When you talk about high-end home sales in San Francisco, Barbara Callan should be one of the first names that comes up.

Yes, it will be easier said than done. But The City could save $26.5 million and cancel up to 8 percent of its upcoming $300 million-plus deficit by simply requiring the 12,562 municipal employees paid from the operating budget to take four unpaid days off sometime during the next fiscal year.

Of 22 state Superior Court judges up for re-election this year, only Judge Thomas Mellon Jr., a 14-year veteran of the bench, faces opposition.

In recent years, taxes from the sales of multimillion-dollar downtown skyscrapers have provided a budget boost for The City. But decreased sales this year have left San Francisco with $32 million less than planned for by city officials.

San Francisco officials say the city's projected budget deficit for the coming year won't be as big as expected.

In a move observers say points to continuing higher-office ambitions, Mayor Gavin Newsom launched a new political Facebook page Friday — and signed up more than 1,000 new supporters over the weekend.

Six residential towers will stretch up to 65 feet above the highest peaks of Hunters Point providing enviable views of The City and Bay, under newly released redevelopment plans to rebuild the public-housing site for low-income as well as market-rate residents.

Ignatius Chinn worked the hardscrabble streets of Oakland for more than 20 years. He took on notorious organized-crime syndicates. He was promoted to detective, then supervisor. He served as an expert witness in gun-control cases.

In San Francisco, phone bills include a monthly fee to pay for 911 emergency communications that this fiscal year generated $43 million.

Major construction work on The City’s water and sewer systems will be undertaken by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and voters this June will decide how much power the mayor has to pick the members of the board governing the agency.