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Politics Blog

Sad...

01.31.07 - 8:02 pm | Amanda Witherell |
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by Amanda Witherell

Molly Ivins, the great political columnist, ever sharp with the pen and the wit, has passed away. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, and it got the best of her today. The left has lost a real trooper.

Newsom's Bill Clinton

01.31.07 - 7:50 pm | Tim Redmond |
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By Tim Redmond

All I can say is, think of how all the people who invested all this time and money into Gavin Newsom, the politician, must feel.

The tawdry tale was bound to come out, and it's kind of sad; it really speaks to the guy's judgement.

More fallout?

01.31.07 - 4:49 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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By Steven T. Jones
Now comes word that Alex Tourk has resigned as the campaign manager for Newsom's reelection. For "personal reasons." Yeah right. Does this have something to do with Newsom standing by Ragone, again, just as he did when he let his old chief of staff Steve Kawa resign after a power struggle with Ragone? Or was it something that happened while Newsom was in the Swiss Alps? Read more »

Ragone comes clean? Not yet.

01.31.07 - 1:26 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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By Steven T. Jones
According to KCBS radio, mayoral flack Peter Ragone has finally admitted to both posting on SFist and other blogs under a false name and lying to reporters about the existence of his imaginary friend, John Nelson. Newsom, who just returned from 10 days in Switzerland, reportedly expressed his displeasure with Ragone, but downplayed the incident.
Apparently, both men think that's the end of this, but it isn't. I had an appointment with Ragone scheduled for 4 p.m. Read more »

Skateparks revisited; someone tell the mayor it's not a 'backslide' 180

01.31.07 - 11:15 am | G.W. Schulz |
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By G.W. Schulz

Got a call this morning from Rich Hillis, a deputy in the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. He was responding to a blog entry we posted last night pointing out that the city has made lots of promises in recent years about constructing new skateparks within the city, an inexpensive gesture any city can make for providing kids with something to do. (Our original post contains plenty of links explaining where skatepark construction is in San Francisco right now.)

SockPuppetGate redux

01.31.07 - 9:54 am | Steven T. Jones |
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By Steven T. Jones
SFist has a nice wrap-up on the fallout from its outing of Newsom flack Peter Ragone as a liar, but the Chron's Matier & Ross not only buried the story halfway through today's column, they also missed the point. Read more »

So clean you can eat off 'em

01.30.07 - 6:42 pm | Amanda Witherell |
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by Amanda Witherell

Hey Mission residents: there's a public hearing tomorrow morning at 9 am, Room 400 in City Hall about street cleaning. The city is planning on having a lot more of it in the neighborhood, which means more sweeping up of newspapers and broken glass, but also more moving of your car and more getting of parking tickets. It affects everyone from Cesar Chavez to 19th Street and everything east of South Van Ness. If you have a Department of Public Works poster saran-wrapped to the street pole or tree in front of your house, they're talking to you. Read more »

Who's the poseur at City Hall?

01.30.07 - 5:51 pm | G.W. Schulz |
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By G.W. Schulz

San Francisco has always been notoriously behind statewide on skatepark construction, despite the relatively small monetary investment they require and the high civic value they produce. One spot already exists at Crocker Amazon Park, but it’s largely regarded as mediocre. Conservative states years ago were funding the construction of skateparks through their public works departments and allowing young skaters to participate in the designs. Shit, rural Kansas was doing it a long time ago.

Peter's principles (or lack thereof)

01.30.07 - 1:40 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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By Steven T. Jones

Before hitting the latest news of ethics problems in the mayor's office, and the brilliant segment that KGO-TV's dogged investigative reporter Dan Noyes has done to highlight them, it's important to offer some context and perspective.
Mayor Gavin Newsom imported veteran Democrat Party flack Peter Ragone to be his press secretary upon taking office three years ago. Read more »

Unkinking the Armory

01.30.07 - 11:09 am | Amanda Witherell |
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by Amanda Witherell

Looks like you can't just set up a porno film studio in San Francisco anymore. Neighborhood groups are looking to have more say in how kinky the Armory building at 14th and Mission is going to be now that it's been purchased by kink.com for filming fetish flicks. So the Mayor's office and the city's planning department are scheduling some meetings to hash it all over in fine San Francisco style. Read more »