Free Republic

Election night was not kind to Gavin Newsom, who may end up one of the biggest losers after suffering a potentially crushing loss with Proposition 8 and at best breaking even in the local contests he had a stake in. Political analysts have long argued that Newsom has short coattails in local politics - a theory in play with the Board of Supervisors races, in which at least three of the seven seats up for grabs seem likely to go to candidates he did not endorse. With the local ballot measures, voters for the most part sided with Newsom's choices,...

SAN FRANCISCO -- About a dozen members of the Minutemen, a group that patrols the U.S.-Mexican border in an effort to keep illegal immigrants out, stood on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall today to decry the city's sanctuary policy and demand that Mayor Gavin Newsom resign. They waved signs calling Newsom, District Attorney Kamala Harris and William Siffermann, head of the city's Juvenile Probation Department, "accessories to murder" for the city's now-reversed policy of not turning over illegal immigrant youths arrested for felonies to federal authorities for possible deportation. One Salvadoran immigrant who benefited from the policy, Edwin...

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who built a national reputation pushing cutting-edge -- and controversial -- policies on same-sex marriage, healthcare and other issues, launched an exploratory bid for governor Tuesday. His move placed the 40-year-old, two-term mayor out in front of a large Democratic field eyeing the race to succeed Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is barred by term limits from running again in 2010. Newsom said he expected to decide by year's end whether to proceed with a full-fledged candidacy. (snip) As governor, Newsom said, he would have three priorities: reducing poverty, providing universal access to...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had barely been on the job a month back in 2004 when he ordered the city to issue marriages licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Thousands of same-sex partners flocked to City Hall to exchange vows. For four weeks, a steady stream of ceremonies stretched into the night, and lines of eager couples wrapped around the block. And as quickly as the couples could say, "I do," the scene of women marrying women and men marrying men sparked a nationwide uproar. Proponents called the move bold. Opponents called it defiant and blatantly illegal. People on...

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10 (UPI) -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is attempting to find a way to close a major stretch of roadway to allow residents to do yoga in a wide open space. Newsom said by closing a 3 1/2-mile stretch of road, residents would be able to indulge their yoga, bicycling or dancing hobbies in the Bay Bridge's shadow, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday. "Instead of bringing people to open space," Newsom said, "we bring open space to people."

SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - San Francisco would become the first city in the nation to ban the sale of tobacco in pharmacies if legislation that was quietly introduced by Mayor Gavin Newsom is approved. If the Board of Supervisors adopts the legislation, hundreds of pharmacies in The City would have to stop selling tobacco products — including cigarettes, cigars, pipes and chewing tobacco — as soon as October. “This is a sensible measure to deal with health problems before they start, and it’s consistent with our prevention-focused efforts such as Healthy San Francisco and Shape Up SF,” Newsom said....

The US Dept of Justice wants San Francisco to repay $5.4M in grant money earmarked to help fight the war on drugs in states bordering Mexico because federal auditors found the city was not eligible for the funding. San Francisco had sought the grant under the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative, which compensates law enforcement agencies in California and other border states for the costs of handling prosecutions in lieu of federal authorities. As of March of last year, the city claimed it had handled more than 2,241 such cases, but a federal audit released this week found that none of...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is considering a 2010 run for governor - a campaign that would embrace many of the same divisive causes he has championed as mayor, including same-sex marriage, universal health care and protections for illegal immigrants, The Chronicle has learned. Newsom has long been rumored to be a potential contender in what is likely to be a crowded field of Democrats looking to succeed Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a list that includes Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, former state Controller Steve Westly and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. In recent months, Newsom has quietly...

Who says that the issue of global warming is a matter of science, not faith? Just last week, Mayor Gavin Newsom proved belief trumps data. The Chronicle reported that a San Francisco Public Utilities Commission study found that the giant turbines he wanted to put underwater below the Golden Gate Bridge would cost way too much money to install and maintain. They would generate power at a cost of 80 cents to $1.40 per kilowatt hour - compared with Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s 12 cents per hour commercial rate. It seems the turbines would produce only one or two...

This was presented just before the beginning of the Super Bowl yesterday, a Fox Sports Super Bowl tradition. Speakers include: Jim Brown, Don Shula, Roger Staubach, Marie Tillman (widow of Pat), Ronnie Lott, Ozzie Newsome, Teddy Bruschi, Paul Tagliabue, Lovie Smith, Steve Largent, Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy and more. Well done and moving.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and his girlfriend, actress Jennifer Siebel, became engaged in Hawaii over the weekend, knowledgeable sources said Monday. One of Newsom's closest friends, high society party planner Stanlee Gatti, confirmed the engagement. The mayor's spokesman, Nathan Ballard, said the mayor popped the question on Saturday. "Jennifer told me (about it). She was on the phone first, and then he got on the phone," said Gatti, reached in Raton, N.M., where he was on vacation. Gatti had no details about the proposal, other than that Newsom spoke with his girlfriend's father first and then proposed marriage. No...

According to a 46-count indictment, suspects Darnell Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman, all blacks, are charged with committing rape, including sodomy against Christian and Newsom, both of whom are white. After being raped, Newsom was shot several times and his body was found burned along nearby railroad tracks. Christian was forced to witness her boyfriend's rape, torture and subsequent murder before she was ultimately raped, tortured and murdered. The police discovered her body inside a large trash can in the kitchen of the home where the murders took place. Before disposing of her body, the murderers poured...

Great Gavin Newsom Graphic - Worth the look! San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom joined fellow Californicator Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and endorsed Hillary's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Matt Gonzalez, the former San Francisco supervisor who was city progressives' last hope for a big-name candidate to challenge Mayor Gavin Newsom in his re-election quest, said Monday he will not run for mayor this fall. The decision follows weeks of serious consideration by Gonzalez, who narrowly lost to Newsom in 2003, and paves the way for the mayor to run for re-election in November without facing serious opposition. In an interview with The Chronicle Monday, Gonzalez said polling showed voters seem to be complacent about the problems the city faces and do not hold Newsom accountable for those ills...

They tell us he was steaming, but San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom shouldn't have been too surprised when The Chronicle reported that Golden Gate Park was littered with used drug syringes. After all, his own Public Health Department spent $800,000 last year to help hand out some 2 million syringes to drug users under the city's needle exchange program -- sometimes 20 at a time. Although Health Department officials say 2 million needles were returned, the fact is they don't count them and can only estimate how many are coming back. And from the looks of things, a lot of...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- What happened to Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, a young Knoxville couple out on an ordinary Saturday night date, was undeniably brutal. The two were carjacked, kidnapped, raped and finally murdered during an ordeal of unimaginable terror in January. < snip > But whether the attack was a racial hate crime worthy of national media attention is another question, one that has now ignited a fierce dispute over the definition of hate crimes and how the mainstream media choose to cover America's most discomfiting interracial attacks. < snip >Country music star Charlie Daniels, who lives 150 miles...

The Knoxville News Standard has a story by Jamie Satterfield on the Christian – Newsome rape/slayings and the hurt feelings of the MSM show through. The story is all about the gruesome details that turn out – according to unnamed “authorities” – not to be true. For example, the story that “Christian was held captive and repeatedly gang-raped for four days before her body was found inside a garbage can in one of the suspect's Chipman Street rental house. “ According to Satterfield’s unnamed sources that’s not true at all. “As it turned out, Christian, though repeatedly raped, was dead...

The major media has ignored this. Why did the Duke case get major coverage and this not? Channon Christian and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom were out for a date in January 2007 when the couple were carjacked, brutally tortured, and raped before being murdered and dumped. Christopher was bound, stripped, and raped. While he was still alive his penis was cut off, then he was shot, and finally set on fire all while his girlfriend was made to watch. His body was dumped by a set of railroad tracks. Channon was kept alive and gang-raped repeatedly over the next four...

Mayor Gavin Newsom said he has had other stalkers since coming into political office, but said he filed a restraining order against a 42-year-old Hayward man because he “crossed the line” by working his way into Newsom’s apartment building in the late evening hours last month. On Wednesday, a San Francisco Superior Court judge issued a three-year restraining order against Han Sup Shin, which prohibits him from coming within 100 yards of the mayor’s person, place of business, home and vehicles. Shin is also ordered not to call Newsom’s staff members. When Shin showed up outside Newsom’s home on Valentine’s...

Mayor Gavin Newsom's decision to call an "urgent'' press conference to disclose what he and other top city officials portray as racist and sexist videos produced by San Francisco police officers and to warn that officers involved -- now numbering 24 -- would be suspended is destined to go down as a defining moment of his first term in office. It also was one that his advisers and observers with experience in the art of political and image damage control say was almost forced upon him by circumstances. On Tuesday evening, Police Chief Heather Fong notified a mayoral aide that...

S.F. mayor sees wireless service as basic right By Eric Auchard San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who became internationally known for his campaign a year ago to legalize gay marriage, said on Monday he considered wireless Internet access a fundamental right of all citizens. Newsom told a news conference that he was bracing for a battle with telephone and cable interests, along with state and U.S. regulators, whom he said were looking to derail a campaign by cities to offer free or low-cost municipal Wi-Fi services. SNIP SNIP "This is inevitable -- Wi-Fi. It is long overdue," Newsom told a...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A San Francisco police officer injured at an anarchists' protest remained hospitalized Saturday as Mayor Gavin Newsom vowed to get tough on violent demonstrators. The unidentified officer suffered a gash to his head when was struck with an unknown object as he confronted protesters late Friday at Mission and 23rd Street, said police officer Maria Oropeza. A photo taken by a passer-by and aired on KRON 4 news shows an officer, his head and face covered in blood, kneeling on the ground and clutching his police radio. Cody Tarlow, 21, of Felton and Doritt Earnst, 31,...

One year ago, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued a directive that shook City Hall and the nation. Newsom's decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples spurred similar actions around the country and ignited a national debate. And over the next 12 months, gay couples legally wed in Massachusetts, Canada's high court gave gay marriage a legal thumbs-up, 11 states passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage, and almost twice as many states prepared to follow suit. The routine at City Hall was disrupted precisely at 11:06 a.m. Feb. 12, 2004, with the wedding of two lesbians whose relationship had...

400 city workers to be deputized to ticket S.F. scofflaws, assess fines of $80-$1,000. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom declared war on dirty streets Thursday, saying he will deputize hundreds of city workers to hunt down litterbugs and to punish them with hefty fines. "I think it's time to recognize that litter comes from someone,'' said Newsom. "You have got to change people's behavior.'' That will be a mighty task, given that city street-cleaning crews removed 23,451 tons of trash from city streets last year -- a 35 percent increase from the year before. The plan calls for giving more...

Even in Switzerland, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom couldn't escape the accusation that he, more than any other U.S. politician, handed the Republicans a presidential victory last fall. It was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the mayor was invited to a panel on red states versus blue. And Newsom was defending himself, yet again. Newsom's decision a year ago this Saturday to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples continues to color his political reputation, even abroad. It also still prompts debate about whether the backlash it engendered ultimately helps or hurts the cause of same-sex marriage....

On February 10, 2004 newly-elected Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, broke with tradition as old as the foundations of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by writing a letter to San Francisco County Clerk, Nancy Alfaro, instructing her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. According to this directive, such action was proper pursuant to Article I, Section 7, subdivision (a) of the California Constitution which provides "a person may not be ... denied equal protection of the laws." In spite of contrary California statutes reserving the right of marriage to one man and one woman, thousands of licenses to same-sex...

Kentucky Politician Sentenced to Two Years for Election Fraud Mar 16, 2004 By Roger Alford/ Associated Press Writer PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A politician who was convicted of buying votes was sentenced Tuesday to more than two years in federal prison, but he will continue to hold his post from his cell. Knott County Judge-Executive Donnie Newsome has been in jail since he was convicted in October, when a federal judge said he was a danger to the community based on alleged witness tampering during his trial. Newsome has been working as the top county administrator from his cell under...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Former President Bill Clinton has been asked to make a last-minute campaign appearance for San Francisco's Democratic mayoral hopeful, who faces a tough runoff race against a Green Party challenger, campaign sources said Friday.</p> <p>Former Vice President Al Gore already campaigned for Democratic candidate Gavin Newsom this week and has asked Clinton to come before Tuesday's election, according to Newsom's campaign consultant, Eric Jaye.</p>

Knott judge-executive is indicted OFFICIAL AND THREE MEN ARE CHARGED WITH BUYING VOTES By Bill Estep HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER Knott County Judge-Executive Donnie Newsome took part in a conspiracy to buy votes in the primary election he won five years ago, a federal grand jury charged yesterday. Three other Knott County residents also were charged yesterday with buying votes in the May 1998 primary. That brings to 16 the number of people charged as a result of an FBI investigation of the election, making it one of the larger vote-fraud cases in Kentucky in recent years. Newsome, a Democrat, is...