By Bruce B. Brugmann

As I was getting ready to do my daily blog, anxiously awaiting the political endorsements in the Savage Love column in the Village Voice (see my previous blogs), a dispatch from the San Francisco Sentinel caught my eye on my email display.

"City Plans For Safe Castro Halloween," the headline read.

A safe Halloween? Who wants to read about a safe Halloween? Read more »

I'm drinking a Potrero Hill martini in honor of Thomas Peele, the investigative reporter on the Contra Costa Times/Dean Singleton papers.

He did what few editorial staffers do in these dread days of mega media mergers and resulting layoffs: he sharply criticized his new boss in a "guest commentary" column in his own paper, the CCTimes.

He was commenting on the federal court ruling that sealed the records in the Clint Reilly/Joe Alioto antitrust case aimed at breaking up the Hearst/Singleton deal that would destroy daily competiton and impose regional monopoly on the Bay Area. Read more »

Who will Dan Savage be endorsing in his pre-election sex column in the Village Voice/New Times chain of l7 papers?

Since his is the only endorsement that may see the light of day in any VV/NT paper (they don't allow endorsements),
I emailed him on Friday in hopes I could get a scooplet. Dan was uncharacteristically shy. He didn't respond by blogtime.

Savage, the editor of The Stranger alternative paper in Seattle who writes "Savage Love," two years ago managed to slip in a Kerry for President endorsement in the last line of his last pre-election column two years ago. Read more »

Matt Smith, a columnist for the SF Weekly/Village Voice/New Times, parachuted into the Sunset to check out the field of supervisorial candidates and ended up last week all but endorsing Doug Chan as the PG@E candidate for supervisor.

What Smith's investigation didn't turn up was the disturbing fact that Chan is an attorney whose law firm, Chan, Doi, and Leal, has received more than $460,913 in fees from PG@E in the past five years, according to documents on file with the California Public Utilities Commission. Read more »

Maybe it's up to Dan Savage, the editor of The Stranger in Seattle who writes a sex column called Savage Love with a left political slant for the Village Voice/New Times chain of l7 papers.

Let me explain. The New Times editor MIke Lacey and publisher Jim Larkin have historically refused to allow any of their papers, including the SF Weekly and the East Bay Express, to do editorials, endorse candidates, or take real positions on such critical issues as the war and occupation of Iraq, the Bush vs. Kerry presidential race, or even local races for mayor, governor, and the U.S. Read more »

Just as the Guardian went to press on Tuesday afternoon, our investigative interns returned from the Californa Public Utilities Commission with more information on the investments that PG&E has made in supervisorial candidates Doug Chan and Rob Black through two key law firms.

Documents on file with the CPUC show that Chan's law firm, Chan, Doi, and Leal, has received a total of $460,913 in fees from PG&E between 200l and 2005. In 2002, the year of the second public power initiative, the Chan firm received $49,969.78. Read more »

As our editorial for the Wednesday Guardian states, "We've seen plenty of allies of Pacific Gas and Electric Company on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. We've seen a few PG@E bagmen, PG@E shills, and PG@E fronts. But there's never been anyone elected to the board in our 40 years who was actually a paid attorney for PG@E.

"This year, there's at least one, and possibly two candidates who have worked as PG@E lawyers--and that alone should disqualify them from ever holding public office in San Francisco. Read more »

Followups on Hearst: No word back from the Chronicle on my questions on why they are blacking out the big local story involving three big local players (Hearst, McKesson Corporation, and First DataBank). Let me give you the lead front headline on the Oct. Read more »

Douglas Chan, an attorney with the law firm of Chan, Doi, and Leal, is a candidate for supervisor from the Sunset District. Read more »