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EDITOR'S NOTES Everybody's talking about the new data on the price of housing in San Francisco, which is in part because everybody talks about the price of housing in San Francisco anyway and in part because the figures are just so alarming. The figures show that the median rent in San Francisco is $3,100 a month — and while it's hard to know exactly what that means, since some three-bedroom and larger units are in the mix, most San Francisco rentals are smaller, and I'm hearing tell of people paying more than $2,000 for a studio.Read more »

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EDITORS NOTES The president promised "meaningful action," but did not mention guns once in his response to the unthinkable killing spree in Newtown, Connecticut. The gun nut lobby argued that if the teachers at the school had been armed, one of them might have shot the killer — suggesting that we ought to devolve into the worst parodies of the Old West (where, in truth, many towns, like Dodge City, banned handguns altogether).Read more »

EDITOR'S NOTES The two prominent lawyers who helped bring same-sex marriage to the US Supreme Court, Theodore Olson and David Boies, started out their case with the notion that it would get to the highest court, and that the Court would find a fundamental Constitutional right to marriage equality.Read more »

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EDITOR'S NOTES The San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission is holding a hearing Dec. 7 on the Mayor's Renewable Energy Task Force report. That may not sound like the most exciting moment in any of our lives — but it's actually worth talking about, a lot. Because the city has a goal of reaching 100 percent renewable energy in just eight more years, and the task force think it can be done — and the report, while it has its moments, completely screws up the central tenet of any long-term renewables policy.Read more »

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EDITOR'S NOTES A few months before the San Francisco Giants went to the ballot to ask the voters to approve a new stadium on the edge of Mission Bay, Peter Magowan, who was the managing partner, and Larry Baer, his chief aide who runs the show now, came by our office to talk about the plan. Magowan was no fool, and he asked me a simple question: What would it take for the Guardian to support a downtown stadium?Read more »

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EDITOR'S NOTES The Wall Street Journal, which ought to focus on stellar reporting and skip the political analysis, stuck its haughty little nose into California last week, announcing that the Democratic supermajorities in the state Legislature spell doom for us all.

"Liberals," the paper noted, "will pick up enough seats to secure a supermajority. Governor Jerry Brown then will be the only chaperone for the Liberals Gone Wild video that is Sacramento."Read more »

tredmond@sfbg.com

EDITOR'S NOTES The Wall Street Journal, which ought to focus on stellar reporting and skip the political analysis, stuck its haughty little nose into California last week, announcing that the Democratic supermajorities in the state Legislature spell doom for us all.

"Liberals," the paper noted, "will pick up enough seats to secure a supermajority. Governor Jerry Brown then will be the only chaperone for the Liberals Gone Wild video that is Sacramento."Read more »

EDITORS NOTES My brother was lucky -- the old-growth maple and oak trees around his house in Putnam Valley, NY didn't fall over, and his roof didn't blow off. The electricity was off for a week, which meant the water pump didn't work, but he hauled buckets up from a nearby stream to flush the toilets. He heats with a wood stove. He'd stocked a few cases of beer in advance and filled up the truck with gas.

"It's an inconvenience," he told me. "But we're fine. We're rednecks; the fear the IRS, not hurricanes."Read more »

"San Francisco's economy is moving in the right direction," Mayor Ed Lee told the Examiner last week. "My economic development and job creation policies are setting San Francisco on a path toward economic recovery."Read more »

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Sometimes I love my Internet trolls. Not very often — mostly, the anonymous folks who call me a success-hating commie who's just jealous because he wasn't smart enough to start Facebook seem to come from somewhere far to the right of San Francisco. And they're rude. And they won't give their names. And fuck all of you, ya know?

But someone came along the other day and made a comment that so perfectly summarizes everything that's wrong with American political economics today that I just wanted to wave it around like a flag and tell everyone:Read more »