At the height of his fame, someone killed chef Masa Kobayashi at his San Francisco home.
sfgate.com/unsolved/artic… Chef Masa Kobayashi always walked home from work. After dinner service at Masa’s, his eponymous restaurant, he’d help lock up for the night before a 10-minute stroll up Bush Street to his apartment at 1111 Pine.

Brendan Fraser was in attendance at last night's screening of the new Darren Aronofsky film “The Whale” at the Mill Valley Film Festival, and he had some words of apology for the city of San Francisco and the broader Bay Area. #MVFF45
sfgate.com/streaming/arti… In an interview before the film, Fraser recounted an incident that took place during the filming of the 1997 comedy “George of the Jungle.”

The world’s oldest webcam is still watching over San Francisco 🌫️
sfgate.com/obscuresf/arti… Though it’s revered today as a technology milestone and a pioneer of the World Wide Web, Andrew Roderick describes @FogCam as a student project that started in the university’s instructional technologies department in the fall of 1994 and just never left.

California’s high-speed rail system is easily the most ambitious, and controversial, infrastructure project in North America today. California voters narrowly approved the initiative in 2008.
sfgate.com/bayarea/articl… Construction so far has been limited to a 171-mile section through the sparsely populated Central Valley, where California’s High-Speed Rail Authority has spent more than $1.4 billion buying property — a process that has served as a major source of the delays.

If you looked out your front window and saw a squirrel stretched out spread-eagle and motionless on your lawn, you’d likely think it met some untimely end. Really, though, it’s probably just splooting.
sfgate.com/bayarea/articl… With temperatures soaring above 105 degrees in many parts of the Bay Area during this record-breaking heat wave, lots of people have noticed squirrels exhibiting this strange behavior.

A mysterious and controversial billboard warning people against moving from California to Texas looms over passersby in LA and San Francisco this week.
sfgate.com/local/article/… "The Texas miracle died in Uvalde. Don't move to Texas," the billboard reads, alongside the sinister image of a hooded figure and a crossed-out "Don't mess with Texas" slogan. The San Francisco billboard is currently up near the corner of Folsom and 7th Street.

The Siren Canteen, a shuttered Bay Area gem in Stinson Beach, is being forced to fend off invaders from Instagram.
sfgate.com/travel/article… Prior to closing in 2019 for a multiyear renovation, the Siren Canteen was establishing itself as a social hub for Stinson Beach. The beachside grill, built onto the sand and below a lifeguard station, was starting to gain recognition for its menu and unbeatable coastal ambiance.

Silicon Valley startup Sanas has a lofty goal: to make call center workers sound white and American, no matter the country they're from. And that's just the beginning of their grand plan.
sfgate.com/news/article/s… Since its 2021 launch, Sanas has been showered with funding by investors. The “accent translation” company — founded by three former Stanford students — snagged a $32 million Series A funding round in June 2022, which they claim is the largest ever for a speech technology service

A Disneyland vacation always seems more magical when you can immerse yourself in the full Disney experience, including staying in one of the resort’s three hotels. One Disneyland hotel seems particularly aspirational and luxurious: the Grand Californian.
sfgate.com/disneyland/art… The hotel is the most expensive of the bunch, but also the only one of the three to have a direct entrance into the theme park. But at a nightly rate of $800-plus for a standard room, is it worth the splurge?

🎶 It's raining fish 🎵
sfgate.com/bayarea/articl… Fish are falling from the sky in parts of San Francisco, and a boom in coastal anchovy populations is to blame.

California’s Great America, a Bay Area amusement park that has entertained families for nearly five decades, will be closing its gates permanently.  dlvr.it/SSyFMx Cedar Fair, owner and operator of the park, announced on Monday that it has sold the land to Bay Area real estate developer Prologis for $310 million.

The deal stipulates that the park will close sometime within the next 11 years, although the exact timing has not been announced

Students and faculty at Stanford are criticizing medical school administrators for a letter they released in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. dlvr.it/SSxkSJ The saga began hours after Friday's ruling, when Dr. Lloyd Minor — the dean of the university's school of medicine — sent a letter to the Stanford community.

https://twitter.com/mldauber/status/1540407057827762176

“Use bear-resistant garbage cans.”

It's the first piece of advice on a list of things residents should do to keep Tahoe bears wild.
sfgate.com/renotahoe/arti… Bear boxes are a common installation in front of homes throughout the Tahoe Basin because they are effective.
sfgate.com/renotahoe/arti…

Ahead of its grand opening, the first reviews for Disney’s eye-wateringly expensive “Star Wars” hotel are beginning to roll in.
sfgate.com/disneyland/art… The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser at Disney World opens to its first paid guests March 1, but last week it hosted members of the media and popular YouTube and TikTok channels for a free preview.
sfgate.com/disneyland/art…

Just days after receiving a $750 million cash infusion, a tech startup that Forbes branded in October as a “unicorn,” valued at $7 billion, laid off hundreds of employees in a manner that some online deemed “brutal.”
sfgate.com/tech/article/B… Better.com, a digital mortgage lender with offices in Oakland, laid off 900 employees weeks before Christmas on a mass Zoom call.

Only those being laid off were invited.
sfgate.com/tech/article/B…

Valerie Kumra was sitting at her house in Dillon Beach, a small waterfront community off Bodega Bay, one afternoon when she heard an unexpected knock on the door.

A young couple stood in front of her, looking excited. “We’re here!” the husband exclaimed.
sfgate.com/local/article/… The couple had “rented” Kumra’s home after seeing an ad on Craigslist.

They had texted the alleged owners just 10 minutes before arriving to tell them they were almost there and they had responded that they would be there to greet them.
sfgate.com/local/article/…

The Strokes headlined Day One of #outsidelands and had some controversial things to say about San Francisco. sfgate.com/culture-events… Bad sound plagued the set, which singer Julian Casablancas complained about in the middle of opening song "The End Has No End."

This Sunday was the wettest October day in downtown San Francisco since records began, as the deluge dropped over 4 inches of rain on the city.
sfgate.com/california-par… The "bomb cyclone" aka "atmospheric river" aka mega-drought-crusher drenched the Bay Area, but also brought life to the parched waterfalls of Yosemite and snow to the Sierra, resulting in some stunning imagery. 

https://twitter.com/TerraNovaSierra/status/1452449401633267713

The highlights for the San Francisco 49ers during their 30-18 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday were few and far between.

Off the field, however, one fan’s outfit proved to be so entertaining that it garnered serious national attention.
sfgate.com/49ers/article/… In the third quarter of "Sunday Night Football," the game’s broadcast panned to a Niners fan in the crowd who braved the dreary elements brought on by an atmospheric river and wore just a swimmer’s cap and a pair of swimming goggles.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1452461814592065540

Lake Tahoe’s water levels are back up above the natural rim, thanks to precipitation from the massive storm system that pushed across Northern California this weekend. 
sfgate.com/renotahoe/arti… Data from the U.S. Geological Survey shows that water levels at the Tahoe City dam rose almost half of a foot in 24 hours. Meanwhile, more than 2 feet of snow accumulated on the mountaintops surrounding the Tahoe Basin.

https://twitter.com/UCB_CSSL/status/1452657396241735680

A moisture-packed atmospheric river barreled across the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday into Monday, drenching the region to kick off the rainy season. 
sfgate.com/weather/articl… "It was about what we anticipated," said @NWS meteorologist Sean Hayes of how the storm unfolded.

"It was a strong event, anomalously strong for this time of year."