Like a pesky gnat, the U.S. Supreme Court swatted away an appeal by former San Francisco Police Department Chief Earl Sanders yesterday. He claimed to have been nailed to the wall unfairly over his part in a little known thing called fajitagate....

--Happy 77th birthday, Willie Mays! --Comparing rebuilding the maze to acupuncture. And hey -- the 80/880 connection is reopening tomorrow! That was fast! --Cinco de Mayo in San Jose wasn't nearly as bad as it's been before. --They let Fajitagate Alex Fagan Jr. into the Army Special Forces? --OMFG -- there's a chihuahua race in San Bruno next week!!! --Profile of the Warriors fan who came up with the "WE BELIEVE" slogan. Picture of Willie......

Could it happen here? Could it happen here? On the theory of forewarned is forearmed, the news media from potential FEMA disaster spot number 3 (that's us!) are now frantically investigating the qualifications of SF's own Homeland Security liaison and City Dept. of Emergency Services head Annemarie Conroy -- who, like Michael Brown, is an attorney with no real experience in emergency management who, people charge, only got the job based on her political connections. Conroy seems better than ol' man Brownie in that she probably wouldn't refuse to talk to a woman governor and only talk to her husband instead (WTF?) -- but when your only qualification for emergency management is that, um, your father was in emergency management, perhaps KGO 7 is right to be a little concerned. Then again, given that she replaced Alex Fagan as the previous emergency guy, maybe we're actually better off. (At least we don't live in NJ -- where Gay-American governor Jim McGreevy appointed his clandestine boyfriend to Jersey's equivalent post). Part 2 of the KGO special airs tonight at 6:30, right after the president's speech. ...

Last week's pick, the Guardian. Tim Redmond dislikes the Pope. The editorials come out anti-Alioto-Pier's TIC proposal (curious, since the paper comes out on Wednesday when the vote was on Tuesday). Cover article: a harrowing tale of how hard it is to get insurance coverage for carpal tunnel and other repetitive-stress injuries under saggy Schwarzenegger's attacks on workers' comp. Annalee Newitz goes to Washington. A review of the awesome Old Mandarin Islamic Restaurant. Hip-hop porn. And an excitingly self-centered interview with Deborah Gibson in Sonic Reducer! ("When I saw Britney Spears, I thought she was Mini-Me." Mmmm? Do you remember Debbie Gibson in a short-short Catholic schoolgirl uniform? Us neither.) The SF Weekly. SFist Jon -- we mean, Matt Smith, comes out against Leno's hemp cultivation bill. Mecklin endorses the Honduran pope candidate. Apologist: Alex Fagan not guilty? Whaaaa? Cover article: why saggy Schwarzenegger is trying to destroy public pensions. Vote for us in the 2005 Best of the Bay balloting! (in the category of "best yoga studio!") Hot music trends for 2005 (Go! Team, suit jacket over t-shirt) and a hilarious interview with Scott Weiland about his high school. And Savage Love: bondage. The East Bay Express (list-o-mania!), no Metro this week (we're back to reading only hard copies), and the Weekly of the Week after the jump....

This just in -- a Sacramento jury has found Alex Fagan Jr. not guilty in the Fajitagate trial. The jury found him innocent of two felony assault charges and hung on the misdemeanor assaults. Meanwhile, those of you getting a little Mexican food on Union Street better step lively. ...