Free Republic

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat during the national anthem in each of the team's three preseason games and plans to continue to do so until he sees real change when it comes to racial oppression in the United States. "Yes, I'll continue to sit," Kaepernick said. "I'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed. To me this is something that has to change. When there's significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it's supposed to represent, this country is representing people the way that it's supposed...

The Guardian has been hit by a journalism ethics scandal after the newspaper admitted a reporter fabricated interviews and made up quotes in articles. Lee Glendinning, editor of Guardian US and a former Fairfax Media journalist, said reporter Joseph Mayton also falsely claimed to have been present at events he wrote about. The former deputy editor of Guardian Australia apologised to readers and to the “people whose words were misrepresented or falsified”. The newspaper, which was instrumental in campaigning for a British inquiry into press standards, has now removed 13 of contributor Mr Mayton’s articles from its website. Other articles...

Elected leaders of the city that harbored an illegal alien-turned-killer last year are voting Tuesday on whether to pass an ordinance that would make San Francisco an even more hospitable sanctuary city for illegally present foreign nationals. The Board of Supervisors is considering the measure, which would further tie the hands of local law enforcement, effectively preventing their ability to give an inmate’s personal information or release date to federal immigration officials, according to KQED radio. Supervisor John Avalos introduced the proposed pro-Sanctuary City change.

How quickly does that Larkspur Ferry parking fill up on a weekday? If I am there before 7:30 am I ok? Is there additional parking nearby? Thanks for the help.

<p>Two pedestrians were struck by blow darts while walking across the Golden Gate Bridge Friday, the California High Patrol said.</p> <p>About 2:45 p.m., a CHP officer who was patrolling the bridge on bicycle was flagged down by a man who had been hit in the thigh. The dart, which was about 5 inches long, appeared to have been fired from a blow gun, authorities said. It had sunk about two inches into the man’s skin.</p>

The last known survivor of the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 died Monday. Bill Del Monte, who was 109 years old, passed away just after midnight at the San Rafael senior care facility where he lived, according to his family. He was 11 days shy of his 110th birthday. His niece, Janette Barroca of San Francisco, said he'd been doing "great for 109 years old." Del Monte was just three months old when the quake struck, forcing his family into the streets to escape in a horse-drawn buck board with fire burning on both sides, Barroca said....

It appears the old adage holds true: when it comes to real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. The wooden shack that was on sale for $350,000 in San Francisco’s trendy Outer Mission neighborhood is officially off the market. The deal for the 765-square-foot residence closed on Thursday, with a pair of investors nabbing the property for a cool $408,000, according to Vanguard realtors.

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) — San Jose is forcing its residents to cut back on water use during the drought, so one couple found a patriotic solution to their ugly brown lawn by painting an American flag on it. Claudia Decker and her husband stopped watering their lawn in January. Tired of looking at the patchy turf and dirt, they wanted to increase their curb appeal. “People are painting their lawns green because of the drought,” Decker told KPIX 5. Instead of green, the couple painted an American flag on the lawn, in honor of Flag Day. The flag even...

Yup, spaceships again. Between Star Citizen, the new Halo, the new Star Wars, a couple of key mods for Sins of a Solar Empire that I keep up with and have done some voice work on, and Destiny, my mind has been buzzing with them. I’m a huge nerd who thinks of things in my free time like “if I were a shinigami what kind of Zanpakutō would I have?” and “I wonder if I’d rather be a ranger or a mage” and “ff I were a Jedi in the New Jedi Order, what kind of ship would I have?”...

Are American Troops Already Fighting on the Front Lines in Iraq? The Pentagon is denying that U.S. troops are fighting ISIS on the ground in Iraq—but eyewitness accounts and Kurdish officials tell a different story. ZUMAR, Iraq — The role of American Special Operations Forces in Iraq has remained hidden even while the U.S. air war expands. As momentum against ISIS picks up, they may be emerging from the shadows. In a pitched battle on Monday, Kurdish Peshmerga, backed by American airpower and what appeared to be U.S. troops, struck at ISIS positions in the strategic crossroads of Zumar.Scenes from...

Smokes rise from US shelling near Khazir in Northern Iraq News / Kurdistan US Airstrikes Done With Peshmerga Coordination 10.08.2014   Hawar Abdulrazaq BasNews, Erbil   The Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry has said that from now on they will have a daily press conference to inform the Kurdistan public of new developments to prevent the circulation of propaganda and false information.   Halgord Hikmat, the spokesman for the Peshmerga Ministry told BasNews from Erbil, that the recent US airstrikes in the Makhmur and Mosul regions against Islamic State (IS) Militants had inflcited huge loses on the extremist group.  ...

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – Brows were raised and eyes rolled back when needle exchange programs were first implemented to stop the spread of disease. Giving away free and clean syringes to heroin users seemed preposterous to many. Now it is a common practice and almost universally accepted as a means to prevent the spread of HIV. Could the same happen with free crack pipes? Soon after our story was posted Friday, KPIX 5 received a flurry of phone calls and emails from city officials denouncing the idea to distribute the crack pipes. Mayor Ed Lee was first with a...

Everybody (well, everybody who reads sf/fantasy) has their favorite novels in each genre...which are usually a bunch of other people's favorite novels as well. This only makes sense, since cream rises to the top. But even so, there are plenty of obscure books that for whatever reason, never really caught on. They might well be great reads, but no one seems to have heard of them...so what's your favorite sf and fantasy novel that still lies in not-so-deserved obscurity? With any luck, we'll all discover a bunch of great books that we've never heard of before! I'll start off with...

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...

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Department of Homeland Security is beefing up its presence at airports, train stations and other travel hubs in the United States in the wake of global travel warning imposed on all U.S. citizens Local authorities are not going into specifics but the San Francisco Police Department does acknowledge receiving a bulletin by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and DHS. The SFPD says their officers are monitoring various areas of the city and will determine if additional resources are necessary. areas of the city and will determine if additional resources are necessary. They say they have...

A computer hacker who gained cult status across the internet after revealing how to hack cash machines has been found a week before he was due to demonstrate how to kill someone by hacking their pacemaker. The body of Barnaby Jack was found in San Francisco yesterday. The city's medical examiner's office would not give any further details. Jack, a security expert, became one of the most famous hackers on the planet after a 2010 demonstration in which he forced ATMs to spit out cash, dubbed 'Jackpotting'.

Terrible death of two Chinese schoolgirls, 16, whose bodies were found on runway after Boeing 777 crash at San Francisco airport The two victims who perished as an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crashed and burst into flames as it came to land at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday morning have been identified as Chinese schoolgirls who were on a class trip. The bodies of Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, both 16, were found on the runway after the tail of the plane, which was flying from Seoul in South Korea with 307 people on board, was ripped off as...

SAN FRANCISCO, July 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Weeks after their male counterparts stoked controversy by changing their rules to allow openly gay members, Girl Scouts USA made history in their own way after some 90+ of their members and their families marched in San Francisco’s recent Gay Pride Parade - the first time they have ever done so. Girl Scouts of Northern California announced their participation in the parade in a post on their official Facebook page, accompanied by a photo of the girls in uniform carrying a Girl Scouts banner.  "I want them to be able to tell their children they...

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward making lots of money. That's Jamen Shively's thesis, anyway. The former Microsoft manager, 45, is embarking on a publicity tour for the marijuana enterprise he's happy to label the "Starbucks" of pot. "Yes, we can" is for Shively "yes, we are big marijuana" -- and he's getting ready for what he believes is The Next Big Thing: legal pot -- everywhere. With his trusty sidekick, former Mexican president Vicente Fox -- a partner of Shively's in Diego Pellicer, Inc., the nation's first "premium marijuana" retail brand -- in...

As if the morning commute couldn't have gotten worse for everyone. A big-rig driver reportedly slammed into the toll plaza at the Golden Gate Bridge as he tried desperately to make his way to San Francisco. The bizarre crash happened during rush hour at about 8:43 a.m. along the third southbound lane from the left at the toll plaza on the southern end of the bridge, CHP Officer Andrew Barclay told KTVU. Naturally, the toll plaza was damaged, as was the front of the truck, and everyone's mood about the morning commute. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. Now for the burning...