Now this is rich: Item 40 on the agenda for today's Board of Supervisors meeting [PDF warning], is a non-binding resolution that would formally declare the San Francisco city government's displeasure with the currently limited selection of musical genres at the Grammys. Richmond District Supervisor Eric Mar, the resolution's sponsor, hopes his Board colleagues will resolve to stand with him in the fight to have categories like Hawaiian, Cajun and Zydeco, reinstated in time for the 2013 Grammy nominations. more ›

San Francisco's much-publicized Happy Meal Ban, goes in to effect tomorrow, December 1st. By Monday morning, we expect the city of San Francisco to have saved America by eliminating childhood obesity altogether. Except the fast food chain has found a way to dodge that bullet and look good while doing it: Starting tomorrow, local McDonald's restaurants will begin charging 10 cents per toy to include the little trinkets in your kid's cardboard box of trans fats. The proceeds from the toy sales, meanwhile, will go directly to the company's Ronald McDonald House charity, which is building a new facility to temporarily house families with sick children at the UCSF Mission Bay campus. more ›

Pardon us if we somehow didn't notice this little bit of local legislation until we slammed right in to it today: Supervisor Mar, famously responsible for banning Happy Meals, pushed through new legislation this afternoon to "establish standards for bird-safe buildings." The problem, as anyone with a sliding glass door and a backyard full of avian life has probably noticed, is that birds tend not to notice clear glass window panes. Mar's legislation would require less transparent or non-reflective glass on new buildings and construction projects in the city. more ›

Back in December, Supervisor Eric Mar seemed pleased as punch to be going on The Daily Show to discuss San Francisco's Happy Meal ban that he sponsored. In the final segment that aired last night, however, he starts to look a little flustered when correspondent Aasif Mandvi turns the ban's language on it's head. Less than 30 seconds before the term "Nanny State" appears and Mandvi's incredulous shtick actually works well here considering how dumbfounded we've all been by this whole thing. Gavin Newsom cameo at 2:10. more ›

The Daily Show has already spent some time mocking San Francisco's Happy Meal toy ban (in particular Lewis Black's tirade against our Nanny State legislating), which the Board of Supervisors passed last month with a veto-overriding majority of 8 votes. Well, now Supervisor Eric Mar posted something to Facebook about how he got interviewed for a whole segment on the show by Aasif Mandvi. more ›

At an event hosted by the League of Young Voters, Supervisor Eric Mar had some provoking comments about recent city worker layoffs. Though the plan to layoff some 15,000 city workers then rehire them with a 37.5 hour work week would "put $110 million back into the city’s leaking coffers," Richmond Blog reports, Mar slammed it as "totally the wrong thing to do." more ›

Though it was shot down last year by local businesses, on Tuesday the city reintroduced legislation that would bar the merciful release of nicotine "near the doors, vents and operable windows of any building, including restaurants, shops, offices and housing complexes." more ›

--Ha! The guy to your right ran for mayor of Barcelona, and doesn't he look like Matt Gonzalez? By copatbark from the SFist Flickr stream. more ›

Give Gavin Newsom a shiny red apple! In an interview with this month's San Francisco Magazine (in blatant disregard of another interview with the Gavman in 7x7, which was optimistically labeled "exclusive"), the mayor told the reporter, "You know, five years in a row I have increased test scores. No. 1 urban school district in the state of California." As the wags at the Chron have pointed out, was Gavin sneaking into classrooms to go over the times-7 tables when no one was looking? And how exactly was he increasing test scores in those first three years when he was serving on the Board of Supes? Folks at the SF Unified School District (which runs the schools and is independent of City Hall) are all agiggle over the statement, with the president of the teacher's union saying, "I'm glad that he wants to take credit for the work that the teachers and paraprofessionals (classroom aides) have done," and saying that they'll be sure to charge Newsom union dues next year. Superintendant Arlene Ackerman, who really was running the schools, said the comment seemed strange. And in any event, Eric Mar on the school board says that Newsom shouldn't be bragging about the schools in any event, given that Latino and African-American kids seem to be falling behind, and the trend of resegregation within the district. To be fair, everyone in the district did say that Newsom really has done a lot for the schools since taking office, and the test scores in SF are rising steadily -- in fact, the SF average score is now 745 (with 800 considered excellent), outscoring LA (649), Sacto (688), and San Diego (726). Still, though -- we totally want to be in Mr. Newsom's homeroom class! Okay, the picture has nothing to do with schools, but look at Gavin with Mario! We found the picture on a blog. more ›