Tom Vacar
After two years of freelancing while working full time in L.A., Tom became a full-time staff member of KTVU as Consumer Editor, in 1991.
Tom has covered every major disaster including earthquakes, wildfires, floods, levee breaks and droughts and has had a big hand in covering business, economics, consumer affairs, aerospace, space, the military, high technology, ports, logistics, airlines and general news.
Tom worked at KGO TV and KGO Radio from 1979-1985. He moved to KCBS-TV and KNX News Radio in 1985 before moving to KTTV in 1988.
Tom is originally from Salem, Ohio (a small industrial town of 11,000 people between Cleveland and Pittsburgh). He got his undergraduate degree in Political Science and Government at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio in 1972 as a designated Undergraduate Scholar. Tom got his Law Degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1978.
In his 31 years at KTVU, he calculates that he has covered 8,000 stories. For 18 years, KTVU was home to Tom’s syndicated Great American Toy Test (nominated for a national Emmy). He has covered many major disasters including the Caldor Fire in Lake Tahoe, the L.A. quake in 1994, the Napa Quake, the Great Recession, the Pandemic and the long drought.
Tom loves the diversity of the region’s people, cultures and ethnicities. That, he says, is what truly makes the Bay Area’s natural beauty even more beautiful.
Tom shoots still pictures, mostly of wildlife while traveling with his wife Sharon, a former SF Opera soprano who also worked as a producer for 17 years. He has also traveled to England, Italy, Japan, Honduras, Bahrain, British Virgin Islands, The Grenadines, St. Martin. Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Society Islands, Panama, etc.
The latest from Tom Vacar
San Rafael's unpermitted food vendors may get a park to legally set up shop
A story we did last spring is helping illegal food vendors in San Rafael, become legal without giving up any of their proud culture. Soon, a lot of illegal food vendors will be able to cook and cash in, not under the cloud of a bust.
SF schools could be headed for first strike in 47 years
If San Francisco educators and support staff on on strike and walk out, it will be for the first time in 47 years and the clock is clearly ticking down. Everyone says they want to avoid a strike. But look at the chasm between them.
Highway 101 commute hours shortened in Marin and Sonoma counties
It took only six months for driver frustration over expanded commute-hour lane restrictions, on a major commuter highway, to boil over, leading to a grass-roots movement to shorten them.
TikTok knuckles and settles lawsuit aginst social media giants
TikTok, just taken over U.S. buyers, decided to bite the bullet and settle with plaintiffs who claim social media is made to be deliberately addictive and often dangerous to young minds.
Golden Gate Bridge suicide prevention net a success two years in, data shows
We hear of failures of government so often, that we rarely speak of provable successes. This bridge, an international icon and a taxpayer and toll payer paid for structure, has a governing body that pulled it off.
U.S. tariffs mostly paid by American importers and consumers, report suggests
A new report suggests U.S. tariffs are mostly paid by American importers and consumers.
Marin County authorities step up intersection enforcement after 19-year-old's death
A small double roadside memorial for 19-year-old Lucia Jennifer Blandina Sontay Vicente is near the intersection of San Pedro Point Road and Summit Avenue in unincorporated Marin County.
Napa building boom aims to bring more Wine Country visitors
Though there are economic doldrums in Wine Country, Napa is expecting big things in the coming two to three years. Napa’s once heavily earthquake-damaged city center is being reborn. That means, one of the world's most famous small cities is getting a major facelift.
San Francisco Bay Ferry fleet brings back live music after 25 years
East Bay ferry commuters got some very special surprises during their evening commutes on one SF Bay Ferry line. Soon, other commuters on other lines may get the same.
Bay Area man dies from suspected mushroom poisoning
Sonoma County has issued an urgent health warning regarding wild mushrooms, which are sprouting up across the entire Bay Area, posing extreme danger to people of all ages and their pets.