Santa Clara County

SPCA Seeking Motherly Types to Help Care for Baby Birds

If you're a mother experiencing empty nest syndrome, here's a great gig for you. Just like every Spring, animal shelters experience an overwhelming influx of baby birds in need of a mother hen to guide them. You could be that mother hen. This weekend, the Peninsula Humane Society is holding its fi ... More >>

Menlo Park Cop Busted "Killing Time" With Prostitute Gets His Job Back

A Menlo Park police detective who was caught with his pants down -- literally -- is back patrolling the streets after prosecutors dropped charges against him for soliciting a prostitute. Officer Jeffrey Kenneth Vasquez was arrested in Feb. 2011 in Sunnyvale after he was found naked in a Motel 6 wi ... More >>

Berkeley Police to Disregard Immigration Status

The Berkeley City Council broke ranks with the federal government this week, ordering their police department not to participate in immigration policing. The council, bowing to demands from the Coalition for a Safe Berkeley, voted to instruct its Police Department to ignore the immigration status ... More >>

Cops Called to Marijuana Garden Robbery Seize Crop, Growers Could Be Arrested

Forgive marijuana growers if they're not yet prepared to participate fully in society. The same society asking cannabis cultivators to pay taxes and receive permits has been locking them up for 40 years -- and tearing down their gardens when they call police to assist.A trio of Santa Clara County gr ... More >>

Steve Jobs' House Burglarized, Kariem McFarlin Arrested

Santa Clara authorities arrested a 35-year-old man who allegedly broke into Steve Jobs' Palo Alto home last month and stole more than $60,000 worth of computers and personal items from the late Apple CEO. Press reports say that Kariem McFarlin of Alameda was arrested on suspicion of residential burg ... More >>

Sierra LaMar: Dive Teams Resume Search for Teen's Body

Earlier this month, Santa Clara County dive teams called off the search for 15-year-old Sierra LaMar, who police believe was kidnapped and killed in mid-March. Now, the dive team, which had scoured dozens of local waterways, says it will rescan the Chesbro Reservoir hoping to find some clues that w ... More >>

Sierra LaMar Case: Suspect's Attorney Steps Down Over Conflict of Interest

It appears the suspect accused of kidnapping and murdering 15-year-old Sierra LaMar won't be entering a plea anytime soon. According to press reports, 21-year-old Antolin Garcia-Torres' lawyer dropped him yesterday, citing a conflict of interest issue. Here's the conflict: Public Defender Ken Mandel ... More >>

Antonio Palomarez, Morgan Hill Man, Accused of Exercising His Pit Bull to Death

Here's an example of an unqualified dog walker. Police arrested 36-year-old Antonio Palomarez, a Morgan Hill resident, on Friday on suspicion of animal cruelty after he allegedly exercised two dogs to the point of heat exhaustion, killing one. According to press reports, Santa Clara County officers ... More >>

Antolin Garcia-Torres, Suspect in Sierra LaMar Slaying, Did Not Know Teen, Police Say (Video)

(Update 11:15 a.m.): Police held a news conference this morning with reporters where they said the Sierra LaMar abduction was "purely random." Read the update after the jump. Santa Clara County authorities had a major break in the Sierra LaMar case last night when they arrested 21-year-old Antolin G ... More >>

Sierra LaMar Update: Cops Find Red Jetta Linked to Missing Teen

Santa Clara County authorities might have a new break in the Sierra LaMar case. Police said they have located the red Jetta that was caught on surveillance video the morning the 15-year-old Morgan Hill teen went missing. Sgt. Jose Cardoza told media outlets that they have the car in custody, bu ... More >>

Sierra LaMar Update: Red Jetta Could Be Linked to Missing Teen

Santa Clara County authorities released a photograph of a 1990s-model red Jetta, saying a similar car could possibly be connected to Sierra LaMar, the 15-year-old Morgan Hill girl who has been missing for nearly two months. Sgt. Jose Cardoza told media outlets that the photo isn't a 100 percent matc ... More >>

Sierra LaMar: Missing Teen's Twitter Account Hacked

Santa Clara County authorities are now looking for the person who hacked into 15-year-old Sierra LaMar's Twitter account this week and left posts impersonating the missing teen. Sgt. Jose Cardoza confirmed to reporters Thursday that someone indeed hacked into LaMar's account two days ago and wr ... More >>

Sierra LaMar: Family Launches Website for Missing Teen, Divers Search Under Water

(Update 5:30 p.m.): Santa Clara County sheriffs have taken their search for Sierra LaMar to local waters. They sent divers into the Chesbro Reservoir this evening after a sonar picked up irregularities at the bottom of the waterway.(Original story 8:45 a.m.) It's now been a month since 15-year-old S ... More >>

ICE Does Immigration Sweeps, Arrests Thousands of "Criminal Aliens"

​Immigration authorities have arrested more than 3,100 convicted illegal immigrants and fugitives, including 200 in Northern California, during a massive, high-profile sweep nationwide over the last week. Some 1,900 ICE officers and agents throughout the United States conducted the largest six-day ... More >>

Slain Family Identified; Machete Used in Murder

​Medical authorities have released the identities of the five people who were brutally murdered Friday inside their Ingleside home. According to a release from the San Francisco coroner, the victims were listed as the following:Hua Shun Lei, 65; his wife, Wan Yi Xu, 62; and their children Vincent ... More >>

Sierra Lamar: Sex Offenders Questioned in Case of Missing Teen, Vigil Held

​Santa Clara County authorities have started talking to registered sex offenders who live near the area where 15-year-old Sierra Lamar was last seen, hoping to find any clues that might lead them to her. Lamar was last seen headed to school, Friday morning, however, school officials called her mom ... More >>

Lupita Cortez, South Bay Mom, Accused of Dropping Her Toddler from Window

​A San Jose mother remains in police custody today after she allegedly tossed her 2-year-old son from a second-story window, creating a not-so-merry Christmas Day for her family.Lupita Cortez, 24, was arrested Sunday evening on suspicion of attempted murder, child abuse, and assault with a deadly ... More >>

Henry Arnibal, South Bay Man, Allegedly Likes to Consume Meth and Bobcats -- In That Order

Likes meat​We just told readers about Daniel Andreas San Diego, the hardcore vegan and accused animal rights terrorist who is wanted for bombing two companies. And then there's Henry Arnibal, who doesn't just like to eat any kind of animal meat -- he like to eat bobcats. Santa Clara County prosecu ... More >>

Santa Cruz Collective to Stage a "Milk-In" for Raw Milk Rights

Santa Cruz area raw-milk proponents are tired of the government getting up in their dairy. In response to "cease and desist" letters from the Santa Clara County DA's office sent to small, herd-share businesses that contract out milk from a goat or cow, the Santa Cruz Food Rights Coalition formed an ... More >>

Hate Crimes Against Latinos Rise 47 Percent in California

​The year 2010 saw a marked uptick in hate crimes against Latinos statewide, according to newly released statistics from the California Attorney General's office.Attorney General Kamala Harris' annual report on hate crimes -- incidents in which victims are targeted because of their ethnicity, sexu ... More >>

Majority of San Francisco's Illegal Immigrants Live in the Mission District

Missionites: up to 15 percent of your neighbors are undocumented.​San Francisco's highest concentration of illegal immigrants lives in the city's Mission District -- a zip code of day laborers, black-market hot dog vendors, and fake document peddlers.The Public Policy Institute of California relea ... More >>

Feliciano Valencia-Santiago Accused of Murdering Maria Esther Orozco, Woman Found in Garbage Bag

Feliciano Valencia-Santiago ​SF Weekly told readers about the disturbing and gruesome discovery a Sunnyvale man made in his front yard last Sunday: A garbage bag filled with bloody body parts. Police quickly identified the victim as Maria Esther Orozco, and now they've identified the suspected kil ... More >>

Caltrain Conductor Accused of Soliciting Sexual Favors From Minor

Conductor Busted​Ricardo Arias Cano, a conductor who worked on Caltrain, was arrested recently on suspicion of propositioning two female passengers for sex, one who was a minor. The 60-year-old South San Francisco man has since been banned from Caltrain property. According to Steve Fein, who works ... More >>

Marijuana Roundup: The Year In Pot

​How was your 2010? For the cannabis community, it was a wild flip of the calendar, with dispensaries opening and closing, police raiding, a medical cannabis luminary thrown in jail for meth charges -- and we vaguely remember something about a legalization ballot measure. There's still time y ... More >>

Facebook, Twitter, Texting Barred from Mayoral Succession Process

Come to think of it, a Sorting Hat would be a very easy way to settle on the next mayor​Earlier this year, we reported that several members of the Board of Supervisors are Facebooking up a storm during meetings. Eric Mar is even known as "Supervisor Facebook." No one seemed to give a damn. The tim ... More >>

Sara Cole, Suburban Mother of Four, Arrested for Sex With Minor

Sara Cole and her children. The mother of four is accused of having sex with a minor.​A suburban mother of four towheaded boys has been arrested on charges of unlawful sex with a minor. Sara Cole, 47, of Los Gatos, was yesterday booked into Santa Clara County jail on three counts after a two-month ... More >>

Happy Meal Ban on San Francisco's Plate Today

Will we hear from them during public comment? How about the Fry Guys?​Supervisor Eric Mar's proposal to take the toys away from Happy Meal-like menu items that don't meet city-imposed nutrition standards ignited an Internet firestorm. Today we'll see if it can do the same in the flesh. The "Health ... 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 >>

Google Age Discrimination Suit by 'Fuddy-Duddy' Brian Reid Moves Forward

Brian Reid's Google stock options would have been worth between $45 million and $60 million​Brian Reid is revered in the tech industry for helping to craft the first firewall, the AltaVista search engine, and the the alt.* hierarchy of newsgroups in Usenet. But he is 60 years old -- twice the age ... More >>

Alleged Serial Groper Curtis Campbell Had Very Good Excuse

It turns out at least four women groped along the Saratoga Creek Trail were apparently dealing with a really sweet man ... with issues​A rarity has emerged from a San Jose investigation: A story about an alleged serial groper who terrorized women jogging along a trail for months -- that's upliftin ... More >>

Database Reveals Who's Earning $12.2 Billion in Bay Area Public Employee Salaries

​A database of more than 200,000 Bay Area public employees charts just who's earning $12.2 billion in public salaries. (It's a big database, so it takes a while to load up).  Coming tops on the Bay Area News Group-compiled cavalcade of information: Nancy Farber, chief administrator of Washing ... More >>

Santa Clara County Allows Voter Registration Via Electronic Signatures

​Santa Clara County has taken a historic step by allowing residents to register to vote electronically, the San Jose Mercury News reports.The new procedure allows people to register using touch-screen devices such as iPhones and iPads, and is the result of a proposal by the Silicon Valley firm Ver ... More >>

San Franciscans Stink at Returning Census Forms

There's San Francisco, on the far left...​Was it the brightest thing for the government to stack its deadlines so U.S. Census Deadline Day is just 24 hours after Tax Day? Perhaps not. But that question isn't on the census, which is due today. If census return rates had been a horse race, your humb ... More >>

Double-Bagged: Sagging Economy Drives Politicos Away From Plastic Bag Fees Toward Simplistic Bans -- Or, More Likely, Nothing

Joe EskenaziIt's not often that we'll deign to cover the affairs of the Santa Clara County Recycling & Waste Reduction Commission, but today's the day. In a few hours, the commission will discuss whether to move forward on a bold and environmentally sound plan to impose a 25-cent fee on all bags ... More >>

The City of Industry 49ers? Don't Laugh -- The Team has Done Stranger Things (See: Smith, Alex)

Both of these teams have been bandied about as potential L.A. franchisesMost San Franciscans know City of Industry as the oddly named Los Angeles suburb where we send the monthly checks for our Capital One cards. But, in the near future, we may be sending them something else -- the 49ers. If anyone ... More >>

Giant, Anthropomorphic Penises All the Rage in San Francisco These Days

San Francisco Department of Public HealthThe Penismobile is a hybrid? We were sure it'd be a Jaguar XKEYou don't always say this about penises, but in San Francisco, they come in threes. First there was the walking, advice-dispensing dong featured in a locally produced health film/soap opera.Then th ... More >>

Baggage

The city's politicos made the enviros happy by banning plastic bags, but left us with more pollution and cost

California Cities and Same-Sex Couples Join SF's Prop. 8 Challenge

By Lauren SmileyThe San Francisco city attorney filed an amended petition (note: PDF file) challenging the constitutionality of Prop. 8 in the state Supreme Court Wednesday, adding seven same-sex married couples and 11 more cities and counties as parties. The amended filing also argues that Prop. 8 ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Bay Area Cycling Deaths Increase

SFWeekly's Noon (or so) Unusual News Roundup -- Sex, AIDS, Gunfire, and Why Barry Bonds Matters

Festivals and Fairs

House of Tudor

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

Yippee Ki Yi Gay

The rodeo looked a lot like any other -- until an event called "Steer Decorating"

Dog Bites

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

Dog Bites

Runoff election; Fangxaminer Watch monitors amusing errors

Dog Bites

Take Out the Trash; Trouble in the 408?; Trouble in the 650; Even Fuzzier Math

Benign Neglect

There's a pot of money available to investigate real estate fraud, but Terence Hallinan isn't using it

Madam I Am

Raeshel Keavy ran one of the city's most sophisticated and profitable prostitution rings. She was safe until she strayed from San Francisco.

The Dating Blame

The Bay Area's Together Dating Services franchise regroups in the face of lawsuits and investigations