You guys are THE BEST. Thanks for all the great pictures of today's Ed Jew rally outside City Hall! We can't find any coverage of it online yet, but your reports to us say that it was a media circus, and moderately-well-attended by pro Ed Jew folks. Joe O'Donoghue seems to have gotten over his whole "pregnancy brain" thing with Amy Lee enough to give a stemwinder of a speech, accusing various other elected......

Now here's a story we haven't mentioned in awhile, the poor saga of Amy Lee. Lee, if you remember, was the former head of the Building Inspection Department who was opposed by Joe O'Donaghue and his Residential Builders Association gang. During her confirmation hearing, members of the RBA got down and dirty and criticized her for all sorts of things, including the fact that she was pregnant and had "pregnancy brain." ...

Our new daily news roundup column! Someone gave Amy Lee (the acting head of the Dept. of Building Inspection, not the lead singer of Evanescence) a dishwasher. Boo hoo, people who bought condos by the ballpark think they're too small. The company providing free wifi in the South Bay is better than what Google's promising SF. There were a lot of tourists in the area this summer. They're building a J-Pop culture center in J-Town,......

When we last left new Department of Building Inspectors Amy Lee, she had to put the big freeze on remodeling her house because "somebody" appealed her permit to build. The appeal came after she had already started so a family that was basically living in whatever parts of the house hadn't been worked on, had to continue living that way while the appeal process worked it's way through. As Beyond Chron put it: "There will be no Christmas tree at the Lee’s house this season, as there is no room." Well, Christmas is coming to Amy, her family, and Tiny Tim Lee this year because yesterday, the Board of Appeals rejected the appeal and the renovation can continue. ...

All this over the protests of Joltin' Joe O'Donoghue and his buddies because of her pregnant condition. With job finally assured, she promptly celebrated by going out on maternity leave where we all thought things would go happily ever after. But no. Now, her entire family is basically living in the living room of their duplex apartment in Upper Haight because she was hit with a late appeal on an already given out permit to re-do her top floor. A re-do that had already been started and now can't be worked on until at least a hearing on Dec. 14th. ...

That whole debacle over the Building Inspector Commission? Total gift that keeps on giving. Yesterday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution that bars discriminatory language in public hearings. The resolution, of course, stemmed from comments made during hearings of the BIC in which members of the powerful Residential Builders Association attacked the nomination of Julie Lee because of her pregnancy. It also stems from poetry O'Donoghue wrote earlier this year which questioned the sexuality of Gavin. And how did O'Donoghue take it? Afterwards, he dismissed the resolution and referred to Board President Aaron Peskin as both an "angry dwarf" and Heinrich Peskin. We're not sure which probably got under Aaron's skin more, being height-challenged and called a dwarf or being Jewish and called a Nazi. Either way, total class, that Joe. Joe also said he's busy crafting another poem in response to all of the controversy and SFist has it's fingers crossed that we'll be so lucky to be mentioned. ...

Note to Selves: next time we try and get one of our buddies elected to run a commission, don't attack an entire sex. Two weeks after the infamous meeting of the Building Inspector Commission in which Gavin's candidate Amy Lee was attacked for being female and pregnant, the Commission voted 4-3 to install Lee as the Head of the Department of Building Inspectors. The 3 ½ hour hearing was as fun as the previous one as it included members of the commission attacking each other, women's rights groups testifying in defense of Lee, and a whole parade of women testifying that the RBA really does love their women. The whole thing moved Monique Moyer, the head of the Port Department, to say that the hearing "has made a farce of our great city and of our departments." Made a farce? This city has passed farce years ago. We’re post-farce. Anyhoo, at the end of the hearing, defeated head of the Residential Building Association, Joe O'Donoghue, told the Commission "you're all just a bunch of political hacks, but not very bright ones at that." O'Donoghue also vowed to continue the fight by filing lawsuits against the Commission. ...

There's an interesting little battle going on over who is going to run the Department of Building Inspectors. No wait! Don’t go! We swear this will be interesting! Trust us! Anyhoo, earlier in the week the Building Inspection Commission decided to hold off on voting in Gavin's appointment to run the Department, Assistant Director Amy Lee. Gavin wants Lee to replace the acting Director, James Hutchinson, who recently replaced outgoing Director Frank Chiu (and no, not that Frank Chu). Hutchinson, however, has friends in high places, including the powerful head of the Residential Building Association, Joe O'Donoghue, who are all fighting to save him. Gavin wants to replace Hutchinson because he says the DBI has had a reputation for favoritism and being in O'Donoghue’s pockets while O'Donoghue and his allies are claiming that Gavin is meddling in things he shouldn't and that Lee is unqualified for the job. Because she's pregnant. See, we said it was interesting. ...