OPINION San Franciscans don't need the Clean Energy Act for political reasons. We need the Clean Energy Act — Proposition H on the November ballot — because we should have a say in how our electrical needs are met. We need it because San Franciscans should be able to demand more clean, renewable energy. We need it to have input on how our electrical rate money is spent. We need it to get a dollar's worth of service for a dollar's worth of rates.

The current electric power provider in San Francisco has a monopoly. Read more »

OPINION It appears the San Francisco Chronicle's editors have chopped "progressive" from the paper's approved lexicon for local political reporting, replacing the term with "ultra-liberal" and "far left" to characterize politicians whose views they don't share. Should we care? After all, the terms of political discourse have been so twisted, warped, and debased in recent years, one might be forgiven for not telling right from left or conservative from liberal. Read more »

OPINION There have been eight murders in the Excelsior in the past 120 days. And Sup. Gerardo Sandoval, who represents the area and is running for judge, has been the subject of press attacks for suggesting that gang injunctions in the Mission District may have driven crime into surrounding areas.

That debate misses the point.

Communities of color like the Excelsior have historically taken a back seat when it's time for the city to fund programs for youth, crime prevention, and economic development. Read more »

OPINION To hear proponents of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) talk, it's a matter of personal choice for 14- and 15-year-olds to sign up for the Pentagon's military recruitment program, which is being phased out of San Francisco's public schools June 2009. The San Francisco Board of Education also recently voted to remove physical education credit from the program this school year. Read more »

OPINION Every once in a while, it's a good idea to take a look at our public utilities and see if they are still managed and operated in a way that serves the goals we have for them. Read more »

OPINION Nine months ago neighborhood leaders from the Potrero Hill and the Bayview districts were invited to stand and applaud at a press conference at Mirant's Potrero Power Plant. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle: "One of the state's oldest and dirtiest power plants ... could shut down as soon as 2009, city leaders announced.... Read more »

OPINION Has Nancy Pelosi signed off on the George W. Bush administration's covert CIA operations in Iran? Read more »

OPINION On July 26, the Bay Area's gay and lesbian elite will gather at the posh Westin St. Francis to raise money for the Human Rights Campaign in the name of securing and protecting LGB rights. Read more »

OPINION The recent news stories criticizing the city's juvenile probation department for sending undocumented children home instead of handing them over to the federal immigration authorities has ignited a firestorm of negative attacks.

However, the stories missed a key fact: the city's practice of transporting youth home was enacted with the full knowledge and cooperation of the Immigration and Naturalization Service 12 years ago.

San Francisco's 1989 voter-approved sanctuary law specifically forbids city officials from providing information to federal immigration authorities Read more »

OPINION This isn't the first time it's happened. Most politicians break promises. That's the nature of politics. But when someone signs a pledge — twice — saying he won't privatize city services, when he holds himself out as a champion of anti-privatization and then goes directly against that stand —well, it kind of makes you wonder.

That politician is San Francisco Sup. Jake McGoldrick. In the past, he stood against privatizing services. Read more »