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Politics Blog

Willie Brown and Ammiano's pot bill

03.26.13 - 1:32 pm | Tim Redmond |
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Assemblymember Tom Ammiano’s new medical marijuana bill seems pretty straightforward. Almost everyone in the medpot biz thinks there ought to be some sort of statewide regulations for a growing industry that operates in a mish-mash of local jurisdictions with no overall rules. If nothing else, consumer-protection policies ought to be in place. Read more »

Artists respond to hate-speech ads with “fabulous” alterations

03.26.13 - 1:22 pm | Rebecca Bowe |
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When it comes to countering hate speech, there's nothing like creative expression mixed with direct action. Activists affiliated with art collectives Bay Area Art Queers Unleashing Power (BAAQUP) and Street Cred declared yesterday to be “Hate Free Monday,” and celebrated by modifying hate speech ads recently plastered on Muni buses.Read more »

Rally and vigils for marriage equality in S.F. this week

03.25.13 - 3:55 pm | Rebecca Bowe |
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The U.S. Supreme Court will hold back-to-back hearings this week as justices consider Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), setting the stage for historic discussions concerning LGBT civil rights. Tonight, hundreds are expected to gather at Castro and Market streets for a 6:30 p.m. rally, followed by a march to City Hall. Prop 8, a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, passed in California with 52 percent of the vote in November of 2008. Read more »

Chron workers protest health-care hikes

03.25.13 - 2:33 pm | Joe Fitzgerald |
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About half of the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial staff were packed into their third floor conference room last Wednesday night. And according to people present, it wasn't a news meeting or a press conference.

Angered over years of concessions, buyouts, lost pension, and sacrificed pay raises, the unionized reporters are organizing to fight steep increases in their health-care costs.Read more »

Does Mayor Lee support Airbnb dodging its $1.8 million tax debt to SF?

03.22.13 - 11:27 am | Steven T. Jones |
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My story in this week's Guardian about how Airbnb appears to be refusing to pay the hotel taxes it owes to the city has gotten a lot of attention. But I'm still getting stonewalled by representatives from the company and Mayor Ed Lee, who apparently refuses to take a public stand against corporate tax evasion, even when it means thousands of San Franciscans could get stuck with an unexpected tax bill.Read more »

The "mystery" of the homeless families

03.22.13 - 10:21 am | Tim Redmond |
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The Chron's having a hard time figuring out why there are so many more homeless families looking for help.

"It's been difficult to pin down any kind of trend," said Elizabeth Ancker, assistant program director at the nonprofit Compass Connecting Point, the group that manages the waiting list and helped find Bailey a shelter room. "We're really just seeing more of everybody - every demographic, in every situation."

No shit.Read more »

Fine Arts Museums management blasted in colorful anonymous letter

03.21.13 - 3:57 pm | Rebecca Bowe |
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Ever since the Guardian reported on recent firings and allegations of improper behavior by senior staff at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), we’ve received a great deal of correspondence relating to the museums. Read more »

The human price of Catholic conservatism

03.21.13 - 2:50 pm | Tim Redmond |
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A new book by local historian William Issel explains the key role the Catholic Church played in funding and supporting progressive causes in 20th Century San Francisco, and Randy Shaw's take on it is accurate: For a while, in the 1970s and 1980s, the Church funded a lot of the tenant advocacy and poverty work in this city. The other side of that is a piece of the debate over the new Pope that we're not hearing much.Read more »

Keystone pipeline protesters bound for Pac Heights

03.21.13 - 2:31 pm | Rebecca Bowe |
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Environmentalists opposing the Keystone XL oil pipeline are gearing up to protest in San Francisco's wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood on April 3, when President Barack Obama will dine with the city's upper crust for a Democratic Party fundraiser.Read more »

On KPFA, Gavin Newsom ducks the tough ones

03.21.13 - 2:09 pm | Tim Redmond |
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Gavin Newsom sat down for an hour with Brian Edwards-Tiekert of KPFA's Up Front, and the show is remarkable. Brian was a little less harsh than Steven Colbert, who (properly) said the Gavster's new book, Citizenville, needs "a bullshit detector" and that "everything in there could be carved on a stone and put in someone's garden," but he did a great job putting Newsom's book in the context of state and lo Read more »