Photo by Andy Sternberg/LAist A posthumous tribute wall dedicated to singer/songwriter Elliot Smith sat defaced by graffiti for months on end -- LAist said enough, so did the fans and city council.SFist was surprised to learn that chronic presidential candidate Ralph Nader picked former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez as his running mate.Phillyist explored the possibilities of green cleaning.In the latest edition of Reel Toronto, a bi-weekly feature looking at films shot in Toronto......

Over at The Snitch, we came across this fury-inducing commercial conceived by heart-warming conservative group Move America Forward. (You know, the one chaired by KSFO 560 AM's Melanie Morgan?) Anyway, in it moms and members of the Marines corp throw a patriotic temper tantrum, slam the Berkeley City Council for not apologizing to a bald eagle, want people to sign some sort of ineffective petition, or something like that. They plan to air the......

According to the fine folks over at The Sword (NSFW), the GayVNs (NSFW) will be held here on Saturday -- you know, those homosexual pornography achievement awards, which led to Mayor Gavin Newsom getting all Berkeley City Council on us after he declared Feb. 23 to be Colt Studio Day last year? -- coinciding with that hairy-large-gay-appreciation festival thing happening. Anyway, last year the GayVNs had comedienne and social critic Kathy Griffin hosting the......

Fascist Imperial Dogs 1 - Tree Loving Hippies 0- After all that protesting and dancing and carrot juice drinking, the Berkeley City Council chickened out and said they erred in passing that January resolution that disinvited a Marine recruiting station and called them "unwelcome intruders." In that resolution, they also allowed Code Pink permission to blast all sorts of things at the station, gave them a designated parking space in front of it, and permission to protest on Wednesdays from noon to 4 p.m. Why Wednesday? Because it’s Hump Day! They did, however, refuse to issue an apology and used part of their mea culpa to lash out at the Bush administration and the war. This didn't satisfy some conservatives as Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina introduced the "Semper Fi Act" which would redirect money to UC Berkeley and give it to the Southern Heritage Coalition so they can sew more flags with the Confederate flag in them....

Anti-war fans, pro-war zealots, '60s fetishists, barely-legal Marines, the unshowered, and young college students trying to impress their boyfriends will be out in full force on the other side of the Bay later this evening. Why? Because after receiving loads of national criticism, as well as a few death threats, the Berkeley City Council will decide tonight whether or not to "revoke a letter it approved two weeks ago telling the Marines they are 'unwelcome......

Republican (it goes without saying) Assemblyman Guy Houston of San Ramon wants to slice off more than $3 million in state funding from Berkeley for their stance against Marine recruiting. He will introduce legislation to "withhold state transportation money until Berkeley rescinds its 'war on the U.S. Marine Corps.'" Jesus. In a move that will ideally hurt his political career -- since it's a waste of time, a symbolic prick move, and has little......

Here's what's been going on in the wide world of sports while we've been fighting off the flu......

Here's what we got from a quick email from SFist Jim, at the Herrera press conference (thanks, Jim! Mmmm-whhhahhh!): --Resignation is irrevocable --Ed cannot hold office in SF for 5 years. (Is Burlingame city council still up for grabs, though?) --No admission of guilt by Ed (so will this come in for the city criminal trial?) --In exchange, the city drops the civil suit and Gavin Newsom's investigation. --Ed was not present at the press......

The son of Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, Ignacio De La Fuente Jr., 34, got smacked upside the head with a 14-year prison sentence for raping four women. "All but one of whom were prostitutes," according to the Chronicle. (So, we guess three of them deserved it? It's more violating and traumatic for just one of them? We shouldn't be that upset?)...

Today, the Oakland City Council voted to ban smoking in "ATM lines, parks and other public places," which is smurfy, health-conscious, makes the bitch behind you at the ATM line stops her self-righteous fake coughing, will result in animated birds singing on your shoulders, etcetera. And although we understand that it's a private establishment, this always brings to mind the fact that we can no longer smoke at Denny's. One should still, always, and......

More vigilantes? A shooting yesterday afternoon in the Loin may have been an attempt to clean up the neighborhood. At around noon yesterday, authorities found a man with non-life threatening wounds after hearing reports of one shot being fired. The shooter was arrested a few hours later, after what the report called an "intense" building search. Witnesses say the shooter was acting as an armed vigilante of some sort, but the cops won't comment about......

Well, just to follow up on yesterday's day of violence, we can't find anything about the late-afternoon incident on Ellis Street that a couple of you guys saw, but there was another shooting around 11:50 p.m. in Visitacion Valley. That one was fatal. (The Examiner also has a list of other recent daytime shootings in SF, if you're interested.) Phew, let's get to the less life-endangering stuff. Politicians! Matt Gonzalez's 2003 mayoral campaign team was......

Back after the July 4th break! The winner from two weeks ago: the SJ Metro. This Media News Corp. group taking over the Merc News is bad for local news coverage. Dude! We need to start following San Jose local politics -- one of their city council members eloped last weekend! Annalee Newitz liked Transformers. Bodybuilders in San Jose this weekend -- look at the cords on that guy's neck! Cover article: we're embarrassed to......

The on-again-off-again proposal by the Wayans Brothers to build some sort of Wayans World at the site of the Oakland Army Base is back on as an Oakland City Council committee voted to allow negotiations to begin anew. A proposal was introduced awhile ago but fell through when the Wayans brothers were unable to come up with anything in the way of a plan....

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

Week Around The -Ists...

Students at Cal protest the store Bear Basics for selling shirts they found offensive. The shirts in question said "Rutgers Nappy-Headed Ho Basketball Team." A manager was asked to stop selling the shirt and refused, so the students organized a protest for the next day. The manager's boss intervened and pulled the shirt before the store opened the next day, but when the students came by a few days later, they found two other shirts......

Here's todays news...

We somehow missed this, or more like didn't care, but Charles Barkley has now become Public Enemy #1 here in the Bay Area. This is because during the NBA Playoffs, Barkley has said a number of bad, bad things about the area. Among other things, he's said this about the Bay Area: "It's the dumping ground of people who can't afford to live in L.A." And this: "You know, we should take the show on the road. For the next game, we should go to hell - I mean, go to Golden State." And then there's this: "I would rather stay on Alcatraz than San Francisco or Oakland.'' He also talked trash about Sausalito . Sausalito! ...

Running a little late today! Here's today's story of awesomeness! You know Project Prom, the protest where teenage girls dress in prom dresses and combat boots to support safe cosmetics in Union Square? (We' might be getting some pictures of it, and if you have any, tag 'em SFist on Flickr!) Well, one girl was at Tuesday's protest in a silver prom dress, tiara, and boots when a group of three guys raced by and......

One of our favorite episodes of "the Simpsons" is the monorail episode, the one where some con artist (voiced by the late, great Phil Hartman) convinces Springfield that the one thing they need to do to put themselves on the map is a monorail. Of course, it all goes to pot when the guy takes off with some of the money and Homer somehow manages to become the monorail's conductor. So what does this have to do with the 49ers? Because at a meeting yesterday with the Santa Clara City Council, a consultant hired by the 49ers painted such a rosy picture of what would happen if Santa Clara builds them a stadium, we can't but help think about the episode. ...

Here's a wrapup of today's news...

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists....

In a meeting Monday night, the Lafayette city council came up with a compromise on the those controversial crosses that were set up months ago to protest the war. At issue, besides the whole anti-war vs. pro-war thing, is whether or not they complied with city codes. It's much easier to argue over city codes, after all, then the war. ...

If you ever find yourself in Belmont and want to light up a cigarette, here's a word of advice: don't. Thanks to a new resolution being considered to fight second-hand smoke, the city will be the toughest on smoking anywhere. Smoking in company cars? Nope. Smoking on the sidewalk? Fuhgeddaboutit. Same with your apartment and even your home if one of your neighbors complains. If you do get caught, the anti-Smoking SWAT Team will come and get you and send you to a smoking reeducation camp where they will forcibly keep your eyes open Clockwork Orange style and make you watch the movie about the Marlboro Man until you see the evils of smoking. ...

We mentioned this in Tuesday's Day Around the Bay, but there are some new bits to the story so we're going to do a full post on it. Plus, it's kind of a fun story. Anyways, this is about the guy in Alameda who did some public art in front of his house that features a cardboard cutout of the President with a knife in his head. Well, the Secret Service were not amused and came to give the guy a visit. ...

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

-Thanks for coming, Queen Mary 2. -Santa Clara City Council is expected to vote for a study, just a study, on a new stadium for the Niners. ...

Hey, do you guys remember the story about estranged Daly City politico couple the Berlangas, where the ex-wife and the ex-husband were running against each other for a seat on the City Council and the ex-wife accused the ex-husband of doing it to intimidate her and got a restraining order against him for stalking her? Well, he was sentenced to 15 days in the county jail and 32 hours of anger management classes for violating......

It's a bad sign when the Oakland City Council (and its participating public -- see notes in the comments below) takes the "worst behaved political activity" award on a day where not only were Chris Daly and Gavin Newsom scheduled to be in the same room but there was also a Taiwanese political protest in town. (We didn't think anyone could outfight a Taiwanese politician!) But no -- today's swearing in for new Oakland......