Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco couple whose teenage daughter was allegedly being pimped by a Southern California man tracked him around the state, failing at one attempt to kill him before shooting him to death near Candlestick Park, authorities said Wednesday. Attorneys for the couple say they tried everything to rescue their daughter from Calvin Sneed, a 22-year-old alleged gang member from Compton (Los Angeles County), but that they didn't kill him. Prosecutors, however, say that when Barry Gilton and his longtime girlfriend, Lupe Mercado, couldn't get their 17-year-old daughter back through legitimate means, they turned to premeditated murder....

San Francisco Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and other African American leaders in the Bayview are not at all happy about how this week's visit by first lady Michelle Obama was handled. "One look at the picture on the front of The Chronicle says it all," Maxwell said. "The people in the neighborhood had to climb fences to even get a look at what was going on. "The people I have talked with felt very disengaged and somewhat offended," Maxwell said. At issue was the planning - or lack thereof - for the first lady's visit to Bret Harte Elementary School, where...

It was an unspeakable nightmare. As Andre Daniels was held at gunpoint outside his San Francisco housing project apartment early one morning three years ago, his wife was sexually assaulted inside their home while their two children slept. Daniels, then 31, was determined to seek justice for his family. So he did what is often considered unthinkable in a community hostile to "snitching." He helped the police. Then he made another fateful decision: He spurned the burdens of the city's witness protection and relocation program. He figured he would simply move his family to safety a few miles away to...