Wide receiver Javon Walker of the Oakland Raiders was severely beaten, robbed, and left in a daze after a night of heavy partying in Las Vegas. Stripped of "large amounts of cash" and some jewelry, the football player was, it seems, blowing off some steam at such sexily-titled Sin City clubs as Tryst and Body English. According to the esteemed TMZ Walker was last seen "spraying pink champagne into the crowd" over at Body English. ("Sprayed Out Before He Got Laid Out," declares TMZ! Also: God, we thank you for bestowing TMZ and Harvey Levin upon us. Amen.) more ›

It nice to see that the farming and ranching traditions of Livermore's past live on to this day. You see, seven men were nabbed this past Sunday in connection with a cockfighting ring on the 4000 block of North Livermore Avenue. Ick. more ›

Let's face it, underneath all of our progressive thinking and alleged altruism, we're a vain city. Thank God. After all, we are Californians nestled in a land of impossible waistlines and beauty. That said, is the above image what the double decker buses will look like? (Minus the tasteful Las Vegas backdrop, of course.) Hmm, we really didn't think this through. We thought that we'd be seeing ever so charming red double decker buses... more ›

Growing up west of (the) 5 freeway, the heavy metal sound fo the '80s escaped us. But while vacationing in the far off land of Riverside County during the holidays as a wee tyke, we would listen to our cousins' heavy metal tapes with envy and detached amusement. This was one of the songs we enjoyed most, Quiet Riot's "Cum on Feel the Noize." Sadly, their lead signer, Kevin Dubrow, 52, was found dead... more ›

Friday! The night before the night when no one watches television! more ›

Today's the day! They've finally restarted Southwest service out of SFO, so those of you who hate to schlep all the way to Oakland so you can stand in line for a non-guaranteed seat assignment can rejoice. Gavin Newsom said it was good for the environment to have Southwest at all three Bay Area airports so people can go to the airport closest to their house. We hope Gavin's taking BART or Caltrain to his Southwest flight (since flying is so green). more ›

Andrew Frame was recently named by BusinessWeek as a "top entrepreneur under the age of 30". He's aiming to fulfill that promise with ooma, a company he founded in 2005 that has a whole new take on telephony. It enables unlimited U.S. domestic calls to any wireless or landline phone number . ooma's gotten media play for a couple reasons -- for one thing, much has been made in the press and on the podwaves about the involvement of Ashton Kutcher in the company. more ›

Campus tree residency news! At Cal, it turns out those people living in the trees to protest the UC's plan to cut them down themselves did significant damage to the trees in question by cutting off the tops of the trees to put in their sleeping platforms. Ah, the sweet smell of irony. Meanwhile, at rival Stanford, they've finally evicted a veteran who's been living in the tree grove off Palm Drive for almost 10 years. (Does anyone actually pay to live at Stanford anymore? Goodness.) more ›

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On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation dotted the eyes and crossed the tees for Sir Richard Branson's airline, Virgin America, to begin flying out of SFO, which will actually be its home base. Huzzah, more local jobs! The company is planning a mid-summer launch. more ›

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You know how they say, "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?" And you know how it's mainly true? Well, it is, for the most part, except, of course, when you're involved in a police sweep. At a brothel. And you're a cop. more ›

-The NBA's 2007 All-Star Game is tonight in Las Vegas. Excitement aplenty, to be sure. Yet there're no Golden State Warriors on the West All-Star team. more ›

Because we're heading off to Las Vegas this weekend, we thought we'd celebrate with a little bit of the King. more ›

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It's not too early to make plans for Halloween weekend, and if you want to make this year especially memorable, hop a plane to Las Vegas for the Vegoose Music Festival. It's an impressive lineup of tons of bands in one place: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Mars Volta, The Raconteurs, Cat Power and the Memphis Rhythm Band (we'll see about that), Gomez, Fiona Apple, Jenny Lewis, BRMC, and a bunch of those jammy/jazzy bands that people seem to like, including Widespread Panic, G. Love, MMW, and more. more ›

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week. more ›

Maybe it's just us but for some reason we read more in the summer than in the winter. It goes against expectations, sure, but something about the summer is just lazier than the winter. And as our ghostly white skin betrays, we hate sun, so it isn't all beach reading. Local bookstores are being helpful by providing a good slate of upcoming author events and we've picked a few faves below. Who are you going to see and what are you going to read this summer? Let us know in the comments. more ›

(GHSTOLT) at the Women's Building on Saturday. Those dudes have some freaking crazy hairdos! Imagine a mullet mated with a peacock and gave birth to a Las Vegas showgirl head-dress. Really we were so fixated on the hair that it took us a while to settle down and we couldn't tell you what happened during the first 15 minutes of the documentary. more ›

This past Wednesday we were treated to part one of the two-part Top Chef finale, which takes place in Las Vegas. While much of our interest in the show had to do with its local, er, location, we're far too invested to back out just because the final is on a bigger, gaudier stage. more ›

Ahhh parrots, lambs, and pepper monkeys -- welcome back to our review of the Top Chef animal farm. Another Top Chef episode in the can; the season will be over shortly, so watch it while you can. Although, as we told you last week, that the show's been picked up for another season, this is the last chance for this cast of characters (and this is the last chance to see the epitome of evil amongst food-based game show contestants. Sadly, there won't be much regarding our fair San Francisco in the next few episodes: tonight's episode is a reunion (and presumably something of a clip show), and the finals are in Las Vegas. more ›

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Any post that starts "I'm in a light, summery mood today," in spite of the weather, well, that deserves to lead off the round-up this week. The rain's affecting everyone, including Cookiecrumb up in Marin, so we can only imagine the impact this is having on larger farmers and growers. For us, when the weather gets too awful, we always like tea. We like the steam and sweets and the way it makes us feel all cozy. So now, thanks to Shuna, we're returning the favor. more ›

Our friends down at LAist beat us to the punch with the emerging news on kinda crappy Bay Area artist Thomas Kinkade. more ›

The Cali-KC rap war that began started with the murder of local raper Mac Dre in November 2004 escalated with the retaliatory killing of Kansas City rapper Fat Tone this past May. more ›

Our full-court IndieFest press continues today, as we now have passes to give away to Sunday's 7 p.m. screening of local filmmaker JP Allen's film . more ›

Once again, SFist is here to stick up for ol' Harmon, as he's run into controversy yet again in his most recent SF Weekly Infiltrator column, "Dieter Gone Wild." In this episode, Harmon's mission was infiltrating the AVN awards. Harmon must have gotten turned around on the highway, because the AVN awards were in Las Vegas, and Harmon seemed to end up at a nightclub in Los Angeles. You can understand that we're all a bit jumpy, considering recent events. After getting through to the switchboard via the classified sales desk, we left a message for Executive Editor Tom Walsh, whom we've contacted before. One unexpected grilling about who we were later (um, how about best local blog as chosen by the Weekly?), he let us know that they could verify Harmon was at the FOXE Awards in Los Angeles, and that they'll be issuing a correction. Harmon wrote to say, "[T]he copy editor got it wrong. It was the FOXE Awards and it happened a few years back. They were supposed to put that in the lead and didn't." Which begs the question: Why are we fact checking Harmon's work? We don't see an opening for fact-checkers at the Weekly, so the position must already be filled, right? It's not like it involves anything more than a familiarity with Google search. more ›

1115.org weighs in with their analysis of last night's State of the State, and Capitol Notes' John Meyer takes folks behind the scenes. SF CityScape has high hopes for The City's promotion of interim Planning Director Dean Macris to a permanent post. And San Jose decides they want a city wifi network, too. more ›

Your Cal Bears are off to Vegas to play BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl. Fun, right? Enjoyment and excitement in America's gleeful den of inequity, right? Stuff that'd make shorthaired guys in visors and Abercrombie shirts go "WOOOOOOO!" with arms upraised, right? Well, yeah, in part. more ›

Save some room on your social calendar, because like 2005, these cool shows are expiring around January 1. Besides, if you’re feeling a little Grinch-like, there’s nothing like a holiday show to get you in a festive mood. more ›