Mission Loc@l reports that there have been three documented cases this month of Latinos being forced into a vehicle with the intent of mugging them, while walking in isolated parts of the Mission late at night. Police speculate that day laborers might be the target both because they carry cash and are often undocumented and are afraid to go to the police for fear of being deported.
CurrentTV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were detained for illegally crossing the North Korean border and accused of "hostile acts," are set to go on trial on Thursday. They were working on a documentary about the sad stories about North Korean refugees fleeing to China. If convicted, they could spend up to ten years in a North Korean boot camp. Al Gore, a partner at Current, has been working closely with the State Department to get the women released, and the Swedish Mission at the United Nations has been serving as an intermediary.
This just in from the SFBike mailing list. "Does anyone know if this guy is OK? No Darwin jokes please. 'Park Station Officers responded to Divisadero and Golden Gate Ave with regard to a injury accident bicycle versus vehicle. The officers contacted the bicycle rider who stated he was riding his friend's "track bike" that does not have brakes down Golden Gate Ave. The bike is stopped by skidding...'"
San Francisco just approved a contract that will permit future yacht rockers to entertain the masses at Golden Gate Park. That is to say, we've got three more years of the Outside Lands Festival. And it's a good thing for the city. According to KCBS, "[l]ast year, 130,000 people packed Golden Gate Park and the city made $815,000 dollars. The new contract guarantees the city a minimum of $950,000 dollars and allows Another Planet to stage a concert each summer for three years, with an additional two-year option following that." Old-time crooners like Pearl Jam, this indie rock band, the Beastie Boys, that indie rock band, the Dave Matthews Band, that group Fergie is in are some of the groups scheduled to perform for this year’s concert in the park.
Have you heard that BART and Muni fares are increasing? A news story that seems to pop up at least once a month? Or not? Anyway, BART prices will increase on July 1. And Muni will jump to $2 on July 1 as well. We're sure it's way more complicated than we could possibly imagine, rife with locals politicking, Excel spreadsheets, and lots of chin scratching. But feel free to lose your proverbial shit over the increase in the comments, even though both fares are still pretty damn cheap compared to other big cities. (Or not.)
Real estate agents have always reveled in transforming a neighborhood, or a sub-section of a shitty neighborhood, through the kind of re-branding that turns a place like Hell's Kitchen in NYC into Midtown West. Well, the San Francisco Association of Realtors are releasing their latest map, which is going to affect the official listing location of every property in town, and it includes such creative renamings as Barbary Coast for the Financial District, and NoPa for that section of the Western Addition that's home to a certain popular restaurant. Apparently the realtors stopped short of including TenderNob, because we all know that's kind of bullshit (and there's so few for-sale properties there that the real estate people don't give a shit). Says Matthew Borland, the agent leading the remapping, "the changes had to reflect a true change and feel of the fabric of a neighborhood."
Hooters, the restaurant chain famous for employing waitresses with visibly erotic bustlines, is in hot water this morning. It seems eight former Hooters employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the boobs-and-food eatery, claiming that "management systematically stole their tips at four Bay Area restaurants." (Which, if you know anyone in the service industry, is rumored to be a practice not as uncommon as it should be.) And this wasn't some scant change either; the ex-Hooter employees say that the management theft "amounted to about $40 per day per restaurant over the past four years."
The victims (instigators?) of the Christmastime tiger mauling that left their (sort of) friend, Carlos Sousa Jr., dead, Kulbir and Amritpal Dhaliwal will receive a cool $900.000 from the San Francisco Zoo. According to SF Chronicle, this settlement by the zoo "resolves claims the brothers brought in U.S. District Court against the city, zoo and Sam Singer, a crisis public relations consultant the zoo hired after the attack." The brothers' lawsuit, among other claims, says that the SF Zoo failed at "keeping the 243-pound Siberian tiger named Tatiana in an enclosure that had walls 4 feet lower that what is recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums." It also says that Kulbir Dhaliwal "wasn't attacked until after an employee refused to allow him into the safety of a zoo cafe." Which, yeah, regardless of what you think of the hoodlum brothers, that's kind of cold. Anyway, the Dhaliwal brothers will split the money, which is sure to buy all of the Grey Goose, Drakkar Noir, and criminal defense attorneys they will ever need.
Speaking of the gays and the fuzz, police delay Pink Saturday permit, so annual Pride party is in limbo. [BAR]
The Scripps National Spelling Bee (the annual event where people get to coo at and root for our country's smartest Asperger cases) might have a local winner this year. San Jose eighth-grader Ramya Auroprem moved up to the finals of today after correctly spelling "purlieu," "kichel," and "senryu" (which, by the sound of them, we assume are three different types of curry.) Be sure to cheer on our local gal when she goes for the top spot at 5 p.m. (PST). You can watch it go down live and ABC or on ESPN360.
Fatty Arbuckle
Another list? Does this mean we can look forward to a more list-generating Chronicle? Because this is a Heart publication we can get behind. Today, one of San Francisco's daily paper of note compiled a rather smurfy top-10 sex scandals of San Francisco list. They include: early '60s "cable car nymphomaniac," who sued Muni for $500,000, after a cable car accident "triggered an insatiable sexual desire that drove her to take 100 lovers; North Beach's Condor nightclub's infamous sex romp cum piano crushing death; a cocaine- and booze-addicted Mayor Gavin Newsom caught fucking his best buddy's wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk; and, well, the Gettys. We were, of course, surprised to see that Fatty Arbuckle and Virgina Rappe at the St. Francis didn't make the list (the disgraced silent comedy star's "accidental" sex-killing involvement, or lack thereof, in Rappe's death resulted in Hollywood's vile Hays Code), but it's a decent list nevertheless. If you can think of any other sexual intercourse-based scandals in SF, do let us know in the comments..
Triggering Tatiana flashbacks today, we just got word that a white tiger fatally mauled a zoo keeper in a New Zealand yesterday, "just three months after the victim had saved another keeper from an attack by the same tiger." Happening at the Zion Wildlife Center in Whangarei, somewhere in Middle Earth, tiger handler Dalu Mncube succumbed to severe tearing of the abdomen. According to Times Online, "the male tiger attacked Mr Mncube with no warning, ripping at the helpless man's body as his colleague tried to fight him off with a stick and a fire extinguisher." San Francisco Zoo, if you recall, payed host to a fatal tiger attack on Christmas Day 2007 when Tatiana the tiger leaped from her grotto, attacking and killing Carlos Sousa Jr. Unlike Tatiana, however, who was shot and killed by SFPD officers, the white tiger wasn't put down. Update: We were wrong. The white tiger, one of only 120 white tigers in the world, was killed soon after the mauling.
Fluffy (credit: Jonathan Lee)
The story of Fluffy the cat, which shed light, love and joy to tens of thousands of San Franciscans this week, has taken a tragic turn. The month-long-missing cat that an SFPD officer helped rescue has just been diagnosed with terminal leukemia. According to SF Weekly, "[t]he cat was so malnourished from being locked in that house ... that he was forced to take Fluffy to an emergency vet. And, once there, the feline's blood work revealed that Fluffy has terminal leukemia." Although Fluffy is now living comfortably, gained most of his weight back, and has turned into a "purring machine" since his rescue, the cat will, most likely, be put down very soon. That said, even elderly sick pets need lots of love too. (And purchasing cats or dogs from breeders is, inarguably, downright vile.) Maybe you have a big heart and a little space to care for one?
Candlestick Point State Recreation Area
As SFist reported back in January, a proposal to prune the California park system's $150 million general fund budget, money that goes to staff salaries and maintenance, might result in the closure of 25 Bay Area state parks. And said cuts could come as soon as July 1. A few parks of note in danger of closing? Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, which is known for "some of the best winter bird-watching on the bay," (our fingers are crossed for you, Walter Kitundu), Mount Tamalpais, Angel Island (!?), Jack London Park, Sonoma Coast, and many more. The governor's possible park pruning would also affect 279 parks throughout California.
And now, for a dramatic morning dose of the macabre, we present too you a story about a man accused of attacking a colleague with a meat cleaver in Palo Alto. Happening at "fine Shanghai cuisine" restaurant Jade Palace on California Avenue a little after 7 p.m. last night, the fuzz "found an Asian man in his late 40s or early 50s in the kitchen area with three to four stab wounds to the face and torso from a cleaver," after reporting to the scene. According to Mercury News, the victim was simply drenched in blood. "It was all over the place. It was all over his back," said Richard Reyes, owners of nearby business. "You could see some of his muscles hanging out."
A new piece today in the Washington Post suggests that Obama administration officials and members of Congress alike are considering the possibility of a VAT, or value-added tax, which would impose a levy on all goods and services in order to cover the nation's gi-fucking-normous budget deficit. Along with raising taxes on the highest earners, the idea of a VAT seems to be gaining traction as something that has worked for 130 other countries worldwide.
Turning 72-years-old today, the Golden Gate Bridge celebrates another year as San Francisco's most notable landmark. The bridge-opening party kicked off on May 27, 1937, lasting for one week.
Parents of students in the Alameda School District are split down the middle regarding the district's decision to proceed with a new set of classes aimed at curbing anti-gay bullying. Starting next year, students in kindergarten through fifth grade will take one 45 minute class per year based on the GroundSpark curriculum. Fifth graders will read And Tango Makes Three, the true story of a pair of male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who successfully hatched an egg and raised a chick.
For those of you who don't care for loud protests, cannot afford to donate, or don't like signing petitions, here's the best way you can show your support for gay marriage. This cute sticker at right -- tastefully adorned with two twee red hearts, measuring a scant 4.5" x 6" (about the size of a postcard) -- which you can get for free. According to this bizarre political activism and/or mobile communications company called CREDO, who are giving the stickers away, "we want everyone to know that we support marriage rights for all couples -- you can let everyone know that you do, too with one of our awesome stickers! You can get one sticker for free. Buy 5 or 50 stickers; we'll donate the profits to fight for marriage equality. For $5 we'll send you 5 stickers; for $25 we'll send 50 stickers."
Want to see to what certain SF public officials are landing a year? Of course you do. Business Insider came across a handy chart (based on this database) that lists the yearly salaries of public servants. the info is from a couple of years ago -- thus: yes, it's old news -- but since we cannot digest any info that isn't crafted into easy-to-read cells, we assume the same goes for you, readers.
Crazy-acting, "curvy" lesbians with face tattoos getting arrested at prop 8 protests be damned. We love the SFPD today. Why? Because of this story. See, according to SF Weekly, a "frantic" man flagged down an officer, "beside himself over his lost cat, 'Fluffy.'" And if you love pets like members of your family, you relate to Fluffy's papa. (In fact, you might even lose sleep on a regular basis worrying whether or not your cat may one day runaway, escape while you're on vacation, get lost during a post-earthquake evacuation, or worse. Also, more likely than not, you might be chronically single because of this perfectly natural obsession.) Missing for over a month (no!), the man heard his cat howling from inside an abandon house in the Taraval hood,and the police officer went into action. The SFPD cop, Patrice Scanlan, "phoned Animal Control -- but was informed that the service couldn't spare anyone at the moment. So she called a locksmith, who popped the house's rusted lock," soon thereafter finding the cat cowering "under the oven in an upstairs kitchen" (weep, weep), thus making the world a better place. So, congratulations, SFPD Officer Patrice Scanlan. You are officially an awesome human being for life.
Our very favorite "painted whore," Carrie Prejean, the current anti-gay Miss California, has a fun, new comic penned in her honor. With story and lettering by Brian Andersen and art and colors by Michael Troy, the newest superhero comic is called "Saint Carrie of the Divine Pageant: A Tit, a Tat and an Opposite-Marriage Rat."
Prom season is in the air. And you know what that means, right? Tacky dresses, hymens smashed, newborns dumpstered, and fretting dads. Take, for example, a Union City father who fired off a few rounds after getting into an argument with his daughter on Monday, "two days after the James Logan High School dance when his daughter came home late." After freaking out over her being late, and presumably her dirty pillows, Rufus Pucket fired his gun while his wife was trying to protect the daughter. Pucket surrendered to the fuzz "after hiding in the garage when the girl called 911."
Dozens of students and staff at the University of California at Santa Cruz have gone on a hunger strike "in order to bring attention to $13 million in state funding being cut at the campus." This anti-digesting protest, it seems, was sparked by school wide cuts, which have affected the Latino Studies Department and the very-UCSC Community Studies program. Protest organizer Yvette Tran told KCBS, "“The hunger strikers will continue to not eat possibly for the week or until our demands are met." Said demands? Money. Anyway, those starving students are in for an even bigger shock. UCSC spokesman Jim Burns tells Mercury News, "We appreciate and share the frustration of students and others over continued reductions in state funding to UC. And in the wake of last week's election, we're bracing for even further cuts. In that environment, protecting every program is neither realistic nor possible." UC Santa Cruz, we should point out, is known for having a lily white vibe on campus, which only heightens the tension.
A little after 8 p.m. on Tuesday night, the 71 Haight-Noriega (of course, it had to be the notoriously dodgy 71), crashed into a moving car at Market and Jones streets. Both vehicles were traveling east on Market before they smashed into each other. According to Muni spokeswoman Kristen Holland, "[p]reliminary reports indicate seven people were taken to the hospital and 23 others were treated at the scene for injuries sustained in the crash." None of the injuries were life-threatening. Why did the two hunks of steel ram into each other? Who's to say. This is Muni, a mystery wrapped questions rolled into a transfer. But the Muni driver in yesterday's crash has been placed on "non-driving status" until his pee tests positive or negative for substance abuse.
It certainly isn't the final word on the issue, but yesterday's decision by the CA Supreme Court set off a well anticipated set of protests across the state and the country.
What are notables saying about the California State Supreme Court upholding prop. 8? Let's find out.
The Mission Neighborhood Centers, Inc., one of the oldest nonprofits in the neighborhood, which is responsible for putting together the annual Carnaval and Cinco De Mayo festivals, along with many other invaluable programs, is at risk of losing half of its federal grants, due to poor accounting, financial strains, and accumulating debt caused by the organization's growing too fast in recent years for its overworked and underpaid staff to handle. Additionally, there was a loan renegotiation with Wells Fargo that threw the organization further into a downward spiral.
The Courage Campaign will lace the airwaves in California with a 60-second TV ad version of "Fidelity," which is about a "heartbreaking online video viewed by more than 1.2 million people, making it the most-watched video ever in the history of California politics."
Natalie Jones, a sixth-grader in Ramona, California, created a Powerpoint presentation about Harvey Milk's life and activism, for which she received a near-perfect score. The day before the presentation, Jones' principal said that although her project was as good as a high school student's, because of the "sensitive material," she might be unable to show it.
OK, listen up! For all those who believe in marriage equality, and even for those who just love a good protest march, DayOfDecision.org has all the details about protests planned for tonight in San Francisco following on the CA Supreme Court's ruling to uphold Prop 8.
Here it is in all of its confusing glory. In a nutshell, Rota Hao explains, it's because our constitution sucks -- even Mississippi has a provision in their constitution that says "you can't amend this constitution to take away people's fundamental rights" and we don't have that.
Not to be a total bummer this Monday Tuesday morning, but let's get this quick wrap-up over with.
The intersection at "Grove and Van Ness [is] corked by 200 protesters, more coming from civic center," says Jim Herd who is live on the scene. Traffic is blocked as far as he can see. Cops are on the scene now. As we already mentioned, there is "lots of screaming at Civic Center plaza...[t]he goal, it seems, is to block all lanes of traffic." The protesters, according to a hurried KRON 4 reporter, plan top stay until they are arrested. (For more updates on what's going on at Civic Center, go here.)
As anticipated, the California State Supreme Court ruled to uphold prop 8, the same-sex marriage ban. That means that gay marriage in the state of California is still considered illegal, effectively stripping away civil rights of many GLBT Californians. The State Supreme court ruled that prop 8 is legal in a 6-1 ruling with justice Marino being the sole holdout.
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Some images from the scene in San Francisco before and after the prop 8 ruling. We'll add more images as the day moves on. (Feel free to send your images to editor@sfist.com if you want them to be featured.)
KRON4 has this coverage from earlier this morning of protesters at the ready outside the court where the Prop 8 announcement is set to be announced in just over an hour. They also have a separate video from last night's telecast featuring a quick talk with former SF Assistant D.A., Jim Hammer. Over at the Chron, they're pulling at heartstrings with the story of John Callaway, who was married to his husband of 25 years last summer and whose marriage is one of 18,000 that may face invalidation by the court today -- though likely will not.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a self-described Newyorican who grew up in a housing project in the Bronx after her parents moved from Puerto Rico, has been tapped by President Obama to be the next Supreme Court justice of the U.S. She was inspired by Perry Mason as a little girl, and has served as a federal judge for New York's Southern District for 17 years. In addition to being the first person of Hispanic descent ever appointed to the court, KCBS reports that Sotomayor brings "more judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice confirmed in the past 70 years."
At 10 a.m. this morning, the state supreme court will announce its ruling whether to overturn or uphold prop 8, the gay marriage banned that passed last November. The constitutional amendment barely approved by voters, if you recall, "overruled the court's 4-3 ruling from a year ago that briefly legalized same-sex unions."
On Sunday morning a little before 10:30 a.m. in the Bayview district, Levit Chavez Jr., 22, allegedly stabbed to death his father, Levit Chavez Sr., 49. According to SF Weekly, Chavez Jr. "is being held in connection with his father's stabbing death and the near-fatal stabbing of the elder Chavez' longtime girlfriend at 47 Ceres Street near Third Street." Jr. was arrested, it seems, after hiding out at a nearby Walgreens. While the reason for this weekend's grim patricide is not yet know, SF Examiner suggest that it "appear[s] to have stemmed from 'some type of argument.'" Intriguing, indeed. Anyway, this brings San Francisco's murder rate to 18 for 2009.
The uber- and always-divine Leah Garchik reports on who the wealthiest person in San Francisco is: Larry Page, co-founder and of Google. (Of course, the award for sexiest-wealthiest person in San Francisco, hands down, goes to The Brin. Know Sergey, know beauty; no Sergey, no beauty.) Garchik mentions Page because there's a book coming out this week about the Google kingpin and 99 other fat cats in the U.S. Penned by Randall Jones, it's called The Richest Man In Town. While we plan on giving the book a once-over, we had hoped Page's section would open any top-shelf cans of worms the way Oh the Glory of It All did, which famously shattered the glitzy Aqua-Net veneer of Pacific Height's Dede "French is a faggy language" Wilsey. Richest Man, it seems, looks more like a living-the-American-dream guide, not a vengeful tell-all. Alas. Anyway, Jones' "smug paean to extreme wealth" is available on Wednesday.
Joseph Loudon, 16, was found unconscious at an Orinda house party over the holiday weekend, ultimately dying from alcohol poisoning. In addition to being cute, white, God-fearing and popular at his high school, Loudon also played on the track/field and football teams. So, naturally, this was one of the top stories on the morning news today -- but still, all things considered, a tragic story. Anyway, his 18-year-old buddy, Patrick Gabrielli, was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors. That is to say, Gabrielli, who has since posted bail, bought Loudon the fatal liquor.
Yeah, wearing a seatbelt and refraining from drinking/driving both seem like common sense, but California Highway Patrol officers arrested 1,450 drivers statewide for DUIs during Memorial Day weekend last year. Also, 38 people died on California's roads during the holiday last year, and 68 percent of those killed were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. So, this weekend will be a maximum enforcement period for the CHP, which will be looking for people driving under the influence or without a seatbelt. San Francisco will be conducting a DUI saturation patrol by its motorcycle units on Friday night, and a sobriety checkpoint will be held on Saturday night. So, Click It or Ticket!
Meghan McCain, daughter of the Senator and P.O.W. presidential candidate John McCain, wrote an opinion piece in the Daily News today. What it is is this: an open letter to New York Republicans, asking them to support the state's gay marriage legislation, "[n]o matter how politically charged the discussions about marriage equality may get, the question is really a simple one: Do the rights and privileges we offer citizens include everyone in our country, or only some of us? I believe that allowing gays and lesbians the freedom to marry is an idea whose time has come... Equality under the law and personal freedoms are what make America the greatest country in the world, and they are core values that I hold as a Republican." In addition to being all kinds of awesome, McCain is one of the few Republican women who know exactly how to do the whole bottle blond thing. Kudos to you, Meghan. Let's hope the GOP is listening.
After much speculation this week, the California State Supreme Court will announce its official decision on Prop 8, the gay marriage ban, on Tuesday, May 26 Here's what will go down the day before the ruling is announced:
Egads, this sounds awful. In yet another why reason teenagers should be handled with cattle prods and crammed with psychoactives at all times, a man was alleged beaten and robbed by a most vile gaggle of teenagers in the Mission yesterday. According to Mission Mission, here's what happened.
Jose Rosas, 56, a general practitioner, was found guilty yesterday of sexually assaulting three patients inside his Mission District office. The violations occurred from 2002 to 2007. Caring for mainly Spanish-speaking patients, Rosas, attempting to help women with head or back pain, told the women "a pelvic exam was necessary to diagnose their conditions and 'conducted the vaginal exams in an inappropriate and unprofessional manner by digitally penetrating the victim patients for prolonged periods of time.'" Scheduled for sentencing on July 21, Rosas could face probation to 18 years in the clink. His medical license, of course, has since been suspended.
A couple weeks ago we mentioned this disturbing-though-not-deadly situation on I-680 where drivers were getting shot at, apparently by an air rifle and maybe by a teenager, and getting their car windows shattered. Well, two 21-year-olds have been arrested and they're facing 40 some odd counts of assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism, among other things. We know that these air rifle things are weapons, and maybe deadly if they had actually caused someone to crash, but can we technically call them "deadly weaspons"? Perhaps that's beside the point. And anyway, drivers on 680 can rest easy, and though not teens they were still just a couple of asshole kids having target practice.
For all you real estate data wonks and renters who like to feel smug: the median price of homes sold in the nine-county Bay Area is down 41% over last year, to $304,000. This also marks a pretty steep fall from the peak median price of July 2007 which was $665,000.
In order to appease a few South Carolina attorneys general, Craigslist finally removed their pay-for-play 'erotic services' section from the site. (Boo!) Instead, they have a new (?) 'adult' section under the 'services' category of Craigslist, which features such totally innocent ads as "M4M - CMT MASSAGE BY COLLEGE GUY," "EROTIC MASSAGE & ESCORT SERVICES BY HOT BEAR CUB!!!," and "_ • ♥ • _ BLONDE _ • ♥ • _ PRINCESS _ • ♥ •" (Jasmine, by the way, promises to be "very wild," "classy," and just "one phone call away") According to reports, Craigslist employees "review every ad submitted to the adult area before they appear online," but are struggling since they can't block every sex solicitation. Catherine, a San Francisco sex worker, tells CNET that she "successfully posted an ad for her services to the adult section late last week." So naughty, Catherine.
After filing for divorce iin 2007, then deciding not to, then filing again in late April on 2009, Bay Area residents Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn have decided not to file for divorce. Again. Just why, exactly, Penn has twice has rescinded divorce papers isn't know. But how DARE you pry into the lives of super famous Hollywood celebrities?! People asked L.A. divorce lawyer Lynn Soodik, who is not remotely involved with the case or the Penns, just what it this means. "This appears to imply that they're reconciling again," Soodik says. "It's unlikely Sean Penn would request a dismissal for any other reason." Way to earn your paycheck, Lynn. Anyway, feel free to make wild assumptions and hurtful reasons as to why in the comments.
San Franciscans will soon have to learn how to ration our precious Hetch Hetchy Reservoir water after a 25-year long deal with twelve other suburban cities expires in June. According to SF Weekly, San Francisco residents consume mere drops of water per capita compared to people in other cities, and locals are saying we were "sold down the river" in this latest deal: An average of 92 gallons per day will be guaranteed to individual water users outside the city, while merely 54 gallons per day will go to San Franciscans (down from the current 57 gallons).
A wax statue of President Barack Obama will arrive, via the F Market, at the Fisherman's Wharf wax museum today around 3PM. The first 100 patrons at the museum after Wax Obama's arrival will get in free. Tourists from far and wide shall now come to our fair city solely for the purpose of viewing our very own Wax Obama.
PREVIOUSLY: Chia Obama Pulled From Shelves for Being Offensive
Akin to Judy Garland's death or Adam Lambert losing last night's American Idol finale -- damn you to hell, Bill O'Reilly! -- 30 years ago today the White Night riots erupted after supervisor Dan White was given a lenient verdict for murdering supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Windows were smashed, property destroyed, and police cruisers set ablaze. Then, after watching the gays get hysterical, SFPD raided a Castro gay bar (Elephant Walk, now known as Harvey's) in retaliation, thus escalating tension.
Lamar Franklin, 21, was charged with the shaking death of his infant son last week. According to reports, Berkeley police responded to a call around 4:40 p.m. on Friday regarding 'a choking infant" over in the in the 1300 block of Ward Street. After the 5-month-old infant was whisked away to Children's Hospital in Oakland, he later died in Tuesday. Franklin was charged with murder and assault with a deadly weapon. If convicted, this would make Berkeley's fourth homicide of the year.
You heard it here first, folks. Well, actually, you might have heard it here, if you read that sort of thing. An "openly gay sales rep" named Valerie has come forward to say that she dated Prejean's mother, Francine Coppola. Heh. We totally believe this and might even have to buy this issue of Star. PREVIOUSLY: Trump Says Miss California Gets to Keep Crown, Miss California Partied With Famed NYC Tranny, Newsom Defends Miss California
During this morning's Mornings On 2 (do do do do do dooooo), KTVU traffic guru Sal Castaneda tells us who he think might win tonight's American Idol competition, the gay screecher or the straight guy.
Although police barricades popped up in the Castro and the Supreme Court building last night, tomorrow's Supreme court ruling has been delayed. It seems Gavin Newsom asked to court to delay the ruling on whether or not Prop 8 is downright vile because tomorrow, May 21, coincides with the White Night riots. The White Night riots, for those of you not familiar, sparked when a laughably lenient ruling (i.e., voluntary manslaughter) was handed to Dan White for the murders of supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. So, combine the legacy and death of Harvey Milk with a Prop 8 ruling going the wrong way, and you could very well see San Francisco implode.
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Transportation, transportation secretary Ray LaHood announced a hefty gift for Bay Area public transportation: $48.3 Million. This chunk of change will, hopefully, improve your commute in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco counties. What will the funds go to? Well, the construction of a walkway at Balboa Park station with an "automatic fare collection equipment, lighting, security cameras and a new entrance plaza connected to ADA-accessible walkway to Ocean Avenue," for starters. The money will also be used to up"date transit vehicles with new carpeting and seat cushions," as well as replacing electrical equipment and "sacrificial anodes and anode cables along the length of the Transbay Tube." That is to say, lots of hammering, clipboards, hard hats, and test tubes with dry ice plumes will most likely be involved. "By reinvesting in our nation’s transit infrastructure, we are making our communities more livable, invigorating the local economy, and putting America back to work," LaHood shilled.
A new piece in the East Bay Express tells the tale of AC Transit's decision to move forward with a $28 million purchase of 12 zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell buses -- that's just over $2M per bus, and the same total price tag of 55 hybrid buses. Robert Gammon in the Express calls this a "boondoggle," and points to President Obama all but eradicating the federal fuel cell program due to costs.
The California Department of Public Health announced today that 13 California hospitals were slammed with "administrative penalties of $25,000 per violation" due to said hospitals failed to comply with licensing requirements that caused serious injury or death to patients. According to a CDPH report, the University of California, San Francisco Medical Centerwas fined after "[t]he hospital failed to ensure the safety of a patient by not establishing a safe and effective system for the administration of high-risk medications. This is the facility’s second administrative penalty." Other hospitals penalized were John Muir Medical Center in Concord (who "failed to follow its own policies and procedures for restraining a patient for radiological exams") and the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance (where a patient had to "undergo a second surgery to remove a retained foreign object," resulting in their death).
Blame it on Newsom's chronic absence as the Mayor of San Francisco. Blame it on a chronically losing football team. Blame it on a chronically decrepit stadium. The SF 49ers might be on the move. But for reals this time. While Bay Area sports teams, like 8-year-olds, like to threaten to pack up their belongings and runaway, some sort of deal was finalized yesterday with regard to the 49ers moving to Santa Clara after the team and city officials "reached a deal on how to finance the building of a new stadium." According to AP, "the two sides agreed on a financing package for a proposed 68,500-seat stadium." Now all the move needs is a city council vote in June, some sort of green impact reports, and then a vote by Santa Claraians, which is expected to happen in March of 2010. Voters are most likely to pass the measure. Why? Because Santa Clara wants to be known for something besides....wait, what is Santa Clara known for? Nothing? Nothing at all? Exactly.
Two new urban planning documents in two major American cities -- our own and New York City -- are being released this week that reflect a growing a trend toward creating pedestrian-friendly environments and pushing private automobiles out of downtown congestion. A San Francisco Transportation Authority study released yesterday recommends phasing in an all-out ban of auto traffic on Market Street east of Van Ness, beginning by forcing motorists to turn right onto Eighth Street off of Market and outlawing left turns off of Hyde (the full ban, they're saying, is "shelved" for now). SFist previously noted the pilot-program street closure and temporary plaza at Castro and 17th Street, which we didn't think would move forward quite as quickly as it has.
Not sure how much this budget-by-ballot blitz just cost us, but with 17% of precincts reporting, five of the six ballot measures in today's special election appear to have failed, with 60%+ of voters saying NO to propositions 1A through E.
Dr. Horace Bixby Newhard, 78, was ordered yesterday to stand trial for allegedly penetrating a 60-year-old patient during a gynecological exam, who had been a patient of Newhard's for several decades. During an office visit in 2007, after Newhard had sent the office staff home, the victim said she felt three very rapid thrusts in her genital region. She also said he "pulled on" her nipples during a breast exam, and at the conclusion of the office visit, Newhard embraced her and kissed her, put his hand on her butt, and pushed her into him. In court, Newhard never denied the allegations, telling the victim he was sorry he made her uncomfortable. "It was my exuberance. I've always liked you." Newhard has pleaded not guilty, and although his medical license remains active, he is required to have a third-party chaperone present while examining women. Perhaps it's time to retire?
The most exciting thing about today's special election was, well, we don't know if anything was exciting about it. Especially when compared to the November election, which was brimming with sexy black men and fabulous gays. But if you want a breakdown of the what the measures were in today's election, check out Rita Hao's marvelously accurate post.
A crazy story just surfaced from the Napa Valley Register about Dannille Vanderpool, a police dispatcher who claimed to have both ovarian and brain cancer and subsequently scammed her way into free childcare, a home renovation, fundraisers, cash donations, and free time off from work. She shaved her head and wrote of her struggles with cancer on MySpace, apparently seeking public sympathy of the sort that only a few hundred animated, glittery Get Well .gif's can provide.
Gay marriage as an attack on small businesses? Because said small businesses would have to pay healthcare? Not even close, Michael Steel, chairperson of the Republican National Committee. That is a lie. What gay marriage can do for the country is add a whopping $16.8 billion toward the "gross national wedding product." Engagement rings alone, according to a Forbes study, would run at $1.8 billion a year. And that money would positively affect, you guessed it, small businesses.
Since many of you who smoke cigarettes -- dirty, filthy, rapey cigarettes that makes The Baby Jesus cry -- we know it's hard for you to always find a makeshift ashtray in which to trash them. Which is why most of you toss them on the street or out your car window. Now, however, Gavin Newsom, who hates smokie treats, wants the cleanup cost of picking up said butts to fall on smokers' shoulders via a new a new citywide fee. The proposal, which will go before the Board of Supervisors next month, "would add 33 cents to the cost of a pack of cigarettes, to offset the estimated $10.7 million the city spends annually removing discarded butts from gutters, drainpipes and sidewalks," reports the New York Times. What's more, according to Newsom, this added fee might (but probably not since addicts will find a way to get their fix) help smokers kick the habit. "In general, fees help reduce the consumption and use of tobacco ... and we think that will have a very beneficial public health component.” [via Curbed]
Although reports were swirling -- swirling! - all over Twitter this morning, "Hungry Eyes" crooner and Point Break star Patrick Swayzeis not dead. He is alive. He has some serious cancer issues, yes; but he's alive. This false rumor comes on the heels of last week's Prop 8-overturned rumor gone wrong and the gay book-ban-on-Amazon falsity.
For those of you who still find political satire knee-slappingly hilarious -- i.e., those of you who laugh a bit too loudly at Shakespeare comedy previews at the Embarcadero Cinemas -- you don't want to miss this new action figure of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Created by HeroBuilders.com -- who have also fashioned figures in the likes of Rod Blagojevich, Bernie Madoff, John McCain and Barack Obama -- Pelosi comes complete with a power suit, saucer eyes, and a mini waterboard that reads "Water Board: Fun for the Whole Family." (If you recall, Pelosi is in trouble for claiming she didn't know about war crime-worthy torture techniques approved by the Bush administration, going so far as to say the C.I.A. lied to her. Even though, you know, she probably knew about what was going on the entire time.) You can fondle your very own Pelosi doll for a mere $49.95. But according to NBC Bay Area, HeroBuilders.com is already backed up with 250 pre-sale orders.
There are many reasons to fear parts of California not near the coast. So much so, in fact, that LAist editor Zach Behrens and your SFist editor tend to argue about which of us has to write about items in central, non-coastline parts of the state. Here's one reason why: a Bakersfield father is in jail "after allegedly biting out one of his 4-year-old son's eyes and mutilating the other." The child told investigators, "My daddy ate my eyes." Neighbors who found the injured kid also discovered the boy's father, Angel Vidal Mendoza, 34, in the backyard of a nearby home "hacking his own legs with an ax." Mendoza has been charged with mayhem, torture, child cruelty and inflicting an injury to a child. This raises questions about the quality, or lack thereof, of Kern County's Child Protective Services department. It seems Mendoza and the boy's 23-year-old mother were "charged with being under the influence of PCP in 2006 and pleaded no contest to child cruelty charges in that case."
What with prom season in the air, and at the risk of sounding crude, it's only natural for things like this to happen. See, a dead infant was found inside a dumpster in Union City, according to reports. A person looking through the dumpster for glass bottles, it seems, came across the nascent body near the Parkside Apartments at 1501 Decoto Rd. at around 8:40 p.m. last night. While the infant's race, gender and age are not yet know, anyone with information is urged to contact the Union City Police Department at 510-471-1365, or the anonymous tip line 510-675-5207.
NBC Bay Area reports that Rochelle Harrison, who has been openly gay since the age of thirteen, was ridiculed on a daily basis by teachers and staffmembers at Jesse Bethel High School in Vallejo, who would say such nonsense as: "You'll never get a job," "You're going to hell," "You're so ignorant. You don't even know whether you're a boy or a girl." (Uh, what millennium are we in again?!)
The man who gained national fame in the early 90s for attending classes at U.C. Berkeley wearing nothing but a G-string, Luis Andrew Martinez a.k.a. The Naked Guy, met his end in a Santa Clara County jail cell where he cinched a plastic bag around his neck and died of suffocation in May 2006. It turns out he was schizophrenic, and after proving "people define normalcy in their own terms" and ultimately getting expelled from Cal, he was in and out of jails and mental institutions where he did not always receive appropriate care. His mother, Esther Krenn, brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the county and yesterday won a $1M settlement on the grounds of "reckless disregard or deliberate indifference" to her son's condition.
John Myers at KQED's California Report did a report about this very unspecial Special Election we're having today, in which some TBD tiny percentage of the state's population is going to arrive at polling stations and probably vote down the Governator's budget balancing ballot measures. Whether or not any of the ballot proposals are valid, it appears people are tired enough of special elections, and tired enough of everyone losing all their money that "No, no, no, no, no," is the most natural response. Regardless, no one knows what the hell they're voting on anyway.
Sleep easy, San Francisco. Mayor Gavin Newsom has, at last, sold his Russian Hill bachelor pad. On the market for over a month, the spacious and too tastefully decorated penthouse condo, if you recall, had trouble finding a buyer. Today, the apartment is in escrow. While the asking price was a cool $2.995 million, the sales price has yet to be revealed. Anyway, congrats, unidentified buyer. Also, all together now: oh, if those walls could talk.
Chiseled Facebook investor and PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel, doesn't have anything nice to say about Valleywag, the online internet website about the tender underbelly of Silicon Valley. In fact, he thinks they're no better than terrorists.
Boom. Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, in his most recent blog post, fires back at a South Carolina AG after he "accused craigslist, and [Buckmaster] personally, of engaging in criminal acts." See, after AG Henry McMaster demanded Craigslist remove their 'erotic services' section (a racy classified service already found in many major publications), due in part to the 'Craigslist Killer' story that took the media by storm, Buckmaster expertly fired back, "Have you fully considered the implications of your accusations against craigslist? What’s a crime for craigslist is clearly a crime for any company. Are you really prepared to condemn the executives of each of the mainstream companies linked above, and all the others that feature such ads, as criminals?"
Muni Diaries just came out with this appalling account via the Noe Valley Voice about Noe Valley resident R. La Rose's encounter with an abusive teen on the J Church on the morning of April 1st.
BERKELEY-OAKLAND/SATURDAY: Three people died after a murder and car chase through the East Bay Saturday night. "It all started at 6:35 p.m. when Berkeley Police responded to reports of gunfire near Allston Way and 10th Street in West Berkeley," according to reports, where offices found an unidentified male suffering from 10 gunshot wounds. He later died. Police then chased the kmurder suspects up to North Oakland, where the they crashed their Cadillac "into two other vehicles at the corner of Aileen Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way -- killing two innocent bystanders, one in a car, and one who was walking down the sidewalk." A 26-year-old Sunnyvale man, whose Mazda got caught up in the crash, died as well.
At 9 a.m. today, the preliminary hearing for BART officer Johannes Mehserle began. Mehserle is charged with the murder of Oscar Grant. The former officer's defense, most likely, will center around the idea that he meant to fire his Taser, not his pistol, that fateful morning. If you recall, Grant was shot on New Year's Day at the Fruitvale station after Grant and some pals were detained by BART officers.
So, the actual running part of Bay to Breakers generally gets forgotten about by the majority of hard-partying participants.
A moderate earthquake rattled greater Los Angeles for 10 to 15 seconds last evening around 8:40 p.m., and it was felt as far south as San Diego. No major damage has been reported, but at least one person went to the hospital. Our bros at LAist registered a few aftershocks and link to a pic of some broken glass at a Starbucks.
The epicenter of the quake was just 10 miles southwest of downtown L.A.
Here are some early images from today's tamed Bay 2 Breakers race.
Londonist, feeling distinctly peckish, enjoyed a gourmet breakfast, the "best pizza outside of Italy", a Brick Lane curry and some bathtub-cooked salmon.
Today, beat-ish scribe Diane di Prima was named the fifth Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Here she is back in the day reading something she wrote. Di Prima is wearing a lovely white, lace blouse, successfully capturing a natural, casual insouciance we don't see nearly enough of these days. A west coast-Ralph Lauren-stoned on the compound look, if you will. That is to say, she looks stunning.
The murder of Ivarene Lett, Oakland's oldest homicide victim in history, in a secure, high-rise apartment building in the Lake Merritt neighborhood earlier this week, not to mention the recent, notorious Lovelle Mixon incident, has become the last straw for many Oakland residents, especially the elderly. Mayor Dellums' proposal to cut city funding of 140 police officers to help close a $100 million budget gap isn't helping matters either. [Update] Apparently, the mainstream media has been misleading the public about the proposal. The federal government would be using stimulus money to pay for those 140 officers. Many residents will no longer consider risking a stroll around the lake after dark, and there have been recent incidents of brazen daytime robberies by gang-members and the homeless. Male black commenters on SFGate also noted increased racial tension from their suspicious white neighbors. With crime likely to increase in the impending summer months, Dellums has his work cut out for him.
The interwebs exploded today. Why? Because people have mistakenly assumed Prop 8 was overturned by the California Supreme Court. The gay marriage ban was. In May of 2008. Sort of. See, it seems a few people saw this article from a year ago, got excited, teared up, swelled with pride, got confused, and tweeted it. After "semi-celeb" Bonnie Burton, with 3000 followers, RTed it, it blew up. (But don't blame her! She's just an innocent victim of the RT. And she's a super swell lady.)
So, this is sort of a math problem: Take a $130 million project; sit it on it and discuss for many years; watch costs rise to about $500 million; receive a $70 million chunk in transportation funds from the federal government; apply for $150 million more in federal transportation loans; figure that you can charge riders $12 round trip on top of their BART fare; decide that in a flagging economy it is better to go into deeper debt and add 13,000 jobs; wait five more years, give or take -- and what do you get? An AirTrain-like solution connecting the Coliseum BART station with Oakland Airport.
McMaster
Oh, this is adorable. After Craigslist (sort of) agreed to remove the ads, South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster has given Craigslist until 5 p.m. today to remove their 'erotic services' section. (Though according to SFBG, you have until Tuesday to hire your very own bell du jour.). This move, if the fine folks over at Craigslist choose to act on, will literally have zero effect on crime and/or pay-for play ads. While Craigslist list did not say, exactly, if and how they plan on removing the controversial ads, Craigslist attorney Bart Daniel, according to KTVU, "intends to work things out with the attorney general." (As of 9:30 a.m., the sexy section remains open.) Oh, and McMastrer says he'll "he'll monitor the site's changes." If no changes are made, it seems, company executives "could be
charged with aiding and abetting prostitution." Which will never, ever happen.
A ballot proposition on relocating the Oakland A's to San Jose could be up for a vote as early as November, reports KCBS, following a meeting between A's owner Lew Wolff and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. The question remains whether the San Francisco Giants will hold on to their territorial rights on the South Bay, which would need to be decided by the Major Leagues' governing body. Also, have Oakland's residents just given up on fighting to keep the A's at this point?
Much like the aforementioned heterosexual pride parade of Bay2Breakers, and the dirtier street fair known as Dore Alley, this year's Gay Pride Eve celebration in the Castro is facing some possible restriction from the SFPD, and may face cancellation altogether. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the organizers of Pink Saturday for the last decade or so, have been trying to negotiate with police and the city in order to expand the footprint of the festivities down Market Street and to add beer concessions and more live entertainment -- making it more of a nighttime version of Castro Street Fair. Bar owners, who know there'll be tons of people in the neighborhood, have no objection and welcome the Sisters efforts to corral the situation.
Don't miss the 'Intricacies of Phantom Content' exhibit. [Travis Jensen]
Sad news, California state employees. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked his administration to "send 5,000 layoff notices to state workers Friday," according to an unnamed source close to Arnold's budget plan. The workers, according to (which is one publication we will truly be sad to see go if things are going the way they are in the print world), "will be among the 20,000 state workers who received layoff warnings earlier this year." Said 5,000 employees will have to have their desks cleaned out by the end of June. Also, for even more depressing news, be sure to check out live coverage of today's California budget crisis. (Pst, better get on the "California, the Weed Dealer State" thing right-quick, governor.)
Have you been receiving daily calls from a fembot telling you about your auto warranty with a fembot? Say, like, three of them a day? Even though you don't own a vehicle? Want to make them stop? You should because it's a scam. According to SFA, here's how you do it: As soon as you hear, "Your Car Warranty Has Expired," dial the FTC at 1-877-382-4357, hit 1, then 2 to file a complaint. Ta-da!
Where The Onion used to be on Cortland in Bernal Heights. The Onion, as SFist pointed out last week, ceased print editions in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
There have been four new laws proposed this year that would make it harder for landlords to raise rents and evict tenants. Three of the laws would increase the rights of rent-controlled tenants by allowing them to add roommates and by suspending or limiting rent increases that are a hardship. The fourth law would give eviction protection to tenants in non-rent-controlled units, specifically homes that are being foreclosed.
Dainty House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has come under fire recently for allegedly knowing that the U.S. was committing illegal acts of torture, has refuted statements saying that the top Democrat knew that the Bush administration was using waterboarding on detainees in "the war on terror." (Also, waterboarding is the LEAST of what was done to prisoners of war. But we digress.) Pelosi told reporters, according to AP, "To the contrary ... we were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used." Passing the buck, Pelosi went on to say, ""I wasn't briefed, I was informed that somebody else had been briefed about it." But, come on, she totally knew what was gong on. Anyway, in an effort to divert all of this unwanted attention, Pelosi plans on setting up some sort of "truth commission" to "investigate the events in the Bush administration that led to the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques."
Caltrain has claimed the life of another pedestrian in two weeks. This morning, a man was struck at the San Mateo station. According to reports, "he collision happened at 6:43 a.m. when southbound train No. 206 struck the man who Caltrain characterized as a trespasser on the tracks near 25th Avenue." It is not yet know whether or not this most recent fatality was an accident or suicide. Northbound and southbound trains are operating at normal speed, but you can "expect delays of 45-60 minutes" today. If you recall, a man and a woman, in separate incidents, sat down on the tracks at the San Antonio station earlier this month.
You've probably already heard that the fine citizens and business owners along the route of the annual heterosexual pride parade known as Bay to Breakers were pissed last year about all the pissing and unhinged revelry that went on outside their windows. So this year, the SFPD has vowed to crack down and "temper" the race, but from the sound of it, we don't have to worry about this becoming a sober footrace anytime soon. "If we can just bring it back to the way it was four or five years ago, we'll be fine," says Lt. Nicole Greely, who's overseeing security for the event. According to this morning's piece in the Chron, police are mostly concerned with unregistered participants joining the race and straining resources, in addition to cracking down on glass bottles and floats with kegs.
Dubbed by the media 'The Craigslist Robber' (who joins the 'Craigslist Killer' in the nascent stage of a Craigslist supergroup), 34-year-old Damien Bell is being held without bail after police uncovered DNA evidence matching Bell to one of his victims. Charged with two counts of armed robbery, Bell is accused of luring people with fake car ads, then stealing their wallet and peace of mind..
If you snap a pic of Mayor Newsom riding Muni, you can win a Fastpass. [Where's Gavin?]
Drivers without FasTrak, be sure to get one within the next year to avoid further cash bridge toll headaches. In an effort to decrease toll-collection costs, ease congestion, and encourage more drivers to pay tolls electronically, the Bay Area Toll Authority will likely be eliminating at least one cash lane on seven Bay Area bridges and adding an additional FasTrak-only lane on the Bay Bridge, the San Mateo Bridge, and the Carquinez Bridge, which would be open during commute hours. The new FasTrak-only lane on the Bay Bridge would be ready by next summer. The changes would cut the number of toll collectors by about 10 percent, and savings are calculated to amount to "several million dollars."
A magnitude 3.0 earthquake, according to CBS 5, "has struck near Berkeley at 3:34. There are no immediate reports of damage or injuries." Tell us, readers, where were you during the Great '09 Quake?
Gay.com named the winners of their annual Travel Awards. To no one's surprise, San Francisco was named Favorite Domestic Destination. Woo hoo! Gavin, of course, was equally elated. Because this means more much-needed tourist dollars. "On behalf of the city and county of San Francisco, it is a great honor to be recognized as the 'Best Domestic Destination' in the US in the 2009 Gay.com Travel Awards," said Newsom. "I am proud to represent a city with so many historic firsts for the gay and lesbian community -- including the birth of the rainbow flag, home to the first openly gay men's chorus and the first LGBT chamber of commerce. We look forward to the readers of Gay.com creating their own 'only in San Francisco' experience." (Speaking of which, what's your own 'only in SF' experience, readers?) The winners (which includes the W winning Favorite Hotel Chain and London, England being named Favorite International Destination) were chosen by thousands of Gay.com's readers over the last two months.
The Jackling House, built by California architect George Washington Smith in 1926 for mining guru Daniel C. Jackling, will be taken off of life support. Yesterday, the Woodside City Council decided, after years of fighting over the issue, that the 17,300 square-feet Woodside mansion can be torn down by its current owner, Steve Jobs.
Construction on the 17th Street Pedestrian Plaza is wrapping up. So far, the newly tagged temporary public plaza includes plants, concrete benches, and (God willing) loads of sunlight. Here are some images of the plaza, which will remain open for enjoyment until July 11.
After receiving numerous complaints in Japan, "where personal privacy is highly valued," according to SF Business Times, Google will reshoot the country's street scenes. It seems that some of the shots in Japan, as in many other countries, looked over fence tops and into private residences. Google now plans to lower the camera, which is affixed to a car that helps capture said scenes, about 16 inches to help ensure less intrusive images. The Mountain View-based company did not say when, exactly, the new images will go live. In related news, Greece's Data Protection Authority (DPA) barred Google from snapping any more images "until the company provides additional privacy safeguards."
After a weary battle to permanently remove Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) from San Francisco schools, the school board voted 4-3 Tuesday night to reinstate the program. If you recall, the army training service was supposed to be phased out in less than a month at all SF public schools. Many argued that the 90-year-old military recruiting program shouldn't be allowed in public schools. "The kind of leadership it teaches is classic military leadership ... It's intended for war, not for civilian life," said Michael Wong, who graduated from Galileo High as a first Lt. in the JROTC. Getting rid of JROTC would have made San Francisco the country's only school district to ban the program based on political bias.
Described as a "generous woman who often gave money to the homeless," Helen Canafax, 63, was on the 600 block of Folsom Street on April 10 when an unidentified man swiped her purse and hit her to the ground. Canafax, according to reports "sustained serious injuries in the fall and died on April 26." The suspect at-large is reportedly "a black man between 35 and 40," weighing in somewhere around 180 pounds The suspect was wearing "a gray beanie-style cap, a red or black sweatshirt and dark-colored pants" on the day of the attack. If you know of any leads in this case, you are urged to call SFPD homicide inspectors Richard Martin or John Cleary at 415-553-1145, or the tip line at 415-575-4444.
At the risk of sounding un-democratic, we hate the whole voter-approved proposition system and we think you do too. Even the most educated voters don't tend to know enough about both sides of issues -- particularly when it comes to esoteric accounting procedures and the issuing of multi-billion-dollar bonds -- to vote intelligently, let alone voters who don't like to read, or think. Prop 8, and all similar discriminatory propositions in the state's history (Prop 6 in 1976, which figured in the Milk film, and Prop 14 in 1964, which was overwhelmingly approved and which allowed landlords to discriminate based on race) are perfect examples of how easily the system can be abused, and how dangerous a role it can play.
The body of Ivarene Lett, age 97, was found beaten to death two nights ago in her 6th floor apartment in the Adams Point neighborhood of Oakland, near Lake Merritt. She was a tiny woman, barely five feet tall, who recently passed her driving test and who enjoyed going to a weekly dance class and driving her vintage Chevy. As far back as city records go, Ms. Lett appears to be the oldest homicide victim in Oakland's history. And it's been quite a year for such records, with Oakland recognizing its oldest homicide suspect just about 12 months ago, who was 94 at the time of his arrest for killing his landlord. Comments on Lett's case range from "pretty concerning" to "the ultimate in depravity." We'd go with #2.
Craigslist will get remove their pay-for-play "erotic services'' category. According to AP, the classified ad site is feeling pressure after a Boston medical student (AKA the "Craigslist Killer") was charged with killing an escort he allegedly met via Craigslist. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who championed the censoring of the controversial category, said, ""We're very encouraged that Craigslist is doing the right thing in eliminating its online red light district with prostitution and pornography in plain sight. We'll be watching and investigating critically to make sure this measure is more than just a name change." But don't get too excited just yet as this could be just a lot of hot air from a few angry AGs. As of this morning, "erotic services" remains up and going strong.
More on iconic sex club Power Exchange, or lack thereof. [SFBG]
In a meeting filled with local online notables -- that is to say, Streetsblog, the Guardian, SF Weekly, former D6 candidate Paul Hogarth, your mother -- the Board of Supervisors plans on voting on the Muni budget, which is white hot with interest. So far that solar thing is the topic on-hand, with Eric Mar, D1 supe saying, "I did my homework and... this is a good deal for the city... for the interest of our city's climate change plans. I'll be supporting the project as is, and not supporting any delays." New papa Ross Mirkarimi quipped, "We should not be seduced by eco-chic proposals ... [The cost] of renewable energy, will come down precipitously." And Chris Daly talked about Steven T Jones and something French. They should get to the SFMTA item soon. Hopefully. Anyway, through it all, one thing is for sure: the Board of Supervisors feel very, very important today. So, give them a moment of your time by checking out SF Appeal, who are live blogging today's BOS meeting right now. Update: "It's just been continued! To later in the meeting!" SFMTA budget = eleventh hour song.
A federal jury found former Page Street Gang member Dennis Cyrus guilty of drug racketeering and three counts of murder, including the killing of federal witness Ray Jimmerson in 2002. The Obama administration's Justice Department had recently taken over the case. which is being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who opposes the death penalty but said he would "enforce the law as this Congress gives it to us," refused to accept a plea deal with Cyrus' defense attorneys in exchange for a life sentence. Next week, the jury will decide whether to give Cyrus the death penalty. This would be the first time a federal jury has given the death penalty here since 1948, when two Alcatraz inmates got the gas chamber for a deadly 1946 escape attempt.
This kind of behavior flies in the Mission, is par the course in the TL, and is sometimes OK in the Castro during a particularly drunk Pride weekend. But armed robbery is most certainly not typical in downtown San Francisco. See, a little after midnight on Sunday, Jonathan Dyson was arrested for armed robbery. According to CBS 5, "[a] 30-year-old man had gotten off of work and was walking on Montgomery Street when he noticed two men walking a short distance in front of him ... the two men then stopped and when the victim walked past them, one of the suspects stepped in front of him and pointed a gun at him, demanding property." Mere blocks away from the Ritz-Carlton apartments? Unacceptable! The unidentified victim was uninjured, and managed to call the fuzz a few blocks away, after the robbery occurred. Jonathan Dyson was busted for "attempted robbery, threatening with a weapon, carrying a loaded firearm, and possession of a concealed firearm."
The fine folks over at Curbed came across new, new renderings of the planned Upper Market Whole Foods. And it looks a lot like something you might find in the Mission Bay/South Beach neighborhood, only a lot less intriguing. The artisan market/PNP residential-unit spore will be "broken up into three sections, shortest at 45 feet along 14th Street, and higher at Market and Dolores at 85 feet each." Also, there will be lots of private outdoor seating at Market and Dolores, a living wall (which is just another name for potential spider infestations), and rooftop vegetation to "support endangered species such as the San Bruno Elfin and Mission Blue Butterflies." Look for nearby clubs and bars to get cited for making too much noise once the unit opens. Maybe.
As everyone is well aware, print news is dying a slow death, and news organizations everywhere -- like our very own Faded Floozy -- are changing hands or closing up shop completely. Fortune reports that while the NYT may be doing better than many other papers in terms of subscribers (over 800,000), the growth of their web presence, and national ad revenue, they've still had a shit year and several folks with a few extra billion dollars lying around have danced around the possibility of buying The Times Co., which is currently controlled by the Sulzberger family. Billionaire gay media mogul David Geffen was allegedly negotiating the purchase of a 19% stake in the paper in the last several months, but those negotiations fell through. Google also considered the purchased, but decided against it for now.
A sadistic teenager / psychopathic "gunman" has been shooting at cars as they pass between Washington and Mission Boulevards on 680 near the Fremont-Sunol border (i.e. boonies adjacent). No one has been hurt, but ten cars in total have had windows shot out over the past week and a half, five of which happened during the same five-minute span on Saturday morning around 11:45.
Anti-gay rights advocate Miss California Carrie Prejean gets to keep her meaningless crown, said Donald Trump. After pageant officials sort of said they would let her keep her head bauble yesterday, even though it wasn't really their decision to make, Trump gave his final seal of approval, saying that the half-nude photos of Prejean, which were taken when she was a teen, were fine. Because she wasn't fat or old. And that he couldn't buy this kind of publicity. Also, regarding Prejean's famous anti-gay tirade masquerading as a sentiment of free speech, Trump said, "She gave a very, very honest answer at the pageant ... It's the same answer the President of the United States gave." Oh, snap! Anyway, case closed on the everyone's favorite lying whore.
Anti-reduce, reuse, recycler-er Justin Clarke, AKA SF Libertarian Examiner, would like to tell you something. He would like to tell you that Newsom's alleged plan to criminalize not recycling stinks worse than Ayn Rand's rotting corpse. "Whether you think that recycling is valuable or not (I vote not)," Clarke muses, SFPD shouldn't force you to recycle in the same way "that the police shouldn’t be in charge of getting you to change your underwear." (Which, for argument's sake, they SHOULD be in charge of you changing your underwear. That, and not wearing flip flops, forbidding you to wear Drakkar Noir, and to demand you take regular showers. Really, there's no reason the barrel of a gun should not enforce these rules.)
Former Water Operations Supervisor for the City of Sonoma, Randall Cover, plead guilty in federal court today in San Francisco. For what? Glad you asked. He pleaded guilty to five counts of "using the mail to engage in a fraud scheme to deprive the people of the City of Sonoma to their right to honest services." According to the FBI's San Francisco site, "Cover admitted to personally receiving financial payments from a Parts Vendor with whom he had arranged contracts for the City of Sonoma." Randall received anywhere from a little under 40 "checks totaling nearly $150,000 and $1,500 in cash ... between 2002 and 2007." To which we say:, we know Ed Jew. Former Water Operations Supervisor of Sonoma, you're no Ed Jew. Anyway, Randall is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in San Francisco on August. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of $250,000.
Last year's ballot measure to change the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility's name in honor of George W. Bush is undoubtedly partially responsible for the influx of tourists checking out the inner-workings of the San Francisco sewage system. Newsweek reports that offbeat (and free) destinations are increasing in popularity, as we're all becoming more budget-conscious. A commenter on Newsweek also credits Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" for demonstrating that weird and nitty-gritty places can be fun. Our most memorable field trip in middle school was when our environmental science class visited the local waste facility in the mid-80s. We were so ahead of our time!
Sleep easy, defenders of free speech and a vengeful God. Pro-discrimination Miss California, the lying whore who famously told the audience at the Miss USA pageant that same-sex marriage was icky and wrong, will get to keep her crown. See, after Carrie Prejean became a spokeswoman for anti-gay bigotry, a spokeswoman who also failed to disclose that she had posed nude for cash when she was a teen, many thought the 21-year-old San Diego native should be dethroned. However, while the "USA pageant strongly criticized some of the actions of title-holder Carrie Prejean," pageant officials said it's "not their decision whether she should be stripped of her crown." Only Donald Trump, who owns the rights to the annual Boring Sluts of America competition -- remember, folks, this wasn't the Miss America pageant, which is typically thought of as a klassy glass of Chardonnay compared to the 3 a.m. bodyshot that is the Miss USA pageant -- can make that decision.
Over the last two days, according to the Chronicle, an arson spree set several vehicles ablaze in the early morning hours. Three of the fiery attacks, it seems, "happened this morning, all of them in different neighborhoods." (!?) One torching occurred on the 700 block of Commercial Street in Chinatown ("damaged two trucks and a minivan about 4:40 a.m.), another happened car on the 100 block of Downey Street (around 4:20 a..m.), and the final one was on the 1900 block of Newcomb Avenue (at about 5:25 a.m.) The report goes on to say that "a motorcycle was set ablaze on the 500 block of Belvedere Street in Parnassus Heights" early Sunday morning. Creepy. No one was injured, no arrests have been made. In other news, whatever happened to the Toilet Torcher?
According to two of our favorite alarmist outlets right now, Emergency_In_SF and ActionNewsSF, there is "a large outside fire is [sic] reportedly spreading in Glen Canyon Park. SFFD en route to investigate." Eeps! Run for St. Francis Wood, Glen Parkers! No, not really. But we'll update with more info as it comes in to us. Update: Fire's out. According to Emergency_In_SF, "SFFD has extinguished a grass fire in Glen Canyon Park near Oshaughnessy Bld. No damage to any structures." Pft. Way to blow a story full of overblown potential, SFFD.
The last remaining captured member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, James Kilgore, was released from prison yesterday on parole for a federal explosives and passport fraud charge. He evaded capture longer than any of the other SLA members, and was finally extradited from South Africa in 2002. Kilgore is the last to be released of the gang who kidnapped Patty Hearst, committed a deadly robbery at the Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, California in 1975, where bank customer Myrna Opsahl was murdered. Most recently, cohort Sara Jane Olsen was released from prison on March 17th. Under his parole arrangement, Kilgore will serve out his term in Indiana where his wife relocated after his conviction.
In Sunday's LA vs SF series, the Giants won 2 out 3 games against number-one ranked Dodgers, winning Sunday night's game, 7-5. The Giants, unbeaten in the last of their eight series, as most of you know, are in at second-place in the NL West. Things can only get better (fingers crossed) after Manny Ramirez was put on temporary suspension for 50 games after testing positive for an illegal substance. After winning two out of three games in Los Angeles, the Giants remain unbeaten in their last eight series, with six series victories and two splits.They now trail the first-place Dodgers by 4.5 games in the NL West. Will the Giants continue their winning streak? Find out tonight when SF plays Washington at 7:15 p.m. IOn related news, the A's aren't doing so well.
Early this morning, at around 4 a.m., a man was plugged in the ass near Fisherman's Wharf at Bay and Taylor streets. According to reports, the "[t]wo suspects were arguing with the victim near the intersection when one suspect pulled out a gun and shot the victim in the buttocks." The victim was whisked to SF General Hospital. He is expected to live. No arrests have been made. The nearby In-N-Out, San Francisco's only Double-Double fix location, was unharmed.
Around 8:30 p.m. on Friday night, a man was stabbed near the Conservatory of Flowers on John F. Kennedy Drive. The unidentified victim suffered at least one stab wound to the leg, according to reports. No arrests have been made.
Don't forget about KFOG Kaboom, the GREATEST public concert in SF, happening on Saturday. [SFGate]
Phil Bronstein wrote this morning about several senior cable car operators who are boycotting the upcoming Bell-Ringing Contest in Union Square, due to Muni's lack of respect for 36-year cable car veteran, Alben Chang's, retirement celebration. Chang, who had an unblemished conductor record, wanted to take one last memorial ride on both the Hyde and Powell lines with some of his fellow senior operators. Muni had at first said the operators could take the ride while clocked out, but on the day before the ride, Muni then refused to let them participate.
We're almost certain that more esteemed colleagues like Steven T. Jones and Joe Eskenazi didn't come across a request from a Chronicle reporter to unpublish their items on yesterday's involuntary layoffs
San Jose just got a little less unsightly. Today, a groundbreaking ceremony took place for the BART extension, which will bring Silicon Valley a little bit closer to the Bay Area. Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the guy who led the campaign to bring BART to the area, had this to say, "This groundbreaking signifies that BART is on the way. Finally, after a 50-year wait, we're not only [bringing] BART to Warm Springs in Fremont, that construction is underway, we're bringing BART all the way to Milpitas, San Jose and Santa Clara." Kudos, San Jose. Oh, and here are the rules: You're more than welcome to shop at the Westfield San Francisco Centre, but stay away from Bloomingdale's section; that side is for locals only. Nordstrom, however, is all yours.
The only way to pay.
Looking to go deeper in debt while you work toward an increasingly useless degree? Well, look no further than the UC system. Making this the sixth tuition hike in seven years, the UC Regents voted to increase student tuition by 9.3 percent yesterday. (An aside: They also agreed to hire several "new top administrators at eye-popping wages -- UC San Francisco and UC Davis landed new chancellors at annual booties of $450,000 and $400,000, respectively. Wee.) Will this most recent increase help the ailing UC system? No. No, it won't. As Regent Eddie Island of Oakland told the Chron, "I feel like I'm witnessing the death of a great institution ... We ought to pause and say, Where are we going with this? We know this isn't the last student fee increase. Are we giving up on affordability? Are we giving up on access? And what's the effect on diversity?" Let us help: yes, yes, and it's not good. Champagne wishes and hummus dreams, Regents. You bastards. In related news, overseas hackers swiped confidential information belonging to "tens of thousands of students and alumni at UC Berkeley and Mills College" after gaining access to systems at the Cal campus' health services center. Luckily, your tuition is going to pay for the organic wine collection of a transgressive comparative literature professor, not a decent IT team.
In several new designs -- which are coming out of BART's planning stages for a $3.4 billion project to add 700 new BART cars by 2024 -- the urban and suburban commuter line may finally be doing away with all the stale smelling, 1970s upholstery and carpeting which still characterizes the trains all these years later.
The benevolent souls over at Mission Mission came across this jarring, albeit all too common, story. It tells the tale of Jen, who, understanding that Mission Mission is the Dateline NBC of San Francisco, asked them for help. It seems that Jen and her boyfriend had this bike that "they both loved more than anything in the world," but it got stolen outside Safeway in March. Yesterday, however, it showed up for sale on Craigslist. (The ad has since been deleted.) Anyway, the comments section is fill with tips on how to check the DNA of your bike if you ever come find yourself in a similar situation. Jen, by the way, plans on getting her bike back.
According to yet another ranking list in Forbes magazine, San Francisco came in at #18 as America's most overpriced city. Surprised at ranking so low? We were. This most recent survey based their data on earnings potential and living expenses in the 50 largest U.S. metro areas. Ranked by average salary for workers with "a bachelor's degree or higher, annual unemployment statistics, cost of living and the Housing Opportunity Index," our sister city to the south, Los Angeles, came in at #1. Rounding out the top five are #2, Chicago, Ill.; #3, Miami, Fla.; #4, New York, N.Y.; and #5, Providence, R.I.
Los Altos native Brian Kells reached out to local news stations this week after his fiancé of three weeks, Jill St. Onge, died very suddenly at a guesthouse on Phi Phi Island in Thailand after symptoms resembling poisoning. A young Norwegian tourist died only a day later after staying at the same guest house and showing and similar symptoms, and a similar case occurred only a month prior to another tourist. The deaths are making news around Thailand, but so far the U.S. Embassy hasn't been much help to Brian, so he's trying to make television appearances to draw attention to the case. His only theory so far is that there was something toxic in the air in the room where they stayed, and that his fiancé had spent about six more hours there than he had. He also began vomiting after spending three hours in the room. This is why we're suddenly glad we can't afford to go anywhere.
Sometimes we feel bad for member of the Republican party. Because a few staunch albeit intelligent members of the GOP (like the formidable Melanie Morgan), not to mention plumbers, deserve better than this:
While editorial staff gets pruned today, we're hearing from Chronicle guild members that "No one thinks they're gonna go through with any manager layoffs." (Update: Lesley Guth, Chron manager, was laid off this afternoon.) If there's no one to edit, however, what will the many, many layers of management do all day?
It's rumored that 20 newsroom-based Media Workers Guild employees at the San Francisco Chronicle will be involuntarily laid off today. We're told that a union steward sent a message to its members recommending that, if they are indeed called to HR, to bring a guild representative with them to help protect their interests. Yikes.
Great news, Giants fans. The LA Times reports that, as of this morning, Dodgers left fielder Manny Ramirez has been put on temporary suspension for 50 games after testing positive for an illegal substance. And, in classic prescription drug abuse excuses, Ramirez blames the doctor.
The rumor that Apple wanted to buy Twitter for $700 million turned out to be just that, a rumor. According to KCBS, Biz Stone said in a television appearance Wednesday on The View that "the company was not for sale." So, yeah, there you go.
City supervisors yesterday rejected the proposed Muni budget that would cut service and hike fares to $2 come July. Muni Board President David Chiu pointed to several programs that look like a blatant waste of funds -- including enforcement against fare evasion -- saying "we have to make sure that every single penny we are spending is being spent well." It turns out that paying for all the transit cops who check for passes and transfers costs $8.8 million a year, and the tickets they hand out to fare evaders only generate about $700,000 a year! Anyway, we can all probably agree that Muni is kind of eff'd and they could use a little ballbusting leadership right about now. UPDATE: Final vote on the budget and fare hike comes in 2 weeks.
OK, so we know we've been bitching about MUNI more than usual for the past few days. But personal revenge? So unlike you. See, we happened to be on the T line (meeting a visiting relative at Caltrain) this evening, along with a full load of people who wanted to get to a train and go home. The train stopped in the subway for nearly half an hour, exhibiting all of the usual traits of an epic train failure
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a law on Tuesday banning any and all loitering outside of SF nightclubs. This, it seems, will help stop violent crimes that happen in front of nightclubs. Now thugs looking to punch or murder other patrons will have to walk a few feet away from a nightclub in order to commit their preferred acts of violence. A dirty, evil loiterer is, for those of you who don't know, a person who "remains a pedestrian for a period of over three minutes within ten feet from the entrance of a nightclub or within ten feet from any point on any lines formed at the entrance to a nightclub." If a loiterer is caught in the act of mischievous loitering outside a nightclub, according to SFBG, they will be "fined $50-$100 and/or community service. But if charged with a misdemeanor, they will be punished with a $200-$500 fine and/or community service, or six months in the County jail, or fine and jail." In related news: You weren't using those First Amendment rights anyway, were you?
Much to almost everyone's surprise, the lunatics behind the murder of Chauncey Bailey, health code violations, numerous rape and torture allegations, and the original Your Black Muslim Bakery have, according to East Bay Express, opened up a new retail endeavor. It's called Your Community Café & Bakery. And it's in North Oakland on 4051 Martin Luther King Jr. And guess who's running the place? Jamel Bey, the dick slice who was involved in the 2005 liquor store vandalism spree. And the baker? None other than Yusuf Bey IV's mother, Daulet Bey, who was "one widows of the elder Yusuf Bey, founder of the original bakery who died while facing charges of raping young girls." Banana nut rape muffins, anyone? (Har.)
In a week or so, the opening of a public space in the Castro (!) will unfold. The small stretch of street where the F-line stops on 17th Street between Hartford and Castro streets will be blocked off from traffic, creating a small spot for passersby. Andrea Aiello, executive director of the Castro Benefits District (CBD), said, "I think that it will provide a place where people can congregate and have a sandwich or a cup of coffee. It will provide an outdoor destination; it's a great people-watching place. I think it will also encourage more foot traffic to the neighborhood."
Well, would you look at that, California? A state known primarily for lobster rolls and Stephen King just signed into action a bill allowing same-sex marriage. Maine Governor John Baldacci had this to say after signing the landmark bill, "In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions. I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage." What startling logic and clarity, Baldacci. Kudos to you.
CBS 5 reporter Joe Vazquez, who took to the streets with critical massers last month, posed a question: Why isn't critical mass paying its fair share for the cost of their monthly ride? After all, according to Vazquez, an event permit would be $1,000 (that's $12,000 for the year), required portable bathrooms (?!) are another $500 each time ($6,000 for the year), a $1,000 cleaning deposit ($12,000 a year), police protection at 20 officers comes to more than $112,000 a year, and another $13,000 for two sergeants. This makes a grand total of $155,060 tax dollars.
Did you know that San Francisco-based Michael Savage, God-fearing KNEW performance artist who was literally banned from entering Britain for being mean, founded Rockstar energy drink? It's true. He used to be an herbalist hippie back in the day, dropping acid while fending off the advances of Alan Ginsberg.
The latest Oakland City Budget document dropped yesterday, and in it Mayor Ron Dellums is proposing laying off 140 of the city's 803 police officers in order to help meet an estimated $80 to $100 million shortfall this year. The budget crisis stems from a loss in property tax revenue as well as rising costs for employee retirement funds and healthcare.
How bad is the Muni budget problem? Bad enough that our jet-setting mayor was actually quoted about it in the paper! From the Chronicle:
This post will be the most difficult one your editor has had to write. We type these words as we head to the Golden Gate Bridge, ready to jump over the railing, prepared to take the final plunge. Why? Because we don't want to live in a world without MyOpenBar.com. See, MyOpenBar, the AWESOME site that informs readers on any and all open-bar/cheap-booze events, will cease operations in Los Angeles and San Francisco. We talked to MyOpenBar, who we hoped would inform us that this was some sort of cruel joke. No suck luck. According MyOpenBar, "Yes, we're closing both LA and SF websites due to our inability to monetize those branches in all this time. We simply can no longer sustain them through our work here in New York alone. Unfortunate, yes, but hey, life goes on." Their New York City and Chicago site, however, will remain open for business.
While not all out advocating the legalization of marijuana, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said it's time for California to "study whether to legalize and tax marijuana for recreational use." today, according to the Sacramento Bee. When asked about a Field Poll showing that a majority of Californians support legalizing and taxing mary jane to raise revenues for economically-strapped California, Arnold had this to say:
Next to promises of penile enlargements and bank accounts of Nubian royalty, the Webby Awards are one of the best scams on the interwebs these days. The Webby Awards, which are beyond a joke to insiders or anyone who has long since deleted their Prodigy account, were announced on Tuesday. Family Guy creator and meme thief Seth MacFarlane, former SNL star Jimmy Fallon, and (much to our surprise, concern) Mission Local were among the last night's top recipients. Because, of course, when you think of last year's leading voices on the online internet world wide web, you think of MacFarlane and Fallon.
Gavin Cans Film Commission Head Stephanie Coyote
Evan Low to Become Country's Youngest Gay Asian-American Mayor
San Francisco Society Tips: How to End a Party
NY Times Singles Out Vallejo As Battleground Between Gays & Christians
Redheads Unite!
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KCBS’ Mike Colgan Reports
