Two small plane crashes -- one into a tank of raw sewage in Gilroy, and another onto Highway 4 in Contra Costa County. The Highway 4 crash involved a pilot who misjudged the location of the landing runway in the low cloud cover Thursday, and tied up traffic for miles. They're still investigating the Gilroy crash; investigators got a later start because they had to drain and disinfect the tank before it was safe to go in.

And okay, this is a freaky story. The Chronicle's NWZCHIK blog passes along a news alert from the San Mateo coroner's office that a woman was found dead in a tent in Pacifica back in June. The tent had letters made from tape pinned on the outside of it, which spelled out "No Go, No Eat, No Drink, Murder." Inside the tent, they found two Bibles, a "Busy Woman's Journal," and a Harry Potter book.

And your trial watch: The father of the three-year-old beaten to death in Oakland was found guilty of assault and child abuse, and the jury's still out on the murder charge. The preliminary hearing on the Nina Reiser missing person/murder case is proceeding; meanwhile, estranged husband and murder suspect Hans (a LINUX programmer) gave an interview to Wired, in which he proclaimed his innocence and asked people if they wanted to buy his company. And after one day of deliberation, the jury's taking a break until after the holidays from the murder trial of the woman who threw her three kids into the bay.

Picture of the Gilroy plane crash from KGO channel 7.