--...and as promised, here's the back of the Ed Jew calendar, from reader Jake. Thanks, Jake! Irony alert! Can you guys see the "please contact me if you have problems or if issues concern you" tagline? --Fog City has heard rumors that Peskin might make Daly give up his position as chair of the Budget and Finance Committee. Meanwhile, the Sentinel reports that Daly misread the press release that Newsom's people sent out, and......

According to a press release put out on PR Newswire by her attorney, Dr. Arlene Ackerman has filed suit against the San Francisco Unified School District in San Francisco Superior Court....

Next up in our SF school board candidates interview series -- Mr. Omar Khalif! Omar's got a MySpace page, and he's a Scorpio. Khalif's also been endorsed by Gavin Newsom, and is running on a platform promoting neighborhood schools in the Bayview-Hunters Point, and charter schools. Introduce yourself, and tell us what you currently do. For the last seven years, I have been an independent contractor with the City and County of San Francisco Juvenile......

It's been over a year since high-profile law firm Gonzalez and Leigh filed suit over former SFUSD chief Arlene Ackerman's "platinum parachute" termination package. They lost the case in August, but appealed the decision. A lot can happen in a year, which might be why no one from the law firm managed to show up for Tuesday's hearing appealing the decision. (If a case is pro bono, is "well, you get what you paid for"......

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. Hey, PUNI's back! So brilliant, we're using it as the WRTW picture this week -- it's brilliant because it's true! Matt Smith finally gets a cover article, on venture capital investments in grassroots organizing. He seems unusually enthusiastic about it, for him (i.e., "This might not suck."). Are you an apologist for Arlene Ackerman? Meredith starts off this week's review with "I haven't really been living in the Bay Area for the past month." Ced's thoughts on this! Where's the rest of the food critics this week? And Dan Savage's back on his game, with a Spanking The Monkey scenario, and a spanking the monkey scenario. Extra bonuses: Santorum, and a letter from the editor of the Economist. Really! Next up, the East Bay Express: Jokes about the Chronicle's photo department in Bottom Feeder. Why doesn't anyone care that the Oakland schools may go on strike? Rallies for two Korean men shot to death by the Dublin police. Cover: video documentaries about life on the street -- pretty interesting! Down In Front's looking for a new favorite band now that Grandaddy's broken up -- criteria listed (lyrics about drinking, female bass player). Look at these adorable punk kids in this band called the Matches!! Cuuuuuute! And new word: "Yahdidahbooboo," used as an interjection. The Guardian, the Metro, and the pick of the week after the jump. Yahdidahbooboo! Also, image from this week's PUNI, by Dan Siegler. Impeach Bush AND Daly! ...

Summertime of Poverty pens a lyrical reflection on the modern world, but the title says it all. On that note, Ron Gonzalez gives a final state-of-San Jose speech, and San Jose Inside readers take the opportunity to lament his tenure. Up north, Michelle Slatalla plays with new real estate tool Zillow, but while intrigued, is not impressed by the inaccurate data. Kim Knox at Left in SF goes over the details of Arlene Ackerman's......

Last week's two-peat winner, the Guardian: Angry, angry about the Village Voice's buyout of the New Times. Gavin Newsom -- in the pocket of the business community elites? Say it ain't so! Arlene Ackerman, bristling at public review? Say it ain't so! Annalee Newitz went to a Nick Denton party. Cover article: We're talkin' LO, LO, LO, L-O-V-E, LO, LO, LO. (Will Ashlee Simpson ever go away? That song's kinda catchy, though.) That teensy little restaurant on the corner of 18th and Mission, which is now Burmese food. Hey guys, when you roll over "cheap eats" on the homepage, it still says "Dan" Leone.) And hey, the sex columnist moved to the back! (the back of the weekly, that is.) The Metro: Radio radio. Something about a Neolithic goddess. Cover article: The science of pick-up artists. Jerk chicken. The Police tribute band Stung in Redwood City. Hyphy, the West Coast answer to crunk. The Asian Excellence Awards in Secret Asian Man. Hey, we totally had a good time watching those! C'mon, they were sponsored by XO! ...

Give Gavin Newsom a shiny red apple! In an interview with this month's San Francisco Magazine (in blatant disregard of another interview with the Gavman in 7x7, which was optimistically labeled "exclusive"), the mayor told the reporter, "You know, five years in a row I have increased test scores. No. 1 urban school district in the state of California." As the wags at the Chron have pointed out, was Gavin sneaking into classrooms to go over the times-7 tables when no one was looking? And how exactly was he increasing test scores in those first three years when he was serving on the Board of Supes? Folks at the SF Unified School District (which runs the schools and is independent of City Hall) are all agiggle over the statement, with the president of the teacher's union saying, "I'm glad that he wants to take credit for the work that the teachers and paraprofessionals (classroom aides) have done," and saying that they'll be sure to charge Newsom union dues next year. Superintendant Arlene Ackerman, who really was running the schools, said the comment seemed strange. And in any event, Eric Mar on the school board says that Newsom shouldn't be bragging about the schools in any event, given that Latino and African-American kids seem to be falling behind, and the trend of resegregation within the district. To be fair, everyone in the district did say that Newsom really has done a lot for the schools since taking office, and the test scores in SF are rising steadily -- in fact, the SF average score is now 745 (with 800 considered excellent), outscoring LA (649), Sacto (688), and San Diego (726). Still, though -- we totally want to be in Mr. Newsom's homeroom class! Okay, the picture has nothing to do with schools, but look at Gavin with Mario! We found the picture on a blog....

Members of SEIU Local 790 employed by the San Francisco Unified School District plan to announce their strike as early as Wednesday. We confirmed information posted on Indybay with a representative from the union yesterday. According to the Chronicle, the strike will not be legal under state law until ten days after a recommendation from a fact-finding panel is issued and considered by both the union and the district, which at the earliest would......

Amazing what a difference two days makes, huh? After the unions triumphed in their combined opposition to Arnold's Very Special Election -- well, would you look at that? Sutter is settling with the healthcare workers and the state's decided not to try and increase nurse-to-patient ratios after all. To the victors go the spoils! (And here's Arnold: "Oh, if I could go back in time like the Terminator, I would have listened to Maria and not had this election in the first place." He has got to cut it out with these lame references to his movies and the Kennedy family.) Emboldened by Nov. 8? Or maybe just sick and tired of being sick and tired? Well, the San Francisco Unified School District has called for a strike vote next. Even that offer from Arlene Ackerman to resign if they'd agree to settle didn't sweeten the pot enough for them? That must be some baaaaad contract they got. ...

Wow, so much going on today! We're so inundated with news today that we're going to just give it to you in bullet form! (Those of you who are muttering darkly about the laziness of the SFist news desk, don't think we can't hear you either.) So here goes: *Gay marriage in California just made it over another hurdle, as Mark Leno shepherds three swing votes to change their minds and vote yes this time around. We're all waiting for the governor to either sign or veto -- no response either way from Arnold's office. *Arlene Ackerman, beleaguered SF superintendant, finally quit. She got a little emotional at the press conference -- crying all the way to the bank, baby! She's getting that $375K bonus after all. She'll stick around through this school year and then she's through. *And finally, they found the remains of a ship in a construction site by the Gap HQ downtown. Apparently there are "hundreds" of abandoned ships by the Embarcadero that were used to make the landfill? Folks in the 1880s would ditch the ships when it became more profitable to find gold in them thar hills. You wonder if historians 200 years from now are going to get all excited about finding the shell of a server farm or something. ...

So class, how was your first day of school? Kindergarten class went fine, and the SF school district's wildcat strike wasn't as effective as it might have been -- but as we all know, the second day is always the hardest, after all the first-day hoopla dies down. So the rumor making its way around town is that School Superintendant Arlene Ackerman is going to finally make good on her threats and leave town. (scroll down past Centerfolds and the 7 Haight bus.) No one has confirmed this rumor, but there is a 6 p.m. closed meeting of the school board scheduled for tonight. As you may recall, Ackerman hasn't really gotten along with a lot of people on the school board or in the community. And Matt Gonzalez's law firm had filed suit over the procedural legality of what it called a "platinum parachute" provision of Ackerman's contract, which gave her a $375,000 buyout option if she unilaterally decided that her relationship with the board was "unworkable," for which they were roundly criticized for running up the bill against our schools. Well, as is currently being discussed at sfwall.net, it's not really clear who looks worse here now, if the rumor's true -- is it the Greens, for apparently running the super out of town? Or is it Ackerman, who now looks like she was just waiting for the first day of school to pass before making herself some bank? Or is it the school board moderates, who said we should all give Ackerman a chance and forced the parachute contract through in the first place? Maybe everyone needs a time-out here....

Arlene Ackerman's BFF Wade Randlett and SFSOS are hosting the "San Francisco Homeownership Summit" [PDF] tonight. Panels include "How to Protect Yourself from the Board of Supervisors," and "Why Thurgood Marshall's Legacy is Hurting The Children." Okay, we made that last one up. [via The Golden Gate] Speaking of the children, take your little tots to see the original Gene Wilder "Willy Wonka", a presentation of the "Potrero Hill Walk-in Movies" series. Rhode Island......

Last week's winner, the Guardian: Cover articles: SF school superintendant Arlene Ackerman haaaaaaates the Guardian. Okay, we've now read too much about the school board, we had a nightmare about her and members of the Green Party chasing us around and around in a circle last night. Bill Graham Presents is working exclusively with the Weekly, grr! Hey, we actually went to one of the events listed in "The Mix," that little box of things that the cooler-than-you-are SFBGers went to last week. We're sure this is completely mortifying to the cooler-than-you-are SFBGers to hear, like when the cool kids would go to the Esprit store in high school, only to find that group of math club nerdgirls already there. Tura Satana nee Yamaguchi! Miranda July! And Norwegian Annie, loved by Pitchfork! Next up, the EBX: The EBX brags up all the awards it won. The SF Hooters is now boycotting the SF Weekly because the EBX ran a I Like Eating cartoon making fun of their bad food! (The Weekly and the EBX are both owned by New Times Media.) More horse coverage. Cover article: everyone gets along in Newark, CA. The Hootersly-banned I Like Eating dines at the 7-11. Miranda July! But no Annie. And Savage Love: eeps, more tips on rectal tampons! After the jump, the triumphant return of the Metro and the Weekly....

So Matt Gonzalez's new law firm has sued the San Francisco School District for approving Superintendant Arlene Ackerman's "platinum parachute" contract without proper notice. This post isn't really about that (and SFist will probably be covering this more in depth later), but please make a note of this for background. The lead plaintiff in the case is a recently graduated high school senior named Alan Wong. Wong serves on the school board's Student Advisory Counsel, which makes recommendations on what it thinks the school should be doing. The counsel tried to bring up the contract issue with Ackerman, but were rebuffed. So Wong went to the board meeting last week, and gave a fiery speech about how the school district is a "totalitarian state." (Whaddya want, he's 18 years old!) Wong gets a standing ovation from the crowd. In the middle of the applauding, Wong says that school board commissioner Dr. Dan Kelly (an Ackerman supporter) leans over, and whispers to him, "You're an egotistical idiot and that was the stupidest speech I've ever heard." When asked for comment, Kelly responded, "um.... those comments weren't supposed to be public, and I was misquoted." Oh, that's awesome, a 50-something guy (who spent two years in jail for resisting the Vietnam War) bullying a high school senior. Why don't you just give Wong a wedgie and hang him up by his underwear in his locker next too, Dr. Kelly? ...

...drunk! Last week's winner: the The Guardian. Muni fare hike, rrrrgh! The Guardian shakes its fist at you. Arlene Ackerman writes a defensive letter ("I have never claimed to be perfect and my staff and I make missteps like any other human beings." Nothing good can follow that statement.) Local politics: why isn't a sports agent attorney being prosecuted for stealing money from his client? (answer: well-connected). Burning Man, part 15 of a 78-part series. Cover article: Feel-bad romantic comedies. And Inside Deep Throat: the ultimate That's 70s Show. SF Weekly: We raced through the letters and Matt Smith so we could take the "Are you an apologist for Chris Daly?" quiz. God, this is So Fricken Good. We scored: "Please make this guy the next president of the Board of Supervisors. My TiVo would never be the same." Ladies, order your Mrs. Chris Daly t-shirts now! Cover article: Sweet Jesus, can this issue get any better? The cover article is about Journey!! Steve Perry is totally the emo-est singer alive. Meredith Brody sniffs disdainfully at the food at the Scharffen Berger café. Conor Oberst, making a run for Steve Perry's title. The clubs columnist goes to the Zeitgeist to think about Metallica. Savage Love: cancer survivor wants to have an affair, does kidney stone medication affect semen, and a complicated letter involving gurneys in Canada that we don't really quite understand. Don't stop believin', after the jump. ...