Smoke billowed from the attic of a three-story apartment complex yesterday afternoon for more than 90 minutes as firefighters worked to extinguish the four-alarm blaze along Haight and Fillmore streets. No people or pets were injured that we know of, but the damage is extensive.

Check out the scene:

Visualinguist via Flickr

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Denizen415, used with permission

Don't take it outside, boys...

​The definitions of both "sports bar" and "bar fight" are malleable, it would seem. In a good way.

Last night marked another edition of Tuesday Night Fights put on by the San Francisco Boxing Union. Patrons of Roccapulco Supper Club ate, drank, and made merry -- this is normal -- while watching amateur fighters unload on one another an arm's length away -- not normal.

Perhaps the ultimate compliment to the night's entertainment was paid by an enthusiastic viewer upon leaving the establishment: "There weren't no goddamn dogshit fights of the bunch!" And this is true. Grammar aside, there weren't no goddamn dogshit fights of the bunch.

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San Francisco commuters survived another nightmarish evening on BART. Last night, passengers were booted from BART stations amid protesters' chaos that interrupted service for more than an hour.

Civic Center, Powell, and Montgomery Street stations were all closed after protesters stormed them. We gave you the blow-by-blow with SF Weekly reporter Caroline Chen at the scene last night. But for those of you who were informed enough to plan for alternative routes home, here is what you missed.

Michael Short

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Joseph Schell

​Sporting crowds make lots of different noises: cheers, boos -- in Europe they sing. But, every once in a while, a crowd makes that most distinctive of sounds -- the collective reaction of people who've witnessed something that impressed them but they wish they hadn't seen. The "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" More >>

We warned readers on Friday that San Francisco wasn't allowed to light fireworks -- or blow anything up for that matter. And there's good reason for that. we saw what happened over in the East Bay where fireworks were responsible for a house fire and an accident where one man severed his finger off while having a little too much fun on the Fourth.

But San Francisco managed to celebrate America's Independence without blowing off any limbs-- that we know of.

Here is a quick glance at what we saw on on the Fourth of July.

Joseph Schell

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Playing hardball

​Barry Bonds is making an appearance in San Francisco court today to request that if prosecutors plan to retry him, they do it quickly.

The former Giants superstar was found guilty of obstruction of justice in April, yet the jury was deadlocked on three perjury counts, which led Judge Susan Illston to declare a mistrial.

Bonds' lawyers say that the U.S. Speedy Trial Act means Bonds has the right to know today whether he will be retried on the three perjury counts.

"If the government is to retry Mr. Bonds, it must do so within the  time provided by the act," defense attorney Dennis Riordan wrote.

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Unsafe with any (amount of)speed

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San Francisco police think a brawl outside a SoMa nightclub early Sunday might be the reason why a stabbing victim staggered into an Oakland hospital shortly thereafter.

While there are plenty ills in Oakland that could be explained away thanks to San Francisco nightlife violence, police probably have a good reason to think the 30-person brawl outside of 1015 Folsom at 3:30 a.m. has something to do with the as-yet unidentified 26-year old who underwent surgery at Highland Hospital in the East Bay city, according to Bay City News. More >>

Joe Eskenazi

Green Party state co-chair Barry Hermanson brought his own beer -- literally

​Members of San Francisco's Green Party refused to exude the blues last night in the farewell bash for the party headquarters they can no longer afford to keep, dousing the place in one last coating of spilled soda, beer, and plenty of top-notch hard stuff. State Party co-chair Barry Hermanson even wandered the room with large bottles of his home-brewed ale and a pocketful of sample cups he foisted upon one and all. Here, at last, was a politician who truly served the people.

As anticipated, the mood was bittersweet. It's certainly not a thrilling realization that a matter of a $1,200 monthly office is an untenable drain on party coffers: "It'd be nice if we needed a bigger space because so many people were active in politics," admitted Paul Platt, a member of the party's county council. But, on the other hand, nobody was crying into their absinthe one room over as a DJ gyrated to the beats.

As the music temporarily faded, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi -- the party's most prominent local member -- urged his contemporaries to keep on keepin' on.  

Joe Eskenazi

Lots of nice folks with dreadlocks for a political event, yes

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Our guide in the spookiest room in City Hall-- the Board of Supervisors main chamber!

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 Attendees knew they were in for a hair-raising time when they were handed a scrap of paper with a long list of illnesses that might be exacerbated by the walk. Listed alongside maladies like angina and colic were pre- and post- menstrual syndrome. "But aren't all women either pre- or post-menstrual?" My friend shrewdly pointed out. We decided to take the risk.

City Hall, it turns out, is built on the site of an old cemetery. During its construction, the bones were disinterred and transported to Colma. All of this was done somewhat unceremoniously, according to our guide, as bones are unearthed whenever new construction projects are initiated in the area. In addition to the owners of the shafted bones, it was speculated that the ghosts of persons killed within the building also roamed the marble corridors.
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Jim Herd

There is grandeur in this view of life...

​Text by Joe Eskenazi. Gorgeous photos by Jim Herd.

In the many months between when we first reported the inception of the San Francisco-based United Football League up to the moment we wandered into a largely abandoned AT&T Park for the Saturday night home debut of the California Redwoods, we never did figure out the league's "mission statement." The UFL, it reads, "was developed to fulfill the unmet needs of football fans in major markets currently underserved by professional football."

Within a speedy 15-minute drive of AT&T Park sits not one but two professional football stadiums -- and large portions of Saturday's crowd came outfitted in the gear of both professional squads. And yet, you can't shrug off the unforeseen benefits of locating a team in San Francisco. Within moments of the Redwoods' historic opening kickoff, a pair of breathtakingly gorgeous young women loudly and abruptly ended their romantic relationship an arm's length from your humble narrator; one lithely sprinted up the aisle to parts unknown, her mascara running awkwardly down her cheeks. The other gritted her teeth, sunk low into her green plastic chair, and forlornly began to bang out text messages.

Show me another football venue in the nation that can provide that.

We're going to go fairly lightly on the game details of Saturday's contest in this article: If you cared to know, you'd have probably been there. God knows there was room for you, and this was not a hard ticket to obtain. Half an hour prior to the game scalpers were offering us the best seats in the house for 15 bucks -- 10 dollars below face value.

Jim Herd

Down in front!

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