Brontez Purnell, an Oakland musician, and his bandmate Adal Castello were unlocking their bikes outside Club Paradiso in Oakland at about 2 a.m. Thursday when two men, who had also been at the club, started yelling gay slurs at them.
Purnell, who identifies as gay, told the Bay Citizen that he had just hopped on his bike when one of the men told them that if they were living in Jamaica, "they'd be dead." One of the agitators then became violent and hit Purnell on the head, knocking him from his bike. He tried to fight back, swinging his bike lock. Meanwhile, the other man beat Castello, who suffered facial fractures.
"They were saying I was in the wrong club," Purnell told the Bay Citizen.
Dionette Cherney has been identified as the 68-year-old woman who died early this morning from injuries caused when she was hit by a cyclist last month as she crossed the street near the Embarcadero. Police say Cherney died at 5:20 a.m.
The Washington, D.C., resident was in the crosswalk at Mission Street at about 8:30 a.m. on her way to the Embarcadero when a speeding cyclist blew a red light and hit her.
Boy are we glad we read the paper today! In Thursday's Examiner newsmakers section, enigmatic James Franco is revealed as having produced subpar amateur porn in his younger days -- a bad decision that preceded his bad decision to host the Oscars in a glazed monotone.
Considering the story was about porn and James Franco, it's unfortunate that it ended the way it did -- or rather did not. The last line of the blurb is as follows:
But now Franco wants to show the rest of the world how difficult it is to make sex on tape sexy ... he's making a documentary with a certain San Francisco
Really, that's how it ends -- this article fails to climax. Thus the question is prompted: Franco is making a sex documentary with a San Francisco what? Here's what we'd pay to see:
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, sexual preferences, or religious beliefs -- showed that hate crimes as a whole held at a steady level. The number of such incidents rose from 1,100 in 2009 to 1,107 in 2010.
However, hate crimes against Latinos increased from 81 in 2009 to 119 in 2010, a 46.9-percent jump.
As any casual commuter knows, riding Muni can be a very scary event -- and not just because drivers are known to text while behind the wheel or weird riders are seen masturbating on the bus.
In one local woman's case, her ride on the 14 line could be described as a chilling trip home. The 31-year-old woman was on the Mission District bus when a man came up form behind her and grabbed her cellphone out of her hands.
The robber and another man immediately got off the bus and ran, said Officer Albie Esparza. The woman chased after the two men until one of them pushed her against a nearby wall and started to strangle her.
Yesterday, San Mateo County Assistant District Attorney Morley Pitt announced that no charges would be brought against Chen, citing California's shield laws that protect the confidentiality of journalists' sources.
After last month's commute from hell, where protesters closed down stations and stopped BART trains, the transit agency was kind enough to give its riders a heads up about possible service disruption again this month.
BART officials sent out an e-mail warning of protests throughout August, starting as soon as today. The protesting is in response to the July 3 fatal shooting of 45-year-old Charles Hill.
"BART may need to close some stations temporarily or make other service adjustments on short notice. BART will use its website, mobile website, text alerts, e-mail alerts, and its Customer Services phone line to update you on any changes we may make to BART service," the agency wrote on its website.
Loreal Brown is no Auntie Em. The San Francisco woman was arrested this week after she allegedly chased down her 18-year-old niece and hit her with a pink baseball bat.
The victim and her mother -- Brown's sister -- gave police conflicting stories about what happened that night on the sidewalk at Eddy and Pierce streets. But what investigators do know is that a fight broke out between the victim and another teen, who were arguing over $50, Captain Denis O'Leary told SF Weekly.
The victim managed to wrangle the cash from her opponent, but the fighting wasn't over.
Plaintiff Jessica Felber, who graduated in 2010, claims that she was attacked and injured during "Apartheid Week" in 2010, an annual school-sanctioned event held by student groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Muslim Student Organization.
During Apartheid Week, students dress up as soldiers and carry fake assault weapons. They use barbed wire to simulate a checkpoint and interrogate students walking by. In Felber's declaration she writes, "The 'soldiers' ... shout and yell at passing students: 'prepare to be stopped', 'what is your religion', and 'are you Jewish?' "
The Franchise has been on a nice run lately, alternating Cliffs Notes of the team season with human-interest stories in the right balance. However, for all its successes, the producers have had an easy time drumming up content. The Giants have been a stellar team over the course of the series so far, but they've been good enough that it's been possible to tell their story in relatively breezy fashion. Add in some major events like the All-Star Game and the White House visit, and the show has been easy to watch. There have been fun events and dramatic moments, but not the sense that this team is somehow unworthy of being the only MLB squad with a premium cable series devoted to its trials and travails.
