SF Weekly (Village Voice Media) returned to court yesterday in an attempt to overturn the anti-competitive verdict ruled against the alt-weekly in March. (For all the courtroom drama, read SF Weekly's take here and SFBG's here.) According to SFBG, yesterday's "argument was aimed at severing VVM – a company with $190 million in sales and $11 million in profits – from the verdict. That way the only guilty party would be the Weekly – which VVM admits has no assets and would be unable to pay the Guardian anywhere near $16 million." Yikes. And rumors among certain local media types – sick, twisted, beer-infused, and totally untrue rumors, mind you – have been circulating that SF Weekly might shutdown come December '08. (Which would blow since we do enjoy both alt-weeklies... to certain degrees.) So: conjecture time, folks! Is VVM trying to separate itself from the Weekly so tat they can close it and not pay the debt? What do you think? All presumptuous lawyer types, amateur and pro, are encouraged to gossip in the comments.