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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- We're finally hearing from the woman at the center of the child pornography case against former KGO Radio host Bernie Ward. Until now, you haven't seen her face and didn't know much about her except that she went by the screen name "Sexfairy" and called police when Ward sent her child porn. Please note: Understand that before reading this story or watching the interview that the topic is graphic and may be disturbing to some.

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 -- Talk about strange bedfellows. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, and John McCain, the Republican presumptive nominee, joined forces this week to repeatedly remind voters that Barack Obama was - where else? - in San Francisco when he talked about "bitter" American workers who "cling" to religion and guns out of frustration. And in the latest 2008 presidential campaign brouhaha, the City by the Bay has again become a potent symbol for that perceived liability of Democratic candidates: a tendency to be flaky, out of touch and entirely too liberal to appeal to Joe Sixpack...

Every two months, Valentina visits about 30 men enrolled in San Francisco's "john school" to tell them a sex story they don't want to hear. The men are part of the city's First Offender Prostitution Program because they've been arrested for soliciting a prostitute, usually in the Mission or Tenderloin. If they agree to pay a $1,000 fee and spend a Saturday afternoon listening to sex-trafficking experts, neighborhood activists and doctors who subject them to photographs of venereal diseases, the district attorney's office will drop the misdemeanor charge. Valentina, a striking Russian woman with jet-black hair (to protect her privacy,...

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...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The attorney for the man accused of arson and vandalism in the Feb. 22 trashing of the historic San Francisco fire chief's home argued unsuccessfully for a lower bail today, saying the incident amounted to a "symbolic gesture" against the man's companion, the city's planning director. Lance Farber, 47, the domestic partner of San Francisco planning chief John Rahaim, remains in custody on $1 million bail stemming from the incident, in which a bed was set on fire and crushed tomatoes smeared on the walls of the residence at 870 Bush St. on Nob Hill. Judge Loretta...

Bail was set at $1 million today for the San Francisco planning director's companion, who is accused of setting fire to historic Nob Hill residence of the fire chief where the couple were living. Lance Farber, 47, pleaded not guilty to felony arson and vandalism in a brief appearance at the Hall of Justice, shortly before Superior Court Judge John Conway set bail. "I am concerned that this is a public safety issue," the judge said. Farber was ordered to return to court Friday after being evaluated for migraine headaches. His lawyer said the headaches have worsened since Farber was...

Dear San Francisco, I love you. You've raised me the hard way, you've lovingly taught me about diversity and compassion and understanding, and most importantly how to say things like, "You go, girl — and take those tacky shoes with you." Our relationship means more to me than anything. But now I feel like I'm getting all grown up on you, and have to get a nagging issue off my B-cups: It is cold and rainy outside. In fact, it's freezing. If you must go out, please put some clothes on. It's not that I don't enjoy the bobbing bits...

Seeing Mayor Gavin Newsom on the national stage with former president Bill Clinton on Monday night is a reminder of how political winds can change. On the eve of the biggest night of the presidential primaries, Newsom shared the spotlight during a town hall meeting staged and broadcast on cable TV and satellite radio by the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign. But just four years ago, current Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is said to have declined to have his picture taken in San Francisco with Newsom, who was then at the center of a national uproar over his decision to...

SAN FRANCISCO -- President Bush paid a rare visit to the Bay Area Wednesday, ending a day in California that was all economics, all the time. Bush kept intact his record of never visiting San Francisco during his presidency. Instead, he flew into San Francisco International Airport late in the afternoon and immediately went by motorcade to Hillsborough, where he dropped by a dinner for the Republican National Committee. Earlier in the day, Bush joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, chatting with workers on the floor of Robinson Helicopter and urging the Senate to pass...

Dressed in a tan cloth coat and crocheted white hat and pulling a wheeled shopping basket behind her, Eve Rojek trudged up and down Castro Street in a sputtering rain the other day. She walked up a stretch of sidewalk between 18th and 19th streets and then down and then back up again. Rojek is an actress, cast as a middle-aged extra in a long-anticipated feature film about the life and death of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk that began shooting in the city last week. Like everyone and everything in view of the camera, Rojek needed to convey the...

KGO radio's popular "Godtalk" show will stay on the air whether its embattled host returns or not, a spokesman for the all-chat channel said Friday. NewsTalk 810 fired Bernie Ward in December after he was indicted on two counts of possessing and distributing pornographic images of children, charges that stem from a period at the end of 2004 and the beginning of 2005. Ward said he was researching a book on hypocrisy. He has pleaded not guilty. A trial is set for June 9. In addition to "Godtalk," Ward also talked politics on the nightly "Bernie Ward Show." Fans have...

San Francisco (AP) -- A transgender woman is suing a Catholic hospital in Daly City, claiming medical officials blocked her from getting surgery there because she had a sex-change operation. Fifty-seven-year-old Charlene Hastings already had one major surgery she needed to become a woman. But she says when she called Seton Medical Center to inquire about breast enlargement surgery, an official told her it wasn't "God's will" for her to get that treatment. Hastings says her plastic surgeon told her Seton wouldn't allow him to operate on transgender patients...

The last I head about Gavin's personal life, and trust me, I'm keeping tabs, he had the worst weekend of his life in Hawaii. Was it because a little funky oil killed a fish? Nope. It was probably because his gal pal doesn't know how to party. We haven't seen much of Swiss Miss lately, and one has to wonder: Worst weekend of his life? Really? Did they break up? Wouldn't that make it the best? I'm confused. In the spirit of Britney Spears' apparent former flame JT Turnstall or whatever, who announced in his personal ad that we've all...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will join Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on the presidential campaign trail when she comes to town on Tuesday - and Republicans couldn't be happier about it. The way they see it, the more face time the pro-gay-marriage, pro-sanctuary-city, pro-gun-control mayor of the most leftist, liberal city in America spends with the Democratic front-runner, the better. A recent news release distributed by the Republican National Committee to political reporters around the country lambasted Newsom as "Hillary's San Francisco Treat" and took a direct guilt-by-association swipe at Clinton by highlighting the mayor's signature last month on a...

San Francisco -- Bernie Ward, a popular San Francisco radio talk show host and former Catholic priest, has been indicted on federal child pornography charges, authorities said today.

SAN FRANCISCO — About 15 people marched alongside the Muslim float in this city’s notoriously fleshy Gay Pride Parade earlier this year, with various men carrying the flags of Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Turkey and even Iran’s old imperial banner. While other floats featured men dancing in leather Speedos or women with scant duct tape over their nipples, many Muslims were disguised behind big sunglasses, fezzes or kaffiyehs wrapped around their heads. Even as they reveled in newfound freedom compared with the Muslim world, they remained closeted, worried about being ostracized at the mosque or at their local falafel stand.

Even before the first vote was counted in Tuesday's election, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and District Attorney Kamala Harris were laying tracks for their next big moves. For Newsom, who still has more than $300,000 in campaign money in the bank, it will mostly likely be a 2010 run for governor, heading a nonprofit or going back to making money until the Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein perhaps opens up in 2012. For Harris, it's probably either a run for state attorney general in 2010 or for mayor the following year.Oddly enough, both their futures depend largely on...

Gavin Newsom's political strategist Eric Jaye jokes that he already knows what the analysis of today's mayoral election will be. "However many votes we get," Jaye says, "we know the Bay Guardian will say it wasn't enough." He's got a point. In most elections, pundits try to pick the winner. That's already been handled in this one. Newsom will certainly win a second term as mayor in a cakewalk over a group of offbeat candidates. That's not in doubt. But it does lead to a second question, best expressed by local political consultant Mark Mosher, who asks, "What kind of...

Fresh on the heels of my SFGate column on San Francisco's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and their juvenile and disrespectful publicity stunt involving receiving Communion in full drag at Most Holy Redeemer Parish comes word of local anti-Christian sentiment taken to the highest degree. It seems that San Francisco "performance artist" Paul Addis (formerly known as the arsonist who couldn't wait to torch the Burning Man festival's large wooden icon) decided to set his sights on San Francisco's historic Grace Cathedral. Addis was arrested last Sunday night on the steps of the cathedral wearing an explosives belt and, according to...