As a New Yorker, do you need to get a pipe repaired? If you are a fictional character, you can ask the brothers Mario and Luigi for help! The family business is family owned The Super Mario Bros. plumbing service has officially launched its websitecomplete with testimonials, service area and even job offers.

… Okay, this is actually just an elaborate, if charming, marketing plan for the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie, which recreates Mario and Luigi as Brooklyn plumbers before whisking them away to the Mushroom Kingdom. It's full of fun touches like a “Book Now” button that takes you to Fandango or a live chat feature with a surprising range of options. The aesthetic is a strange mix of retro simplicity and modern minimalism that seems odd, but the actual text and layout are pretty fun.

A small excerpt of the website It also details where the plumber's van will be seen in real life in the US. Over the next month, the van will visit New York, Austin, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Visit the van in person if you feel like it!

The Super Mario Bros. movie will be released on April 5th.

Written by Amelia Fruzzetti

An author and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When she's not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering when Mother 3 will finally get an official localization.

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Dave Chappelle asked the crowd at his comedy show to “make some noise for the world’s richest man.”

They did. Lots of booing.

It was a rather uncomfortable appearance for Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, at Chappelle’s show with Chris Rock on Sunday night at the Chase Center in San Francisco. At the end of the show, Chappelle was talking about the need to get along and communicate with people with different viewpoints and perspectives.

He invited Musk onstage. The billionaire obliged, wearing an “I Love Twitter” T-shirt. Loud boos filled the arena – along with some cheers, too.

Chappelle joked to Musk: “Sounds like some of those people you fired.” As the boos continued to ring out, the comic pointed out that “All you people are booing, and I’m just pointing out the obvious — are in terrible seats.”

Twitter is going through massive changes since Musk took over the social media platform, with the first few weeks of tenure seeing widespread layoffs and the restoration of several blocked accounts, including those of former president Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The other performers from the night, including Rock, Donnell Rawlings from “Chappelle’s Show” and the hip hop group Black Star, came up on stage to say goodnight, while Musk also stayed on stage. Chappelle asked Musk to repeat Rawlings’ catch phrase from their classic show – “I’m rich b—-” Rawlings went first, and then Musk complied.

That’s when Chappelle asked the crowd not to boo Musk as he needs him to open up the first comedy club on Mars. He also asked Musk if he could help Black Star’s Talib Kweli, who Chappelle said had been banned from Twitter.

Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, responded by saying: “Twitter customer service here.”

He stayed onstage and shook hands with many of the performers. Attendees had been required to lock up their phones during the show, but a few videos of the encounter made their way online.

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San Francisco is a foodie heaven with plenty of Michelin-starred restaurants. And San Franciscans love dogs. So it might come as no surprise that an entrepreneur has decided to combine the two passions, creating what’s believed to be the first restaurant exclusively for man’s best friend.

Dogue, which rhymes with vogue, opened last month in the city’s trendy Mission District.

For $75 dollars per pup, doggie diners get a multiple-course “bone appetite” meal featuring dishes like chicken skin waffles and filet mignon steak tartare with quail egg.

It also includes a mimosa and a baked treat for the pup’s human.

Rahmi Massarweh, a dog owner and classically trained chef, decided to leave his stressful job running a fine dining restaurant to focus on his new canine cafe.

Some critics have expressed online outrage over the price point for the pampered pets, pointing out income inequality, gentrification and homelessness in the city. For the cost of the tasting menu, you could buy at least five big burritos at one of the many nearby taquerias in the Mission neighborhood.

But Massarweh says that since opening a month ago, he’s received overwhelming support from his customers who appreciate having a place to pamper their pups.

On a recent Sunday, Dogue hosted three fur baby birthday parties simultaneously.

“I wanted to celebrate him. He is so special to me. He’s my four-legged child and this is the perfect place to do a really nice celebration,” Gledy Espinoza said, as her 11-year-old miniature dachshund Mason enjoyed a bowl of mushroom soup with slices of chicken breast. “We’re foodies. I guess he’s too, now.”

Massarweh spends hours cooking and prepping for his service and says a similar menu for people could cost up to $500 in the expensive city and the ingredients he uses are not cheap. Everything is human-grade, although if you took a bite, you’d probably find the doggie dishes to be a bit bland for the human palate.

“When we make our food, it is a process. It is very time consuming. There is a lot of technique. There’s a lot of method and detail to what we do,” he said. “Our pastries, for example, take about two days on average to make. I know they’re going to be eaten in two seconds.”

Massarweh said the real goal of Dogue is to raise awareness about feeding your dog fresh, healthy, natural ingredients which some research shows can be easier on your pup’s stomach than mass-produced dog food and make dog parents happy.

“I’ve worked in restaurants for many years, and it’s rare when as a chef, I walk into the dining room to touch tables and every single guest has a smile on their face,” Massarweh said. “There’s something very unique and satisfying about that.”

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What takes four years to make and costs more than $20,000? A trash can in San Francisco.

That costly, boxy bin is among six trash cans hitting San Francisco’s streets this summer in the city’s long saga in search of the perfect can. Overflowing trash cans are a common sight in the Northern California city, along with piles of used clothes, shoes, furniture, and other items strewn about on sometimes-impassable sidewalks.

City officials hired a Bay Area industrial firm to custom-design the pricey trash can along with two other prototypes that cost taxpayers $19,000 and $11,000 each. This summer, residents have the opportunity to evaluate them along with three off-the-shelf options added to the pilot program after officials faced criticism.

Last month, the city deployed 15 custom-made trash cans and 11 off-the-shelf trash cans — each of those costing from $630 to $2,800 — with QR codes affixed to them asking residents to fill out a survey. City officials said they intend to pay no more than $3,000 per can.

San Francisco began its search for the perfect trash can in 2018 when officials decided it was time to replace the more than 3,000 public bins that have been on the streets for almost 20 years.

Officials say the current bins have too big a hole that allows for easy rummaging. The bins also have hinges that need constant repair and locks that are easy to breach. Some people also topple them over, cover them in graffiti, or set them on fire.

The city is so serious about the endeavor it has created interactive maps so residents can track and test the different designs, which include the Soft Square, the priciest prototype at $20,900. The boxy stainless steel receptacle has openings for trash and for can and bottle recycling and includes a foot pedal. The Slim Silhouette, at $18,800 per prototype, is made of stainless steel bars that would give graffiti artists less space to tag.

If one of the custom-designed bins is chosen, the cost to mass produce it will be $2,000 to $3,000 per piece, said Beth Rubenstein, a spokeswoman for San Francisco’s Department of Public Works.

“We live in a beautiful city, and we want (the trash can) to be functional and cost-effective, but it needs to be beautiful,” she said.

But the good looks of the shiny new trash cans have not protected them from vandalism and disrespect. Three weeks after being unveiled, several have already been tagged with orange and white graffiti. Others already show the drip stains of inconsiderate coffee drinkers or have attracted dumping, with people leaving dilapidated bathroom cabinets and plastic bags full of empty wine bottles next to them.

Trash on San Francisco city streets has been an issue for decades. In 2007, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom eliminated about 1,500 of the city’s 4,500 trash cans because he said they were not helping keep streets clean and were becoming magnets for more trash. Officials couldn’t say how many receptacles are currently on the curb, but the city plans to replace at least 3,000.

“A trash can is one of the most basic functions of city governance and if the city can’t do something as simple as this, how can they solve the bigger issues of homelessness and safety and poverty?” asked Matt Haney, a former supervisor who lives in the Tenderloin neighborhood and now represents the area in the California Assembly.

New trash cans will be the latest addition to the city’s arsenal against its dirty streets. In 2014, San Francisco launched its “Pit Stop” program in the Tenderloin neighborhood, the epicenter of drug dealing and homelessness in the city, setting up portable public toilets. In 2018, the city created a six-person “poop patrol” team amid demand to power wash sidewalks.

Haney said that as a supervisor he reluctantly agreed last year to approve the pilot program despite the high prices to avoid delays.

“I think most people, including me, would say just replace the damn cans with cans that we know work in other cities, just do it,” he said.

Haney said the “whole trash can saga has this stench of corruption,” referring to disgraced former Department of Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, who pleaded guilty in January to federal wire fraud charges. Nuru awarded the contract to maintain San Francisco’s trash cans to a company owned by a relative of a developer who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is cooperating with federal authorities in the case against Nuru.

On top of the corruption, the city has long been the butt of jokes for how long it takes to complete public works projects of all kinds.

A bus rapid transit system along Van Ness Avenue, one of the city’s main arteries, finally opened this year after 27 years of construction. A new subway line connecting Chinatown with other areas of the city that started construction in 2010 is four years behind schedule. In 2017, the city completed the Transbay Transit Center only a year late, but the $2 billion terminal abruptly shut down six weeks later after crews discovered two cracked steel girders.

Ultimately, what trash can the city gets will depend on feedback from sanitation employees, and the surveys completed by the end of September, Rubenstein said. The new cans are not expected on the streets until the end of 2023.

Diane Torkelson, who often picks up trash in her Inner Richmond neighborhood with other volunteers, recently trekked 5 miles (8 kilometers) with a dozen other civic-minded San Franciscans to examine three of the cans.

The two prototypes were already full when the group arrived to check them out, she said.

“If the trash can is full, it’s of no use, no matter how well it was designed,” she said.

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SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco parents and other residents frustrated by the city’s scandal-plagued Board of Education will get a chance to recall three of its members.

City officials announced Monday that a special municipal election will be held on Feb. 15 after an effort to recall the board members gained enough signatures to put it on the ballot. The board has seven members.

Voters will decide the fate of Board President Gabriela Lopez, Vice President Faauuga Moliga, and Commissioner Alison Collins.

Pandemic Handling Fuels Recall Effort

The recall effort stemmed from anger and frustration at how the school board handled the pandemic. Most of San Francisco’s 115 public schools were kept closed for much of the last year, even as nearby districts eventually reopened classrooms and private schools across the city held in-person classes.

The San Francisco school board drew national attention for a variety of self-inflicted controversies, including an effort to rename 44 schools that was part of a racial reckoning that critics said went too far.

The renaming effort was criticized for historical inaccuracies and shoddy research as well as being a waste of time, when the city’s 57,000 K-12 students were struggling with distance learning and the focus should have been on getting classrooms open. The plan was ultimately scrapped.

End of Merit-Based Admissions Criticized

The board also faced criticism for a decision to end merit-based admissions to San Francisco’s top public high school, Lowell, and use the same lottery-based system that admits students to other high schools.

After the renaming debacle, the board faced multiple lawsuits, including one from the city of San Francisco which took the dramatic step of suing the school district and the board to pressure both to reopen classrooms more quickly.

Collins came under fire in March for tweets she wrote in 2016 that were widely criticized as racist. In the tweets, Collins, who is Black, said Asian Americans used “white supremacist” thinking to get ahead and were racist toward Black students.

Collins said the tweets were taken out of context and posted before she held her school board position. She refused to take them down or apologize for the wording and ignored calls from parents and public officials, including Mayor London Breed, for her resignation.

Mayor Would Appoint Interim Replacements

If any of the three board members are recalled, Breed would appoint their interim replacements.

Critics say the recall effort is a waste of time and money, as the district faces a number of challenges including a $116 million shortfall next year and the need to replace retiring Superintendent Vince Matthews.

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How badly is the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office spiraling out of control under DA Chesa Boudin?

NBCBayArea.com reports that at least 51 lawyers have resigned or been fired since Boudin took office in January 2020. That’s about one-third of the department’s attorneys.

San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin

“Chesa has a radical approach that involves not charging crime in the first place and simply releasing individuals with no rehabilitation and putting them in positions where they are simply more likely to re-offend,” said one prosecutor who resigned, Brooke Jenkins

“Being an African-American and Latino woman, I would wholeheartedly agree that the criminal justice system needs a lot of work, but when you are a district attorney, your job is to have balance.”

“Being an African-American and Latino woman, I would wholeheartedly agree that the criminal justice system needs a lot of work, but when you are a district attorney, your job is to have balance.”

Judge Criticizes DA’s Office

In September, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Bruce Chan criticized Boudin’s office from the bench for “constant turnover” and neglecting “the fundamentals of competent, professional prosecution.”

Organizers hoping to recall San Francisco’s district attorney submitted more than 83,000 signatures to election officials on Friday.

A spokesman for the DA said that “District Attorney Boudin has made it his priority to promote public safety for the people of San Francisco.” Boudin previously was San Francisco’s public defender.

Read more at this link.

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