A California Highway Patrol helicopter located a not-so troubled surfer more than two miles from where he was reported to have been distressed off of the San Francisco coast Monday night.
The U.S. Coast Guard received a call at 8:11 p.m. reporting the possibly distressed surfer near the Cliff House, a Coast Guard petty officer said.
The CHP helicopter was requested by the Coast Guard to assist with the search and responded by searching the surf line, CHP Officer James Andrews said.
The San Francisco Fire Department, which had a command post set up on the beach just south of the Cliff House, directed the helicopter to the surfer's last known location.
Searching ever farther south, the helicopter located the only person who was in or around the surf almost two-and-a-half miles from the Cliff House -- near Rivera Street, Andrews said.
"We were searching the surf line thinking, 'There's nothing out there," he said.
A surfer was walking out of the surf line toward the Great Highway, Andrews said. "The only person out there was the one that got out of the water."
Because of the distance between the man and the fire department command post, the helicopter landed on the beach and a CHP paramedic contacted the surfer, who said he was uninjured.
"He had been surfing up by the Cliff House without a tether and became separated from his board. Someone said he was distressed. He said he never was," Andrews said.
A woman, who self-identified as a surfer and had been out near Ocean Beach earlier Monday evening, reported that the waves in the area were relatively calm.
"It doesn't look scary and horrendous like the waves off of Ocean Beach," she said referring to the waves breaking near the Cliff House.
The woman, who had been in a car traveling south along Great Highway, said that the beach had remained packed even as darkness fell and that numerous emergency vehicles had been clustered around the Fulton Street portion of the beach.
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Two Petaluma toddlers who fell from a second-story window Monday evening were transported to hospitals for treatment of unknown injuries, according to the fire department.
A boy, 3, and girl, 2, were in an upstairs bedroom at 1116 Baywood Drive and toppled through a window screen, falling onto a bush below in a bark-covered planter area, at about 6:35 p.m.
Family members inside the home's first level did not witness the fall but heard the children's crying outside the front door, according to the fire department.
Petaluma fire paramedics assessed the children's injuries, and because of the distance of the toddlers' fall, the children were transported to hospitals.
The girl was airlifted to Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, and the boy was transported by ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
As of 8:40 p.m., the extent of the children's injuries was unknown, according to the fire department.
Police also responded to the scene.
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The entire length of a Golden Gate Bridge sidewalk will close for several months starting today for a retrofitting construction project, bridge district officials said.
The entire west sidewalk will close today and will remain closed through September as part of a seismic retrofit construction project.
Bicycles and pedestrians will share the east sidewalk, with 24-hour access for bicyclists and sunrise-to-sunset use permitted for pedestrians, bridge officials said.
The construction work also involves replacement of the roof of the Marin Anchorage Housing.
Come September, construction will move to the east sidewalk, but only a 300-foot section will be closed for four months into 2012.
The sidewalk closure is part of a third phase of a three-phase bridge retrofit project. The first two phases were completed in 2001 and 2008, respectively, according to bridge authorities.
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Road construction in Salinas is expected today and Wednesday, fully closing a section of U.S. Highway 101, Caltrans officials announced.
Construction work from last week closed both directions of Highway 101 at Airport Boulevard Monday through Thursday from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. These same closures may also occur today and Wednesday, Caltrans officials said.
Motorists headed north will be detoured at Abbott Street to Sanborn Road before reaching Highway 101. Southbound drivers will be detoured at Sanborn Road to Abbott Street before reaching the highway, according to Caltrans officials.
The southbound on-ramp at Airport Boulevard will be closed through August. A detour is in place, Caltrans officials said.
The construction at Airport Boulevard includes adding new traffic signals at Moffett Street and De La Torre Street and building new on- and off-ramps to and from northbound Highway 101, Caltrans officials reported.
The construction project is expected to be completed in December.
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An 18-year-old man who was stabbed to death early Saturday in San Jose during a gang-related altercation has been identified by police Monday as Vincent Tran.
Officers found the San Jose man at about 4 a.m. in the 1700 block of Schulte Drive. He had been stabbed.
Tran was taken to Regional Medical Center in San Jose and pronounced dead a few hours later.
An investigation revealed Tran was stabbed during an altercation between two local rival gangs. Gang-related slogans and hand gestures were exchanged, witnesses told police, during and before the altercation.
Police believe Tran was friends with members of one of the involved gangs. The degree of his involvement remains under investigation.
The investigation also reveled Tran also had been stabbed during a similar gang-related altercation May 1 in the same area as this more recent stabbing took place.
It is unknown whether Tran was targeted. The motive for the altercation remains under investigation.
No arrests have been made. It was the city's 21st homicide this year.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Detective Sgt. Rafael Nieves or Detective Glenn Albin in the San Jose police homicide unit at (408) 277-5283.
Those wishing to remain anonymous can call crime stoppers at (408) 947-STOP (7867) or visit http://svcrimestoppers.org/. Tipsters might be eligible for a reward.
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Emergency responders were unable to rescue a 53-year-old man who lost consciouness in San Francisco Bay off the Alameda shore Monday in what police are calling an apparent suicide.
Alameda police received a call at 11:31 a.m. regarding a person who had walked into the Bay from Robert Crown Memorial Beach in the 2100 block of Shoreline Drive.
Members of the police and fire departments arrived within minutes, according to police, and immediately began requesting additional resources in rescuing the man who was approximately 150 yards from shore.
The U.S. Coast Guard was notified at 11:34 a.m., Lt. j.g. Laura Williams said, and launched a 25-foot response boat from Yerba Buena Island and a helicopter from Air Station San Francisco.
Shallow waters thwarted rescue efforts by the Coast Guard, preventing the boat, which arrived on the scene at about 11:55 a.m., from reaching the man, Williams said.
According to police, prior to the Coast Guard's arrival to the individual, the man lost consciousness and began to drift toward shore.
By the time the helicopter arrived on the scene, some 65 minutes after notification, according to police, another person had entered the water. The good Samaritan, an avid swimmer, swam toward the man when he was approximately 50 yards from the shoreline, police said.
Members of the Coast Guard saw the pair swimming toward the shore and so the helicopter, which had been on another mission and had to return to the airfield to refuel, returned to its air station, Williams and police said.
When the victim was brought to shore, the Alameda Fire Department transported him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Alameda County coroner's bureau identified the man as Raymond Zack, but had not yet determined Zack's residence. Zack's official cause of death remained under investigation as of Monday evening.
According to police, the Alameda Fire Department is not currently certified in land-based water rescues, and instead the city relies on the Coast Guard to conduct such rescues.
"We always work as a team with our local partners, and thatincludes the police and fire departments of the area we're working in," Williams said.
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The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 2.1 struck Monday evening in Santa Clara County.
The quake shook an area near Alum Rock at 7:19 p.m. and had a depth of 4.2 miles, according to the USGS. Its epicenter was roughly five miles northeast of Alum Rock.
On Saturday, a 3.3-magnitude earthquake struck near Morgan Hill at 3:39 a.m. and was centered 13 miles southeast of Alum Rock, according to the USGS.
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California Highway Patrol officers have arrested fewer impaired drivers so far during this Memorial Day weekend in the Bay Area than last year.
Fatalities are also down in the Bay Area.
In 2010, by Monday at 6 a.m., 203 impaired drivers had been arrested, compared to Monday's 184. During the same reporting period last year, there was one fatality, compared to zero so far this year, according to the CHP.
The CHP will continue its maximum enforcement efforts, which began Friday at 6 p.m., through midnight Monday.
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An 18-year-old San Jose man suspected of driving under the influence was arrested early Monday morning after colliding with a utility pole near a San Jose mobile home park, police said.
Diego Reyes drove a 1996 Honda four-door car into a utility pole at the intersection of Hillsdale and Narvaez avenues, police said.
Reyes was not injured in the collision, but his 17-year-old passenger sustained leg injuries, which were not life threatening. The passenger was treated and released from Regional Medical Center in San Jose, police said.
Several other utility poles and transmission wires went down in the incident, but no customer power outages were reported, according to PG&E spokeswoman Jana Morris.
Reyes was arrested on suspicion of alcohol or drug use and was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on a felony DUI charge and a misdemeanor driver's license charge, police reported.
Near the downed utility poles, the main entrance to Mountain Springs Mobile Home Park, at 625 Hillsdale Ave., was blocked as utility personnel worked to repair fallen poles, police said.
Officials from Mountain Springs Mobile Home Park said the frontentrance reopened at 2 p.m.
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Power was restored to more than 770 customers who were without service Monday afternoon in San Jose, a PG&E spokeswoman said.
Power was fully restored to all 776 customers in the area south of Story Road and McGinness Avenue by 3:23 p.m., about three hours after the outage began at 12:20 p.m., PG&E spokeswoman Jana Morris said.
No cause for the outage had been reported as of Monday evening, but PG&E staff was on site investigating, Morris said.
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A 35-year-old San Jose woman who died in a Saturday night shooting has been identified by police as Melissa Ross.
Police found Ross in the driver's seat of a black Mercedes sedan in the 4000 block of Ambler Way at about 10:30 p.m., Officer Jose Garcia said.
It appeared that Ross had been shot in the car.
Richard Herrera, 20, of San Jose, a relative of Ross, arrived at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center at 11 p.m. with gunshot wounds that were not life threatening, Garcia said. He was treated and released at the hospital.
Herrera was in the passenger seat of the car at the time of the shooting, investigators said.
No arrests have been made. It is unknown if the suspect, or suspects, targeted Ross, Herrera or both, Garcia said.
Police say the Ross shooting is not connected to the stabbing of San Jose resident Vincent Tran, 18, in the 1700 block of Schulte Drive earlier Saturday morning. Police suspect a gang connection in Tran's death.
Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact Detective Sgt. Tony Mata or Detective Jaime Jimenez at (408) 277-5283. To call anonymously, tipsters can call the Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-7867 or visit svcrimestoppers.com and may be eligible for an award.
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Three people were arrested Saturday in unincorporated Monterey County by sheriff's deputies on suspicion of having a handgun in their possession.
Deputies stopped a 2007 Ford Focus on U.S. Highway 101 near Mallory Canyon Road for speeding. A 17-year-old boy was driving.
A loaded, unregistered, concealable handgun was allegedly located in the passenger compartment.
It was accessible to all three occupants in the vehicle, according to sheriff's deputies. All three occupants - the 17-year-old, an 18-year-old and a 29-year-old were arrested.
The teen was booked into juvenile hall and the other two were booked into Monterey County Jail.
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Mostly cloudy skies and a chance of showers are in the forecast for the Bay Area today, with highs expected to be in the upper 50s.
Tonight is expected to be mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and lows around 50. Southwest winds of 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to around 5 mph after midnight, are also expected.
Wednesday is expected to be mostly cloudy, with a chance of showers a slight chance of thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms may produce small hail. Highs are expected to be in the upper 50s.
This cyber attack didn't go after people playing war games on their PlayStations. It targeted a company that helps the U.S. military do the real thing.
There are a number of events happening around the Bay Area today to honor our nation's troops. Here are some of them.
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