Who Reads Yesterday's Papers
-The Governator signed a heapload of bills on Friday and vetoed a few. The two that are attracting the most attention are bills banning the use of certain supplements for High School athletes and further restrictions on the selling of video games to kids. Why they're so high profile, besides the obviousness of a down-on-his-luck politician resorting to the ole "Save the Children!" politicking, is because in both cases, he went against two industries-- video games and nutritional supplements-- in which he had financial stakes in. And we're pretty sure we can say we have the only Governor who can claim that.
-Worried about mercury levels in fish? So is the Board of Supervisors! This week they approved an ordinance that will call for restaurants to post warnings, in English, Chinese and Spanish, about mercury levels in fish. We look forward to the time when we go to a restaurant in this city and get handed a menu, a wine list, and a list of things we should warned about.
-In the ongoing saga of our mismatched fire hydrants, the Fire Chief said she'd love to get some adapters to retrofit our hydrants in case we need it, but we can't really afford it. The total cost of the adapters is around $800,000. Our city can't afford $800,000 to help make our fire hydrants consistent with fire hydrants used pretty much every other place in the country. In response, Gerardo Sandoval is calling for hearings to look into the matter. Not that anybody is asking us, but our suggestion would be to get all those society types to get together and get all gussied up for some fund-raiser, the kind that makes all those Society Columns in the Chron. If the opera has a little less money this year to do performances, would anybody other than a few 70 year old blue bloods care?
-Due to the problems of chronic alcoholism amongst the homeless, the Board of Supes are looking into legislation that will try and limit the alcohol sales in certain neighborhoods. And no, we're not talking the Marina. Possible rules include banning certain types of hard cord liquor and forcing stores to close on the 1st and the 15th when welfare checks are handed out.