Okay, let's get all those big headline news items up and out of the way: Scott Dyleski is guilty of killing the wife of Susan Polk's lawyer; creepy John Karr who used to live around here remains creepy but is no longer considered the JonBenet Ramsey killer; and that guy they think maybe have molested over 100 boys is serving as his own lawyer at trial. Also, five murders in three incidents in SF over......

Susan Polk, the Orinda woman accused of murdering her therapist husband, has been found guilty of second-degree murder, with an enhancement of use of a deadly weapon. Jurors began deliberations on the 2002 murder Tuesday morning, and announced their decision at 11:30 a.m. today. The Martinez-based trial recieved national attention for its many unusual elements, including the circumstances of the Polk couple's initial romance (she was a teen in trouble, he was her shrink), Polk's......

Those of you who read this site regularly probably think you have a good sense of what this particular correspondent is interested in -- traffic, Chris Daly, heartwarming tales about animals, general schadenfreunde. But we have a shameful confession to make. No, it's not that we secretly love/hate Gavin Newsom. No, it's not that we secretly love/hate Matt Gonzalez. We are totally following the Susan Polk trial. It's embarrassing! We never got into the OJ......

The Susan Polk trial was in recess today, but it was still a pretty busy day for the local courts, which decided: *that kids who failed the state high school exit exam can still graduate if they've met all other requirements, because many of the students who didn't pass were in substandard schools. *that tuna doesn't need a mercury warning label, because that's something the FDA should decide. Besides, there's not that much mercury in......

Well, here's some good news: they found the woman suffering from seizures and dementia who was reported missing last week after a San Mateo hospital discharged her without first contacting her family. The police found her at around 3 p.m. on Sunday, sleeping in the SF Transbay terminal and in good health. There's more background on her here. Susan Polk's rambling cross-examination of her son Gabriel will come to an end today, whether she's done......

We're not really sure what to make of this news item, so we'll just give it to you straight. Turns out that skinny Teri Hatcher has revealed in this month's Vanity Fair that she gave anonymous testimony in a child molestation case in Sunnyvale that put her uncle in prison for 14 years on a plea bargain. Wow. Among other things, we had no idea Teri Hatcher was from the Bay Area. Here's some additional Merc News coverage of Hatcher's uncle's child molestation trial. Remember the pregnant woman who stabbed her baby daddy in the stomach after he started bugging her about eating a candy bar? Sentenced to five years in prison. She's now 8 months pregnant, and said that she had been previously abused and that her boyfriend had said, "I hope you have a miscarriage" before she went at him. And in our final entry in sad family news, the Susan Polk trial gets weirder and weirder, as the allegedly-schizophrenic defendant, defending herself in court against charges that she murdered her husband, squared off with her son in court. For example, Susan Polk asked her son, "why did your father say I was delusional?" The son replied, "Because you were acting that way... I saw your delusions myself." Susan Polk also spent some time trying to convince her son that his brother had been molested in satanic rituals. Sigh. ...

Well, the top blotter news this week has been, of course, the murder of Pamela Vitale, the wife of Susan Polk's attorney, Daniel Horowitz. Polk, the Orinda woman who's accused of murdering her psychiatrist husband, is back in custody after the judge declared a mistrial in her case because of all the publicity about her attorney's wife. No shortage of conspiracy theories going around -- was it him? A disgruntled client? The weird neighbor? Despite what Phil Bronstein said yesterday, no arrests have been made as of yet. Cybersquatters, you just missed your chance -- in all the hoopla of opening the new San Jose city hall, the SJ IT department accidentally forgot to renew their registration on the sanjoseca.gov website. They hastily paid the $125 and the site's back in business. They're looking into whether they can just pay for a multi-year registration so it doesn't happen again -- "we are, after all, the capital of Silicon Valley." And the Oakland Tribune profiles wacky Ecstasy users at the San Francisco club Mighty. One guy has been obsessively logging every single hit of E he takes (he's up to 38.5 rolls, starting from Aug. 13, 2004 -- DEA, take note). Another raver, who's a banker in her day job (and came to Mighty dressed up as an anime character), is described as a "long-time user" and says "most folks grow out of it." We hope she didn't give the reporter her actual name. ...

"No, no, the X-Files do exist!!" A man went a little nuts in the lobby of the SF FBI office and did about $7,491 in damage as a result. (Do they keep all their receipts in the FBI or what?) After Maximillian Lee Schweitzer was told he could not meet with an agent (the article doesn't say for what reason Mr. Schweitzer needed to see someone), he flipped out, threw a potted plant against the wall, snapped some legs off the reception-area chairs, and broke some glass display cases before the feds got him under control. This murder case in Orinda is really starting to freak us out. So Susan Polk, 47, is accused of killing her 70-year-old husband Felix Polk. Susan met Felix Polk when she was 15 and he was her treating psychiatrist. Susan Polk has said she's psychic and that she predicted 9/11, and back in the 80s, she also accused some local day care workers of ritualistic child abuse. Susan claims that Felix had been abusing her for years; Felix made statements that he and his sons lived in fear of his wife. Further weirding us out, Susan and Felix have three sons. Two sons are cooperating with the prosecution, and one son is testifying on her behalf at the criminal trial. And two shootings in broad daylight yesterday -- one in the Bayview and one in Richmond. People fleeing the Bayview shooting left footprints in wet concrete being laid for the MUNI Third Street extension, and in Richmond, a man walked up to a stereo store and just started shooting. ...