Sir Francis Drake Hotel

Sir Francis Drake Hotel Foreclosed: Bank of America has foreclosed on the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, one of San Francisco's landmarks. The bank said it took control after the owners of the 417-room hotel, Santa Monica-based S.F. Drake Associates, defaulted on a $34.1-million loan. Bank of America said it would keep the hotel at Sutter and Powell streets open and hired Tishman Hotel Corp. of New York and Pittsburgh-based Interstate Hotel Management Corp. to run the hotel.

Sir Francis Drake Hotel Foreclosed: Bank of America has foreclosed on the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, one of San Francisco's landmarks. The bank said it took control after the owners of the 417-room hotel, Santa Monica-based S.F. Drake Associates, defaulted on a $34.1-million loan. Bank of America said it would keep the hotel at Sutter and Powell streets open and hired Tishman Hotel Corp. of New York and Pittsburgh-based Interstate Hotel Management Corp. to run the hotel.

Two students returning from a senior prom were killed and two others gravely injured when their car flipped and rolled down an embankment in San Leandro, authorities said. The four students had attended the Fremont High School senior ball at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco and were headed for a party in Hayward. Charlotte Hill and Damon Butler, both 18, were killed. Norman Scarbrough, 17, and Rochelle Harris, 19, were severely injured.

If you're a traveler who relies often on the kindness of concierges, it may be time to do a little more looking out for yourself. A seasoned concierge has the ability to make things happen, from wangling rare theater tickets to prying loose reservations at popular restaurants to renting a yacht on short notice to filling a prescription at midnight.

Dave Kindred in the Sporting News, writing on how Bobby Beathard, the retired general manager of the San Diego Chargers, had to sell himself to owner Jack Kent Cooke to get that position with the Washington Redskins: "Talk about a cultural difference. Here was Cooke, a fastidious multimillionaire as pompous as he was brilliant, a man who made a fetish of calling people by their proper name, refusing to use the diminutive.

A volunteer rings a bell and invites shoppers to help themselves to coins in a pot. An "activist" rallies to save "free-range" cranberries. A Bob Dylan Holiday Choir brays nasal Christmas carols. Mystified? Perhaps you're a little too uptight for the Cacophony Society. Amused? You may already be a member. "To be involved you just do it," said Cacophony Society member Jason Rackerby, known in underground circles as Yahoon Doorstop. "There's no membership fees or officers."

Herb Caen spent almost six decades writing a love song to his adopted city, praising its beauty, style and unique place in the world. On Friday, the city returned that love, its residents gathering to remember the man whose Pulitzer Prize-winning column was a must-read for generations. "Today, San Francisco stands as one," William Swing, Episcopal bishop of California, said as he opened a memorial service before more than 3,000 people in the vast splendor of Grace Cathedral.

Grand Metropolitan PLC, based in London, on Monday rejected a nearly $900-million offer by Trafalgar Holdings for its Inter-Continental hotel chain and other hotel operations. Grand Met, with far-flung operations in health care, brewing and tobacco as well as hotels, said it considered the hotel operations a core part of its business and is not interested in selling. The British concern received Trafalgar's bid on June 6.

SAN FRANCISCO - They were known simply as the San Francisco Twins. At 5-foot-1 and about 100 pounds apiece, the fashion enthusiasts were an integral part of the city fabric for four decades. With matching furs, hats and high-end purses, they completed each other's sentences, posed for countless tourist snapshots and modeled for the likes of Reebok, Joe Boxer and IBM. Now one is gone. Vivian Brown, 85, who had Alzheimer's, died in her sleep Wednesday, leaving behind Marian, who was eight minutes younger.

Bill Kimpton, head of the innovative San Francisco-based boutique hotel and restaurant chain known as the Kimpton Group, has died of leukemia at 65. Kimpton, who lived on a houseboat in Sausalito, Calif., and maintained a weekend home in Napa, died Friday at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, company officials announced. His 20-year-old chain owns or manages 35 hotels and 29 restaurants and employs about 5,000 people, mainly in San Francisco, Portland, Ore.

Anthony T. Heinsbergen, whose Los Angeles firm restored the interiors of the Wiltern Theatre, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and other landmark buildings across the country, many of whose interiors were designed by his father decades earlier, has died. He was 74. Heinsbergen, a lifelong Los Angeles resident, was found dead of apparently natural causes Jan. 29 at his weekend retreat in Ojai, said his ex-wife, Dawn Heinsbergen. The results of an autopsy are pending.