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Politics Blog

Would Sept. elections be better than RCV?

02.10.12 - 2:39 pm | Tim Redmond |
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A proposal by Supervisors Sean Elsbernd and Mark Farrell to end San Francisco's experiment with Ranked Choice Voting will come before the board Feb. 14, and RCV suporters are organizing to fight it. According to an email I just got from Steve Hill, one of the leaders in the RCV movement, "the vote is going to be close."Read more »

Federal government sets its sights on 12 more SF dispensaries

02.10.12 - 1:11 pm | Caitlin Donohue |
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Bad news for medical marijuana patients in the Bay Area: as reported by the SF Examiner, the DEA has requested records from the city's Department of Public Health for 12 of San Francisco's existing 21 cannabis dispensaries. This is the same move the DEA made before sending the threatening letters to five other cannabis collectives last fall. Those five dispensaries are now closed. Read more »

Hearing today on bizarre Occupy Oakland stay-away order case

02.10.12 - 12:50 pm | Yael Chanoff |
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The first Occupy Oakland protester to allegedly be in violation of a stay-away order has a hearing today.

Joseph Briones, 30, was arrested along with 408 others at an Occupy Oakland protest Jan. 28. He is one of 12 who were apparently issued the restraining orders, and is therefore barred from being within 300 yards of Oakland City Hall, potentially for the next three years, according to Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Teresa Drenick. Read more »

Trader Joe's signs agreement in labor victory

02.10.12 - 12:19 pm | Yael Chanoff |
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Trader Joe’s, known for being really more of a snack emporium than a grocery store, can now be known for something else; buying tomatoes picked by people with basic human rights.

Feb. 9, it became the second grocery store chain-- the first was Whole Foods-- to sign an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a group based in Immokalee, Florida famous for its successful Fair Food campaign.Read more »

Larry Ellison won't miss $22 million

02.10.12 - 11:52 am | Tim Redmond |
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If the America's Cup fundraising committee can't come up with $32 million, the city's going to be on the hook for a big chunk of change -- as much as $22 million -- budget analyst Harvey Rose says. Read more »

Mark Zuckerberg will pay less tax than you

02.09.12 - 4:07 pm | Tim Redmond |
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Before we start talking about the Facebook Windfall and all the nice new tax dollars the company will pour into the state treasury, let me take a moment to put this in perspective. Read more »

Wiener wants a sunshine audit

02.09.12 - 3:23 pm | Tim Redmond |
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Sup. Scott Wiener is calling for an audit of the costs of complying with the city's Sunshine Ordinance -- a move that could lead to some great ideas for better public access to records or to a dangerous attack on one of the city's most important local laws.Read more »

WTF, Debra Saunders?

02.08.12 - 5:03 pm | Tim Redmond |
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I really, really can't figure out what the Chron's only local editorial page columnist, the conservative Debra Saunders, is trying to say. If I read her Feb. 8 column right, she's opposing the Appeals Court ruling on same-sex marriage -- and she seems to be saying that Mayor Gavin Newsom was wrong to allow gay marriages and that the whole matter ought to be decided by a statewide vote:Read more »

Campaign to regulate health insurance premiums launched in SF

02.08.12 - 4:38 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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Representatives from Consumer Watchdog and other groups today launched a ballot measure campaign to regulate health insurance rates in California with an event outside the San Francisco headquarters of Blue Shield of California, which is in the process of substantially increasing health premiums for a second consecutive year despite sitting on billions of dollars in cash reserves.Read more »

Bay Citizen and CIR announce merger of their newsrooms

02.08.12 - 1:22 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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The Bay Citizen and Center for Investigative Journalism have formally announced their intent to merge under the leadership of Phil Bronstein, who plans to cut almost $2 million from the combined newsrooms. As I wrote last week: How can this possibly be good for local journalism? It will take 30 days to seal the deal and we'll have more reporting and analysis in the coming weeks.