San Mateo County

Dimitri Storm, Bay Area's Most Elusive Fugitive, Busted in Oakland -- Finally

After running from the law for more than two months, Dimitri Storm, the Bay Area's most popular alleged robber, was arrested this week in Oakland, which, incidentally, was recently named the nation's robbery capital. According to press reports, police busted 42-year-old Storm on Tuesday night in O ... More >>

Assault on Devil's Slide: A 150-Year Tale of Man Versus Mountain

Tech Workers Fuel San Jose Medical Marijuana Scene, Employers Give Up on Drug Screening

It was only a few years ago that spooked-out city leaders in San Jose declared that medical marijuana dispensaries had taken over their town. Today, there are still more than 100 dispensaries in the South Bay city, many more than are in San Francisco and the East Bay combined. And they're thriving, ... More >>

If Medical Marijuana Dispensary Ban Is Overturned, You Can Thank An Escort Service

In this world, we're blessed and cursed with things, with the things we want but can't get, and the things we want but can't have. In California, of course, we can have most things -- except when we want to have a medical marijuana dispensary in Daly City, Danville, or any of the other estimated 200 ... More >>

Palo Alto Mulls Medical Marijuana, With Conservative Backing

It's a fine town, but Palo Alto is a bit one-dimensional. There's nearby Stanford, and nearby Silicon Valley (fine, that's two dimensions), but not much else is happening in that Peninsula city.But what about medical marijuana? The city could become the first San Mateo County municipality to allow m ... More >>

Sharp Park: When a Golf Course Counts as a Natural Area

Cops Say They Have Spotted Stolen Yacht With Kidnapped Kids

This morning, officials spotted a yacht they believe was stolen by a man who allegedly kidnapped his two toddlers. The 40-foot boat was located about 50 miles off the coast near Pillar Point in San Mateo County, investigators told media outlets. Police and Coast Guard vessels have been dispatched t ... More >>

Accused Con Artists Indicted for Defrauding Bay Area Company

A San Francisco federal grand jury indicted two Southern California men for allegedly duping companies into thinking they had contracts to help clean up post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. The feds have accused Ngoc Duong of  Fountain View and Hong Lee Wong of Torrance of wire fraud and aggrav ... More >>

Jealous Wife Ordered to Trial for Allegedly Killing Husband With Boiling Water

Talk about getting burned by your ex. A judge has ordered trial for 39-year-old Jesusa Tatad, who, in a jealous rage, went into her sleeping ex-husband's room and allegedly poured a pot of boiling water over him. Tatad, a Daly City woman, was allegedly upset because she believed her ex-husband ... More >>

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano Pulls Plug on Medical Marijuana Reform Bill

Attempts to reform California's oft-confusing and always-contentious medical marijuana industry have been put on hold until next year -- at the earliest.Assemblyman Tom Ammiano on Monday withdrew from consideration Assembly Bill 2312, medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access announ ... More >>

Woman Denied Protection From Former Firefighter

Michelle Fontinos sounds desperate on the phone. She's been fighting for restraining orders and custody for her children for years now. And she feels the San Mateo County court system continues to fail her.Her ex-husband, John Marcus Fontinos, was a former Newark firefighter for 17 years. He's also ... More >>

Frances Ann Doherty, City Contractor, Accused of Stiffing Employees Out of Wages

Doherty employees​A San Mateo County woman has been charged with 57 felony counts of cheating her employees of more than $600,000 in wages while working on projects for both the city and school district in San Francisco. According to District Attorney George Gascón, 51-year-old Frances Ann Dohert ... More >>

New Lawsuit Says Neil Young's Fire-Starting Lincoln Continental Hybrid Was Unsafe

JackRickard.blogspot.comNeil Young and the LincVolt​Only a crazy (read: legally negligent) person would convert a 1959 Lincoln Continental to run on a hybrid of gasoline and electricity. That's the argument in a new lawsuit filed against a firm owned by Neil Young, whose custom-built hybrid ... More >>

Smurfs Movie Allegedly Drives San Francisco Mother to Drink and Drive

​A bottle of vodka is one way to make it through nearly two hours of the Smurfs. A San Francisco mother has been accused of chugging one too many shots of vodka while at the Smurfs movie with her 4-year-old daughter. According to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office, 41-year-old Sarah B ... More >>

Ronald Bridgeforth, Accused Cop-Killer: What Does He Look Like Now?

Now that accused cop-killer Ronald Bridgeforth has turned himself into to authorities this morning, we have one question on our minds: How much does he look like this digitally aged photo of Bridgeforth from 1971?​ Two years ago, we wondered whether the image of Bridgeforth from 1971, who allege ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Dispensary Owners Facing Criminal Charges for Operating a "Flower Shop"

Pretty flowers​The former owners of Wellness Solutions Group, a Pacifica medical cannabis dispensary ordered closed by city officials on Monday night, will face criminal charges for operating a business under false pretenses, police said Tuesday.The owners, Ruben Salvatierra of South City and Timo ... More >>

John Abdon Johnson Gets 30 Days in Jail for Kicking His Dog

It hurts​A Redwood City man is being jailed after cops saw him beating his sweet little pup, Bucket. The San Jose Mercury News reports that police busted John Abdon Johnson, 56, kicking Bucket in the head and the ribs on May 13. When a cop tried to get him to stop, he told police he had the right ... More >>

MS-13 Members Indicted for Racketeering and Murder Charges

Three more members face conspiracy charges. ​A federal grand jury indicted three alleged MS-13 gang members on Wednesday for conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. The indictment comes in addition to the 24 alleged MS-13 members already facing conspiracy charges after the three-year investi ... More >>

Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary, Catches a Wave Near San Francisco -- on 4/20

Would love to surf the Mavericks, we assume​Keeping the nation from falling into another Depression is not easy feat, and so U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner deserves a little R&R. And while you might expect Geithner's version of taking it easy to be nothing more than reading the finan ... More >>

Twitter Tax Break Sails Through, Corporate Blackmail Does Work

A done deal ​As Supervisor John Avalos so bluntly put it: "The big boys won out today."Needless to say, Avalos ain't happy that his fellow supervisors approved a controversial tax-break deal that would surely keep Twitter from bolting San Francisco.  SF Weekly previously reported on the deal, ... More >>

S.F. Circumcision Ban Is a Bad Idea But It Could Still Become Law

Yosemite Buffalo Soldiers' History Should Be Part of School Curriculum, Jackie Speier Says

Buffalo Soldiers remembered​Too bad Mark Matthews, the last surviving Buffalo Soldier who died six years ago at age 111, isn't around to mark this historic moment.Congresswoman Jackie Speier is pushing through a bill that would --for the first time ever --give the nation's all black cavalry a prom ... More >>

Supes Want to Rescind Law that Bans Competition in SF Trash Collection

Billy Waterman, Missing Riverside County Man, 'Person of Interest' in S.F. Woman's Death

Missing man​Police are trying to piece together a bizarre mystery involving a missing man, a woman's body, and an abandoned vehicle.Yesterday, a maid found a woman's body in a hotel room on Lombard Street. The death has been ruled suspicious and the medical examiner is conducting an autopsy.  ... More >>

A Moderate Move: S.F. Supervisors Try to Lure Twitter with Tax Breaks

Moderately progressive​Yesterday was the first real showing of how the political pendulum on the Board of Supervisors has swung the other way -- toward the moderates. Supervisor Jane Kim rolled out business-friendly legislation, which sparked criticism from progressives; even former Supervisor Chr ... More >>

Young Prisms sound beautifully stoned

19th Avenue is a Safer Walk for Pedestrians

Slowing Down The Number Of Deaths​The number of pedestrians killed by drivers blowing through the deadly stretch of 19th Avenue have hit a new record: zero -- and Sen. Leland Yee is taking credit for it.Yee, who is running for San Francisco mayor in 2012, duly noted that the highly-traveled roadwa ... More >>

Visitor, Dinged With $50 S.F. Parking Ticket, Writes Angriest City Hall Letter Ever

Matt SmithThe revolution has started -- with the nastiest City Hall letter of all-time​San Francisco apparently crossed the wrong man when a Department of Parking and Traffic official cited Joe Kautz for parking too far from the curb.On Aug. 8, Kautz and a friend journeyed to the Castro from his h ... More >>

Massive Explosion Burns San Bruno Neighborhood (PICS)

Wiggs​A thunderous blast instantly scorched at least 20 San Bruno homes, and ignited a conflagration that has consumed an entire neighborhood. Flames are still raging in San Mateo County, hours after the 6 p.m. blast. Initial rumors blamed a plane crash but neighborhood residents  -- near Sky ... More >>

Plane Crashes into Redwood City Lagoon Near Oracle; Woman Killed

A Beechcraft BE 65 like this one is currently submerged in a Redwood City lagoon, and at least one passenger is dead​At least one person is dead following a small plane's plunge into a Redwood Shores lagoon. This, by the way, is the very same lagoon inundated by 50,000 gallons of raw sewage last w ... More >>

Shark Will Almost Certainly Not Eat You, Expert Assures

Callaghan Fritz-Cope/Pelagic Shark Research FoundationYou likely won't be attacked by a shark. But this seal...​Following Monday's bloody Pacifica shark incident -- in which locals gawked as a Great White tore a hapless sea lion to shreds -- a number of observers were shocked at how quickly surfer ... More >>

Feds Take Over Case Vs. Shelly Denise Jones, Allegedly City's 'Most Stylish Bank Robber'

Shelly Denise Jones' alleged bank robberies are now a federal case​We've written a bit about Shelly Denise Jones, the Antioch bus driver accused of driving her bus to a bank in Daly City and robbing it -- and wearing such stylish clothes while allegedly knocking over two San Francisco banks that w ... More >>

Meg Whitman's Atherton Home To Play Host To 1,000 Nurses

Heading to Atherton -- in droves​If Meg Whitman wanted someone to look at her aching back or curious rash -- well, she need not even leave the home. The California Nurses Association is planning to cart up to 1,000 or more of its members to the Republican gubernatorial nominee's Atherton domicile ... More >>

Will 'Electronic Signatures' Push Pot Legalization Bill onto Ballot?

A court battle is brewing in the cradle of tech-nerd civilization that some say could transform California's electoral politics.Democracy 1.0?​Michael Ni, who works at a Silicon Valley technology company, has submitted a petition to authorize a 2010 state ballot initiative. The substance of the pr ... More >>

Examiner, MediaNews to Partner on Bay Area Ad Sales Deal

Media mogul Dean Singleton is again seeking inroads to San Francisco's daily newspaper market, according to a report today in the Denver Business Journal.Will joint ad sales bring happy days back?​Apparently Singleton's MediaNews Group -- owner of legion Bay Area newspapers, including the Oakland ... More >>

New York Times' YouTube Investigation: Bicyclists Sometimes Run Stop Signs

​The odd media war unfolding in San Francisco -- in which major dailies establish editions here while local periodicals fade away -- advanced in a new direction Friday, with a page A-19 story in the New York City edition of the New York Times titled "San Francisco's Cyclists Facing Backlash for Fl ... More >>

Straight Outta Half Moon Bay, Sam's Chowder Van to Debut This Summer

Sam's Chowder House lobster roll is coming to S.F. soonSam's Chowder House of Half Moon Bay has plans to go mobile this summer with Sam's Chowder Van. Fish and chips, lobster rolls, fish tacos, and ceviche cooked out of a 24-foot vehicle will soon hit the campuses of companies such as Ora ... More >>

DJ War Gone Awry: Dispute Over $40, Busted Speaker Lead to Gunplay, Felony Conviction for S.F. DJ

Not every DJ is amused by your incessant requests for "The Humpty Dance" Our parents' generation used to assault each other with their fists, bike chains, pipes, or, perhaps, the odd knife over largely meaningless disputes. But we ... we are well-armed. This is more efficient, but hardly a sign of ... More >>

Watching Endangered Species for Fun and Profit

Driving While Insane -- Vehicular Troubles in the News

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Festivals and Fairs

'Roid Ragers

Two macho men and the bitchy bodybuilding world that surrounds -- and, perhaps, spawned -- the BALCO steroids case

House of Tudor

Do the funky robot with Lost Sounds, then short-circuit your tear ducts with Portugal's fado diva Mariza

San Mateo Confidential

How a lesbian love triangle involving two police officers and a former kickboxing champion led to a drawn-out privacy lawsuit against the San Mateo County DA who had allegedly outed the kickboxer to her ex-husband, a probation officer who then decided to

The Russian Card Game

A peek inside a new form of Russian organized crime and an ingenious method of turning credit card mailings into large amounts of cash

Dog Bites

Lawmaker for a Day; Yes, It's All About You

The Housing Authority's Dirty Dozen

Twelve convicted drug dealers and other major felons have recently been employed by the San Francisco Housing Authority. But are there even more criminals on the public payroll?

Sutter's Empire Strikes Back

Two lawsuits allege conflict of interest, sharp dealing

Where do Bad Children Go?

S.F. officials are tilting toward more community-based rehab for youthful offenders -- if they can put the lid on internal bickering that's given new meaning to the term "juvenile justice"