The protest to keep 20-year-old Steve Li in the country on Friday was outside Barbara Boxer's SF offices, but it was Senator Dianne Feinstein who stepped in Sunday to ask immigration officials to delay Li's deportation. "I have asked ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to halt the deportation proceedings while I consider introducing a private bill that will allow Mr. Li to remain in the United States on a temporary basis," Feinstein said in a statement. She is a supporter of the Dream Act, which Congress has yet to vote on, which would allow foreign students in Li's position to remain in the country, and she says it would be unjust to deport him before that was voted on. more ›

All over the news the past day or so has been the story of 20-year-old Steve Li, the would-be nursing student who was arrested at his San Francisco home in September for being here illegally and who's scheduled to be deported on Monday. Steve moved here with his parents, who first emigrated from China to Peru, where Steve was born, in order to avoid political persecution. Li's whole family was denied political asylum in the U.S. five years ago, and now Steve is going to be sent back to Peru, where he knows no one. more ›

The NYT, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Chron are calling it for Boxer, with a 4-point spread and 30% of precincts reporting, ending a bitter fight with Republican Carly Fiorina that might have ended Boxer's 18-year run in the Senate. more ›

Disgraced ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina was sent to the hospital this morning due to an infection stemming from reconstructive surgery she had after battling breast cancer. She is expected to make a full recovery. Fiorina is currently fighting for the Senate seat against Democratic incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer, who sent out this warmhearted message of support: "We wish Carly Fiorina a speedy recovery and hope she is able to return to her normal schedule soon." [SFGate] more ›

Prefacing Obama's arrival on Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden will be in town tonight to support Barbara Boxer. BCN (via SF Appeal) reports, "Tonight's event is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Boxer's campaign declined to disclose the location." (Pac Heights mansion, we presume?) Boxer has a small lead against disgraced former HP-CEO Carly Fiorina. (Also, you might want to rethink taking Third Street home tonight, commuters. With the Giants game and the VP arrival, the street is sure to be a mess.) [SF Appeal] more ›

In the wake of the September 9th San Bruno natural gas explosion, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer introduced legislation to "strengthen oversight of the nation’s pipelines and increase the penalties for violations of federal pipeline safety regulations." more ›

According to a CBS 5 KPIX-TV poll, "California Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina has increased her lead over Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer to five percentage points." Boxer, it seems, lost a wee bit of ground among" men, younger voters, and independents," with votes not going toward the disgraced former HP CEO. [CBS 5] more ›

The ceremonial groundbreaking for the Transbay Terminal is already underway downtown, featuring Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Transportation Secretary Roy La Hood, and a slew of local politicians on stage. more ›

While amazon techie women from Silicon Valley could rule California after the November election, if recent polls are any indication, there's a new contender taking aim at Sen Barbara Boxer: Hollywood producer Brian Quintana, responsible for the 2011 release Superman: Man of Steel. Looking to slide into the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, which is unlikely given Boxer's popularity, Quintana "says he would be the first 'person of color' to represent California in the senate." more ›

Senator John McCain made a jingoistic off-cuff joke during President Obama's health summit yesterday. "There's two examples right now of medical malpractice reform that is working. One's called California, the other called -- called Texas," he said. "I won't talk about California, because the Arizonans hate California, because they've stolen our water," he said before going on about Texas. more ›

Possibly suffering from senioritis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger confused Sen. Barbara Boxer with Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Oops. more ›

Wondering what all of that security in SF was for on Saturday? Well, Vice President Joe Biden was in town, showing face at a private party. (Matt Baume has footage of his royal arrival right here.) See, Biden "swung by Pacific Heights Saturday, speaking at a $5,000-a-plate fund-raiser for U.S. Sen Barbara Boer's re-election campaign," reports SFGate. The Democrat from the Bay Area is hoping to win her third term, running against former HP CEO, breast cancer survivor, and retail-vendor-to-Iran Carly Fiorina. In related vice presidential news, Vanity Fair journalist and future Playgirl model Levi Johnston claims that crazy Alaskan Sarah Palin referred to her son Trig as "my little Down's baby" and "the retarded baby." Oh Sarah, how we've missed you. more ›

On Saturday, your grandfather and his Shriner buddies protested Barbara Boxer's book signing in Danville. According to Mercury News, "[a]bout 100 people, many with picket signs, covered the sidewalks outside Rakestraw Books on Hartz Avenue and chanted such slogans as 'Boxer must go' and ''Save our freedoms'" and other things a drug-addled radio personality told them to say. more ›

On Tuesday, after getting into a minor dust up with Army Corps of Engineers division leader Brigadier General Michael Walsh over Hurricane Katrina cleanup, Barbara Boxer corrected him over something minor: more ›

Proving that there's life after print publishing, former San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington Bureau reporter Zachary Coile will join Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Washington office. Coile will be her new Communications Director, overseeing daily operations of the press office and advising Boxer on "long-term communications strategy." Coile covered "some of the biggest energy and environmental debates in Congress," as well as Pelosi’s grand ascension to Speaker of the House. He also covered California’s Gray Davis recall and the election of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Boxer’s former Communications Director, Natalie Ravitz, will take on the position of Senior Advisor. more ›

Hey, stupid! Are you using incandescent light bulbs and doing your laundry at 4 in the afternoon? Christ, what an asshole. Barbara Boxer is going to box your ears. She's got a list of energy-saving tips for the summer, the same "diddle your thermostat, buy thicker windows" blah-blah-blah that you've been hearing since you were twelve. Go check out her advice and let us know if you learn anything new. Hey, here's a tip for you, Planeteers: why don't you turn off the goddamn computer for once. more ›

So...ugh. Birds died, gastronomic seasons were delayed. What's more, it hasn't even been a week, and already some of your favorite local and national politicos are personalizing the spill, more than ready to point old, spotty white fingers elsewhere. (RIP, acts of God.) How very helpful. Except not really. more ›

After poking some good-natured fun at State Senator Carole Migden for her driving mishaps last week, we now feel obliged to tell you guys that she's revealed that she was diagnosed with leukemia 10 years ago and thinks that her medication might have affected her driving that day. more ›

Ah..it's President's Day. We don't know about you, but we love the annual President's Day parade down Market Street. Our favorites have always been the Taft Fat Mobile, the dance troop "the FDRettes," and the William Henry Harrison Tippecanoe Jazz Band. more ›

-Arnie is now officially our Governor for the next four years. -Arnie also raised a whop-load of money. more ›

...had the server not been down. (Things look a little better now after hours, but expect further delays tomorrow). Update: Hey! Comments are back! Try 'em so we can see if they're still screwed up! more ›

From the best of the Bushisms to the best of Butoh, this week offers performance covering both ends of the spectrum. more ›

One of the ways bloggers can leverage their collective influence is through a good, old-fashioned pile on. We don't have to necessarily break the story, but if a critical mass of bloggers start addressing it simultaneously, the s**tstorm will finally hit the mainstream. Just ask Dan Rather. more ›

Look at that. Apparantly paying a visit to the Michelin Man for some "better tires" is higher priority than rescuing Muni or Bart. Or maybe public transit made the very bottom of the list because she knows damn well that making Muni and Bart run on time is antithetical to everyone who works in those organizations. more ›

Now that it's been revealed that the President was illegally eavesdropping on people and that his basic reaction was "suck on it," what was once the fevered acid flashback of a few hippies in Marin and Daily Kossacks is now suddenly going mainstream. The "I" word is out there and even if we're only talking about the equivalent of some unknown band suddenly generating a bit of a buzz and a faint whiff of interest from record execs, it's still generating some buzz. Maybe not the Strokes buzz, more Super Furry Animal Buzz, which is more buzz than it had before. Hopping on that buzz today is Barbara Boxer who sent a letter to four Presidential Scholars asking if they think what King George did rises to the merits of "impeachable offense." more ›

So the President gave his big "Wait! I got a Plan! I swear" speech today which went over as well, as, well, we don't know how well it went over, but we did notice while at the gym today that the news channels couldn't wait to switch over to live footage of some police chase in LA. One place the President's speech did cause a reaction was here in the Bay Area as this afternoon, Nancy Pelosi came out in support of John Murtha's proposed withdrawal plan. The one which got him called a "coward" by that scary congresswoman from Ohio. more ›

Orrin Hatch. Oh, the humanity. more ›

We always thought there was something disingenuous about the conservative letters they published in the Chron! The Contra Costa Times discovered that an enterprising Republican named Kyle Vallone had written at least 200 fake letters to various Northern California newspapers, and gotten at least 20 or so published. Vallone would use fake names, various phone numbers, and free email accounts to write the pieces and then when the fact-checkers came, disguise his voice on the phone. "I'm very good at accents," he said, and noted he was particularly proud of the identity "Batswala Dala." Vallone specialized in conservative letters, noting that he'd gotten seven letters against Barbara Boxer published, but had also written on a range of topics, like recalling Gray Davis and boosting missile defense. Interestingly, Vallone had also been busted (under his own name) for plagiarizing a letter he'd gotten published from the WSJ. Read the article, it's pretty entertaining! This reminds us of that smart kid summer camp class that got 20-some letters published in the New York Times (only without the smart kids). And who can forget the Bay Area's original fake letter-writing crank, Lazlo Toth? (a.k.a. Don Novello/Father Guido Sarducci). And Wonkette on Vallone. more ›

We asked some of our representatives last week about their feelings about the Terri Schiavo issue and the bill passed by Congress to allow her parents to sue. Guess what? No one got back to us, not even our favorite rep, Barbara Lee. Shame on you, unresponsive representatives. more ›

It may seem like we just had a Governor's race, and then the Recall race, but it's still not too early to start thinking about the next Governor's race. Yay! We still are about twenty months away from the actual election, but today, two Democrats threw themselves into the race to try and unseat the Governator- one officially, the other not yet officially. We start off with State Treasurer Phil Angelides. Angelides today officially announced that he was going to run in 2006 in speeches given at public schools in both San Francisco and Sacramento. Angelides has made a name for himself during the Arnie years by being one of the Governor's biggest critics. Since Arnie took over the Governor's office, Angelides has pretty much opposed everything Arnie has tried to get done. Why, we even hear he refused to smoke a stogie with him! In his speeches today, Angelides criticized the Governator for cutting assistance to the not-so-well-off to help the well off. In his press release to announce his running, Angelides includes a note of support from Sen. Barbara Boxer. He also claims to carry the support of Nancy Pelosi. more ›