Free Republic

Supervisor David Chiu wants San Francisco to become the first American city to oppose any ban on sex-selective abortions. It apparently has not occurred to him why no other city has chosen to do so. Journalist Mara Hvistendahl, author of "Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men," estimates that sex-selective abortions have "claimed over 160 million potential women and girls -- in Asia alone." Thus, it is rather disturbing to watch one of the most liberal politicians in liberal San Francisco grandstand in defense of a practice that devalues -- destroys, actually...

Supervisor David Chiu wants San Francisco to become the first American city to oppose any ban on sex-selective abortions. It apparently has not occurred to him why no other city has chosen to do so. Journalist Mara Hvistendahl, author of "Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men," estimates that sex-selective abortions have "claimed over 160 million potential women and girls -- in Asia alone." Thus, it is rather disturbing to watch one of the most liberal politicians in liberal San Francisco grandstand in defense of a practice that devalues -- destroys, actually...

**SNIP** Yee, D-San Francisco, and Jackson, his former consultant and a former San Francisco school board president, are among 29 defendants charged with racketeering and other crimes after an undercover FBI investigation. Prosecutors have accused Yee, now suspended from his Senate seat, of soliciting tens of thousands of dollars from agents posing as campaign contributors in exchange for political favors. In a filing Aug. 14, Jackson's lawyer asserted that an FBI agent had been removed from the investigation and reprimanded because of financial misconduct. The agent, identified in court records only as UCE 4773, posed as a Georgia businessman and...

Call it "Bambi" on the bridge. Reports of a pair of deer hanging out on the Golden Gate Bridge Friday evening sent social media abuzz in the Bay Area. California Highway Patrol officers were called to the bridge, but the deer were already gone by the time they got there. Twitter users reported that traffic stopped moving momentarily, but was soon flowing normally again. "It was Deer on the Golden Gate Bridge! Hope they are safe! Kind of awesome!" tweeted out Twitter user Rydalia with a picture, which has since gone viral. This video shot by NBC Bay Area viewer...

NAPA, Calif. (AP) — The largest earthquake to hit the San Francisco Bay Area in 25 years sent scores of people to hospitals, ignited fires, damaged multiple historic buildings and knocked out power to tens of thousands on Sunday. The 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck just before 3:30 a.m. miles from Napa in California wine country was felt widely, breaking water mains, causing more than 100 gas leaks, leaving two adults and a child critically injured, damaging some of Napa Valley's famed wineries, and sending residents running out of their homes in the darkness. Dazed residents too fearful of aftershocks to...

The Endangered Species Act has wreaked havoc for decades on rural communities, but a newly filed lawsuit could force San Francisco urbanites like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to share their pain. A federal complaint filed this week contends that the Hetch Hetchy Project, which supplies water to San Francisco and the Bay Area, has unfairly enjoyed an exemption from the “severe cutbacks” required in rural California in order to save endangered fish species. Craig Manson, who heads the Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy and Reliability (CESAR) in Fresno, said the lawsuit is aimed at addressing the “double standard” that...

Education officials like to say that kids can't learn if they aren't in school. But what if teachers aren't in school? While absenteeism is usually considered a student matter, in San Francisco - and many other districts - the average teacher misses more school than the average child.

Israeli Ship Remains At Sea As Thousands of Protesters Gather in Oakland Blockade delayed as word spreads that ship is off the coast of California, closer to Santa Cruz, and won’t be docking that day Rebecca Bowe at the Port of Oakland 17 August 2014 Pro-Palestinian protesters at the port of Oakland attempt to prevent an Israeli ship from docking. Photograph: Justin Benttinen/The Guardian An Israeli ship that was scheduled to dock at the port of Oakland in California on Saturday remained at sea as between 2,000 and 3,000 pro-Palestinian activists streamed towards the port entrance, chanting and waving flags....

Between 1989 and 2010, Congress rejected nearly 700 cap-tax-and-trade and similar bills that their proponents claimed would control Earth’s perpetually fickle climate and weather. So even as real world crises erupt, President Obama is using executive fiats and regulations to impose his anti-hydrocarbon agenda, slash America’s fossil fuel use, bankrupt coal and utility companies, make electricity prices skyrocket, and “fundamentally transform” our economic, social, legal and constitutional system. Citing climate concerns, he has refused to permit construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, and blocked or delayed Alaskan, western state and offshore oil and gas leasing and drilling. He’s proud that...

Mountain Tunnel, a key part of the Hetch Hetchy water system - which supplies 2.6 million Bay Area residences and businesses - is at risk of a "catastrophic collapse" and will cost more than $100 million to repair or up to $630 million to replace, according to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. City officials have known for 25 years that significant work is needed on the 19-mile-long tunnel just outside Yosemite National Park in a steep, hard-to-access wilderness area. They considered making it part of the PUC's decade-old, $4.6 billion water system improvement program, which is now more than...

a debate is emerging between the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency over the potential disaster if the 89-year-old Mountain Tunnel, which supplies 2.6 million Bay Area homes and businesses with water, collapses. The PUC acknowledges that the tunnel does have a chance of "catastrophic collapse," which would require repairs costing $100 million or total replacement, costing up to $630 million. But the PUC’s 10-year-old 4.6 billion water system improvement program did not include the Mountain Tunnel in its plans. ... The risk right now is that the tunnel lining could...

Robin Williams was everywhere in San Francisco, it seemed, as he made a place for himself in the everyday fabric of a city where he once said he passed for normal. The comedian was there to usher a few fellow inhabitants of the Bay Area into life—visiting a pediatric ward, unheralded, each year on Christmas Day to welcome newborns to the world. He also ushered friends out of life—delivering a boisterous eulogy for an iconic local journalist known as Mr. San Francisco, musing on heaven as a nice bar in the city with a dry martini. …

As a hardcore baseball guy, I often wonder why people needlessly waste their time on all those other, lesser sports. But I suppose everyone has a right to their insane opinions. In any case, football fans may want to keep an eye on this development: The NFL announced this week that it will be using RFID tracking chips on players during select games in the 2014 season. The high-tech chips — RFID stands for radio-frequency identification — will generate precise positioning data on each player on every play. Football Uniforms Throughout History For the initial rollout, the RFID system will...

A man prosecutors accuse of heading a crime syndicate based in San Francisco’s Chinatown pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new charge of racketeering. Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow entered the plea to a newly filed indictment that includes all the same money laundering and related charges as the previous one. The new filing says he served as gang leader of a Chinatown community organization that bribed a state senator and laundered money among other crimes. The new racketeering count alleges that Chow orchestrated a wide range of alleged criminal activity, including the bribing of state Sen. Leland Yee. …

The FBI's motto is "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity." But given the FBI sting against Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow -- a convicted felon who was freed from prison in 2003 because the feds got him to testify against a confederate -- I suspect that a more apt motto might be "Fuggedaboutit." On Thursday, San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phil Matier and Andy Ross identified San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee as another public figure who was drawn dangerously close to the FBI's "Shrimp Boy" trap. According to their report, FBI operatives donated $20,000 to Hizzoner's 2011 mayoral campaign. Likewise, agents reportedly tried to cozy...

A federal grand jury on Friday charged a California state senator with more felonies in addition to the eight counts he already faced in a sweeping organized crime and public corruption case centered in San Francisco’s Chinatown. […] Yee pleaded not guilty to the original eight charges. He will have to enter a plea Wednesday to the charges in the new indictment. The new accusations allege that San Francisco Democrat offered to help pass legislation making it harder for professional football players to obtain workers compensation in California, in exchange for campaign contributions from an unidentified NFL owner. The new...

San Francisco lawmakers narrowly agreed Tuesday to place a 2-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks on the November ballot, a move that promises to turn the election into an expensive fight between the beverage industry and public health advocates. The city’s Board of Supervisors voted 6-4 to ask voters to approve the tax on sodas, sports drinks and other beverages sweetened with sugar and sold in the city. It would have to be approved by two-thirds of the electorate to take effect. City officials have estimated the measure would raise somewhere between $31 million and $52 million a year. The proceeds...

If two of the most progressive U.S. cities don’t pass a tax on sugary drinks, will the idea finally fizzle out? Sugary drinks have been under fire for years, with many blaming them for rising rates of obesity and chronic diseases. Yet efforts to curb consumption by imposing taxes and other measures have failed, in part because the beverage industry has spent millions to defeat the efforts. Now, the question of whether a bottle of Dr. Pepper with 64 grams of sugar should be treated like a pack of cigarettes is being considered in San Francisco and Berkeley, with the...

Bill Ayers shouldn’t be interviewed; he should be jailed. Megyn Kelly’s interview of Ayers, made reference to the role of Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn in the bombing-murder of San Francisco policeman Brian V. McDonnell. Unfortunately, Ayers lied his way through the interview, which aired over two nights on her nightly Fox News Channel show, “The Kelly File.” But this is what happens when a professional liar like Ayers does a “shocking” TV interview. The exchange may achieve high ratings, but nothing good will come out of the interview unless Kelly now follows up with the “Justice for Victims of the...

(Must see video...Ugh) The limitless imagination of the American marketing mind came to the fore again this week, as a San Francisco Burger King franchise unveiled its “Proud Whopper” in honor of LGBT Week. It’s exactly the same as a regular flame-grilled Whopper, but inside its rainbow-colored wrapper read the words, “We are all the same inside.” Senior Vice President Fernando Machado told Fox News, “It showcases who we are as a brand. It shows how we, as a brand, believe in self-expression.” The fast food chain even produced a video to highlight the campaign, ending with a little girl...