http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/sanfranciscovalues/ en-us Wed, 1 Jul 2009 19:59:36 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283513/posts State senators didn't balance the budget Tuesday night, but their failure came only after some tense moments and a rare public scolding by one senator of another. At the center were three bills, already approved in a bipartisan fashion by the Assembly, which would have freed up enough cash to temporarily stave off the need to issue IOUs to pay state bills. All 25 Senate Dems ultimately voted for them; none of the 15 Senate Reeps did. For 45 minutes, the clerk dutifully called the roll of the senators who had yet to vote. That consisted of Sen. Abel Maldonado,... SacBee: Capitol Alert http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283513/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 19:59:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2281309/posts Gay Pride Photos- San Francisco http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2281309/posts#comment Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:58:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279167/posts The problem isn't that San Francisco lacks good ideas. It is that it takes them too far. In a period of 20 years, we went from a reasonable sanctuary policy that shielded political exiles who were here illegally to District Attorney Kamala Harris justifying letting first-time drug offenders clear their convictions even though they were illegal immigrants and subject to deportation. But here's the question: Why didn't anyone see this coming? Wasn't the uproar a year ago enough to get everyone's attention? Last year, The Chronicle's Jaxon VanDerbeken revealed that the city had been transporting convicted juvenile crack dealers back... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279167/posts#comment Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:46:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279165/posts Let me just say it before a commentator on Fox does: This whole Mark Sanford mess is a Barack Obama conspiracy. The sad spectacle of Mr. Sanford's teary confessional is designed, at least in some part, to make the President look even better by comparison than he already does. You think it was a coincidence that as the Governor was into the meat of his dishonor, the CNN scroll noted that President Obama was going to the Vatican to meet with the Pope? I have my own views about the Obama press machinery and resultant seduction quotient. But this latest... SFGate: Bronstein at Large http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279165/posts#comment Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:42:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278362/posts While some San Francisco renters breathe a sigh of relief, landlords are outraged at a series of new regulations coming from the tenant-friendly Board of Supervisors. On Tuesday, the board voted to pass a package of renters' rights laws authored by Supervisor Chris Daly, and another supervisor introduced a measure that would make it illegal for owners who want to move into their property to evict families with children. The new legislation, authored by Supervisor Eric Mar, is aimed at keeping families with children stable and in affordable housing. It will expand existing laws, which already protect seniors, disabled people... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278362/posts#comment Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:56:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278358/posts San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris said Tuesday that half a dozen illegal immigrants whose drug convictions were expunged as part of a job training program that she oversaw were "following the rules" and deserved to be exonerated even after prosecutors learned of their status. Prosecutors tightened guidelines, the district attorney said, after learning last summer that a man enrolled in Harris' Back on Track program was an illegal immigrant who allegedly robbed and assaulted a woman in Pacific Heights. The suspect in that case, Alexander Izaguirre, was the only one of the seven enrollees who turned out to be... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278358/posts#comment Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:52:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277747/posts Two weeks ago, I wrote about efforts to get a 4-year-old panhandler and his mom off the city streets. The column kicked off a spirited debate about our responsibilities to homeless children. Monday the woman, whose first name is Toni, was sitting on the sidewalk on Market Street with her son, Gavin, with a brown cardboard sign propped up behind them that said "Please help." But that's the issue. People have helped. Monday I spoke to Anna Samovol, who along with her co-workers in a downtown office gave toys and food to Gavin and bought a new winter coat for... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2277747/posts#comment Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:25:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270901/posts San Francisco at Crossroads Over Immigration By JESSE McKINLEY Published: June 12, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO — In the debate over illegal immigration, San Francisco has proudly played the role of liberal enclave, a so-called sanctuary city where local officials have refused to cooperate with enforcement of federal immigration law and undocumented residents have mostly lived without fear of consequence. But over the last year, buffeted by several high-profile crimes by illegal immigrants and revelations of mismanagement of the city’s sanctuary policy, San Francisco has become less like its self-image and more like many other cities in the United States: deeply... NYTimes http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270901/posts#comment Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:55:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2269531/posts 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... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2269531/posts#comment Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:36:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268746/posts SAN FRANCISCO -- After three years of emotional debate and back-and-forth votes, the San Francisco school board Tuesday night hit the reset button on the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, restoring the program to nearly its original condition before the 2006 effort to kill it. The board voted 4-3 to allow the JROTC program to satisfy physical education requirements - something needed to maintain enrollment numbers that financially justify the program at seven district high schools.The measure gives JROTC students the option to earn P.E. credit through independent study.The vote is the latest in a nearly three-year battle over the... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268746/posts#comment Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:50:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268736/posts San Francisco property owners could pay hundreds or thousands of dollars more per year under a measure introduced Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors - one of many tax proposals that could be placed before voters this fall to help the struggling city. Other options on the table for a November ballot include an increase to the sales tax and payroll tax, another business tax and an increase to the vehicle license fee. And the city, which has been hit hard by the economic downturn, will also impose dozens of new fees that do not require voter approval but will... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268736/posts#comment Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:41:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268732/posts Throwing orange peels, coffee grounds and grease-stained pizza boxes in the trash will be against the law in San Francisco, and could even lead to a fine. The Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 Tuesday to approve Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposal for the most comprehensive mandatory composting and recycling law in the country. It's an aggressive push to cut greenhouse gas emissions and have the city sending nothing to landfills or incinerators by 2020. "San Francisco has the best recycling and composting programs in the nation," Newsom said, praising the board's vote on a plan that some residents had decried as... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268732/posts#comment Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:37:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262923/posts For the past 10 years, a homeless man has been living in the doorway of Norton's Vault on Sacramento Street. He's been there longer than Bill Dunkle has owned the bar, longer than Nick Gaffney, who has an office on the block and has been trying to find him housing, and longer than Gavin Newsom has been mayor. "Ten years," Gaffney said. "Isn't that crazy?" Not in San Francisco. Matthew - he only offered his first name - is a prime example of city's often-dysfunctional homeless network. He insisted he wants to move into supportive housing. "That's not true," sighed... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262923/posts#comment Tue, 2 Jun 2009 14:54:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262495/posts 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... SacBee: Capitol Alert http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262495/posts#comment Mon, 1 Jun 2009 23:21:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262152/posts There was a time when the "$100,000 club" referred to San Francisco city workers making six figures. These days, it refers to the 480 retired city workers or their survivors who are knocking back $100,000 or more a year in pension money.At the top of the heap is former Police Chief Earl Sanders who, after serving 40 years in the Police Department, gets an annual pension of $222,768.Sanders' predecessor, former Chief Fred Lau, who retired after 31 years on the force, pulls down a $154,241 pension - even as he earns another six figures as head of security at Oakland... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262152/posts#comment Mon, 1 Jun 2009 14:38:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2259832/posts Mayor Gavin Newsom's Care Not Cash program turned 5 years old this month. And although it has been successful in placing more than 2,500 homeless people in supportive housing, it continues to face a major criticism. Once in housing, residents have little incentive to improve their lives by attending therapy sessions, taking necessary medications or enrolling in job training. Few residents ever move on to live without government welfare and many of them "work" by panhandling on the streets. At its worst, the program only moves troubled individuals off the street and into a hotel room, bringing their problems -... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2259832/posts#comment Thu, 28 May 2009 14:45:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2259826/posts Gay rights advocates Wednesday blasted two veteran attorneys for filing a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Proposition 8, California's voter-approved same-sex marriage ban, saying the move is premature and could be disastrous for the marriage movement. While they knew of the objections, attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies - who opposed each other during the 2000 Bush v. Gore presidential election case - filed the suit Friday in San Francisco on behalf of two same-sex couples who wanted to be married but were denied because of Prop. 8. The suit claims the voter-approved measure, which the California Supreme Court... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2259826/posts#comment Thu, 28 May 2009 14:40:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2259033/posts The next same-sex marriage battle in California will be fought over a referendum aimed at the November 2010 ballot that is likely to include door-to-door campaigning in Bible-belt areas of the state that backed Proposition 8. The battlegrounds will not be in San Francisco or West Hollywood but in places like Fresno, the geographic center of California where proponents of same-sex marriage will hold their first high-profile event Saturday. Starting with a 14.5-mile march in Selma - the Fresno County town with the same name as the Alabama city iconic to the 1960s civil rights movement - and ending with... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2259033/posts#comment Wed, 27 May 2009 14:37:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2259030/posts "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 Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2259030/posts#comment Wed, 27 May 2009 14:32:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2256582/posts 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... SFGate: Politics Blog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2256582/posts#comment Fri, 22 May 2009 22:16:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2253398/posts The Rev. Amos Brown of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco celebrates his 33rd year there with a special service at 3 p.m. June 7. The principal speaker is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, formerly of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, who was Barack Obama's minister before racially charged remarks during the campaign caused the candidate to break with his church. Brown and Wright attended United Theological Seminary together in Dayton, Ohio, and were both Samuel DeWitt Proctor Fellows, in a program devoted to social justice and a holistic style of leadership and church services. "I think it's... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2253398/posts#comment Mon, 18 May 2009 20:03:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2251932/posts So Mayor Gavin Newsom tells The Economist that if The Chronicle were to disappear "People under 30 won't even notice." Hey Mayor Twitter -- if you can hear us from wherever you are outside San Francisco -- that's not what you told CBS5 back in February when asked about the possible effect of a Chronicle closure. "I think it's a very serious concern for all of us," Newsom said waaaaaaaaay back then. "It is part of the fabric of our community. You cannot have a world-class city without a world-class newspaper. So I think it is a very serious concern... SFGate: Politics Blog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2251932/posts#comment Fri, 15 May 2009 23:43:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2251806/posts Everyone has an opinion about the dying newspaper industry, including Gavin Newsom. The SF leader turned gubernatorial candidate/media pundit apparently told The Economist if the Chronicle were to fold, "People under 30 won't even notice." This guy looks awfully familiar If that's the case, then people under 30 won't even notice you haven't been our mayor for more than a year. So, Gavin, whether you like it or not, it's time to burn through those frequent flier miles to come back here and take care of your constituents. San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2251806/posts#comment Fri, 15 May 2009 20:03:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2250467/posts Rockstar energy drink founder and CEO Russell Weiner - son of Michael Weiner, aka Bay Area-based, nationally broadcast conservative talk radio talk host Michael Savage - on Monday made a $25,000 contribution to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Yes, the son of Michael Savage, who just last October was saying Newsom is "in love again with the gay mafia" and "a whack-job as a mayor - 'Any-twosome' Newsom." Y’know, Savage — the guy the Brits don’t care to have around. Is this a case of the apple falling far from the tree? It's not as if the... Oakland Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2250467/posts#comment Thu, 14 May 2009 01:38:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2249799/posts SAN FRANCISCO, May 12 (UPI) -- Meghan McCain, the 24-year-old daughter of the 2008 Republican U.S. presidential nominee, could be the upcoming face of the GOP, political analysts say. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that the younger McCain has described herself as a pro-sex, "pro-life, pro-gay-marriage Republican." The newspaper said she appeals to younger Republicans, who could become known as the "Meghan McCain Republicans" -- interested in fiscal conservatism and less government involvement in peoples' private lives. "That's the kind of positioning it will take to appeal to more millennials," said Mike Hais, a fellow with NDN, the Washington... UPI http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2249799/posts#comment Wed, 13 May 2009 04:50:28 GMT