From SFGate

  • Bay Area woman goes missing on Mendocino County hike after calling for help

    A Bay Area woman visiting Mendocino County has gone missing on a hike near Fort Bragg, law enforcement officials said late Wednesday morning. Elizabeth Schenk, 70, who was “visiting the area from Oakland,” went for a walk on Bruhel Point Road on Tuesday morning, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said. Around 9:30 a.m., she called an acquaintance nearby to ask for directions. “Schenk described her surroundings and a nearby gate” on the logging road, and the man gave her instructions on how to...

  • UC Davis looking for missing student last seen in San Francisco

    The UC Davis Police Department is asking the public for help locating a missing student last seen in San Francisco. Diane Shoyeon Min, 18, was reported missing on Monday and is thought to be “in distress,” police said in a social media post. Min, a first-year engineering student, left campus Friday night and took Amtrak to San Francisco, police said. She was last seen near Mission Street wearing a dark top and pants and black shoes, police said. Min is 5-foot-4, 120 pounds, with black hair and...

  • Walmart to cut nearly 600 corporate jobs in Bay Area

    Retail behemoth Walmart is preparing to cut nearly 600 jobs across two of its corporate offices in the Bay Area in the coming months, according to recent filings with California’s Employment Development Department. Most cuts will come from its eCommerce corporate office in San Bruno, where 388 positions are slated to be eliminated. Another 180 jobs at the corporate Walmart Labs office in Sunnyvale are set to be cut, bringing the total number to 568. Walmart did not immediately reply to a request...

  • The real Hukilau Cafe and other Hawaii spots that made '50 First Dates' iconic

    It’s been 20 years since the romantic comedy “50 First Dates” took audiences on a visual tour around the windward side of Oahu. While not all of the movie’s jokes may have aged well, it continues to showcase a romanticized Hawaii, lush and tropical with golden sunsets.In “50 First Dates,” Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) meets Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore) during breakfast at Hukilau Cafe and falls in love at first sight. But he soon learns that she has short-term memory loss due to a brain injury...

  • Iconic filming location for cult movie turned to rubble in Northern California

    A 131-year-old warehouse that provided the backdrop for one of the most misunderstood films in horror movie history is undergoing demolition in Northern California. Up until 2022, fans of the “Halloween” franchise could easily recognize the exterior of the Loleta Creamery, an old milk-bottling plant that stood in for the sinister Silver Shamrock Novelties factory in the third installment of the series, “Halloween III: Season of the Witch.” But that December, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck...

  • Calif. Supreme Court hears arguments on Uber, Lyft's future at SF courthouse

    Proposition 22 has reached its final test. On Tuesday, California’s Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding the constitutionality of the 2020 law that classifies Uber and Lyft drivers as independent contractors rather than full-fledged employees. In a courtroom in San Francisco’s Earl Warren Building, the justices listened to and questioned three lawyers — one representing drivers, one representing a coalition of gig companies and another representing the state of California. Hector...

  • Large fire hits Alamo Square house after resident received racist threats

    A large fire at a San Francisco home that sent two people to the hospital is being investigated, fire officials said. The fire on the 900 block of Grove Street in Alamo Square started at 11:31 a.m. and blazed through the home’s second and third floors, the San Francisco Fire Department said in a social media post. One person is in serious condition and the other is in moderate condition, San Francisco fire Capt. Jonathan Baxter told SFGATE. One building next door had minor damage but the...

  • 14-year-old girl missing near SF's Tenderloin neighborhood

    San Francisco police are asking the public for help locating a 14-year-old girl last seen in the Tenderloin neighborhood. Genesis Barrera-Hernandez, a Hispanic teen, is 5 feet, 6 inches tall and 130 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen near Turk and Hyde streets wearing a yellow shirt, brown leggings and black Croc shoes, the San Francisco Police Department said. The teen is a frequent Muni rider and is often in the Tenderloin, police said. Anyone who sees...

  • Healthy Paws Pet Insurance review: Pros, cons, and pricing

    Healthy Paws Pet Insurance at a glance Healthy Paws’ big selling point is unlimited coverage (no maximum annual or lifetime payouts) with a wide range of customizable deductibles and reimbursement rates. It also promises a fast claims process. Keep in mind, however, that the pet insurer only offers one plan type (accident-and-illness), and you might encounter other limitations based on your pet’s age, breed, location, or other details. Standard waiting periods: 15 days for accidents and...

  • Fiery crash kills 1, closes major Fremont road

    A brutal car crash and fire early Tuesday morning in Fremont left one person dead and another injured, local outlets reported from the scene. Footage from NBC Bay Area (KNTV-TV) shows that the car hit a tree on the side of Fremont Boulevard and caught fire, with a maw of flame engulfing the vehicle and burning the tree trunk. Onlookers told KRON-TV and KTVU-TV that they’d come to the scene because they’d heard a family member was in the crash, and that the person died at the site. Fremont fire...

  • He toured with the Grateful Dead and now runs the Bay Area's biggest Tibetan monastery

    Venerable Thupten Donyo has been a Buddhist monk for more than half a century. Like tens of thousands of other Tibetans, he was born in exile. He’s spent years living in a temple in the Himalayas without electricity. But at his Richmond monastery, he’s especially vexed by laundry. “When new monks come here, they don’t know how to use the laundry machine. They use a detergent for different things and ruin whole robes,” Donyo told me as we sat under reams of prayer flags, in an outdoor area where...

  • 49ers stars crash country singer's Bay Area show to shotgun beers on stage

    San Francisco 49ers fans were in for a treat during Luke Combs’ concert at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday night: The country star brought out quarterback Brock Purdy and tight end George Kittle for some beer-chugging antics at the tail end of his show. Combs — who wore a Niners cap for the entirety of the concert — was performing his song “1, 2 Many” when he summoned Purdy and Kittle onstage. Kittle promptly shotgunned a Bud Light with Combs before Purdy tossed him more cans, getting the crowd...