Results tagged “billlockyer”

he Calfornia Supreme Court yesterday decided to weigh in on Gay Marriage by agreeing to decide whether or not a ban on gay marriage is constitutional or not. At issue is whether or not the ban is discriminatory. How did we get here? Let's go take the Way Back Machine and see.

-Bechtel cutting and running from Iraq. -Daly now ahead in D6 race?

Yesterday, on Treasure Island, the Governator pretty much gave an example of just why he's crushing Phil Angelides in the polls. With San Francisco in the background, Gavin Newsom and Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez at his side, and Bush's poodle Tony Blair live via video feed, the Governator signed a bill making California the toughest state on carbon dioxide and other gases emissions. Hell, maybe the toughest locale ever. But wait, that's not all. He will also sign a bill later this week that will forbid state electric utilities from buying electricity from high-polluting plants elsewhere.

Anil Dash shares some timely insights into online communities. Danah Boyd finds herself caught in the middle of the debate over Wikipedia. Tom Foremsi and felow journos sup on Google sushi while their old employers crumble around them. And Jeff Nolan explores some novel theories about Yahoo's purchase of del.icio.us.

Dennis Herrera's already moving to reward the 98% of San Franciscans who reelected him city attorney (not you, SFist Jackson!) by announcing that he's extracted $5.7 million in settlement for the City against possibly the most-hated city contractor in history. That's right, the city's getting $5.7 million out of City Tow! City Tow will not be admitting responsibility for any wrongdoing (typical), but the settlement will resolve a three-year-old case where the city and the state had alleged that City Tow was systematically underreporting the amount of money it was making selling towed or abandoned cars and stiffing the governments. As State AG Bill Lockyer says, "The only thing more aggravating than finding your car towed is learning that the towing company is ripping you off in the process." Sure! Last year, City Tow previously settled about $400,000 of claims that they charged illegal "storage" fees for the privilege of depriving you of your car. Check out some of these other horror stories too. City Tow was fired by SF in 2003. Your cars are now towed within city limits by AutoReturn.

By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court voted today to overturn a decision by a San Francisco federal appeals court that allowed the use of medicinal marijuana. The court ruled that in cases such as these, federal laws prevail over state laws and so the Feds can prosecute Californians for smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes. There goes having to worry about too many pot clubs in the city. Voting against the ruling were Chief Justice William Rehnquist (probably keeping his options open now that he's got cancer), Sandra Day O'Connor, and Clarence Thomas. Yep, Clarence Thomas. We always got the feeling he was a bit of a party boy.

Warren Beatty gave the commencement speech to the University of California class of 2005, wearing academic robes and going after Governor Schwarzenegger in what may be an opening salvo in Beatty's rumored campaign. Current front runners in the race for the Democratic nomination include State Treasurer Phil Angelides and fellow Hollywood millionaire Rob Reiner, after Attorney General Bill Lockyer threw in the towel.

In the "No s**t, motherf**ker" department, John over at the Legal Reader recently posted an excerpt to an AP story which points out that under California's weapons registration law, the chances you'll get a felony rap is in linear proportion to the amount of milk you need to add to coffee to resemble your skin tone. Black coffee? Felony. Cafe-au-lait? Felony. Just milk? Misdemeanor.

After last Thursday’s nice, legalistic hearing on the legality of gay marriage, Friday’s hearing, the last of the two-day hearing, took a turn to the not so nice as the two conservative legal groups arguing against gay marriage said that gay people can’t get married because it would go against the whole point of marriage. Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund and the Campaign for California Families argued that since the whole point of marriage is to have kids, gay people can’t get married because they can’t have kids. And besides, won’t somebody think of the children? They further argued that not allowing gay people to marry isn’t discrimination because, as the aptly named Rena Lindevaldsen of the Campaign for California Families put it “they can't perform the basic functions of marriage, therefore it's not discrimination." When the city of San Francisco tried to poke holes in their argument, Lindevaldsen accused the city of San Francisco of “mocking her arguments.” SFist has to wonder, however, if by mocking she means “poking holes in an argument as flimsy as a Tara Reid dress” (and yes, if this looks like an attempt at increasing traffic by mentioning Tara Reid and her proclivity towards nipple-slips, you would be correct).

Hearings began Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court on the legality of Same-Sex Marriage. On one side is the City of San Francisco, representing twelve plaintiffs who filed suitafter the California Supreme Court ruled against the sanctioning of the marriages. All twelve of the plaintiffs were married last spring- in fact, two of the plaintiffs, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, were the very first couple to have been married. On the other side is the state of California and various other “traditional family” type groups. The hearings continue today.