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Kevin Fagan

Environmentalists seek ban on mining near Yosemite

Last updated Monday, May 28, 2012 - 7:31am

The specter of giant gold-mining rigs chewing into the slopes of the Sierra and spewing toxins into Yosemite National Park has an environmental group fanning out across California collecting petitions to ban mining within 10 miles of the park.

Environmental groups, Mining, Yosemite National Park, National Read more Comments

The Sockeye, a United States Coast Guard vessel backs away from Yerba Buena Island after refueling and heads back out to sea to search for four people missing off the Farallon Islands on Sunday, April 15, 2012, in San Francisco, Calif. One person died and four others remain missing after a 38-foot yacht ran aground while racing near the Farallon Islands on Saturday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard said. Two people were rescued from the rocks and a third from the water after the sailboat Low Speed Chase wrecked about 3 p.m. while competing in the Full Crew Farallons Race, a 58-nautical-mile contest starting and ending at St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Chris Hanzlik said. The race circles the Farallon Islands, a rocky, uninhabited set of islands 27 miles outside the Golden Gate. (AP Photo/The Contra Costa Times, Susan Tripp Pollard)

Lost sailors were adventurous, experienced

Carolyn Jones, Henry Schulman, Kevin Fagan San Francisco Chronicle

Last updated Tuesday, April 17, 2012 - 2:21pm

SAN FRANCISCO -- The crew of the Low Speed Chase was a relaxed but adventurous cadre of expert sailors who were fixtures on the Marin County waterfront, friends and family say.

For five of them, the toughest race in local yachting circles -- the Full Crew Farallones Race, held annually since 1907 -- was their last. A towering wave washed them overboard Saturday afternoon as their boat rounded the islands, and rescue efforts by three crew members who survived the disaster were dashed by another wall of water that wrecked the sailboat.

Outdoors, Sailing, Coast Guard, Outdoor Recreation, Pacific Ocean, Sports, Yachting accident Read more Comments

School shootings, violence actually on decline in U.S.

Kevin Fagan, Will Kane San Francisco Chronicle

Last updated Thursday, April 5, 2012 - 3:31pm

SAN FRANCISCO -- Seven shot dead at an Oakland college this week. A private school headmistress gunned down last month in Florida by a teacher she fired, who then kills himself. Three Ohio teens killed by another high school student in February.

Judging by the media attention lavished on the recent shooting rampage that left seven dead in Oakland, Calif., and other attacks over the past several years, it would seem America is embroiled in an ever-increasing chaos of school shootings. But statistics show it is not.

Education, Schools, Crime, School safety, School shootings, School violence, National Read more Comments