A police commander is announcing that seven people were arrested Thursday after officials discovered about  five pounds of cocaine and more than a half-pound of crystal methamphetamine  at a home in East Palo Alto. The arrests were made after a month-long undercover operation  conducted by the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force in cooperation with  the East Palo Alto and Menlo Park police departments.

On Friday, the tanker that leaked hundreds of gallons of oil into the San  Francisco Bay last week departed from Pier 80 in San Francisco while crews continued to wind down their response to the spill. A mechanical failure that occurred during a bunkering operation  with a fuel barge Oct. 31 caused the Panamanian tanker Dubai Star to leak  between 400 and 800 gallons of oil into the Bay two miles south of the San  Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences facility has been recognized by the urban land use industry as a worldwide model of excellence  in design and development. The new $488 million, 412,000-square-foot building in Golden Gate  Park opened in September 2008 and includes an aquarium, planetarium, natural  history museum and four-story rainforest.

A San Francisco railway employee has been arrested on suspicion of punching a 17-year-old girl during a dispute over fares. Police say the girl and her sister asked 59-year-old Muni ticket agent Kenneth Valentine for a youth ticket Thursday afternoon at the Embarcadero Station. Youth tickets cost 75 cents while adult trips cost $2. But the girl did not have any proof of age, and police say she may have looked older than she was.

In one ad after another, voters in California and Maine were besieged with images of what would supposedly happen if same-sex marriage were legal: Students on a field trip to a lesbian wedding, elementary kids gobbling up books featuring gay couples, kindergartners learning about homosexuality from their teachers. The strategy worked.

Residents of San Francisco's Bayview District are expressing concern about community involvement in the ongoing toxic cleanup and  redevelopment of the former U.S. Navy shipyard at Hunters Point at a Board of  Supervisors committee hearing. The Government Audit and Oversight Committee Thursday afternoon passed  a resolution authored by Supervisor John Avalos calling on the Navy to  reconsider its plan to dissolve the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) for  Hunters Point.

Health officials are holding free H1N1 flu vaccinations throughout  the Bay Area Saturday, but the vaccines will only be available for people at  the highest risk for illness from the virus. Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz are among the  counties hosting clinics. Due to limited supplies of the vaccines, only pregnant women,  young children, and people with chronic medical conditions or compromised  immune systems will be eligible to receive the vaccine.

Crews are continuing to clean up areas of the San Francisco  Bay affected by last week's oil spill, which has so far resulted in the  deaths of 24 shorebirds, according to official estimates, with 37 more birds  rehabilitating at an Oiled Wildlife Care Network treatment center in  Fairfield. A mechanical failure that occurred during a bunkering operation  with a fuel barge early Friday morning caused the Panamanian tanker Dubai  Star to leak between 400 and 800 gallons of oil into the Bay two miles south  of the Bay Bridge.

San Francisco Giants star pitcher Tim Lincecum is facing misdemeanor marijuana charges following a traffic stop in his home state.  Washington State Patrol spokesman Steve Schatzel said Thursday that the pitcher was pulled over for speeding on Interstate 5 on Oct. 30. An officer approached Lincecum's 2006 Mercedes and smelled marijuana. Schatzel says Lincecum immediately complied with a request to hand over the drug and a marijuana pipe.

A teacher at San Francisco's Abraham Lincoln High School is being named one of five California Teachers of the Year. Valerie Ziegler teaches U.S. history, economics, government and  politics to 11th and 12th graders at the Sunset District school.