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An inconvenient war

In courts and hospitals, SEIU battles surging rival union

04.13.10 - 4:21 pm | sfbg |

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By Christopher D. Cook

For two weeks, in the marble-walled modernist grandeur of the Ninth Circuit U.S. District court in San Francisco, I watched nearly a dozen well-dressed lawyers for the Service Employees International Union — long my favorite union and one I've written about and marched with over the years — sue the bejeezus out of two-dozen former SEIU comrades-in-arms, some of labor's most committed soldiers.Read more »

Marin County's water grab

Marin Municipal Water District is already the largest energy user in Marin. A desalination plant would increase its energy use from 40 percent to as high as 300 percent

04.13.10 - 12:42 pm | sfbg |

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By Joan Bennett

OPINION In August 2009, the Marin Municipal Water District's elected board of directors conducted a public hearing to hear and discuss comments on a proposed $432.8 million desalination plant that would be built near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Despite overwhelming public opposition, the board unanimously approved the proposal. The stated reason: the dire need for a reliable water supply.

There is no truth to MMWD's rationale.

This is not just a Marin County issue. The plant would have major impacts on the bay. Read more »

Fashion Armageddon? Nah, it's just the great American Apocalypse

04.11.10 - 1:32 pm | sfbg |

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By Chhavi Nanda

The majority of mankind is under the misconception that an apocalypse is primarily associated with the end of the world – some sort of eschatological final battle. Perhaps it’s the slew of movies such as 2012 or The Road influencing our mind to veer into that territory. But an apocalypse doesn’t necessarily mean an ending -- even adherents of the Book of Revelations know there’s a next chapter. An apocalypse is defined as “the lifting of a veil or a revelation.” Late last month, a fashionable veil was lifted: a new collective Web site of vintage fashion, entitled American Apocalypse, was exposed to the world.

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Verdict leaves SEIU-NUHW fight unresolved

04.09.10 - 3:47 pm | sfbg |

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By Christopher D. Cook

In a mixed ruling this morning (April 9), a nine-member U.S. District Court jury awarded $1.5 million to the Service Employees International Union in its ongoing campaign to stymie a rival union created by former SEIU staffers, in a mixed ruling that's unlikely to resolve the unions' protracted battle over members and leadership in the labor movement. Read more »

Uproot: Notes from the underground food scene

Does anyone in the movement have an overarching theory about the recent surge of popular interest?

04.08.10 - 2:33 pm | sfbg |

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Recently Kitchen Table Talks, a monthly series of discussions on the US food system, invited a panel of SF entrepreneurs from the emerging underground food scene for a QA, hoping to answer big questions like what’s driving the trend and whether or not it has a future. Read more »

Inside the squat

Homes Not Jails seizes a vacant apartment that was recently an elderly man's home

04.06.10 - 5:39 pm | sfbg |

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By Evan DuCharme

news@sfbg.com

Homes Not Jails (HNJ) has fought diligently for two decades to shed light on the economic disparity that exists in San Francisco, where the number of homeless people would fit almost perfectly into the supply of vacant homes.Read more »

Where's teacher?

Layoffs at Horace Mann show how low SFUSD's proposed budget is willing to go

04.06.10 - 5:36 pm | sfbg |

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By Brady Welch

news@sfbg.com

Horace Mann Middle School principal Mark Sanchez sounded exhausted when we reached him on March 26. It wasn't because Horace Mann is such a tough school, although the Mission District campus does have a disproportionate number of at-risk students. And it wasn't because it was the Friday before spring break, although that might have had something to do with it.Read more »

Our Endorsements: For DCCC

03.30.10 - 5:40 pm | sfbg |

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The Democratic County Central Committee isn't the most high-profile elected agency in San Francisco, but it's really important. The committee sets policy for the local Democratic Party — and that includes endorsements. The people who control the committee control a slate card that goes out to every registered Democrat in the city, and that's a vast majority of the voters. DCCC endorsements, carrying the imprimatur of the party, have a significant impact on local elections, particularly in district supervisor races.Read more »

Building better buses

AC Transit pushes hydrogen fuel cells as oil companies pull back

03.30.10 - 5:38 pm | sfbg |

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By Adam Lesser

news@sfbg.com

GREEN CITY To hear Jaimie Levin talk is to understand that his cause is larger than just promoting alternative fuels for public transportation. "We either pay the tax ourselves or we pay the tax of sending money to the Middle East," he said as we walked through the noisy AC Transit bus yard in East Oakland. "There's a human cost of lives lost in a foreign war."Read more »

Hooch with the pooch

PETS ISSUE: Local bars that cater to the canine crowd

03.30.10 - 5:28 pm | sfbg |

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By Robyn Johnson

You have to take the dog for a walk anyway, right? Why not stop in at your friendly neighborhood dog bar along the way? A few local bars make a point of catering to the canine crowd; here are some places where your (well-behaved) pet is welcome.

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