Whois & Analysis for mercurynews.com

The San Francisco Bay Area (referred to locally as the Bay Area) is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California.

The region encompasses the major cities and metropolitan areas of San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland, along with smaller urban and rural areas.

The Bay Area's nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.

Home to approximately 7.65 million people, the nine-county Bay Area contains many cities, towns, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks, connected by a network of roads, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels and commuter rail.

The combined statistical area of the region is the second-largest in California (after the Greater Los Angeles area), the fifth-largest in the United States, and the 43rd-largest urban area in the world.

Silicon Valley is a nickname for the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area, in the northern part of the U.S. state of California.

The "valley" in its name refers to the Santa Clara Valley in Santa Clara County, which includes the city of San Jose and surrounding cities and towns, where the region has been traditionally centered.

The region has expanded to include the southern half of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Mateo County, and southern portions of the East Bay in Alameda County.

Breaking news, interchangeably termed latebreaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news bulletin, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming and/or current news in order to report its details.

Its use is also assigned to the most significant story of the moment or a story that is being covered live.

It could be a story that is simply of wide interest to viewers and has little impact otherwise.

Many times, breaking news is used after the news organization has already reported on the story.

When a story has not been reported on previously, the graphic and phrase "Just In" is sometimes used instead.

The Mercury News (formerly San Jose Mercury News), often locally known as The Merc, is an American daily newspaper, published in San Jose, California.

It is published by Bay Area News Group, a subsidiary of Digital First Media.

The Mercury News encompasses all other Bay Area newspapers owned by Media News Group, including the Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, Marin Independent Journal, San Mateo County Times, Santa Cruz Sentinel, and 10 other local daily newspapers, each of which are branded as "an edition of the San Jose Mercury News," which accounts for the newspaper's high circulation.