Earlier today, the East Bay Express broke the news that the owners of the San Francisco Examiner have bought the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
It turns out that's not quite true -- but may be soon.
Tim Redmond, the Guardian's executive editor, tells us that his paper has been looking to sell for a couple of months, and the Ex ownership group "are the only people we are negotiating with now." But, he says, the trigger has not yet been pulled.
"Our paper has not been sold," Redmond says. "We are optimistic about a deal. But no deal has closed yet."
Redmond wouldn't talk money, but a source claimed the Guardian has been on the block for around two months at a price of $1 million.
Meanwhile, reports that the Guardian is "optimistic" about a deal with the Ex came as news to the Ex's president and CEO.
No more dressing up in ugly hospital gowns or sending mean Valentine's Day cards to Wells Fargo executives. It seems 99 percenters have decided it's time to go big or go home.
On May 1, occupiers aren't just going to make life hell for Wells Fargo executives -- they are going to make life hell for all 99 percenters commuting between here and the North Bay with an obnoxious occupation of the Golden Gate Bridge.
They plan to shut down the bridge to "show the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District that fair wages and benefits can not be ignored."
Ross Mirkarimi got more bad news today when a judge denied his request to bar City Attorney Dennis Herrera from representing Mayor Ed Lee in his effort to permanently remove Mirkarimi from his post as sheriff.
Here's how Judge Harold Kahn justified his decision:
Because the city attorney is representing the Mayor in his official capacity with respect to actions he took on behalf of the city in accordance with a provision of the Charter authorizing the Mayor to take such actions, the city attorney is not barred from representing the Mayor in this case.
Santa Clara County authorities are now looking for the person who hacked into 15-year-old Sierra LaMar's Twitter account this week and left posts impersonating the missing teen.
Sgt. Jose Cardoza confirmed to reporters Thursday that someone indeed hacked into LaMar's account two days ago and wrote a bogus tweet in reference to a rap song: "By the way, we do punch bitches."
LaMar has 4,378 followers on her Twitter account.
Cardoza said detectives were "immediately aware" that the tweet had been
posted, and quickly confirmed that it was not sent by the teen,
who has been missing since March 16. Police believe the Sobrato High School sophomore was kidnapped, possibly by someone she knows.
Last night's epic duel between San Francisco's Matt Cain and Philadelphia's Cliff Lee was that rarest of things: It felt like a throwback to another time and a videogame.
The Giants' right-hander tossed nine innings of two-hit, shutout ball. He threw a minuscule 91 pitches and was removed only because he was scheduled to hit in the bottom of the ninth. Lee, meanwhile, flashed shades of Jack Morris in Game 7 of 1991 -- hurling 10 shutout innings.
The increasing specialization in baseball (and, really, most every sport) prolongs players' careers and maximizes efficiency. We lionize the Sandy Koufaxes and Orel Hershisers who amassed complete games at an astonishing clip -- but ignore that the wear and tear broke both men. It's a mistake and an oversimplification to say that something is better just because it harks to a past age. But, last night's game really did feel better. It was two world-class pitchers at the very top of their games, a team game reduced to a competition between the two best men on the field. And they matched zeros for 19 half-innings. If you love baseball -- if you really love baseball -- it doesn't get much better than this.
San Francisco, happily, broke through in the 11th inning against the incomparably named Antonio Bastardo for a 1-0 win. For your humble narrator, the sight of Brandon Belt sliding home with the winning run banished a malevolent, lingering memory: The day the Giants lost, 1-0, in 18 innings. Actually it was days. The game stretched well past midnight.
The only thing worse than being no. 2 is coming in second place to our frenemy, New York City. Alas, San Francisco has fallen one place short of being no. 1 when it comes to healthy eating. But no reason to wallow in a pint of Ben & Jerry's just yet; we're still way healthier than your cousins in Nebraska.
According to a new high-tech study, San Franciscans have some of the healthiest and greenest diets in the nation. Massive Health, a San Francisco-based startup, analyzed real-world, real-life eating data via its app, The Eatery, over the past five months. What it found was that San Francisco ranked as the second healthiest city in the U.S., thanks to our love for lettuce and all things green.
According to the study, San Francisco scored a 67.6 percent overall health rating, with Los Angeles trailing behind. Instead of taking late-night trips to McDonald's, we opted to eat veggies. In the last five months, we ate 4.4 times more brussels sprouts than the rest of the nation, and we snacked on 3.4 times more cashews compared to everyone else.
Our favorite food? Caesar salad, which incidentally is insanely fattening since it's doused with cheese and oil-and-egg dressing.
As we've noted before, San Francisco is a hotbed of sexually transmitted diseases, and it's not just because we aren't regularly using condoms. It's also because we aren't regularly getting tested for STDs.
But Bay Area health departments are making it so that you really have no excuse to not get tested; this week they launched a pilot home STD testing program, which means you don't have to go any further than your own bathroom to find out if you have chlamydia, gonorrhea, or trichomoniasis.
Researchers haven't pinned down the exact reasons for the rise in STDs in our fair city, but Susan Philip, director for the San Francisco STD Prevention and Control Department, says she hopes this new testing service will help detect and treat diseases before it's too late.
"You can test for STDs in the middle of the night, if you wanted to, in the comfort of your own home, and just mail it out the next day," Phillip explained.
If Supervisor Eric Mar has accomplished anything while in office, it's successfully making himself the butt of every Happy Meal joke out there. And just when you thought there were no more Mar/plastic toy jokes to be had, the District 1 supervisor makes headlines after chasing away a local stripper truck from his neighborhood.
Apparently, Mar's intuition was spot-on. Not only does the driver of this nefarious stripper mobile prefer pole dancers to politics, but he (or she) also enjoys a Happy Meal or two -- and that makes him (or her) a bad person.
RichmondSF blog delighted readers with this image, tweeted by Erik H.
There's a new side hustle at Berkeley High: Hacking into the school database and clearing classmates' attendance record for a fee.
