Jonathan and Luis Baez, two brothers from Holyoke, Massachusetts, were arrested late Wednesday after assaulting a pilot on a flight bound for San Francisco. En route American Airlines Flight 1755, a flight attendant noticed Jonathan sleeping during takeoff sans his seat belt fastened. "Unresponsive and appear[ing] to be intoxicated or on drugs," the pilot then returned to the gate and confronted the passenger, which is when things got ugly.

As the brothers were being kicked off the plane, they "confronted the pilot on the jetway, punching him in the face, causing a bruise, lacerations and blurred vision in his left eye," reports KTVU.

One of the brothers was alleged to have threatened the pilot, saying, "When you fly to San Juan I will have you killed."

After "brutally" beating the pilot, one of the brothers apparently chased a flight attendant when he or she refused to allow him to retrieve a package. After attacking the pilot a second time, passengers were able to subdue the brothers until authorities arrived.

Both were charged with aggravated battery, with Luis Baez being handed an extra charge of aggravated assault.

Jonathan, however, is out of the clink now. Just a few minutes ago, he posted the following on his Facebook wall, "I hope my brother nolo comes out good he got lock up yesterday and still havet come out that shit got me mad but with god help everything will be good." (Also, he loves a good fight.) Er. wrong dude.

The state of Massachusetts has sued the Federal government over the Domestic Marriage Act, claiming that it discriminates against the people, namely gay folks, who want to wed. According to the , "the lawsuit, filed this morning in federal court in Boston, challenges the application of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which [Attorney General Martha] Coakley says prevents gay and lesbian couples here from receiving tax, retirement, insurance, Social Security and other benefits."

Oh, and if you thought SFGate commenters were rough, feast your delicate sensibilities on BH commenter notscottpioli's take on things: "Coakley is a sick human being. A fraud who is devoid of all that is moral and right. Another soul lost to the demons of hell." But wait, it gets better! "Marriage is ONLY between a man and a woman. That is the ONLY way to procreate, get it?? These people are just sick sick sick. End of story. Bye bye souls. Good Luck in hell when you go there." Charming.

If you recall, Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage way back in 2004. For more information on the fight for gay marriage, please visit Stop8.org.

by Gavin Newsom

Four years ago, when Del Martin, Phyllis Lyon and more than 4,000 other couples said "I Do" this country took an irrevocable step toward securing equality for every American.

While many feel what we did was too much, too fast, too soon – we stand firm in the belief that our actions were not only just, but legal and constitutional. The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the pursuit of happiness.

Today, the California Supreme Court is hearing arguments on whether excluding gay couples from marriage violates the state constitution. Today, these Justices have a unique chance to follow in the proud tradition of California's high court, which took a courageous stand on marriage equality in 1948 when it ruled that the state's ban on inter-racial marriage was unconstitutional.

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, "Wouldn't a kinder, gentler Gawker be hideously unreadable? No, we never talked about that. It would be hysterical but we haven't."

Londonist was proud to announce the winner of this year's Turner Prize was Mark Wallinger who made long-standing London protester Brian Haw a work of art, after he has previously been made into a sort of law due to his lengthy banner-waving vigil outside parliament. The strength of the pound made real in the form of a 25 foot high coin on a quiet patch of the Thames river bank, aiming to inspire all Londoners in a publicly voted decision on spending £50 million Lottery money. Perhaps some new play projects for London kids who, for the lack of youthful entertainment, are trying to amuse themselves by collecting prostitute calling cards, which are worryingly rigged and booby-trapped. And for those who are anticipating a lovely fat check from a great-aunt this Christmas and wondering what to spend it on, the London Marathon will need a new sponsor after 2009. How does The Londonist London Marathon sound?

Bostonist ducked and covered when a gas tanker tipped over and exploded in the nearby town of Everett. No one got hurt, but cars and homes were destroyed in the blaze. Making matters worse, the driver of the tanker had a few smudges on his record. Bostonist was then agog as their former governor, who usually doesn't hang out in Massachusetts that much, made the news in every possible way. Mitt Romney gave a speech about every religion except his own. However, several other individuals were more interested in the news that Romney still had illegal immigrants working at his mansion. In other Mitt-free news, transit police put out the alert for a "Green Line Groper" who had been making the lives of high-school teens extremely unpleasant. Bostonist also joined a polyamory club and found out that polyamorous people are a lot like normal people, only with more variety.

Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers and special guest MoZella
October, 4 2007
Cafe du Nord (2170 Market Street, San Francisco, California 94101)
Cost : $12
All Ages

Photo courtesy of flickr user: caitlinbango

Gavin says he's on board with the proposal and will get his administration on it. He also says that he's prepared for the criticism to come his way and doesn’t care. Hey, after admitting to be an alcoholic philanderer, there's nowhere to go than up.

And speaking of criticism, expect a lot of it coming our way as nothing gets certain segments of the population in a full froth of fury like illegal immigration and we're already in the cross hairs for being a "sanctuary city." San Francisco, or as this blog calls us, San Fransicko, is already used as an example of what not to be by the Republicans, with the Ken Doll Governor of Massachusetts accusing the Crazed Fascist ex-Mayor of New York of advocating immigration policies like those of San Francisco in a recent TV commercial.

Eh, whatever. The ID idea actually comes from New Haven which has already instituted the policy. Supposedly, a bunch of other big city Mayor types have been looking into it as well, including Mayor Mike of New York.

After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts bridges could use a little help. But Bostonist brightened up considerably when they discovered they could drink themselves silly on the Amtrak booze ride and at the Sam Adams brewery. And, if they're not boarding the party train, they can think about their much-improved sports teams. Thanks to the arrival of basketball stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, Bostonist is finally feeling some Celtic pride. (They had to exercise that pride when a certain blog attempted to talk trash about their fair city.) Oh, and the Red Sox got pitcher Eric Gagne, too!

With hot weather forecast in the Midwest, Chicagoist offered its readers a survival guide to Lollapalooza. That isn't the only major event happening in the City of Broad Shoulders. The YearlyKos convention rolled into town, as well. Meanwhile, changes are afoot at the city's largest weekly newspaper after a change in ownership, more women are talking on their cell phones as a means of discouraging assaults, readers disagreed with a Dunkin' Donuts franchisee's decision not to serve pork breakfast sandwiches, and a retired machinist thought he won a million dollars until a Miller Lite girl took his winning ticket away.

DCist was a little testy this week: to start with, they called for a ban on Crocs after discovering that the ugly shoes are destroying the city's escalators, they gave another popular blog a hard time for ripping on their fair city for no reason, and they begrudgingly gave San Diego their best wishes after that city beat D.C. in the race to create more adorable panda cubs. Finally DCist Senior Editor Martin Austermuhle traveled to Chicago for the YearlyKos convention to speak on a panel about the struggle for District Voting Rights.

This week, Houstonist checked in on a series of fallen icons: an animatronic gorilla from their youth singing bad hip-hop, the virtuous halls of government invaded by a mysterious pink dildo, and a flamboyantly white-haired, blue-spectacled local news icon gone to the big TV studio in the sky. It all gives you something to think about while making late-night grocery runs in your PJs - which is totally acceptable, considering that Houston once annexed the city of New Orleans. And we all know what that means: drinks all around!

One of our personal favorites this year was Leah Kramer's 'The Craftsters Guide to Nifty, Thrifty and Kitschy Crafts'. Kramer, a craft maven by every definition of the word, is responsible for starting the fabulous craftster.org, an online community for crafters of all stripes. Kramer is also one of the organizers behind Bazaar Bizarre, and if that weren't enough she is also part owner of Magpie, a crafty boutique in Sommerville, Massachusetts. A self proclaimed craft junkie, this book was inspired by Kramer's collection of craft books from the 1950's and 60's. In fact, about seventy percent of the projects that appear in the book are taken from those retro publications.

We'll admit at first we thought some of the projects seemed a little silly, Terry Loincloths anyone? But part of what makes this book so great is that these outlandish projects are the ones from the 50's & 60's. And there's something sort of charming about the crocheted doll face fridge magnets and beaded fruit. The actual images and text are reproduced so you can read pack-o-fun's (a manufacturer of many of these vintage craft booklets) original directions and delight in the drawings that accompany them. As Kramer states in the introduction, there's something sweetly nostalgic about craft projects from this era, not that we would have wanted to live in the 50's either, but it would have been fun to make a gold macaroni frame with your grandma back then.

SFist Christina Loff, contributing

Destination Dinners officially opened for business just about a month ago. Lisa runs it from her home. She's a big thinker with ambitious goals that go beyond the scope of typical business objectives and, to us, very much typifies that which is admirable about the spirit of San Francisco and its residents. We were privileged to be able to see her plan in action at an early stage and to get some insight into the genesis of her business.

After stints in Massachusetts, New York, and Tokyo, among other places, Lisa's been a San Francisco resident since 1997. We sought to find out what inspired this former dancer and marketing professional to drop everything and have a go at something else, completely unrelated, on her own (albeit with the staunch support of her husband, a dedicated food taster).

The idea behind Destination Dinners came to Lisa only a little while after she'd removed herself from the rat race. She decided that since she wasn't going to be working in the corporate sense, she'd try to make at home the kinds of meals she and her husband had usually enjoyed at restaurants.

"I started pulling out the recipes that I had collected during all my travels, and talking with friends from all over," she says. "Even with the time off and knowing all the markets and the fun, funky places, I was having trouble finding all the ingredients."

And when she did find the ingredients--the required spices or jars of sauces--they weren't available in decent portions for one-off purposes.

"Even I don't go through fish sauce that quickly," she jokes, using hand motions to indicate a Costco-sized bottle. "It just goes stale and the flavors fade."

She knew there had to be a better way -- one that would include pre-measured spices in appropriate amounts, and one that could incorporate a way to make cooking and learning about the culture fun and interesting. Thus, Destination Dinners, with its lofty goal of using food as a medium for introducing culture, was born.

Ah, the most agonizing time of the year for a certain group of local lawyers is upon us -- the annual releasing of the results from the February California state bar exam. The February bar exam is traditionally the one that people who failed the bar their first go-around (the more popular July sitting) take for round two.

Why we bringing up obscure lawyer stuff? Well, because one of the folks who were waiting on pins and needles for this weekend's results was Kathleen Sullivan, former dean of the Stanford Law School and one of the nation's top constitutional law scholars. Sullivan took a job with a law firm and needed to pass the California bar so she could work there (she had passed New York and Massachusetts but not California) -- and to her chagrin, she failed. A wave of schadenfreunde () promptly showered over all California attorneys who passed the bar, a wave of consolation-taking (even the DEAN can't pass!) showered over those who failed, and a wave of total and abject fear (she's the DEAN!) swept over those who haven't taken it yet.

Well, haters, get a new game -- Dean Sullivan passed this time around. For those of you looking to check up on friends, the State Bar pass list for February is online. For those of you with newly-minted JD acquaintances, bar review classes started this week too.

In the nearly year and a half we've been doing coffee-related writing here on SFist, we've taken a number of pictures that we've heretofore been unable to shoehorn into one of our "Trimethyldioxypurist" episodes. So, hey, it's time for a few leftovers.

New Toy
Our place of residence is currently undergoing significant construction -- it's a lot of stress, and we weren't able to make coffee at home for several weeks. While we love going to cafes and having other people make amazing beverages for us, our favorite coffee is still that which we make for ourselves. As we alluded to when we reviewed some of Taylor Maid Farms' offerings, there's a real "I can't believe can do that" wow factor. Like the first time you tie your shoes by yourself (ahh, fond memories of April 2004).

In any case, the implement pictured above is what's known as a vacuum brewer, and it's our new favorite coffee toy (pic taken during our winter holiday in Massachusetts -- thus the Dunkin' Donuts coffee -- and check out that awesome hand-crank grinder! We seriously love that thing.)

Water starts in the bottom chamber, creeps into the upper chamber through a tube, where it encounters the ground coffee you've left there. It bubbles a little, steeps for a few minutes, then releases the coffee back into the lower chamber in a highly theatrical manner. It's very cool.

Only problem? The brew wasn't very good. And it wasn't the beans; when our precious Blue Bottle went into it and we still had sub-par coffee, we knew it must be the brewer. After a bit of 'net research (mostly on CoffeeGeek.com), we decided to try cutting the internal tube with a hacksaw to be about a quarter inch shorter. Voila -- shorter tube led to hotter water in the upper chamber, which led to richer coffee. Don't ask us why. Also, as our enthusiasm often outpaces our skill, we may not have made the cut very, er, straight or something, as the brew cycle is not to dramatic to watch as it was before. Nonetheless, we're much happier with the quality of the coffee.

Yes, taking a hacksaw to our brewer -- we now truly feel like a coffee geek. And we are proud.

Nightmarish Choice

This next one came during our coverage of the San Diego Comic-Con for SFist last July: