Eduardo Alvarez

​Police are saying they have nabbed a ring of serial Apple thieves who allegedly have been swiping massive amounts of high-end electronics as they are being delivered to Apple stores across San Francisco

Police arrested 52-year-old Jose Reyes, 45-year-old Victor Morales, 55-year-old Angel Erazo, and 43-year-old Eduardo Alvarez. All of the suspects are from Los Angeles except for Alvarez, who is from Las Vegas. All four men were booked into San Francisco County Jail on burglary charges.

According to police, a series of delivery trucks had been broken into between Dec. 5, 2011, and Jan. 11, 2012. In each instance, the trucks were outside Apple stores to deliver new products when they were broken into, and thousands of dollars' worth of electronics were taken.

Angel Erazo

​Witnesses told police they saw a white Chevy Astro van in the area in each of these incidents.
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​The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation relieved its six California affiliates today when it pledged to reverse its unpopular policy to stop funding Planned Parenthood and its breast cancer prevention programs.

During Komen's grant review process, the foundation decided that any organizations being investigated for fraud will no longer receive funding from Komen, said Maria Sousa, executive director of the SF Komen affiliate.

However, after so much national outcry, the foundation had a change of heart today when California Komen affiliates requested that the foundation only refuse money to those organizations guilty of fraud, not accused of it.

"... We are now heartened that we can continue to work in partnership toward our shared commitment to breast health for the most underserved women," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said in a statement today.

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Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi

​Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi's wife, whom he has been charged with physically abusing, appeared in San Francisco Family Court today asking a judge to allow her husband supervised visits with the couple's son, asserting that a court order barring Mirkarimi from seeing his family is doing "damage" to the child.

"My son, Theo, is asking for his father every day," Eliana Lopez said in a signed declaration filed with the court today. "He waits for Ross on the stairs in the morning, hoping Ross will be there to take him to school; he runs to the window in the evenings looking for Ross; and the last few days he has been imagining he sees Ross's car outside. He is constantly asking me when daddy is coming home."

Mirkarimi and Lopez appeared at family court with their respective lawyers to request a modification of Superior Court Judge Susan Breall's stay-away order, which was issued in the criminal case stemming from Mirkarimi's alleged abuse of Lopez. After filing paperwork requesting supervised visits for two hours every day, attorneys said that a hearing on the matter would take place next Wednesday.

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Occupy is asking protesters to do something a little more creative than just occupy vacant buildings.

The Occupy movement has launched a contest, calling on designers to create a new logo that would best symbolize the international movement and its basic tenet -- protesting financial inequality.

The contest, which is, appropriately enough, being hosted at 99designs.com, started this week and will end on Feb. 8 when Occupy will select its favorite design. Aside from designing a ubiquitous emblem that will identify the movement,  the winner will get also get $1,000 -- that's a nice chunk of change for a 99 percenter.

Here's what Occupy is looking for in its new logo:
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We know merger talks over at the Bay Citizen have everyone on edge about the future of the online newspaper. But amid all this excitement about joining forces with the Center for Investigative reporting, the BC forgot to do the one thing that would surely help bolster its online presence: Renew its domain name.

Seriously.

This morning, Jim Romenesko was up early enough to grab this oh-so-humiliating screen shot of the Bay Citizen's homepage:

The Bay Area's online newspaper

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Muni is working ... until it's not

​There's no better way to start the weekend than a smooth commute into work. Muni is reporting that all trains are running on time after yesterday's damage to overhead wires forced several lines to come to a screeching halt.

Paul Rose, spokesman for Muni, tells us that crews worked through the night to repair damage to the wires at the Church Street station after a car knocked the overhead wires shortly before 2 p.m. on Thursday. The K,L, and M lines were taken out of service, and passengers had the miserable option of being bussed between the Church Street station and West Portal.

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Curious Josh

​Burning Man's first-ever ticket lottery has had far more requests for tickets than the 40,000 that have been made available.  What does this mean?More >>

Well-adjusted

​It appears there's money to be made in stoking the self-loathing of the American people -- hence this article on the Chronicle's Mommy Blog. It plugs the book Bringing Up Bébé, in which an American expat expounds upon the enlightened parenting techniques of our Gallic brethren, and contrasts them with the lax, slothful methods used to produce loathsome wastrels like you good people (and your humble narrator).

Americans have long romanticized all things French -- an inclination that can be effectively cured via first-hand experience of a French rail strike. Self-reflection is healthy, but lamenting about how much better everyone else has it is not. It warrants mentioning that the French do both: The schools, the culture, the behavior of the young are all so much better in Germany or Italy -- or the United States, the French constantly grumble.

I don't have French parents, but I do have French parents-in-law. I'd write this book off as n'import quoi, but it'll be more fun to break it down point-by-point. Per the Mommy Blog, here's where the French have us licked in the child-rearing department:

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If only it were that simple

​Muni is warning some commuters to find another route home tonight after a car pulled down the overhead wires, forcing three lines to go out of service.

According to Paul Rose, spokesman for Muni, the K, L, and M lines between West Portal and the Church Street station are currently out of service. Passengers have the option of being bussed between the two stations, with stops in between.

"If you have an alternate route of transportation to get home tonight, that would be something to consider," Rose said.

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Close. But close enough?

​Regulate Marijuana Like Wine, a marijuana legalization measure vying to get onto the November ballot, has only $80,000 in cash on hand, according to finance records. But in a poll released this week, it had potential support from 62 percent of likely voters -- and that, ballot proponents say, is quite literally money in the bank.

"That shows funders we can win," said Steve Kubby, a South Lake Tahoe marijuana activist and member of the Regulate Marijuana Like Wine's campaign committee. "Anytime you're polling over 60 percent, you command anyone's attention."

And history just might be on RMLW's side: Those poll numbers are also close to where Proposition 215 was 16 years ago, before the nation's first medical marijuana laws were approved by a million vote margin in November 1996, Kubby noted. Those are also rosier numbers than 2010's Proposition 19 -- which earned more votes than former Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman -- enjoyed before its historic defeat.

It's still going to be an uphill climb: Organizers have 30,000 signatures thus far, a fraction of the 504,760 validated signatures from registered California voters needed to qualify Regulate Marijuana Like Wine for the ballot (closer to 750,000 or more are in reality needed, allowing for invalidated scribbles and other snafus). Nonetheless, the poll means several billionaires are at this moment crunching numbers and deciding whether to bankroll the initiatives, Kubby told SF Weekly Thursday.

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Kenneth Kyle

​We've reported here in the past on the disturbing charges federal prosecutors have lodged against Kenneth Kyle, the San Francisco man alleged to have used the Internet to arrange a sexual encounter with a 13-month-old girl from Missouri. Now our sister paper, the Riverfront Times of St. Louis, reports that additional bizarre details have come to light in the case.

Kyle, who at the time was 46, was alleged to have made contact online with 20-year-old Tessa Vanvlerah of Ballwin, Mo. According to charges filed by prosecutors, the pair arranged a sexual rendez-vous between Kyle and Vanvlerah's infant daughter. Kyle was also arrested on child-pornography charges in San Francisco in 2010. Earlier this month, Vanvlerah pleaded guilty to statutory rape, statutory sodomy, and incest related to the case.

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National Park Service

A possible view from a luxury hotel planned for the Presidio

​ Local nonprofits and environmentalists are suing the San Francisco Presidio Trust to try and stop its plans to build an "unnecessary" 14-building hotel in the Main Post of The Presidio National Park.

The Presidio Historical Association and Sierra Club said they were left with "no choice" but to file a federal lawsuit to put the kibosh on the SF Presidio Trust's plan to build a luxury hotel, which the public unanimously opposes, PHA President Gary Widman said in a statement.

The lawsuit filed yesterday in San Francisco claims the Presidio Trust's plans violate the Presidio Trust Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and National Environmental Policy Act and is ignoring its duty to protect the park from being developed. The SF Presidio Trust was established by the Trust Act to preserve the National Park's "significant natural, historic, scenic, cultural, and recreational resources."

"The unique historic value of the Presidio Main Post should not be sacrificed to build an unnecessary hotel," said Sierra Club spokeswoman Becky Evans.

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No more shark fin soup for you!

​The Chinese community is hoping a federal judge can force California to stop being a bunch of Soup Nazis.

The Asian American Rights Committee of California filed a lawsuit in San Francisco this week, claiming the state's move to ban the sale of shark fins -- which is used to make the gelatinous Chinese delicacy shark fin soup -- is unconstitutional.

The group claims that Assembly Bills 376 and 853, authored by Assemblyman Paul Fong, violate the Constitution's interstate commerce clause and constitute an unlawful taking of private property, according to the claim.

"Shark fin soup is an Asian cultural delicacy with origins in the Ming Dynasty. It is a ceremonial centerpiece of traditional Chinese banquets, as well as celebrations of weddings and birthdays of one's elders," the committee says in its federal complaint.

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I prefer a dumb boss to a mean one

​Now this is what you call an abusive manager.

Police say a man was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of hitting one of his employees in the face after he fired her.  According to police reports, the man asked his employee to meet him at a coffee shop on Tuesday afternoon. When she showed up, he informed her that he was firing her.

He then asked her to sign some paperwork acknowledging the termination. He told her he also wanted to get some things from her house that belonged to his company. The woman went to her house on the 400 block of Madrid Street and gathered his property. Her now former boss showed up with a witness to collect everything.

According to police, the woman then handed her former boss a letter of her own regarding her termination, which she asked him to sign. The man got angry, refused to sign, then punched the woman, causing her head to hit the wall.

Perhaps he just didn't like being bossed around.
 
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Kate Conger

Who's fault is that?

​Occupy Oakland and Oakland police have been playing the blame game with who's responsible for the chaos and violence that erupted in downtown Saturday night. And while it continues to be a chicken-or-the-egg debate, police can say with some certainty that occupiers are responsible for the break-in at City Hall Saturday night. 

Oakland police released some surveillance that they say refutes claims by protesters that the doors to City Hall were left open, meaning there was no illegal break-in. In this footage, it appears as though someone pried the doors open with a tool, allowing a group of protesters to rush the building.

Watch this video, and tell us what you think:

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Bye-bye!

​ Examiner Editor in Chief Deirdre Hussey has left the newspaper after more than 10 years. Initial reports say that Hussey resigned from the paper amid a change in ownership, however, the new owners say that her departure was a "mutual decision."

Todd Vogt, president and publisher of the Examiner, told SF Weekly on Wednesday that after speaking with Hussey, the two decided to part ways effective immediately. Her abrupt departure included a nice severance. "Her institutional knowledge will be missed, but I think a fresh start and some fresh ideas in the Editor-in-Chief chair will be good," Vogt said.

The staff was informed of the decision Wednesday afternoon. The paper has started a search for a new editor in chief.

"Everyone is personally sorry to see her go, but professionally, everyone agrees a change is welcomed," Vogt told SF Weekly.
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R.I.P.

​Solomon Kahn, the popular DJ known to clubgoers as DJ Solomon, was killed in a car accident Tuesday in Bangkok, Thailand.

Kahn, who performed at Golden State Warriors games and at AT&T Park as well as major clubs in San Francisco, was on tour in Thailand with his fiancée, Nicole Cronin, when he died. The couple was inside a taxi when the vehicle stalled on the highway and was rear-ended. Cronin suffered fractures, and Kahn died.

He was 34.

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Gavin Newsom

​UPDATE, 11:35 A.M., 2/3/12: Newsom spokesman Francisco Castillo responded to the below story with an e-mail, stating, "The Lt. Governor never said he thought press coverage was 'unfair,' nor did he suggest that domestic violence charges not be treated with extreme seriousness -- any suggestion otherwise is sloppy and just plain wrong."

ORIGINAL STORY: California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco's former mayor, said on a local radio program today that he feels news outlets are being unfair to Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who is facing charges of domestic violence.

On KQED radio's Forum talk show, Newsom expressed a surprising degree of sympathy with Mirkarimi, a former political rival who is facing trial on charges that he abused his wife. In particular, Newsom called into question the frequent news stories that have appeared about Mirkarimi's case, coverage spurred by a second woman's decision to come forward with allegations of physical violence against the sheriff.

"It's a little indulgent, in terms of just the day-to-day pounding in the media," Newsom said to host Michael Krasny. "There's got to be something else to talk about, as important as this is. So I understand his frustration, feeling he's being picked on. But trust me, I've been there, we all have, and such is the nature of responsibility in the public realm."

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Joseph Schell

Marcus Santiago, constantly at work

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Earlier this week we reported on an interesting potential development regarding the city's park rangers. A Matt Smith cover story last year revealed that head park patrol officer Marcus Santiago had transformed his small force into a lucrative overtime machine -- more than doubling his take-home pay in the process. The Recreation and Park Department's inspired solution to this problem? Hire a "chief" park patrol officer and insert him as insulation between Santiago and Dennis Kern, the manager who has consistently looked past Santiago's transgressions.

Those transgressions, however -- they're not exactly cheap. A former ranger named Mike Horan, as referenced in Smith's story, filed suit against Santiago and the city, alleging discrimination in the distribution of overtime hours. This also resulted in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filing a case against the city.

Horan's lawyer, Andrew Pierce, says that case may be nearing an official settlement. And sources within government tell SF Weekly it will involve a hefty $250,000 payout.

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