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......

On the cultcha front, lots going on. Edward Champion scores a sit down with SFist's second-favorite Floridian, Dave Barry, in his latest podcast of The Bat Segundo Show. Lost in Grovont says that tickets are now on sale for Noise Pop 2006, but that details on the shows are sketchy. Leonard McKay files the second installment in his history of San Jose brewing for San Jose Inside, and Alder Yarrow wades into the debate......

Uh-oh, there's drama between The Daly and The Gavster once again -- GavvyGav brings his veto hammer, but Chris throws the recent reconcilliation speech back at him. Speaking of real estate, an Oakland developer wants to mix light industrial and residential in a new West Oakland construction. Google can't avoid politics anymore, turning away FBI requests for information on the one hand and defending their book search against angry publishers on the other. More......

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! Did you know that America's "first black Millionaire" was Yerba Buena resident Alexander Leidesdorff? Eric Meyerson got a chance to see Nobel Laureate Jimmy Carter at a recent book signing. And the wheels of the criminal justice system continue to squeak, with this harrowing tale of dealing with the Fremont courts. We'll take a trip around the blogosphere for a minute. Jon "PJ" Swenson at the Sharkspage does......

The local blogosphere seems to have shaken off their collective hangover, so lots to discuss today. Om Malik pours cold water on the Google PC rumor, points toward Google Video and says "getting warmer." An ever bigger rumor is that Microsoft might swallow Yahoo whole. Meanwhile, Evil Signtist Courtney lauds Google for shouting out Louis Braille on his birthday. And Nivi asks that you "Donate to Wikipedia if You Love Your Mom." Alternately, donate......

We'll start with the 2005 year-in-reviews. Robert Haaland says 2005 "was a great year to be a queer union organizer." Om Malik points out that the number of broadband connections grew 35% last year. And Jenguin literally looks back at 2005 with a selection of her photos. As for the actual festivities, Beth Spotswood dons a cocktail dress and braves a fancy party. Eric Meyerson laments the stormy state of affairs which greeted 2006.......

Ever wondered how those Googlers spent their "20%" time? Playing with obscene amounts of silly putty, apparently. Susan Mernit points to a blogger's tale of terror at 30,000 feet, the mainstream media coverage they received, and the nasty responses from commenters at an Alaskan Airlines IP address. Speaking of blogger relations, PR pro G.A. Marken drops by Silicon Valley Watcher to guest post about what bloggers mean to the media landscape from a marketing......

First, a little politics. Nancy Pelosi calls for the declassification of her memo to the administration regarding secret surveillance of American citizens. Ann Harrison has an exhaustive first-person account on the recent medical marijuana dispensary raids. Executive Editor Chris Lopez softens the "Wiretap Scandal" headline at the Contra Costa Times. And Dan Gillmore is going non-profit and creating a Center for Citizen Journalism along with Cal Berkeley and Harvard, causing some to ask whither......

Left in SF is the first on the scene with the liveblog from today's citywide wifi hearings — look for a full recap here at SFist tomorrow. Anil Dash takes a long look at a recent WSJ article about Project Guttenberg, praising the tone of the piece and making some comparisons to the Google Books project. Leland "Video Game Violence" Yee gives mad props to DiFi and OG Lantos for expanding the GGNRA in......

Susan Mernit points to a kerfuffle in the world of Podcasting -- Adam Curry caught anonymously editing the Podcasting entry on Wikipedia; Curry responds, says he was struggling with the Wiki editing format. Speaking of Adam Curry (who's also been accused of cybersquatting in the past), Joi Ito explains the business of "parked domain monetization" and why you can't get the domain name you really want. And in a nice segue piece, Jessie Johnson......