The 2024 NFL Draft is now underway, and the 49ers have a first-round pick for the first time in three years. (Though it’s not until No. 31, and probably won't happen until about 8 pm). Yet the Niners may trade up for a higher pick, and the rumor mill is churning that they could potentially deal either Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo Samuel. [CBS Sports] Architecture students from UC Berkeley and Stanford have put together conceptual proposals for the future reuse of the former Westfield mall, and one of them features a go-kart track and a trampoline park. The renderings were part of a competition amon ..read more

If you were captivated by the exploits of “Otter 841” evading the authorities in Santa Cruz all last summer, you’ll love SFFILM’s otter documentary screening this Saturday at the Marina Theatre. We all spent last summer obsessed with the furry character known as Otter 841, the five-year-old female sea otter who hijacked surfboards and kayaks while befuddling fish and wildlife experts who simply could not catch her for three months. (It turned out she was pregnant the whole time, and her behavior was likely due to hormones.) Now otter-mania is set to return to the Bay Area this weekend, as one ..read more

The Michelin organization has just released its first ever guide to and rankings of US hotels, and like the Michelin Guides to restaurants dole out stars, the new guide has given "key" rankings to 124 hotels across the country. While we know that three Michelin stars are a distinction reserved for very high-end, typically very expensive and refined restaurants across the world, Michelin "key" rankings are new. Michelin inspectors fanned out across the cities and regions that Michelin currently covers for their restaurants: Atlanta, California, Chicago, Colorado, Florida, New York, and Washing ..read more

After the recent SF County Jail lockdowns and complaints of severe staffing shortages, SF Sheriff Paul Miyamoto opens up about his office’s challenges, while the deputies’ union is demanding he calls in the National Guard. Nearly two weeks ago, the SF County jails were placed on lockdown, amidst a reported nine deputies being attacked by prisoners over the last month. KGO reported last week that lockdown was lifted at one of SF facility last Wednesday, and the satellite facility in San Bruno reopened later last week. But both lockdowns lasted longer than planned, which indicates things are ru ..read more

San Francisco opened a brand new high-tech 911 call center on Wednesday. But early Thursday morning, the city’s 911 system crashed, and dispatchers were handling calls with pen and paper. On Wednesday, the Examiner trumpeted the news that San Francisco was reopening its Western Addition 911 dispatch center after $9 million worth of upgrades. “The opening of this new and improved Dispatch Center is a critical step forward in our work to protect the safety and well-being of all San Franciscans,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement. “This state-of-the-art facility underscores our dedication t ..read more

Berkeley native Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage in Israel on October 7 and even had his arm blown off in the process, but a new-proof-of-life video from Hamas, which appears to have been shot Wednesday, shows him very much alive. In the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and taking of some 200 hostages, we learned that Berkeley-born 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among those hostages taken at an Israeli music festival. Goldberg-Polin’s arm was reportedly blown off in the Hamas attack, as he was throwing back a grenade that had been thrown into his hiding space, but CNN ..read more

Car owners without garages in San Francisco are tensing up in preparation for an announced May sweep by the SFMTA's Parking Enforcement team, which is set to cover every district of the city in search of parking rule violators. But those parking enforcers are tense themselves, imagining they could be targets for assault. We learned about the coming crackdown last week, which is a piece of Mayor London Breed's multi-pronged and updated Vision Zero plan. It sounds like this is being partly driven by the SFMTA, and stems from complaints about scofflaws in various neighborhoods getting away with ..read more

It's the final day of arguments in this Supreme Court term, and the justices are hearing arguments in the Trump "total immunity" case. The justices are expected to decide, either within a month or by late June, whether Trump's federal trial on charges that he conspired to subvert the results of the 2020 election can proceed. [New York Times] There was a vehicle crash Wednesday night on Foothill Road, on the western edge of Pleasanton, that resulted in "multiple fatalities," according to Pleasanton police. [KPIX] A 46-year-old man was shot in the leg during an attempted carjacking Wednesday ev ..read more

The 14-year-old boy who drowned in the Russian River earlier this month has been identified as a San Francisco resident. Justin Huang was swimming with another teen boy on April 11 when he disappeared in the rushing water, and his body was found the next day near Steelhead Beach. [KSRO] Several actors in ape costumes on horseback were spotted at Crissy Field today, and they were shooting a commercial for the upcoming release of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Of course there was no location shooting here, and the whole movie is CGI, but they were shooting a promo on location for some reaso ..read more

Concert and sporting event ticket prices have exploded since the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, but a new California bill could break up their monopoly. And the 49ers and Warriors are completely against this bill, because they benefit handsomely from that monopoly. It’s the hell of going to a major concert event these days that the ticket prices are outrageously expensive, and then Ticketmaster just melts down anyway when you bite the bullet and try to buy tickets. And as has been many times noted, the Ticketmaster add-on fees are often as expensive as the tickets themselves. idk how we g ..read more