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......

According to a press release put out on PR Newswire by her attorney, Dr. Arlene Ackerman has filed suit against the San Francisco Unified School District in San Francisco Superior Court....

Thanks, everyone, for making our second birthday party such a blast! (and sorry to do this to you, Chris Daly, after you were nice enough to come to our party and sign all the bingo card squares offered to you, in the space labeled "Political Candidate" -- but we couldn't resist!) An extra big thank you to Varnish Bar and IODA for all their help putting the party together, and to DJ Ted for......

Victor Willis, the Village People cop, is the gift that keeps giving to the Blotter patrol! (We especially liked the headline, "Willis's destiny is the J-A-I-L" from the San Mateo County Times.) Willis failed to show up for court -- again -- despite the fact that his lawyer's worked out a plea bargain where if he surrenders, he'll serve 16 months. America's Most Wanted had a film crew on site to film what turned out to be the no-show. And hey -- we had no idea Willis had been married to Phylicia Rashad! San Francisco Superior Court judge Newtom Lam's mother died of several heart attacks three days after being struck by a cable car on a blind hill at Filbert and Mason. At the time of the accident, Mrs. Lam seemed okay and was speaking with investigators, but it turns out she fractured her skull and had broken her ribs, collarbone, and hip as well. Walk SF is holding a vigil on Monday at noon and participants should bring bells. ...and you thought you were unenthusiastic about school starting again! San Jose State put out a nationwide APB when a meteorology professor went AWOL for the first week of class. The professor hadn't called in, hadn't been seen since finals last semester, and was reported to have been having "employment and personal issues." He was found when someone at a Comfort Inn in Pennsylvania looked up from browsing Merc News articles online and saw the very guy whose picture was filling up the screen. Turns out the professor had been hiding out there for over a month. ...

Last Wednesday, word got out about a class-action suit being brought by Gonzalez & Leigh on behalf of employees at the Courtyard Marriott in San Francisco Superior Court. Originally filed September 23rd, the recently amended complaint alleges that Marriott has failed to comply with the San Francisco Minimum Wage Ordinance since it was enacted on February 23rd, 2004. Further, it's alleged that the ordinance itself wasn't posted for employees and that one employee, Joseph......

Breaking news: Judge Kramer of the San Francisco Superior Court has ruled that laws restricting marriage to heterosexuals violate the California constitution. We're still looking for links to the order, and reporting about reactions, but it's probably safe to say right now that the order's probably going to be appealed. Picture off the AP...

Passing along news about public figures in an attempt to distract ourselves from the pain of everyday existence: your Political Junkie gossip roundup for the day! Our soon-to-be-former first lady Kimberly made it official and filed for divorce in San Francisco Superior, asking, among other things, for her legal name of Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle back. Both parties are represented by the same lawyer, Max Gutierrez, from the law firm of Morgan Lewis and Bockius. Maybe Gavin and Eminem can compare Rot In Pieces Kim tattoos after this is all done. Now that Gavin's free to date again, two other ambitious ladies are now suddenly available -- both Mabel Teng and Fiona Ma have announced their divorces as well. Sorry, gals, he's Matt's now! And finally, it was a teary-eyed swearing-in for our new Board of Supes for Ammiano and Elsbernd (along with a Sandoval diatribe about the need to recycle batteries). Ruth Dewson, she of the hats on Fillmore Street, disparaged the man tears: "I'm so sick and tired of grown men crying." Ammiano brought the smack right back, responding, "Get a life. I have one," and citing his partner, Tim Curbo, who died of AIDS five days before Ammiano's first election in 1994. Oooooh, death. Score that one for Ammiano. Your dirt is always welcome here!...

After last Thursday’s nice, legalistic hearing on the legality of gay marriage, Friday’s hearing, the last of the two-day hearing, took a turn to the not so nice as the two conservative legal groups arguing against gay marriage said that gay people can’t get married because it would go against the whole point of marriage. Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund and the Campaign for California Families argued that since the whole point of marriage......

Hearings began Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court on the legality of Same-Sex Marriage. On one side is the City of San Francisco, representing twelve plaintiffs who filed suitafter the California Supreme Court ruled against the sanctioning of the marriages. All twelve of the plaintiffs were married last spring- in fact, two of the plaintiffs, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, were the very first couple to have been married. On the other side is......