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The four pieces of human filth who brutally raped and murdered a young Knoxville couple are all getting new trials, thanks to the drug-addicted judge who presided over the cases. Former judge Richard Baumgartner bought extensively from the convicts in his own drug court. He considered himself above the law but finally got caught. Because he was high much of the time he was presiding over the trials, the families of the victims get to hear yet again how their children were savagely beaten, raped and mutilated before finally being killed.

Gov. Jerry Brown couldn't leave the state when he was governor before without looking over his shoulder at Lt. Gov. Mike Curb, who feuded with Brown and made mischief when he was gone. But as Brown prepares to leave California for the first time since retaking office this year, he can rest easy: Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will become acting governor while Brown is in Las Vegas on Tuesday for a clean energy conference, is unlikely to misbehave. . . .

Former San Francisco Mayor-turned-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is once again on the move - this time out of the city. Movers from Delancey Street Foundation, where Newsom did his rehab counseling after admitting to a drinking problem a few years back, pulled up to his Ashbury Heights home Monday. Workers packed the family's beds and other belongings and drove them off to storage. It seems that the four-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath home that Newsom and wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom purchased two years ago for $2.7 million is just not big enough anymore now that a second little Newsom is on the...

"Investigative journalists doing their jobs should dig deep, into Pelosi's role in the controversial, $280-million, federal-funded Hunters Point Shipyard affair - in relation to her alleged role as an investor in a real estate investment called PRESIDIO PARTNERS. Look past the fact that the 936-acre site, of which about 443 acres are not polluted - Hunter Point is the largest tract of undeveloped land in San Francisco. Roll Call stated that in early 2004, Murtha “reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the City of San Francisco” and that “Laurence...

Got a spare $5,500 lying around that you want to get rid of? If every single San Franciscan coughed up that amount, we could pay City Hall's retiree health care bill - for now anyway. A new report from the controller's office shows the city has an unfunded retiree health care liability of $4.36 billion. That means it'll cost that much to pay the promised health care benefits for every current employee and retiree - and that number will keep growing as health care costs rise. By 2033, the tab will be a whopping $9.7 billion. Guess how much the...

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom unseated Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado Tuesday night for the state's No. 2 post. The Democratic challenger maintained a lead all night over the moderate Republican incumbent in the battle for the unheralded job of lieutenant governor. Neither side was willing to concede a winner, but Newsom told dozens of cheering supporters he planned to be in Sacramento.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, announced Friday the endorsement of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- a former Democrat and former Republican who's now an independent. "I've admired Mayor Bloomberg's approach to governing for many years -- .. " Newsom said in a prepared statement from his campaign committee.

It's November 3, 2010. You think you are waking up to a sunny California morning only to realize it's a dark, dark day. Jerry Brown is governor, Gavin Newsom is lieutenant governor, Kamala Harris is attorney general, and the rest of the Democrat ticket has prevailed. California is going to be controlled by San Francisco politics. Got your attention now? Tea Party folks have brought a refreshing candor to the conservative scene, demanding from conservative candidates a return to conservative principles. But we don't live in a perfect world. And in California, we live in a deeply skewed political landscape...

Touting education and job creation through green technology, former President Bill Clinton on Sunday night told San Jose State students they will bear some of the responsibility if Democrats lose their control of the House and the Senate on Election Day. "There's a reason people think that the Democrats are going to lose these houses," Clinton said. "The reason is you." So Clinton urged the enthusiastic crowd of 5,000 -- most of them students -- to tweet, text and e-mail their networks of friends to vote Democratic on Nov. 2. Clinton came to San Jose to campaign for gubernatorial candidate...

Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado is running a radio ad criticizing Democratic rival Gavin Newsom, San Francisco's mayor, for a city policy to try to rehabilitate and release undocumented minors being held for crimes – without reporting them to federal officials for possible deportation. Following is an analysis by Susan Ferriss of The Bee Capitol Bureau: Text Narrator: It took a triple murder for Mayor Gavin Newsom to admit San Francisco's sanctuary city policies were a misguided and costly mistake. Second narrator: For four years while Newsom was mayor, San Francisco refused to turn dangerous illegal immigrant criminals over to authorities...

Former President Bill Clinton begins pitching for Brown and Newsom as "proven leaders" in green tech job creationFormer President Bill Clinton will begin reaching California voters today with a strong enviromental-based election pitch on behalf of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown and Lt. Gov. candidate Gavin Newsom, whom he says represent "the kind of leadership California needs" on green tech and alterntive energy to boost jobs and the economy.Clinton's email fundraising message to voters going out today calls them "two candidates whose creative ideas, proven ability to make progress and passionate commitment to our children's future will bring back the...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, considered famously liberal by many, released a radio ad Thursday attacking his GOP rival for lieutenant governor for voting to raise taxes.

Speaker Mop & Glo made headlines for her call to investigate opponents of the Ground Zero mosque, but there was something else about her remarks that should have raised your hackles: “There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded,” she said. “How is this being ginned up that here we are talking about Treasure Island, something we’ve been working on for decades, something of great interest to our community as we...

"Under an executive order from Mayor Gavin Newsom, Coke, Pepsi and Fanta Orange are no longer allowed in vending machines on city property, although their diet counterparts are - up to a point."

Mayor Gavin Newsom finally put an end to the questions of will he or won't he, and announced this morning that he is running for lieutenant governor.Newsom dodged reporters' questions for weeks about whether he would trade in City Hall for Sacramento. However, he promised to reveal his decision today, which is the deadline for candidates running for statewide office to file their paperwork. He did just that in an interview on CBS5 with our colleague Phil Matier."I'm in full steam ahead," he said.

Following Rep. Keith Ellison [Muslim Congressman], Rev. Al Sharpton, Rachel Maddow MSNBC, Gavin Newsom, [and others]

I was away for most of the week, but I did catch up with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom at a tree-lighting party on the Embarcadero Friday evening.He looked very relaxed and was having his picture taken with everyone. He said he was back in the swing of things and really looking forward to tackling the city's $500 million budget deficit. This time, he said, he would be free to do what needed to be done because he won't be beholden to anyone. It ought to be interesting.He also asked if The Chronicle had gone after me the way the...

Newsom breaks his silence with the media SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom emerged Thursday from nearly three weeks of avoiding the public spotlight, to confront a massive city budget crisis. When the mayor dropped out of the governor's race, he dropped out of sight and steered clear of reporters until today. A smiling Newsom emerged today, even though the issue he wanted to discuss is grim. He told his department heads Thursday that San Francisco faces a $522 million deficit in the next fiscal year.

From major conferences at the Moscone Center to small coffee shops in the Mission, San Franciscans are buzzing about Mayor Gavin Newsom and the stunning turn of fortune that in a few short days took him from being a candidate for governor to hiding out in Hawaii. From Newsom's highs, like his law-breaking same-sex marriages in 2004, to his lows, like an admitted affair and alcohol problem in 2007, the telegenic, risk-prone mayor has always given his constituents something to wag their tongues about - and this bizarre chapter is no different. Last Friday, hours after speaking before a bank...

Last week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the boy-wonder politician sought out by network cameras at the Democratic National Convention, profiled in Newsweek and the New York Times, was forced to pull out of the race for California governor before opponent Jerry Brown even officially declared his candidacy. Newsom's campaign wasn't sputtering. It never got off the ground. A candidate who raised nearly $6 million for his 2003 bid for mayor (with maximum contributions limited to $500) only raised a little over $3 million this time, according to the California secretary of state's office. It was a harsh political lesson....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on Friday exited the California governor's race, leaving yet-to-announce Democratic candidate Jerry Brown the only figure preparing for a run for his party's nomination.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom made a surprise announcement Friday afternoon that he was dropping out of the gubernatorial race, leaving the Democrats with no declared candidate for the top statewide office. Attorney General Jerry Brown has opened an exploratory committee for governor but has yet to formally announce his candidacy. Nonetheless, Brown has opened a wide lead over Newsom in both fund-raising and in polls. "It is with great regret I announce today that I am withdrawing from the race for governor of California," Newsom said in a statement. "With a young family and responsibilities at city hall, I...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced this afternoon that he is withdrawing from the California governor's race. More to follow.

KNOXVILLE - A Knox County jury this afternoon sentenced convicted torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson to death by lethal injection for the January 2007 murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. The jury of five women and seven men deliberated about four hours before returning its decision to a packed courtroom. “The punishment is death,” the jury foreman said. The victims' families gasped at the verdict, but Davidson showed no reaction. Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner admonished those in the courtroom to control any outburst. “The murder was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel,” the foreman said, reading from the verdict form....

The mayor of San Francisco is waging war against his own city hall over its decision to protect juvenile illegal immigrants from being deported -- even when they stand accused of felonies. Overturning the city's current policy, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted last week to stop handing illegal minors over to the feds unless they've been convicted of a serious crime. Their vote upends a year-old policy that sent more than 100 suspects into federal custody for deportation. The measure's sponsor, once an illegal immigrant himself, says innocent youths were being deported and their families were being torn apart...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-Former U.S. President Bill Clinton's endorsement of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for California governor won't likely hurt his rival Attorney General Jerry Brown's campaign, a leading analyst said Tuesday. On Monday, the former president in Los Angeles endorsed Newsom in the 2010 Democratic primary for governor. In making his endorsement, Clinton did not mention Brown, whom he had battled for the 1992 Democratic U.S. presidential nomination.

When former President Bill Clinton officially endorses San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for governor today, the question on many people's minds will be: Is this about Newsom, or Jerry Brown? Clinton and Brown's decades-long feud is, after all, one of the Democratic Party's nastiest, starting when they both sought the party's presidential nomination in 1992. Seventeen years later, the former California governor has opened an exploratory committee for a possible gubernatorial run, and Clinton's endorsement has set off speculation about a redux of the fight. Newsom discounted such talk in an interview with The Bee conducted shortly after the endorsement...

Newsom wants to charge stores that sell sodas (09-17) 20:36 PDT -- Calling soda the new tobacco, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will introduce legislation this fall that would charge a fee to retailers that sell sugary beverages. Newsom would need voter approval to tax individual cans of soda and sugary juice, but only needs approval from the Board of Supervisors to levy a fee on retailers. His legislation would charge grocery stores like Safeway and big-box stores, but would not affect restaurants that serve sodas. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/17/MNF619OSF4.DTL#ixzz0RfEhGzU6

(09-17) 20:36 PDT -- Calling soda the new tobacco, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will introduce legislation this fall that would charge a fee to retailers that sell sugary beverages. Newsom would need voter approval to tax individual cans of soda and sugary juice, but only needs approval from the Board of Supervisors to levy a fee on retailers.

Snippets: Calling soda the new tobacco, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will introduce legislation this fall that would charge a fee to retailers that sell sugary beverages. Newsom would need voter approval to tax individual cans of soda and sugary juice, but only needs approval from the Board of Supervisors to levy a fee on retailers. His legislation would charge grocery stores like Safeway and big-box stores, but would not affect restaurants that serve sodas. Jim Lazarus, vice president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, said the group opposes the soda tax. "Does this mean there's a fee on...

Former President Bill Clinton is returning the favor of an endorsement and putting his name to work for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for governor. Newsom said he is honored to have the former president's endorsement and he thinks it is a "significant thing for our campaign." "I couldn't be more proud and honored to have my boy!" Newsom said Tuesday. The casual reference points to the relationship between the two. Their political relationship goes back to Newsom's mayoral campaign, which Clinton also supported. The move is not that big of a surprise when you consider Newsom's pit bull-like support...

Bill Clinton Supports Gavin Newsom For California Governor September 15, 2009 Seventeen years after Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown clashed in the 1992 race for the White House, the former president made clear today that bygones will not be bygones in the 2010 campaign for California governor: Clinton signed on to support Brown rival Gavin Newsom in the Democratic primary. It is highly unusual – perhaps unprecedented, according to the San Francisco mayor’s campaign – for a former president to take sides in a California gubernatorial primary. But the bad blood between Clinton and Brown, now state attorney general, runs...

"Please Pray for Justice for my baby girl and our angel, Channon" http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=10952439561&ref=nf

Torture-slayings trial, Day 9: Victim's families: Jury 'let us down' with Letalvis Cobbins verdict KNOXVILLE - The families of a young Knox County couple tortured and killed in January 2007 tonight sharply criticized a jury's decision to spare defendant Letalvis Cobbins the death penalty. "I think the jury has let us down," said Mary Newsom, mother of murder victim Chris Newsom. "I think they've let Channon and Chris down. We were hoping for the death penalty." After deliberating a little more than two hours, the jury delivered its verdict about 6:50 p.m. in Judge Richard Baumgartner's courtroom. The judge polled...

In a case that's been widely ignored by the mainstream media, justice prevailed today as Letalvis Cobbins was found guilty of the vast majority of charges, including that of first-degree murder. Cobbins was one of a group of thugs who carjacked, then raped, tortured and murdered two Knoxville residents. For more on the story, see the Knoxville News-Sentinel. http://digg.com/d311xYc

Jurors in Knoxville, Tenn., have begun hearing arguments in a trial over the grisly deaths of a white couple – allegedly at the hands of a gang of black men and one woman who tried to conceal DNA evidence by dousing one victim with bleach. According to court documents, the two were tied up, blindfolded and taken to one defendant's rental home. Shortly thereafter, Newsom was sexually assaulted, shot in the head, set on fire and his body was left beside railroad tracks. The attackers allegedly took 24 hours to kill Christian, raping her multiple times and spraying bleach in...

Former eBay CEO outspends San Francisco mayor in gubernatorial campaign as wellMayor Gavin Newsom isn't as popular on Twitter as many suspected. The social-networking loving mayor is trailing far behind several of his fellow gubernatorial candidates in campaign contributions received, according to a new study. California's Fair Political Practices Commission released how much declared candidates for state offices, including governor, raised for their campaigns during the first six months of 2009. And the study shows Mayor Newsom is trailing the queen of campaign fundraising, Republican candidate Meg Whitman, by a huge margin. The former eBay CEO received $10,813,933 from Jan....

Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco named state Sen. Alex Padilla of Pacoima as chairman of his campaign for governor this morning -- and minutes later, Padilla let loose on Newsom’s chief rival, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown. Padilla’s attack -- he cast Brown as a relic of the 1970s -- came as Newsom was set to launch a seven-stop tour of Southern California tonight with a forum at Taft High School in Woodland Hills. Newsom and Brown are vying for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the June primary, although the attorney general has not formally joined the race. Padilla...

SAN FRANCISCO—Doughnuts could be a distant memory for San Francisco city workers. They must now follow "healthy meeting" guidelines under a sweeping initiative unveiled by Mayor Gavin Newsom Thursday to encourage better eating. That means less junk food and smaller portions at staff meetings. The mayor is also ordering all city departments to help locate vacant or unused city-owned land that could be used to grow food. Vendors that offer healthy food will get preference for city contracts and permits. All vending machines on city property additionally will have to meet new nutrition standards.

S.F. mayor orders healthy food in cityPosted on: Thursday, 9 July 2009, 19:48 CDT All San Francisco city departments must audit unused land in the city to see if it can be turned into community gardens or farms, the mayor said. In addition, food vendors contracting with the city must offer healthful and sustainable food, all vending machines on city property must offer healthful food options and farmers' markets must begin accepting food stamps, Mayor Gavin Newsom said, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. There also will be no more doughnut shop runs before meetings and conferences held by city workers,...

Governor hopeful seeking cash from online followers Forget all about his days as a boozing sexaholic. Now that Gavin Newsom is running for governor of California, the mayor of San Francisco wants people to think of him as a Twitterer, not a twit. And now he's cashing in on his Twitter fame with a "tweetraiser." Newsom announced his candidacy on Twitter, and has wooed the Internet startup's founders. He now has more than 600,000 followers on the service who subscribe to his 140-character tweets. He's asking them to donate between $10 and $25,900 to his campaign fund. Chelsea Handler, the...

D.A.'s office let illegal immigrants go Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, June 23, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris' office on Monday defended allowing about a half dozen first-time drug offenders to clear their records by going through a job-training program, even after prosecutors learned they were deportable as undocumented immigrants. But Harris' aides said they have since made changes in the program that would prevent a recurrence of instances in which illegal immigrants got their criminal records cleared by going through the Back on Track jobs program, which trains offenders for jobs that...

Mayor Gavin Newsom has repeatedly boasted of balancing San Francisco's dire budget deficit without raising taxes - but has quietly introduced hundreds of new fees and fee increases that would make living, working and traveling in the city more expensive. Some of them are likely to be controversial, including charging youths a daily fee if they're detained at juvenile hall, charging poor people a monthly fee if they need help managing their welfare money and charging tourists - including those who live as close as Daly City - more to enjoy Golden Gate Park facilities. The mayor has widely discussed...

Got a pothole? Notice a broken streetlight? Someone graffiti your wall? Maybe you just want to know when the street cleaner's coming. Just Twitter dude! San Francisco residents can now access the city's 311 city services call center via Twitter, the mayor's office announced today. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that the city has hooked up the social networking site to its 311 call center. Now instead of dialing in to find out where to get your hot dog cart permit, you can simply "tweet." Twitter founder Biz Stone says the city by the bay is the first...

Ever since Gavin Newsom opened San Francisco's City Hall to same-sex weddings in 2004, he hasn't shied away from the political, legal and social firestorm he helped fuel. Yet the San Francisco mayor's gubernatorial campaign has also been working doggedly to shed his single-issue candidate persona. Newsom and his handlers have tried to advance his image as a "hard-headed pragmatist" who gets things done, who reshaped San Francisco with green buildings and new housing and now is making tough city budget choices amid California's fiscal crisis. But when the California Supreme Court affirmed the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage...

"Like it or not," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and his handlers made a point of not trying to electrify any crowds after Tuesday's state Supreme Court decision upholding the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. Instead, the mayor offered up a cooler, calmer message delivered over the course of three hours in individual interviews with a string of local, state and national reporters. "We just feel one-on-one offered the best opportunity to get our message out," said mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard. The sit-downs also guaranteed that there would be no repeat of Newsom's infamous, growling declaration in the City Hall...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a declared Democratic 2010 California gubernatorial candidate, has decided to return a hefty $25,000 campaign contribution -- from the son of controversial conservative talk show host, Michael Savage. As we reported earlier this month, Savage was one of 16 individuals on a "name and shame" list who was banned from the United Kingdom. U.K. Home Secretary Jaqui Smith charged that Savage's right wing controverial broadcasts constituted "hate speech" and could promote violence, and did not represent the "values" of Britian.Now, the move at home against Savage comes after a progressive activist in San Francisco, Aaron...

Mayor Gavin Newsom said Friday that 1,000 city workers would lose their jobs in the coming months to help close a growing budget deficit, a swift response after the city's biggest union this week rejected $38 million in wage concessions. The layoffs will hurt all city departments, according to the mayor's office, but will have the most drastic effect on the Department of Public Health, the city's largest agency. In addition to health care workers, recreation directors, security guards and others will lose their jobs. A total of 262 city workers have already lost their jobs over the last six...

Democratic state Attorney General Jerry Brown -- the former two-term governor expected to make another run in 2010 -- has issued the ultimate challenge to newbie Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom. He says he's willing to do "any test" to prove that he can meet and match any candidate, anywhere -- on brain power. Brown, 71, made the comments on KGO 810 AM this morning, after he was asked about the "generational" differences between himself and the San Francisco mayor, 41, who declared himself a candidate for governor earlier this week. "If he's asserting that the year he's born ......

It seems Mayor Gavin Newsom has developed a little crush in his run for governor. It's not his fault really. I mean who can blame him. The new apple of his eye has the same propensity to cause a stir with her loose tongue and pose for shocking photos as Newsom. And really it's not his fault. He can't control what people ask him. As much as Newsom tries to get away from her, the name of Miss California, who upset people when she spoke out against same-sex marriage, keeps popping up. Perhaps he should not have defended the controversial...