Photo of fireworks for New Year's Eve...

-- Gross, sticky, exhausting, hot weather begins. But! Ride public transit for free tomorrow during a Spare the Air Day. [Examiner, SFMTA] -- Gang members, extortion, and THC.. [Bluoz] -- 12-year-old Jose Trujillo of San Leandro dies after a skateboarding accident. Sad. [Chron] -- Mick LaSalle laughs hysterically at cute, young, blonde girl's misfortune. [Chron Blogs] -- Closet-case Senator "has never been gay." He's just a guy who digs other guys, dude. [CBS5] --......

-Republicans whine that Pelosi isn't being very nice to them. That sound you hear is the playing of the world's smallest violin. ...

-HP Chairman (Chairwoman?) Patricia Dunn will step down in January for all the craziness HP has been involved in lately. We're sure that with all the scandal swirling about that she's sort of responsible for, HP will give her a package commiserate with the mess, like say only several millions of dollars. ...

We're never all that psyched to go to work, but it's a tiny bit more palatable when we don't have to pay to get there. That's why we'll be getting out of bed with an unusual spring in our step, as tomorrow marks 2005's first Spare The Air Day. According to this Chron piece, this means that almost all local transit providers (including BART and Muni) will offer free service from 4-9 a.m. Tuesday......