Free Republic

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...