Well, the bad news is still that we've hit a 12 year high for homicides in the City and County of San Francisco, with two weeks left to go in the year. On the statistical side, though, the SFPD year to date murder count has moved down by three victims, from 100 to 97. What happened to those three victims? Well, they're not any less dead, unfortunately. Rather, three of them were reclassified into non-murders.......

SFist interviews Charlie M. from The Happy Hollows. They are playing the Fillmore tonight with the Silversun Pickups...

Following up on yesterday's blotter, we're sorry to pass along word from today's Chronicle that one of the murder victims over the weekend, David Sterling, was killed on the way home Monday afternoon, after picking up a burrito for his girlfriend. Investigators think it was supposed to be a retaliation shooting from the guy shot in the garage by kids on bikes a day earlier, but because Sterling had no record and no known gang......

At three o'clock today we tried to take the M out to SF State. The overhead sign at Church Station switched from showing only "K in Seven Minutes" to "Next Trains In Subway - Delayed." We left the station in disgust. Looks like it's not a whole lot better two hours later. That shot is from 4:45 pm today. There are now nine M trains bunched up on the east side of West Portal,......

--Local photog Thomas Hawk gets assaulted for taking pictures -- again. [Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection, via the SFist tips line. update: From last year! Sorry! Keep those tips fresh, folks!] --C.W. Nevius didn't start the fire. [The Chron.] --Republicans busted by SF State for stomping on Muslim flags with the word "Allah" written on them are now suing. Oh, that's rich. [CBS 5.] --You thought Ed Jew Borderline was awesome? If that was Madonna,......

Don't worry, he's still dead. But the deceased Bible salesman's ghost drifted through the minds of a few characters at SF State's graduation last weekend, startling an out-of-towner named, for real, Earl Clampett. Apparently one of the graduation speakers had a few unkind words for the Reverend -- himself a bottomless pit of unkind words -- and that rubbed Earl the wrong way. So in his column on World Net Daily, a trustworthy and insightful......

--Ferrets are coming back on the ballot!! --HP's been spying on the press. --Smile, you're on candid camera. --Copper thieves! --You oysters from around these parts? --SF State's Arabic professor can't get a visa to come back to the US. --and the non-English SFGov website makes no sense. The English one doesn't make much sense either! Also -- when will the Gavin's Photo Gallery be updated again? Soon, we hope!......

When you assume, you make an ass out of you and Wednesday. Tonight: As part of its year-long partnership with the Yerba Buena Center, the SF Jewish Film Festival is screening the Oscar-nominated documentary "The Ritchie Boys," about young German Jews who fled to the US and were recruited into anti-Nazi psy-ops. Film starts at 7:30 and a surviving Ritchie Boy will be speaking after the screening. Thursday: Words not hands! Learn more about nonviolent communication techniques at an introductory seminar at SF State. Class starts at 7, and it's $0-35 sliding scale. and Friday: As part of the 2006 Queer Arts Festival, the Raw Dance troupe is performing at 69 Belcher (between 14th St., Duboce, Church, and Sanchez). The program is called "Per-Verses," and presents an exploration of porn, erotica, and intimacy through dance. Adult audiences only (our favorite!)....

Sure, we love IndieFest, but it's hardly the only Fest going on this week. This year's Korean American Film Festival opened last night, and continues through February 12. We know, we know, the website is damn near impossible to navigate and just plain confusing. We promise the time you devote to wading through it will be worth your while, as there are many, many cinematic gems buried within. We'll be seeing some of the......

A woman crossing Van Ness at Jackson was struck and killed by a 27 Bryant bus at about 6:30 a.m. yesterday. Pedestrians are rallying for better countdown crosswalk lights and increased driver awareness, and investigators think the bus driver might have been blinded by the rising sun. A SF State student fell to his death off a dorm stairwell over the weekend. SF State says he may have been leaning over the stairwell to watch a fight going on below. The dorm has a ban on parties, and students can be fined $100. Interestingly, though, there's no ban on alcohol. The student had been at SFSU since 2002, but wasn't enrolled in any classes this semester. And CBS 5 anchor Doug Murphy, who had recently taken a medical leave from the station, was killed in a house fire Sunday night. Fire investigators are looking into the cause of the fire, which was found to have started in the attic of the Lafayette house. The local news community and CBS 5 viewers are pretty shaken up about the whole thing (we saw Vicki Liviakis break down on KRON 4 when the news was confirmed). ...

Why watch the cartoons when you can see the real thing? SF State is hosting the second annual RoboGames this Saturday and Sunday. Robots will set things on fire, sumo-wrestle, bartend, and open for New Order (okay, we made that last one up). Come cheer on local family the Chileses and their robot "Alcoholic Stepfather" (because all entrants sign over all licensing rights to their robots when entering the contest, people tend to pick names they think no one will want to steal). Get tickets here -- and if you go, send us your pictures! SFist totally wants to see sumo-wrestling, martini-pouring, stair-climbing bots! Picture from robogames.net...

Starting today and running through Sunday, the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library are hosting their 40th annual Big Book Sale, at Fort Mason. ...

Bay Area crime roundup...