San Francisco Superior Court Judge Katherine Feinstein, a member of the bench for 10 years, was elected by her colleagues Tuesday to serve as presiding judge of the court. Feinstein, 52, will serve a two-year term as presiding judge beginning on Jan. 1 and will replace Judge James McBride in the post. She is the daughter of Sen. Dianne Feinstein and was appointed to the Superior Court by former Gov. Gray Davis in 2000. Read More

A 46-year-old San Francisco man found severely beaten early Sunday in The City’s Lower Haight neighborhood is expected to survive but remained in intensive care at the hospital Monday, according to police. Police arrested William Valentine, 42, of San Francisco, after Valentine allegedly tried to run over the victim with his pickup truck near Webster and Waller streets at about 2:30 a.m. Valentine crashed the truck into a telephone phone, then allegedly got out and beat the victim several times on the head and body with a bat, according to police. Read More

WHAT: All 172,000 square feet of Los Angeles’ new $70 million Metropolitan Detention Center sit empty because the city has a $500 million deficit and cannot afford to staff it. WHY: The Police Department desperately wants to close its outdated and vastly overcrowded downtown jail. But a strict citywide hiring freeze makes it impossible to bring in the 100 additional jailers needed. Read More

Voters are right to think our addiction to federal deficit spending is killing our economy. A thorough new study from Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University takes a look at the relationships between rising debt, inflation and economic growth for 44 developed and developing countries. The findings bode poorly for a spend-crazy Washington, D.C. Read More

Wayfare Tavern grand opening: On Sunday night, celebrity chef Tyler Florence of the Food Network celebrated the establishment of his first restaurant in The City. Located at 558 Sacramento St. the former home of Rubicon, the eatery is billed as an “authentic American-style restaurant featuring dishes inspired by the restaurant scene of the late 1800s.” Read More

The California Supreme Court on Monday clarified when evidence of a rape victim’s previous sexual activity can be allowed in an exception to the state’s rape shield law. The court issued its unanimous decision in the San Francisco case of Danny Fontana, who was sentenced to 89 years to life in prison for crimes including forced oral copulation, digital penetration and assault of a 19-year-old woman. Read More

A San Francisco police officer shot in the foot while responding to a fight outside a hip-hop concert in The City’s Mission district early Saturday left the hospital Monday, police spokeswoman Lt. Lyn Tomioka said. Tomioka said the male officer, a five-year veteran of the force, was hit by gunfire at about 1:30 a.m. outside the El Rincon nightclub at 2700 16th St. As the officer and two new recruits on patrol arrived and tried to break up a fight between several women, between four and six gunshots were heard and the officer was struck, Tomioka said. Read More