WE LOVE IT WHEN ROSS MIRKARIMI SAVES THE DAY!!!!!! Remember when he stopped a robbery? And then when he saved the life of a guy in Buena Vista Park? And today, he caught two people involved in a drive-by shooting!!! (Thanks to commenter Rah for calling our attention to the story!)

Ross Mirkarimi, the supervisor for the Western Addition/Lower Haight's District 5, was out for a jog this morning around 9:45 a.m. (guess Ross doesn't get into the office early) when he heard gunshots near Fulton and Steiner. (possibly the shots heard by one of our readers?) He called the cops, who then swung by and picked him up in the cruiser to help him find the suspect. Thanks to Ross's good work, two suspects were (gasp!) arrested later in the day.

Ross, we hope you're also reading SFist these days, because that would be too awesome if two SFist readers in District 5 helped solve two different crimes in two days!!! Sorry if we're embarrassing you by bringing up all your other lifesaving acts, though. (The papers have always said that Ross doesn't like to brag about his heroism to the press. SO ADORABLE.)

After the jump: the text of the message the SFPD sent out about Ross's involvement in the arrest. LOVE!!!!!

Picture of Ross from the Prog Con, by Steve Rhodes. Bless Steve Rhodes's heart for tagging his pictures "Creative Commons Licensed" in flickr!

You think Gavin means it when he tells Ken Garcia that it's kind of freaking him out that no one's running against him? Well, there's one more down: ABC 7's Dan Noyes has the scoop that Tony Hall has dropped out of the race too.

Hall was the one unambiguously-serious mayoral candidate running against Gavin Newsom (and by "unambiguously-serious" we mean was a wedding singer but does not have an animal in his name and wears clothes, of course) -- but says it was an uphill battle getting campaign contributions since everyone is so sure Gavin's going to win anyways. Well, it might have helped if Tony had ever managed to get his website up beyond "under construction" too.

Anyhow, Hall's out, with the following line: "Maybe what’s better for the city is another dose of this cat and their spin machine." Gavin Newsom's a cat! Dan Noyes has Tony Hall on for an exclusive interview tonight at 6 p.m.

Meanwhile, is everyone decided that the anti-Newsom protest vote goes to Quintin Mecke now? Not the nudist? And does no one else beside us want to write in Joanna Newsom for mayor?

Picture of Tony Hall from ABC 7.

You'll have to keep borrowing free wi-fi from cafes and the unsecured accounts of your neighbors for now -- Earthlink's backed out of the public-private free wifi deal with San Francisco because of its recent financial woes.

Gavin Newsom says he's committed to finding another private company to set up the whole system, and blames the Board of Supervisors for the deal falling through because they wanted more information before approving the agreement; the Board says Gavin should be glad we aren't saddled with a deal on terrible terms for the city.

Seems to us that even if the Board had approved the agreement, Earthlink's in enough financial trouble that they'd've backed out of it anyways, really. But what's the big deal, anyways? Can't Gavin just get someone rich to pay for it, like he wants to do with everything in the city these days? (We can't wait for the Swells crowd to start sponsoring individual MUNI lines! Ride the Dede Wilsey 38 Geary Limited! Wait for hours for the Charlotte Maillard Shultz T-Third!)

Karl Rove's (admittedly awesome) Jaguar gets "victimized" with plastic wrap, fake eagles, and "I love Obama" stickers while parked on a private driveway next to the White House's West Wing.

Or it's all some (admittedly lame albeit successful) media-hungry prank or old-chums-from-the-alma-mater pranksterism, because: you call that vandalism?

Images: AP

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom zipped around the Wharf today in an extremely swift all-electric Roadster from San Carlos-based Tesla Motors. How many electric vehicles can you see in this photo?

Well, Edsel might be going back a bit too far, but how about Segway Inc. as an apt comparison? Remember 2001, when an electric-powered transportation device backed by famous tech kingpins, politicians, celebrities and $100 million or so in development money was revealed? It was supposed to rock our world? Did IT?

Are there any similarities here with this car? Some hyperbolic coverage from the MSM makes us wonder a bit. Here's an opinion from Washington Post-affiliated Slate - the author was "unbelievably stoked", even after a self-imposed cooling off period. "It's Electric!" Mmm.

If you would like to view the press release from Tesla and Hyatt describing today's trip from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe via Sacramento (will Arnold Schwarzenegger show up to the pit stop?), click here. And if you want some corporate-approved coverage, click here.

But if you would like a more nuanced viewpoint (and a few more photos), see you after the jump!

Step right up! Step right up! The Gavin Newsom San Francisco carnival is coming to town! SEE .... the horrors that abound in the San Francisco Housing Authority! GAWK..... at the desperate lives of people trying to get by in the sub-standard apartment units provided by the city! GASP..... at the pitiful amounts of money residents try to live on! And then.... open your wallets! Won't you help.... for the children?

We're not even really sure what to make of this article on the front page of today's Chronicle. Apparently Gavin Newsom has now so given up on being able to fix the city's public housing himself that he's now thinking maybe he'll take rich people around and see if they'll donate some money to spruce it up. What is this, Swells meets Chris Daly?

We're all for philanthropy, but honestly, shouldn't the city be run on a budget where we can meet our own responsibilities without having to have rich people bail us out? Either get the tax increases to do your job or make the necessary cuts in your budget, Mayor Newsom -- this is like trustafarians running home to Mommy and Daddy when the cost of coffee goes up 15 cents at Ritual Roasters.

Side note: apparently this all got started when Newsom got upset with his staff for letting a playground donated by the Dave Matthews Band get vandalized twice. Dave Matthews should've donated a public bathroom instead.

"I am not gay. I never have been gay," lisped Republican Idaho Senator Larry Craig, with his beard wife, Suzanne, by his side.

After getting arrested by an undercover office in a Minneapolis airport boy's room for engaging "in actions 'often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct,'" the GOP senator plead guilty to a disorderly conduct charge, with the hope that it would all quietly go away.

Well, it didn't.

What's more: while some gays snort a line or eight of crystal meth to deal with their self-loathing, others, such as Miss Lawrence Craig, for example, vote for a constitutional ban of same-sex marriage, vote against adding sexual orientation as a basis for hate crimes, vote no on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation, and more. Fabulous.

See you at Twin Peaks, grandpa. Or in hell.

Man, this dull-as-dishwater mayoral "race" is getting us in the blogging doldrums. Someone do something funny, quick!

Meanwhile, we'll pass along the news of the latest progressive hope for the Newsom mayoral steamroller juggernaut, Quintin Mecke. Mecke's the director of the Safety Network Partnership, active on homelessness and public safety issues, praises Project Homeless Connect, and has worked on Chris Daly's, Matt Gonzalez's, and Ross Mirkarimi's campaigns. His first order of business is going to be to implement uniform standards for homeless shelters and community policing initiatives.

Daly's endorsed him, as has Tom Radulovich on the BART board. (Does BART run to Alamo Square?) Matt Gonzalez, though, is holding off, saying he's not sure if any of the candidates have a comprehensive platform and wants to wait to endorse until he figures that out.

Meanwhile, the thing we found the most entertaining about this article was that the Chron called Daly "an archenemy of Newsom." "Arch enemy"? Who has arch enemies these days, besides, like, Batman? If that's how it's going down, Daly totally needs to regrow that mustache of his really, really long, so he can twirl it when he talks about Newsom.

Picture of Mecke off the Chron, who got it from Mecke himself.

We've gotten word that everyone's favorite tough guy, Board of Supes Prez Aaron Peskin has made it official that he's not going to be running for the State Senate, declining to get in the middle of the Mark "Tanned Ambition" Leno and Carole "That car came outta nowhere!" Migden fight. In fact, Peskin's now saying he's getting out of politics altogether after his term ends on the Board (later this next year [Sorry! We've been watching so many presidential debates we briefly thought it was already 2008.])

You may remember Peskin had originally been rumored to be thinking about running to split Leno's support and give Migden a boost in the race -- so does this mean Peskin now thinks Migden can do it by herself now? Or is Peskin copacetic with Leno now? Or is Peskin maybe just burned out from having to referee all the fights at the Board of Supes for the last three years? Can't blame him for any of those options, really.

We'll miss ya, Aaron! You're totally the best. (We still totally love Peskin for jumping to our defense during that whole byorngate brouhaha earlier this year.)

Picture of Peskin by campaignphotographersformatt.

As promised, non-mayoral candidate Chris Daly's proposing his nonbinding resolution to ban the Blue Angels from flying over San Francisco at the Governmental Audit and Oversight Committee meeting today.

Daly, who's been working with Code Pink, Global Exchange, and Veterans for Peace on the resolution, is asking that San Francisco elected officials work to reduce unnecessary military flyovers in the area, saying that the loud jets are a threat to publich safety; upset pets, children, and seniors; traumatize veterans; waste jet fuel; and encourage the use of plastic bags. Okay, we made up the last one.

If Daly gets enough votes to pass this one, it'll go to the full board, but it doesn't sound likely that he'll get it out of committee: the other two members are the moderates Sean Elsbernd (who points out that more people have died on 19th Avenue than from Blue Angels events and we're not looking to shut down 19th Avenue) and Michela Alioto-Pier, who says we should be proud of our armed forces. Daly's only hope is that Michela forgets to show up to the meeting again!

Picture from 2005 by Studio H (Chris), off Flickr. Blue Angels always make us think of that Van Halen (Hagar era) video.

We found this photo in our inbox this morning. It may (or may not) be Condoleezza Rice. She's been in town for Bill Walsh's memorial service. As George tells us, after he snapped the shot at about 10:30 a.m. yesterday morning, "you could definitely smell the evil sycophant as she passed." Oh dear. Does that mean that she doesn't bathe properly? We hope not.

The shoes and bag we can imagine her sporting, but even for her that dress seems a tad too boxy.

Anyway, we thank you, George. Even if it isn't our dear Condi, we always enjoy seeing shots of the Stanford campus, where we can practically smell the AP 5 scores and trust funds emitting from our screen. Mmm, delicious.

We imagine Heidi Klum Germanically intoning, "Chrisss Daaly: are you IN, or are you OWT?" Well, folks -- he's out.

The Guardian has the entire text of his statement, but here's the paragraph we found the most intriguing:

Sarah and I arrived at last night's meeting with the intention of announcing my entry into the race and were moved by everyone's willingness to act on faith. When I called on progressives for support for a Mayoral run, progressives responded. But I also sensed that the reservations in the room were real. Progressives are certainly ready to vie for the Mayor's seat, but, unfortunately, I am not the right candidate.

So 1) Chris's wife (whose baby is due a week before the election) was persuaded to agree to his run, and 2) Chris listened to people on both sides of the issue and made a mature and reasoned decision not to run for mayor. Wow, that's not how we would have guessed either of them would have gone!

We must admit we're kind of relieved Daly's not running -- we were getting kind of stressed out just thinking about covering it.

Picture by campaignphotographersformatt, off flickr. (Sorry for accidentally dropping the photo credit line!

Someone else viewed as unbeatable has a hail-Mary opponent from the progressive left -- and we're not just talking about Gavin Newsom and Chris Daly! That's right -- the stridently anti-war soldier's mom Cindy Sheehan has declared her candidacy against San Francisco's House representative, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Sheehan says she's running because Pelosi didn't move to impeach Bush by July 23. She's running as an independent and, along with the anti-war thing, is also running on a platform for universal health care.

No word if Sheehan's moved to San Francisco yet like she said she was going to (she currently lives outside Sacto) -- but hey, she could always rent Ed Jew's house. (Update: Ha! The Chron's conservative columnist Debra Saunders made this exact same joke! Liberals, moderates, conservatives, progressives: we all agree that Ed Jew is comedy gold.)

We found this picture on Nancy Pelosi's website. Just look at how unhappy both of them look to be with the other!

Gay marriage, GLBTQQGQQ$#@ discrimination, HIV issues, queers in the military, Donna McKechnie (we can only assume), health care, and more are what's on tap for tonight's presidential debate. Disgusting, we know. But 84% of eligible gays voted in the last election, so why not? (Who knew gays could even vote? Huh.)

And who better to breakdown and break through all of the rhetoric than SF Bay Guardian's Marke Bieschke (AKA Super Ego). He'll be a pundit on CBS Radio, on a panel discussion to chat about tonight's homosexually-laced debate.

Gay mafia, unite! Er, um, we mean, hear him sometime tonight between 8-8:30 p.m. on CBS Radio or (maybe) on LOGO.

Barack Obama!!! So adorable! The Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois stopped by our neck of the woods yesterday on a PR stunt community outreach project by the SEIU, where presidential candidates shadow a union worker for a day. (Next up, Hillary Clinton, who'll be following around a nurse (though probably not in Northern California). The jokes kind of write themselves.)

Obama was assigned to follow Pauline Beck, an Alameda home healthcare worker, and, as Beck's client dryly remarked in the YouTube clip, "she put him to work." Obama swept up, dusted, mopped, washed dishes, did laundry, and made some beds. Entertainingly-tart Michelle Obama's going to have a great time mocking her husband over this one; we've collected all of Obama's quotable quotes on the topic:

--"My wife says my making the bed is a little shaky. The laundry and the breakfast, I can handle."
--"My wife's going to see all this and say, 'How come you don't do this at home?' I'm going to tell her I'm running for president. She's too smart to run for president. ... She just wants to tell the president what to do."
--"I probably haven't mopped a floor since I started my Senate race," with the hastily-added clarification, "Before that, that wasn't something I was averse to doing."

Why doesn't Barack put the butter away after breakfast? LOVE!!

Still from the SEIU's YouTube clip of Barack Obama assisting Pauline Beck yesterday.

We can't really get ourselves too worked up about the billboards or campaign finance allegations that Mark Leno's tossing around about his rival for the State Senate seat, Carole Migden (sorry) -- but we certainly do pay attention to her reckless-driving woes! The Solano County DA has decided to charge Migden with a misdemeanor based on her wild lane-changing and fender-bending ways from earlier this year. Like Paris Hilton, only without the DUI or the wonky eye!

Misdemeanor reckless driving has a max penalty of 6 months in jail or a fine of $1000, but she'll probably end up with a fine, two points on her record, and probation for three years.

While we're on the topic, we'll also pass along the word we heard that Carole Migden arrived late to a rally yesterday, and double-parked her SUV right next to the truck on which everyone was speaking. We asked repeatedly if there were any squealing tires or fishtailing of the back fender, but our source didn't notice. [Update!: We've since learned that Migden wasn't driving the SUV, and there was an SFPD cruiser double-parked in the same lane. We kind of love Carole Migden.]

Picture of Carole Migden from Migden's website.

Public singing commenter and Ed Jew fan Walter's back! That's his 40 second partisan rendition of "These Boots Were Made For Walking."

Click here for the Nancy Sinatra original, and here for the abysmal Jessica Simpson cover.

Thanks to moderates-advocacy group CUIP SF for passing the clip along!

The Supervisor's presence today at a "toxic tour" drew lots of media attention to a host of air quality issues in San Francisco's southeast corner.

We're not comparing notable air quality management board member Chris Daly with Godzilla, but they both aren't afraid to start mixing things up a little when fighting for air quality. Other local toxic tours can show you tangible things but some air quality concerns (pretty much everything but smog) can be harder to see of course. Do community groups such as Greenaction have good beefs against Lennar Corporation, P G and E, and others? As always, you make the call, but stuff like this doesn't inspire confidence. Does it all add up to environmental racism?

Last night's innovative Chicken John/Josh Wolf Mayoral debate brought in "a dozen or so citizens," artists, and political fetishists. Even though it was on a Sunday night, anyone who cares about politics, SF, and progressiveness shouldn't have missed it.

Naturally, we couldn't make it. Big Brother was on, and we're concerned about Jen and the near-physically/sexually-violent way that men in the Big Brother house have been treating her. Also, it was nomination night. But we digress.

Justin Berton at Culture Blog, though, does have a breakdown of the quirkiness, good times, and the candidates' fashion decisions. Some highlights:

-- When asked whether their mothers were proud of them, Wolf said yes, and that "I saw her more in prison then I did before." Which? Is sad. And sweet. And brought a tear to our eye. We want to give him a big hug.

-- When asked "DC or Marvel?" Both respond "Marvel." Smart answer.

-- On SF's murder rate: Wolf says, "Cops are in occupation mode, not community mode." Chicken declares, "If art became our focus people would be nicer to each other."

-- Fun facts: Wolf makes Pruno (learned in clink?), Chicken knows how to make his car run on coffee grinds. (And they're great for using in soil. What can't they do?)

-- Burning Man co-creator John Law was there. Madcap!

Fore more, check out the debate in its entirety here.

Debate photo by the always fantastic Scott Beale

So California is pretty much a Blue State, right? And it'll probably be bluer than blue over the next few decades or so considering the Republicans have been hell-bent on pissing off every Hispanic voter lately, right? So what's a Republican to do to change all that? Better ideas? Better Presidents? Better wars? How's about changing the rules so that the Republicans can get some of that California's electoral gold.

Thomas Hiltachk, a Sacramento lawyer with connections to the California Republican Party, is working on getting an initiative on the 2008 ballot that'll divvy up California's electoral votes by congressional districts. So the presidential candidate who wins the congressional district will get one electoral vote for it. The only thing winning the state will get a candidate is just two votes, a pair of tickets to Great America, and a gift certificate to In N' Out Burger. Now while Democrats have more congressmen than Republicans, there are enough Republican congressional districts out there to throw up to twenty points a Republicans’ way. Considering the tightness of the past two elections and the South's inability to get a clue, those twenty votes could very possibly swing the election to whatever Republican runs. Those twenty votes, for instance, are the same as Ohio and as we all know Ohio was the difference in 2004. Which means that in 2008, the Republicans won't have to worry about stealing Ohio. Or maybe they still will.

Proponents of the bill are trying to get it put on the June 2008 ballot and since there's nothing really going on for that election, the turnout will be loooow. That could mean that whatever side has the more motivated voters could win and Republicans could be ultra-motivated pass this. To help sweeten the deal, they're also throwing in a lot of conservative red meat into this election, like the ole stand by, more gay bashing measures.

So far, Arnie has yet to weigh in on this.

Well, at least he lives in the Richmond, right? (Some) affordable housing advocates and ethicists are shaking their heads over District 1 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick's poor party timing this week.

Remember that lot on Cesar Chavez and Mission that everyone's fighting about condoizing? Well, the Board of Supes had a contentious debate about it on Tuesday, and narrowly voted for development on a 6-5 vote. (hey, Michela Alioto-Pier must've shown up that day!) The swing vote? Jake McG, which surprised some people because usually Jake votes with the progressives (who were the losing 5).

Well, well, well: turns out that on Monday night, the day before the vote, McGoldrick went to a fundraising party thrown by Barbary Coast Consulting. Barbary Coast not only sponsors SF local politics go-to website Usual Suspects, but also runs one of the city's most successful lobbying/PR businesses. And who's just recently hired Barbary Coast? The developers of the condo project. That doesn't look so good.

Barbary Coast says that their party for McGoldrick had nothing to do with their lobbying work and that they were simply showing their support for the supe in his anti-recall efforts, and McGoldrick himself says that "my buttocks has never been for sale" (huh?) -- but the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition is pretty steamed. Who'd want to buy McGoldrick's buttocks anyways?

For what it's worth, the developers have donated $2000 to McGoldrick, and McGoldrick raised about $8000 at Monday night's shindig (it's not clear if the $2000 was donated at the party, but we don't think it was.).

Picture of Jake McG at the Prog Con by Steve Rhodes.

We're bummed we were out of town for all the ins and outs of Ed Jew's preliminary hearing -- but thanks to SFist Jer for covering it for us while we were gone! So today's latest? Ed Jew is going to stand trial. That is, Judge Harold Kahn found that the DA had enough evidence for the case to be presented to a jury, Next court date: August 20, presumably to set the trial date.

In other Ed Jew court news, Ed Jew's father worked out a deal where he wouldn't have to testify despite receiving a subpoena from the DA, and Ed's lawyer says "Ed has not yet begun to fight." We shudder to think what this trial's going to be like if he's not fighting now.

And what's with all these other Ed Jew situations coming out of the woodwork? Someone on the Berkeley rent board may actually live in Oakland, and a LA councilmember purporting to rep the gritty Inglewood actually lives in a gated community in hoity-toity Brentwood. Why on earth would you want to represent an area you don't live in? Do you just love reading proposed legislation and sitting through public comment sessions that much?

Picture from ABC 7.

You thought she was gone, but no: Fiona Ma is still coming to us from beyond the grave! Or Sacramento or wherever she is now.

Despite having left the Board of Soups back in January, Ms. Ma's official SFGov webpage lingers on, like your one friend from back home who kept hanging out at the high school after graduating. But you'd never guess, from looking at it, that's she's moved on; it's the first hit when you Google "Fiona Ma," and it even says that she's still serving on her old boards and commissions. A vague "term ends 2007" is the only clue.

Sadly, many of the links on the page are broken, so her ancestral internet-home has apparently not been very well kept-up since her departure. But as so many District 4 supervisors have discovered, maintaining a property is nearly impossible when you don't actually live there.