San Mateo County

Man Sues National Park Service After Getting Tased by a Ranger

On January 29, 2012, Gary Hesterberg went for a run through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in Montara. He brought along his two dogs, a beagle, which was on a leash, and a rat terrier, which was not. A month-old policy prohibited unleashed dogs at the park, though, so Ranger Sarah Cavallar ... More >>

Kwame Harris, Former 49er, Accused of Assaulting "Ex-Boyfriend"

Kwame Harris, a former offensive lineman for the 49ers and Raiders, made headlines today because he was in San Mateo Superior Court for an assault charge. It was a hackneyed narrative, the kind we gawk at for some minutes before moving on and forgetting about it: "retired pro athlete accused of beat ... More >>

Incensed Driver Sets DMV Employee's Car on Fire

There's no mystery as to why the DMV brings out the worst in human beings -- those never-ending lines, the surly staff, and don't forget the Bible-thumping hate mail sent to your home.Apparently, the Department of Motor Vehicles pushed one Daly City man completely over the edge Monday morning when e ... More >>

Local Mom Who Prefers Smirnoff to Smurfs Gets Jail Time

Sarah Boushey, the vodka-chugging, Smurf-hating mother, was sentenced to 69 days in San Mateo county jail after the Smurfs movie drove her to drink and drive with her 4-year-old daughter in the car.According to the San Mateo County DA, mom, who pleaded no contest to driving drunk with a minor in the ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Ban in Daly City Means More Business for S.F. Pot Clubs

​It's not often that a police department will recommend -- by name -- a medical marijuana delivery service.Yet the Daly City Police Department did just that this week, endorsing the Purple Dinosaur delivery service as a preferable alternative to permitted medical marijuana dispensaries in our neig ... More >>

Columbus Salame: Will Noxious Chemicals Harm Brand?

For Bay Area shoppers, staring into the eyes of Christopher Columbus' homely visage is a nostalgic experience. Columbus Salame, like Mother's Cookies or even the It's-It, is a company that deserves the title "local institution." Ice cream and cookie companies may hold a more special place in the hea ... More >>

Columbus Salame: Will Noxious Chemicals Harm Brand?

For Bay Area shoppers, staring eye-to-eye into Christopher Columbus' homely visage is a nostalgic experience. Columbus Salame, like Mother's Cookies or even the It's-It, is a company that deserves the title "local institution." Ice cream and cookie companies may hold a more special place in the hear ... More >>

Steven Young, Man Shot by Cops, Really Didn't Want to Go to Back to Jail

Steven Young would rather die than go to jail ​The only reason to run from cops is to avoid jail time, which is why it wasn't too surprising to learn that Steven Young, the 33-year-old man shot by San Francisco police last week during a routine traffic stop, just didn't want to spend anymore time ... More >>

Tech Blogger Off the Hook for iPhone Exposé

Screenshot from Jason Chen's video, April 2010​Gizmodo tech blogger Jason Chen has been let off the hook for buying and writing about an unreleased iPhone 4 prototype left in a Redwood City bar by an Apple engineer. Chen, a senior editor at Gizmodo, made headlines last April when he released photo ... More >>

Twitter Confirms It Will Stay in San Francisco

Done deal ​Much to nobody's surprise, Twitter officials signed a lease to keep the multibillion-dollar company in San Francisco -- tax break and all. And although progressives balked at the idea of cutting the microblogging giant a six-year tax break to keep its headquarters in San Francisco, they ... More >>

Go Fish: S.F.'s Coastal Foraging King Shows How to Fish (and Eat) Locally

Terry Helbling's Tenderloin Flat Full of $200K in Stolen Art

Newsom Behind Deal to Keep Twitter in San Francisco

Newsom is behind the curtain​Two weeks ago, SF Weekly reported that the Twitter tax break deal reeked of former Mayor Gavin Newsom -- and now we know why. City supervisors had proposed legislation with sweet tax breaks for microblogging giant Twitter that would entice the company to remain in San ... More >>

Masterminds 2011: SF Weekly Recognizes Local Artists

Jerry Hill to Strip San Francisco's Local Hire Law

Big bark, little bite?​San Mateo County is like a yappy Pomeranian that won't shut up. Just as the county barked at San Francisco's plan for congestion pricing, politicos there are now retaliating against the city for passing its prized local hire law. The ink has barely dried on San Francisco's l ... More >>

Cops Raid Pot House First, Ask Questions Later

It's not your landlord knocking​On Jan. 11, someone knocked on the door of Bruce Rossignol's 13th Street home. The investment banker turned medical cannabis cultivator, who, as SF Weekly reported in August wishes to someday open a cannabis club in North Beach, assumed it was his landlord. He was w ... More >>

San Francisco Improves Its Antismoking Score, Nanny Government Is Working

San Francisco Puts Cigarettes Out ​This week, we wrote about San Francisco lawmakers and their compulsive need to intrude on residents' rights to be as unhealthy and wasteful as they want. Yet this prolific banning is starting to bear some benefits -- at least on paper. Just today, the American Lu ... More >>

Nudists Planning Airport TSA Protest. Cops Planning Arrests.

In your dreams, TSA​The TSA might just get the chance to make good on its claim that the agency has no problem with people going through the airport security line naked. San Francisco nudist Rusty Mills -- whom you may recall from our recent cover story -- told us he was heartened by the news ... More >>

Heriberto Gonzalez Accused of Armed Recycling Robbery

Hands off! These are mine!​Is Heriberto Gonzalez just an overemphatic recycler? Or a man who thinks that a three-inch steak knife entitles you to another man's bag of crap? Or both? That's for the courts to decide. Gonzalez was arrested for the attempted robbery of another man's  bottles and ... More >>

Why Obama's mortgage-relief program failed

SPCA Triumphs in Legal Dogfight, Wins $500,000 Inheritance

Ring, ring! Bad news, Hearing Dog Program...​After a lengthy legal dogfight, an appeals court judge has handed the San Francisco SPCA a half-million dollar inheritance. The battle was sparked last year when the Hearing Dog Program -- a nonprofit formed two years ago when the SPCA gutted its 29-yea ... More >>

Is Shelly Denise Jones San Francisco's Most Stylish Bank Robber? (PICS)

Daly City PoliceShelly Denise Jones is charged with robbing three banks -- in high style​Bus driver drove bus to bank, robbed it, cops sayDaly City Police have released the name and photo of the woman who is purportedly San Francisco's most stylish bank robber: Shelly Denise Jones, 34, of Antioch. ... More >>

San Francisco's Most Stylish Bank Robber Arrested, Police Say

Police believe they've nabbed this sartorially gifted bank robber​A woman who knocked over a pair of San Francisco banks while decked out in knockout attire that caught the eyes of witnesses has purportedly been arrested, San Francisco and Daly City cops report. The woman -- whose name has not yet ... More >>

Public Defender Jeff Adachi Says D.A. Kamala Harris Blowing Off Crime Lab Scandal -- and Him

Public Defender Jeff Adachi ain't happy with D.A. Kamala Harris​San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi sharply criticized District Attorney Kamala Harris' handling of a growing scandal at the San Francisco Police Department crime lab today, saying the city's top prosecutor had ignored repeated ... More >>

Exhale: The Unemployment Statistics are Here!

​San Francisco's unemployment rate clearly knows nothing about how to keep fans interested. The California Employment Development Department released their most recent statistics, and let's say they're less than stimulating. The San Francisco/Marin/San Mateo Counties' collective unemployment rate ... More >>

Legal Dogfight Over $500K Bequest Remains Unresolved

A legal battle over which hearing dog program is entitled to a half-million dollar bequest went into overtime yesterday. The Hearing Dog Program, a San Francisco nonprofit formed by the workers laid off by the San Francisco SPCA when it liquidated its 29-year-old hearing dog program in 2008, objecte ... More >>

Every Dog Has His Day -- In Court: $500,000 Bequest Spurs Legal Dogfight

Never fear, a probate judge is hereNot quite a year after it abruptly curtailed its 29-year-old hearing dog program and all but frog-marched several workers out of the building, the San Francisco SPCA is now claiming that, no, the hearing dog program never really ended -- and the SPCA should get a $ ... More >>

New Planning Director's Beau, Lance Farber, Sought by Washington Health Officials

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Sealed With a Dis

A powerful Bay Area trial lawyer with political connections tries to keep details of his messy divorce from going public

Muni-Me

Gavin Newsom may be the city's top official, but he's not its highest paid--not even in his own office

What Lies Beneath

Brain and stomach cancer. Asthma and bronchitis. Miscarriages and stillbirths. All are health problems suffered by residents of Midway Village. Why won’t authorities close it down?

Suffer the Little Muslims

A look at the appalling discrimination against Middle Eastern students countenanced by Bay Area public schools

Zipped Up

S.F. Archbishop William Levada doesn't want the public to know about decades of alleged sexual misconduct by his clerics. But why are district attorneys in San Mateo, Marin, and San Francisco helping him keep secrets?

Grand Old Partying

Infiltrator joins the Young Republicans to experience the blue suits, big hair, and free beer of the Republican state convention

Partners in Slime

The California service employees' union and the nursing home industry join forces to increase corporate profit, grow union membership, and sell out abused nursing home patients

Toothless Wonder

Why S.F.'s police watchdog agency has never been effective - and why Prop. H won't change that

The Past and Future Fraud

Yes, punch-card voting machines are error-prone. The touch-screen systems planned to replace them may be just as bad.

Bad Vibrations

Surfers battle enviro-surfers over a proposed jet-ski ban that would protect wildlife -- but threaten big-wave surfing at the legendary break known as Maverick's

Help From Their Friends

Did SFPD brass order a cover-up in Fajitagate? They didn't really need to.

Terminal Condition

With the Examiner near death, an insider says the Fangs had 10 million reasons to run it on the cheap

Brownout at SFO

Mayor's attempt to end-run city voters on runways-in-bay reflects dimming of his political star

Worst of the Lot

Bay Area nursing home regulation lags behind state

Cothran

Midway to Nowhere

The residents of Daly City's Midway Village wonder if their environmental concerns will ever be addressed

The Grid

Letters

Unspun

Payback

Liberals mount a comeback in the juvenile justice system