By G.W. Schulz

The police department sent out a press release earlier today complaining about an Examiner article from last Friday highlighting the city's dismal homicide arrest rate. The department's press office wants you to know that the article appears to have relied exclusively on statistics from a state criminal justice Web site.

First of all, here’s what they had to say:

“The statistics as presented in the article did not include many homicide arrests. For example, they do not reflect the recently much publicized federal gang indictments for murder … The department does not believe the statistics as presented in the article were intentionally misleading, but we believe that it is important to provide accurate data to set the record straight. The department has asked the Examiner to correct these errors to ensure that the public’s perception of our efforts in violence reduction [are] not undermined.”

Well isn’t that sweet. The department just wants clean numbers. That’s all. The problem is, their numbers don’t inspire much faith.

By Steven T. Jones
Contrary to the demented hopes of conservative ideologues like the Examiner's Ken Garcia, there is no joy on the left over the sordid sex scandal that has now engulfed Mayor Gavin Newsom. Sure, it opens up this year's mayor's race and illustrates some of the character flaws of Newsom's administration, which have manifested themselves in how he conducts himself professionally, not just personally. But nobody's happy to see this, not the Guardian (which has also heard these rumors for the last six months but couldn't confirm the story enough to print it) nor the politicians and activists on the left. Several of them happened to be gathered last night when the news hit, and I can tell you there was no glee in that room. Sup. Chris Daly's public comments have been respectful and reserved and in private, he genuinely felt bad for Alex Tourk. Everybody did. Matt Gonzalez, who has been rumored to be considering a run for mayor, spent more time considering how this incident places City Hall in a bad light and in legal jeopardy than he did calculating his own prospects. And my sweetie Alix Rosenthal, who is president of the National Women's Political Caucus, and the other women in the room are bracing for attempts to inappropriately delve into Ruby Tourk's private life and are ready to fight back if Newsom's people or their proxies go that route.
In the coming days or weeks, after the shock of this wears off and it becomes acceptable to make jokes or calculate its political implications, we'll rejoin the battle for this city's soul and actively try to help point the way forward from here. But today, we're all just shaking our heads.

by Amanda Witherell

U.S. District Court Judge William H. Alsup has again denied release of Josh Wolf, the 24-year-old journalist in jail. Wolf's attorneys had filed a Grumbles motion which argued that no matter how long Wolf is in jail, he will not change his position. Therefore, his incarceration is undue punishment and illegal. Judge Alsup ruled Tuesday, Jan. 30 that it's still possible jail could have a coercive effect and Wolf is to stay put.

On February 7, if Wolf is still behind bars he'll have outlegged Houston's Vanessa Leggett as the longest journalist ever incarcerated. And journalism isn't even a crime!

Wolf was subpoenaed by a Federal grand jury for exercising his First Amendment rights and withholding raw video footage and refusing to testify about what was on the tape. It was shot during a July 2005 G-8 rally in San Francisco that turned violent: a San Francisco Police officer was seriously wounded and a cruiser destroyed and the authorities have always claimed they want to see if those acts were captured by Wolf's camera. Wolf has always maintained that they weren't, and the intimation has been that this is an attempt to coerce Wolf into identifying other protesters at the rally.

In other freedom of the press news, the subpoena for journalist Sarah Olson has been dropped. Lieutenant Ehren Watada, who was court-martialed for refusing deployment to Iraq and speaking out against the illegal war, has stated that everything he told Olson was true, so now she doesn't have to go to court and say it or go to jail for not saying it. Hooray!

By Tim Redmond

I don't care about the mayor's sex life. Frankly, I'd rather not think about it. If he had an affair with a good friend's wife, that's between them. Makes him look like a jerk, but whatever.

There is, however, a more serious issue here, which is that Ruby Tourk was Newsom's employee. An at-will employee who could be fired at any time, at the mayor's call. That's why the city may well get sued here, and why this is really kind of a problem.

It really was, to quote the mayor, a lapse in judgment for the chief executive of a major city. Big time.

It’s Getting Hot in Here
Sarah Phelan
Hours before all hell broke loose over at City hall over news that he'd been having an affair, Mayor Gavin Newsom showed up at the SFPUC's Climate Change summit to endorse long overdue efforts to combat global warming.

“God’s delays are God’s denials,” began Newsom, blissfully unaware that his former appointments secretary Roby Rippey-Tourk was about to confess to her husband Alex Tourk about the affair, and that Tourk would immediately confront the mayor--and resign from his post as Newsom's campaign manager. Ouch.

Looking chill in his trademark ice-blue tie, Newsom remarked that there had been no snow in the Alps during his recent trip to Davos, Switzerland, little suspecting that he'd be quite so red-faced by the end of the day.

In addressing climate change today, observed Newsom, “we’re burdened with mistakes from the past," adding that this past, and not just the future, must be part of “the next narrative.”
Expressing enthusiasm for tidal wave and solar power, and efforts to measure where we're at with our carbon emissions’ levels , the Gavsta wrapped up saying, “We’re willing to take great risks in San Francisco.”

And then Newsom was gone, little guessing that while water managers heard incontrovertible evidence that global temperatures and sea levels are rising, bringing a host of nasty side effects and consequences, he'd be finding himself up to his neck in political and emotional hot water as a result of his own past denials and risk takings. Double Ouch.

By Steven T. Jones
There were lots of different ways that Gavin Newsom could have reacted to news that he was having sex with an at-will employee who was also married to his close friend and top adviser, but almost all of them involved an apology. Here’s what he chose to say this morning, in its entirety, followed by why I think he has fallen short and sown the seeds for dragging out this scandal longer than necessary:

“Thank you for coming here on such short notice. I want to make it clear that everything you’ve heard and read is true and I’m deeply sorry about that. I’ve hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk and his friends and family, and that is something I have to live with and something that I’m deeply sorry for. I am also sorry that I’ve let the people of San Francisco down. They expect a lot of their mayor and my personal lapse of judgment aside, I am committed to restoring their trust and confidence and will work very hard in the coming months to make sure the business of running this city is framed appropriately. I also want to extend a personal apology to everyone in our administration, to my staff who I just met with, to my friends and my family members. I am deeply sorry and I am accountable for what has occurred and have now begun the process of reconciling it and will now begin working aggressively to advance our agenda in this city and to work hard to build again the trust, to restore the trust, that the people of San Francisco have afforded me. I appreciate everyone taking the time to be here today. Thank you very much.”

By Steven T. Jones
At the end of yesterday's sex scandal whirlwind, I finally got a chance to talk with Newsom press secretary Peter Ragone about the scandal that got pushed aside by the larger scandal: Ragone being caught using pseudonyms in online posts and then lying to cover it up. Contrary to how this has been cast by the Chronicle and KCBS, Ragone has not truly owned up to what he did or shown any signs of wanting to restore his damaged credibility -- something he'll surely need as he tries to manage the other scandal and help Newsom re-engage with the public and the Board of Supervisors.

By Sarah Phelan

"Eturb, ut te" is "Et tu, Brutus" spelled backwards.

As such it seems a fittingly ass-backwards phrase to sum up the dynamics of the Newsom affair, which is so Shakespearian in terms of the lust, the lies and the betrayals, which ultimately led to yesterday's potentially career-shattering revelations, yet seems so ass-backwards in so many ways. Very very suturbing.

By Tim Redmond

Our editorial on this whole mess is here

By Tim Redmond

Newsom backs same-wife marriage

By Tim Redmond

From the what-did-they-know-and-when-did-they-know-it department:

Fog City Journal reported friday that the folks at that online pub had asked Ruby Tourk in December about the rumors of her affair with the mayor. A short excerpt:

When we asked Ms. Tourk in early December about the deafening whispers, she denied everything and clammed up. She became incensed and told the mayor's inner circle.

That's when Luke Thomas, Editor-in-Chief of Fog City Journal, got a hostile phone call from Eric Jaye - Newsom's campaign strategist - within minutes of Thomas speaking with Ms. Tourk seeking comment on the alleged affair. Jaye threatened Thomas with a libel/slander lawsuit if he published anything on the matter. It was like begging for the term "Rubygate."

Well, that's odd: Eric Jaye is a spinmeister not above twisting the truth to protect his candidates, but he's not a fool -- and he knows as well as I do that truth is an absolute defense against libel (and that libel suits in these types of situations tend to be even messier than the original mess). So what was that all about?

I called Jaye and he told me that the FCJ report was absoutely true: He did call Thomas and threaten legal action. Why? "Because Ruby Tourk called me and told me that they were going to publish a story about her having an affair with the mayor, and that it wasn't true, and she needed my help. She's a good friend, and when people threaten my friends, I react."

So if Jaye is telling me the truth, back in early December -- remember, this is only a couple of months ago -- Ruby Tourk was still denying the affair, and Jaye, one of the more sophisticated and experienced political consultants in town, was buying her line.

By then, I can tell you from personal experience, the story was all over City Hall. I wasn't going to put it in the paper (not our kind of story anyway, and we don't print this sort of rumor), but almost everyone I talked to knew about it and they all said it was bound to come out soon.

Jaye must have heard the rumors, too, and if he didn't talk to the mayor about them (and about how to respond) he should be fired; watching the mayor's (political) ass is his job, and he gets paid quite well for it. Which suggests that either (a) Ruby Tourk was in fact still denying the affair two months ago, and so was the mayor, and Jaye and others in the inner Newsom circle really didn't think it was true, or allowed themselves to be convinced that it wasn't true -- in which case Newsom lied directly to his closest political advisors, which is pretty damn dumb, or (b) there has been a lot more spin and orchestration going on here than anyone in the press or the Mayor's Office has acknowledged.

by Amanda Witherell

Well, it's not exactly cause for celebration, but Tuesday, February 6 will be Josh Wolf's 169th day in jail and he'll now be known as the journalist with the longest record of incarceration for contempt in US history. There's a press conference at noon on the steps of City Hall and speakers include Assemblymember Mark Leno, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, journalist Sarah Olson who just shed her own prison duds, and filmmaker Kevin Epps, as well as various first amendment lawyers and media advocates.

The real party is Tuesday night at 8 pm at House of Shields at 39 New Montgomery Street. MAP It's a benny to raise funds for Wolf and it's sure to be a good time. (At the last one they gave out excellent "Journalism is not a crime!" Free Josh t-shirts when you donated $15. Totally worth it.)

By Tim Redmond

So Gavin Newsom admits he has a drinking problem and is going to get counseling. Good for him. I hope he joins AA, goes to meetings, takes it seriously and cleans himself up. If he really has an alcohol problem, it won't be easy, and he deserves all the support he can get.

But frankly, his brand of treatment sounds a bit weak. He's not going into residential rehab; he's not giving up any of his duties. He's going to get some help from Mimi Silbert at Delancey Street, and even she is a bit shakey about what's going on, according to the Chron:

"It's true,'' Silbert said. "I don't know if I would use the word 'counseling,' but I will be helping the mayor."

I wish him luck, and I really mean it. I have had plenty of alcoholic friends, one of whom died of it, and it's no joke. But if all he's going to do is quit drinking and call Mimi Silbert every now and then, well, he really didn't need to make a big deal of it, and hold a staff meeting and tell everyone. Again: He's not going into rehab and isn't planning to miss any work. And if, as his campaign consultant Eric Jaye says, Newsom isn't blaming the alcohol for his bad behavior, then why can't he just do it quietly? Why the big announcement?

Well, because claiming a drinking problem and "seeking treatment" is a great excuse for a politician who's been caught in a sex scandal.

I hate to be a cynic, but I'm reminded of Bill Clinton telling the nation that he was seeking spiritual counseling -- from Jesse Jackson -- after the Monica Lewinsky affair.

(SFist had the great line:

We also wonder if he'll do AA like Ruby did and so have to confess to everyone who he has wronged. Imagine that press conference.)

By G.W. Schulz

Welcome to another edition of "What's the cop union pissed about now?" where we summarize the open contempt and paranoia filling the POA Journal, the official publication of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, which leads each month with a generally aimless yet sometimes hilarious diatribe on somebody or something in the city from the union's outspoken president Gary Delagnes.

By Tim Redmond

I still wonder if our mayor is really an android. A Soong-type android.

I mean, Data had some problems of his own when he hit the Polywater.

By Steven T. Jones
There are lots of icky aspects to Mayor Newsom's sex scandal, most not actually involving the sex which, lets face it, involved two hot young people. No, the icky parts deal with the betrayal of a close friend, the reckless disregard for his public responsibilities, and what it says about Newsom's character. And for me, someone who first heard the rumors early last year, one of my big "what a jerk!" moments came last June when the mayor-appointed Taxi Commission sacked the mayor's hand-picked director, Heidi Machen, and the Chron asked Newsom to comment on the embarrassing political gaffe. What did he do? He actually blamed Ruby Tourk, the appointments secretary who he had been sleeping with and who was off in rehab dealing with the aftermath of the affair and her substance abuse issues. What kind of person does that? Probably someone who needs more intensive counseling than it sounds like he intends to seek as he continues to run the city and run for reelection.

By Steven T. Jones
Mayor Gavin Newsom has refused to take any questions about his affair or drinking problem -- and we don't intend to turn to his press secretary for answers anymore -- so I called his campaign spokesperson Eric Jaye this afternoon to pose a couple questions and let him know that we expect to pose a few more directly to Newsom, whether or not he wants to answer them. Luckily, we're patient and we buy our ink by the barrel, so we're in no hurry.
Jaye said the reports that Alex Tourk is still being paid by the campaign (potentially a violation of campaign finance laws) is not accurate. And he said Ruby Tourk never received any payments either. "There have been no payments whatsoever to anyone (connected to the scandals) for anything. We won't do anything until three attorneys sign off on it," he told us. "We don't want to compound an error in judgment by making a campaign finance error." But Jaye did say the campaign feels an obligation to help Tourk make ends meet until he can find a new job, a task that he expects to have good legal advice on in the next day or two. "He's a great guy who doesn't deserve any of this...We don't right now know how to pay him or if we can through the campaign."
The other big question was how Newsom can expect to seriously deal with his alcohol and other personal problems while reengaging with his job as mayor and standing for reelection. No surprise that Jaye feels like Newsom is up to it, but he did say the campaign comes last on that list: "The priority is for Gavin Newsom to do what he has to do to be a better mayor and be a better person...In the scheme of things, the campaign comes after that."
Does that mean that the campaign could get squeezed out once Newsom learns about what kind of program he'll face at Delancey Street Foundation and if the job of being mayor is made all the tougher by his recent scandals and his handling of them? Might Newsom not run? Jaye categorically rejected the idea that Newsom might not run, noting that he might have less time to personally campaign, but the campaign will move forward anyway. "Absolutely he's running to reelection and he's going to run a successful campaign."

By Chris Albon
Mayor Gavin Newsom is still dodging questions about his affair with his campaign manager’s wife and his alcohol problem, even as masses of reporters show up at his public appearances, such as today’s event touting a PG&E program.
The small press conference at the Academy of Art University on San Francisco’s new $11.5 million Energy Watch program, sponsored primarily by PG&E, was Newsom’s first event since he announced yesterday that he was seeking treatment for alcohol abuse at Delancey Street Foundation.
Newsom was 15 minutes late and a small crowd of reporters were anxiously loitering and watcing every Lincoln Town car that crept through lunchtime traffic. When the limo finally arrived, Newsom locked in a smile, looked forward, and walked in the building to PG&E’s display table of high-tech light bulbs.
The mood was tense and the event’s organizers and the mayor’s staff seemed skeptical that the media was there to get information on the plan to distribute more energy efficient light bulbs to small businesses.
“I know many of you are here because you care so deeply about climate change,” was how Jared Blumenfeld, director of the San Francisco department of the environment, expressed his cynicism.
When Blumenfeld introduced Newsom to speak, the room was awkwardly quiet. No one applauded.
“Thank you everyone, for the applause,” Newsom said. Only then did the small crowd applaud.
After his speech on the new plan, the mayor did take questions, but he was not going to dive into the affair or his alcohol problem.
“Any more questions,” Newsom asked adding, “on this issue?” before it was too late.
As the mayor walked out, I thought it a perfectly appropriate and respectful question to ask the mayor “if there was going to be a time when he would take questions on his alcoholism or his affair,” but apparently he didn’t agree.
“You’ve taken liberty with the question,” he said.
I took that as a “no.” Maybe I should have asked why a mayor who purports to support public power was helping to prop up PG&E’s aggressive greenwashing efforts. Next time.

By Steven T. Jones
So the Examiner thinks we should all just back off of Mayor Gavin Newsom, in the process contradicting its own reporter's story a few pages earlier on how brittle and unaccountable Newsom has been behaving. If the mayor had announced he was taking some time off to deal with his problems, then the Ex editorial might have a point. After all, Newsom clearly has some problems and it can't be easy dealing with a pack of reporters who have questions that he's not willing to answer. But Newsom wants to stay on the job, and that job is a difficult one that entails dealing with the media and the Board of Supervisors. Newsom refuses to answer legitimate questions, but its the job of journalists to keep asking them until he does, and the job of supervisors to help lead this city. While the Ex editorial got it embarrassingly wrong, the Chron editorial was right on. This mayor has an obligation to engage with supervisors and the media, and his scripted and controlled town hall meetings, like the one planned for this Saturday in Bayview, don't count. We deserve an honest, engaged, and accountable mayor. He chose the job, and now he chose to remain in that job without taking any time off and to run for reelection. Newsom's problems are of his own making, and he's making them worse by behaving as if he deserves a free pass.

By Sarah Phelan

No wonder District 6 Sup. Chris Daly wants to clean up election finance dirt.
Last November, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, the Police Officers Association, the Building Owners and Managers Association and San Francisco SOS participated in massive independent expenditure campaigns in a dirty and ultimately unsuccessful effort to unseat District 6 Sup. Chris Daly.
These dirty tricks included push polls that planted nastily negative ideas about Daly, such as he hates the police--smears hat were then followed by what Daly’s aide John Avalos describes as “robocalls from Mayor Gavin Newsom,” plus mailers featuring pictures of Daly that make him look like he’s crazily shouting at the police. Nice.
These kinds of hit jobs were financed by money that originated from GGRA, POA, BOMA, and SFSOS.

By Sarah Phelan

“I thought this was going to be about Newsom resigning,” said a bicyclist, who’d screeched to a halt to see what yesterday’s noon-time commotion at City Hall was about.
No such mayoral luck (for now) and definitely no sign of the disgraced Newsom as demonstrators gathered on the steps of City Hall to protest the continuing incarceration of freelance journalist Josh Wolf.
At 169 days inside, Wolf has made it into the Guiness Book of Records as the longest-imprisoned journalist in U.S. History. It's a record that anyone who’s serious about gathering, spreading and accessing information in this age of faux news and spin control can’t help admiring and respecting the 24-year-old Wolf for setting, because handing over your notes, photos or video footage to the feds is not OK, at least not if you want your sources to take you seriously whenever you interview, tape, film them, or promise them confidentiality.
It’s a point Sup. Ross Mirkarimi evidently gets, as witnessed by the impassioned speech the Mirkster delivered at the Feb. 6 Free Josh Wolf rally. Incensed by US District Judge William Alsup, who’s holding Wolf in contempt for refusing to handover video outtakes of a July 2005 anarchist protest turned violent, and outraged by the US Attorney’s Office, who claims Wolf isn’t really a journalist, Mirkarimi encouraged the crowd to join in “loud solidarity against thuggery.”
“Judge Alsup is the ‘alleged’ judge. He should not be on the bench adjudicating,” declared Mirkarimi, flanked by Sup, Tom Ammiano and Jake McGoldrick.
As for the missing Mayor Newsom, Mirkarimi gave the Gavsta a piece of his mind, too, observing that when the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in support of Wolf and the need for federal shield laws Newsom didn’t sign the resolution. (Hiss! Boo! Buck buck buck.)
Mirkarimi spoke in equally scathing manner of District Attorney Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, neither of whom advocated for Wolf in the wake of his incarceration last fall.
“At the very least, they should use their bully pulpit, even if they don’t have the legal reach,” Mirkarimi intoned. “ It does not speak well of the city with the progressive values to stand back in this case. This is not a fringe movement. I don’t care if Josh Wolf s a journalist, a freelancer or a blogger. He’s part of the wave of the future. I’m angry as hell about this. At 169 days inside, there should be a serious outcry.”

By Tim Redmond

Randy Shaw is calling on the mayor to fire Press Secretary Peter Ragone, saying that Ragone lacks loyalty. Maybe so, although I still think there's a lot more spin going on here than meets the eye.

But the bigger issue that Shaw entirely misses is this: Peter Ragone lies to the press. Nobody is going to trust him any more, so he can't do his job. That's the problem.

By Tim Redmond

Everyone's kind of ducking around it, but according to the Ex, there's someone in San Mateo County with money who wants to see if Jackie Speier could challenger Tom Lantos for his Congressional seat. Former state Senator Speier is ambitious and out of a job; Lantos is decidedly to the right of his district and needs to retire. Hmmmm.

By Steven T. Jones
Since breaking the Newsom affair story, the Chronicle has done little to further their story, content to fill the papers with boring reaction pieces. And now, they are apparently back to Newsom cheerleading with the front page story "Newsom's reelection prospects look good," in which they interview only Newsom backers to reach their entirely unsupported conclusion. And yes, this piece of garbage was the work of the paper's most misleading political hack, Carla Marinucci (who hasn't yet answered by e-mail with questions about the story).
Meanwhile, buried in the Chron but played a bit more prominently in the Examiner is the real news of the day: Newsom will pay Alex Tourk his promised salary of $15,000 per month out of his own pocket. That's because of the questions about the legality of using regulated campaign money for such payoffs.
Question: If the guy who betrayed you and fucked your wife had to pay your salary until you found a new job, how much of a hurry would you be in to find one? Alex, you've been through a lot, it might be time for an extended vacation.

By Sarah Phelan

The Right Hand Man

If Shakespeare were alive, he’d be penning The Right Hand Man , a three-act play exploring the potent mix of narcissism, self-doubt, control freakishness and horniness that led Mayor Gavin Newsom to roundly betray himself and former campaign manager Alex Tourk, by sleeping with Tourk’s wife, Ruby Rippey Tourk.
At least that way, folks would get some kind of analysis of what Newsom was thinking during that secretive, backstabbing time, something they won’t get as long as Newsom refuses to talk to the press. Newsom's silence only makes the rumor mills spin faster, as people are reduced to browsing back copies of San Francisco magazine, in which the topic of why Gavin isn’t smiling is explored, including Newsom answers on what dating was like post-divorce. (“It’s impossible. It’s very hard. It’s awkward at best…it’s been very unsuccessful,” Newsom replies.)
Then there’s “The Right Hand Man” profile of Alex Tourk in 7x7 magazine, in which Tourk is revealed to have been on call 24/7 during his three years as Newsom’s deputy chief of staff, which was period that the affair ocurred and before Tourk raised $600, 000 for Newsom as his 2007 campaign manager. Nor should gossip mongers forget Benefit magazine ,where Tourk and former Newsom flame Brittanie Mountz now both work (Wow, wonder what people talk about in the women's bathroom there.)
Honestly, wouldn’t it be better for Newsom to come clean with the details of what was going on, why and where, so we won’t have to listen to people bitching on about whether the affair happened on tax-payers’ dollars. Speaking of which, it’ll take about three months before that $15,000 a month allowance that Newsom has agreed to pay Alex Tourk cancels out the pay rise that voters awarded Newsom last November, a vote that bumped up Newsom’s pay by about $44,000 from $188,816 to $233,000 in one fell swoop.