Free Republic

Early risers Saturday will see a total eclipse of the moon low in the western sky, and if the Bay Area's clear weather persists, the sight should be spectacular. "The full moon should appear even larger than normal when the eclipse is total because it will be so low in the sky that Earth's atmosphere will magnify it into a blood-red monster," said astronomer Andrew Fraknoi of Foothill College in Los Alto Hills. The partial eclipse will begin at 4:45 a.m. and will become total at 6:05 a.m., Fraknoi said. Totality will last until 6:57 a.m.

When President Obama announced his $4 billion initiative to finance energy efficiency programs at the White House on Friday, a number of Bay Area allies were, literally, right behind him. There were senior executives from San Francisco's Metrus Energy, which committed $75 million of private capital to the initiative, and from Sunnyvale's Serious Energy and Santa Rosa's Ygrene Energy Fund, both contributing $100 million. They're among the 60 private companies and other entities "stepping up," in Obama's words, in an effort to retrofit public and commercial buildings nationwide, pitching in approximately half of the $4 billion needed. The rest of...

Gusts up to 70 mph Wednesday are forecast for the Bay Area in "a potentially damaging and prolonged wind storm," the National Weather Service. The high-wind warning issued by the weather agency says the strongest winds will be in the hills above 1,000 feet; sustained winds of 20 to 40 mph with frequent gusts over 50 mph are expected through most of the Bay Area. The warning is in effect from 6 a.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday. Even fiercer winds are expected in Southern California, with northeast gusts to 80 mph in the mountain passes. Weather service forecasters are...

Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, an Alameda County judge since 2008, was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday for the U.S. District Court in Oakland, where she will become the first Latina federal judge in the Bay Area. The Senate voted 89-6 to approve President Obama's nomination of Gonzalez Rogers to fill the vacancy created by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's retirement in February. There was no debate, and the opponents, all Republicans, did not say why they voted against the nominee, who had not drawn any opposition in her committee hearing. Gonzalez Rogers, 46, a Texas native and Princeton honors graduate,...

Communist/Anarchist OWS Demonstrators have been taunting the local police for HOURS on end to provoke them into a fight, and now the police in Oakland, with support by many other local agencies, appear to have had just about enough and appear ready to restore order to the streets of the city.Live Leftist Link Here6:00 a.m. Pacific/9:00 a.m. Eastern.

OAKLAND -- The Bay Area has fewer concentrations of extreme poverty than a decade ago, according to a report released Thursday. That may not console the people living in the Bay Area's five poorest neighborhoods. In five census tracts, four of them in the East Bay, more than 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line, according to the Brookings Institution report. The neighborhoods are in downtown Berkeley, uptown Oakland, Alameda Point and parts of West Oakland and San Francisco's Hunters Point. Two are business districts where many homeless congregate; one, the area around Oakland's Frank H. Ogawa Plaza,...

A paratransit bus driver intentionally rammed a Hells Angels biker on Interstate 580, and then dragged him about a mile, killing him, a CHP spokesman said. The biker, who has not been identified, was traveling eastbound on I-580 in San Leandro near Grand Avenue with a small group of Hells Angels members before 4 p.m. when an altercation began, said CHP Sgt. Trent Cross. After being hit, the motorcyclist and his bike were dragged for about a mile, said San Leandro police Lt. Greg Lemmon. Eventually, the biker was released from under the East Bay Paratransit bus, but the driver...

SAN FRANCISCO -- An estimated half-million illegal immigrants live in the Bay Area, according to a study that is one of the first to try to measure the number of local residents living in the U.S. illegally. The report by the Public Policy Institute of California used tax returns, previous national estimates and mathematical models to determine that 563,000 illegal immigrants live in the Bay Area, about 8 percent of the region's total population. Santa Clara County leads the Bay Area with 180,000 illegal immigrants, followed by Alameda County with 124,000 and Contra Costa County with 79,000, the study found....

The Fourth of July sky will be a little darker this year as lean economic times force cities across the Bay Area to snuff out a favorite all-American tradition: fireworks shows. In past years, the East Bay shoreline was ablaze with exploding, booming, multicolored pyrotechnics on Independence Day. But this year only Berkeley and San Pablo will light up their waterfronts with fireworks. The others are too far in the red for the red, white and blue. Livermore and Hercules dropped their fireworks and parades this year. Oakland and San Leandro canceled their fireworks a year or two ago. Other...

RENO, Nev. (CBS/AP) — Authorities plan to look into the driving and medical records of the semitrailer driver who died when the truck slammed into an Amtrak train, killing a train crew member and injuring dozens of passengers. Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said they also will look at autopsy results to determine whether the driver had consumed any drugs around the time of the collision Friday. The big rig plowed into the California-bound train at a crossing in a rural area about 70 miles east of Reno. Knudson said federal investigators would make sure...

President Barack Obama will visit the Bay Area Thursday to meet with high tech business leaders -- a session that will stress jobs, innovation, green tech and education themes, White House sources tell the Chronicle. So far, no information on where the meeting will be held -- or whether any part of it will be public -- but here's what we know from a White House official: the session is "a part of our ongoing dialogue with the business community on how we can work together to win the future, strengthen our economy, support entrepreneurship, and get the American people...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) – Bay Area residents are hoping for a warmer weekend after a Thanksgiving cold snap broke or tied cold-temperature records — some more than a century old — up and down the state. The National Weather Service reports that San Francisco’s low of 42 degrees on Thursday tied a record set back in 1892. Across the bay in Oakland, 36-degree daytime temperatures shattered the old record of 42. The mercury in Los Angeles dropped to 42, tying a 1946 record.

THE LIBERTY & FREEDOM FOUNDATION is proud to announce that we will be bringing former Alaska Governor SARAH PALIN to the Bay Area. Thursday October 14, 2010 - San Jose, CA 3PM - 8PM At the FORUM you’ll have an opportunity to hear Governor Palin’s remarks discussing a variety of issues that are important to, and currently affecting, the people of the greater Bay Area. There will be a Q & A session posing questions from locals, as well as questions from school kids. We believe in our youth perspective and know you all will enjoy their insight into America....

The criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service is looking into the finances of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate... ... Agents for the criminal division of the I.R.S. interviewed a former employee of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate on Tuesday at the Oakland field office, in response to a complaint he had lodged. That informant, who declined to be named for fear of how it might affect his future job prospects, said he raised concerns about the financial relationship between the organization and its political arm, as well as about accounting practices. ... [Author's email} kmieszkowski@baycitizen.org

Police search for more victimsThere's your run-of-the-mill bad boyfriend, and then there's Simon Gann. A 32-year-old Menlo Park woman suspected that the man she'd been dating was not who he said he was, despite his claims of being a math savant and purchasing a multi-million dollar San Francisco home. Since "Saleem Dutante" was talking her out of money, the identity confusion set off alarm bells. After she found he had an I.D. card bearing a different name, a quick search of the Internet justified her misgivings. Turns out his real name is Simon Gann. Far from being the wealthy doctor...

The Bay Area's newest rock star is Jeremy Lin, an undrafted rookie guard from Harvard whose primary résumé item until recently was being the first player in Ivy League history to record 1,450 points, 450 rebounds, 400 assists and 200 steals. The Dallas Mavericks were the only team to extend Lin an invitation to summer league to play behind highly touted guards Roddy Beaubois and Dominique Jones. Then something phenomenal occurred in Las Vegas: Lin matched No. 1 overall draft pick John Wall possession for possessio down the stretch of Lin's fourth summer league game. How important is the [Asian-American]...

My mother is preparing to sell the home that she and my late father have lived in for more than thirty years. Luckily, the housing market hasn't affected her that much since the area she lives in has become a hotspot for real estate over the years (Bay Area, CA). The realtor she has been working with is, in my opinion, being pushy. He wants her to sell the house as soon as possible (within the next two months) and I'm of the opinion that she needs to wait given the depressed market and current economic situation. She also doesn't...

OAKLAND, Calif. – Hundreds of protesters condemning Israel's recent raid on an international flotilla bound for Gaza are picketing at the Port of Oakland, where an Israeli ship is due to arrive. The demonstrators gathered Sunday to prevent the incoming ship from being unloaded. The dock's day shift of longshoremen agreed to not cross the picket line. Meanwhile Sunday, Israel said it will immediately allow all goods into Gaza except weapons and items deemed to have a military use under its decision to ease its three-year-old blockade of the Palestinian territory. Israeli officials had decided last week to ease the...

Announcement from napateaparty.com website: SAVE THE DATE FOR THE BIGGEST RALLY EVER: MAY 22ND 1pm to 6pm AT G.V. CELLARS.'SAVE THE LEFT COAST FOR WHAT IS 'RIGHT': RALLY, BBQ, CONCERT!! JOIN US IN AN AFTERNOON OF SONGS, FOOD/WINE AND GREAT INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKERS. MEET THE CANDIDATES AND ENJOY LOCAL WINE AND FOOD AND TEA PARTY EXPRESS STARS (AMY KREMER AND JIM LABRIOLA) AND GUEST HOST: MARK WILLIAMS!....... MEET BRIAN SUSSMAN OF KSFO AND THE AUTHOR OF CLIMATEGATE; GET THERE EARLY AND HAVE HIM SIGN A COPY OF HIS BOOK FOR YOU! CONSERVATIVE LEADERS FROM ACROSS THE NATION WILL GATHER IN NORTHERN...

The 2009 annual report from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is a bombshell, a wake up call, a Klaxon - choose whatever metaphor you like - if you care about public transit ... It shows, more clearly than any of the reports of budget woes coming from the individual transit agencies, that the entire system is unsustainable. Think the fare hikes and service cuts are bad now? Just wait. "Looking at it another way, we will fall short of the resources our regional transit system needs by a cool $1 billion a year over the next quarter-century." Translation: If you...

There may be no place like home. But, for many Bay Area Middle Easterners, a new market just north of downtown Oakland feels a lot like it. "The smells here remind me of my childhood," said Oaklander Ze'ev Sharone. "It's the aroma of the spices. Driving around, I saw it when it was under construction. When it was open, I came in and said, 'Joy and hallelujah.'" Sharone, a therapist, was born in Israel. The 61-year-old likes to stock up on Israeli groceries, spicy Turkish salad, and fresh soups from the deli counter. "It's just what I'm used to," he...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Wednesday had the potential to be the coldest day yet as a cold spell held its grip on the Bay Area, a National Weather Service forecaster said. Forecaster Duane Dykema said Wednesday could top Tuesday, when a number of Bay Area cities saw record low temperatures, as the coldest day of the week. A freeze warning was in effect Wednesday night into Thursday morning for the North Bay interior valleys, where low temperatures were expected in the 20s. On Tuesday, San Rafael had a low of 28 degrees, tying the city's previous record for the date...

WASHINGTON — As President Barack Obama prepares to announce his long-awaited decision on Afghanistan, many war-weary Democrats in Congress are holding their tongues, uneasy about the possibility of a troop surge but wanting to give Obama space to make a defining decision of his presidency. San Jose's Mike Honda is not one of them. "I would oppose it," said the soft-spoken, unassuming Democratic congressman, who has emerged as a leading voice of progressives in Congress who oppose a troop buildup in Afghanistan. Though his position is consistent with his liberal bent on most issues, Honda does not relish standing in...

Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 6:16:55 PM by Steelfish Bay Area Not Maverick Enough To Read Palin Book Steve Rubenstein November 19, 2009 It might as well have cooties. Hardly anyone wants to touch the thing, or even get close to it. The new autobiography by moose hunter and failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is harder to find in the Bay Area than a hockey mom. Some bookstores figure it's one of those grit-your-teeth First Amendment deals that principled booksellers must put up with from time to time. But many nonchain bookstores won't handle it. "Our customers are...

Bay Area Not Maverick Enough To Read Palin Book Steve Rubenstein November 19, 2009 It might as well have cooties. Hardly anyone wants to touch the thing, or even get close to it. The new autobiography by moose hunter and failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is harder to find in the Bay Area than a hockey mom. Some bookstores figure it's one of those grit-your-teeth First Amendment deals that principled booksellers must put up with from time to time. But many nonchain bookstores won't handle it. "Our customers are thinking people," said Nathan Embretson, a bookseller at Pendragon Books...

It might as well have cooties. Hardly anyone wants to touch the thing, or even get close to it. The new autobiography by moose hunter and failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is harder to find in the Bay Area than a hockey mom. Some bookstores figure it's one of those grit-your-teeth First Amendment deals that principled booksellers must put up with from time to time. But many nonchain bookstores won't handle it. "Our customers are thinking people," said Nathan Embretson, a bookseller at Pendragon Books in Oakland. "They're not into reading drivel."

The Bay Bridge reopened just after 9 a.m. today, six days after a repair job on a cracked structural beam on the eastern span fell apart and plunged onto the upper deck. Tests conducted overnight and this morning on an altered version of that repair job showed that the fix was holding, Caltrans spokesman Bart Ney said. At 9:01 a.m., a fleet of five California Highway Patrol cars escorted the first private vehicles allowed onto the westbound upper deck since the span was shut down Tuesday evening. About 10 minutes later, the lower deck reopened for traffic heading to the...

Authorities said they are shutting down the Bay Bridge in both directions after pieces of the cantilever section fell during the late-afternoon commute, striking three vehicles on the upper deck, the California Highway Patrol said. Caltrans officials said the parts that fell were two high-strength rods and a saddle that were part of the emergency repair that delayed the opening of the bridge on Labor Day weekend.

Two big questions hang over President Obama's radical "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones. Is he still a communist? Is he a security threat? Many have assumed that Van Jones' committment to communism ended when the organization he helped to lead STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement) dissolved in 2002. Yet a 2004 treatise Reclaiming Revolution: History, Summation, and Lessons from the Work of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement written and endorsed by a majority of former STORM members makes it clear that most ex STORMers are still committed to the revolutionary movement; From page 49. When...

<p>Two of three hikers being detained in Iran are Bay Area residents and freelance journalists.</p> <p>Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, both UC Berkeley graduates, worked as freelance journalists affiliated with New American Media in downtown San Francisco, according to Sandy Close, executive director.</p>

As the economy struggles, and most of us with it, a few more join the seven-figure clubThe number of millionaire families in the Bay Area jumped 10.2 percent, from 123,621 to 136,120, according to a report from Merrill Lynch and Claritas. Similar gains were won by the wealthy in Los Angeles and San Diego, according to The World Wealth Report. What, no word on Fresno? Scott Anderson, a senior economist with Wells Fargo, takes issue with the report. "As a reading of the health of California's wealthy, I'm not sure that's the best indication to go by," Anderson told the...

A 30-year-old Northern California woman has pleaded not guilty to charges that she had sex with three teenage boys. Deborah Towe faces 11 felony counts, including unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, oral copulation of a person under the age of 16, committing lewd acts upon a child and arranging a meeting with a minor for a lewd purpose. The boys were 15 and 16 years old. Police in Anderson, about 150 miles north of Sacramento, began investigating in April after two girls from a local middle school reported that a friend's mother was having sex with boys. In a...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich debuts in tomorrow’s edition of The Examiner as a weekly political commentator, writing a broadly focused column on national and international politics, personalities and issues.

Swine flu outbreak skips Bay Area for now Rachel Gordon,Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writers Saturday, April 25, 2009 California health officials said Saturday that there was one more confirmed case of human swine flu in the state, but none have been reported in the Bay Area as local hospitals stepped up surveillance for a possible outbreak. In all, seven cases of the potentially deadly flu strain have been reported in California, the latest case involving a 35-year-old woman in Imperial County, who was hospitalized but recovered. None of the California cases resulted in death. "The cases in California have all...

A few weeks ago several Villagers reported a stranger knocking on their door in the evening asking for money and/or the use of a phone. The excuse was generally that she needed a locksmith. She didn't ask for much, always less than $30 but she did go to many Village home and was given an undisclosed amount of money by kind and trusting Villagers. It seems she either startled or ended across the creek as at least one San Leandro resident reported the same experience. It is very unlikely that this was legitimate given the fact that she was given...

"I don't like it. That's a lot of money we're giving to try and fix things that happened too long ago, like the mortgage crisis. The government should spread it around to more people" Eric Jones, San Leandro (snip) "We don't know yet if this plan will work. I hope it turns out for the best, that the money is spent where it is needed most. Right now, we need to support Barack. He inherited Bush's problems. He just needs time to fix them." Ulander Russel, San Leandro

A San Rafael woman has filed a product liability lawsuit against the Victoria's Secret lingerie chain, claiming the Chinese-made bras and underwear she bought at the Terra Linda store caused her a rash and blisters. Deborah Keck is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for emotional distress, pain and suffering, hospital and medical expenses, permanent scarring and chronic discomfort, according to the lawsuit in Marin Superior Court. Keck also is claiming wage losses because she needed to visit the doctor about 15 times, keeping her from her job as a flight attendant. According to the lawsuit, Keck has shopped at...

The San Francisco 49ers on Friday acknowledged that the battered economy likely will slow down their plans to build a new stadium in Santa Clara and now has them willing to discuss a once unthinkable option — sharing a new home with their cross-bay rival, the Raiders. Combining resources with the Oakland Raiders — as the New York Jets and Giants have done on a new $1.6 billion stadium — may be the only way for the 49ers to overcome frozen financial markets to fund a new stadium, NFL insiders and sports economists say. Team officials said Friday that they...

A young man allegedly involved in a possible scuffle aboard a BART train was shot to death by a BART police officer on the platform of the Fruitvale Station early today.

ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP) - As more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren. In 2006, as the influx reached its peak, the police department formed a special crime-fighting unit to deal with the complaints, and authorities began cracking down on tenants in federally subsidized housing. Now that police unit is the focus of lawsuits by black families who allege the city of 100,000 is orchestrating a campaign to drive...

Color the brake lights red as the column of cars backs up from the Caldecott Tunnel, the often bottled-up gateway between Contra Costa and Alameda counties. Color drivers' moods red as the congestion worsens over a span of 45 years. Many drivers are looking forward to relief from a long-planned $420 million fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, but a lawsuit by Alameda County neighborhood groups and a bicycling advocacy organization could delay the project scheduled to begin in the summer and finish in 2014. A ruling on the lawsuit is expected soon from Alameda County Superior Court judge Frank...

The impacts of climate change are a hot topic among scientists and environmental activists. Now the Bay Conservation and Development Commission wants to hear from another perspective: the design community. The state agency is preparing to launch a $125,000 competition that will invite architects, planners and engineers to bring innovative proposals "to climate-proof the Bay Area," in the words of the competition outline. The aim isn't to stop climate change from happening, say officials, or to build impregnable levees. The goal is to get designers thinking creatively about how to prepare for a world where the sea level might climb...

t was a bizarre and abrupt way to die for a man who, by all accounts, went at life full-bore and was fit and agile from riding his bicycle everywhere he went ... Doctor killed in mysterious elevator shaft fall It was a bizarre and abrupt way to die for a man who, by all accounts, went at life full-bore and was fit and agile from riding his bicycle everywhere he went. But as San Francisco police combed over the evidence Tuesday, investigators said this is what appears to have happened: Dr. Daniel J. Kliman, an Alameda physician and one...

Alameda, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Contra Costa and Marin Counties are expecting long lines again today for people wanting to vote early for the November 4 election. A record number of people are voting early this year. San Francisco Department of Elections reports that over 21% of registered voters for the November 4 election have already casts their ballots. This weekend lines have wrapped around county election offices with waits up to an hour to be able to vote. Offices will be open again today to handle the crowds of early voters.

It’s not unusual for guys to buddy-up and join the army together, but how about a mother-and-daughter duo instead? That’s what one Fremont family is doing. Lisa Altoon, 39, and her daughter Megan, 17, have both enlisted in the army together. “It’s an opportunity for me to go back to school,” says Altoon. “I didn’t finish getting my degree… I started going back to school kind of late in life after a divorce so I can [now] finish my education.” KCBS’ Mike Colgan reports Altoon says it all started as a joke when her daughter decided to enlist in the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal immigration authorities raided more than a dozen locations in San Francisco, Richmond and South San Francisco today, arresting several alleged members of the notorious MS-13 street gang, authorities said. Authorities said the investigation targeted a San Francisco-based faction of the violent group, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, which started in Southern California with roots in El Salvador. "This is a major take-down," said Northern California U.S. Attorney Joe Russoniello, adding that the investigation dealt with alleged drug trafficking, gun running, terrorism and extortion activities of the group. He declined to provide further details about the raids....

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was slated to attend a political fundraiser in Burlingame Sunday morning with more than 1,00 people paying as much as $2,500 each to sit down with her for brunch. Palin supporters and anti-war protestors were both expected to rally outside during the brunch at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Aiport. Palin has spent the weekend accusing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists" for his association with a former 1960s radical. Palin was referring to Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the Weather Underground. The group took credit for bombings,...

I got an email from a friend from my Bay Area college days the other day. He emailed me, as well as 30 of his closest friends. He had a link to an anti-Palin article, TO WHICH, one of his female friends took offense at the "sexist" nature of the article. I want to send an email response to this group situated in the very heart of liberalism/communism. But what should I do that *might* sway people? 1) pictures of Obama dressed as a Muslim 2) link to the video of Obama talking about "my muslim faith" 3) link to...

Muslim beliefs are barely understood in the United States, if not intentionally distorted. It can also be hard for outsiders to know who speaks for Muslims, a diverse and complex group still finding its footing in America. **snip** Leaders hope that someday they will create a statewide body, a coalition for what may be the largest Muslim population in the nation.

It used to be that marijuana came to the Bay Area from the legendary back country of Humboldt County or the desert fields beyond Tijuana. Now the fields are in the Bay Area, and everywhere else in the state. Marijuana is one of the top cash crops in California, NBC Bay Area's Mike Luery reported. Many of the fields are located next to popular trails and in the middle of state parks. A fierce battle is being waged in our own back yard to remove the pot groves. They are hidden in brush so thick that specially trained officers must...