• A mortuary and funeral services business in the South Bay is being sued by a family who says they were given a bag containing the remains of their son’s brain. The father said he emptied what he thought was a bag of his deceased son’s clothing into the washing machine before realizing it was biohazardous material. [KRON4]
• Nolan Leonardo, 36, of San Francisco, faces five felonies and two misdemeanors after allegedly following a woman home from SF to Berkeley on November 29. Leonardo, who has eight prior convictions, was allegedly found to be in possession of a pistol, condoms, a flashlight Taser, a BB gun, five crack pipes, gloves, and sex toys. [Bay Area News Group]
• Ten people were displaced after a second fire spread between two houses in SF Friday morning near Balboa Park on the 200 block of Niagara Street, but no injuries were reported. [Chronicle]

National:

• When some San Diego high school students showed up to use their school gymnasium one Friday night, they were shocked to find it was being used for a porn live-stream. Twitch user named Wubby, or “PayMoneyWubby,” rented out the gym for a 24-hour event, which was sponsored by adult content subscription service, Fansly, featuring adult babies and crucifixion scenes. [NBC San Diego]
• Several of the GOP Indiana senators who vetoed Trump’s state redistricting plan cited his extensive bullying for their decision. [Associated Press]
• Turns out the drunk raccoon that took the internet by storm last week when it was found passed out in a Virginia liquor store bathroom has quite a rap sheet. [BBC]

Video of the Day:

The BART mobile was aglow with festive lights last week for Livermore’s Christmas parade in the East Bay.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Delicious, effervescent cold remedy Airborne, it seems, exaggerated their sniffle-fighting prowess. Turns out they faked their clinical trials, and are now offering you, the customer, some cash back. According to a 2006 ABC report:

Airborne said that a double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted with “care and professionalism” by a company specializing in clinical trial management, GNG Pharmaceutical Services.

GNG is actually a two-man operation started up just to do the Airborne study. There was no clinic, no scientists and no doctors. The man who ran things said he had lots of clinical trial experience. He added that he had a degree from Indiana University, but the school says he never graduated.

And after angry customers sued the company, they now have to pay up. Sigh.

Although almost every schoolteacher recommends this product to everyone they meet, "fake cold remedy" is a damaging term. Airborne is, in a word, done. If you want in on the settlement, or to find out more about the lawsuit, check out their settlement page.

Multi-instrumentalist Evan Farrell passed away from smoke inhalation after a space heater in the Oakland apartment he was staying in caught on fire last week. Based in Bloomington, Indiana, Evan had flown to the Bay Area to play with his band Japonize Elephants, who are based in San Francisco/Oakland and originated in Bloomington. Evan also played bass, keys, and vocals for Rogue Wave up until early this year, touring with them in 2005 and recording on their 2006 album Descended Like Vultures. Evan was also in Bloomington band The Hollows and is survived by his wife and two sons.

Donations for Evan's family are being accepted through Paypal. Our hearts go out to Evan's family and friends.

Photo by Nathan Walls, using a Creative Commons license

While the real photo of the day should have gone to this, we got all Sophie's Choice over picking just one. So, the winner is this guy. Why? Because it's freezing today. (Yeah, yeah. We know that today's weather is positively balmy for our readers coming from Indiana, the Arctic, Prussia, or wherever on earth you sprouted. But for some of us, it's downright glacial.) Thus: the award goes to some gent sporting a cozy, clever knit cap.

Stay toasty, folks.

Other events:
--The Yerba Buena Center is screening , a well-received documentary about a quadriplegic woman's pig rescue efforts and how she was let down by the worker's comp system. $8, 7:30 p.m., 701 Mission (x 3rd).

--Differently-socially-situated performance artists from the Gray Area Theater Co. are transforming The Lab into a pepperoni-scented bowling alley in their experimental project 10 Lanes Pizza Bowl. 2948 16th (x Capp), 8 p.m., pay what you wish.

--As part of the National Queer Arts Fest, it's For Lack of a Better Word, an evening of readings about the intersex experience, coming out, and other delightfully-awkward things to express. $8-15, LGBT Center (1800 Market x Octavia), 8 p.m.

--Help refugees by going out to eat: selected area restaurants (including the always-fun Bissap Baobab and ever-popular Tangerine on 16th St.) are donating a percentage of their profits tonight to the International Rescue Committee for World Refugee Day.

--And the Dance Down the Lockdown benefit, part of Intersection for the Arts' yearlong Prison Project -- an evening of dance, music, and spoken word to move beyond jails. 446 Valencia (x 15th), $15 (no one will be turned away for lack of funds), preshow at 6, performance at 8.

You’re let in only after you give the pretty gatekeeper the password, which none of you want to mutter, mostly because you feel like an asshole not being let into a bar before saying a password. To be clear, you can’t say, “Roger, party of six”, you have to say “Boogie Boogie”, or some equally ridiculous word or phrase given to you after you made your reservations at the exclusive Bourbon and Branch.

If you were born after 1994 you have no idea what it's like. If you're a long-time fan, you might have a hazy, vague recollection of it. If you come from places like Los Angeles, Chicago, or Miami, you desperately miss it. We're talking a big game -- more specifically, a Warriors big game. An important game. A game that means something besides wrapping up a Lottery pick or nudging out Seattle or Memphis for the 11th overall spot in the Western Conference.

Tonight the Warriors play the Indiana Pacers in their biggest, most important game of this season or possibly the last 10 seasons. If the Dubs win, their slight hopes for the last playoff spot in the WC remain on life support; if they lose, consider the plug pulled on yet another failed season.

Tonight is also the first game in which the Warriors will face former teammates Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, Ike Diogu, and Keith McLeod, players jettisoned from the roster with extreme prejudice last month as part of an eight-player trade. This adds another delicious layer of significance to tonight's game because there is no love lost between the players involved and their former teams.

The Warriors are still afloat, but the season is sinking fast. A loss tonight and they'll have to add a spot for Davy Jones to the team's locker room. Photo from Hydrolance.net.

Why is tonight's game so important to the Warriors? Because if they win tonight, they will improve to 2-3 on the current road trip. As we pointed out last week, it is imperative that the Warriors at least break even on this road trip if they have any hopes of keeping their playoff dreams alive. After extremely disappointing tank jobs against Cleveland (even without LeBron) and Atlanta to start the trip, the Warriors squeaked out a W against the woeful 76'ers, but face-planted to yet another come-from-ahead loss against the Charlotte Bobcats on Friday night.

Below you'll find a list of some of the craft fairs happening in the bay area this December. Because when it comes down to it, wouldn't you rather do your shopping in a bar, with a drink in hand? We know we would. So avoid long lines for the new Tickle Me Elmo (did they really need to make another one of those?), fluorescent lighting, and those scary make-up ladies trying to push perfume and eighty dollar blush on you.

To help get your list started we asked a couple of our favorite local designers what they want this year. So read on after the jump and give your Aunt Eunice something she can't buy at the mall in Indiana. You can thank us later.

By SFist Christina Loff, contributing

Republicans, on the other hand, having nothing else to go on right now, are using Nancy's name in vain more and more as we get closer to the election. Check out this column from "Citizen Conservative" who rails that Pelosi' ascension would mean everything from the impeachment of the President and the sending of troops home to subsidized transgender surgeries, free plane flying lessons to everyone in the Middle East, and naming airports after Jimmy Carter. A pundit on Fox News called her a "communist" recently, something that doesn't sound that bad when you consider Pat "Brown Shirt" Buchanan said that Pelosi "has marched in gay pride parades with the North American Man Boy Love Association," the same interview in which he just says the word "flamer" over and over again. It's true too in a six degrees of NAMBLA sort of way.

Why do we bring this up? Because the more powerful she gets, the more crap thrown our way as the word "San Francisco Values" will become wrung around the neck of the Democrats. It's already happening too. For instance, Media Matters has put together an analysis and video of Bill O'Reilly's use of the phrase "San Francisco values" (apparently, we're to blame for Mark Foley). And our beautiful, wonderful skyline is being used to scare people in Indiana and taken in vain by noted adulterer Newt Gingrich. In other words, the message being sent out there to the people in the heartland that if you don't vote Republican, the entire country will turn into San Francisco. Except without the hills, bridges, skyline, ballpark along the water, gelled Mayor with a 20-year-old girlfriend, and homeless people.

Which raises this question-- why wouldn't anyone not want to be like San Francisco? Seriously, we've driven through Indiana, we know it's true.