We don't usually read the Op Ed pages of the Chronicle, because it's always either rehashed columnists from other papers or something like "give birth control pills to deer in Point Reyes" -- but can you believe it? The Chron actually got someone local to write about a local issue today -- if we're going to build out the MUNI underground, why not actually build it out and have a subway that runs to Fisherman's......

An unidentified person was shot and killed on the 1600 block of Russell in Berkeley last night, brining the city's murder tally to three. (The much larger city of San Francisco, BTW, is at 14.) The Chron goes on to report: The slaying comes a little more than a week after Brandon Terrell Jones, 29, of Berkeley was shot and killed on the 1500 block of Harmon Street, about seven blocks away. No arrests......

Matier & Ross were all over this nugget of news today: bronze plaques will be placed in locations where the city's homeless have died. The "memorials" will be placed in Chris Daly and Ross Mirkarimi's districts, which include the Tenderloin, Civic Center, Haight-Ashbury and Western Addition. Each will be 2 feet by 2 feet "human-shaped plaques" and "[inscribed] with details of the deceased's lives and the circumstances of their deaths," according to the Chron. Let's......

On Thursday, Juan Zuluaga, 26, was arrested at the SF Zoo following a run-in with a rhinoceros. It seems, according to the Chron, that Zuluaga was busted for throwing acorns at Mashaki, a black rhino: Police said they were summoned to the zoo at 3:30 p.m. Thursday after a patron reported to officials that Zuluaga was picking acorns off a branch and tossing them at the black rhino, a male named Mashaki. Zuluaga was......

Today a federal judge told the prosecutors to "re-craft its perjury case against Barry Bonds." The judge on the Bonds case, Susan Illston, claims that they "improperly lumped multiple alleged offenses into each of four counts of its indictment of the former Giants star." Whoops. Illston slammed the Bonds indictment, which was handed up last November, as "duplicitous." According to the Chron: By law, the government can only accuse a person of one crime......

Good news: Translink will be up and running on Muni in the late fall/early winter of 2007. Or at least, that's what Muni said last year, and surprise! It's still not working. (And before that, it was January of 2007.) Translink is the work of a company called ERG, Ltd (emphasis on the "limited"); and in the decades (decades!) that it's been bandied about, lots of other cities have managed to set up Translinks......

Happy birthday, Leap Day babies! Since it's leap day, there's the obligatory quadriennial articles about how people born today are 75% younger than the rest of us, and the Chron is no exception. The bissextile among us include Dinah Shore, Ja Rule (holla!), Antonio Sabato Jr., and... San Francisco fire chief Joanne Hayes-White! In the article, Peter Hartlaub calls Ms. Hayes-White to wish her a happy birthday and ask her what being a Leap Day......

When first reading the headline, "Google Gives All SF Homeless Free Voicemail" on our Digg feed, we didn't get it. Why the heck would the homeless want free voicemail? Aren't there more vital things the homeless need? Perhaps in our over-cellular phone'd society, we overlooked the importance of having a way for people to reach us. Google recognized the need for the homeless to have some connection to loved ones and plan to do something......

We'll 'fess up. We haven't been to the Cow Palace since the 2005 Tattoo Expo. With that said, we're a bit torn with how to feel about the possibility of the Cow Palace being demolished. With such historical events as the Beatles playing there and John F. Kennedy speaking to the masses about starting the Peace Corp, on that hand alone, we'd hate to see this place go. The other hand, however, has to admit......

Lance Farber, the 47 year old new age chiropractor boyfriend of our new city planning director John Rahaim, who last weekend set their bed on fire and smeared crushed tomatoes all over the historic landmark apartment the city had put them up in, had a brief appearance in court today, where his bail was set at $1 million. Farber would have been in court longer, except that his attorney, noted local criminal lawyer (and Matt......

Well, here we go, folks. What was once an abstract thought is now a reality. Behold "Phil Bronstein At Large," featuring the Chron's political scribe, Carla Marinucci. It was just posted fresh for your admiration, disdain, or entertainment. So...love it or hate it? Go.......

Somehow this news story managed to slip past our radar last week, but the Gate published a story on how our wonderful state of California will be spraying the Bay Area with pesticides this summer. In an effort to eliminate the light brown apple moth (aww. Aren't they so cute?), an insect potentially disastrous for farming in California, the state agricultural department will be spraying an insecticide known as Checkmate over urban areas, according to......

Oh good. Valentine's Day is just around the corner. And if the thought of next Thursday's approaching fillet mignon-for-two-free evening doesn't make you want to slice open an artery followed by nap-time in the bathtub, then how about not making Nob Hill Gazette's annual Lucky 13th Annual Eligible's List? (Yes, yes, you and your hipster S.O. are too cool to celebrate a Hallmark holiday, clearly, but what a privileged thing to decide not to......

Wow. This is a bit depressing. Scratch that, a lot. According to the Chron, former directors of zoos around the globe gave the San Francisco Zoo a failing grade when it comes to caring for animals. Some of the zoo's problems are "severely outdated exhibits and animals that behave unnaturally." Take, for example, glaring issues as the African Savanna exhibit -- which lacks enough shelter or food for animals, according to Peter Stroud, a......

The Chron got all investigative reporting today and discovered that after getting raises in 2002, the Board now meets less than when they did before the raise. Let's see...more money...less work hours...how do we get that job?...

It's that time of the year for all the big papers to weigh in on their choice for President and yesterday, the Chron weighed in and announced that they are going to support the guy who gives pretty, pretty speeches. You know, the Muslim dude who doesn't pledge allegiance to the flag, and just might be on the downlow: Barry Hussein Obama. And, yes, we know most of that stuff comes for a vicious, nasty email smear that's been going around and isn't in any way true, but come on, you gotta let us have some fun....

Choppy footage: San Francisco Police Department via the Chron And speaking of cameras... While Chicago has seen crime rates plummet to their lowest numbers in over four decades due to the windy city's Big Brother program, San Francisco's attempt at panopticon-ish camera security is failing. Ever since the 68 city-funded cameras started rolling, our city's surveillance program has resulted in a single arrest. That was over 19 months ago. Why the lag, you ask?......

It's wet. Very wet. [SFGate] Lunching in the Financial District. (And, OMG, the most darling thing ever: an escaping escape key!) [Gridskipper]British satirist (is there any other kind?) throws down les bon mots on subprime mortgages. [Valleywag]"Love," it seems, "is the answer." [Curbed]Mecca is on deathwatch. [Eater]New Chron editor revealed: Ward E. Bushee. [SFGate]Diplo is coming, and we couldn't be more elated. Seriously. [ASD]Michael Vick's dogs--as well as this insanely hot piece of tail......

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/25/SPJPUM98P.DTL&tsp=1"> get into a nasty spitball spat with Lane Kiffin. Apparently, Al is a little upset that the Raiders once again didn't have a winning season and blames himself Lane. He is also pretty miffed that Lane talked him into trading Randy Moss. It's a little unclear as to what is going on as ESPN and the Chron have differing accounts but it appears that Al is trying to get Lane to quit so he doesn't have to fire him. ...

Former editor of The Arizona Republic, vice president of The Cincinnati Enquirer, and top editor for the Reno Gazette-Journal and the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Bay Area's Ward E. Bushee was just named executive VP and editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. After graduating from San Diego State University (dude!) in 1971 with a degree in history, Bushee started his career at The Salinas Californian in 1975 and then over the Marin Independent Journal. Then,......

Merry Martin Luther King Jr. Day. [Examiner, Nature abhors a vacuum, SF Bay View, Beyond Chron]The TLDR spat between SF Bay Guardian and SF Weekly continues at a steady, confusing pace. [SFBG, Weekly]Voter registration deadline is tomorrow, kids. [SF Gate]Metallica's Kirk Hammett's Divisadero Street manse is still for sale. [Examiner]Facebook will get an executive chef, but workers might have to pay for their meals. How devastating. [Valleyvag]Temperatures drop . As does some snow. [Mercury......

Our favorite lady in San Francisco. And the future Mrs. Gavin Newsom. We're just saying. Vanessa's image goes to John O'Hara / Chron; Seibel's goes to Chris Stewart / Chron......

Got that parapluie? The Chron reports that the skies are going to open up starting tomorrow, with not one, not two, but three separate weather systems barreling on in from Alaska. They're expecting 2-4 inches of rain in the city, possibly up to 8 inches in the hills, and a "paralyzing" amount of snow in the Sierras. There's also the possibility of flooding, so if your house is prone to it, pick up some......

Behold, the tight-lipped duo who, at this point last week, couldn't have imagined the death and subsequent big-cat madness in store for them today. Under supervision at San Francisco General Hospital, due to severe bite and claw wounds since last Monday, Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, were released into the wild yesterday afternoon. In addition to the brothers' hospital release, NPR reports that all the big cats at SF Zoo will most likely......

Uh oh. According to the cats over at the Chron, an "18-page 'Emergency Procedures' manual, written in 2006, spells out what zookeepers, guards and even the receptionist in the main office are supposed to do if a 'Siberian tiger is out of its enclosure' or any other dangerous animal escapes." (It's always the receptionist's fault, isn't it? The fall guys of the modern world, really.) Basically, such emergency procedures as a "Code One" call,......

-- Van Halen jumps. [SFGate] -- Tommi Avicolli-Mecca to be visited by three ghosts Xmas Eve. [Beyond Chron] -- Gavin Newsom wants to be President of the U.S.A. you to get healthier. [Matier and Ross] -- SWL 337 Planning Challenge winners announced. (Go Jackson!) [Curbed] -- Susan Leal hit by a car. Chin up, girl. [CBS5] -- San Francisco's 100th homicide. [The Snitch] -- Bloggers, copyrights, photos, and lots of hair pulling. [Laughing Squid]......

Well, have you? (And just what's on his hoodie?) The owner of this visage is wanted for questioning related to the shooting death of Jose Rivas, 20, of Antioch. His bullet-riddled body was found at an Arco gas station at 2610 Contra Loma Blvd. south of Highway 4 at about 10:45 p.m. yesterday afternoon, near a red Mustang. The Chron reports that "[i]nvestigators were searching for a white Dodge or Plymouth that was caught......

-- Watch out, SF. Last night's armed robbery spree shakes up, shakes down residents. [SF Crime, SFGate] -- Ding, ding: bike rally at City Hall. [Left in SF] -- Your Contemporary Jewish Museum. [Curbed] -- At Harvard U seasons change, feelings change. [Beyond Chron] -- "Come on feel the Noyes." [I'll Flip You] -- Top Bay Area noisemakers of 2007. [SFBG] -- This morning's police chase/fatal accident killed two, including Benjamin Bratt's nephew, Kristopher.......

Oh this is bizarre. And scary. An old man was arrested today for not following a "restraining order that prohibited him from having any contact with employees of The Chronicle." Oh my. It seems that Julian Hartzell, 64, made "inappropriate contact" with some of the Chronicle staff this past summer. The paper then got themselves a restraining order against him, but he continued to try contacting employees. So? He was arrested. What kind of......

While the pairing seems unlikely (despite San Francisco being the "Paris of the West"), the Legion of Honor has received the, uh, honor of hosting the Marie-Antoinette exhibit. The show specifically focuses on Petit Trianon—Marie-Antoinette's personal retreat in Versailles—as well as the life and times of the lady herself. Paintings, furniture and anything else not bolted down in her house have been flown over here for display while the "cottage" (ahem) is being renovated.......