Cover Story: Dark Stars
They brew beer, make bagels, prepare news and save lives while the rest of the valley sleeps. Reporter Dara Colwell hangs out with the night owls of Silicon Valley.

News: Cigarette Busts
Circumventing high taxes and profiting from high prices, the smuggler's latest drug of choice has become: cigarettes.

Metropolis News Extras

• Willow Glen: Women in Blue.
  
• Cupertino: Book to help assist firefighters in communicating with non-English speaking members of the community.
  
• Campbell: Local volunteers for Guide Dogs for the Blind help others get around with a canine navigator.

That's Starbiz! Celebrity giving takes on a new twist.

Public Eye: Milpitas mayor called a Red-blooded American. Councilgal says photo defames her. Yet another election.

Notes From the Underbelly: San Josean in Scotland.

Work: Of dotcom dorks and lesbotic fantasy.

Harvey Grrl: On her new album, PJ Harvey proves again why she's the one female pop star who doesn't have to bend to fashion.

Tech-Pop Hybrid: Badly Drawn Boy uses the aesthetic gains of electronic music in the service of forlorn tales about romance and loneliness.

Tour de Force: Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Eminem and Xzibit offer a crash course in Anger Management this Sunday at the Arena.

Aural Fixation: The rock band brought up the energy level at the Cactus Club with American Heartbreak and Tinfed.

Stuffed: Four families face Thanksgiving in the bright but sprawling 'What's Cooking?'

Slumming: New version of 'Black Orpheus' loads on the violence.

Brought to Bare: Stripteaser 'Burlesk King' gives an eyeful, but it's mostly all for show.

Donizetti Done Right: Opera San José gives 'The Elixir of Love' a properly comic staging.

Burrito Bonito: Govea's Mexican restaurant in San Jose dishes up traditional rib-sticking fare, with no mangoes in the salsa.

A La Carte: And other ways to taste the season.