For all the amazing stuff that emanates from the Bay Area, we have a few disgraceful elements here as well. Bechtel and the Hoover Institute spring to mind, but the worst of all is the fact that the chief architect of the Bush Administration's policy of sanctioning torture is UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo.
Tomorrow during graduation ceremonies for Boalt law school, protesters with Act Against Torture will converge to denounce Yoo and demand the school fire him. Details follow in the group's press release.

Continue reading "Torturing Yoo" »

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Posted by Steven T. Jones at 04:23 PM • Comments (1)

The official results are still pending, but it looks like PG&E investors may get a little more control over take-home pay for the top dogs at the corporation. That’s right, Mr. Peter Darbee. Me and my 14 shares of PG&E stock are coming after you and your $7,821,073 in compensation.

PG&E investors voting by proxy passed a shareholder proposal that would allow some “say on pay” when it comes to compensation for named executive officers of the company. At the May 14 annual meeting it was announced that 52 percent of proxy voters approved of the resolution, enough of a majority for it to pass, although votes from the couple hundred attendees of the meeting had not yet been tallied. An official count will be released Monday.

Continue reading "PG&E investors get “say on pay”" »

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Posted by Amanda Witherell at 04:15 PM • Comments (0)

Henry Waxman, the U.S. Congressman representing California’s 30th District, which includes West Hollywood and Beverley Hills, is spittin’ mad at private contractors in Iraq.

According to CNN, Waxman raged yesterday that the Pentagon allows private contractors to negotiate worker’s compensation without any major concern for competition between insurance providers to make sure taxpayers get a good deal. See, we bankroll workers’ comp for such companies, but the state department, the corps of engineers and other federal bodies that aren't the Pentagon make carriers compete to offer the federal government their coverage.

Meanwhile, insurance providers that sell the insurance to contractors for the defense department, like KBR and Blackwater, who then send us the bill, make huge profits of nearly 40 percent, according to Waxman. CNN quoted Waxman saying that during the last half decade, the four largest private insurers have made almost $600 million in profits through this system.

Continue reading "Profitting off injured contract workers in Iraq" »

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Posted by G.W. Schulz at 12:49 PM • Comments (0)

Anxiously counting down the weeks until the June election? Visit our new Election Center to listen to candidate interviews and vote for your favored State Senate District 3 hopeful there and on this blog to the right. We want to know what you think!

Also visit our Endorsements Page for our take on the upcoming races.

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Posted by Marke B. at 11:52 AM • Comments (1)

The superlatives are flowing in San Francisco today. “What a wonderful, wonderful day,” was how City Attorney Dennis Herrera opened the giddy press conference in City Hall today, a love fest event discussing and celebrating this morning’s California Supreme Court ruling legalizing same sex marriage.
“What a day for San Francisco!” beamed a jubilant Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose decision to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples in 2004 set off the legal struggle that resulted in the most important civil rights ruling in a generation. He told a large, smiling crowd how proud he was of this city, its values, and its courage to push hard for meaningful sociopolitical change.
“At the end of the day, that’s what I’m so proud of, San Francisco and the values we affirm,” Newsom said. “This is a great day for California, a great day for America, and a great day for the constitution.”
It was also a just plain great day, with hot weather contributing to a record-breaking Bike to Work Day. During the morning commute, a city survey counted twice as many bicycles as cars on Market Street, a 30 percent increase from the number of bicyclists last year.
Today is just one of those days when you fall in love with San Francisco all over again, when it feels like we have the power to really lead the rest of this troubled country in a new direction.

Continue reading "A perfect San Francisco day" »

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Posted by Steven T. Jones at 04:34 PM • Comments (1)

The California Supreme Court has legalized same sex marriage in California, ruling this morning on the case that stemmed from San Francisco's move in 2004 to unilaterally allow gay and lesbian couples to get hitched. This is a big day for Mayor Gavin Newsom (who decided the city should go ahead and issue marriage licenses to everyone, which was by far the boldest and best thing he's done from Room 200), City Attorney Dennis Herrera (who won the legal fight, making California just the second state to extend marriage rights to all Californians), and all residents of San Francisco and California.
The press conferences at City Hall kick off at noon and it's likely to be quite a celebration down there (mixed in with some apoplectic opponents of gay rights, I'm sure), so ride your bicycle on down and help mark a historic day for San Francisco.

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Posted by Steven T. Jones at 11:04 AM • Comments (4)

By Maria Dinzeo
While we've already dubbed Lennar Corporation "the corporation that ate San Francisco," representatives from five Bay Area environmental organizations today held a press conference to blast the corporation for creating Prop. G to gobble up the rest of Bayview Hunter's Point and Candlestick Point.

Esselene Stancil, a resident of Bayview since the 1950's, says this is nothing new. Change is often promised, but it always falls short. "I have seen many changes in the Bayview, and this change is not for us. We have plenty of parks. What we need is to take care of the one's we have. They promise us houses, but there are no houses being built out there that people will be able to afford."

There will, however, be plenty of luxury condominiums, chiefly in the Candlestick Point area, complete with a bridge connecting their wealthy owners with the freeway. John Rizzo of the SF Chapter of the Sierra Club said that Prop. G's plan to build a thoroughfare through Yosemite Slough is just another way of economically marginalizing Bayview residents. "This bridge is specifically for residents of the luxury condos in Candlestick Point so they don't have to drive through the Bayview and look at poor people," said Rizzo.

Rizzo also noted the dubious nature of the Prop. G campaign that promises the Bayview jobs, housing, and a new park. "It's deceptive advertising. Lennar promises the Bayview a park, but what they deliver are 15-story luxury condos and an astro-turf parking lot," he said. "The Bayview deserves real parks, and maintenance of those that already exist."

Said Stancil, "It's just another gimmick that these corporations always have. They are trying to blind us from the truth. But don't let them fool you."

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Posted by Steven T. Jones at 03:47 PM • Comments (0)

Gavin Newsom is a mayor who hates to make the tough decisions, and the proposal for three new power plants in Southeast San Francisco is his worst nightmare.

Newsom's own Public Utilities Commission is pushing the plan, and he's backed it in the past. Environmentalists are making a stink about it, and that's caused the mayor-who-wuold-be-green some headaches.

But the major reason he suddenly decided to ask for a delay in the power-plant vote may have nothing to do with environmental issues at all.

Seven lobbyists for Pacific Gas and Electric, led by Travis Kiyota, visited the mayor May 5th and told him that the giant utility would spend whatever it takes to stop the peakers, a reliable City Hall source tells me. Attending the meeting were Sup. Michela Alioto-Pier and PUC commissioner Dick Sklar, the source said.

According to this source's account, PG&E offered to pay for more power cables into the city, for an expensive demand-management program ... for just about anything that would prevent San Francisco from owning its own power plants.

I couldn't reach either Sklar or Alioto-Pier this afternoon. But Nathan Ballard, the mayor's press secretary, confirmed that the meeting took place:

On Monday, May 5, PG&E participated in a meeting to provide substantive expertise in the areas of energy efficiency, demand response and power generation and transmission. Along with staff from the Mayor's Office, Board of Supervisors, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Department of Environment, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, CA Public Utilities Commission (CAPUC), and the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), we were able to engage some of the most creative and knowledgeable experts in the room together as we work to identify alternatives to the current action plan.

Ballard also said that retrofitting the Mirant plant -- leaving the big privately owned polluter in place -- was "one of the options on the table."

As far as I can tell, there were no public-power advocates in the meeting.

So PG&E is still driving energy policy in the Mayor's Office. How nice.

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Posted by Tim Redmond at 01:29 PM • Comments (13)

As I predicted, Friday’s campaign kickoff event for Sup. Ross Mirkarimi wasn’t simply about whether he’ll be reelected to the Board of Supervisors. It was the launch of a movement to reshape San Francisco’s political landscape in a way that could maintain progressive control of the Board of Supervisors and propel Mirkarimi into the mayor’s office a few years from now.
Yet rather than relying strictly on a reenergized progressive movement, the event seemed to signal that Mirkarimi is aiming to create a bigger tent that capitalizes on his strength on criminal justice issues, among other domains of the moderates. Notably, those in attendance included two former mayors: Art Agnos (no surprise) and Willie Brown (big surprise, and a strong indicator that Mayor Gavin Newsom’s coalition is fraying).
As Sup. Aaron Peskin told the capacity crowd at Yoshi’s on Fillmore Street, “There may come a day when Ross is the chief executive of this city.”

Continue reading "Two former mayors help Mirkarimi launch campaign" »

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Posted by Steven T. Jones at 01:09 PM • Comments (4)

The San Francisco Chronicle came out today against the plan to build three combustion turbines, known as "peaker" plans, at the foot of Potrero Hill.

But while the editorial quoted both sides in what I agree is a complicated issue, the editors ignored one of the most alient points: The campaign agains the peakers is being funded largely by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Three missing letters, people: PG&E.

PG&E is underwriting the "Close It Coalition," which sounds like a group aiming to close an existing power plant. The problem, peaker proponents say, is that the Mirant power plant that's now pumping carbon and particulates into the air can't be closed down unless the power it produces is replaced, locally. That's what the state regulators are mandating That means significant new generation within city limits. And it means generating capacity that can run at night, when solar panels aren't firing.

PG&E doesn't want the peakers (which would produce about a third less pollution than the Mirant plant does) because they would be owned by the city; that's a step toward public power. The utility isn't worried about pollution or green power; this is a company that owns a nuclear power plant (on an earthquake fault). It's a company that is building its own fossil-fuel plants up and down the state.

No: for the major funder of the no-peakers effort, this is about preserving a power monopoly. Beginning and end of story.

I am dubious about the peakers, too. It's hard to support new fossil-fuel plants in San Francisco. But when you look at who's behind the anti-peaker campaign, the story gets a lot more complicated.

You wouldn't know that from reading the Chron's editorial.

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Posted by Tim Redmond at 06:39 PM • Comments (6)

Carole Migden got the Bay Area Reporter, which is a significant achievement since the B.A.R. has often tended more toward the moderate side of gay politics:

A sitting incumbent who has a solid record of accomplishment – both for the LGBT community and residents as a whole – should not be driven from office because she has a strong personality or has been gruff at times in her dealings with people.

Mark Leno got the Pacific Sun, the major alt-weekly in Marin, which complains that Migden has been out of touch with the North Bay part of the district:

When she first ran for this seat in '04 she alienated large numbers of local people, including Democrats, at a San Rafael Chamber of Commerce candidates' event and in other actions that made it clear she had little interest in the parts of the 3rd District north of the Golden Gate. While she says she was quietly working on Marin issues, including solving a Sausalito houseboat problem, in the first part of her term, most people saw her as out of touch with Marin. From the time Mark Leno declared his intent to run for her seat, she has been a legislative dynamo on North Bay issues.

Joe Nation's got the landlords.

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Posted by Tim Redmond at 06:08 PM • Comments (1)

The Marin Organizing Committee held a rally May 8th in San Rafael that attracted all three state Senate candidates to discuss issues of social welfare in the county. More than 600 people showed up, and by Marin standards, that’s a huge crowd.

Among the top issues: Prop. 98, the horrible ballot measure that would end rent control in California.

All three candidates say they are against 98.

Mark Leno and Carole Migden got to the rally on time. Joe Nation was a bit late. The reason: He had to stop first in San Francisco – at a fundraiser sponsored by some of the same landlord groups that are funding Yes on 98.

That’s right: Nation went and took some big checks from the pro-Prop. 98 landlords, then drove across the bridge for a No on 98 rally.

Lisa Christensen, Nation’s campaign manager, told me that Nation “has been against Prop. 98 from the start, and wears his No on 98 button everywhere he goes.” As for his alliance with the landlords? “San Francisco politics is a melee,” she said. “Some of my dearest friends are passionately against me on some issues, and we work together on others.”

I wonder if he took the No on 98 button off for the landlord party.

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Posted by Tim Redmond at 04:31 PM • Comments (3)

My old pal Andy Van De Voorde is back. Village Voice Media, which owns the SF Weekly and is now pleading poverty, managed to fly Van De Voorde and the two top comany executives, Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin, in to San Francisco for the hearing Friday on our lawsuit. And Van De Voorde, writing as The Snitch, has put forward a remarkable work of journalistic whining.

Oh, dear, says Andy; Judge Marla Miller is prepared to accept the jury's verdict after a five-week trial and follow the law by issuing an injunction. Requiring the Weekly to follow the law would violate the First Amendment.

There are a couple of key points that he misses.

One is that courts have found consistently over the years that newspapers, despite their First Amendment protections, are also businesses -- in some cases, big businesses -- and have to follow the same sorts of basic regulations as all other businesses. It costs money to comply with OSHA rules, the National Labor Relations Act, and environmental laws. It's costing the Guardian (and, I assume, the Weekly) a bit of cash to comply with the city's new health-insurance law. Should those laws be invalidated because complying with them means I as an editor have less money to spend on reporters and freelancers?

Be serious.

The other point that he misses is that the Unfair Practices Act, the Progressive Era law designed to keep small business from being destroyed by giant predatory competitors, actually promotes the goals of the First Amendment, which, history tells us, include the notion that a broad variety of voices in the marketplace of ideas make for a healthy democracy.

Preventing one large media company from driving a locally owned competitor out of business is a positive result.

See, the Weekly can whine about the First Amendment all it wants, but a jury found that the 16-paper chain, with revenues of some $150 million a year, that owns the Weekly, was trying to silence a First Amendment-protected local San Francisco voice. The Weekly wanted to shut us down, in part because the owners of the chain don't like what we have to say and the way we say it.

Um, Andy, isn't there a First Amendment issue there?

If the Weekly now wants to whine about the size of the verdict, let me say for the record that we have warned these folks repeatedly, going back more than five years, that they were violating the law. When we first sent a warning letter, we asked for no damages at all; all we wanted was for the predatory activity to cease. We filed suit only because we had no other choice -- and even after years of litigation, the jury found that the below-cost selling continued, up to the moment of the verdict.

And now we have no choice but to ask for an injunction, to do what we tried to do from the start: Make these guys follow the law.

Now the Weekly and its parent, Village Voice Media, have resorted to trying to overturn the Unfair Practices Act and complain about their First Amendment Rights.

Boys: As my late grandfather, the Honorable James C. O'Brien, a New York State Supreme Court judge, used to say, you made your bed -- now eat it.

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Posted by Tim Redmond at 08:36 PM • Comments (0)

Okay, John McCain has yet another problem with his connections to crazy bigoted preachers. Check this out.

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Posted by Tim Redmond at 06:02 PM • Comments (0)

Judge Marla Miller appeared poised May 9th to finalize a $15.6 million award to the Bay Guardian and to issue an injunction barring SF Weekly from continuing to sell ads below cost.

In a post-trial hearing on the Guardian’s lawsuit against the Weekly and its chain parent, Miller said she was inclined to rule that some, but not all of the damages a jury awarded to the Guardian in March should be trebled. And she said in a tentative ruling that she was prepared to issue an order forbidding the Weekly from engaging in further predatory behavior.

The ruling hit the front page of Sfgate this afternoon with the headline "SF Weekly loses big, again."

Continue reading "Guardian poised for legal victory" »

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Posted by Tim Redmond at 05:44 PM • Comments (2)