Filling the ranks in the Mayor's Office are several young guys who Mayor Newsom calls "superstars" who were part of the inner circle of his gubernatorial campaign -- hires that are likely to cause some controversy during upcoming budget negotiations with the Board of Supervisors. Newsom defends the hires saying that all these campaign staffers are being paid less than their predecessors and are highly qualified, but they are nonetheless all pretty young with no experience in city government.

Apple is looking for bites on a new television subscription service. According to the Wall Street Journal, CBS and Disney are considering participation. The service would offer television access to channel's programming over the Internet for a monthly fee. Apple hopes to introduce the service in 2010 but it is unclear if any networks have signed on. Hesitancy on the part of the networks stems from worries over the new service cutting holes in its revenue from selling bundled TV packages. The current deal also would not include advertising. We're just a little confused about how this would be better than Hulu... - Amy Crocker

The operation to fly San Francisco's overflow of abandoned chihuahuas to New York has been delayed, due to the high demand for space on flights to the East Coast after this weekend's blizzard. SF Animal Care and the New York ASPCA have been trying to negotiate the airlift with Virgin America, but it looks like it will now have to wait until early January. That means that this excess of chihuahua's are hanging out in town over the holidays, and they all (including Freddy, pictured here at right) remain adoptable.

by Amy Crocker

Courtesy of Big Cat Rescue comes this adorable holiday video featuring tigers, lions, and a baby leopard chewing open some Xmas gifts! Let's just try to enjoy these lovely animals and put that ugly incident of two Xmases ago behind us, shall we?

It's been a big year for food trucks, nonstaurants, and street food in general. In addition to the buzz around things like the Crème Brûlée Cart and the Chez Spencer truck, this summer saw the birth of two new food festivals that are likely to grow and flourish again next year: The SF Street Food Fest, and the Eat Real Fest in Oakland.

During the week between Christmas and New Year's, Yahoo! is furloughing most of their 13,000 employees or forcing them to use remaining vacation days, in order to trim costs on their end-of-year balance sheet. Though it's not uncommon for Silicon Valley companies like Apple and Adobe to shut down during this last week of the year, tech expert Rob Enderle notes in the above segment from ABC7 that, as a media company, this shut-down is a little more awkward than it would be at a software or manufacturing company.

• Have you seen this Pacific Heights wreath thief? [The Front Steps, via Laughing Squid]
• One Rincon Hill for under $500,000? [Curbed]
• Dogs rescued from suspected puppy mill need your help. [Appeal]

After weeks of heated voting, Eater has awarded Aziza's Louis Maldonado the honor of being the hottest chef in the Bay Area. We can behind that. Or, preferably, in front of it.