If passed, the bill will "prevent teachers in kindergarten through eighth grade from discussing homosexuality in prepared materials or instruction," ultimately hindering kids struggling with their identity from getting counseling and taking part in gay-straight alliance groups. more ›

For those of you who haven't been following the saga of Casey Anthony and her allegedly filicidal ways, good for you. (Actually, too bad for you. Because, murder of a child aside, it's been choice drama.) Anthony was released from jail on Saturday after being acquitted in the murder of her 3-year-old daughter, Caylee. Days before her freedom, a California lawmaker introduced Caylee's Law... more ›

San Francisco's controversial sit-lie ordinance, which passed in November by a narrow margin, has accomplished what many predicted: nothing. The law, making it verboten to sit or lie on public sidewalks between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., was favored strongly by local business owners and some residents in the Haight-Ashbury. They claimed they were being harassed by scrappy street urchins who loitered on nearby sidewalks. more ›

The owner of Borderlands Cafe and Borderland Books in the Mission is apparently not pleased about San Francisco's smoking laws. Here's what he has to say in the above sign: more ›

by Amy Crocker Another year, another set of legislation goes into effect. The Merced Sun Star has compiled this helpful, alphabetized list of new laws so you can continue to be an upstanding California citizen in 2010. more ›

Last year, Mayor Newsom and Supervisor Maxwell introduced legislation aimed at reforming the nightclub industry. Apparently, not much has been accomplished since then. more ›

Now that absinthe is back and more tipsy-inducing than ever, it only makes sense for them to take on practical lollipop form. Which is why Lit Absinthe Lollipops are the perfect stocking stuffer or gift for that 21-and-over kid in your life. Or better yet, the perfect gift for you while dealing with stereotypically cranky in-laws, assorted family dysfunctions, and all that other holiday-related stress, joy. more ›

As the last night of Hanukkah approaches, we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on this past week's Jewy events and provide a few tidbits of what we shiksas have learned from this year's celebration. more ›

Ah, today should be a citywide holiday, it really really should. more ›

Oh is it a voting day or something? It totally sneaked up on us! It still feels like Monday today. Actually it also feels like October. Anyway, you should probably vote yes on A and no on H, because that's what everyone else is doing. Prop A will protect The Mt Soledad National War Memorial and do something to the air force? and will transform some colleges. Also, Aristotle endorsed it it. more ›

If you are the primary caregiver for an ailing brother, sister, granddaughter, grandson, or your pesky in-laws, the guv basically says, Who Cares? more ›

Last week's winner, the deceptive SF Weekly. Letters abound, either outraged by the fake Barry Bonds story or entertained by the elk. Why don't the negative letters have the names of the authors? Are you now questioning all the journalism you read in the Weekly now, or did you just think it was a good joke? Matt Smith says Gavin Newsom is supporting a cult. No, not the cult of Gavin, though no doubt Gavin supports that too. Cover article: a family that's had two kids shot near the Sunnyvale housing project. It's a really interesting story! This weekend alone: Litquake, the Zine Fest, and Tease-O-Rama. It's good to live in SF! Meredith isn't so happy with an appetizer bar; SFist Ced isn't so happy with Meredith! Mercredi, C'est Ravioli will continue!!!! Yay! Recent disaster concerts in the Bay Area -- at least Lady Sovereign and Lauryn Hill showed up, unlike MF Doom. We liked Let's Get Killed's pensive mature tone about the tough times Rogue Wave's gone through, we really did. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and the Bouncer deconstructs the dive bar. more ›

In case you missed it, President 25% Approval Ratings was able to ram through some legislation revamping all those FISA laws you keep hearing about. It's hard to make heads or tails of what the bill says as the administration, in a surprise to no one, won't tell anyone what it says, but it involves making warrants kind of unnecessary, the monitoring of anyone suspected as a "terrorist" and-- get this-- the oversight by one Alberto "Fredo" Gonzalez. That's more than letting the fox guard the hen house, that's letting Michael Vick run the SPCA. more ›

Photo of dog aggression in San Francisco's Alta Plaza park. more ›

SFist Nick forwarded along an unintentionally-hilarious article by professional provocateur Christopher Hitchens from earlier this week in Slate. In this article, Hitchens mostly complains about Conrad Black, the Canadian press tycoon recently convicted of corporate fraud, but check out this kicker at the end! more ›

After quitting his job at Oracle, Rajeev Samant moved back to India to grow wine. The India Times/Economic Times has the story on Samant's journey from Stanford student to Oracle employee to a winemaker. He started his winery, the likes of which has never been seen in his native country before (and, in fact, was illegal according to some state laws), back on his family's 30-acre plot in India. more ›

The Chronicle called Ed Jew's office today, and his legislative aide Barbara Meskunas said he wasn't in because he was sleeping. Jet lag, you know. more ›

Even when Tapioca Ed's out of the country, the news keeps popping up! Here's today's latest Bobagate news. more ›

. Russo says he was distracted by his sons as they were driving away (in his hybrid -- of course!) from Fenton's Ice Creamery and forgot. This is a class act apology, though -- "There's no excuse. I should have been wearing my seat belt. I will not fail to wear my seat belt in the future." Russo also got dinged for having a crack in his windshield and for having an outdated address on his driver's license. Ironically, the cop that ticketed him had been involved in a city lawsuit for kicking a perp in the groin in 1998. more ›

It's mostly this guy's fault. more ›

Assembly Bill 684 seeks to legalize the growing of hemp for industrial uses -- rope, cloth, oil, all that good stuff. It's not for smoking, okay? Okay?! In fact, the bill. which passed the assembly and heads for the state senate shortly, defines "industrial hemp" as "an agricultural field crop limited to the non-psychoactive varieties of the of the plant Cannabis sativa L." more ›

a good idea that SPUR already did it over a year ago. Remember March of 2006 when we wrote about the report entitled "Muni's Billion Dollar Problem"? It was about how Muni's budget shortfall will total a BILLION dollars in a few years if they don't get their act in gear. Lack of funding was a big cause of the T-line problems you just saw -- Muni couldn't get enough working trains for the line, and they couldn't hire enough drivers to support their ridiculously high absentee rate. more ›

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! more ›

In the latest attempt to do something, anything, to improve the Muni's timeliness as dictated by the Transit Effectiveness Project, the Powers that Be are contemplating adding cameras to Muni buses to try and catch people who double park in bus-only lanes. The reason, of course, is that people blocking buses from going down the road cause some of the delays. Both Gavin and Ken Garcia looked at early footage taken and said they were amazed at all the double parkers they saw. They also agreed that while the dialogue in the footage was great, they thought the whole thing was too derivative of Godard. more ›

Due to all those recent stories about how much money the city is by not doing anything about enforcing parking laws (something for which SFist claims complete innocence of), the city is announcing steps to try and get more money out of parking. more ›

An update on the rare snowy plover birds in S.F. more ›

Here's the daily wrap up of the news more ›

--Left in SF asks progressives to play nice in the Migden-Leno race. Hilariously, Chris Daly refuses, twice. more ›

That pilot program that's being tried out on the 1 California is now going to be tested on the J Church. Which is kind of a good thing as it's not only the most unreliable of all the MUNI metro lines, but one of the five least favorite MUNI lines in our Worst MUNI Line Poll. Oh yeah, it'll now be the go-to line to get people to and from the Caltrain station. more ›

Did you know that Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days? The last day, March 4, 2007, is the Lantern Festival. So, we're not too late in getting this crucial holiday food news to you: Your celebratory moon cakes could be a danger to your health. more ›