A man who served three months of 1971 in Vietnam as a cargo specialist shot himself in the leg 20 years later and claimed it was a shrapnel wound. As a result, he earned a Purple Heart and $180,000 in disability benefits from the VA in 1994.
He later pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud for stealing the disability benefits and for wearing the medal to a national convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Las Vegas.
Muni Pain-O-Meter V. 1.0
Muni Pain-O-Meter V. 2.0
Pain Level: 0.5 -- A lady boards the bus and serenades everyone with a delusional spiel about becoming mayor. I think her name is Joanna Rees.
1.5 -- 15-year-old berates his newly ex-girlfriend on the train, gesticulating wildly with right hand while holding up jeans with left hand.
2.1 -- Man sitting next to you is conversational -- and has 30-second repeating memory loop.
2.7 -- Oh, there's a reason no one was sitting in that seat!
2.9 -- Pair of men are actively engaged in discussion over what they heard on Alex Jones' radio program that evening
3.1 -- Entire elementary school class boards the L-Taraval, infects train car with contact sugar high.
3.5 -- Psychotic ex-spouse boards -- Oh, thank God. That was someone else wearing a straightjacket.
The hunger strike at California prisons has grown to include roughly 6,000 inmates, less than 24 hours after prisoners started refusing state-issued meals.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would not confirm how many inmates have joined the effort, but said they will have those numbers by tomorrow. An inmate is only considered officially on a hunger strike after skipping nine consecutive meals, and tomorrow is the nine-meal mark, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman with the CDCR.
She did confirm that thousands of inmates from various facilities across the state have been refusing to eat state-issued meals. That's not to say they aren't eating at all; some are munching from their canteens, or the snack food they are allowed to purchase while in prison, Thornton said.
Trying to sneak into the carpool lane with a canine "passenger" might not seem like a good idea when you're sober. After a few beers, it's an even worse idea, but no longer necessarily looks that way.
Exhibit A: The man who was busted by police during rush hour yesterday afternoon for driving his Ford pickup truck in the carpool lane illegally. Sure, he had a passenger: a border collie.
There are so many reasons a one-night stand is risky. You never know what afflictions (or infections) they might leave behind. And in some cases, you never know what they might take with them.
Sadly, one San Francisco man's night on the town turned criminal when the guy he brought home was looking for more than just sex. The victim went out to find a fling, and met a guy on the corner of Market and Sanchez streets. The victim invited the man to stay at his house for the night.
After what was presumably a good time (cops couldn't confirm this), the two passed out. But at some point during the night, the house guest left -- and took a few valuables with him.
Brian Wilson excels at plenty of things -- he knows how to both shock and entertain while maintaining his credibility.
Which is why he might just be the perfect public speaker. ON24, a virtual event and webcasting S.F. company, has announced that Wilson (sans the machine) will be the first athlete ever to host a virtual event. And guess what the topic is? Virtual events.
That's right, the Giants' relief pitcher will use this virtual event to explain how virtual events can better address corporate needs.
ON24 surveyed 100,000 business executives, and the findings support the bearded choice: Over half say that athletes are easier to understand and more interesting than business speakers, about a quarter agree that business and sports are related (think teamwork, adaptability), and a quarter think that watching athletes perform instills a sense of trust in us -- which means we're more likely to believe that they say.
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ast week we regaled readers with stories of residents converting highly coveted parking spots into parks, offices, and even nudist camps. Perhaps that's where Bennett Austin, a local advertising student, got the idea to turn metered spots in the Haight District into beds for the homeless.Smoke billowed from the attic of a three-story apartment complex yesterday afternoon for more than 90 minutes as firefighters worked to extinguish the four-alarm blaze along Haight and Fillmore streets. No people or pets were injured that we know of, but the damage is extensive.
Check out the scene:
Earlier this month, Anonymous claimed their first potential defector from within San Francisco's Church of Scientology. Meanwhile, the church's president, Jeff Quiros, told SF Weekly the masked protesters' presence has only buoyed the public's interest in the org.
This week, we've posted the statistics that ethicstrouble claims to have smuggled out of the org, and we've talked with this inside source about daily life at the church. Today, we post our conversation with ethicstrouble about Anonymous.
Disclaimer: We have no confirmation that Ethicstrouble is, indeed, a San Francisco Scientologist. But two ex-Scientologists have said the graphs the source sent us look legit. Now, ethicstrouble says the leadership of the org is changing protocols to make sure such a leak doesn't happen again. "Right now, it's much greater security -- shredding them as soon as the executives see them. There's a shredder in the ED's [executive director's] office, so [the papers] will probably go straight in there."
