First eco-friendly homeless shelter opens its doors. Glamour, glitz, green. [Oakland Tribune]The Mayor uses Muni funds to pay his posse. [SFGate, N Judah Chronicles]Speaking of which, buy your "The N Is Near" t-shirt now. No, now. [N-Judah Chronicles]Mary Ratcliff reports on the police state formerly known as Bayview-Hunter's Point.Yikes. [SF Bay View]Yerba Buena Loft cover up? Shady. [Curbed]Although he seems like more of a Mission fag, Gus takes over the Castro. [eBAR]Sir, there are no......

San Francisco started the year with a bang. Literally. 1/1: The title of First Murder of 2008 was snatched up just a few hours after midnight. An unidentified man was shot to death on the 300 block of 9th Street in SOMA yesterday morning at around 4:50 a.m. No suspects, no arrests. 1/1: Two non-fatal stabbings occurred at 2 a.m in Washington Square Park. No word yet at to whether or not a pizza......

Your Black Muslim Bakery -- the prominent and notorious Oakland setting featured in many a Chauncey Bailey story -- will probably be sold today to Vital Life Services, a nondenominational "nonprofit serving people living with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses," founded in 1987. The high bidder NCK LLC, a limited liability corporation, plans on buying the space, then turning it over to VLS. (Aw.) The property was also sought after by several other interested......

-- Emmy-winner Al Gore might also win the Nobel Peace Prize. Weren't Bono and Princess Diana supposed to win that at some point, too? (You know, before she...vroom.) [Wired News] -- Bay Area Reporter endorses Newsom. Shocking. [BAR] -- Double shooting in East Oakland. [CBS5] -- 16-year-old Angel Carrion busted out of juvenile detention center. Because he's bad. Real bad. And probably dating your daughter. [Examiner] -- Infant cold sniffle medicine yanked off store......

Federal drug agents raided an East Oakland home growing a lot of mary jane, $3.5 million worth of it, it seems. Heading over to"10320 Pearmain St. about 4:30 p.m. to check on a resident's well-being," according to the Chronicle (something about a door being left ajar for a few days, claims a neighbor), cops spotted the spiky tips of a marijuana plant and called in the DEA to investigate. Nancy Botwin would have had......

Today's news in refuse: Over in the East Bay, the city of Oakland's filed suit against Waste Management, the garbage company that's locked out the local workers for 11 days now, and is letting trash pile up all over Alameda County. The city wants a 90-day cooldown period where the union workers can work and they can talk about the contract; the company says they've already hired new people and everything is fine. Meanwhile, the......

Just some random news items on the wire: There was a three-alarm fire at Thurgood Marshall Alternative High in the Bayview this afternoon. School's out for the summer, so there weren't any students around, and the authorities think the fire was started by roofers working with tar. Some unscreened yutz snuck into Terminal 1 (the non-Southwest one) at Oakland Airport this morning, necessitating a two-hour search of the entire place as TSA tried in vain......

The Hell's Angels are throwing themselves a three day celebration in Oakland this weekend in honor of it being their 50th anniversary and it's going to be fabulous. There'll be a Tupperware party and a Sandra Bullock film festival plus such classes as "Fixing Your Hog," "How to Rekindle Romance with Your Old Lady While on the Road" and "The Semiotics of Tattoos." ...

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. Tim Redmond wants.... Ques-tion TIME! Ques-tion TIME! Also -- impeach! And be nicer to pigeons. Chris Daly likes putting city propositions on the ballot. Ed Jew -- get to know him now, since he didn't get any coverage during the election. A tattoo artist shot in the head in East Oakland. Buy a San Francisco Values t-shirt from the Guardian. Cover articles: The Year In Music (why the Bay......

At CounterPULSE (1310 Mission at 9th), Replaying Lost Landscapes: Film fragments of San Francisco. Local archivist, Rick Prelinger, culls from silent and early sound films, exuberant early-1960s city views, diverse home movies and industrial films, and includes rarely-seen views of San Francisco. (8pm) At Mills College in Oakland, the art reception for The Macarthur Boulevard Portrait Project. Three fine art photographers, Heike Liss, Johnna Arnold, and Bob Hsiang, were set loose with digital cameras......

As yesterday's post listed nary an East Bay event, we're making up for it today: We are going to be on 25th St. in Oakland for 21 Grand's Illuminated Corridor event, a collision of live music and media on the theme of mobility taking place in the street with projections on most available surfaces, with 50 or so artists and musicians. (SFist Sarah L will be cruising around the Oakland Art Murmur with Neighborhood......

A former San Carlos mayor is filing an appeal of his conviction for defrauding the Belmont-San Carlos Fire Department out of $13,000, by using public funds to pay for a political consultant who failed to win a campaign back in 2003. The fountain at San Jose State smells bad. An occupational therapy major says it's this year's "stank smell," as opposed to last year's, which was their trees. However, a business management major says he......

Saturday: we're hitting the YBCA (700 Howard Street at Third) for the SFist Krissy-recommended Kronos Quartet and experimental musicians, Matmos and Walter Kitundu collaboration. Sure, we love the Kronos Quartet and Matmos, but we're also eager to see the extraordinarily threatening Kitundu in action. Shows are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., buy tickets here. Sunday: we can't miss Maker Faire, the DIY get-together to beat all get-togethers, at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. There are......

Meat may indeed be murder (or perhaps suicide), as the erstwhile Sausage King of San Leandro, who was convicted of murdering three meat inspectors last year, was found dead in his San Quentin jail cell early this morning. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death. And the annual race to the final murder count begins, as SF hits murder number 96 in the early am hours of Boxing Day, with a shooting outside the Velvet Lounge on Broadway. Oakland is fast on our heels with murder 93, with two shootings over the weekend in East Oakland. ...and hey, number one on the threatdown -- bears! Vinters in Napa have started asking for permits to shoot the bears that munch away on this year's cabernet grape harvests. The Aetna Springs Vineyard shot four bears after the owner began to fear for the safety of his workers (and after his fences and vines were damaged) -- but the woman who owns the golf course down the street from Aetna Springs calls it "wine for blood, life versus profit," saying that it's wrong to move into a wildlife area and then kill off the wildlife. Other neighbors think the bears are "neat." ...

..hey, there's a coupon for $2 off any purchase at Amoeba on the back page of the New Times publications! Whoa, the Weekly's kind of thin this week! What is this, Mischa Barton's paper? Embracing recursivity, the Infiltrator infiltrates an impersonator convention. PUNI makes a Newsom dyslexia joke! Gasp, but also giggle! (We hope he doesn't get sanctioned by the Board of Supes again for it.) Cover article: a Christian film studio. Social Grace tells......

In response to reader feedback, we're trying out new graphics for the blotter. Let us know what you think! Halloween came and went with a minimum of fuss in the city -- as one officer noted, there were 250,000 people and only five punches thrown (working out to a ratio of one punch per 50,000 folks). One of those punches was thrown around 10:30 p.m. at Market and Castro, where a man complained that someone......

Bay Area crime roundup...