The family and friends of retired firefighter Ken Jones implored the city’s Health Service Board this week to persuade Blue Shield to reverse the denial of Jones’s crucial cancer treatment coverage through his city-run health plan, and many others have also been denied.

As Mission Local reports, Ken Jones and other retired firefighters gathered with their families at City Hall this week asking the city’s health board to intervene over Blue Shield’s denial of coverage for numerous members. Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who’s an appointee on the board, said the city switched from United Health Care last year with the impression it would provide better options.

"Today I'm forced to stand here and beg because an insurance company decided that profits matter more than the life of a man who spent his career protecting this city," said Jones’s daughter Rachel Jones at the hearing.

“He ran into burning buildings, inhaled toxic smoke, and put his life on the line again and again, so that others could survive,” Rachel Jones continued.  “Now, when he needs the help the most, the insurance company provided by this city through Blue Shield is denying him the medication his doctors say is necessary to keep him alive.”

Per KGO, Dorsey said the board will investigate the firefighters’ claims. “I don't think that's what this board signed up for when we made the decision on the basis of the RFP process,” said Dorsey, per KGO. “I lost my own mother to lung cancer, and she raised a son who was going to fight, to make sure that people get this care that they're entitled to.”

As NBC Bay Area reports, a fundraiser was set up to cover the treatment that was previously denied for Jones’s stage 4 metastatic lung cancer, which was paused on Wednesday when he was informed Blue Shield had refused to pay. The campaign reached its $50,000 goal over the weekend.

“Firefighters, whether active or retired, should never have to beg for their lives,” said former Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson at the board hearing, who’s also a cancer survivor, per NBC Bay Area. “This is not the first firefighter this has happened to, nor will it be the last if something doesn’t change.”

Per Mission Local, California labor law dictates that cancer diagnoses for firefighters be automatically presumed as tied to their job duties.

As the Chronicle reported last month, the San Francisco Fire Department just became one of the first in the country to make the move toward equipping its staff with gear that’s free of cancer-causing “forever chemicals,” which leach into the body over time — on top of the toxic chemicals firefighters encounter during active fires.

“Our firefighters give this city their best, and we owe them nothing less in return,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said at a press conference last month celebrating the move. Per the Chronicle, over 400 SF firefighters have died from cancer since 2006, according to the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation.

This isn’t the first time the SF Health Service Board has had to step in over Blue Shield’s policies in the short time the company has been the city’s provider. In June, Supervisor Dorsey and SF City Attorney David Chiu prompted the insurer to resolve a dispute with the University of California Health system that threatened access to care for thousands of members, including city and state workers, and an agreement was reached in July.

Image: GoFundMe

Lower Haight record shop Rooky Ricardo’s has survived 38 years under the ownership of Dick Vivian, but Vivian is now battling Stage 3 pancreatic cancer and receiving chemotherapy, and the shop’s only going to be open on weekends for now.

If you’re a vinyl records fan in San Francisco, you are likely aware of the famed vintage collections of albums and 45s at the Lower Haight record store Rooky Riccardo’s. The shop has managed to survive for 38 years (though it’s moved a few times), with its signature throwback vintage toys and posters all over the place, and a beyond-comparison selection of oldies, soul, and R&B vinyl. Rooky Ricardo’s owner Dick Vivian even celebrated his 78th birthday this past Saturday, though it may not have been the happiest of birthdays.

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Because we are learning through a GoFundMe campaign that Dick Vivian has been diagnosed with cancer, or more specifically, learned he had Stage 3 pancreatic cancer in March of this year.

Vivian has reportedly been receiving regular treatment and weekly chemotherapy at UCSF. According to a Monday Instagram post, Rooky Riccardo’s is closed this week, but will be open Saturday and Sunday. It’s currently unclear if that schedule will stay in place for the weeks to come, but it is clear that Vivian is facing some very daunting medical bills.

“If he has ever touched your life,” the GoFundMe says, “insulted your haircut in the funniest and most savagely sweet way possible... given you that most sublime moment of a record at the listening station... Put his personal mixtape in your hands that travelled four cities and six relationships with you through... Sold you (or given!) that record to unpack, fresh home from your commute — it could be the 22 bus to your apartment or it could be back in Melbourne after 24 hours of international travel... Please consider donating to the fund.”

It feels like an anachronism for a vinyl record store to survive this long and be doing brisk business in the Spotify and streaming era. Dick Vivian explained why it still works for his shop in a 2013 GQ interview.

"There was a period there where everybody got rid of their records and took that money and bought CDs," Vivian explained to GQ. "They recreated their collection on CD. Now those same people are coming back, regretting that, and wanting to recreate the library that they once had on vinyl."

Related: SF’s Famed Crème Brûlée Cart Guy Curtis Kimball Has Died From a Heart Condition [SFist]

Image via GoFundMe

Arriving at Ruby Skye last night with 30 minutes to spare in the free hour of sponsored SKYY drinks, your humble SFist editor promptly ordered two vodka sodas. You know — to blend in. This is a clear-liquor crowd and that's how we planned to cope with year two of the Mr. Marina competition, an all-boys beauty pageant where contestants compete to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphona Society and their name on a plaque at Bar None on Union Street. The drinks were tainted. It was raspberry vodka.

"Everyone here just looks like they're trying too hard," my redhead date said with an off-campus smirk. Which is true: entering yourself in a beauty pageant is basically trying as hard as possible. Except she was talking about the people in the crowd: a sea of blow-dried and dyed blondes gazing towards the stage.

That would set the tone for an evening of shirtless men at Ruby Skye — a venue which is not actually in the Marina, but has hosted many fist-bumping bros and Tiësto DJ sets. It's like how the Miss America pageant isn't actually held in America, but in the lawless principality of Las Vegas.

In proper pageant form, the show kicked off with a confessional reality show video: The boys are pedaling through spin class. The boys are talking to the camera. The boys are all practicing dance moves in tank tops. It was all very slick; we're ready to take this thing seriously after last year's contest, which quickly turned into a show of drinking prowess.

To the delight of the crowd, which was around 1,200 strong, the pre-show video erupted into a full-on Magic Mike "It's Raining Men" segment, complete with umbrellas and neon mantanks. Contrary to what the Weather Girls sang, this was not the first time in history that it started raining men.

After the opening number, the swim wear portion saw our panel of nine contestants (one dropped out, apparently) again stripping down to their skivvies. Except for one, who ran with the joke that it's too fucking cold to swim in the Bay, even at Crissy Field, and came out in a full wetsuit. Alex Schmitt, who is apparently allergic to shirts, came out and named each of his six abdominal muscles: Ripped, Sliced, Torn, etc. Jason wore suede loafers from Barney's and a hula-printed smoking jacket.

Ben Hartard, who ran an impressive online fundraising campaign, stuck with the Chippendale theme and hit the stage in a tuxedo speedo, complete with cuffs and bowtie. "I'm Mr. Marina because I wrote a dissertation on spray tanning," Hartard told the crowd. "Every time I enter the room, there are fireworks:" At which point confetti poppers exploded around the stage, leaving streamers hanging from the disco ball chandelier.

Ish Simpson, our favorite to win and the competition's sole non-white dude, clutched a football as he explained: "I'm the only person to ever make it to the bottom of bottomless mimosas." The crowd drank it up, erupting in cheers. The forgettable Peter O'Hara pled his case for the crown because he likes "having a good time and blacking out."

After last year's event, we fully expected to see the nine contestants binge drink their way through the Talent segment of the night. Instead, we got lip-syncing, sax playing and sex dolls. Schmitt returned to the stage with his six best friends to give the audience a rendition of "Pour Some Sugar On Me." Only in the Marina would mouthing the words to Def Leppard while shirtless count as a talent.

David Rust, a spokesman for Lyft's ridesharing service in real life, played an original piano number that reminded us of Tumbleweed Connection-era Elton John, if the king of glam rock had lived on Chestnut Street. Ish gave the crowd a live version of his "99 Marina Problems" video, much to the delight of everyone's white guilt.

John Kennelly did his very best Chris Farley impression, taking shots at the city's noted hipster district and swapping out "van down by the river" for "van down by the Mission." Johnny Affourtit, who owns several different pairs of sunglasses, played to the George Michael and Internet meme fans in the crowd blowing his sax through "Careless Whisper." Peter O'Hara made the questionable choice of doing "Ice Ice Baby" with blow-up dolls passed around as his backup dancers. Hoping to play Eminem to Ish Simpson's Jay-Z, Jason was booed offstage for a ragged version of that song from 8 Mile.

The final segment: a Marina Wear Q&A gave the boys time to put their shirts back on and show some individual flair in the form of colorful socks and pocket squares. Johnny Affourtit set the bar with fuchsia pants and David Rust brought along a 9-iron. Ben Hartard latched on to the Marina zeitgeist with yoga pants, mat, blonde wig and tiny dog, but Ish's tweed jacket and yellow statement pants were the crowd favorite as something one could actually wear in public without looking too ridiculous. How did he look so good? "I subscribe to GQ magazine."

David St. Geme, dressed in a Canadian tuxedo with cutoff jorts, tackled the toughest question of the Q&A segment: "If we were all slowly sinking in the ocean," event hostess Brianna Haag asked, addressing a common fear among folks who live on landfill, "what three things would you bring?" "These shorts," he answered, grasping for worldly possessions, "this shirt and three hot women." Which is actually five things. Hartard in drag told the also-blonde crowd that his perfect date would involve taking a girl someplace classy. "Like Mas Sake." Where proto-bro Don Johnson was once accused of getting all handsy with the waitstaff.

Although Hartard's campaign brought in the most money of the total $91,000 raised for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, it was crowd favorite Ish Simpson who claimed the hardware from last year's winner Chris Clark, the Mr. Marina title and the $300 bar tab at Hi-Fi Lounge on Lombard Street. Backstage, a celebratory bottle of Bulleit was passed around the green room while the crowd filed out, plugging coupon codes into their iPhones and saving $10 on their Uber rides home, back to the Marina or Cow Hollow or Polk Street or wherever.

Now that we are all digital immigrants living in a corporate town called Facebook, this is what neighborly favors look like in the year 2013: A tattoo shop in Ontario wanted to recognize a woman for her bravery and strength in overcoming breast cancer. Posting a photo of her chestpiece on their Facebook wall seemed like an OK way to tell friends about this woman. That is what Facebook is for, after all. Telling friends about interesting things. But Facebook, as tit-shy as it is, removed the photo. So the tattoo shop retaliated in a way they felt was, like, almost as brave and strong as surviving breast cancer: by courageously posting it to Facebook again in defiance.

Anyway, now it's all over the place: it currently has over 140,000 likes and 115,000 shares on Facebook. It's on blogs. It's on bigger blogs. Everybody in town has seen and commented on this lady's chest tattoo, basically. Sorry, Facebook, but Breast Cancer awareness always wins.

Custom Tattoo Designs can mark this one as a social media win as well: the photo came from a book called Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo. That doesn't cheapen the breast cancer message at all, but since we're here let's recognize artist Tina Baforo of Seattle for her work on the tattoo itself.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on Custom Tattoo Design's Facebook wall, concerned mothers weighed in on this photoshopped photo of a baby with tattoos:

"If this is real then the parent should be put in jail"

Last year, the Mr. Marina Competition saw fourteen of the 94123's most unabashed bro-hams waggling their dongs while drinking away any hint of homoeroticism that arises from being a contestant in a male beauty pageant -- a pageant that raised over $80,000 for cancer research. It proved a fascinating spectacle to say the least. In 2013, the competition returns with a fresh class of ten new pledges hoping to one-up their big brothers in this dubious fraternity. These are those gentlemen.

The competition will again consist of three rounds: a swimwear portion, a talent portion and a "Marina-wear" Q&A session. If last year's competition is any indication, "swimwear" will consist of boat shoes and speedos, while talents will mostly be limited to feats of turbo alcoholism. To really add to the bro-factor here, the venue has been upgraded and will now take place Wednesday, March 20th at Ruby Skye. (Which: obviously not in the Marina, but home to many a fist-pumping vodka soda drinker.)

While we wait for tickets to go on sale next Friday, January 18th we feel like this is as good a time as any to familiarize ourselves with the Mr. Marina class of 2013. We couldn't make up these descriptions if we tried:

• Rodney Alexander Decomo Schmitt, or just "Schmitt," because who gives a Schmitt about all those other names? Schmitt claims to have reached puberty at the age of nine and "the only thing Schmitt likes more than Marina Mommies, is the opportunity to rip his shirt off while shot gunning a bud light at Frat Mason." (Ed. Note: Ahem.)

• Long Island native Ben Hartard probably dealt with a lot of a lot name-calling in grade school, but later went on to become a Guinness World Record holder in Badminton — a sport largely preferred by upperclass white people. He enjoys tandem bike rides with his bro along Crissy Field and delivered his high school's Valedictory address in a neon Speedo.

• David "Rusty" Rust is the poster boy for ride sharing service Lyft on Facebook. He enjoys wearing Red Stripe-branded tank tops and wiping the sweat off his brow with his Stanford towel. He also learned to play the piano after visiting Havana at age 14, so he's a worldly fellow.

• David St. Geme writes his bio in the first person: "Oh, hello there. I failed to notice you sitting there staring at me. I'm David. I'm a pretty normal guy, I guess. I graduated from Stanford in 2010 with a degree in Economics, so I guess you could say I know my way around a 1 dollar bill. In my spare time I love to be outdoors and go to the beach. Sometimes I just like to go to exotic islands and soak in the vitamin D. Also, dolphins love me. I also like to make my mark on the athletic field. I mean, I played intramural floor hockey in college, but it's not that big of a deal." Cool story, bro.

• Ismail "Ish" Simpson brings some diversity to the contestant pool (and a touch of class, we might add — look at that pocket square!) and spent his childhood growing up as an army brat before settling in San Francisco-via-Palo Alto. "At Stanford, Ish sharpened his competitive spirit and improved his alcohol tolerance as a member of the Stanford football team." When he's not drinking at the local Marina watering holes, he can be found "making one hand catches over your cheese and fruit spread" at Fort Mason and making friends "from the barbershop to the boardroom."

• Jason Del Grande boasts a San Francisco pedigree not often found in the transplant-ridden Marina District. His italian family owns the celebrated Swan Oyster Depot on Polk Street, his Great Uncle was apparently on the very first 49ers squad in 1946 and his grandfather used to own a grocery store in North Beach before he lost a battle with Leukemia. Jason now lives on a stretch of Fillmore Street where it is apparently very difficult to find parking.

• Johnny Affourtit has "impeccable flow" that allegedly makes women crumble. His "well-rounded" interests include: fist-pumping at Lightning, drinking scotch at Reed & Greenough, dinner at Delarosa and patrolling Union Street surrounded by "a bevy of blonde beauties." He claims he would make a great candidate for Mr. Marina 2013 because he has a lot of likes on Instagram.

• John Kennelly likes to enjoy the two beers at twilight special on the Presidio Golf Course, where he holds two holes-in-one and is two-time defending champ of the "Golf Bros Invitational" competition. He once met Brian Wilson and Pat Burrell at Delarosa on Chestnut Street the day after the 2010 World Series.

• Manton Alexander Paine urges any takers to find a more yuppie name than his. He has an affinity for women in white pants, does not personally own jeans and has summered in Nantucket since he was three years old. Tour buses through the Presidio often stop to point out the epic day parties thrown on his lawn and he eats more meals at Cape Cod-theme taqueria Tacko than at his own home.

• Peter O'Hare spent five years at UC Santa Barbara "because anything less would be leaving a party at 10 p.m." Before moving to the Marina to live on campus, he was popping his collar along Polk Street and searching for boxers and hot chicks at Lululemon. He often works out shirtless to show off his spray tan from Solar Planet and is not afraid to sip fruity drinks and rock stunner shades like Kanye's 2008 Glow in the Dark tour.

So, there you have it. The 2012 winner took home a prize package that included a year's worth of bottomless mimosas at Circa, 10% off Uber Cab rides that end in the Marina, 12 months worth of manly tank tops and more. Tickets for the March 20th event are $25.00 and include a 1-hour open bar of Skyy Vodka and Peroni Beer. Proceeds go to benefit Slap Cancer and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And if you buy a ticket in your favorite contestant's name, you'll be casting a vote for them as the reigning king of the Marina in 2013.

Previously: Nominate Your Favorite/Worst Bro For Mr. Marina 2013
Mr. Marina Competition: Aggressive Alcoholism In The Name Of Charity

Cynthia Rodriguez (AKA "C-Rod") is, according to the Oakland Tribune, athletic and enjoys playing softball, soccer and basketball. She's also only 14-years-old. And her life could be cut short if you don't help. See, C-Rod was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in 2010, and went through painful treatment. "She was doing very well for about 18 months but relapsed in March and now must undergo a bone-marrow transplant." Unfortunately, her immediate family members are not a match. Might you be her life-saving bone-marrow match?

A bone marrow drive for C-Rod will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the first floor of the Fabiola building at Kaiser Permanente located at 280 West MacArthur Blvd. in Oakland. (Look, here's a map!) Bring a friend. Bring three. Have lunch someplace nice afterwards knowing that a) you might have helped save a young girl's life, and b) your chances of getting into heaven (if you believe in such things) are even greater. Anyway, please spread the word. Thank you.

NIMBYs inch closer toward literalism after Rocklin resident James Baker asked the City Council to ban outdoor smoking altogether, even for residents who wish to puff relaxing, cancer-causing cigarettes on their own property. How did Baker get such a carcinogenic bee in his bonnet? Baker told The Placer Herald that his neighbor smokes about 30 feet from his patio door. The secondhand smoke, he claims, is making his asthmatic sons, ages 11 and 16, sick.

"We're just saying, 'please don't poison us,' " Baker said. "Can you smoke inside your home? The reason they don't want to do that is because they don’t want their family breathing it in. But it's okay for your neighbor?" Baker's wife, Kelly, claimed that she can smell the trespassing fumes inside their home, adding, "I'll stand by my pantry and smell smoke ... Even during the winter with every window shut and every door shut (the smoke) comes in. It comes in through the vents, I think.”

Although the Baker family attempted a peaceful resolution by asking smokers to stop, neighbors said they would cut down, while others just blew him off altogether. And with that, Baker asked Rocklin City Council to put into effect a non-smoking ordinance that would comprehensively ban smoking outdoors.

While the City Council reviews his suggestion, which will most likely get snuffed out, people have taken to the interwebs to decry California's alleged nanny state. For example, as NY Daily News pointed out, Tara Dadrill, a political and environmental writer for Yahoo, slammed the proposal as an "infringement on liberty." She went on to rant, "Perhaps a nonsmoking neighborhood should be established in California, right next to the no pets and no scent-inducing foliage regions of the town."

Before he died, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs wanted to world to know that he deeply regretted "wasting time" on alternative medicine while trying to combat his pancreatic cancer. During a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson said:

"We talked about this a lot...He wanted to talk about it, how he regretted it....I think he felt he should have been operated on sooner... He said, 'I didn't want my body to be opened...I didn't want to be violated in that way.'"

Ryan Tate of Gawker goes on to point out that Jobs had a survivable cancer, one that could've been treated with immediate medical attention:

To understand Jobs's prognosis, it is necessary to appreciate the precise type of cancer he had, and the subtype he is believed to have had. First, Jobs's neuroendocrine tumor, also called an islet cell tumor, put him outside the 95 percent of pancreatic cancer victims who have highly fatal adenocarcinoma.

Second, Jobs is believed to have contracted one of the more survivable neuroendocrine tumors. It had several characteristics weighing the initial prognosis favorably, had Jobs acted as doctors recommended:

Watch Isaacson's interview below:

In a move poised to stave off children looking like white trash, Governor Jerry Brown banned kids from using tanning beds. The legislation, singed over the weekend, makes California the first state to adopt such a ban. Doctors, nurses, American Cancer Society, and people with commonsense backed the bill penned by Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance).

"I praise Gov. Brown for his courage in taking this much-needed step to protect some of California's most vulnerable residents - our kids - from what the 'House of Medicine' has conclusively shown is lethally dangerous: ultraviolet-emitting radiation from tanning beds," Lieu said in a prepared statement. "If everyone knew the true dangers of tanning beds, they'd be shocked.

Kids will soon have to wait until they're 14 (teens between 14 and 18 will need parental consent) in order to look like Bristol Palin.

An inspiration for artists like John Waters, among others, local filmmaker George Kuchar died on September 6 following a battle with cancer. The San Francisco Art Institute released the following statement today: "It is with great sadness that the San Francisco Art Institute announces that George Kuchar, a longtime professor and influential figure in experimental and underground filmmaking, died on September 6, 2011 following a battle with cancer."

While not many knew about Kuchar -- we never heard of him until today, to be honest -- many local art students and creative types chimed in on varying forms of social media to express their sadness and appreciation of his work. "Born and raised in the Bronx, Kuchar was a longtime resident of San Francisco and had taught at the San Francisco Art Institute for over forty years," notes Bay Citizen. "He continued to make films of all kinds while at SFAI, embracing the video revolution of the 1980s and often collaborating with students."

For a small sample of his work, check out the ending of Hold Me While I'm Naked" (1966).

Bay City News reports via SF Appeal that San Francisco Giants players Aaron Rowand, Jeremy Affeldt, team president Larry Baer, and Major League Baseball Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda will be bagging groceries at the Safeway at 16th St and Potrero Avenue at Noon today.

The event is part of the annual "Docs and Jocks for Cancer Research Celebrity Bagging" fundraiser for prostate cancer research. A few bigwig doctors will also be doing some bagging.

It's interesting to note that the Potrero Center strip mall where Safeway is located is the site of the old Seals Stadium. Oh, the irony. (Or is it not really ironic, and we just sound like a bad '90s song?)

Remember to bring your own bags!