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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2011 Stories by Matt Smith

• Yao Ming Stars in WildAid Commercial Depicting Drained S.F. Bay

  published May 06, 2011

  Yao Ming isn't merely the tallest player in the NBA. In a commercial he filmed in San Francisco on Thursday along the Bay, the Houston Rocket's center proved he's superhuman in other ways, too. Like a... More >>

• Cellphone Companies Already Warn Customers of Radiation Risks

  published May 04, 2011

  Never one to shy away from fringe crusades, San Francisco Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) is pushing legislation to make San Francisco's law that requires retailers to inform consumers of possible ri... More >>

• New Offleash Laws to Favor Dog Walkers Who Make a Profit

  published May 03, 2011

  The San Francisco Board of Supervisors might gripe about the seemingly onerous plan to severely restrict dogs from roaming offleash in areas owned by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. But when... More >>

• California Culinary Academy Settles Lawsuit With Students for Millions

  published May 4, 2011

  The lawyers wanted to prove Matt Foist was dumb. He recalls attorneys questioning him for hours about his decision to enroll in the California... More >>

• I Heart Abbottabad Keychains, Mugs, Neckties Now Available on Amazon.com

  published May 02, 2011

  Did the CIA miss somethingr News reports have cited unnamed intelligence officials saying that they've only recently stumbled upon rumors that Osama bin Laden had been holed up in a luxury residence i... More >>

• California Culinary Academy: SF Weekly Expose Spawns $40 Million Settlement

  published Apr 29, 2011

  In 2007, SF Weekly investigative reporter Eliza Strickland ran a blockbuster story, demonstrating how the California Culinary Academy urged students to take on tens of thousands of dollars in governme... More >>

• Obama Threatens to Ban Carla Marinucci, Chron Reporter, from White House Press Pool

  published Apr 29, 2011

  Is President Barack Obama Cosmo G. Spacely, the tyrannical chairman of Spacely Space Sprockets who banished George Jetson whenever he misused technologyr Obama aides recently threatened to deny presid... More >>

• Video: Challenging 24-Hour Urban Birding Record

  published Apr 27, 2011

  This week my column chronicles a team of West Coast birders who attempt to break the record for spotting the most species in San Francisco in a 24-hour span.As of 5:30 a.m. on April 18, the record was... More >>

• The New Yorker: 'Chron' Tech Blogger Yobie Benjamin Confuses Water with Industrial Poison

  published Apr 26, 2011

  Last summer, San Francisco Chronicle citizen blogger Yobie Benjamin covered the waterfront, denouncing perceived failures in BP's oil-spill cleanup, including its penchant for using the then-controver... More >>

• Fake Terrorist Ferry Firebombing on Deck for Marin Homeland Security Drill

  published Apr 25, 2011

  This Thursday, ferry passengers will launch from the Larkspur Terminal unaware of the presence of a terrorist. He plans to set off an improvised firebomb -- and the crew will scramble to put out the f... More >>

• Spotting Birds at a Record Pace, with a Camera and a Bike

  published April 27, 2011

  This story has been corrected since it was first published. We incorrectly stated that there were "800 or so species of birds worldwide" when... More >>

• Mayor Ed Lee's New Port Commissioner, Doreen Woo Ho, Clarifies Role in 2009 S.F. Bank Failure

  published Apr 22, 2011

  Earlier this month, Mayor Ed Lee appointed Doreen Woo Ho as port commissioner, which raised many eyebrows here, given that she was a top official at the failed United Commercial Bank. In November, Uni... More >>

• Bill Laddish, Victim of Steroid-Cheating Cyclist, Gets Revised Race Results

  published Apr 22, 2011

  Earlier this month we told you about how antidoping authorities penalized Oakland journalist and amateur cyclist Andrew Tilin after he released The Doper Next Door: My Strange and Scandalous Year on P... More >>

• Palace of Fine Arts Has New Tenants -- Barn Owls

  published Apr 21, 2011

  Many people know about the great horned owl family living on Strawberry Hill in the middle of Stow Lake. But did you know barn owls -- the ghostly-looking birds with white, heart-shaped faces -- ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Bay Area Newspapers: How Much Longer Until They Are Extinctr

  published Apr 19, 2011

  So you think the Bay Area's newspapers are bad now - they are only going to get worse. A new survey shows that local newspapers will continue to strip away what little staff and resources they have le... More >>

• BitTorrent Downloaders Sued Over 'Punk Rock Orgy' Movie

  published Apr 18, 2011

  The makers of the adult movie Punk Rock Orgy in the Woods -- a title that presumably means what it says -- are suing 60 anonymous BitTorrent users, accusing them of conspiring to violate copyright law... More >>

• Avoiding Auto Versus Pedestrian Crashes Could Save Taxpayers Cash

  published April 20, 2011

  On Monday, April 11, a speeding motorist blew through a red light at Masonic Avenue on Grove Street. The car slammed into a jogger in the... More >>

• Call Ed Lee 'Mayor Pothole' -- 90 Percent Are Filled on Time

  published Apr 18, 2011

  New York's Alphonse D'Amato was once known as "Senator Pothole" for his attention to constituent minutiae. But we wonder whether his attentiveness ever earned a reward like this one: San Francisco has... More >>

• Civic Center Becomes Kids' Bowling Alley for The Day

  published Apr 14, 2011

  Jumpstart, a nonprofit that places college student instructors in lower-income preschools, took over San Francisco's Civic Center Thursday, setting up outdoor bowling and other games and giving nurser... More >>

• You Can't Cry Your Way Out of a Speeding Ticket Anymore

  published Apr 13, 2011

  Cops hate to cite speeding drivers almost as much as speeding drivers hate getting tickets. Police are sick and tired of the whining and crying and worse -- the verbal abuse they get when pulling driv... More >>

• Wikileaks' Julian Assange and NYT's Bill Keller Trade Barbs at UC Berkeley

  published Apr 12, 2011

  Julian Assange is a paranoid, misguided, smelly bag lady -- not an open government hero. And New York Times executive editor Bill Kellerr Well, he is a cynical dissembler interested more in covering h... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Jogger Hit by Careless Driver as City Ponders Safety Fix

  published Apr 11, 2011

  A driver blew through a red light this morning and slammed into a jogger along Masonic Avenue, throwing her into the air before plowing into the side of an SUV that had been traveling just in front of... More >>

• News Media Continues Its Slow Decline

  published April 13, 2011

  In January 2009, after Bay Area journalism dean David Weir was laid off from the soon-to-be-defunct web startup Predictify, he gave SF... More >>

• Lucasfilm Sexism Suit Won't Be Tossed, Judge Rules

  published Apr 08, 2011

  A federal judge has rejected a request by Lucasfilm consultant Donald Bies to dismiss a lawsuit claiming he got a co-worker fired by calling her a slut.  "It is so great that the court recon... More >>

• George Gascon Likens Community Courts to Village Elders Meting Out Justice

  published Apr 07, 2011

  Are Community Courts, as proposed by District Attorney George Gascon, a great way to quickly resolve nonviolent crime cases without clogging up the Hall of Justicer Or are they merely a way for prosec... More >>