California State Senate President pro tempore Don Perata's car was recovered today in Richmond after Saturday's carjacking. The auto theft happened while he as en route to Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente's house to deliver a holiday gift. It seems that while waiting at a stop light at 51st Street and Shattuck Avenue in his red four-door 2006 Dodge Charger - very masculine and patriotic, Senator - a young man came up......

Cris takes some time off the Bonds case to support her lady. No one pulled out a bitch's clump of hair. That's the big news. Oh, and some other stuff happened, ahem: The Club's membership voted tonight on the February 2008 ballot and the June 2008 State Senate primary, and the endorsements are... Prop 92 (Community College Funding) - Yes Props 94 - 97 (Gaming Compacts) - No Prop A (Neighborhood Parks Bond) -......

It's back on, folks. The Harvey Milk Club endorsement vote happens tomorrow. Again. If you remember their last meeting, voting members caught the vapors, pulled out clumps of their own hair, ran around in circles, cried -- fun hysteria like that. Ever since that childish display of local politicking, all sides have been more or less civil and relatively respectful of one another. It goes without say how disappointed we are in both sides.......

We've gotten word that everyone's favorite tough guy, Board of Supes Prez Aaron Peskin has made it official that he's not going to be running for the State Senate, declining to get in the middle of the Mark "Tanned Ambition" Leno and Carole "That car came outta nowhere!" Migden fight. In fact, Peskin's now saying he's getting out of politics altogether after his term ends on the Board (later this next year [Sorry! We've been......

We can't really get ourselves too worked up about the billboards or campaign finance allegations that Mark Leno's tossing around about his rival for the State Senate seat, Carole Migden (sorry) -- but we certainly do pay attention to her reckless-driving woes! The Solano County DA has decided to charge Migden with a misdemeanor based on her wild lane-changing and fender-bending ways from earlier this year. Like Paris Hilton, only without the DUI or the......

You mean those train tracks are actually used by real trains? The City of Berkeley is working to implement a quiet zone to prevent the freight trains from sounding their whistles at intersections due to complaints from residents of this traditionally industrial area. While we find train horns romantic, we must admit that we might find them less so if they were not so off-in-the-distance. Though we wonder why the City didn't make the developers......

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

Assembly Bill 684 seeks to legalize the growing of hemp for industrial uses -- rope, cloth, oil, all that good stuff. It's not for smoking, okay? Okay?! In fact, the bill. which passed the assembly and heads for the state senate shortly, defines "industrial hemp" as "an agricultural field crop limited to the non-psychoactive varieties of the of the plant Cannabis sativa L."...

Number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 67. Number of people pictured whom we recognize: 9 (including 3 pictures of Gavin Newsom and 2 pictures of Dede Wilsey). Minority count: 5 (7.5%). Getty v. Traina: 10-8 (There's a spread about the LA branch of the Gettys in this month's Harper's Bazaar). Number of choice quotes concerning Gavin Newsom: 2. One by Dede Wilsey (re the Healthy Saturdays negotiations): "I learned that Gavin......

Ah, the Aliotos -- they run this town! Patriarch Joseph Alioto was the mayor of San Francisco from 1968-1976, in office not only during the building of the Transamerica Pyramid but also through the Zodiac murders -- while daughter Angela Alioto is a former Board of Supervisors president (and chicken-suit renter), while granddaughter Michela Alioto-Pier is a current Board of Supes member (and Hottest Supervisor emerita -- hm, maybe it's time for us to do......

Huzzah everyone, the Iraq War is over. Yesterday, the Board of Supervisors passed the resolution calling on congress to end the war. Like now. The measure passed by a 7-1 vote with cranky Ed Jew being the only dissenter. Even the usually hesitant Michela Alioto-Pier hopped on board the resolution saying that all things considering, it's a good time to take a stand. ...

Gavin, Schmavin -- bored now. Call us when a shorn-headed Gavin goes bananas outside Kimberly Guilfoyle's house and starts whacking an SUV with a bright-green umbrella! (Maybe Britney was just looking a little too much forward to a drink at the end of her workday as well.) Anyhow, since everyone insists on continuing not to run for mayor against Gavin Newsom (including us, though that's very sweet of you to suggest it, Jill and......

-State Senate votes for an early primary and to extend term limits. -College students everywhere to put down the bong and stage a national day of protest over the Iraq War. Then they'll go back to using the bong. ...

-There was a power outage at SFO last night for about an hour. -And there was an explosion somewhere underground in Chinatown that led to evacuations. Nobody was hurt but the area reeked of gas. ...

Man, we are starting to get a headache trying to stay on top of the convoluted machinations of the San Francisco 2008 State Senate race. You may remember that current State Assembly rep Mark Leno floated a trial balloon to run in two years for the seat currently held by his former friend Carole Migden. After pooh-poohing the rumor, Migden then promptly started floating trial balloons of her own that she might run against Gavin......

Okay, so we've covered the people who aren't running against Gavin Newsom for mayor in 2007, and we've covered the people who are. Who next but the undeclareds? Here's your list of the people that are being openly speculated about for a run (and thank you, Jackson, for reminding us to cover this!) Carole Migden: Well, this is a complicated story. You may need to draw diagrams. So Carole Migden is currently the state senator......

Okay, we've really only got two things to say in this post, but we're so mad at ourselves for not referencing There's Something About Mary in discussing the Great Gavin Gel Gambol, so, um.... Gavin's still using gel! Next up: Bush Ter Down! As promised, those wacky World Can't Wait kids tied up traffic on Market Street protesting the war. As our waggish commenters noted, it did indeed rain -- but no word on whether......

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......

Well just look at that big goofy smile on Mark Leno! He's had a good day today, and so have all of California's queers. (And who, in this state, isn't just a little queer in one sense or another?) Assembly Bill 849, which would grant marriage equality to same-sex couples, passed its last hurdle to being considered by the state senate. Although a similar bill lost by five votes a few months ago, this......

We're getting so sick of this Schwarzenegger guy -- the unusually small head, the smug perma-grin, the SUVs and cigars, and -- oh yeah! -- the completely unjustified hate for underappreciated working-class people (students, teachers, nurses, women working on movie sets). What's up with the constant "I'm going to run and tell mommy if you don't play kickball the way I like," anyways? So how funny that Schwarzenegger's latest attempt to take the ball and go home to the voters (a-GAIN -- he's like the boy who cried "special election"), has hit a snag. You may recall that Schwarzenegger is now trying to take away teachers' pensions (since teachers make so much money they're completely set for posh retirements on cruise ships and stuff) through a special election process, since, unsurprisingly, he can't seem to convince anyone in the State Senate that this is a good idea. Well, the Chronicle's David Lazarus reports that the group that Schwarzenegger's cronies have hired to collect and verify signatures has been outsourcing the work to India. Dude, when you can't even keep the Republican work in the state, you got a problem. Picture from Arnoldwatch.org...

SFist Cares is a great, great feature, profiling various ways you can volunteer or give back to the Bay Area community. Plus, SFist Mary-Lynn's funny as all get out. Political Junkie, by contrast, is filled only with low-quality writing and schadenfreude. But darn it, just because we snicker doesn't mean we don't have a heart as well! So we urge you to give, give, give -- to Kevin Shelley's legal defense fund. Kevin Shelley is California's beleaguered secretary of state, who's beloved by millions, especially his staff. So how strange that the legal defense fund he started back in November 2004 should only have collected $250, from one donor. The one donor is Tony Miller, the Shelley employee who was in charge of running the program that's under attack for misusing federal funds (and was sent to testify before the State Senate in Shelley's stead a few weeks ago). Dude, that's like making your little brother buy your quota of stained-glass ornaments for the school band's sale drive out of his own allowance. Shelley claims he hasn't been able to raise money because he "hasn't had time during the past half-year to call people and ask for their assistance." Funny, that never seemed to have stopped him before. The Kevin Shelley Legal Defense Fund doesn't seem to have an online donation site, so no, we suppose they don't take Paypal. So send those checks, wadded-up five dollar bills, Safeway coupons, and free AOL CD-ROMs straight to Sacramento -- remember, every cent counts -- and every political junkie cares. ...

Yesterday the Democratic Caucus of the California State Senate voted to replace termed-out senator John Burton [D-San Francisco] with Don Perata [D-Oakland] as the new President Pro-tempore of the senate. Considered the 'second most powerful' political position in Sacramento, Bay Area lawmakers breathed a sigh of relief - an appointment of his rival for the post, Martha Escutia of Whittier, would have signaled a complete shift in power to Southern California (sorry, LAist). Perata is a former teacher in Oakland's public schools, having earned his credentials at the University of California, Berkeley. Generally considered left-of-center even within the California Democratic Party, he has fought for gun regulation, improved funding for public schools and even has a pet-project website, OaklandSchools.com, set up for students, teachers and parents to report problems and lobby legislators on behalf of their beleaguered school district. He's currently working to oppose the huge new casino in nearby San Pablo. This appointment comes on the heels of allegations, investigated by the Chron, of improprieties during his campaign related to business relationships with his son, Nick Perata, and local businessman and college friend Timothy G. Staples. It's also interesting to note that Perata was Burton's pick, and coincides with a number of political moves that Burton has made as his stint in the State Senate draws to a close. EssEffist would like to point out that they don't call it the "Brown-Burton Machine" for nothing....