San Mateo County

Devil's Slide: Not Even the Pedestrian Trail Comes Easy

It's never easy with the Devil's Slide. As we noted in our feature earlier this month, "The Siege of Devil's Slide", generations of men have worked to tame San Pedro Mountain's infamous Pacific coast stretch. But rockslides, and ferocious waves, and blinding fog, geologic conditions inside the mount ... More >>

Re-Potted: Cities Can Now Ban Pot Clubs, But Dispensaries May Still Benefit

CA Supreme Court: Marijuana Dispensaries Can Be Banned, But At Least They're Legal

At least one major roadbloack in the way of medical cannabis reform in California was removed Monday when the California Supreme Court issued a long-awaited ruling -- which says that cities and towns can ban pot clubs. For now. At least 200 places across the state -- including San Mateo County an ... More >>

Burlingame Kid Arrested After Threatening to Bomb His Catholic School

A 13-year-old kid in the quiet, wealthy town of Burlingame was arrested yesterday after reportedly using Instagram to threaten a classmate and the entire school for that matter. According to KTVU, the kid threatened to bomb Our Lady of Angels School, a K-8 Catholic school, after he directly threat ... More >>

California's Economic Recovery Has Been a Tale of Two States

When President Obama was elected in November 2008, the national unemployment rate was at 6.5 percent, and quickly rising. The Great Recession was picking up speed. By the inauguration, the unemployment rate had reached 8.5 percent. It eventually peaked a year later, in January 2010, at 10.6 percent. ... More >>

Impostor Sheriff Making Rounds on the Peninsula Carrying, of all Things, Candy Canes

Authorities down on the Peninsula are warning residents not to open their door to a candy-cane carrying man who is posing as a San Mateo County sheriff's deputy. The "sheriff" was reportedly making rounds on the 1100 block of Woodland Avenue in San Carlos at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. He knocked o ... More >>

San Mateo Embezzlement Cases Underscores Inequality of Bail System

In late 2011, two San Mateo County officials were charged with embezzling more than $450,000 in public funds. From 2009 to 2011, Joanne Seeney, who worked as finance director for the county's Mosquito and Vector Control District, and her bookkeeping assistant, Vika Sinipata, allegedly stole the mo ... More >>

Screw Bluegrass and Sailboats, This Weekend's Hottest Event Is Bunny Adoption

If you hate bluegrass music, tons of people, and even more traffic, but you love rabbits, then you should definitely make your way to San Mateo County this weekend where there will be no International sailboat races and lots of cottontails galore. On both Saturday and Sunday, the Peninsula Humane So ... More >>

Missing Fisherman Found Dead

Sad news: The Coast Guard is reporting that one of the fishermen who have been missing since Sunday morning has been found dead. According to press reports, family members who had been scouring the beaches off San Mateo County coast found the body of one of the men. The Medical Examiner's Office has ... More >>

Coast Guard Resumes Search for Missing Fisherman

Authorities are still scouring the waters this morning, looking for two fisherman who went missing after their boat capsized yesterday morning off the coast of San Mateo County where swells reached seven feet. According to press reports, an 18-foot striper boat was knocked over at about 10:30 a.m. ... More >>

Christopher Maffei, Father of Abducted Children, Claims Kids Were Being Abused

Christopher Maffei, 43, appeared in court today, but did not enter a plea to felony charges of kidnapping his two young children and stealing a yacht. Maffei -- who has been charged with eight felony counts of kidnapping, burglary, and child endangerment -- claimed that he snatched his children to p ... More >>

Sex Offender Who Escaped From Mental Health Facility Found Panhandling in S.F.

A San Mateo County sex offender is in jail today after he escaped from a Mental Health facility Friday and made his way to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf where he was reportedly seen panhandling. Derrick Sanders, 34, was reported missing from the Cordilleras Mental Health Facility around 4 a.m. o ... More >>

Sahil Cooner, S.F. Man, Killed in Motorcycle Accident on Peninsula

South Bay authorities have identified the man who was killed in a motorcycle accident on Friday as 28-year-old Sahil Cooner of San Francisco. News reports say Cooner was riding west on Woodside Road in San Mateo County at about 1:30 p.m. when he reportedly hit a vehicle that was pulling out of the M ... More >>

Former San Mateo County Employees Charged With Stealing From The Dead

"They're climbing in your windows, snatching your stuff up." Could those be lyrics riffing off the the hilarious Antoine Dodson YouTube hit, or a reference to an FBI investigation in San Mateo County? Actually, they're both. On Friday, FBI agents arrested Mandy Natchi Yagi, 54, and Peter Wong, 43, f ... More >>

Warm Weather Inspires Public Masturbation

The Examiner brings us this unsatisfying story this morning about a disturbing uptick in public masturbation -- and we're not referring to your Muni ride last night. Just last week in Half Moon Bay, sheriff's deputies were called to a report of a horny man who allegedly had been pleasuring himself ... More >>

David Hanna Identified as Pedestrian Killed in Hit-And-Run

Be careful ​San Mateo County authorities identified 27-year-old David Zaki Hanna as the San Francisco man who was killed in a tragic hit-and-run accident Saturday morning. Police say Hanna's Toyota Camry hit a soundwall on the right shoulder of the highway at about 4:30 a.m. Saturday. When he got ... More >>

Shawna Kim Apour, Lizard-Stabbing Suspect, Deemed Incompetent for Trial

​The San Carlos woman who was accused of stabbing her boyfriend's precious pet lizard, Speedy, to death will receive treatment rather than jail time. Media outlets are reporting that 37-year-old Shawna Kim Apour suffers from a developmental disability which makes her unfit to stand trial. She was ... More >>

San Francisco One of the Few California Towns with Room for Prisoners

Guardian's Crazy Phone Calls Fielded By Mental Health Professional

Trees on fire? Naked pedestrians?​Jimmy Sosa, a mental health counselor for San Mateo County, has unwittingly found himself thrust into a second career for which he is all too qualified -- fielding the oft-unhinged calls to the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Sosa's cell phone number is only one digit ... More >>

San Carlos Woman in Jail After Allegedly Stabbing Ex-Boyfriend's Pet Lizard to Death

Little man survives DV dispute​Update (10:30 a.m.): Sadly, the man's pet lizard died. Sometimes domestic disputes involve children and other times they involve pets. A San Carlos woman is in jail after she had it out with her ex-boyfriend and took a knife to his pet lizard. Police arrested 37-year ... More >>

Local Hire Law to Include San Mateo County Workers

Avalos created a "win-win" deal. But will he ... win?​Remember when Assemblyman Jerry Hill tried to foolishly kill San Francisco's prized local hire law with his own legislation earlier this year? Nobody could really understand his motivation, apparently not even Hill himself. Ever since he labele ... More >>

Pot Bust Yields 1,400 Marijuana Plants

Busted!​A group of San Francisco men was arrested as part of a major marijuana bust in San Mateo County, dubbed the "mighty mites" pot grow. Authorities seized more than 1,400 pot plants and more than $450,000 worth of marijuana, according to media outlets. The bust was the culmination of a nine-m ... More >>

Rageit Almurisi, Passenger on SFO-Bound Flight, Bangs on Cockpit Door, Wrestled to the Ground

Another crazy passenger​This is any passenger's worst nightmare a week after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Passengers on a San Francisco-bound flight last night had a scare when a 28-year-old man with a Yemeni passport for no reason started yelling and banging on the cockpit door. Media outlets ... More >>

Two Men Kidnap Woman in Mission District and Try to Rape Her

Police looking for Mission District kidnappers​Police are on the hunt for two men who brazenly kidnapped a 22-year-old woman as she walked along a busy Mission District intersection Sunday evening.At about 5 p.m., the woman was near 18th Street and Lexington Way when a man with a knife reportedly ... More >>

Men Walking Across United States Pass Through San Francisco

Will these four men become as famous as Forrest?​Four magicians have set out to walk nearly 3,000 miles across the United States -- from San Francisco to New York City. And their reasoning is not much different from Forrest Gump's: Because they felt like it.SF Weekly spoke to the crew via phone on ... More >>

Mavericks Surfers Can't Catch a Wave

Dude, it's not going to happen​While the rest of San Francisco waits for a white flurry to fall on downtown, surfers on the coast are waiting for something that on any other weekend would seem more likely than snow -- a huge swell.But alas, the wacky winter weather patterns have hijacked the annua ... More >>

San Francisco Police Arrest Two in Connection with Mission Street Shooting

Gang members off to jail ​Police arrested two San Mateo County residents who allegedly shot a man on his way to work in the Mission District yesterday.David Salgado, 19, and Giovanni Sandoval, 19, were taken into custody shortly after officers responded to a shooting near 2114 Mission St. Monday m ... More >>

In Print: Zoe Keating's Tech-Fueled Cello Explorations, the Beautifully Stoned Noise of Young Prisms, and More

​Zoe Keating: "The technology creates this little box that you're always pushing against the edges of," she says. "I find it really good to have these limitations of [recording] latency or RAM or even frustration -- all those things are annoying, but they actually create the music." This goes ... More >>

San Bruno Fire: Bad Karma, Arrests For Four Accused Fake Victims

​A quartet of alleged miscreants have been arrested for purportedly attempting to claim San Bruno fire victim status, and cash in. Department of Motor Vehicles investigators claim Niesha Taylor, Deonte Bennett, Sonya Smith, and Lisa Justin applied for drivers licenses in the burn zone -- despite t ... More >>

Knife-Wielding 20-Year-Old Shot By Burlingame Cops, Dies in San Francisco

​Burlingame police last night called at 8:40 p.m. to a disturbance on 217 Myrtle Avenue found one: A 20-year-old man with a knife. Police claim the man advanced on them, and resisted their efforts to detain him. This lead to one officer firing his Taser. This was ineffective, and the suspect was s ... More >>

Accused Sex Offenders Arrested at San Francisco Airport

​U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing it nabbed two alleged sex offenders at San Francisco Airport after the American citizens' separate flights from the Philippines touched down.  The first man was arrested last Monday on a warrant out of Washington State. The second man was book ... More >>

Teen Accused of Detonating Bomb at Menlo Park School

​ A 17-year old is in police custody after he detonated a "homemade explosive device" behind a Menlo Park middle school on Wednesday night, according to police (via Bay City News).

SF Doctor Busted with Special K at SFO

CEP AmericaDr Keith Loring​Details are still emerging in the arrest yesterday of a San Francisco doctor accused of smuggling ketamine -- an animal tranquilizer for vets, an incapacitating party drug for the rest of us -- into San Francisco International Airport.

SF Doctor Busted with Special K at SFO

CEP AmericaDr Keith Loring​Details are still emerging in the arrest yesterday of a San Francisco doctor accused of smuggling ketamine -- an animal tranquilizer for vets, an incapacitating party drug for the rest of us -- into San Francisco International Airport.

Bleeding Green

Forget about Sharp Park’s endangered frogs and snakes. The real problem with the golf course is its enormous cost to the city.

Anthony Mata Dead, Five Others Critical From Possible Tainted Drugs at Cow Palace Rave

'The Dream' turned into a nightmare for some rave attendees this weekened​The San Mateo County coroner confirmed to SF Weekly that 23-year-old Anthony Mata of Santa Clara is dead following a very bad trip at the weekend's Pop 2010 music festival at the Cow Palace. Along with Mata's death, a handfu ... More >>

Media Dogpile For iPhonegate Warrant

GizmodoEveryone wants one of these ... and the warrant that ensued from this picture​High-tech and low-tech collided today in Redwood City, when tech journalists were forced to show up in person (gasp!) and shell out cash (double gasp!) to obtain the just-unsealed search warrant in the iPhonegate ... More >>

Were Sheriffs Acting As Apple's Personal Stormtroopers?

Pic via St3f4n/Flickr​We have to admit, the search warrant in the iPhonegate case is a hell of a read. You've got Steve Jobs personally demanding his property back from rogue bloggers, suitcases full of cash, roommates ratting each other out, and dope fiends going crazy. Okay, not the last one. &n ... More >>

Judge Keeps Warrant Under Wraps in iPhonegate

There are some things you can't even do with a newfangled iPhone...​A San Mateo County judge today ordered that a search warrant used to search a Gawker Media editor's home be kept secret, leaving media organizations in the dark as to what exactly police hoped to find in the home of Gizmodo editor ... More >>

Federal Judge: California Cities Can Sue Wall Street

​A group of California cities and counties can proceed with a lawsuit alleging shenanigans by some of the world's largest financial institutions, a federal judge ruled today.In a decision delivered in federal court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Victor Marrero denied a motion to dism ... More >>

Latest State Employment Numbers: Slightly More Abysmal than Before

​We know you've been sitting in the closest, in the dark, refusing food and ignoring the increasingly desperate pleas of friends and family to Please, just come out! Not until I get my next installment of the Employment Development Department's monthly labor statistics, you told yourself resolutel ... More >>

Hey, 43,306 San Franciscans: You Could Win Free TransLink Card!

Yours! Yours for the taking! Uh, with caveats...​Folks, do you want to save the world? YESSSSS! Do you want to be given free stuff? YESSSSS! And do you want to punch the clock each day in San Mateo County? Do you? Hello? Hello? Sorry San Francisco worker bees -- you'll have to get your handout els ... More >>

Mission Pie's Third Annual Pie Contest Rolls Out This Sunday

Magnoliamcgeepie.blogspot.comPast winner Jessica Appelgren is on this year's judging panel.​All kinds of pie will be on hand for the third annual pie contest at Mission Pie (2901 Mission at 25th St.) this Sunday. Anyone can get in the game -- roll out, fill, and bake up your own particular spe ... More >>

Deep-Fried Butter: Ultimate State Fair Gross-Out or Stroke of Genius?

paul79uf/FlickrImagine the possibilities.​We'll have to wait and see if the latest fatty food from the State Fair of Texas -- deep-fried butter -- ever becomes the subject of a food eating contest in the Joey Chestnut style. Chances are that watching anyone eat a deep-fried butter stick may ma ... More >>

The Growhouse That Just Keeps Giving: Sunset Marijuana Operation Burns, Then Serves as Burglar Magnet

Like the warehouses of unscrupulous businessmen mired in debt, marijuana growhouses have a nasty habit of bursting into flames. But while the practice of "insurandburn" at least benefits someone, everyone loses when a clandestine urban pot farm goes up in smoke: The big-time dealers who own the th ... More >>

That's Just the Sound of the Employment Rate Whizzing Past Your Ears

The California Employment Development Department released their latest statistics pertaining to unemployment and industry today, and guess what? They are not awesome. California hit a record high of 11.2 percent unemployment in March, which is nearly five points higher than March of last year. San F ... More >>

San Francisco Drug Bust: Meth Tacos, Mmmm

The City That Would Be King

To maintain its natural position atop the local political food chain, San Francisco must be benevolent, as well as strong

And You're Off!

Even if you dont know your exacta from a post parade, the racetrack can be a summer joy

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