• Merih Fssha Solomon, 47, of Walnut Creek was arrested in connection with the crash that killed a two-year-old and injured her mother in SF’s Mission Bay earlier this month. Solomon was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, red light violation, and failure to yield to pedestrians. [NBC Bay Area]
• The family of Sean Monterrosa of San Francisco received a multi-million dollar settlement from the city of Vallejo over the killing of  Monterrosa by a police officer in 2020, who said he mistook the hammer in Monterrosa’s pocket for a gun. [KRON4]
• The San Francisco Zoo announced it’s eliminating a “small number of positions” amid financial challenges following a scandalous 2024 report that revealed leadership struggles and concerns surrounding animal welfare and employee safety. [Chronicle]

National:

• Thousands were told to evacuate immediately and hundreds were rescued amid severe flash-flooding on Hawaii’s Oahu Island, as a local dam is on the verge of collapsing. [CNN]
• The FDA announced the recall of almost 90,000 bottles of children's liquid ibuprofen made by Strides Pharma for Taro Pharmaceuticals, with the product number D-0390-2026, after the company received complaints they contained "a gel-like mass and black particles." [Associated Press]
• CBS News is shutting down its radio division in May after 100 years in business, and all jobs in the department will be eliminated. [CBS]

Video of the Day:

As thousands prepare to descend upon Union Square for Tulip Day Saturday — early, we suggest, check out this cool video of crews setting up the spectacular installation this week.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

This week: Too Short’s ‘Blow the Whistle’ at 20, local Black figures through history, cheap eats in the Sunset, the library’s small business resources, and Sports Basement comedy club; plus: walking the Bay Bridge, descending the Hawk Hill stairs, and exploring Black history through music.

Behind the racks

San Francisco’s Comedy “Run” Club has turned a tucked-away corner of Sports Basement Presidio into a monthly hotspot for laughs. Every second Saturday, the space transforms into an intimate speakeasy with touring comedians, free pizza, drinks, and a crowd with the penchant for the unique.

Every attendee earns perks like a Sports Basement discount and honorary membership in the non-running “run” club. The secret door can be found behind the running shoes. — Justina Vanessa/Instagram

Blow the whistle

Twenty years on, Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle” still turns Oakland streets, block parties, and clubs into instant dance floors. Recorded in Atlanta and Miami with Lil Jon, the track never cracked the Hot 100 but cemented itself as a Bay Area anthem, its hyphy energy spreading through local culture and sports arenas alike.

The original video shoot at Mingles Martini & Champagne Lounge near Jack London Square captured the city’s intensity, from street-side chaos to crowded dance floors, and introduced viewers to figures like the Turf Feinz, who later appeared in Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl performance. Two decades later, the song’s claps, whistles, and warnings remain woven into the city’s soundtrack, from local nights out to national stages. — KQED

Currents of the Black Pacific

At the Museum of Sonoma County, the exhibition, Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific, curated by Caroline Collins, widens the lens on Black history, tracing lives shaped by ocean crossings, wartime shipyards, and coastal labor. The exhibit moves from the story of Diego, an African guide who landed on California’s coast with Sir Francis Drake in 1579, to Black whalers, fishermen, and World War II workers who helped build communities from Richmond to Santa Rosa.

Photographs, maritime tools, and a video interview with Pearl Harbor survivor Jesse Love anchor the show in lived experience, while recent programming has brought Sonoma County writers into conversation with that legacy. The exhibition runs March 22, Wednesdays through Sundays, in Santa Rosa. — The Press Democrat

Fourth floor futures

Up on the fourth floor of the San Francisco Public Library’s Main branch, there’s a corner devoted to people planning out their livelihoods. The library’s Small Business Center offers one-on-one guidance, databases, and workshops that walk would-be founders through permits, city codes, marketing plans, and the maze of local regulations that can stall a good idea before it leaves the notebook.

Some familiar neighborhood names — from Green Apple Books to Gravel & Gold — have tapped into the center’s support along the way. For anyone quietly plotting a career pivot, the help is free, public, and waiting upstairs at the Main Library. — Taylesofthecity/Instagram

Basslines of memory

Inside the Victorian rooms of San Francisco’s Community Music Center, composer and bassist Marcus Shelby creates suites that move through Black history as deliberately as a walking bass line. His projects have traced the 1944 Port Chicago explosion, Harriet Tubman’s journeys, the Negro Baseball Leagues, and meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., blending blues and swing with archival research and lived testimony.

Shelby, who once studied engineering before committing fully to music, now leads big bands, serves as artistic director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, and mentors young musicians in the Mission. For him, composition is both scholarship and inheritance — a way to pass history forward, one low note at a time. — NBC Bay Area

Sunset bites

A tiny counter on Taraval Street is quietly feeding the Sunset. Little Aloha serves a handful of Hawaii-inspired dishes, from spam musubi to loco moco, priced so students and families can grab a hot lunch without emptying their wallets.

The co-owners, all San Franciscans, bring flavors discovered on trips to Maui and Oahu, balancing authenticity with simplicity in a compact menu. The $6 weekday special has made the spot a steady stop for high school crowds, with pineapple sausage leading the charge. — SFGate

Tower walk

The Bay Bridge pedestrian path runs for two miles, fully separated from traffic and lined with benches. The towers are massive, and cars move quickly below, making it very loud — great for stress-screaming or singing loudly off-key.

From the path, walkers can see expansive views of the Bay and the remnants of the old bridge. The walkway is high above the water but considered safe, offering a clear, elevated perspective of the city and surrounding waterways. — Baywiddit/Instagram

Stairway to the bay

Once you’ve finished the Bay Bridge walk, head to the Hawk Hill stairs that descend toward the Pacific Ocean, offering panoramic views of the Golden Gate, San Francisco, and the Marin Headlands along the way. The path is spacious, with plenty of benches, and separate from any traffic, though the roar of cars above is constant.

The towers rise high around you, and you can spot remnants of the old bridge as you descend. Visitors can walk the stairs, linger on the landings, or hike the surrounding trails, making it a clear spot for sunset views. — Wandering Creator, Meghana/Instagram

Image: Sonoma County Museum

Previously: Field Notes: BART Poetry, Revolutionary Black Panther Art, and from Rural Alaska to the Super Bowl

53-year-old UK Special Forces veteran Tim Crockett and his 18-year-old son Harrison just spent the last 48 days on a 24-foot rowboat rowing all the way from SF to Hilo, Hawaii, and they’re the first father-and-son team to ever accomplish this.

There are celebrations going in Hilo, Hawaii on Monday, though the two people with the most to celebrate are probably asleep in bed, and not getting up anytime soon. Those two people are the father-and-son rowing team of 53-year-old Tim Crockett and his 18-year-old son Harrison, as the Chronicle reports the two of them successfully rowed 2,400 nautical miles from San Francisco to Hawaii. The two departed from the San Francisco Bay on June 3 (they actually left from Sausalito), and almost 48 days later, they arrived on the Big Island of Hawaii late Sunday night.

“After 47 days, 14 hours and 53 minutes at sea - Tim and Harrison successfully made land in Hilo, Hawaii yesterday evening!” their sponsor said in a Monday Facebook post. “And their big smiles whilst they tucked into their first proper meal in nearly seven weeks, is the kind of wholesome content we needed to see!”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tim Crockett (@tamethekraken)

Those sponsors announced in a Sunday night Instagram post that “Harrison is the YOUNGEST person on the planet to have rowed the mid-Pacific [route] and these are the first father and son pairs team to ever do this.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tim Crockett (@tamethekraken)

Yes, their boat is called The Kraken, and the duo's epic journey was part of a campaign called Tame the Kraken. They’re launching a program to raise funds for veterans with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries that will be known as “Row to Recovery.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tim Crockett (@tamethekraken)

Here we see the kind of food you’re stuck eating when you spend 48 days out in the Pacific Ocean. It seems they made the best of that, but for those 48 days at sea, the two had to alternate 12-hour rowing shifts, endured blisters and salt sores galore, had to make boat repairs on the fly, and of course, deal with the physical threats of massive waves, sharks, and whales.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tim Crockett (@tamethekraken)

The record-setting nature of the Crocketts’ trip still has to be verified by the Ocean Rowing Society. But for now, Tim and Harrison Crockett are back on dry land, and probably won’t be doing any more boating for a while.

Related: Transit Nut Rides From SF to LA Only on Public Transportation, It Costs Him Just $61 (But Takes Two Whole Days) [SFist]

Image: Tame the Kraken via Facebook

In the aftermath of the horrific wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui, we're beginning to understand the immense devastation on Maui island. Search and rescue teams have found a staggering 93 victims, and the number is expected to rise.

First responders combed through the wreckage this weekend to find victims and survivors to try to bring closure to families affected by the disaster, as the Chronicle reported. They’ve found 93 victims so far, the highest death toll from a wildfire in more than a century, per AP News.

With only a mere two victims out of the confirmed 93 identified to this point, officials are reportedly asking for DNA to help with identification, as the fire's intensity melted metal and left only fragments of remains to be recovered.

They’re also bracing for an inevitable rise in the grim count. Canine search teams have only been able to get through about 3% of the disaster zone, according to the NY Times.

“It will certainly be the worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced,” Hawaii Governor Josh Green said, as AP reported. “We can only wait and support those who are living. Our focus now is to reunite people when we can and get them housing and get them health care, and then turn to rebuilding.”

Up to 4,500 people have reportedly been displaced and are in need of shelter. More than 2,200 buildings were also damaged or destroyed, and across the island, the cost of the devastation was estimated at close to $6 billion. And firefighters are still dealing with flare-ups across the island, county officials said on Facebook.

Still, amid the recovery efforts, the Chronicle reported that a glaring issue remains: the lack of effective communication from Hawaiian officials during the wildfires. The 80 warning sirens scattered around Maui reportedly never went off, as none of them were activated by county authorities or the state’s emergency management agencies in response to the advancing fires.

Hawaii's Attorney General, Anne Lopez, has pledged to oversee an exhaustive evaluation of the decision-making process, according to the Chronicle. Lopez said in a statement on Friday, "My Department is committed to understanding the decisions that were made before and during the wildfires and to sharing with the public the results of this review."

As Maui grapples with the aftermath of this devastating wildfire, a community mourns its losses and demands answers.

Image via Hawaii Governor Josh Green on Facebook.

A couple featured on KTVU Wednesday frantically trying to get back to their home in Lahaina did make it home, only to find the place in charred ruins, and that their two dogs and a cat perished inside the house.

As the death toll from the Hawaiian wildfires has tragically climbed to 36 victims, we’re getting a sense of the sheer destruction on the island of Maui. A CNN report notes that thousands have been evacuated, with their homes utterly destroyed.

“My colleagues, friends, family – we’re all homeless,” Dustin Kaleiopu, resident of the small town of Lahaina, told CNN. “We’re hoping that the death toll does not rise too much higher.”

Two other residents of Lahaina were featured in a Wednesday KTVU report seen above. Kimo Kirkman and Steff Baku-Kirkman were cutting their trip to the Bay Area short, and were seen at Oakland airport frantically trying to get home, to see if they still had a home. But a follow-up report on KTVU found their worst fears were confirmed: The Kirkmans’s home was completely destroyed and they lost everything. Their two dogs also perished in the fire, as tracking devices confirmed dogs were unable to get out of the house.

"We just hope and pray the smoke inhalation got them and they just went to sleep, they didn't suffer," Steff Baku-Kirkman told KTVU. "It was just numbing to the heart and to the mind. But I know people who have lost more. We have two cars, two suitcases and our lives."

The couple's two children were both away from the house when the fire came through.

There’s a GoFundMe campaign for the Kirkmans which describes the thorough damage to their home and property. “Their sole possessions are the 2 suitcases they traveled back with and 2 automobiles that [were] miraculously unscathed.” The GoFundMe has photos of the two dogs as well as a cat whose lives were lost in the fire. (The Kirkmans had been visiting the Bay Area because they had planned to move to Castro Valley, though obviously, their lives are now up in the air.)

If you’re concerned about the safety of a loved one on Maui or any of the other fire-affected islands, you can call the Red Cross at 1-800 RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767), select Option 4, and follow the voice prompts for "Hawaii Wildfires."

Related: Hawaii Wildfires Have Killed 6, Burned More Than 1,000 Acres, Forcing Mass Evacuations [SFist]

Image: A pahoehoe flow causes the Wahaula Visitor Center in Hawaii to burn. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Top image: Photo by Kaleikaumaka Dodd. Dodd is among the victims of the fire's devastation in Lahaina, and he's seeking help on GoFundMe.

Apocalyptic scenes from Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii, as the islands have suddenly been consumed in flames as hurricane-force winds spread brush fires, and people were driven to jump into the ocean to escape the overwhelming smoke and flames.

A state of disaster has been declared, and the Hawaii National Guard is evacuating as many people as they can, as massive wildfires in Hawaii have consumed more than 1,000 acres on Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii, according to the Washington Post. A combination of dry conditions and hurricane-force winds from Hurricane Dora have led the fires to spread quickly. Downed and destroyed power lines have left a reported 15,0000 Hawaiians without power, and schools have been suddenly transformed into evacuation centers.

“It’s definitely one of the more challenging days for our island given that it’s multiple fires, multiple evacuations in the different district areas,” County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin told the Associated Press Tuesday night.

According to the Chronicle, flames have consumed more than 1,000 acres in the North Kohala, South Kohala, Kula and Lahaina areas. And in the historic city of Lahaina on the Maui Island, the Coast Guard says they had to rescue 12 people who were chased into the water because of the overwhelming blazes and smoke on land.

Also, on Wednesday, authorities confirmed there had been at least six deaths attributed to the fires. Update: By Thursday morning, the death toll had risen to at least 36.

Heavy traffic is obviously complicating evacuation efforts, as are the winds of up to 60 miles per hour.

KPIX reports winds were as strong as 80 miles per hour on inland Maui on Tuesday. And because of those winds, helicopters and planes have not been able to drop water from the sky. Nor have they been able to gauge the true number of fires, and those fires' size.

And there are Bay Area connections, as KTVU reports on Hawaiian visitors scrambling to get home from Bay Area airports, not even sure what may be left of their homes. "We live right off of Lahaina Luna, we have a house and our dogs are stuck in the house," traveler Steff Kirkman told KTVU, while stuck at the Oakland airport. "We don't know if our house is up. We don't know if our animals are alive or not so we're heading back now."

There is some hope conditions could improve soon. While winds are expected to be 50 miles per hour until 6 p.m. Wednesday night (which is 9 p.m. Pacific Time), weather officials expect wind gusts to weaken, and moisture levels to rise through Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

There have fortunately been no reported deaths thus far, though there’s certainly more hardship ahead for the islands. The AP reports that one West Maui firefighter has been hospitalized for smoke inhalation, and was in stable condition as of Tuesday.

Related: Wildfire Season Already? Four Fires This Weekend In Bay Area and Beyond Spur Concerns [SFist]

Image: Alan Dickar via @US_Stormwatch on Twitter

A small plane traveling from Santa Rosa to Honolulu crashed off the coast of Half Moon Bay Saturday afternoon, killing the pilot and co-pilot inside.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it was investigating after the Hawaii-bound Viking Air DHC-6-400 Twin Otter crashed into the ocean 40 miles away from Half Moon Bay. The pilot and co-pilot inside were killed, according to Mercury News.

The plane had departed Santa Rosa around 8 a.m. Saturday morning en route to Honolulu, flight data shows, according to Mercury News. The pilot had flown it southwest for about two hours over the Pacific Ocean before suddenly turning around and heading back to California.

The pilot reportedly declared a distress signal — a mayday — around 2 p.m. when the plane was near the Half Moon Bay coast, right before the plane went down.

The U.S. Coast Guard discovered the plane 40 miles southwest of San Francisco Saturday afternoon, as per the Mercury News. Authorities were working to recover the bodies amid the wreckage, as the Chronicle reported.

Neither the identities of the pilots nor more details about the cause of the crash have been released, as the NTSB continues to investigate.

“Normally this type of plane cannot travel that far but it was equipped with a ferry tank system that enables it to travel long distances,” NTSB spokesperson Sarah Taylor Sulick told the Chronicle via email. “That is a fairly normal occurrence, according to one of our investigators.”

Feature image of Air Seychelles Viking DHC-6-400 Twin Otter aircraft via Flickr/David Jones under Creative Commons.

A Bay Area couple says they were abandoned in rough open waters while on a snorkeling tour off the coast of Maui during their honeymoon in 2021. Now, they’ve filed a lawsuit in Honolulu federal court suing the snorkel tour operator for $5 million, alleging negligence and emotional distress.

The couple, Elizabeth Webster and Alexander Burckle, live in Hayward, graduated from Stanford, and now work as chemists, as the Chronicle reported. They reportedly got married early in the pandemic and went on a delayed honeymoon — during which they say feared for their lives.

According to the lawsuit, the couple went on a tour from snorkel company Sail Maui, taking them and around 40 other people to several dive sites off the coast of what was once Club Lanai, a resort only accessible via boat. The lawsuit claimed that the captain told everyone that at the second location, the boat would be anchored in place for around an hour before heading to a new one, but did not specify when everyone should return to the boat, according to NBC News.

The couple alleges that while they were in the ocean, the boat started to drive away without them after a staff member miscounted people on the boat. According to the lawsuit, “One passenger later reported to the Coast Guard that when she returned to the Vessel, she reported to a crew member that Plaintiffs were still out in the water further out then where she had been, but the crew member assured her Plaintiffs were already accounted for.”

The couple claim that for nearly half an hour, they tried to swim after the boat as the water became rougher and choppier, with surf rising up to 8 feet high. At that point, the lawsuit says, “Plaintiffs were beginning to panic and were struggling to swim in the ocean conditions … They feared that drowning was imminent. Plaintiffs realized the Vessel had left them and was not coming back for them, and they decided that their only option for survival at that point was to return to shore.”

The couple said that they were alone in deep water, and pushed themselves for 20 minutes of reportedly swimming as hard as possible to get to a mostly-empty Club Lanai shore. They allegedly arrived dehydrated and exhausted, and Webster wrote out “HELP” and “SOS” in the sand. A pair of good Samaritans apparently found them and provided water and cell phones about 10 minutes later.

Their lawyer, Jared Washkowitz, reportedly says that the couple are “still getting psychological treatment” more than a year later, including for physical symptoms of anxiety and loss of sleep, according to the Chronicle.

Image of dock at Sail Maui via Google Image Street View.

A United flight out of Maui, bound for SFO, took a steep dive during inclement weather, right after takeoff, and came within about 700 feet of the Pacific, according to a newly discovered report.

It seems very strange that, in this time we're living in when even the most minor of airplane incidents gets recorded and spread around social media, that there doesn't seem to be any social media evidence of this dramatic December 18 flight out of Maui. We're only learning about it now because of a filing made by the pilots with the FAA, as part of the airline's voluntary safety reporting program.

As The Air Current reports, United flight 1722 took off from Maui at 2:49 p.m. local time and initially climbed to 2,200 feet before beginning a steep dive for about 20 seconds, going down at an alarming rate of 8,600 feet per minute. The plane dipped below 775 feet, according to the report, before recovering and climbing again — and there appears to be no radio evidence or communication with air traffic control about the incident.

But the passengers surely went on one hell of a ride, with The Air Current saying they would have felt forces of "nearly 2.7 times the force of gravity."

Perhaps the rough weather, and the brevity of the incident just left people feeling like they'd experienced a rough takeoff — and the plane later landed at SFO 27 minutes early.

The Boeing 777 aircraft was inspected on landing, after the pilots filed their report, and it was not found to be damaged and continued on to Chicago on its next flight two and a half hours later.

United put out a statement saying that after the incident report, the company "closely coordinated with the FAA and ALPA on an investigation that ultimately resulted in the pilots receiving additional training." The pilots, who had a combined 25,000 hours of experience, "fully cooperated with the investigation and their training program is ongoing," United said.

The Air Current points out that this incident took place the same day, during the same severe Pacific storm that caused a Honolulu-bound flight from Phoenix to experience extreme turbulence that led to 25 injuries. The same storm system went on to create an ice storm in the Midwest that snarled pre-Christmas air travel at most airports.

Related: Watch a Boeing 777 Fly Really Low Over SF Spectators and Do Tricks Over the Bay

Photo: Arkin Si

The second time was the charm for French-born, Marin-based kayaker Cyril Derreumaux, who set off for Hawaii on a solo kayak journey earlier this summer and made it there earlier this week.

"I was so glad I could share the whole journey on social media," Derreumaux tells KTVU, sporting a very full and robust beard after his 92-day (!) kayaking trip. "Having people that connect with not just the kayaking side, or even the adventure side, it's more the human spiritual journey that I was on."

Derreumaux, 45, only made it six days into his first attempt at this insane feat last year, getting stuck in impossible currents about 50 miles off the coast of Santa Cruz and having to call in a Coast Guard rescue.

But now, the stubborn and stalwart adventurer can claim to be the first person ever to complete a solo kayaking trip across the Pacific to Hawaii. He made the trip — which he'd estimated would take 60 to 70 days — in a custom-built 23-foot craft equipped with a sleeping cabin, navigational equipment, a mini-desalinization machine for water, and a sea anchor. He left from Monterey in late June.

"Before leaving I couldn't really explain why I wanted to take on this challenge, but I finally found all the answers to my questions on the water," Derreumaux said in a statement after he landed in Hilo Bay on Tuesday. "I encountered all possible weather conditions during these 3 months. Very rough seas in which I had to stay locked inside my cabin, without even being able to sleep, it was so moving, but also an ocean that can be so calm that it transforms you deeply so much it fills you with tranquility. I experienced moments of pure magic when all the elements came together: calm of the sea, calm of the currents, calm of the winds, and the visit in the middle of nowhere of a bird. It was so simple and so beautiful."

Other adventurers have completed the California-to-Hawaii trip in other types of crafts — including El Gillet in 1987, who completed the trip in in 63 days in a store-bought kayak with a propulsion kite. And in 2020, British rower Lia Dutton completed the Bay Area-to-Hawaii journey in a rowboat in 86 days.

Photo by Tom Gomes

At some point the Coast Guard has to be like "This guy again?", but a French-born kayaker with a custom-made vessel and an irrepressible desire to put himself in harm's way is attempting a solo journey across the Pacific for a second time.

You may recall the tale of Cyril Derreumaux whose June 2021 attempt to row to Hawaii was stymied after he spent several miserable days in choppy surf, unable to move (or eat, or drink, apparently) about 50 miles off the coast of Santa Cruz. He called in an emergency rescue from the Coast Guard on Day 6, and then took smiling photos with his rescuers.

Now, one year later, the 45-year-old adventurer is off again as of this morning, attempting to make the 60- to 70-day journey, unaided, in a 23-foot craft equipped with a sleeping cabin, navigational equipment, a mini-desalinization machine for water, and a sea anchor, hoping that he doesn't get thwarted by nature once again.

He still appears to have the longtime girlfriend he mentioned in press coverage of last year's journey, interior designer Ashley Redmond — though he acknowledged that one reason he didn't immediately embark on a second attempt last year was the stress that this project puts on her.

Derreumaux told the Chronicle, regarding last year's aborted trip, "I had to admit, like, yes, I guess I wasn't prepared."

Since last June, he's apparently done more training off the California coast, and spent time "honing logistics." And as of Tuesday, he's paddling off the coast of Monterey, having launched from there this time, rather than his home harbor of Sausalito.

You can track his progress in real time on this website. And below he shows off his "water maker" yesterday before his departure.

This remains an insane undertaking of someone with a peculiar sort of death wish, and as Derreumaux said last year, "The question comes up, what if I do die? Was it worth it to lose 40 years of your potential life for a two-month adventure? To me, it’s worth it. But I can’t really explain why."

The solo journey from the California coast to Hawaii has been completed by a few other semi-crazy people in recent years, though in boats that were a good deal bigger and heartier than the narrow craft Derreumaux is using.

In the midst of the pandemic two years ago, British rower Lia Dutton completed the journey after 86 days and two capsizes. Last year, one of the world's foremost ocean rowers, Turkish-born Erden Eruç launched from Crescent City and made it to Hawaii in 80 days, continuing on to Guam and the Philippines.  

Australian Heather Taylor made it 40 days in a journey from Monterey to Hawaii, but similarly to Derreumaux had to be rescued amid choppy surf.

The pandemic really fired up these extreme adventurers, with a total of 19 people who made attempts to row across the Pacific last summer, including a group doing the Great Pacific Race — which Derreumaux participated in back in 2016 and completed a row from SF to Hawaii with a crew of four in 39 days.

Before Eruc successfully made it to Hawaii, only one man had completed a California-to-Hawaii row, and that was El Gillet in 1987 — in a store-bought kayak with the help of a propulsion kite. He made the trek in 63 days.

The Pacific is notoriously rougher and more unpredictable than the Atlantic, which has seen many more of these solo rows over the years. But it being the "less rowed ocean," as one rower put it, it's become an attractive accomplishment to try to get to Hawaii.

We'll see if this summer sees a similarly high number of attempts as last year.

Previously: Marin Resident Calls Off Solo Kayak Trip to Hawaii, Calls For Rescue Off Santa Cruz

A pair of friends from San Francisco and Oakland befriended a man in Hawaii who was arrested earlier this month for a murder there, and they say he "seemed very nice."

Juan Tejedor-Baron, 23, was arrested March 9 in Anaheim for the killing of 73-year-old Gary Ruby in Honolulu. Ruby's body was found on March 8 encased in concrete in a bathtub, and Tejedor-Baron has reportedly already confessed to killing him.

But just a couple of weeks ago, two Bay Area friends, Ronald Wu and Mohammad Daudie, were partying with Tejedor-Baron in the bars and clubs of Honolulu. As they tell NBC Bay Area, he even invited them back to his house in the exclusive area of Hawaii Loa Ridge, which had nice views off a balcony of the Pacific Ocean. They noticed, though, that one or more of the bedrooms were blocked off and they weren't allowed to go in there. Little did they know that this house would soon become a crime scene.

"He seemed very nice actually," says Daudie. The two Bay Area men were looking to make new friends on vacation in Honolulu, and nothing seemed amiss to them, even back at the house.

Another friend of theirs, 34-year-old Scott Hannon of Los Angeles, ended up further entangled. Hannon and Tejedor-Baron hooked up on the trip, and Hannon decided to spend an extra week in Honolulu as a result. The pair were together at Ruby's house when police arrived for a welfare check on March 7, and it appears that they then flew to California together — with Tejedor-Baron looking for an escape route.

Tejedor-Baron ended up being found hiding in a crawl space under a seat aboard a Greyhound bus bound from Anaheim to Mexico on March 9. He was arrested, and as the Law & Crime show reports, Tejedor-Baron "waived his constitutional right to remain silent and consented to a Mirandized interview" on March 10 in which he confessed to killing Ruby and then trying to stage the scene like a suicide — slitting the man's wrists after strangling him.

Tejedor-Baron told authorities that he became angry, apparently just days or weeks into a sexual relationship with Ruby, when Ruby told him that he was HIV positive. Tejedor-Baron claims to have taken an opportunity to choke Ruby after seeing him choke on some food. After the suicide idea, it looks like Tejedor-Baron was scheming for a way to keep Ruby's house and car, and had already submitted forged paperwork for a change of ownership on Ruby's Audi. He found some bags of concrete in the garage, purchased several more, and then filled the tub with concrete, also adding coffee grounds to mask the scent of decomposition.

As the Daily Mail reported, Honolulu police said they first smelled coffee in the bathroom, and once they had a search warrant, began excavating the concrete out of the tub and were overwhelmed with the smell of rot.

The police had been initially called in for a welfare check by Ruby's brother, Lorne Ruby. The brother says he had not talked to Gary Ruby in several weeks, but in their last phone call, Ruby said he had met a new, much younger love interest named Juan.

When police arrived at the home, they say, Tejedor-Baron claimed to have purchased the home from Ruby five years ago. When they checked and found that Ruby had only owned it since 2020, Tejedor-Baron allegedly changed his story to say he'd bought it two years ago.

Another local man who spent time hanging out with Tejedor-Baron in recent weeks, Kai Johnson, tells Hawaii News Now that he also had been invited back to Ruby's house, without knowing that it didn't belong to Tejedor-Baron — who told him he worked as some kind of "creative financial advisor."

"Almost every night he was asking [me and a friend] to go out to bars and stuff, and he was the one who was like always paying for it,” Johnson tells the station. “It was probably the other — like the victim’s card he was using.”

Hannon was quickly cleared for no probable cause, and released. But he probably will think twice about putting too much stock in a vacation hookup in the future.

Daudie tells NBC Bay Area, "He's a very close friend of mine. I even invited him to Hawaii and paid for the trip."

Tejedor-Baron remains in custody in Los Angeles, awaiting an extradition hearing, after which he is expected to be extradited to Honolulu to face murder charges there.

Photo via the Honolulu Police Department

Adding to their already significant land holdings on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan recently closed on another deal adding 600 more acres on the island.

The $53 million deal, just now coming to light, happened in March, and as The Hill reports, the couple purchased the land from a local nonprofit focused on conservation called the Waioli Corporation. Combined with the 700-acre property that Chan and Zuckerberg bought in 2014, they now own 1,300 total acres on the island, or about two square miles. It's not clear whether the new land is adjacent to their existing property, or separate, but it appears to be very close by.

As Architectural Digest reports, the couple "has been developing a ranch-style home and prioritizing preservation efforts" on the original 700-acre property. But the land is near the remote and public Larsen's Beach, known to locals as Lepeuli Beach, and debates about maintaining public access to the beach long predate Zuckerberg and Chan's purchase of the adjacent land, which had required cooperation from the Waioli Corporation.

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Zuckerberg succeeded in pissing off many native Hawaiians in recent years when he went about suing hundreds of people over land ownership claims for parcels within his property boundaries. The suits are called "quiet title and partition" suits, and they are meant to force people to accept money to give up claims of ownership — which often go back generations, have no written deeds, and were meant to preserve land ownership among native Hawaiians.

He then made everyone angrier when, in 2016, he went about building a stone wall to demarcate his land, and keep others out.

The video below, produced by news group AJ+, explains the story, and how Zuckerberg apologized and dropped the suits in 2017. But the anger over them remains, and many locals are outraged anew over the news that Zuckerberg now owns even more land — calling his actions "neo-colonialism."

"We have been working closely with a number of community partners to promote conservation, produce sustainable agriculture, and protect native wildlife at our ranch and in the surrounding areas, and look forward to extending that effort to Lepeuli in the months ahead," Zuckerberg said in a statement, following news of the latest land purchase.

More than one million people have signed a Change.org petition to "Stop Mark Zuckerberg from Colonizing Kaui," which was launched in 2020.

"Mark Zuckerberg is the sixth richest man in the world... and he is suing Native Hawaiians in Kauai for their land so he can build a mansion," the petition reads, even though the suits were dropped. "They have built lives there. They have built families there... He’s building a mansion to what? Live in Kauai for two months out of the year? This is inhuman. It is sick. He needs to be stopped."

Zuckerberg has had a pattern of buying up land surrounding his homes to ensure privacy, including the homes he purchased around his own in Palo Alto. He and Chan also own a rather large pied-a-terre in San Francisco's Dolores Heights, and in May 2019, they purchased two adjacent properties on Lake Tahoe for $59 million.

So, yes, between the four homes and his busy schedule of invading our privacy and destroying democracy, it makes one wonder why the couple needs 1300 acres in order to spend short stints in Kauai. But sure, it's about "conservation."

Top image: Google Street View

A huge, 8.1M underwater earthquake struck in a remote area between New Zealand and Tonga Thursday morning, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is saying that tsunamis may be possible in Hawaii later today as a result.

It's not yet a certainty, and an official tsunami warning has not been issued for Hawaii. As the Associated Press reports, an earlier warning the agency issued for American Samoa was later downgraded to an advisory, but Hawaii is currently under a tsunami watch.

As scientists assess whether the tsunami threat is real, they say the first waves would arrive on the shores of Hawaii at 4:35 local time, or 6:35 p.m. Pacific Time.

The earthquake, the third in a row in the region, hit at 11:28 a.m. Pacific Time in the area of the Kermadec Islands. Seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones said on Twitter that an early 7.4M quake in the same region was likely a foreshock, and an earlier 7.3M quake closer to New Zealand but near a tectonic plate boundary was "more ambiguous."

"It is far enough away that it is at the very edge of where we see statistical evidence of triggering," Jones says. "'Did it trigger the M8.1?' - seismologists will be arguing."

Jones also says that the likelihood of a tsunami being triggered is fairly low, especially at a distance as far away as Hawaii.

"The Japanese tsunami [in 2011] was from a M9.0 that moved over 30 TIMES more water than this event," Jones says. "Geometric spreading means you need to move a lot of water to still see a measurable tsunami on the other side of the ocean. M9s do it. M8s much less so."

Incidentally, and crazily, a February 13 quake off the Japanese coast is considered a late aftershock of the 2011 earthquake, Jones said.

Photo: Karsten Winegeart