support of Hispanic voters, Donald Trump has now claimed that African-American people are also on his side - and that Obama has let them down. In yet another round of bashing the President, the billionaire said Obama has done 'absolutely nothing' for the black community. He gave...

I can't post this story direct because of copyright issues but the "Las Cruces Sun-News" is reporting TWO EXPLOSIONS NEAR CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH AND HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CHURCH IN LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO THIS MORNING. THE EXPLOSION CALLS CAME IN BETWEEN 8 AND 9AM LOCAL TIME. NO APPARENT INJURIES WITH A POLICE SPOKESMAN SAYING THE EXPLOSIONS INVOLVED A LOT OF SHREDDED PAPER APPARENTLY FIREWORKS. SERVICES WERE GOING ON AT BOTH CHURCHES AT THE TIME OF EXPLOSIONS. CHURCHGOERS WERE EVACUATED AND TOLD NOT TO USE THEIR CARS TO LEAVE.......

Before you decide to paint the town yellow in San Francisco, be aware the public walls that are most likely to be peed upon now have a fighting chance. The walls can pee back.City officials are tired of asking police to write tickets after the crime has been committed. They want the criminals to pay the price for their indiscretion as the indiscretion is being committed. Immediate retribution is what the San Francisco Public Works Department wants, and now they have the means —they hope — to make it happen.They have a special paint that lets the wall pee...

The man accused of killing two Good Samaritans who tried to help him on a Montana roadside was encountered by immigration authorities earlier this year after a burglary arrest, but was unable to be deported because he had already gotten legal status, federal authorities said this week. Mr. Deniz is Mexican, and the Obama administration deems him a legal permanent resident who entered the country legally on May 31, 2013 — though they didn’t say how he earned that status initially. Indeed, just a month ago Mr. Deniz was arrested by police in Worland, Wyo., on burglary charges. U.S. Immigration...

This week, Cardinal Timothy Dolan took to the New York Daily News to write an incoherent and defamatory political hit piece against Donald Trump. As a Catholic priest, I can only say it is embarrassing to have a Cardinal so blatantly and unfairly trying to associate Mr. Trump with the worst kinds of racism imaginable. I offer an apology on behalf of so many Catholics who are outraged by the dirty politics of Cardinal Dolan.