U.S. Department of State

Unpredictable: A Fortune-Teller Encounters S.F Bureaucracy

Wednesday: Learn Chef Secrets From Blogger and New Cookbook Author Adam Roberts

Food blogger Adam Roberts, otherwise known as the Amateur Gourmet, has just released a new cookbook and is coming to S.F. this week to celebrate it. To write Secrets of the Best Chefs, Roberts traveled around the country visiting the kitchens of big-name chefs, learned to cook from them, and collect ... More >>

Pastry Chef Emily Luchetti Discusses Her Role in New American Chef Corps

Last week the U.S. Department of State announced the first-ever American Chef Corps as part of the new Diplomatic Culinary Partnership initiative with the James Beard Foundation. We caught up with one of the five Bay Area members, Emily Luchetti, executive pastry chef of Waterbar and Farallon and ch ... More >>

West Coast Deserves More Love in State Department's New American Chef Corps

The full list of chefs participating in the U.S. Department of State's new Diplomatic Culinary Partnership initiative was announced a few days ago to much media fanfare. To be clear, I think it's fantastic that the State Department has partnered with the James Beard Foundation and created a roster o ... More >>

How to Speak Republican: Decoding the GOP

Pussy Riot Trial: A Worldwide Outrage, Thanks to the Internet

Three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, having been sentenced to two years' hard labor for the crime of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" have seemingly lost their battle for free speech against President Vladimir Putin's regressive regime. Their crime: performing an anti-Putin "Pun ... More >>

Michael Scott Moore, Former SF Weekly Writer, Kidnapped by Somali Pirates

​Michael Scott Moore, who previously worked as a theater critic for SF Weekly, was reportedly captured by Somali pirates over the weekend while he was traveling to central Somalia to research for his book about Somali pirates. The LA Times reports that Moore was on his way to the airport when 15 m ... More >>

Clinton, Panetta Stop in San Francisco

I'll tell you what a cesspool is ​Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta will arrive in San Francisco Wednesday to talk with their Australian counterparts over a proposed base-sharing agreement.According to a Monday U.S. State Department bulletin:Secretary Clinton ... More >>

Hillary Clinton Sued by S.F. Environmental Group Over Alleged Oil Pipeline Project Bias

Playing favorites?​Environmental groups are going after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, worried that she's allowing Washington lobbyists close to her get away with building a massive oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.Friends of the Earth, a nonprofit with offices in Washington, D.C. and San Fr ... More >>

Change.org: Congress Pressures Hillary Clinton to Denounce Chinese Hackers

Ai Weiwei​Earlier today, we told you about the Change.org petition, a viral response to the beating of a transgender woman in Maryland. Seeing the significance of this San Francisco-based social-action platform -- which was recently attacked by Chinese hackers --  the pressure is now on for U ... More >>

Junk Food Ban Weighed -- For Seagulls

Gross​Since seagulls are mysteriously dying by the dozens at Pier 94 rendering plant after feasting on offal, the Board of Supervisors has been urged to enforce a larine version of a junk food ban.At its Feb. 10 meeting, the city's Animal Care & Control Commission introduced a drafted letter t ... More >>

UC Students Evacuated from Egypt

Can't get any rest in Egypt​UC students studying abroad have been evacuated from Egypt amid the escalating and uncontrolled violence in Cairo. UC President Mark Yudof told the San Francisco Appeal that the students have been taken to Barcelona, Spain. Yudof said that 19 university students and 13 ... More >>

WikiLeaks Reporting Error Corrected, Thanks To Former Chronicle Scribe Henry Norr

If I see you guys make one more mistake, I'm gonna blow my top​Henry Norr, an ex-San Francisco Chronicle technology reporter who was fired for his anti-war kibitzing, has turned his energies to sideline critiques of the media.Calling Norr "one persistent listener," NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard sai ... More >>

Uruguayan Press Gaga Over Ross Mirkarimi

Ross Mirkarimi -- and his signature vest -- were warmly received in South America​El Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi spread the San Francisco no-plastic-bag gospel to Uruguay this week, and the local press apparently went gaga for San Francisco's good-looking ambassador of green.Okay, check y ... More >>

Examiner Travel Tips Advice: Free Trips to New York State Fair!

When at the New York State Fair, be sure to check out the meat goats! ​It's hard to characterize the San Francisco Examiner. You get an impressive breadth of coverage of local events by very hard-working reporters, lunatic fringe national coverage and editorials, and, well, this.But we weren't sur ... More >>

Asylum Denied

Only a fraction of Mexicans get U.S. asylum.

San Francisco's Killer Frogs a Statewide Threat

Kill me, please​A tiny pond near the mouth of Golden Gate Park is host to as many as 10,000 invasive African clawed frogs so voracious they're a threat to the entire state's rivers and bays. They've consumed the pond's other frogs and fish, and have taken to eating each other -- just as they'll do ... More >>

An Immigrant's Heart

To survive the ordeal of escaping Guatemala, Julia needed a big Heart. But not this big.

Other Stage Standouts This Fall

Spoofing the run-up to war, In the Loop is political satire done right

Welcome to America (Please Ignore the Dog Shit): S.F.-Based Foreign Exchange Student Organization Ensnared in Housing Scandal

Got room for an exchange student? When a 15-year-old Nigerian girl paid the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization, Aspect Foundation, thousands of dollars to place her in an American home, the last thing she expected was to to be sent to a soon-to-be-condemned house strewn with dog feces. Other ... More >>

Current TV, Al Gore's 'Media Outlet,' Adopts State Department Policy of Giving No Information Whatsoever on Detained Journalists

Current TV hired this guy to keep the media out.When Jill Carroll was kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq in 2006, the editor of the Christian Science Monitor quickly released a statement: "Jill's' ability to help others understand the issues facing all groups in Iraq has been invaluabl ... More >>

U.S. State Department: now with HIV!

Counter-Intuitive Christmas Miracle Number 2: Religion Doesn't Cause Religious Violence!

WOOOOHOOOO! America (Virtually) Rocks!

Condi Rice was Boring, Judith Miller was the NYT's "WMD" — Brinkley Reports

Save Darfur?

War, slaughter, genocide — and you feel like seeing a movie?

Contorted Justice

Is a federal agent wooing a sexy fugitive back to the U.S.?

A Twisted Tale

A well-known erotic performer is now an international fugitive. A look into who’s getting caught up in the identity theft crackdown.

Student of Concern

Will we be more secure -- or just less competitive -- if the government forces hundreds of thousands of international science students to get export licenses simply to look through a microscope?

Yo Soy Centroamericano

Why vote Kerry? Exhibit No. 1: George W. Bush has shamelessly hired the dangerous figures behind the Iran-Contra Affair into senior diplomatic posts.

Unreality Show

The 9-11 Commission is a nutty distraction from the dangers we face

The World According to Bechtel

There are well-connected companies. Then there's Bechtel.

Big Doctor Is Watching

As of April 14, the national security police can monitor your medical records without your knowledge. So can the local police.

Regime Changing

This all-American kid from Monterey is now one of the foremost experts on Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Where does he go from here?

Dog Bites

Can Dog Bites achieve a creative breakthrough under the tutelage of a Sylvia Plath-lookin' chick?

Cheerleaders of War

Post-Saddam Iraq will be "a gold mine" of opportunity for U.S. and foreign contractors, says an exile leader

The Price of Citizenship

A quirk in immigration laws, and tougher security rules, demand a terrible choice from Filipino baggage screeners at SFO: their jobs or their families

Osama Was Here

To show the value of pundits in the Terror Era, our columnist tells the CIA where bin Laden's been, President Bush where to go

Caught in the Storm

A Peace Corps volunteer describes his sudden evacuation from Uzbekistan as U.S. troops arrived for an assault on Afghanistan

The More Things Change

The Circle is a powerhouse of a film about women in Iran

Russian Roulette

The Western Pacific gray whale, once thought extinct, clings to life in a remote Siberian sea. Biologists fear their research is serving as cover for massive oil drilling that could wipe out this lost tribe once and for all.

Off the Books

A school district administrator's extracurricular foreign recruiting prompts investigations in two countries

Worst of the Lot

Bay Area nursing home regulation lags behind state

Ghost Museum

Dial Saddam for Murder

Sargon Dadesho survived an Iraqi assassination plot. Now he's out for blood money.

Oh, Baby

Does Sutter Health understaff maternity unit?

The House of Tudor

Ponche

Night+Day