The owners of 639 Geary Street issued letters last month to 33 low-income tenants informing them that their rents were going to be raised to market rates after more than 20 years of being rent-controlled units. The city helped subsidize the development back in 1988 with the condition that 20 percent of the units in the building would be kept affordable — an agreement the landlord says expired in April of this year. In truly classy fashion, they wasted no time in informing all 33 of their less fortunate tenants that their rents would be promptly raised beyond their means. City Attorney Dennis Herrera is now stepping in to get a judge to rescind the rent increases until this can get worked out. more ›

At least for now, a judge has ruled that the cell phone records of Ross Mirkarimi's former campaign manager can not be subpoenaed in the Mayor's Ethics Commission investigation of the suspended sheriff. Also, Eliana Lopez has been granted an extended stay, by court order, of an additional seven weeks in Venezuela, where she's been since March with her and Mirkarimi's son Theo. She'll be staying by her ailing father, and seeking work in the film industry there, since the couple has been left without income since Mirkarimi's suspension. more ›

Attorneys for Ross Mirkarimi, who now include local attorney David Waggoner and Shepard Kopp from L.A., filed a petition today to get City Attorney Dennis Herrera disqualified from Mirkarimi's upcoming hearing regarding his official misconduct charges. Mirkarimi and his lawyers are going to be arguing before a judge on April 20 that his suspension by Mayor Lee should be overturned, but the day before, April 19, a judge will now be hearing arguments about whether Herrera has a conflict of interest in the case. more ›

So this is funny/expensive: Embattled Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, whose legal arguments against his suspension are lately getting laughed at by City Attorney Dennis Herrera, has just hired a high-profile L.A. attorney whose credits include Michael Jackson's 2003 molestation trial and Mel Gibson's 2006 DUI case and the Scott Peterson murder trial in 2002. It's unclear whether Mirkarimi can actually afford the services of this attorney, Shepard Kopp, or if Kopp is perhaps doing this pro bono because he has a personal interest in politics and believes firmly that a miscarriage of justice is occurring here. more ›

Two civil lawsuits were filed today on behalf of the City of San Francisco against two Tenderloin businesses that are considered "host businesses" for drug sales and the fencing of stolen property. The businesses are Barah's Market at the corner of Leavenworth and Turk, and Razan Deli & Grocery nearby at 391 Ellis Street. City Attorney Dennis Herrera says these lawsuits were needed to help kids and seniors and to "create an environment where people can thrive and be the best we can be." more ›

City Attorney and mayoral candidate Dennis Herrera filed suit last week in Superior Court against landlord John Wai, owner of a 48-unit apartment complex at 245 Leavenworth. According to the public nuisance suit, Wai has allowed the place to become not only a festering cesspool of vermin and bedbugs, but it's also essentially being overrun by members of the Cambodian Crips, who also go by the local names Thug Lords, "TL," and, tellingly, "245." more ›

Jeff Adachi, John Avalos, David Chiu, Bevan Dufty, Dennis Herrera, Joanna Rees, Phil Ting, and Leland Yee will all sport their finest bikinis (or not) during this Saturday's fundraiser car wash for McKinley Elementary School. No word yet if frontrunner Ed Lee will show up for some sudsy fun in the sun, but a boy can dream. Anyway, here are the rules: more ›

According to a recent poll by Grove Insight of Portland, Ed Lee is ahead in the mayoral race. Far ahead. But City Attorney Dennis Herrera is gaining on him. A recent SFGate post reports that the city's interim mayor is "winning 35 percent of the first-place votes in the first round of the city's ranked-choice voting, followed by 23 percent for Herrera." more ›

Slammed by noted activist and blogger Michael Petrelis as "a pathetic Sisters event more interested in being full of Kumbaya feelings and promoting two lame politicians," Saturday's Stop the Violence campaign, sparked by recent gay bashing incidents in the Castro, allegedly turned into more of a Dennis Herrera-for-Mayor-ish rally than an urgent call for action. Or not. more ›

In our brief roundup of which mayoral candidates are showing their faces in public this week: Avalos, Ting and Alioto-Pier go for a three-way happy hour, Leland Yee would like to meet for coffee and catching up with Joanna Rees through the miracle of technology. more ›

The Examiner reports that Alex Tourk, campaign consultant and lobbyist-about-town, resigned from Dennis Herrera's campaign for mayor today. In a statement, Tourk said Herrera should be spending more time focusing on his campaign and less time being distracted by questions about Tourk and his firm Ground Floor Public Affairs. The announcement comes after Tourk found himself scrutinized for his work in winning the lease to the Stow Lake boat house for his client Ortega Family Enterprises. more ›

For your wonky pleasure, we have some highs and lows today regarding two mayoral candidates. First, according to Chris Roberts at SF Appeal, City Attorney Dennis Herrera could be in tepid water for allegedly questionable funding. Roberts notes: "Lobbying clients of local political consultant Alex Tourk -- who is under investigation for potentially illegally lobbying City Attorney Dennis Herrera, whose campaign for mayor Tourk is running -- also donated to Herrera's mayoral campaign, records show." Current city law, you see, restricts campaign consultants from contacting current or former clients. This law was authored by a former supervisor who, at the time, had a beef with the Newsom Administration. more ›

After turning his nose up at trend-piece drink Four Lokko, City Attorney (and mayoral candidate) Dennis Herrera now sets his anti-fruit-flavored-alcohol-seeking laser beams at Pabst Brewing Company’s Blast by Colt 45, a barfy booze beverage arguably aimed at the underage youth of America. "Herrera joined 17 attorneys general, including California’s Kamala Harris, in penning a letter asking Pabst to discontinue the malt beverage, which is 12 percent alcohol and comes in grape, strawberry lemonade, strawberry watermelon and blueberry pomegranate flavors," reports The Examiner. Which, yeah, that sounds gross. (While we're on the subject of banning vile alcoholic concoctions, does this mean we can do away with White Russians at local bars? Because dairy and vodka should never mix.) more ›

While we're on the subject of mayorship, District 8 Supervisor Scott Weiner officially endorsed City Attorney Dennis Herrera today. "I’ve seen firsthand that Dennis has the leadership style we need in our next mayor," said Wiener in a written statement. "Dennis shut down the dirty Potrero power plant, instituted gang injunctions to keep our streets safe, and led the legal battle for marriage equality. We need a strong mayor who will work with the Board of Supervisors to get our city working. That’s why I’m proud to support Dennis Herrera for mayor." more ›

City Attorney and mayoral candidate Dennis Herrera made a "major" mistake on his campaign website. According to the BAR, the city's most fully-clothed queer print publication, here's what went down: "Rather than use the term sexual orientation, the website erred and had used the phrase 'sexual preference.' " Oops. (Unless, of course, he was referring to sex positioning preferences, in which case: kudos to you, Dennis.) more ›

City Attorney Dennis Herrera is fighting back against Levi’s Guerrrilla marketing campaign promoting Dockers which showed up on sidewalks in the Mission and Hayes Valley yesterday: To answer Mission Mission Allan Hough’s question, yes it is illegal. more ›

It's official: Dennis Herrera is running for mayor of San Francisco. We just spoke with his office who confirmed that, yes, the San Francisco City Attorney will make a go of it. more ›

San Francisco’s City Attorney Dennis Herrera has called for a boycott of Arizona over the state's new (and frightening) immigration law (SB 1070) which was signed by Governor Jan Brewer on Friday. In a written statement, Herrera said: more ›

After City Attorney Dennis Herrera asked the city to shutdown Heaven Mini Theatre for performing lapdances without the proper permits (not to mention allowing prostitution inside its doors, just like every other SF hoochie-coochie establishment), the club owner is crying foul. Peter Lambertson claims that his North Beach club is being targeted since they're not playing ball with supposed SFPD blackmailing tactics and city-sanctioned kickback requests. more ›

Don't let the Obama's defense of DOMA get you down this Pride season. City Attorney Dennis Herrera just filed a brief in federal court yesterday stating the obvious: Proposition 8 has no constitutionally legitimate purpose. Which is to say, SF has demanded a federal judge to overturn California's unfortunate ban on gay marriage. This latest war tactic against bigotry and slack-jawed mentality "uses a different tactic and argues that Proposition 8 violated the federal constitutional guarantees of due process and equal treatment," according to SFGate. In other Prop 8 news, a census study of gay married couples found striking similarities to husband-and-wife couples. (Pluming fixtures aside, of course.) Also, the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people killed in because of their sexuality are at their highest since 1999. For comprehensive coverage on civil marriage equality in California and elsewhere, please visit Stop8.org. more ›

Our favorite 'no' judge in San Francisco, Peter Busch, brought the hammer down on beloved Walgreens today. See, after SF banned the sale of cigarettes at all Walgreens, the company, in turn, brought a lawsuit against the city, claiming they had every right to go against the wishes of the Board of Supervisors. Walgreens goes on to say that the BOS' "violated its right to equal protection under the state and federal constitutions." more ›

Today City Attorney Dennis Herrera today, along with Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and Santa Clara County Counsel Anne C. Ravel, filed "a petition for a writ of mandate with the California Supreme Court to invalidate Proposition 8, an initiative constitutional amendment that intends to strip gay and lesbian citizens of their fundamental right to marry in California." more ›

Dennis Herrera blasted the oddly-titled Campaign for California Families today for their latest, useless court of appeal tactic to get the gays to stop all of this damn marriage nonsense. The CCF, it seems, filed with the California Court of Appeal another benign motion to stay the California Supreme Court's May 15 decision to let the queers wed. more ›

These two would-be brides were all dressed up with no place to go at San Francisco City Hall yesterday. more ›

Oh, so now that Ed Jew's gone from the politics scene, now the truth comes out! Leland Yee reveals to Matier and Ross that he was the person who originally called the authorities about the Quickly shakedown! more ›

That's a picture taken by reader Angela of a counter-protest sign at the June 07 Ed Jew rally that says "RESIGN" in Chinese. Well, Angela -- that day is nigh: City Attorney Dennis Herrera takes a break from infuriating the ACLU, the NRA, and Mark Geragos to announce that he's holding a press conference at 1 p.m. where Ed Jew is expected to resign from the Board of Supes. more ›

Round 4 goes to Dennis Herrera more ›

Delay, delay, dealy in the deadly tiger case more ›

What's on the cell phones of those who survived the recent tiger attack? more ›