A brutal gay bashing inside an Ohio high school classroom was captured on video last week. more ›

During today's Board of Supervisors meeting, District 8 Supervisor Scot Wiener will unsheathe new legislation about public nudity in San Francisco. Wiener represents the Castro, which has seen an uptick in nakedness as of late. Sanitary issues surrounding clothing optional ilk have made some residents worry that they're leaving more than just a jarring impression. If you catch our drift. more ›

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee, according to KRON 4, approved legislation yesterday that would ban cat declawing in San Francisco. The Board of Supervisors will vote on next week on the issue. Much to no one's surprise, West Hollywood has a ban on cat declawing. Other California cities considering doing the same thing include Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Berkeley, and Beverly Hills. more ›

Here it is in all of its confusing glory. In a nutshell, Rota Hao explains, it's because our constitution sucks -- even Mississippi has a provision in their constitution that says "you can't amend this constitution to take away people's fundamental rights" and we don't have that. more ›

Take note, California: the Governor of New York introducing legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. "There is clearly a problem in that those individuals who are gay or lesbian who would live in a civil union are still not entitled to somewhere between 1,250 and 1,300 civil protections" that are afforded to married couples, Paterson said yesterday. more ›

So, you've got nothing to do on a Tuesday? Well, Equality California has just the thing. Head on over to Sacramento to participate in 2009 Marriage Lobby Day, an opportunity for concerned citizens to nag their elected officials about fighting the good fight against Prop 8. more ›

Oh, things. They're anticipating that Obama will overturn DOMA (which is like the national version of Prop 8), and they've already taken steps to stop him. more ›

The entertaining/controversial Chris Daly, who seems a bit quiet as of late, has a new target now: wafts of cigarette smoke. We're told that his latest push of legislation "calls for a smoking ban outside of restaurants, in waiting areas, within 20 feet of nonresidential buildings," and in common areas of apartment buildings. That is to say, you might have to look elsewhere to spark up that Capri or Virgina Slim while eating out. The Board of Supervisors will vote on the measure come Thursday. more ›

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Our friends over at Eater SF pointed out this item in the New York Times: an article pointing out several of the ways in which San Francisco is making an impact on our everyday lives, from the plastic bag ban to fines for businesses who leave their lights on overnight. more ›

Seeing as how San Francisco spends $11.4 million enforcing prostitution, Supe Jake McGoldrick, according to the Examiner, "asked the city attorney to draft legislation directing San Francisco police to make prostitution one of its lowest enforcement priorities." Making the oldest profession in the world a lower priority would possibly "help curb trafficking and exploitation in the sex industry." Just dandy, right? Well, not for Newsom. more ›

Yesterday, Mayor Newsom signed into action the Tommy Ammiano-introduced legislation that requires the city to handout ID cards to undocumented immigrants and other residents who either can't or just won't apply for driver's licenses. The good news is that these IDs will help (formerly) undocumented residents gain access to the wonderful world of banking, a sense of peace before calling the fuzz, as well as "health services at city-run clinics, public library privileges, and resident discounts at museums and other cultural institutions." (Entry fee discounts at the Exploratorium: the American dream realized.) more ›

San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved municipal ID cards to SF inhabitants yesterday. These (hopefully adorable) new cards can be used by anyone here, it seems -- U.S. resident or not. Tommy Ammiano introduced the legislation, which, according to the Chronicle, "would require companies holding city contracts to accept the municipal card as a legitimate form of identification." (So does that mean they can be used to get into bars? Sweet.) more ›

We have sad news for barflies everywhere—the bar John Barylecorn's will close this weekend after a desperate attempt at keeping it open. The bar became in trouble when local restaurateur Luisa Hanson purchased the building that held the bar and told the owners she was not looking to keep the place open. A campaign was started to save it, complete with petitions, a Great Pub Toast, and proposed legislation from Aaron Peskin but it was all to no avail. more ›

Mere days after the head of the environmental department broke with Aaron Peskin and other city leaders on a Public Utilities Commission policy, this week Peskin introduced a wee bit of legislation that would obliterated said department. Yoinks. more ›

Queer rights groups freaked out, threw a tizzy (understandably), and nixed their support for a workplace discrimination civil rights bill "after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., pulled transgender people from the legislation that would protect gays and lesbians from workplace discrimination." And since nothing says action like an angry missive or online petition, a letter signed by gay groups was sent to Congress yesterday demanding them to rebuff legislation excluding transgender folk, according to the NGLTF. more ›

Hey, remember way back in January, when Ross Mirkarimi declared that the housing authority had one year to get its act together or the city would take it over? Our guess is that he's going to have to introduce that legislation, because the SFHA is all over the news lately. If it's not Greg Fortner refusing Gavin's mass resignation request, it's the housing commission getting together about as often as some supervisors sleep at their houses! more ›

Seattlest watches as a S.L.U.T. is born and Seattle Flickr users go nuts over a local art installation. A restaurant critic demands a Diner's Bill of Rights over a gnat next to her drink, and, in lieu of a Portlandist, Seattlest debates with itself over the identity of the Northwest's crown jewel. Seattlest also joins the guys from Fantagraphics for an ill-fated gun party in the woods. more ›

San Rafael-based Edutopia Magazine, which is brought to us by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, looks to the future in its latest issue, identifying 10 ideas or trends that its experts believe can improve K-12 education. We found them thought provoking, and hope you agree. more ›

In case you missed it, President 25% Approval Ratings was able to ram through some legislation revamping all those FISA laws you keep hearing about. It's hard to make heads or tails of what the bill says as the administration, in a surprise to no one, won't tell anyone what it says, but it involves making warrants kind of unnecessary, the monitoring of anyone suspected as a "terrorist" and-- get this-- the oversight by one Alberto "Fredo" Gonzalez. That's more than letting the fox guard the hen house, that's letting Michael Vick run the SPCA. more ›

We're bummed we were out of town for all the ins and outs of Ed Jew's preliminary hearing -- but thanks to SFist Jer for covering it for us while we were gone! So today's latest? Ed Jew is going to stand trial. That is, Judge Harold Kahn found that the DA had enough evidence for the case to be presented to a jury, Next court date: August 20, presumably to set the trial date. more ›

Photo and discussion of new reusable plastic shopping bags offered for sale at local stores more ›

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Yes, San Francisco can now proudly claim to be the first city in the U.S. to ban plastic bags. Or at least in grocery markets and pharmacy chains as the legislation allows small corner markets to use the old school bags. According to the legislation sponsored by Supervisor McDreamy, grocery stores and pharmacy chaings now have to switch up and use either compostable bags made of cornstarch or bags made of recyclable paper. more ›

Our favorite Bay Area foodie starchild, and Omnivore’s Dilemma author, Michael Pollan, was at it again Wednesday night. He moderated a panel to discuss the 2007 Farm Bill on the UC Berkeley campus. The Farm Bill -– which gets reviewed about every five years – has been under the spotlight this year. more ›

Here's the daily wrap up of the news more ›

Let's take you back on the Wayback Machine to last spring when the Board of Supervisors wanted to close down Kennedy Drive like it is on Sunday. They voted for it, Gavin vetoed it, then sought a compromise on the issue by asking for a study. The study was to see if closing the street down on Saturday's would hurt museums attendance, make life miserable for neighbors, and make it more difficult for people to get to the museums. Well, on Valentine's Day, the report came out and said the effect of closing down Kennedy Drive on everything would be pretty much nothing. In fact, it said that attendance went up on Sundays. How you like them apples? more ›

Housing maybe the hardest thing to find in the city but there's one group who won't have to worry about finding housing-- the Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Thanks to proposed legislation, they might not have to fly the coop or whatever it is you call it. more ›