Free Republic

Beginning today, all McDonald’s (MCD) restaurants in the City of San Francisco are forbidden by law to give away toys with Happy Meals. McDonald’s response? Eat it, California. Though Policy Number 471.1 through 471.9 -- otherwise known as the "Healthy Meal Incentives Ordinance” -- will now, as noted by SF Weekly’s Joe Eskenazi, “require Happy Meal purchasers to make a 10-cent charitable donation to Ronald McDonald House in order to receive their coveted trinket,” the world’s largest fast food chain has pulled off a decisive, magnificent win. "This law is not what my customers wanted or asked for, but the...

Here’s a story that’ll tickle your McRibs. On December 1 a law seemingly banning McDonald’s Happy Meals went into effect in San Francisco. The “Healthy Meal Incentives Ordinance” prohibits restaurants from giving away toys with meals that do not meet with the city’s approval — namely, meals with too many calories, too much salt or fat, or insufficient fruits and vegetables. Just a few days before the ordinance took effect, SF Weekly reports, McDonald’s announced it had found a simple way around the statute: Charge customers extra for the toys. Now in order to obtain a Happy Meal toy, parents...

Clear Channel Bay Area Talk Shuffle Clear Channel has announced it will be realigning the programming at its two San Francisco Bay Area AM’s on January 3, 2012. The “Fox Newsradio 910” KNEW branding and calls will move to 960, though most of its current lineup will remain at 910 which will become “Talk 910” KKSF. New lineups: The new lineups for each station will be as follows: Talk 910 6am-10am: Armstrong & Getty (simulcast from sister 650 KSTE Sacramento) 10am-12pm: Clark Howard 12pm-3pm: Tom Sullivan 3pm-6pm: Local Host To Be Named Later Fox News Radio 960 6am-9am: Glenn Beck...

Occupy movement wants to start a financial institutionBy: Dan Schreiber | 11/23/11 2:38 PM Examiner Staff Writer Call it the First Bank of Occupy. The denizens of the embattled tent city on San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza have been pushing for folks to close their accounts at big banks and put the money in credit unions instead. Now, the movement wants to form its own institution to keep their money out of the hands of the reviled 1 percent. A survey circulating Facebook and other social networking sites asks some simple questions that occupiers hope will relay the demand for...

Occupy protests can't stop S.F. shoppersKevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer San Francisco Chronicle November 26, 2011 04:00 AM **SNIP** Two dozen Occupy protesters began marching around downtown at sundown, chanting protest slogans. They'd hoped to make their anti-consumption point at the annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Union Square, but the crowd was so massive they couldn't get near. The marchers then blocked the intersection of Market and Fourth streets for 15 minutes beginning at 7 p.m., but left when police arrived. "Don't use credit cards to show love this holiday," said Occupier Michael Byrnes, 31. Josh Delacruz shook his head...

First Occupy Los Angeles was negotiating with its "host" city for 10,000 square feet of free office space, free farmland and free housing in exchange for abandoning its City Hall encampment. Now San Francisco is negotiating with its occupiers to move from the heart of the city's financial district to a currently empty school in the Mission district. Growing desperation on the part of liberal politicians to defuse a situation they originally supported is leading to yet another stupid decision on their part - incentivizing these small groups of people to disrupt the lives and endanger the safety of others.

San Francisco's new ordinance leveled at pro-life pregnancy centers will face federal court scrutiny. The core of the lawsuit is First Amendment viewpoint discrimination. First Resort is a chain of pro-life centers filing the case. The group's CEO Shari Plunkett claims the Pregnancy Information Disclosure and Protection Ordination was "crafted to target one or two specific organizations and carefully shelter from its scope all groups whose viewpoints the city agrees with." Paul Suis, a longtime board member for First Resort, explains to OneNewsNow that two layers of the ordinance ensure it could only be applied to pro-life pregnancy centers and...

A San Francisco County judge, who yesterday struck down California’s ban on homosexual marriage, today ruled on the same basis that separate restrooms for men and women are unconstitutional. Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer likened the division of washrooms to laws requiring racial segregation in schools, and said there appears to be “no rational purpose for denying women access to men’s facilities and vice versa.” “The state’s protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional,” Judge Kramer wrote. “The court finds that the legal principle of lavatorio proportio [potty parity] offers inadequate...

Three events planned for Oakland's historic Rotunda Hall were canceled this month. Four cafes abutting Frank Ogawa Plaza say customers are reluctant to visit, and they've cut employee hours. Several merchants on or around Broadway, including the Oaksterdam marijuana empire, say business is down. Meanwhile, two other cafes at the plaza say sales are better than ever. And a block away at City Center Plaza, the midday flow of office workers grabbing lunch is undiminished. As Occupy Oakland enters its fifth week, the encampment's impact on neighborhood businesses appears to consist largely of reduced sales - and a few increased...

It was the first time the competition was conducted in San Francisco and there was bone-chilling water temperatures along with the usual Bay area wind. But just as surfer Dusty Payne of Hawaii braved the cold to ride a wave, a SHARK (flash scary shark with loud music or sound effect) appeared in the water and SCARED THE DAYLIGHTS out of Dusy who described the sight as quote, "the biggest fin I've ever seen in my life coming at me. I've seen dolphins and it wasn't a dolphin." unquote. So, not only did Dusty lose it, but he also lost...

Ferry Building merchants and managers are fed up with the mayhem that has come with the nearby Occupy SF encampment. A spike in shoplifting, break-ins and reports of abandoned human waste — and a reported drop in foot traffic — has management fuming about the Justin Herman Plaza encampment. There even are reports of occupiers using the building’s restrooms as washrooms — with folks taking sponge baths from toilets. And last Monday, eight men were allegedly escorted out of the building after they attempted to use the bathrooms wearing nothing but their boxer shorts. Property manager Jane Connors has written...

Roberts recently filmed a mouthy man in an Elmo shirt (it kinda suits him) as he was getting ticketed by a police officer. The man loses his composure when he realizes Roberts is filming him for his segment. He goes off on him, calling Roberts a "fat ass" and telling him his fat, lazy ass can only afford food.

Voters approved the project in 2003, to replace a freeway damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Back then, the cost was $647 million. Today, the price tag is $1.6 billion, with the lion's share of the funding still to come from the federal government. In July, San Francisco's Civil Grand Jury concluded the project was poorly designed, won't meet projected ridership levels, and, as the scathing title of its report says, costs "too much money for too little benefit." At about $1 billion per mile, the Central Subway has become a driving force in Tuesday's mayoral election.

<p>With the loss, Coach Mike Shanahan's team falls to 3-5.</p> <p>As the fourth quarter started Sunday at FedEx Field, with the Washington Redskins’ offense and the third quarterback of the Mike Shanahan era struggling mightily, the burgundy and gold clad crowd started to boo, and one fan in earshot of the press box yelled: “We want Norv Turner back!”</p>

There's one for Michael Savage to comment on. Seriously, that city is disgusting. Potholes, junkies, bums, naked gay men walking around everywhere, etc.Yuck.

OAKLAND -- The Bay Area has fewer concentrations of extreme poverty than a decade ago, according to a report released Thursday. That may not console the people living in the Bay Area's five poorest neighborhoods. In five census tracts, four of them in the East Bay, more than 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line, according to the Brookings Institution report. The neighborhoods are in downtown Berkeley, uptown Oakland, Alameda Point and parts of West Oakland and San Francisco's Hunters Point. Two are business districts where many homeless congregate; one, the area around Oakland's Frank H. Ogawa Plaza,...

In a powerful display of profound disappointment with President Obama, some of the Democratic Party's biggest donors gathered Tuesday - not inside his tony San Francisco fundraiser at the W Hotel, but outside on the sidewalks carrying signs in protest of his policies. "I don't even know what he stands for," said Susie Tompkins Buell, a co-founder of the Esprit de Corps clothing company and one of the most generous Democratic Party donors in the nation - instrumental in backing such powerhouse progressive organizations as the Democracy Alliance and Media Matters. Tompkins Buell, a longtime friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton...

President Barack Obama told an audience in San Francisco Tuesday that the famous “hope” poster, popular during his 2008 campaign for president, is “kind of faded” and that it’s “not as trendy to be an Obama supporter” today as it was during his first run for the White House. “We’ve made a lot of change, but we’ve got a lot more work to do,” he told an audience during a campaign event at the W Hotel in San Francisco, California. “And I know that I’m now a little grayer. You know, and it’s not as trendy to be an Obama...

San Francisco Restaurants Propose Standard 25 Per Cent Tip Restaurants in San Francisco have angered customers by proposing to make a 25 per cent tip standard with meals. According to a recent survey San Francisco diners are the worst tippers in America Photo: ALAMY By Nick Allen Most diners in the United States currently give a voluntary tip of between 15 and 20 per cent depending on the service and the quality of the food. But the new measure, which is reportedly supported by high class eateries, would be mandatory. According to a recent survey San Francisco diners are the...

San Francisco bank executives cooked their books and lied to auditors just before they accepted a $298 million taxpayer bailout, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. They now have the distinction of being the first senior executives of a bank that received federal bailout funds to be criminally charged in connection with a scheme to defraud the government and American taxpayers. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged former United Commercial Bank CEO Thomas Wu and vice presidents Ebrahim Shabudin and Thomas Yu with illegally obscuring their bank’s mounting losses. A separate indictment charged Shabudin and Yu with securities fraud, conspiracy, falsifying corporate...