Your weekend just got a little sleepier. Ten locations, including two in San Francisco, were busted today in connection with a methamphetamine distribution setup that went from San Francisco and the Bay Area all the way to Mexico. Federal, state, and local law enforcement. In total 13 people were arrested. According to KGO: The raids started simultaneously at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning with 200 agents moving in on the ten locations. Law enforcement was......

An update on today's story about a UC Santa Cruz faculty member whose home was invaded by, according to local media outlets, members of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty animal rights group: the animal rights group claims zero responsibility for last night's attack. We just made contacted with a member of the reportedly elusive SHAC7. They told us the following: No--we are not responsible. In fact, the only knowledge we have of the whole......

Less than a week after the fatal tiger mauling at the SF Zoo, much of the news that has (slowly) unraveled from the Christmas Day tiger attacks has been disheartening. From the downplayed info about the too-short tiger pen fence, conflicting evidence that the three boys taunted the Siberian tiger just before the attack, and that emergency protocol wasn't followed by SF Zoo employees, there are more chin-scratching facts to add to the list.......

God bless the Bay Area Reporter. In this week's issue, Ed Walsh reports that former JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect and one-time possible kiddie porn connoisseur, John Mark Karr, "had sought gender reassignment surgery, not because of any driving desire to become a woman, but to help him avoid capture by police." That seems a bit drastic if you're not actually a woman inside, yes? Fascinating, but drastic. In lieu of Anne Frank-esque hiding or......

[sorry we're late today!] Close call! A truck driver careened off the San Mateo Bridge yesterday afternoon, but managed to miss both the bay and a shed full of explosive material right by the bridge. The driver missed the shed by mere feet -- it sounds kind of like an exciting ending to an action-adventure movie (San Mateo -- the hit of the summer!). They had to use two tow trucks to get the truck......

From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally completed, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist watches......

Yuck. A SFPD cop was arrested for soliciting a 14-year-old prostitute in Oakland. The cop's a motorcycle squad supervisor and is a 37-year veteran of the force. The 14-year-old said it was her first time on the streets, the cop was apparently cooperative when the Oakland PD caught the two of them in his car, and told the Oakland officers that he thought the girl was 18. How the mighty broker has fallen in these......

Courtesy of the Bay Guardian's politics blog, we get the latest word from Chris Daly's second favorite organization, the Police Officer's Association. In an online posting to fellow Police Officers, Union President Gary Delagnes discussed the reasons why it's been difficult these past few years recruiting new cops. He lists a bunch of the usual reasons: the coast of living in SF, the occasional danger involved in the job, unappealing working conditions, but then finds the ultimate culprit for the lack of new recruits: Gen X sucks. ...

Law enforcement officials have confirmed that James Kim has died. Friends of the family have set up an unofficial PayPal donation page, though they warn you that they haven't talked to the Kim family about it yet. The thought is that the family can decide where to send the money after it's collected. It looks like you have to go through their page to make the donation, so if the page is busy, keep......

Finally, the Board of Supervisors are getting behind something we can roundly support-- decriminalizing marijuana! Not that we've ever smoked dope before, of course. ...

The District 6 supervisor race just keeps heating up! This week's episode: Everybody Hates Diet Coke. Incumbent Chris Daly was just endorsed by the San Francisco firefighters' union. We can't wait for the picture of Chris wearing a firefighter's hat and carrying a ladder! BUT -- when the head of the Police Officers' Association, Gary Delagnes, heard the news, he hit the roof. He promptly fired off a note to the firefighters' union, reminding them......

Bay Blogger alum The Legal Reader's got quite a claim to fame now -- he helped capture Darren Mack, that guy in Reno who stabbed his wife, shot the family court judge that ruled against him, and then fled to Mexico. Dang, the Blotter does nothing. So an innocuous post of the Reader's from 2004, about George Bush's bad federal judicial nominees, somehow turned into one of the top places for people to post comments......

Following up on our past posts on problems with Ocean Beach bonfires, SFist reader Owen has this to say (we added the links): The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is considering a total ban on bonfires at Ocean Beach. They spent approximately $90,000 last year cleaning up after beach fires and responding to law enforcement calls relating to them; neighbors and beach visitors have complained about hazardous litter (nails, glass, etc) on the beach,......

We woke up again today with a strange kink in our neck, which we immediately recognized as the curse of our height challenge. Ahhhh . . . . It must be those darned subtitles we were straining to read (so much for several years of French class, eh). So, we are going to share our epiphany for those festgoers who struggle with the same height challenge. Sit on an aisle on the right side of theatre. No, not the right side of the middle section -- the aisle seat in the right section. Voila. Or so we hope. Don't expect "Cops" or "The First 48" if you see “Le Petit Lieutenant.” That’s not because the film doesn't feel realistic. In fact, it feels very realistic. That must be in part because many of the cops in the film by Xavier Beauvois are real cops, in their everyday setting. We learned at the post-film Q&A with cinematographer, Caroline Champetier, who showed up in a long black leather jacket in the spirit of a "cop" film, that Beauvois actually lived among Paris cops for two years, who served as inspiration for the script. Several of them actually had roles in the film. The film differs from the law enforcement reality shows that we would never admit to watching because it focuses on the officers themselves – as people -- showcasing the developing relationship between veteran cops, and the rookie, aka “Le Petit Lieutenant.” However, don’t be fooled. There are plenty of crime scenes, including a trip to the morgue – and the film is not for the squeamish. Tonight's your last chance to see "Le Petit Lieutenant." It shows at the Kabuki at 9:15 p.m. P.S. We also learned that Beauvois plays one of the veteran cops in the film. One clue: Look for the lizard. ...

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. Andre "Mac Minister, Choppa, Chop" Dow, the prime suspect in the Fat Tone's murder was captured yesterday in a San Francisco apartment, by SFPD SWAT and FBI agents. There was a standoff for about 90 minutes, until a woman allowed law enforcement......

We just got a tip from Friend of SFist Jason that the jackbooted thugs professional federal law enforcement agents have harshed yet another buzz in The City. They've raided the home of Steve and Catherine Smith, who operate the club HopeNet at 223 9th, according to SF Gate. Reportedly agents are waiting for a warrant to search the club itself, which is next door to the headquarters of the California Marijuana Party. From the......

It seems like just yesterday that we were sniggering over Sunset residents' concerns about illegal bonfires, but it was actually a few weeks ago. Since then, we've attended a (legal -- we were between Fulton and Lincoln, so we're in the clear) beach bonfire ourselves, and again noted that the worst criminal acts we observed were those involving alcohol. Oh, yeah, and there was a Dorito incident, byt that was more of a crime......

In the "it would be funny and surprising if you didn't live here" department, the Mendocino County assistant agricultural commissioner, Tony Linegar, is asking the state to regulate Marijuana cultivation so that the rules can be put in place to regulate medical marijuana crops as organic. "With no products officially developed for marijuana cultivation, some growers have been using chemicals intended for ornamental plants, which could make users sick." Mendocino County, like many Northern California......

To follow up on our previous story, we're not sure whether the Muni photography ban is the biggest threat to our personal freedom, but we have a feeling that if we don't blow this all a little out of proportion, it will probably be ignored. Civil liberties in our country seem to be dying a death by inches, and what worries us more than simply having a rule banning photography on Muni station platforms......

A federal retrial began in San Francisco today over police use of pepper spray on nonviolent demonstrators....

Thomas Hawk, local San Francisco photo/blogger, posted an interesting essay on his experiences taking pictures at different private cultural venues around town. EssEffist found the link on Boing Boing, which often covers issues related to freedom of speech, expression, media and fair use....

SFist has fond memories of waking up early on Saturdays to eat oversugared cereals and watch cartoons. SFist also deeply enjoys watching vaguely formulaic cop shows. With these two criteria in mind, plus a geeky fondness of San Francisco geography, SFist has been watching the cartoon Continue Reading "22 Fillmore"