Politics Blog

Students celebrate SF resolution to divest from fossil fuels

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Famed environmental writer and 350.org founder Bill McKibben wore a short-sleeved T-shirt as he stood on the steps of San Francisco City Hall this afternoon and addressed a crowd of energized student climate activists.

“It’s a pretty day here, but it’s a little warmer than it should be,” he remarked of the hot afternoon with temperatures creeping above 80 degrees F. “This is the hottest May 2 ever recorded in the city of San Francisco.”Read more »

Why PG&E will never support solar

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One of the most important stories on the future of the country's electricity supply has been largely ignored by the major media outlets. My friend Johnny Angel Wendell, who is a talk-show host at KTLK in Los Angeles, passed it on to me, or I might have missed it, too.Read more »

Another attack on public-employee unions

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Big-business and conservative interests have been trying to years to find a way to undermine the political clout of organized labor, particularly unions like the teachers and nurses, who have played a huge role in progressive campaigns. And now there's a new tactic.Read more »

Guest opinion: LGBT supporters of Bradley Manning

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Editor's note: At least 24 LGBT community leaders and activists have signed on to the following statement in support of Bradley Manning as a Pride grand marshal.Read more »

May Day rally for immigration reform in SF

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Hundreds gathered for a rally outside San Francisco City Hall on May 1, capping off a march that drew activists into the streets to commemorate International Workers Day. The events were organized by a broad coalition of immigrant rights advocates to call for improvements to the recently unveiled proposal for federal immigration reform, which will go before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. [More photos after the jump] Read more »

SFMTA chief hopes to calm the parking meter furor at supervisorial hearing

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San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency director Ed Reiskin faces a tough challenge tomorrow (Thu/2) at the Board of Supervisors Neighborhood Services and Safety hearing that Sup. Mark Farrell has called on expanding parking meters into new neighborhoods, where Reiskin is expected to face a hornet's nest of SFMTA critics stirred up by the loss of free street parking and perceptions that the agency is mismanaging public spaces and transit. [UPDATE: Read what happened here.]Read more »

Assembly committee OKs moratorium on fracking in California

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Three bills seeking to impose moratoriums on fracking in California won approval at the California Assembly Natural Resources Committee in Sacramento on April 29, an important milestone for environmentalists who ultimately plan to push for a permanent ban on the practice.Read more »

The most bitter Bradley Manning-Pride piece yet

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Lots of people angry about the Pride Committee's decision to fire Bradley Manning as a grand marshal. But the most savage, all-out assault comes from Steven W. Thrasher, a former Village Voice writer who has nothing good to say at all about Pride or the people who run it -- or for the more mainstream parts of the LGBT movement:Read more »

Teachers try to dis-accredit accreditation group

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The union representing teachers at San Francisco City College have fired back at the accreditation commission that's threatened to shut the school down and forced dramatic changes in its mission. The California Federation of Teachers and AFT Local 2121 filed a legal complaint May 1 charging the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges with violating its own rules and federal law -- and the complaint asks the federal Department of Education Read more »

Facebook's Keystone Pipeline connection

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When people who don't have a lot of experience in politics suddenly start throwing money around, dumb stuff happens. That's what's going on with Mark Zuckerberg and the ads he's helping pay for that support the Keystone Pipeline.Read more »