One of my favorite charities, Mission Graduates, helps reinforce basic skills for kids in the Mission District and prepare them for college. Now they’re having a fundraiser where the grand prize is a trip to a Costa Rica resort. Mmm, looks romantic.

In other fundraising news, have you seen Kickstarter? People put their project proposals online and ask people to donate small sums. Projects range from the artistic (films, books, other art projects) to small businesses like these three women starting a cake bakery. And your donation is only accepted if the whole project is supported by tens or dozens of people and reaches its fundraising goal. What’s really fun about Kickstarter is that it combines the thrill of internet shopping with the thrill of helping others. Cool idea!

Larry's Office

I remember the thrill when in 1977 the founder of CNN, Robert Edward “Ted” Turner II, took Courageous out for sail and defended the America’s Cup. (Today I’m not sure if I would trust Ted with a plastic toy boat in the bathtub.)

Now founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, Larry Ellison, is living the victory. After 15 years the America’s Cup trophy is headed back to America where it will be displayed at the Golden Gate Yacht Club.

I hope that Mr. Ellison and the city of San Francisco would see the benefits of hosting the next Cup on our shores.

Larry’s Office

There’s a scene in The Wire where Omar, a psychopath with a shotgun whose trade is robbing drug dealers, gets into a drug stash house he intends to rob by disguising himself as an old lady in a wheelchair. Once he pulls off his wig and pulls his weapon from under the lap blanket, one of the guards realizes what’s happening and blurts out, “Oh shit!” And Omar gleefully echoes him: “‘Oh shit!!’ Yeah!”

Somehow that’s what came to mind when I saw this announcement of a program at City Arts and Lectures on the future of journalism. Why, just today in the NYT’s media blog came the news that the Newark Star-Ledger is planning on more newsroom employee buyouts-slash-layoffs. I have the feeling the disemployed reporters felt somewhat the same way as the drug dealers felt when they realized they had been tricked by Omar Little. They had the feeling it was coming, they did everything they could to prevent it, and when it came, all they can do is blurt, “Oh shit!”

Right. Anyway, at City Arts and Lectures, “two seasoned journalists and editors will discuss the current state of print journalism, the impact and implications of the shift toward a more digital world, and the future of print media.” Good luck with that!

San Francisco-based Salon.com has laid off six staffers, according to Valleywag — that’s six out of 29 editorial positions, a 20.7% cut. Here’s hoping it doesn’t include my favorite Salon writer, Katharine Mieszkowski.

Update: Here’s an interesting look at Salon’s finances by David Weir, one of the original team that founded the webizine.

This post on Mission Loc@l deserves to be read at the site and in its entirety: Open the Garage Door, It’s a Store.

Not only is the whole concept of garage stores cool, but the guy featured does it very much as a service to the nabe, selling brand-name soccer equipment to kids near cost. Totally the opposite of the globalized brand-filled big-box neighborhood-killing stores.

I was perusing the latest @sfmetblogs followers on Twitter and found some really interesting businesses and news sources that are active and interesting. Consider checking them out!

@abc7newsBayArea
News and notes directly from the ABC7 newsroom in San Francisco.

@BayAreaCheap
Twittering great stuff to see and do “on the cheap” in the (not so cheap) San Francisco Bay Area.

@bunsandchou
Buns and Chou Chou are rabbits who host their own TV show: Rabbit Bites.

@CheapandEasySF
Because San Francisco’s Not Just for Rich People

@CityofSF
CityofSF is a Twitter service to update people on current events and happenings in San Francisco

@CurbedSF
Curbed SF, the San Francisco nabe and real estate blog. We like architecture and planning, too.

@GhirardelliSQ
More than just the best chocolate! Wine tasting, great food and fun shopping

@INGB2Breakers
I’m Amy @ ING Bay to Breakers in San Francisco. Sharing race updates, costume ideas, fun giveaways, etc.

@munidiaries
Muni Diaries – a place to share and read rider tales

@NinersNation
49ers Blogger for SB Nation

@odcsf
ODC is a groundbreaking contemporary arts institution with longstanding roots in SF and home to our Dance Company, ODC School/Rhythm & Motion & ODC Theater

@sanfranfeed
San Francisco – News Feed

@SFBRAVOCLUB
San Francisco Opera’s BRAVO! CLUB is a group of young adults, aged 21-40, dedicated to building a new audience for San Francisco Opera.

@SFBusinessTimes
Covering businesses headquartered in San Francisco, Oakland, East Bay and Marin

@SFChron_alert
Get breaking news alerts on the Bay Area’s biggest stories from the San Francisco Chronicle.

@SFstandup
Guide to comedy in the San Francisco Bay Area

@Shopping_SF
Follow me for all the freebies, cheap events, and funtastic events..from SF’s hit Shopping! The Musical..Now in its fourth hit year!

@SJMetblogs
San José Metblogs is part of a worldwide network of city-specific blogs, where authors write stories about life in their city from a personal, local perspective

@tskifeed
Tahoe Ski Feed

After President Barack Obama Monday told an Indiana audience that companies should “not give out these big bonuses until you’ve paid taxpayers back. You can’t get corporate jets — (applause) — you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime,” the investment bank Goldman Sachs announced it was moving a conference from Las Vegas to San Francisco. (Update: here’s a link to information about the conference in question.)

Not because San Francisco is cheaper, because it’s not. No, money was “not the driving reason behind (the decision),” a spokesman said. “The decision to relocate the conference is based on our best efforts to operate according to the requirements of the new landscape of our industry.”

Goldman Sachs got $10 billion in the TARP bailout last fall. Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, recently canceled a trip to Vegas for some of its employees. They received $25 billion. (The bank, not the employees.)

Now Las Vegas’s mayor is demanding an apology from Obama for implying there’s something wrong with going to Las Vegas. “What’s a better place, as I say, than for them to come here,” Oscar Goodman told a Las Vegas TV station. “And to change their mind and to go someplace else and to cancel — and at the suggestion of the president of the United States — that’s outrageous.”

With the Attorney General’s of 40 states breathing down their necks, the folks at Craigslist have succumbed to pressure and have revised their policies on sexual service adverts. Not only will the ads no longer be free (with proceeds supposedly going to charity), but the once cute and cuddly Cole Valley based website whose pages have become a haven for sex traffickers & pimps have removed much of the anonymity factor from posting. Sex ad posters must now verify a phone number and have valid ID, which has pared down the prurient listings by about 80% so far.

CEO Jim Buckmaster told the NY times some of the ads were “crossing the line,” and that “We resolved to see what we could do to get that stuff off the site.”

Craigslist’s legal travails don’t end there, as the site has lawsuits flying between itself and eBay, who were able to buy a chunk of the biz from a former partner of Craig Newmark’s and they announced plans last week to sue several companies that provide services which help users circumvent the site’s abuse protections. They’ve been involved in blocking and/or prosecuting the offenders by enlisting the aid of ISPs and police.

As reported by SF Weekly, the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle’s books section, Regan McMahon, has accepted a buyout and will leave the newspaper. McMahon had been books editor only a few months. She was promoted to the post when Oscar Villalon, who had helmed the section for several years, accepted a buyout in August.

According to the report, McMahon was assured by Chronicle managers that the paper would continue the 8-page tabloid section, which is now a pullout from the slightly longer Insight section of the Sunday paper. The moves come as newspapers across the country continue to hemorrhage money, with arts coverage being particularly vulnerable.

An online/offline trends company that I’m a big fan of, PSFK, is coming to Fort Mason to this Thursday while on its London-Shanghai-LA conference track. While I usually turn to their site for creative inspiration (and the odd tidbit about branded fruit, et al), the conference sounds especially intriguing for its discussions about digital change and engagement. And talk about a meeting of the minds: local favorite Organic Architect Eric Corey Freed will be presenting as well as folks from Method and Ghetto Gourmet. Good Magazine will be on hand as they get ready for their annual 111 Minna get-together this Sunday.