On Friday night at around 11:30 p.m., the intersection of Leavenworth and O'Farrell played host to a shooting. It seems that shots were fired from one car into another, leaving two males seriously injured. No deaths, no arrests. Not to be outdone, Hyde and Turk set the stage for a stabbing on Sunday, 2:20 a.m. The victim was rushed to SFGH. Again: no death, no arrests.San Mateo saw its first homicide since 2006. A......

A Palo Alto high school girl survived a kidnapping and sexual assault yesterday afternoon, an ordeal that went on for 90 minutes. At 3 p.m. yesterday, a teen was on the "500 block of Arastradero Road near El Camino Real...near her home, when a man accosted her from behind, hit her in the face several times and dragged her into his car," according to Palo Alto police officer Dan Ryan. The city of Palo......

After reading the harrowing tale of the Kim family and how Mrs. Kim kept her children alive by breastfeeding them, we feel a bit blasé about all these fine food and cocktail party charitable events tonight. But since we are fortunate enough to not be in a life-or-death struggle for survival ... At the Rickshaw Stop (155 Fell between Van Ness & Franklin), Root Division presents Spectacle: A Cocktail Party and Visual Carnival, with......

-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. ...

Bummer! The organizers for this weekend's Bay To Breakers race have announced that it's banning "large quantities" of alcohol. Organizers assured participants that "It's OK if people want to bring a personal supply,” but kegs, big collections of bottles at checkpoints, and the running tiki bar are out. Organizers claim it has nothing to do with policing your life, it's just that the cops say that the drinking slows down the race and by gum,......

SFist Mary-Lynn's on vacation, but we're sure she'll be thrilled to hear that the white knights of Menlo Park may actually be coming to the rescue of beloved independent bookstore Kepler's! A group of about 15 investors has come together to work on reopening the store, which could no longer make their rent payments in their prime real estate space on El Camino Real. The store had been forced to renegotiate its lease in 1999, when, as we all know, real estate was so cheap and plentiful down in the Valley -- and Kepler's landlord, the Tan Group, has been unwilling to renegotiate now that the dot-com boom has ended. The Tan Group will not respond to media requests for comment, but owner Clark Kepler is "optimistic" that something might be worked out. "I don't think any other attitude than optimism is appropriate," Kepler told the Merc News. "It's just an incredible outpouring, and I want to do everybody right by making it work." Follow the news on SaveKeplers.com, and/or write a letter about why you love Kepler's to the Tan Group at 3630 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306. Picture by SFist Mary-Lynn...

All hope may not be lost for independent bookstore lovers, but it still looks grim. Today, at 5pm, a rally will be held outside Kepler's to try to gather support to save the much beloved peninsula bookstore. Even if you're not a Kepler's customer, but just a general lover of amazing local bookstores, please come out and support the folks trying to keep Kepler's alive. Kepler's is at 1010 El Camino Real in Menlo......

Crack den. Independent bookstore. Same thing. You're going to drop $200 at either place before you even know it. One of the mothers of all intellectual crack dens - Kepler's Bookstore - turns 50 this year. Fifty years of social consciousness (Roy Kepler was an anti-violence activist) and social unconsciousness (this is, afterall, where this SFist goes on Sundays for our European gossip rags, hidden of course behind literary journals). Kepler's, in Menlo Park,......