Fruitvale BART station, near where Grant was killedOscar Grant III was fatally shot by BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California, United States, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid Transit train returning from San Francisco, BART Police officers detained Grant and several other passengers on the platform at the Fruitvale BART Station. Officer Johannes Mehserle and another officer were restraining Grant, who was lying face down and allegedly resisting arrest. Officer Mehserle stood and, according to his attorney, said: "Get back, I'm gonna Tase him." Then Mehserle drew his gun and shot Grant once in the back. During his court testimony, Mehserle said that Grant then exclaimed, "You shot me!" Grant was unarmed; he was pronounced dead the next morning at Highland Hospital in Oakland.
The events were captured on multiple digital video and cell phone cameras. The footage was disseminated to media outlets and to various websites, where it was watched millions of times. The following days saw both peaceful and violent protests. (more...)
Mill Valley is located on the western and northern shores of Richardson Bay. Beyond the flat coastal area and marshlands, it occupies narrow wooded canyons, mostly of second-growth redwoods, on the southern slopes of Mount Tamalpais. The Mill Valley 94941 ZIP code also includes the following adjacent unincorporated communities: Almonte, Alto, Homestead Valley, Strawberry and Tamalpais Valley. The Muir Woods National Monument is also located just outside the city limits. (more...)
Kevin StarrTrump inauguration protest SF Jan 20 2017"Bridge Together Golden Gate"San Bruno explosion and fires, at nightProtesters at San Francisco International Airport, 2017Representative Mike Honda speaks at a San Francisco protest of Executive_Order_13769 in February 2017Series of Storms Battering California Tracked by NASA's AIRS InstrumentThird Street, San FranciscoAnderson Lake dam and spillwayWarm Springs BART station on opening dayThe United States of America, Arthur Szyk (1945)Robert Taylor in 2008Customers waiting to purchase the Tesla 3 in Walnut Creek, CaliforniaSatellite image of smoke from California wildfiresIf not now, when?Acting San Francisco Mayor London Breed
After a series of storms hit California, including January storms causing flooding on the Russian River, Northern California, including the Bay Area, is no longer in drought [1]
Kevin Starr(pictured), Americanhistorian and California's State Librarian, best known for his multi-volume series on the history of California, collectively called "Americans and the California Dream", dies in San Francisco, the home of his birth as a seventh-generation Californian [3]
Pacific Gas and Electric is ordered by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson to publicly advertise its guilt in violating pipeline safety laws, and obstruction of justice, in the 2010 San Bruno explosion(fires that night pictured), pay $3 million in fines, and make its employees perform 10,000 hours of community service, including at least 2,000 hours by high-level officials [10]
Protesters of the executive order suspending entry of certain foreign nationals are joined at San Francisco International Airport by Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and president of Alphabet, who states "I'm here because I'm a refugee" [12], while the airport issues a statement in support of the protesters, saying "We share [[their]] concerns deeply, as our highest obligation is to the millions of people from around the world whom we serve. Although Customs and Border Protection services are strictly federal and operate outside the jurisdiction of all U.S. airports, including SFO, we have requested a full briefing from this agency to ensure our customers remain the top priority. We are also making supplies available to travelers affected by this Executive Order, as well as to the members of the public who have so bravely taken a stand against this action by speaking publicly in our facilities." (protesters pictured)[13]
San Francisco becomes the first city to sue the Trump Administration over his executive order to deny federal funds to sanctuary cities, joining 2 states that have sued [14]
San Francisco is ranked third in traffic congestion of all major US cities, according to the traffic and driver analytics company INRIX(Third Street congestion pictured)[26]
More than 200 residents are rescued by boat, in the Rocksprings neighborhood of San Jose, due to flooding at Coyote Creek from storm water released at Anderson Lake(dam and spillway pictured). [27] Over 14,000 households are subject to mandatory evacuation due to widespread flooding that exceeds the 100-year flood zone[28]
Santa Clara County is the first county in the nation to file a motion requesting that a Federal judge halt implementation of the Trump Administration's executive order withholding federal funding for sanctuary cities[30]
The Jewish Anti-Defamation League offices in San Francisco receive two consecutive bomb threats, as do other Bay Area Jewish community centers, part of a widespread wave of over 100 threats and criminal actions directed against the US Jewish community in 2017 [31][32][33]
Berkeley is the first city in the US to declare they will refuse to conduct business with companies that are involved with the US/Mexico border wall proposed by President Trump, and will move to divest from those companies that they have investments in [36]
Tens of thousands turn out in San Francisco on Earth Day at the local March for Science, to protest federal budget cuts to science research, with MythBusters host Adam Savage saying "The enemy of science isn't politics or a party or an ideology or a law — it is bias, and bias is everywhere. Science is the rigorous elimination of bias. That is a good thing." [48]
In response to requests by Santa Clara County and San Francisco, U.S. District Judge William Orrick temporarily blocks Executive Order 13768, which had threatened to deny federal funding to sanctuary cities, writing "The statements of the President, his press secretary and the Attorney General belie the Government's argument in the briefing that the Order does not change the law. They have repeatedly indicated an intent to defund sanctuary jurisdictions in compliance with the Executive Order."..."The threat of the Order and the uncertainty it is causing impermissibly interferes with the Counties’ ability to operate, to provide key services, to plan for the future, and to budget." [49][50]
At least 80 leopard sharks wash up dead on the shores of San Francisco Bay, possibly due to a fungal infection, with likely as many as 1,000 dying and sinking since early March [51]
Fourteen large wildfires, including the Atlas and Tubbs Fires, spread over a 200-mile region north of San Francisco, in Napa, Sonoma and Yuba counties, kill at least 10 people and destroy over 1,500 structures (satellite image of smoke from fires pictured)[60]
A rare mountain lion spotted in San Francisco is tranquilized and released into the wild, far south of the city [61]
The wealthiest 1% now owns more than 50% of the world's wealth, with younger people suffering some of the worst inequality. Per the Credit Suisse report, "The outlook for the millionaire segment is more optimistic than for the bottom of the wealth pyramid." The Bay Area remains part of the world, according to most experts. [62]
Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an undocumented immigrant, is found not guilty of murder for the 2015 shooting of Kathryn Steinle on a San Francisco pier, in a case that had touched off a national immigration debate. [64]
Silicon Valley software engineer Susan Fowler and San Francisco lobbyist Adama Iwu are featured, with other women, on the cover of Time's 2017 Person of the Year issue, this year given to "The Silence Breakers", people who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment [66]
Senator Dianne Feinstein formally asks Immigration and Customs Enforcement to investigate the West County Detention Center, where multiple federal detainees have stated that they were not allowed to use restrooms. Feinstein wrote, "It has been reported that the conditions are so deplorable that detainees are requesting deportation over pursuing claims in immigration court" [70]
Buddy's Cannabis Shop, in San Jose, is the first California business to obtain a state Marijuana Micro-Business License, which, along with a city business license, will make it the first fully licensed recreational marijuana shop in California, when it becomes legal on 1 January 2018 [71][72]
Everitt Aaron Jameson, a 25-year-old former marine, is arrested by the FBI on suspicion of planning a terror attack in the Pier 39 area of San Francisco over Christmas [73]
... that the vivid colors of the San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds(pictured), ranging from magenta to blue-green, come from the brine shrimp and microorganisms that thrive in the water?
• ... that before The Jabberwock was a Berkeley folk music club, it was the jazz club Tsubo, where Wes Montgomery recorded his live album Full House on July 25, 1962?
• ... that the San Francisco Ballet Building(pictured, right), designed by architect Beverly Willis, was “the first building in the United States to be designed and constructed exclusively for the use of a major ballet company”?
• ... that Oakland'sCalifornia Hotel(pictured, left), starting in 1953, was the only full service hotel in the East Bay that welcomed black people?
• ... that El Tecolote, published in San Francisco, is the longest running bilingual newspaper in California that is printed in both English and Spanish?
• ... that the Sir and Star hotel in Olema was constructed by the area's original Spanish land grantee, Rafael Garcia, in 1876 as part of a 9,000 acre land grant from Mexico?
• ... that after the San Francisco Fire of 1851, "Nothing remained of the city but the sparsely settled outskirts"?
• ... that the Manhattan Project's calutrons used 14,700 short tons (13,300 t) of silver?
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is the oldest and largest Jewish film festival in the world. The three-week summer festival features contemporary and classic independent Jewish film from around the world. The festival was first held at the Roxie Theater(pictured) in San Francisco in 1980.