The Holiday season is in full swing in NYC, with holiday lights in Brooklyn, a giant snow globe in Bryan Park and Chanukah specials for ham. One citizen decided to go vigilante on annoying car alarms, a murder suspect used a fake Asian accent on the stand and a video of a man being beaten up by teenage girls on a subway shocked the city. And we interviewed soon-to-be-leaving-Gawker editor Choire Sicha, who said,......

Yesterday, Mayor Newsom signed into action the Tommy Ammiano-introduced legislation that requires the city to handout ID cards to undocumented immigrants and other residents who either can't or just won't apply for driver's licenses. The good news is that these IDs will help (formerly) undocumented residents gain access to the wonderful world of banking, a sense of peace before calling the fuzz, as well as "health services at city-run clinics, public library privileges, and resident discounts at museums and other cultural institutions." (Entry fee discounts at the Exploratorium: the American dream realized.) ...

Sue Yung Song, 48, former co-owner of the Sunnyvale-based Crystal Palace (a house of ill-repute) received a mere two and a half years in federal prison for "smuggle in Korean immigrants to work as prostitutes and extorting money from them with the help of a corrupt police officer," David L. Miller. (A police officer who capture women who fled the brothel, because, you know, being forced into sex slavery is kinda rough.) That seems......

Tom Ammiano announced a plan yesterday to give city IDs to those who don't have IDs, mainly immigrants-- legal or otherwise. The idea, pushed by immigrant advocates, will allow those without an ID to be given access to a whole range of city services they would not normally be open to, including health care, library privileges, and the ability to use municipal golf courses. Ammiano also said he's going to work with financial institutions to let people use the Ids to open accounts. ...

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Except for Mark Jackson, ACT, and a bushel of other playhouses we’re totally forgetting, sometimes it’s hard to find theatrical events in San Francisco that hit hard without leaning on antagonizing political bullshit or outrageousness in sequins. Carlo D’Amore’s hyper and “semi-autobiographical” No Parole does just that. Why? Well, it’s got cocaine! It’s got a Peruvian diva-like matriarch! It’s got riches-to-rags immigrants! It’s got a faultless one-man performance! It’s got the disenfranchised and the......

With all the recent hoopla regarding national immigration legistlation, now might be a great time to get a perspective on immigration here close to home. We're not sure how many SFist readers are the "stay at home on Friday nights" type, but if you are, you might consider checking out KQED Channel 9 at 8:30 p.m. on June 29...

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian! Oh, Tim Redmond, we're so sorry to hear about your dad. [Moment of silence.] Okay. The Guardian's with Daly on the budget. They got a letter from someone saying Ed Jew is innocent. More info on the layoffs at the Merc News. A man with psychiatric problems gets no help from the city. More people upset with Newsom's proposed budget. They're going to crack down on pot clubs --......

Oh, what's become of our good old-fashioned hard-hearted conservative Republicans? Performance art?!?! What's next, long hair? Berets? Drapes and doilies? Irish cuisine? The Davis College Republicans are sponsoring some sort of symbolic art-game today (Tuesday) at 12:30 out on the quad, wherever the hell that is. They're calling it "Illegal Immigration Capture the Flag," and here's the ingenious twist that'll earn 'em an A in their semiotics seminar: "Illegal Immigrants team will vastly outnumber......

Lest you think Gavin's little statement over the weekend that this being a Sanctuary City, he will order city officials to not raise a finger when it comes to cracking down illegal immigrants has gone without any reaction out there in media land, it has. And it's loads of fun. ...

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. ...

Here's todays roundup of news items...

Here's todays recap of the news...

We have no illusions anyone's going to read this column today what with all this news about Gavin Newsom's affair with his campaign manager's wife -- but we soldier on nonetheless. Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. Matt Smith rails about some kind of corruption at SFO. No, not an affair with your campaign manager's wife. The Apologist is leaving the Weekly -- oh no! The final Apologist -- are you an Apologist for the......

And today's study unleashed upon the world concerns the chances the kids have of succeeding in life. According to said study, kids today in California don't have that much of a chance to succeed. Out of fifty states, we come in thirty-fourth. Ouch. That's way behind #1 state, Virginia but much better than lowly New Mexico which comes in at #50. Ha ha, sucks to be you. And here's our little questions-- how much credibility can you give a study that puts a state that came this close to electing George Allen as Senator as #1? ...

-You know how Gavin said we needed more money to fund all the new police work we're asking the police to do? He was only punking Chris Daly. ...

Yesterday, at an event in LA to celebrate legislation he signed to make Asian food server, the Governator was asked a question about immigration and, booyah! he said something dumb again. The quote is pretty long and detailed (you can watch the video here) but he essentially said that Mexican immigrants don't really care about assimilating. Oh, and he also praised Asians for being really hard workers. He did not, however criticize Asians for not caring about assimilating or praise Mexicans for being really hard workers because what's the fun in saying something that's not a stereotype?...

- Feinstein & Boxer rally to get a farm labor bill passed after languishing for seven years and being caught up in the whole illegal immigrant debate. Apparently, cutting off the flow of illegal immigrants hurts California agriculture. Who knew?...

You know, maybe the 38 Geary's better after all. A 19-year-old was stabbed to death over a parking space right after midnight Saturday in front of a club on Geary and 3rd. A friend had been trying to save him a street parking spot as he circled the block, a van tried to take the empty spot, and the victim came back to find his friend being attacked by up to five people who'd been......

Besides the homicide rate, Oakland residents' quality of life continues to be impaired by wasteful immigrants flocking to the shores of Lake Merritt - the Canada geese, also causing trouble in Richmond, as reported recently by the East Bay Express. The Lake Merritt geese population produces an estimated ton of fecal matter a day. The geese have also been sighted exhibiting aggressive pedestrian behavior not unlike that of Oakland's human residents, known for holding up......

We are very sad to report to you that Chris Daly is in the Chron today -- but not for hauling off and hitting anyone, or yelling at someone so loud that the cords stand out on his neck. Rather, he's got a totally sane and balanced and compassionate proposal for the extra money they've found in the San Francisco budget. What's more, it's an actual local op-ed on the opinions page, instead of......

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the......

It warms our red hearts to see workers marching here at home and around the world on International Workers' Day, otherwise known as May Day. Protests and demonstrations happened from Berlin to Indonesia, and while most were peaceful, there were scuffles with authorities. Here in the United States, the marches were to protest changes to immigration laws, and coincided with many businesses shuttering their doors as immigrant workers walked off their jobs. Marches were......

We haven't really posted a lot on Shuna the past couple weeks, since confessing our blog crush on her. There are lots of Bay Area food blogs (close to 100 that we know about, and that's not counting the restaurant review blogs) and we like to spread the love. However, we're going to link to her a lot this week, and we don't feel bad about it at all. First off, we are in awe......

LAist tracks an award-winning TV writer who worked on Good Times to a homeless shelter and sees a Little Old Lady get a jaywalking ticket because she can't get across fast enough (in the same post!). Poets invade Metro and an LAist contributor's new book asks WWJB. Gothamist gets down with the immigration rally and their readers want to be heard. The anniversary of the Mets' 1986 World Series is celebrated via a RBI Baseball......

SFist Melissa went to today's immigrant rallies in Oakland, and was kind enough to pass along these awesome pictures of the event. Over 1000 people marched for 7 miles in Oakland, while several hundred marched in the Mission District, and over 4000 showed up in San Jose. Hundreds of thousands of people across the country have turned out to support granting US citizenship to illegal immigrants, with 50,000 in Atlanta, 500,000 in Dallas, and......

Long-time SFist readers will remember that we were so inspired at last year's SFIAAFF by "Chinese Restaurants: Three Continents" that we gave it our prestigious Best Film We Saw On SFist award for 2005. The premise behind the Chinese Restaurants series is that the Canadian filmmaker, Cheuk Kwan, visits Chinese restaurants around the world and interviews the owners to find out how they ended up in their particular country. So Kwan has visited Chinese restaurants......

San Francisco Japantown's seen a lot in the last 100 years -- from the influx of Japanese-American immigrants after the 1906 earthquake and the development of an ethnic community, to the forced displacement of those same immigrants to internment camps in World War II, and a controversial redevelopment scheme to welcome back San Francisco Japanese-Americans, at the expense of the African-Americans who'd moved into the area in the meantime. And now, over this backdrop of repeated economic emigration, you can get udon, a shiatsu massage, and crepes there! As J-Town's centennial celebration gets underway, a new phase of redevelopment is emerging for the 21st century -- the Osaka-based owners of the Kintetsu Mall, the centerpiece of the Japan Center complex, have announced that they've put the building on the market. They own not only the Kintetsu section of the mall (the one with Benihana in it) but also the Miyako Mall (the one with the bridge), the Radisson, and the Best Western up the street. And FYI, the Kabuki Theater is also up for sale, but in a separate transaction through AMC. The Kinokuniya building (with Sophie's Crepes and the awesome Kinokuniya stationery store is under separate ownership (by the eponymous bookstore) and is not for sale -- or at least not yet. At a community meeting last night, the local attorneys representing the Kintetsu owners pledged that they would work with Osaka HQ to ensure that any sale would be made to a buyer who would recognize the historic and cultural value of the space, and Gavin Newsom and Ross Mirkarimi promised that the city would put incentives in place to make sure that happened (because, in part, the city owns those garages underneath the mall.) However, the attorneys weren't sure how much pull they'd have, in part because the deal is almost done. Here's hoping the community can work together to make sure the sad history of redevelopments in the J-Town area don't repeat themselves this time around. ...

San Francisco's a city of immigrants -- how many people do you know who actually grew up here? -- and our lovely vintage F-line is no exception. The refurbished trolley cars on the F hail from Boston, Philadelphia, England, Italy, and, notably, New Orleans; and starting tomorrow, the New Orleans trolley (that's the one with the sign that says "A Streetcar Named Desire") will be carrying a torch for its hometown. Actually, it'll be......

Ah, figs. We love the distinct flavor of these squishy, succulent fruits. And we're not alone. Mediterranean cultures have enjoyed figs for millennia, both fresh and dried. The fruit clearly had a special place in everyone's heart: Figs appear often in the art and literature of the region. But we just like the taste. Back in August, only a few farmer's market stalls had them, but now it seems like everyone's got some on......