It's confirmed! We reported the rumor in June, denied by Facebook at the time, that the social media giant was in talks with real estate brokers to lease a large amount of office space in San Francisco — finally bending to employees' demands for an option that did not include daily commutes to Menlo Park. And the big rumor was they might take the entire office portion of 181 Fremont, the almost complete high-rise that is also set to feature 17 floors of luxury condos.

As the Business Times is reporting, Facebook has inked the largest office lease in SF in the last three years, taking 50 floors and 436,000 square feet in the building, suggesting it will house between 2,000 and 3,000 employees of Facebook (and Instagram). This is the largest office lease inked since Salesforce signed on to take the majority of what was then called the Transbay Tower, in 2014.

In June Facebook was downplaying the rumor, saying they may just look for space to put about 100 Instagram employees in SF somewhere, and they were apparently looking at space in the Chronicle building as well (though obviously that's hardly a marquee-worthy property on the level of a shiny glass skyscraper). The Registry was the first to hear the rumblings from the real estate world that 181 Fremont was really where Facebook may be headed.

The building, designed by Heller Manus architects and situated basically next door to Salesforce Tower, is a pretty addition to our new skyline, with its zig-zag seismic reinforcements on the exterior. And, as we learned in July, the penthouse in the 70-story tower is on the market for $42 million.

181 Fremont, perhaps soon to be known as Facebook Tower, is set to be complete later this year.

Previously: Facebook Reportedly In Talks To Take Over All, Or Just A Piece, Of New Downtown SF Tower

Ralph Nader announced yesterday that he will take yet another tireless stab at the Oval Office, this time running as an Independent in the 2008 presidential election. Oh joy. Prattling on endlessly about how the Democratic and Republican candidates aren't addressing the issues, and blah blah, who cares, this will be his fifth attempt at snatching the title President of the United States of American.

What with a black man, Barack Obama, in the running, don't expect to hear a peep of support or praise for Nader coming from local, fetishizing progressives.

According to Marin County officials, about "1,500 gallons of raw sewage" was dumped into the San Francisco Bay today near Point San Quentin. Grody. According to the Gate:

Deartment of Corrections officials have taken action to contain the spill, and are also conducting water testing in the area, authorities said. The public should not go in the water near San Quentin until the area is deemed safe, authorities said. Warning signs will be posted today at the impacted shorelines, according to the Sheriff's Office.

That said, the Bay really isn't into scat games, Marin County. Please keep the mass quantities of urine and fecal matter to yourselves.

The death of two horses found at a Solano County ranch last Saturday has been ruled accidental. It seems that they "died after they collided, breaking their spinal cords," and not because of any foul play. According to Marisa Lagos over at the Gate:

The horses were found Saturday at Peterson Ranch on Lewis Road east of Vacaville. Authorities initially thought they may have been shot to death. The animals were taken to UC Davis Veterinarian Hospital, where necropsies were performed, said Officer Paula Toynbee of the Solano County Sheriff's Office.

No human was mounted on either horse during the collision, it seems. The two were apparently just frollicking around, or jousting in the dark, or having unusual equine sex, or...who knows? Strange.

The man suspected of mowing people down during a hit-and-run spree in August 2006 , Omeed Aziz Popal, 30, pleaded not guilty today in San Francisco Superior Court. Really.

For those of you who don't remember, Popal allegedly went after 16 pedestrians with his SUV during a 15-minute death span on the streets and sidewalks of northern San Francisco. Accused of a whopping 16 counts of attempted murder--including the murder of 54-year-old Stephen Jay Wilson, who he reportedly killed in Fremont just prior to his rampage--he already a confessed to the killings to police. But according to the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, Popal "suffers from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and auditory command hallucinations." (That is to say, he hears voices. Which we hear is an excruciating disorder.)

CBS 5 goes on to say that the will return to court on Feb, 26 "in order to set further dates in the case, including possibly setting a trial date."

Oh Lord. Is this for real?

From the SFist inbox this morning we received alarming news that Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel, like, totally hate Africans, or something like that. After the New Year's Eve announcement that the two were to enter holy matrimony, one concerned reader called "Mayor Newsom's Communication Office," wondering if the "rock he bought for his fiancee was not a blood diamond."

After talking to an "incompetent" Newsom staff member - kudos to the unfortunate staffer who had to field this call - the blood diamond crusader was told to call Tiffany & Co. to find out more about the possible sanguinary gem adorning the future First Lady of San Francisco's dainty hand. (Funny, Jen and Gav seem like a Zales kind of couple to us.) After being "put on hold for 10 minutes until a recorded announcement said no one could take [her] call," we here at SFist got to the bottom of this international scandal percolating right before our eyes. (Africa isn't in California, right?)

According to CommonDreams.org ("Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community"):

Out of 30 companies that were asked about their policies on conflict diamonds by letter and a follow-up telephone call, only five responded, according to Global Witness. They included Fortunoff, Pampillonia, Tiffany & Co., the Signet Group, and Zale Corporation.

Of those five, Global Witness said, Tiffany stood out because it described how it has tried to strengthen its sourcing and auditing policies precisely to ensure that it was not dealing in conflict diamonds.

So...there you have it. We can all sleep at night now. And why Tiffany & Co. didn't just explain the above right away is beyond us. But we suspect the human rights advocate personality on the other end of the conversation might have had something to do with it. (Who we officially love, by the way.) We're just saying.

To read the accusatory email in its entirety, follow the jump.

It's not, apparently. Witness this letter signed by Mark Geragos just yesterday. It goes on and on. (And there's more here in the Geragos interview with the San Jose Mercury News) We knew that drugs and alcohol were involved, but we hadn't heard one particular rumor about some people ("the boys" - how old are they exactly?) being kicked out of "an establishment" before coming to the zoo. DH's succinct reply is here.

Is this the way it's going to be for the next umptiump months? The tiger grotto wall could/should have been higher, but that doesn't mean the search for the facts ends there. The family of Carlos Sousa Jr. also would like to know more of the events of that day. San Francisco is blessed with more than its fair share of excellent employees at the city attorney office, but it looks like their hunt for evidence of the truth of what occurred is going to be a long slog.

So far, Dennis Herrera is ahead on points. To be continued.

Update: There is some dispute as to whether the "kids" will be charged for any activity on Christmas Day. The latest appears to be that no decision has yet been made, which makes sense. It's still early. As far as other charges from 2007 per the Monterey County Herald:

Paul Dhaliwal was arrested for being drunk in public on March 24 after being seen allegedly drinking beer and smoking marijuana at an In-N-Out Burger on Capitol Expressway. He was sentenced to attend 10 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. On Sept. 7, Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal were arrested in charges of public drunkenness. Paul Dhaliwal was also charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest. They have a Jan. 15 court date.

What useful information could these cellies contain? Contact numbers and pictures, maybe? It seems like a fair idea that representatives from the office of Mark Geragos (a Fox News Loser of the Week!) and the City Attorney's Office take a gander at these things at the same time. That's the proposal. How will Geragos reply? Tune in next week.

(In other news, Michael Jackson is not a freak, in any sense of the word.)

Denied.

Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu - who helped raised cash for Mayor Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Fiona Ma, Hillary Clinton, and the victorious Barack Obama - was sentenced to three years in prison today for defrauding investors of nearly $1 million over 15 years ago. He was ordered to spend a sojourn behind bars after a Ponzi scheme involving latex gloves. This case is separate from a "separate federal complaint ... by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York [where] Hsu is charged with a $60 million Ponzi scheme involving high-end apparel from China."

We really need to get in on this Ponzi racket. It sounds totally worth it. And we can find a seamless escape plan in 15 years time.

Hsu, as you might remember, was on the lam for a while back last year, after failing to appear in San Mateo County Superior Court appearance for the latex scheme. He was found on an Amtrack train, dazed and ill, headed east.

David Bazan is traveling up the West Coast before he jumps over Europe to finish his tour. He'll be stopping in at the Bottom of the Hill, where he'll play his witty folk/rock consisting of songs off his recent EP, Fewer Moving Parts. The first words off the song "Selling Advertising" asks the music critic, "You're so creative with your reviews/Of what other people do/How satisfying that must be for you." But at the end he tells his listener, "You can always start a band with me." Now we don't think you should bring your guitar or harmonica to the gig on Wednesday night, but come prepared to listen to some creative singer/songwriter magic - he's #85 in Paste's Top 100 living singer/songwriters. Pretty damn good.

Thursday night, Popscene is in full-force with the Chicago-based pop band, Office. Now we know that you'll have to tivo The Office to go, but we think this Office is worth it. It seems that the folks over at Chicagoist and Phillyist are totally digging it and after Phillyist saw them, they were completely head-over-heels for them. We think you can trust them.

To read the full listings, take the jump...

Perhaps in an effort to appease the masses for screwing them over on insane parking ticket allocations, the San Francisco Police Department, the Mayor's Office, and city prosecutors are working together to stop the city's most "overlooked crime": smash-and-grab auto burglaries. (Also known as "Boosts." Oh, that's fun name!)

With an average of 41 smash-and-grabs per day in SF, the Mayor's office created a special task force that arrests one boost-happy hoodlum per week, preventing "at least 10 to 20 [break-ins] per week," according Lt. Dave Lazar, who went on to say that "[o]ne person doesn’t break into just one car. They move on and target more." Which? True. We never thought of it that way. Booters are certainly tenacious, it seems.

SF Examiner's positively fellating article on the drop claims that since the Mayor's Office launched the program in September, it has "contributed to a 22 percent drop in incidents reported between October of this year (1,068) and October 2006. (1,373)." This, yes, is something to be proud of, for sure. But it runs the risk of ruining the glass-bit collage we've been working on, but...whatever.

And the best place to park in SF? A guarded, locked up garage, of course. And the worst place to park according to SFPD and Gav's Office? Find out after the jump!