North Dakota

Californians Are Kinda Miserable People, Study Says

A recent Gallup poll ranked states based on their overall level of happiness, and California landed in an unexpected spot -- in between the anti-evolution state of Kansas and North Dakota, that one state whose only real purpose is to buffer Canada from Americans. In any event, the pollsters took i ... More >>

S.F. Group Sues Over Predator Drone Privacy Rules

Do thoughts of miniature helicopters hovering and peeking into your bedroom keep you up at night? Maybe you are worried about Uncle Sam seeing what you do when nobody is watching? Well, so is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based digital civil liberties group that filed a lawsui ... More >>

Alameda County Sheriff Just Might Employ Unmanned Drones to Catch Criminals

It's like something out of sci-fi: The bad guy, dressed in black, runs from police officers and manages to shimmy up a drainpipe and hide on a deserted roof. But then from behind him rises a small computerized helicopter that tracks his every move.Well, for Bay Area folks, that scenario might not be ... More >>

Hemp Farming Still Illegal, Obama Provides Convenient Scapegoat

If and when Tea Party hero Sen. Rand Paul visits San Francisco and goes shopping, he'll find friendly faces in the aisles of Rainbow Grocery more quickly than he will any Safeway (especially the Castro location). In addition to the destruction of all government, the Kentucky Republican has legislate ... More >>

Bouncer Teaches Tourists at the Buddha

The Bay Area Has Only One Club in the World's Top 100, According to Pollstar. Huh?

Update: Aaron Siuda, vice president of marketing at Live Nation Northern California, says that his firm generally does not report ticket sales to Pollstar. But he said if it had provided numbers, the Fillmore would have been in the Top 10 clubs on the Pollstar list. (Shoreline, also a Live Nation ve ... More >>

S.F.'s First Pizza Truck, an Artisan Soda Stand, and Pride Parade's Top Chef

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. The mobile food report: Casey's Pizza, which started as makeshift stand, will get a set of wheels by the end of August. Eater SF reports that Casey Crynes' will be the first pizza truck on the S.F. scene ... More >>

Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt in Marin: Jokes, Tunes, and the Dead Girl in Hiatt's Trunk

​Lyle LovettJohn HiattJune 9, 2011@ Marin CenterBetter Than: Almost any other concert featuring middle-aged white guys singing the blues.In some ways, Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt are an odd couple. Lovett sings with a wry throaty croak, whereas Hiatt favors passionate, lung-bursting howls. Hiatt wr ... More >>

Nancy Pelosi's Daughter to Lead Young Democrats

For Just $13 Per Hour, Nancy Pelosi's Daughter Will Teach You How To Lead The Public​Nancy Pelosi may no longer count herself the leader of Old Democrats -- thanks to an election that ceded the House to Republicans. But her family today captured leadership of the Young Democrats.The House minorit ... More >>

What Do Police Do With Massive Ford F-250 Pickup Trucks?

Are you gonna go my way?​Like many San Franciscans, your humble narrator has often wondered just what need the San Francisco Police Department has for massive pickup trucks of the sort one would expect to see in a North Dakota rock quarry or Toby Keith video. After noticing the truck in this snaps ... More >>

Camels Chided For Using San Francisco in Tobacco Ads. Use These Sh*tholes Instead.

Phallic camels aren't welcome in this here town! ​Earlier this week, City Attorney Dennis Herrera and short-timer Department of Public Health Director Mitch Katz wrote a sternly worded letter to Joe Camel's corporate overlords. The two chided R.J. Reynolds for using the Haight -- as well as Brookl ... More >>

Forbes Falsely Tags SF Examiner Owner Phil Anschutz As Elite Pro Cyclist

Does this mean I get to race, too?​A profile appearing in the Nov. 8 issue of Forbes magazine suggests that Phil Anschutz, the 70-year-old billionaire oil, rail, telecom and entertainment barron who owns the San Francisco Examiner, is also an elite international athlete, besting professional compe ... More >>

Real Horrorshow!

Sierra Club Sues EPA For Not Enforcing Clean Air Act

Trouble in paradise?​Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in federal court in San Francisco, asserting the EPA did not adequately enforce provisions of the Clean Air Act.The lawsuit, filed yesterday by the Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardian ... More >>

California Faces Interstate Lawsuit -- If Voters Don't Pass Prop. 23

Don't touch that greenhouse gas, warn out-of-state attorneys general...​If California voters don't pass Proposition 23 -- which would pull the rug out from under the state's 2006 law limiting greenhouse gas emissions -- a gang of out-of-state attorneys general have threatened to file suit against ... More >>

Voice of 511 Often Calls Himself

This is the fellow telling you where to go on 511 -- Bob Hesse​Halfway through a phone interview with Bob Hesse, we just can't help it anymore. It's just too much of a trip. Here we are talking to the voice of 511 -- and he understands what we're saying. None of those "I didn't get that," or "I mi ... More >>

Got Stress? List of Most and Least 'Stressed' Counties Updated -- S.F. Makes Neither.

Dorothea LangeYes, San Francisco's economic 'stress levels' have been worse...​If you needed a statistical analysis to back up your gut feeling, here it is: San Francisco ain't such a bad place to be. At least that's what the Associated Press' Economic Stress Index reported on Monday. The index -- ... More >>

Bay Links: Carpools, School Lunch, & Santa

No more free rides?​Is this the end of free rides for carpools on Bay Area bridges? [Calitics]Target pop-up store looks like a Target threw up on Santa's Village. [Curbed]The origins of an Oakland school lunch, from North Dakota to the table. [Oakland North]Santa's kicking it in the Tenderloin wit ... More >>

Suit Alleges Environmental Protection Agency Not Doing Enough Environmental Protecting

Smoke 'em if you got 'em...It was the Roman satirist Juvenal who pondered quis custodiet ipsos custodes? -- Who watches the watchmen? If we gave him the answer "The WildEarth Guardians" we don't think it'd satisfy his query (and, honestly, the man's been dead 1,800 years) -- but it wouldn't be wrong ... More >>

Oops: Pentagon Accidentally Sent Taiwan Nuclear Material. Again.

The new Fox Theater, the arty Red Poppy, and the hustlin' Demolition Men

The Bay is looking up in 2008

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Our critics weigh in on local theater

Also Playing

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Also Playing

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Breaking News -- Bonds' beneficent visitor apparently a wild 'n crazy former soccer star

Message Bored

Hollywood ho-hum horror keeps ripping off the best, turning out the worst

The New Media Monopoly

News & Reviews

Nice Guys Finish First

The Positive Coaching Alliance asks hard-bitten coaches to fill out workbooks and recite management jargon. It also has them saying things like, "I want to go back and relive my childhood and be coached like this."

Reps Etc.

What the Hell Is Copia?

At Robert Mondavi's new $55 million foodie mecca, you'll find seminars on goat cheese and mustard; surrealist movies; a SPAM exhibit; wine tastings; figurines of pooping Catholics -- everything, in fact, but the answer to that question.

The Cheetah Club

How a rare group of spotted patients and a small cadre of persistent doctors could help change the face of cancer research

Blind Faith

A new treatment for victims of severe emotional trauma involving rhythmic eye movements has therapists claiming almost miraculous results. Psychological researchers say the eyes just don't have it.

Slap Shots

Slap Shots

Logic Boards, Not Blackboards

The schools' low-wire act leaves students dangling

Deadbeat Heaven

Parents who refuse to pay child support don't have much to worry about in California. Or, for that matter, San Francisco.

Night+Day

The Mission Blue Mission

Saving the habitat of an inch-long violet butterfly, the endangered Mission Blue, is the starting point of a many-sided battle for dominance of San Bruno

Slap Shots

The War Womb (Part II)

For every direct action against an abortion clinic staged by Operation Rescue, expect an equal and opposite reaction by the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights.

The War Womb

For every direct action against an abortion clinic staged by Operation Rescue, expect an equal and opposite reaction by the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights

Whirly Birds

The wind-power entrepreneurs at Kenetech have spent millionsin vain tosolve this avian mystery: Why have hundredsof raptors, including golden eagles, died alongside the windmills of Altamont Pass?