Jackie Speier runs for Congress again, after a 29-year break. ...

State Senator Leland Yee introduced a bill in the State Legislature this morning that, if passed, would see traffic fines double for violations occurring along the deadly strip of San Francisco road known as 19th Avenue. (Shudder.) Over the past few years, 19th Avenue -- which connects San Mateo County with San Francisco and pierces commercial and residential sections of the city rife with foot traffic -- has played host to numerous traffic accidents......

Hooray! We're back with more Ed Jew news! And this time, with a vast Sunset-wing conspiracy. Former District 4 supervisor Ed Jew may have pled out of his state court civil suit ("okay, you caught me, I don't actually live here"), but his federal criminal extortion case ("a man can't get a $40,000 bubble tea once in awhile?") continues apace. In his federal case, Ed's now asked for a hearing on whether his former lawyer,......

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! So according to Yee, he was originally contacted by the Quickly owners, and he called Dennis Herrera. Herrera was out of town and said he'd look into it when he got back. When Herrera got back, though, the......

News from the non-Nancy Pelosi side of the San Francisco House of Representatives delegation -- Tom Lantos, the fourteen-term representative for the Sunset, along with northern San Mateo County, has announced that he will not be seeking reelection, because he's been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Jackie "Jonestown survivor" Speier is considered the early favorite to fill Lantos's seat, and reliable object of fun Leland Yee is reported to be considering a run as well. Lantos,......

Where the hell is 19th and Sloat? Oh, it's in, like, Southie. Near the Golf Course District. Anyway, the intersection is getting a left-turn arrow, hooray! Nineteenth is an insanely deadly stretch. A young lady died at this particular intersection a month ago; meanwhile, negotiations between the MTA and Caltrans to improve the intersection languished in their SEVENTH YEAR. The traffic on 19th is so fast and so thick that it's like an interstate......

The newish website Maplight won some recognition today from Netsquared. Netsquared's one of those techno social change-o thinktanky sites that does something progressive, but we can't tell what. Fortunately, Maplight's purpose is a bit more concrete. They correlate politicians' donations and votes, showing where someone might be motivated more by money than by duty to the citizens. Alas, there's nothing too damning that we could find on our local pols. Leland Yee got a......

SFist Jim is going to kill us, since he sent us these pictures on the promise that we'd write something up about the panel that Sen. Leland Yee (above) and Assessor Phil Ting appeared on the other day about the dangers of foreclosure and predatory loans -- but we just think this picture is awesome. Whatever happened to that website "Are You Kidding Mee," that was devoted solely to the various scrapes that Leland......

Photos from the Chinese New Year Parade...

-Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. -Or maybe not-- the Governator declares a state of emergency after a potential loss of $1 billion dollars in losses to citrus farms. ...

-St. Boniface Catholic Church in the Tenderloin is having a money crunch which could affect it's ability to handle the homeless. -Cabbie is found shot to death in the Richmond Annex ...

Guess who got endorsed on the cover by last week's winner, the Bay Guardian? Where's the green beads, Chris? Letters about fixie bikes, and Tim Redmond notes that Renee Saucedo shouldn't have endorsed Prop 90 (the overbroad eminent domain one). Dan Noyes, gadfly. Also endorsed by the Guardian: Phil Angelides, Jerry Brown, Leland Yee, Barbara Lee, and Krissy Keefer. And Steven T. Jones had nothing at all to do with their endorsement of Alix Rosenthal.......

Many of us were disconcerted by the stories of forced abandonment of animals by their guardians in the wake of disasters, and asked ourselves "How would our dumb-ass cats fare on their own? Maybe if they were forced to fare for themselves, they'd finally appreciate how freakin' good thay have it. Yeah!" It looks like we're getting closer to never having to find out just how well Mr. Sniffy can operate a can opener, as......

The Susan Polk trial was in recess today, but it was still a pretty busy day for the local courts, which decided: *that kids who failed the state high school exit exam can still graduate if they've met all other requirements, because many of the students who didn't pass were in substandard schools. *that tuna doesn't need a mercury warning label, because that's something the FDA should decide. Besides, there's not that much mercury in......

If you think the Ma v. Ja race is content-free, you should try the State Senate District 8 race between Leland Yee and Mike Nevin. Yawn, unless you like trying to figure out the byzantine nature of state politics personal relationships. (i.e., why didn't Gavin Newsom endorse San Franciscan Yee over San Mateo County's Nevin? Does it have something to do with the mysterious feud between Fiona and Leland?) However, it looks like Yee's got......

More nonsense from the world of videogames: the best-selling game of the moment is Bethesda Softworks' epic role-playing game Oblivion. That popularity has made it a target for modders and, now, opportunistic politicians. The story began when the Entertainment Software Ratings Board announced a re-rating for the game, bumping it up from its original "Teen" rating to "Mature." [all links in this article are from GameSpot News] The ESRB claimed that Bethesda and publisher......

The Electronic Entertainment Expo is so close you can almost taste the LA smog and the tangy sweat of desperation. In honor of that, this week's round-up is all videogame-related news. Nintendo gave bloggers-who-think-they're-funny a present on Thursday by announcing the new name for their upcoming Revolution console (warning: slow-loading Flash site). It's going to be called "Wii." Seriously. With a "distinctive ii spelling" that's pronounced like "we," "wee," "oui," and "Wheee!" Early buzz......

Beth Spotswood pops ten questions for Gavin Newsom, and we want answers. Speaking of interviews, Shout Magazine raps with local MC Paris. And a crop of top local writers weigh in on the JT Leroy fracas, including Thomas Roche, Mark Pritchard and our own SFist Violet. Arnie will not be charged for driving his motorcycle without the proper M1 certification, eliciting derisive laughter from NorCal Politics and Rangelife. Sophie Maxwell finally makes a public......

"Our princess is in another castle!" remains protected speech at the moment, thanks to a ruling from Northern District Judge Ronald Whyte yesterday. The ruling placed a preliminary injunction on the law written by San Francisco Assemblyman Leland Yee and signed by Governor Schwarzenegger last month. We're happy about the injunction, and not just because it guarantees kids will be able to develop the skills they'll need to survive in an increasingly zombie-slaying and......

Realtor-slash-blogger Matt Lanning points up a new information site, San Francisco Bay Window, for that rare beast known as a San Francisco homeowner. Hey, it's free to dream, right? Cheesecake Factory employees dreamed of being able to take breaks, and now their dream has come true. The video game industry is none too happy about Arnold Schwarzenegger signing Leland Yee's bill restricting minors from purchasing 'mature' titles -- the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association is......

Almost a year ago to the day, we reported on one of the many pedestrian deaths on 19th Avenue, and made mention of Leland Yee's proposal to make 19th Avenue a double-fine zone in order to decrease speeds (and presumably reduce accidents) along that dangerous stretch of road. Unfortunately, that bill never made it to the Senate Floor for a vote last year, but is up again today. No news yet on if the......

We don't mean to ALARM you ... but it's possible that President Kennedy is in VERY GRAVE DANGER. Although similar recent efforts have mostly failed, our very own Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Leland Yee is pushing a bill -- AB 450 -- that would fine retailers $1,000 for selling M-rated video games to the under-17 set. Leland, himself a child psychologist, points to surprisingly convincing evidence that violent play can lead to violent behavior,......

You know, our busy urban lives are fraught with so many seemingly unsolvable troubles that it's nice to hear, now and then, that our leaders are tackling problems that don't actually exist. The nonexistant ones are so much easier to claim to have solved, after all. We're informed by the Richmond Review that the California Psychological Association has named its "Legislator of the Year 2004." The lucky winner is State Assembly Speaker pro Tem (whatever......

Smoking to be banned pretty much everywhere in California....