Southwest Airlines, the cattle-car service of affordable air transportation, resumed flights this morning after yesterday's maintenance SNAFU grounded "approximately 4 percent" on Tuesday night. It seems that many of their airplanes failed to have safety checks last year, which resulted in yesterday's Southwest Airlines schedule meltdown and a drop in their stock price. But today, Thursday, "the majority of the planes removed from service have been returned" spokeswoman Christi Day tells CBS 5. Yesterday's......

Hey, remember angry Sarah Nome, the lady who refused to move out of the Kaiser hospital in Marin for over a year, and ran up a $1.4 million bill? Well, Kaiser's 1) gotten ownership of her house in San Anselmo and 2) will be auctioning it off to pay off her tab. Kaiser was awarded the house after Nome was put in the care of the state (after her daughter refused to take her in),......

Marines returning home from Iraq were beaten to death with puppies and aborted fetuses by Oakland Airport officials on 9/27. At least that's how some conservative blogs and other outlets have spun it, more or less. (Because the Oakland Airport has nothing better to do than come up with ineffective political statements.) In fact, it was just a tarmac/security-check issue preventing them from entering the passenger terminal for a cinematic "meet and greet" with......

-- 19-year-old lad from Felton -- a fascinating, frightening place -- calls cops after his weed gets pinched. Which he was trying to sell in downtown Santa Cruz. And doesn't get arrested. [Chron] -- Same-sex marriage bill OK'd, ready to be TKO'd by Arnold. [Chron] -- Obama in SF! [Examiner, via BCN] -- Boom! Bomb threat forces Southwest Airlines jet back to Oakland Airport. [CBS5] -- Hsu caught, in hospital after falling down on...train......

Well, it won't be destroyed so much as it will be sent into space. And then vaporized, or zapped, or something. Anyway, someone sporting a Chewbacca outfit handed over Luke Skywalker's original lightsaber prop to NASA representatives at the Oakland Airport today. Apparently it's all a part of Star Wars' 30th anniversary celebration -- this kind of fanfare will happen every five years, folks, so get used to it now -- and "NASA has......

Just some random news items on the wire: There was a three-alarm fire at Thurgood Marshall Alternative High in the Bayview this afternoon. School's out for the summer, so there weren't any students around, and the authorities think the fire was started by roofers working with tar. Some unscreened yutz snuck into Terminal 1 (the non-Southwest one) at Oakland Airport this morning, necessitating a two-hour search of the entire place as TSA tried in vain......

In artist Paul Madonna's weekly comic series All Over Coffee, San Francisco architecture—and coffee—seem to be the main characters. Beautifully technical drawings of SF scenes, combined with disembodied voices that almost feel like the city's collective consciousness, give an ethereal quality to the pieces. You can catch All Over Coffee every Sunday in the Pink section of the Chronicle, and it's archived online as well. Paul also updates his web site every Monday with a new free cartoon. This month, there are several ways you can get to know Paul and his work a little better. • Tonight from 7 to 10 pm at 312 Valencia @ 14th street, there is a Book Release Party for Paul's collection of past to present work from All Over Coffee. You can also buy the book at a discounted price from City Lights Books. ...

An Alaska airlines plane has been evacuated at the Oakland Airport for suspicion of an explosive device on board. It's probably nothing as it's usually nothing but it's still kind of exciting. ...

We hope you weren't coming or going from Oakland Airport today as there was a bit of a security scare there today after somebody ran through the security checkpoints. As a result, the entire airport had to be cleared as they looked for the guy responsible. ...

-Watch out for those government benefit programs. -York disses Ronnie Lott and Joe Montana with his Santa Clara announcement. You wouldn't want to see Ronnie Lott angry. ...

--Love the San Jose public library -- just don't love the San Jose public library. --An Angelides aide says they found the "hot blooded Latino" audio clip on a publicly-accessible website. Also, former Steve Westly manager Garry South seems to be calling Matier and Ross a lot. --The City of Oakland accidentally turned down a historic garden by Lake Merritt, and now has to make it into condos. --Water fountain pressure is low at Oakland......

For once, a BART delay not caused by "switching problems" at Millbrae -- those of you trying to cross the Bay this morning probably heard the repeated announcements about "police activity" at the West Oakland station, and the subsequent crawling-rate of the trains as a result. (We had a weekly with us through the stop-and-go, so tomorrow's We Read The Weeklies will be unusually thorough as a result.) Turns out someone shouted out at the......

. . .or 'The Trimethyldioxypurist Takes a Trip.' It sure is hard to review a San Francisco-based coffee joint when you're not in San Francisco. Although we did find one fantastic coffee house in D.C. (that we would encourage anyone visiting our nation's capital to visit), being elsewhere just underscores that our fair city has among the best, if not the very best, caffeine options around. Too bad it doesn't translate to our airports.......

We're going to let you in on a little holiday travelling secret... Don't Do It. Seriously. Wait for teleportation or, say, February. But if you must go somewhere during the holiday season, the three local airports have some tips for you. The Oakland Airport has a clever list of the 12 tips for holiday travel. They suggest a good last minute airport-panic gift would be a bobblehead doll of the Governator. We're not so sure......