SF Late Night Coalition chairperson Terrance Alan (far left), Police Chief Heather Fong, and Newsom at yesterday's announcement With nightclubs like Jelly's, Whisper, and 715 Harrison playing host to fatal mischief over the past few months, yesterday Mayor Newsom and Police Chief Heather Fong went on the offense against SF nightlife. Four bits of legislation, co-sponsored by Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, will be put before the board of supes: - The first ordinance would require......

The 12th Annual Tết Festival Ceremony occurred yesterday all around Little Saigon in San Francisco...

New information about the SF Zoo tiger attack has been released by police chief Heather Fong. Based on information gathered from the two survivors, brothers Paul Dhaliwal and Kulbir Dhaliwal, Carlos Sousa Jr. actually saved one of them from being killed. Apparently, when Tatiana originally went after one of the brothers, Sousa courageously tried to draw her attention away from his friend, which worked (obvi). Fong also clarified that there was indeed no shoe found......

SFist recieved this call to action from Officer Andrew Cohen, who is best known for being the focal point of the so-called "VideoGate" scandal. As with his responses in our recent interview with him, we believe that he raises some very thought-provoking points and offers further candid insight into the imbroglio. If you believe that moving forward with the case against the "VideoGate" participants is a waste of time, he asks you to take action by writing. Also attached below is a letter to his union's journal, in which he castigates the union for non-support....

Officer Andrew Cohen made headlines in recent years for the videos he produced spoofing the SFPD. The videos were intended to be a humorous sendoff to former police captain Rick Bruce and poke fun at the officers at his station. They were also intended to be internal -- but they got out, and things got out of hand. We wanted to take this opportunity with Cohen to ask about more than the "VideoGate" scandal, rather than just rehashing what most of us already know. We sought the 12-year-vet's opinion on the state of policing in the city, his perspective on local politics and political figures, and what comes next for him....

Sherman, set the way-back machine to when the Cops Gone Wild video came out. Seems like the issue has reared it's ugly head again and another twist in the story has appeared. Dan Noyes is reporting that for some strange reason, out of all the cops who got in trouble for appearing in it, none of the Asian cops who appeared got in trouble. And by none, we mean nada, zilch, zip, As a result, say hello to a $20 million dollar lawsuit. ...

So, Beantown sorta flips outa few months back (perhaps rightfully so!) at little lite-brite signs depicting Aqua Teen Hunger Force characters flipping the general populace off. City grinds to a halt -- TBS, on behalf of "Adult Swim" -- pays a nice lump of dough -- $2 million. In San Francisco, the signs were posted too, evidently, but we didn't really seen to notice or care. Regardless, we get a consolation prize of $85,000....

You may recall our presence at a lower Haight neighborhood meeting back in January after a spate of gun violence galvanized the area and turned out hundreds of folks along with news cams and Heather Fong. Well, during that meeting Supervisor Mirkarimi promised that he would somehow find the city funding for a security camera at the corner of Haight and Webster, which is kind of the locus of all things crack-deal in the area. Well, the camera went up! ...

In light of the recent crackdown on illegal (and the occasional legal) immigrants, San Francisco officials are throwing down the gauntlet and telling everyone that that ain't happening here. Yesterday, at a meeting in the Mission, Gavin reitererated the fact that this is a Sanctuary City which means, essentially, that we won't do anything to illegal immigrants. The measure is non-binding and doesn't really mean much, but it does give us the appearance of something legal. Gavin also added that there really isn't anything he could do to stop the Feds from doing something, but he won't allow city officials to do anything. His statement has the support of Mark Leno, Carole Migden and Police Chief Heather Fong. ...

-Cop killer gets life in prison. -Heather Fong says the SFPD will not help the Feds do their immigration raids in the city. -San Francisco substitute teacher threatens to commit suicide while teaching class. -Gavin wants a hybrid town car to chauffer him around the city. -Person who made threat against Hastings is a student at Boalt. -Another pedestrian was killed after being hit by a train yesterday. -Arnie's secret execution room is stopped.......

Editrix Rita is globe trotting, so we donned our tiara, cape, and jewels to fill in this week. Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 78. Total number of people pictured whom we recognize in the pictures: 25 (including George Schultz, Swells standby Charlotte Maillard Schultz, Vanessa Getty, Kamala Harris, Heather Fong, Lars Ulrich and Connie Nielsen.) Our college pal Katherine Calvert and her husband Gray were mentioned in print, too.......

As we all know, there's been a huge upswing in shootings in this city, especially in the Lower Haight/Western Addition area. We also know that the Powers that Be don't seem to know what to do about stopping it all As a result, people in the neighborhood are in full "mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore" mode and organizing. Their request? Send cards, letters, and e-mails to Gavin, Kamala Harris, and Police Commission Heather Fong telling them to do something, anything, about the violence. Like, now. ...

It looks like we're not the only one's to have noticed an uptick in violence lately as the Powers That Be Have too. This in response to the four recent shootings over the weekend, two of them in broad daylight. ...

Last night was a meeting about the spate of violent crime and shootings in the Lower Haight. In attendance were various officials from the SFPD, including Heather Fong, as well as supervisors Ross Mirkirami and Bevan Dufty. Dan From Burritophile was in attendance and gives us a report, after the jump. To see photos of the event, click here....

Last Friday, the Examiner got their hands on a bunch of statistics and a calculator and crunched a whole bunch of numbers about crime in the city. Their verdict is that curiously, the number of homicides has gone up but the number of people arrested for said homicides has gone down. It doesn't take a math major to realize that's not very good. ...

In today's Chron, there's a big story about the events that occurred on New Year's Eve. To do so, they interviewed a whole bunch of witnesses (most of whom are anonymous) and put it together into a cohesive whole. And guess what? Everybody corroborates the story of the Baker's Dozen choral group. Everybody. Which makes you wonder why nobody's been charged yet or what's up with Ken Garcia and why is Heather Fong lying but that's neither here nor there right now....

As promised -- when we find people defending Newsom, we diligently write 'em up in the column we call.... Who's Defending Newsom Now! Who's swinging for the mayor? --The mayor himself!: Before heading out to Switzerland this week, Gavin sat down with the gay-focused Bay Area Reporter (picture features a blue tie) for a chat about what's going on with him. Beyond the now-standard complaint that the Chronicle is out to get him, Gavin also......

From the Usual Suspects, we found a link to a story about Doughgate (we like that one) in the Yale Daily News. As you might as well imagine, it's a big story over there. Anyways, it’s an interesting read as it gives you an idea how it's seen over there in Ivy League Land. Among other things, they have no idea about all the inside San Francisco stuff, like the high schools involved or who the people who hosted the party were. To them it's just a straight forward assault and battery....

Sorry, we've become so obsessed with the upcoming Fake Question Time and those Yalie a capella singers that got beaten up that we totally didn't cover any of the other city news from today! So here you go: While we were distracted with all the RSVP shenanigans for Saturday's event, we almost forgot to tell you that the Board of Supes once again overrode Gavin Newsom's second veto of Ross Mirkarimi's foot patrols with an......

It's a slight variation on our Who's Attacking/Defending Newsom Now columns -- Gavin goes on the offensive! The gay-focused Bay Area Reporter runs a column this week in their Political Notebook about the post-Halloween fallout between Gavin and new father District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty. Apparently the wounds from Gavin's attack on Bevan about the Castro Halloween shooting and his vote to override the veto on the foot patrol issue are still smarting, as......

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. Tim Redmond didn't like being in jail (congrats on your Society of Professional Journalism award, Tim!). As expected, the Guardian came out against those PG&E grass sofas. Also, the Guardian decides that the enemy of their enemy (the SFPOA, Bevan Dufty) is their friend, so they're now backing Police Chief Heather Fong. However, they also ask: who should replace her? Annalee Newitz is pretty happy. Sonic Reducer on French......

--Google stock hits $509.65/share, making it the second most valuable company in Silicon Valley behind Cisco. Apple also hits a record high. --Who knew two-time Dancing with the Stars winner Cheryl Burke was from Menlo-Atherton High? There she is, dancing with Menlo-Atherton vice principal Matt Zito! --Josh Wolf won't be home for Thanksgiving. --New market with fancy-food cred opening in Glen Park. --The SF Board of Supes raises salaries for cops and condemns the......

Because we've started the column "Who's Attacking Newsom Now!", we figure it's only right to start the counterpoint column next: Who's Defending Newsom Now!. So who's Mayor McDreamy got on his side? (beside these young ladies in the picture above, that is!): --Ken Garcia!: The Examiner columnist looks for the silver lining (.pdf, page 5) on the gloomy month that Newsom's been having. Ed Jew'll vote with Gavin on the Board of Supervisors (even......

Man, the San Francisco Police Officers' Association president Gary Delagnes is all over the news these days! We're setting up a Google News Alert for Delagnes even as we speak! --On Heather Fong's leadership style, Delagnes told the Chron today, "The cops in this department feel as though they are under siege.... [Fong] has a quiet, understated style. She believes diplomacy is the way to go. The cops on the street feel that diplomacy isn't......

--Hating on Police Chief Heather Fong. --Pictures from Fog City Journal of the Board of Supes meeting on Tuesday. Weird to see Chris Daly without a green tie on! --Former USF dean pleading guilty to possession of kiddie porn. --Hey, wanna buy (or at least sponsor) a bridge? --Up to 20 people possibly bitten by a sea lion in San Francisco bay. --They're going to install cameras at high-risk corners in SF -- but......

Today, your San Francisco Board of Supervisors take up legislation both big and small. First up is a possible override of Gavin's veto of the foot patrol legislation. The board needs eight votes to override Mayor McDreamy's veto, one short of the seven they got when they passed the bill. Right now, it's not looking like it'll happen. Luke Thomas reports in Fog City that two of the seven have been flipped. The two who......

The old political shibboleth about releasing unpopular news on the afternoon of "take out the trash" Friday holds true again, as Gavin Newsom sneaks in a veto on Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi's well-received proposal requiring police foot patrols of San Francisco neighborhoods, after originally saying he would let it pass. Ross isn't too pleased about this (his commentary was described as "withering" in the paper). Read this with your own mellifluous basso imitation-Ross voice! The mayor......

BREAKING NEWS..... BREAKING NEWS.... MAYOR HAS RETURNED TO GEL STOP. HAIR HAS RESUMED PREVIOUS CONFIGURATION STOP. [yes, we know, the stop means period, so there is technically no need to put a period after it -- but it's hard to read like that is all. We're just thinking about your reading comfort!] Yes, folks, it's true -- the floppy-haired Matt Gonzalez look sported by Mayor Gavin Newsom was for one day only. Awwwwwww! We're back......

Remember that guy who totally hated on Tristan Bettencourt and posted a web site with all sorts of nasty rumors about him? Well, that's nothing compared to what's been put out on Rob Black, one of the candidates running against Chris Daly in District 6. You may think that Rob comes off as one of those aging hipster types who looks like Ted from "Queer Eye", a nice enough guy with an impressive resume of political involvement, but you would be wrong. See, according to the site, Meet Rob Black, Rob Black is actually some deep-undercover ops guy who single-handedly brought oppression, war, and dictatorships to several third world countries. ...

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 51. (Tony Blair and Ben Fong-Torres both pictured, and thus counted, twice). Number of people in pictures whose names we recognize: 10. (Tony Blair, both Shultzes, Gavin the Newsom, Stanlee Gatti, Joanne Hayes-White, Heather Fong, Milton Friedman, Ben Fong-Torres, Sydney Kohara.) After some deliberation, we did not count Ray Dolby (founder of Dolby Labs) or anyone from Jefferson Airplane. Number of people from Jefferson......