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Not content with just robbing a Texas tourist of his money, a group of assailants also chopped off a clump of the man's hair during a Monday night attack. The 34-year-old victim was walking in the 100 block of Gateway Boulevard around 10 p.m. when he was assaulted by a group of four to six men, according to South San Francisco police. The assailants knocked the victim to the ground and robbed him of his cash. While the man was lying on the ground, one of the robbers pulled out a silver pocket knife and cut away a chunk of...

In San Francisco, one of the toughest places in the country to find a place to live, more than 31,000 housing units — one of every 12 — now sit vacant, according to recently released census data. That’s the highest vacancy rate in the region, and a 70 percent increase from a decade ago. To know one big reason why, ask Wayne Koniuk. By trade, Koniuk fashions artificial limbs for amputees. By habit, he fits prostheses at no charge for people who cannot pay. This has left him a less-than-wealthy man. But he does have one substantial asset: a Divisadero...

The slogan to the Marin Convention and Visitors Bureau is "Marin: It's just a little out there." Their site also notes that "It's different here. And not by accident." One difference is that Marin is the culturally, pretty plain vanilla. It's probably not a shock that of all the pockets and regions in the Bay Area, Marin County is the least diverse of them all. Or translated differently, Marin has one of the highest percentage of Caucasians. While this is most likely a well known fact, The Bay Citizen last week confirmed this, in compiling the 10 Whitest Cities in...

Looking back, David Dutcher realizes the gorgeous blonde who approached him through an online dating service came on too strong. During their 2008 date at the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Concord, Dutcher said the woman chugged shots of hard alcohol and punctuated each with a kiss to his lips. After a second flirtatious woman showed up, the blonde told Dutcher, then a 46-year-old recent divorcee, that their night would continue if he followed the ladies home to join them in a hot tub. Dutcher never got there - minutes after he left the restaurant, a Concord police officer pulled...

Unemployment has increased in several counties across the San Francisco Bay Area, according to a state report released Friday. Jobless rates rose in Solano County from 12.1 percent in December to 12.4 percent in January, according to the California Employment Development Department. In San Francisco County, unemployment increased from 9.2 percent to 9.5 percent. Marin County saw jobless rates go from 7.9 percent to 8.2 percent, the report said. The number of people out of work in Alameda County went from 10.8 percent to 11 percent, and Santa Clara County's jobless numbers went from 10.4 percent to 10.5 percent. While...

A panel of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has acquitted a minister who was accused of violating the denomination's constitution by legally marrying his male partner. The church judicial commission split 3-3 Monday on the charge against the Rev. Erwin Barron, who is under the jurisdiction of the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, but now works as a college professor in San Francisco.

The Board of Supervisors just banned toys in Happy Meals, which drew worldwide attention.Now the latest ban being proposed in San Francisco is on male circumcision.A proposed ballot measure for the November 2011 ballot – when voters will be electing the San Francisco’s next mayor – would amend The City’s police code “to make it a misdemeanor to circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the foreskin, testicle or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18.” Doing so would result in a fine of up to $1,000 and up to one year in jail, according to the...

A transgender woman who used to run a sex toy company called Good Vibrations reportedly is being labeled as the "conservative" candidate in a local San Francisco race. SF Weekly reports that Theresa Sparks, a candidate for a seat on the city's Board of Supervisors, is being criticized as the insider, conservative pick. Sparks is backed by Mayor Gavin Newsom and held a seat on the city's Police Commission. She allegedly drifts "conservative" by opposing a hotel tax and, according to one local paper, declining to put pressure on the city's police officers while serving on the disciplinary panel....

Law would apply to sales of cats, dogs, hamsters, rats, birdsIt could soon be illegal for pet stores in San Francisco to sell pets. The San Francisco Animal Control and Welfare Commission will take up a proposal tonight that would ban the sale of all small animals from the City's pet shops. Only fish would be allowed to be sold under the ordinance, which is believed to be the first of it's kind in the country. The proposed law is designed to encourage people to rescue animals from the shelter instead of buying from a pet store. Supporters say it...

As if San Francisco wasn't loopy enough, voters will be asked Tuesday to pass a ballot initiative, endorsed by the Democratic Party, that would bar police enforcing California's prostitution laws. The goal is to free up $11 million a year now spent collaring hookers so police can go after the real criminals: people who cook with trans fats; tote groceries in plastic bags, think bad thoughts about homosexuals, etc. If voters approve, hookers would enjoy the same special rights Frisco has bestowed upon illegal aliens, porn peddlers and medical-marijuana potheads. Among other things, a yes vote would increase prostitution, sex...

Finding a pro-deregulation stance in the media is often tough, but when if it suits some far out cause against societal norms, don't rule it out. Sunny Hostin, CNN "American Morning" legal analyst, examined the pros and cons of a San Francisco ballot measure to be voted on next month called Proposition K. The measure would decriminalize prostitution. But Hostin said there was a case, not for decriminalized prostitution - which reportedly will save $11 million in municipal police spending - but for legalization, which she claimed would "boost the economy in these economic times." "I think the more valid...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In a tongue-in-cheek call for immigration reform, farm workers are teaming up with comedian Stephen Colbert in a challenge to unemployed Americans: Come on, take our jobs. Farm workers are tired of being blamed by politicians and anti-immigrant activists for taking work that should go to Americans and dragging down the economy, said Arturo Rodriguez, the president of the United Farm Workers of America. So the group is encouraging the unemployed — and any Washington pundits who want to join them — to apply for the some of thousands of agricultural jobs being posted with state...

Victoria Kolakowski, who's running for Alameda Count Superior Court judge in a November runoff election, declares on her campaign Web site that she hopes to make history."If I am elected, I would be the first openly LGBT superior court judge elected in Alameda County, the first openly LGBT person elected countywide, and the first transgender trial court judge in the United States," it states. The question is how much it should matter. Kolakowski, 48, transitioned from male to female in 1989 during her last year in law school and had sex reassignment surgery in 1991. She has 21 years of...

It seems the gang over at San Francisco's Planning Department has been looking at more than zoning codes on their computers - namely, porn.According to City Hall sources, Planning Director John Rahaim has recommended the firing of four high-ups - including veteran Zoning Administrator Larry Badiner - for allegedly receiving and in some cases circulating X-rated photos and videos for years.The material wasn't criminal - we're talking "Debbie Does Dallas" stuff, not child porn - but it was "incredibly inappropriate for the workplace," said one source, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of...

Supervisor Bevan Dufty met manthing sweeping up outside a nightclub While San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is all about policy and results now, and not personality and process, mayoral hopeful and Supervisor Bevan Dufty's new relationship might prove that the personal is still political. Dufty announced at a fundraiser -- his campaign for mayor, still in its early days, has raised $50,000 so far -- that he's in a new relationship with local realtor Pat Patricelli. "I was sweeping up broken glass outside Moby at 5:30 in the morning when he walked by with his dog, Luna," Dufty told...

San Francisco health officials reported an alarming increase in new syphilis cases last year after years of declines. New syphilis cases rose 55.8 percent in 2008 over the previous year, San Francisco public health officials reported. The increase was significantly lower than the dramatic spikes reported early in the decade, when new infections increased 167 percent from 2001 to 2002. But last year's rise would seem to indicate an increase in unsafe sexual practices, which could lead to a rise in HIV infection rates.

Folks, this according to the Thomas More Law Center: ANN ARBOR, MI – Tomorrow, December 16, 2009, at 10 AM PST, a panel of eleven judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in San Francisco will hear oral arguments concerning the constitutionality of San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s virulent resolution attacking the Catholic Church for its teachings against homosexual adoptions. The en banc panel will review the earlier opinion of a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit that upheld the resolution. Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise will argue the case on behalf of the plaintiffs in...

The City of San Francisco is hard up for cash, so they’ve decided to steal it from the Archdiocese of San Francisco because they can – nakedly, in broad daylight, without the slightest plausible legal pretense. The Church is openly hated and condemned in San Francisco for its support of Proposition 8 and its defense of human sexual morality in general. The City can steal from the Archdiocese because the City needs the money and because it makes the citizenry happy to stick it to the evil Catholic Church.Here’s some backstory from a previous post: When you sell a piece...

There is one consolation for Mayor Gavin Newsom now that he's dropped out of the governor's race - he won't have to take a $72,477-a-year pay cut. Newsom, who earns $246,464 as mayor of San Francisco, would have seen his pay drop to $173,987 if he had won the governor's race, as a result of the salary cuts imposed on state elected officers last week.Under the new pay levels, the governor gets about $25,000 a year less than San Francisco's park and recreation director, Phil Ginsburg.And if District Attorney Kamala Harris wins the race to become the next attorney general,...

There is one consolation for Mayor Gavin Newsom now that he's dropped out of the governor's race - he won't have to take a $72,477-a-year pay cut. Newsom, who earns $246,464 as mayor of San Francisco, would have seen his pay drop to $173,987 if he had won the governor's race, as a result of the salary cuts imposed on state elected officers last week.