On tour in Israel, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark presents a young admirer with a gift. Got a better headline? Leave it in the comments.

Expect a rash of headlines accusing auction giant eBay of bullying saintly Craig Newmark. eBay has sued Newmark, his business partner Jim Buckmaster, and Craigslist. The charge? Craigslist has allegedly diluted eBay's 28.4 percent stake in the company, which the auction giant acquired from a former Craigslist employee. The part of the story Newmark and Buckmaster don't want anyone to hear: The pair made about $16 million in the process of letting eBay buy the stake in their company. The deal included a shareholder-rights agreement which ought to prevent Craigslist from diluting eBay's stake in the company, people familiar with the deal have told Valleywag. By squeezing out eBay, Newmark and Buckmaster appear to be having their cake and eating it too. Relations between the companies had already deteriorated: eBay had a seat on the Craigslist board, at one point occupied by founder Pierre Omidyar, until last year.

We've heard of in-house PR, but this is ridiculous. Susan MacTavish Best, who is both the girlfriend of Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and his company's PR rep, is also a director of Glasshouse, a nonprofit which produces events meant to educate entrepreneurs. Educating entrepreneurs at an event tonight: Buckmaster. The fireside chat is meant to highlight U.K. Web entrepreneurs. Buckmaster's only plausible U.K. tie? His girlfriend, MacTavish Best, is British. All very cozy, and absurd. What we think really happened here: MacTavish Best couldn't come up with any other speakers, and Buckmaster filled in.

"Some time ago, I found an original full head rubber Miss Piggy mask, circa 1977, complete with a full head of long blond hair. I am looking for a tall, sexy BBW, preferably over 300 pounds, to wear this mask to bed. She should also be open to playing with plastic wrap and liquid latex." [Craigslist]

Give your notice! Get your resumes polished! A caps-lock challenged "A-list CELEBRITY MUSICIAN/ACTOR" is making the HR rounds this week, in search of a personal assistant
who stands to gain lucratively ($1,000/week! Net!) for doing everything but tucking our anonymous prima donna into lavender-scented slumber every night — though we presume that's not far behind. Follow the jump for some of the criteria you need to make this thankless gig your own.

A browse through Defamer's Craigslist Hall of Fame suggests a near-future when all of Hollywood's hopes, dreams and ambitions will be funneled directly through the classifieds. We've never been more certain than we were this afternoon, when an eagle-eyed tipster spotted a real genius — not one of these half-assed Uwe Boll types, but a guy who can actually spell "nanotechnology" — on the prowl for a very generous producer:

After having second thoughts about the escort he hired off of Craiglist, a Coon Rapids, MN man tried to cancel his date — and was shot in the jaw through his front door. Susan MacTavish, speaking on behalf of Craigslist, expressed horror that the abuse of the site would be linked to a violent crime: "Craigslist is an unwise choice of venue for committing crimes, since perpetrators inevitably leave an electronic trail to themselves that law enforcement officers can follow." Which means, shooting aside, the most dangerous thing about Craigslist is still the vice squad who patrol it.

The hard sell hasn't worked, so maybe a softer appeal to the heart could woo Yahoo into Microsoft's loving embrace? Seems Steve Ballmer spent the afternoon crafting a love letter to Jerry Yang and posted it to the Missing Connections section of Craigslist.

"There was no need for me to act like a jerk." — Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, finally admitting what everyone else had long thought about him, in defending his efforts to shut down a blog critical of Craigslist [Craigslist Blog (the official one)]

Disgraced stock analyst Henry Blodget pauses to dream up a fantasy valuation for Craigslist, and comes up with $5 billion. The numbers he relies on are faulty, starting with Craigslist's revenues. Blodget relies on a recent report by Classified Intelligence, which pegs its revenues for 2008 at an estimated $81 million. That's extremely low; insiders tell me the real figure for last year was in the range of $100 million to $150 million.

Starbucks has an unofficial blog, as do Apple, Google. But Craigslist has not had a blog, unofficial or otherwise (unless you count Craig Newmark's thoughts on national politics). That changed last month when Tim White launched the unofficial Craigslist Blog. Now White's blog has been countered with an official one, written by CEO Jim Buckmaster. Between posts, Buckmaster decided to threaten a lawsuit. Chilling Effects suggests Tim White, the blogger behind the unofficial site, might have a case for saving his site's domain name. Buckmaster's letter, and White's feisty response, after the jump:

The surprise outcome of Craigslist's new restrictions on its Erotic Services category? Clients are reporting that it's easier than ever to sort out the legitimate ads — women you can hire and meet with in person, today — from the telewank webcam girls and phone sex companies posing as escorts.

In the case of Jacksonville, Oregon's Robert Salisbury, whose property was ransacked after a "Free Stuff" free-for-all allegedly sparked by a Craigslist post, the San Francisco-based community website turned over the IP addresses under subpoena. The Jackson County Sheriff's department then tracked the location back to Amber Herbert, who turned over a computer. A hard drive search connected the machine to the post. Herbert has now admitted to stealing saddles from Salisbury with husband Brendon Herbert's help. But another post from the same computer could have been their undoing — and may also play a role in their defense.

Prewar building. Stainless-steel appliances. All-night pharmacy around the corner. Service staff have Mary-Kate Olsen's phone number memorized. Get all the details on this apartment, which all but reeks of celebrity death, in the glorious Craigslist ad after the jump.

Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal has demanded Craigslist remove all erotic services ads. But that's not what got CEO Jim Buckmaster mad. Blumenthal also accused the site of making a "profit from prostitution." Buckmaster's response: The Yellow Pages and alt-weekly newspapers receive revenues from adult advertisements, not his company, and that "100% of our revenue comes from paid job listings and broker apartment rental listings."

A frustrated, out-of-work actor has taken to Craigslist in search of "alternative methods" to prepare for an upcoming audition: "One of my friends suggested I get into white magic, but I think I should find a expert or someone who knows what they are doing...if you could write me with whatever idea/spell you have to help me that would be great, because like I said I have never done this before." It's actually not the craziest idea we've ever heard, but we'd caution that this sort of thing isn't for the casual dark arts dabbler; properly casting a casting spell is a science, if anything, requiring just the right measurements of eye of lapdog, hair of Andy Dick, and breath of 1st AD. [Craigslist]

Are you a single parent of any or every race with an adorable little kid and a fierce hunger for "change"? Senator Barack Obama wants you. Well, either he does or some creepy Internet stalker wants to lure you to a shady, sparsely populated location.

If Craigslist, the Internet's sketchiest swap meet for sofas and sex, is an unwise place to launch a career in prostitution, you certainly couldn't tell from all the ads. After yet another small-town sex-business bust, Craigslist spokesperson Susan Best said, "If you're a prostitute or a potential john, you're taking a big risk putting a listing on Craigslist, because we cooperate actively with police departments." By the numbers, that's not stopping anyone.

What do the people of Oregon have against Craiglist founder Craig Newmark? Start with Robert Salisbury, of Jacksonville, Oregon. The other day, Salisbury came home to find 30 people going through his stuff and walking away with whatever they wanted. Salisbury tried to protest, but the grubbers just brushed him off. One finally handed him an advertisement printed off Craigslist. It listed Salisbury's address and said all his belongings were up for grabs.

This Craigslist ad looks like a casting call for a Barack Obama campaign commercial in Los Angeles, though of course it could easily be a ploy by pranksters or supporters of Obama's Democratic presidential opponent Hillary Clinton. The ad wants the whole rainbow of America, and is very specific about the composition of each stripe: "Middle Aged Hispanic Men (worker class/laborer look)... An Indian Female (From INDIA)... 3 black women, various shades... An Asian Female Thai or Philipino (darker)... (3) Caucasian girls, teen - 25." Well, this should certainly help further that substantive, stereotype-free racial discussion Obama called for! Image of the ad after the jump, and if you have any idea whether the poster is real or affiliated with Obama, we'd love to hear about it.