Cover: Heart Conditions
A trio of Valentine's Day tributes: Ted Rall writes on love and the delete key. John Yewell on the national obsession with carnal politics. Kelly Luker on wholly amazing unions.

News: Rough or Ready?
A citizen's tribunal revs up to investigate San Jose police misconduct charges the same week the city gets slapped with two brutality lawsuits.

Metropolis News Extras

• Willow Glen: Thieves get stamps from downtown Willow Glen's mini-post office.
  
• Cupertino: Council delays decision on home regulations.
  
• Saratoga: Councilmembers, commissioners wading into fray over school trees.

Pretty Babies: A B*Witching tale of a teenage cosmetics ritual, now accelerated for the pre-pubescent set.

Lord of the Rejects: Paul Westerberg probes the pain of vulnerability on Suicaine Gratifaction.

Threnody Thrill: Polish maestro Penderecki made believers out of SJ Symphony audience.

With the Heat Up: Johnny Copeland's daughter, Shemekia, follows the family's blues tradition.

Hollywood Hearts: From You've Got Mail to Message in a Bottle, modern movies cheat us of the surprise of real romance.

Jr. Varsity Blues: No matter how clever, a 14-year-old is still 14 years old in the new comedy Rushmore.

Server Trouble: Christina Waters examines the fine and elusive art of proper table stewardship.

El Niño Behind Glass: The de la Torre brothers open a window onto the essential flux of being, in their new installation, El Niño's Wake.