IT'S HARD TO get in the spirit of the holidays right now.

I just read in the Recorder, a local legal paper, that John Tennison and Antoine Goff were denied the financial compensation they're due for serving 13 years in prison for a crime they didn't commit. The Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board ruled that the two couldn't prove they were innocent, so they don't get the $100 a day they're owed. –It's so insane that you almost can't believe it. As A.C. Thompson has reported in great detail over the past three years, the two men were framed for murder by the San Francisco Police Department and the District Attorney's Office (see "The Hardest Time," 1/17/01), and their lawyers had to fight a long, ugly legal battle to convince a federal judge to overturn the verdict. Finally, then-D.A. Terence Hallinan admitted that the two never killed Roderick Shannon and had a court declare them "factually innocent."

But factually innocent wasn't good enough for the claims board. In fact, Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office argued against the claims. Here's how the Recorder summarized Lockyer's position:

" 'Factual innocence' doesn't mean you didn't do it," deputy attorney general Michael Farrell explained, speaking before the board hearing."

Well, then, what exactly does "factual innocence" mean?

The state of California owes Tennison and Goff roughly $500,000 each and ought to pay up. And Lockyer should be ashamed of himself for participating in this shabby escapade.

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Then there's the growing number of homeless people out on the streets on the increasingly cold and wet nights. They're out there, as we explain in an editorial on page 11, because Mayor Gavin Newsom's Care Not Cash has been an utter failure.

The idea Newsom put forth was to replace cash welfare payments with "care" packages – primarily supportive housing. But there isn't enough housing to go around (as critics pointed out from the start) – so instead, Newsom is sticking welfare recipients in shelters, calling that housing, and then cutting their monthly checks.

But to fit those people in the shelters, he's had to kick out others: immigrants, people who aren't on the city's welfare system, and people who just can't handle the CNC bureaucracy. And then a lot of the CNC people don't show up in the shelters, anyway – so there's an empty bed inside, while people sleep on the streets.

Happy holidays, Mr. Mayor.

Tim Redmond