A representative of the California High-Speed Rail Authority was in San Francisco on Thursday to talk about the train system’s near- and long-term plans in the Bay Area.
Ben Tripousis, regional director for Northern California, told a packed auditorium at the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association that the under-three-hour trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles could be a reality by 2029, but that a host of political, financial and logistical obstacles must be overcome before high-speed trains reach the Bay Area.
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Bay Area residents may want to bundle up, as a cold-weather system is headed this way and will linger for several days, a National Weather Service forecaster said.
“Temperatures will start dropping” today, forecaster Steve Anderson said.
Daytime highs in the greater Bay Area are expected to be in the low 50s, and overnight temperatures will dip to about 35 to 40 degrees, he said.
“The overnight lows are not too crazy cold until you get out into the East Bay and North Bay valleys, where temperatures will be slightly below freezing,” Anderson said.
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The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will hear arguments March 26 on the constitutionality of California’s 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.Sponsors of Proposition 8 and their committee, Protect Marriage, are appealing a ruling made last year in which the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the initiative.The high court’s decision is expected by the end of June. In the meantime, a stay of the lower court decision will remain in place and Prop. 8 will continue to be in effect.
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A judge ruled Monday that the man accused of murdering seven people in a shooting rampage at Oakland’s Oikos University in April is incompetent to stand trial and suspended the legal proceedings against him.Alameda County Superior Court Judge Carrie Panetta said she based her ruling on reports by two psychiatrists who have examined 44-year-old One Goh.Panetta ordered Goh, a Korean national who lived in Oakland, to return to court Jan. 28 for a hearing on which state mental hospital he should be sent to.
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San Francisco resident Walter Smith, 30, was found stabbed in the Bayview early New Year’s Day.
He later died at General Hospital. Police are seeking tips in the slaying, The City’s first homicide of 2013, a police spokesman said.
A detailed suspect description was not available.
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A man with an assault rifle in his vehicle removed his clothes and brandished a samurai sword at police in west San Jose for more than two hours Tuesday morning before he was arrested while trying to flee, a police spokesman said.
Coco Bennett, 29, whose residence is unknown, was arrested on suspicion of brandishing a weapon and possessing an assault rifle, police spokesman Officer Albert Morales said.
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A construction worker died after falling more than a dozen feet at a house under construction near San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital on Wednesday morning, a Fire Department spokeswoman said.
The fall was reported at 10:37 a.m. at 40 Edgehill Way, where a three-story home is being built. The worker, believed to be about 50 years old, was standing on scaffolding near an unfinished stairwell at the time, fire spokeswoman Lt. Mindy Talmadge said.
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The rain-soaked Bay Area will get a slight reprieve from stormy weather for the next couple of days, a National Weather Service forecaster said Wednesday.
Isolated thunderstorms and hail hit parts of the region throughout the day Wednesday, but today is expected to be dry, forecaster Steve Anderson said.
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San Francisco’s annual Christmas tree recycling program will start next week, city officials announced Wednesday. Residents can leave their trees curbside for pickup.
The “treecycling” was announced at a news conference in Civic Center Plaza, where officials from the Department of the Environment and Recology inserted more than a dozen trees into a chipper.
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A San Francisco man has been arrested on suspicion of robbing a bank in downtown San Rafael last week, police said Monday.
Jeremiah C. Martin, 36, was arrested at his Sixth Street apartment about 10 p.m. Saturday, police said. Martin is suspected of robbing the Citibank at 666 Third St. shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday, according to police.
A male robber entered the bank, demanded cash from a teller and then fled with the money. He was last seen running north on Tamalpais Avenue, police said.
No one was injured and no weapon was seen.
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After 43 years of educating students, tourists and Bay Area residents about the wacky ways of biology, physics, chemistry and more, the Exploratorium will be closing its doors at the Palace of Fine Arts at the start of the new year.The interactive science museum located at 3601 Lyon St. will be making its way to a new location at Pier 15, scheduled to open April 17. In the final days before it closes, the museum will have special holiday hours, and the last day of operation, Jan. 2, will be a free admission day between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
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An estimated 130,000 passengers are expected to pass through SFO today, and more than 2 million holiday travelers are expected to use the airport through Jan. 6, SFO spokesman Doug Yakel said.
Snow and turbulent winter weather in the Midwest on Thursday were already causing flight delays between the Bay Area and Chicago, SFO Duty Manager Linda Perry said.
Rain was expected to move into the Bay Area on Thursday night and continue this morning, potentially complicating travel plans for anyone flying out of SFO, according to the National Weather Service.
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A firefighter was taken to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation after battling a two-alarm fire at an apartment building in the Oceanview neighborhood Thursday morning, Assistant Fire Chief Tom Siragusa said.
The Fire Department received reports of a fire on the second floor of a three-story building at 119 Broad St., between Capitol and Plymouth avenues, at 5:31 a.m.
The building was evacuated of 25 residents before the blaze was controlled at 6:14 a.m., fire officials said.
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San Francisco Superior Court Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein has announced that she is retiring from the bench.
Feinstein, 55, the daughter of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has served as a judge with the court for more than 12 years, and for the past two she has served as presiding judge. Her retirement is effective Feb. 1, court officials said.
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An East Bay high school senior was mourned Monday after he was killed in a shooting in the Bayview district last weekend.
The teen, identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office as 17-year-old Montreal Blakely, was shot in the first block of Osceola Lane about 10 p.m. Saturday, police said.
Blakely was taken by a friend to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
The Concord High School student played on the football team as a starting defensive back, according to coaches.
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