But some good news: The LA Times has a helpful breakdown worth a moment of your time, on how you can help people (and pets!) in need right now. We've re-printed it for your convenience: ...

Well, it's about time! As the progressives run around in a circle waving their hands around in terror for another week or two until June 2, the more right-leaning folks have decisively made their move! Former supervisor and sometimes lounge singer Tony Hall has filed his paperwork to run for mayor. Tony Hall's been famously irritated with Gavin Newsom ever since Newsom dumped him off at the Treasure Island Development Association to give his Supervisor's......

It's being reported that everyone's favorite whipping girl, Annemarie Conroy, has resigned as of this morning. Conroy was the Executive Director of Emergency Services but was recently demoted mainly for the sin of having no real experience doing anything emergency service related. After being demoted, the Board of Supes then pulled the financing for her recently created position. She was so popular that Aaron Peskin couldn't even say anything nice about her leaving; saying instead "there was no resignation. Her job was evaporated." Ouch. ...

--SF Director of Emergency Services Annemarie Conroy has been demoted (but is keeping her salary). --Ridership is up on BART. --Surfers love Ed Jew. --It wasn't as exciting waiting for a Playstation 3 as you'd've thought. --The housing market tanked last month. We feel a little bad for the guy who got underbid on his house, and then had to overbid to buy a new one. --Cancer columnist Alicia's still addicted to painkillers. --Anti-bike......

-Your next hi-tech company in a bit of legal trouble? Apple. -Board of Supes demote Annemarie Conroy. To move from Director of Emergency Services to Deputy Director for Emergency Services. ...

Many of us were disconcerted by the stories of forced abandonment of animals by their guardians in the wake of disasters, and asked ourselves "How would our dumb-ass cats fare on their own? Maybe if they were forced to fare for themselves, they'd finally appreciate how freakin' good thay have it. Yeah!" It looks like we're getting closer to never having to find out just how well Mr. Sniffy can operate a can opener, as......

We'll be straight with you -- we're having a hard time following the whole "is Annemarie Conroy qualified" debacle that's been afoot for the past few days -- something about a report being released and how the Office of Emergency Services isn't really prepared for an earthquake? C'mon, guys, all they need is enough water and power bars to get through the first 72 hours! So apparently Conroy put in for more money than she......

Did you look up the other day and see that big Green R rotating slowly in the sky? That's the Mirkarimi-signal! To the Ross-cave! We'll take the Prius-mobile! Remember when District 5 supervisor Ross Mirkarimi stopped a robbery in progress a few months ago? Well, the Examiner reports today that our superhero supe is safening up the Haight yet again: on Sunday, Ross was enjoying the beautiful weather in his district with a walk in Buena Vista Park. Suddenly -- "help! help!" Ross and his friend raced down the hill and found a man in need of medical attention. Ross performed CPR on the man as they waited for 911 -- and then Ross helped the EMTs get the man into the ambulance when it got there. The Examiner doesn't say how the man's doing now, but does note, "There's no word on whether the man was a voter in District 5." To be fair, the last time this happened, Ross seemed kind of embarrassed about the attention, asked people not to make him into some kind of "caped crusader," and said, "Anyone would do such a thing." Like Mariah Carey says, the hero lies in yooooooooooou. Maybe we'll name Ross the head of SF's Office of Emergency Services now! ...

SFist Rita is kind of right - it should be easier to find an emergency kit. Target does sell them, if your politics allow you to pick one up there. If not, maybe it'll be helped by knowing that $10 from each purchase (they sell for $29.99) goes to the Red Cross. That's not a bad place to start, but you're probably better off spending some time really putting together something that works for......

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. ...