Email Author Matt Smith

Awards

• 2011 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  "Distressed Properties"

• 2011 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  "City Hounds the Homeless"

• 2011 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  "Hypocritical Mayor"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published June 17, 2009

  "On Thin Ice"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published June 3, 2009

  "Domestic Spouses"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published May 6, 2009

  "Bumping Frights"

• 2009 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  Matt Smith columns

• 2008 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  Matt Smith columns

• 2007 - Maggies: The Magazine Awards of Western Publishing, published April 26, 2006

  "Bank of Indifference"

• 2007 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  Matt Smith columns

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2009 Stories by Matt Smith

• Cancer Wins! Surprise Malignancy Curtails Cross-Country Anti-Cancer Bike Ride.

  published Sep 21, 2009

  Just over a year ago, roustabout Wisconsonite Joe Iverson launched a San Francisco to Washington D.C. bicycle ride to urge churchgoers across America to help fight cancer.Cancer, it seems, took Iverso... More >>

• Seventeen years later, Food Lion still saving money on refrigeration

  published Sep 21, 2009

  Nearly two decades after Diane Sawyer busted the Food Lion grocery store chain for selling rotting meat to customers, the company still seems obsessed with saving money on refrigeration,  accordi... More >>

• Publicist Claims Teslas Aren't for Silently Running Down Cyclists

  published Sep 16, 2009

  Following an explosion of social media outrage at a British car columnist who delighted in using a Tesla Roadster to silently run cyclists off the road, self-identified San Francisco Bicycle Coaliti... More >>

• Newsom Team Slaps Down Tony Hall's Clinton Payback Story -- With Sarcasm

  published Sep 15, 2009

  Running on adrenalin apparently left over from this morning's Bill Clinton endorsement, Gavin Newsom's crack campaign staff wasted no time in slapping back at an SF Weekly blog item, which had alleged... More >>

• Ex-Treasure Island Czar: Clinton's Newsom Endorsement a Favor for Billionaire Ron Burkle

  published Sep 15, 2009

  At first glance, Bill Clinton's endorsement of no-hoper California governor candidate Gavin Newsom was a case of one slick-haired-womanizer reaching out to a kindred spirit. But for former Treasure Is... More >>

• Investigative Report: Marin County Water System Vulnerable to Al-Qaeda Attack

  published Sep 15, 2009

  The Center For Investigative Reporting, the Berkeley nonprofit that recently formed a team of sleuths to take up where downsized California newspapermen and women left off, came out slugging earlier ... More >>

• Tesla Motors Munich Store Opening Features Organic Beer, Customer Joyrides

  published Sep 15, 2009

  Airfare from SFO to Munich to attend the Tesla Motors store grand opening there: $914 round-trip. Reported base price for the Bay Area company's 2010 model Roadster: $109,000. Filling up on organic G... More >>

• Judge Orders Murder Trial for Gay Grifter Suspects Niroula, McCarthy

  published Sep 14, 2009

  A Southern California judge today ordered a murder trial for two of five men charged in the "Gay Grifter" case, in which a crew led by a San Francisco-based Nepalese immigrant allegedly killed a Palm... More >>

• Obama's stimulus money will increase traffic, but not bridge safety

  published September 16, 2009

  For the thousands of drivers forging across the Bay Bridge at 6:30 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 8, was the day government got it right. Inspectors... More >>

• Testimony: S.F. Gay Grifter Murder Suspects Coddle Dog After Allegedly Killing its Owner

  published Sep 10, 2009

  Are the alleged Gay Grifter killers pet fanciersr According to two independent accounts of new testimony in the Gay Grifter case -- in which a crew of alleged San Francisco con men are charged with ki... More >>

• Local Eco-Conference Swaps Press Passes for Ad Placement

  published Sep 10, 2009

  Being forced to trade adspace for media coverage of an event is not the current journalistic norm. Sadly, it may become commonplace in the future.r In the impending newspaperless world dreaded by jour... More >>

• Decrepit Bridge Thrill-Seekers Can Cross Plenty of Area Spans in Need of Repair

  published Sep 07, 2009

  For flimsy bridge fetishists -- those sick, twisted daredevils who thrill at the idea of crossing a bridge in dire need of repair -- the ongoing Bay Bridge closure needn't be a killjoy. Rather, it ser... More >>

• Stanford Offers Course in Economic Reality: Biz-School Students Train to Sell Cars

  published Sep 04, 2009

  The standard university cap-and-gown day ritual goes this way: MBA alums chant gloatingly to other graduating classes: "We've got the money! We've got the money!" Engineering school grads, meanwhile, ... More >>

• Flash: Live, Denuded Penis Tree

  published Sep 03, 2009

  According to an 8 p.m. investigation by SF Weekly's agricultural I-team, the autumn harvest of the Fell and Cole Panhandle penis tree has commenced, and finished. We earlier reported around 50 br... More >>

• Jerry Brown No Longer Answers His Own Phone. Does That Mean He's a Big-Shot Candidater

  published Sep 03, 2009

  On July 30 The Snitch shared with readers that California Attorney General Jerry Brown picked up the phone assigned to his campaign contribution committee when called by SF Weekly's Joe Eskenazi."We'r... More >>

• Autumn Crop of Orange Panhandle Penises Mysteriously Left Unpicked

  published Sep 03, 2009

  Have San Franciscans lost touch with the earth, the soil, the roots of our agrarian pastr I ask because three whole days after Brock Keeling at SFist.com alerted the city to the dozens of bright, oran... More >>

• In environmental terms, Cash for Clunkers is a jalopy

  published September 2, 2009

  For Joe Shaghasi, general manager of San Francisco Ford Lincoln Mercury, the federal government's $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program that... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Proposed Rule Change Would Allow New Chief to Purge Top SFPD Brass

  published Aug 25, 2009

  New San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon has not announced plans to liquidate top SFPD brass and fill positions with his own people, as he did during his first year as chief of the police departme... More >>

• Nearly Nine Million Mexico City Residents To Soon Enjoy S.F.-Style Plastic Bag Ban

  published Aug 25, 2009

  Finally, a city that will follow our bone-headed, pseudo-environmentalist lead.For the two years since San Francisco passed an ordinance limiting the use of plastic grocery bags, residents of this tre... More >>

• Getting the Band Back Together: S.F. Art Dealer Becomes Sixth Gay Grifter Suspect

  published Aug 24, 2009

  San Francisco art dealer Russell Manning, 67, has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges related a to the December killing of a Palm Springs collector. He is the sixth suspect charged in the s... More >>

• SFPD polygraph expert's controversial views

  published August 19, 2009

  Editor's Note: In the opening paragraph of this column, Matt Smith listed theoretical examples of "uncomfortable questions" that could... More >>

• City Attorney Dennis Herrera Ups Ante in S.F.-Minnesota Credit Card Credit-Hogging Dispute

  published Aug 13, 2009

  When Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson hogged credit last month for attacking a loophole companies use to prevent consumer lawsuits, observers said San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera was... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  The Clogged Bus-Only Lane Theory of Policing: Cite More Motorists and the Rest of the Public Safety Picture Will Fall Into Place

  published Aug 13, 2009

  In Mexico, a visitor will quickly get the sense that society isn't working quite right when she's asked for a bribe by police. In Saudi Arabia, the same conclusion becomes obvious when a woman is arre... More >>

• Alleged Knife Man Added to Accused Gay Grifter Killers' Lineup

  published Aug 12, 2009

  December's Gay Grifter murder, in which a quartet of sex-partner-swapping purported San Francisco con men allegedly killed a lonely, elderly Palm Springs man had, until this week, seemed to lack a key... More >>

• SFPD can't tell a lie: It still uses unreliable polygraph to screen recruits

  published August 12, 2009

  In May 1922, the then–highly competitive Bay Area newspaper industry was mesmerized by a case, and a device, that would influence crime... More >>