When Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom isn't returning our phone calls or emails, he's claiming $400 Louis Vuitton pens and $300 Bulgari ties on file forms for California's Fair Political Practices Commission. Why? Well, according to Bay Citizen, elected officials must do so in an effort the squash anything deemed a conflict of interest during their campaigns. And these gifts say a lot about said candidates. Or not. The Gav also claimed a luxury travel agent and "nearly $2,000 worth of tickets to the symphony, sporting events and the theater." Aw, the Getty life. more ›

Could California Attorney General and former San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris be the next nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court? Maybe, says Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog who claims with certainty that Harris is a shoo-in for candidacy. Working on the assumption that Obama will want/win a second term (which seems likely), Goldstein says: more ›

Kamala Harris' real age, Jerry Brown's martini habits and revealing signs of mental illness: Willie reveals a lot of hidden truths about politicians in his writings this week. Plus: his latest fried chicken endorsement. more ›

Looking to distance himself from the (disgraceful?) Schwarzenegger regime via a more celebrity-free inauguration, Jerry Brown's swearing-in today as the 39th Governor of California will be an appropriately mellow affair. Today's 11 a.m. ceremony will feature minimal pomp and circumstance like free hot dogs, coffee, and a few friends and family. (Side note: thank God we no longer have to search for the correct spelling of Schwarzenegger every single day.) Unlike his previous two terms during the state's halcyon Boogie Nights-esque era, Brown will face a different California. more ›

During Kamala Harris' victory party last night at the Delancey Streey Foundation in South Beach, where she celebrated a narrow win against Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley in the Attorney General's race, she promised some sort of surprise. That apparent surprise, at least for Californians outside the Bay Area, was the announcement that she will not defend Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban. more ›

Though many counted her out, S.F. District Attorney Kamala Harris just grabbed a slight lead from her GOP rival in the state attorney general race. "With 99.2 percent of precincts reporting, Harris is barely ahead of Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley by just one-third of a percentage point, according to the secretary of state," reports The Chronicle. "She is leading by 22,299 votes, though things could still change: Complete results from Riverside County, a GOP stronghold have not yet come in, and all of the absentee and provisional ballots have yet to be tallied." [Chron] more ›

President Obama will once again grace San Francisco with his formidable presence, this time in support of DA Kamala Harris. more ›

Kamala Harris scored a major, though not surprising, coup today. President Barack Obama endorsed the San Francisco City Attorney in her bid for State Attorney General. more ›

We feel for District Attorney Kamala Harris today. Whenever something delightful happens to us, something bad occurs. You know, to even things out. (It's the way balance is kept in the universe, our paranoia explained to us.) Take, for example, Harris' most recent coup: landing on Oprah's "2010 O Power List," alongside Julia Roberts, Teresa King, Diane Sawyer, Jane Lynch, and Viola Davis. more ›

To say Kamala Harris has had a rough week would be putting it mildly. What with the Chronicle's explosive report on the District Attorney's lack of disclosure of police officers' criminal records, and SF Weekly's cover story on her conviction rates, or lack thereof, it's been a brutal one. more ›

In a story that could make the cocaine-stealing story look like schoolyard drama, The Chronicle has a brilliant gem of an investigative piece today. Brace yourselves: "more than 80 San Francisco police officers have criminal histories or misconduct records that the Police Department withheld and prosecutors did not disclose to defense attorneys in cases in which officers testified, a failure that could put hundreds of felony convictions in jeopardy." more ›

"The carrot is don't get on these sites, and the stick is we will prosecute you," says San Francisco DA Kamala Harris -- who is also running for state attorney general -- who sponsored a bill to get sexual predators off your favorite social media sites (e.g., Facebook and MySpace). See, last month, Assemblywoman Norma Torres (D-Panoma) introduced the bill last month, "which would make it a crime for Californian's 63,000 registered sex offenders to use any social networking site," reported SF Chron. New York passed a similar law, which resulted in 3,500 sex offenders booted from the web, making it that more difficult for them to contact underage ilk. On the lighter side child rape, SF Weekly wonders what else we could strip away from convicted Chester Molesters. Let's just hope they don't take away our right to see which one of our crazy neighbors has a shady past. more ›

We're biased. We love us some Kamala Harris. She's pretty. She has the loveliest hair we've seen since we last looked into a mirror. She will temporarily stop an interview to give the proper pronunciation if the reporter fucks up her name. And, arguably, she's been a might fine DA. (Aside: You can sign up for a new SFist commenter account here.) While Harris has been criticized for being a bit of a softy (i.e., she refuses to take part in state-sanction murders in order to appease the Nancy Graces of the world), Harris scored a major endorsement today from a tough-on-crime kind of guy. more ›

Proving to be a woman of her word, San Francisco DA Kamala Harris refused to kowtow to public pressure that demanded the death penalty in the murder of a man and his two sons. If you recall, Edwin Ramos (a 22-year-old illegal immigrant/MS 13 gang member with two prior felonies, an assault of a Muni passenger and the attempted robbery of a pregnant lady) is charged with killing Tony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew in June of 2008. According to KGO, prosecutor Harry Dorfman made the following "surprise" announcement in court yesterday: "The District Attorney has decided to seek the special circumstances penalty of life without parole; we will not seek the death penalty in this case." Harris, who strongly opposes the death penalty, has never sought capital punishment in any case. more ›

Just in case you didn't catch this on the SFGate's Crime Scene blog (possibly because you don't read SFGate's Crime Scene blog), we thought we'd bring your attention to this charming story in which a 33-year-old Samoan woman, apparently quite strapping at 280 pounds, chased down and punched a meter maid who ticketed her as she ran out of a hospital (where her son was being treated) to feed the meter. The woman, Lina Megailalio, appears to regret her actions, but the victim, fellow Samoan Angelina Barsi, has got Kamala Harris all over her ass. At least she wasn't writing a ticket while there was still time left on the meter! more ›

A bumpy road lies ahead for D.A. Kamala Harris, who just kicked off her bid for State Attorney General. It seems the focal point of her campaign, a rehabilitaion program for low-level narcotics offenders confidently titled Back on Track, is coming under fire. According to a recent report, the District Attorney's program "trained illegal immigrants for jobs they couldn't legally hold." One grim example, the LA Times points out, was an illegal immigrant / cocaine dealer who attacked, mugged, and fractured the skull of onetime resident Amanda Kiefer. After getting arrested, the culprit, Alexander Izaguirre, "avoided prison when he was picked for a jobs program run by San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris ...In effect, Harris' office had been allowing Izaguirre and other illegal immigrants to stay out of prison by training them for jobs they cannot legally hold." more ›

We love stuff like this. SF Citizen sent SFist the following message, "The media crowd waiting for queen Kamala at City Hall is getting restless. 20 mins. late and counting." We can only hope she's dropped in by helicopter. And that she's wearing a long flowing scarf. With a floor-length mink coat. And oversized sunglasses. Fantastic. more ›

City Hall diva and DA extraordinaire Kamala Harris plans on ditching her gig at City Hall for the big league via a a bids to run for California attorney general. With current state attorney general Jerry Brown planning on yet another bout in the governor's office after Arnold's departure, and as an early supporter of President-elect Barack Obama, the timing is just right for Harris to jump the SF ship. (CBS 5) more ›

Today Phil Bronstein picked up on SFist Deborah's item ("Glen Park to Kamala Harris: RSVP") about San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris neither showing up nor RSVPing to an important Glen Park meeting. (The hood, as most you already know, is simply "crime-inundated" as of late.) Bronstein added to the story, contacting la Kamala herself and demanding answers. And, of course, getting them. Oh, and the D.A. office's reason for not showing up? "We dropped the ball," Harris tells Phil. Read why here. more ›

RSVP if you're not going to do your job start prosecuting criminals! At last night's Glen Park Community Meeting, impressively attended by 500 residents (You go, GP!), all invited officials showed up to speak to and/or show their support for the recently crime-inundated neighborhood - all except for Kamala Harris. Disappointingly, the San Francisco District Attorney didn't even send a representative to the meeting. Come on, Kamala. You can do better than that! more ›

During yesterday's Time magazine breakfast forum in Denver -- a panel discussion -ishly titled "Hot Shots Breakfast" -- our DA Kamala Harris was a featured guest. On a question regarding public safety, here's what she had to say. more ›

Yes, it's back. While it's hard to pick just one since so many of you have been extraordinarily stellar in the comments section, we starting selecting one comment per week that jumps out at us, brilliantly so. Last week's was brought to you by SFist reader jnice, who made a remarkable case for la Kamala, one that had us re-thinking the diva-y SF DA who took a verbal swipe from Quentin Kopp. more ›

Oh good. Valentine's Day is just around the corner. And if the thought of next Thursday's approaching fillet mignon-for-two-free evening doesn't make you want to slice open an artery followed by nap-time in the bathtub, then how about not making Nob Hill Gazette's annual Lucky 13th Annual Eligible's List? (Yes, yes, you and your hipster S.O. are too cool to celebrate a Hallmark holiday, clearly, but what a privileged thing to decide not to do. Wow, that was bitter. Anyway.) more ›

Barack's new SF HQ opens 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 ›

Obama '08 is coming your way. more ›

Denied. more ›

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-- Judge tosses out California's new lethal injection procedures. [SFGate] more ›

After telling the public that he wanted his day in court as soon as possible -- similar to telling the public that he lived in SF, among other massive fibs -- Jew won a seven-week (!) delay for his trial start date. As always, whatever works best for you, Ed. more ›