San Francisco: You Can Run Naked, but Not Drunk

Organizers move to make revelers straighten up in Party Town, USA

(NEWSER) - San Francisco, the “City That Knows How,” is notoriously adept at throwing hedonistic events—but it also knows how to fight to keep them, the Los Angeles Times reports. Protesters are fuming at the organizers of the annual Bay to Breakers footrace, who want to ban nudity and alcohol from the 97-year-old competition. “San Francisco is turning soooooooo PRISSY," sniped one Facebook posting. More»

CDC figures dub Austin nation's drinking capital

(NEWSER) - Famous for its arts festivals and home to a large college population, Austin, Texas, takes top honors as America’s hardest-drinking city, reports Forbes in its distillation of behavioral data from the CDC. Here are the top 5:

1. Austin—1 in 5 admit to binge drinking, and 9% of men have two drinks a day.

... and says the spirit of Harvey Milk responded

(NEWSER) - This probably falls under the only-in-San-Francisco department: A city supervisor says he consulted a Ouija board before voting on a measure to honor slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk , reports the San Francisco Chronicle . What's more, John Avalos swears Milk responded and guided him through the message, "Good Riddance DADT," as in Don't Ask, Don't Tell. More»

Most jump in a little too quickly, say experts

(AP) - Swept by the barefoot running craze, ultramarathoner Ryan Carter ditched his sneakers for footwear that mimics the experience of striding unshod. Within three weeks of switching over, he was clocking six miles on the road. During a training run with a friend, Carter suddenly stopped, unable to take another step. His right foot seared in pain. "It was as though someone had taken a hammer and hit me with it," he recalled. The diagnosis: a stress fracture. More»

She says she was blinded by glare when she hit pedestrians

(NEWSER) - A San Francisco driver blamed the moon moving in front of the sun for preventing her from spotting the pedestrians moving in front of her vehicle. The 26-year-old woman told cops that she had looked at the "ring of fire" annular eclipse and had been temporarily blinded by its glare before running into a mother and daughter crossing the street, reports the San Francisco Chronicle . The 10-year-old girl suffered a broken arm, while her mother received bumps and bruises. The driver has not been arrested or ticketed, but the eclipse excuse "probably won’t fly," says a police spokesman. More»