Nearly four years after Tatiana the tiger was shot to death when she leaped from her cage at the San Francisco Zoo and went on a bloody rampage, mauling and killing Carlos Sousa Jr., the zoo has brought in a new big feline for onlookers to admire up close.
Martha, a 295-pound Siberian tiger, arrived in San Francisco in May, but was quarantined while she was screened for any diseases. Now, the "playful and laid-back" tiger has officially moved into her home at the zoo, where she's reportedly been lounging and checking out her new digs.
"I think it brings some closure and renewed hope for us here at the zoo," executive director Tanya Peterson tells the Chron.
An young Irish football Gaelic football player was rushed to the San Francisco General Hospital Saturday night with a critical head injury he had while playing a match in San Francisco -- his first game in America.
Mark McGovern, 22, a member of the Fermanagh senior county team, was severely hurt when he "clashed" on the field with an opponent on the American team. He was in San Francisco with two other Irish football Gaelic football players for the summer as part of the Ulster GAA club, according to Irish news outlets.
"Mark has been in a coma since," according to a statement released by Belcoo O'Rahilly club in Fermanagh.
Anyone who was in Northern California during the late 1970s remembers the paralyzing fear many had when the notorious I-5 strangler was on the loose. The serial killer was known for kidnapping, raping, and murdering women.
One of his many victims was 21-year-old Ellen Burleigh, whose remains were found in a dry riverbed near Lake Berryessa, 33 years after she went missing.
Yesterday we told you how the Los Angeles Times just figured out that Mayor Ed Lee doesn't want to run for mayor. The newspaper printed the tired quote from his spokeswoman Christine Falvey: "He wants his old job back as city administrator."
He told the LA Times this while Rose Pak and her ilk were opening Run, Ed, Run campaign offices over the weekend. What was Lee doing? He was out and about celebrating Pride and tending to city business -- you know, the things that mayors do.
But he told other reporters a different version of the same story. Or perhaps it was just a Freudian slip when he told the Chron that he has no plans to campaign for mayor "at this time."
UPDATE: Police arrested Terrell Blay, 18, of San Francisco in connection with the Saturday night shooting. He has been charged with felony weapon and gang charges. Police also arrested a 16-year-old on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and gang charges.
Original story 7:45 a.m. Police have arrested a 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man in connection with the Pink Saturday shooting that wounded five people at the annual Gay Pride celebration.
Gunfire erupted at about 6:15 p.m. on the corner of Market and Seventh streets, near the Pink Pride festivities, which drew thousands of revelers, media outlets are reporting.
Police say the shooting was probably gang-related. Witnesses said they saw two groups of men fighting before shots were fired. Four bystanders were shot as well as one man who was part of the fight, according to police.
As prestigious a paper as the Los Angeles Times is, we have to wonder how its reporting staff missed the news that Mayor Ed Lee says he isn't running for San Francisco mayor. Admittedly, we don't follow every story in the Los Angeles area, but if we were to latch onto one, we'd at least do a quick Google search to see whether it's news.
For instance, if the LA Times reporters had done a cursory search online, they might have found a plethora of stories detailing the fact that Lee doesn't want to run.
But the LA Times tells readers again in a published story delivering this non-news today: Ed Lee still doesn't want to run for mayor. Instead he wants his old job back as city administrator, and who could blame him? It pays more.
We've written before about growing concerns over the competence, ethics, and eccentricities of psychological experts tasked with making decisions in California's family courts. These experts make enormously consequential recommendations to judges in disputed child-custody cases, but some question whether the decisions they make are always based on sound methods.
Over the weekend, the Seattle Times published an excellent account of the failings of one such professional: Stuart Greenberg, a forensic psychologist who frequently appeared in criminal trials and child-custody hearings to offer his views. As the Times reports, Greenberg, despite his stature in Washington state courts, had been disciplined years ago for being "incompetent and unethical" by state regulators. He was ultimately arrested for placing a hidden camera in his office bathroom so he could spy on employees for sexual stimulation.
The evening commute will be sad and slow. A woman apparently committed suicide this afternoon at the Ashby BART station in Berkeley, bringing trains to a screeching halt.
Jim Allison, spokesman for BART, told SF Weekly that the northbound train was coming into the station at about 12:45 p.m. when a woman walked onto the trackway -- and stayed there.
"She got up but didn't make any attempt to get out of the way as the train came into the station," he says.
Remember when the feds were vigorously seizing knock-off Giants World Series clothing from black-market vendors around AT&T Park last year? Well, it turns out that all those clothes won't just rot in federal custody.
In one of those unexpected turns in a globalized world, Haitian earthquake
survivors will soon be sporting those Giants World Series T-shirts.
The Department of Homeland Security plans to donate the haul of knock-off shirts and hats to World Vision, a humanitarian organization that helps children living in poverty around the globe. The clothes have trademarked logos such as Major League Baseball, Giants, World Series, or - in a few cases - the Texas Rangers, said Anthony Ho, the deputy special agent in charge from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The sheriff's race is becoming increasingly more interesting to watch. First, we learned last week that Deputy David Wong, a veteran in the sheriff's race, was fired by his boss, who happens to be endorsing Wong's opponent. Now, the Examiner is reporting some more curious news that adds a little drama to the drama. Supervisor Sean Elsbernd snubbed his colleague Ross Mirkarimi and has chosen instead to endorse Paul Michael Miyamoto.
That alone doesn't say much except that Elsbernd doesn't think Mirkarimi has what it takes to be the county sheriff. But this endorsement, along with the Deputy Sheriffs' Association support for Miyamoto, truly changes the landscape of the race
In other words, Mirkarimi shouldn't be so quick to grab for his badge.
