AltWeeklies Wire
Labor Painsnew
A fight between two unions in San Francisco could set the course of the U.S. labor movement.
SF Weekly |
Matt Smith |
10-12-2010 |
Business & Labor
San Francisco's Killer Frogsnew
A tiny pond near the mouth of Golden Gate Park is host to as many as 10,000 invasive African clawed frogs so voracious they're a threat to the entire state.
SF Weekly |
Matt Smith |
07-23-2010 |
Environment
San Francisco's Employment Rate is Relatively Good, but Leaders Can Create More Jobsnew
Last month, Mayor Gavin Newsom held a press conference at the upscale hot-dog restaurant Show Dogs, packed it with press and midlevel bureaucrats, showed up late, and then led an endless platitude-fest about his plans to promote jobs in San Francisco.
Don Cameron Trains Cops in How to Use Force, Then Defends Themnew
Long ago, Don Cameron set upon a path that would make him a Rosetta Stone for understanding what happens when someone gets his ass kicked by a cop. For most of us, that's a brutish prospect. But to hear Cameron tell it, done correctly, it's justified.
SF Weekly |
Matt Smith |
02-17-2010 |
Crime & Justice
City Hounds the Homeless For Dog Licensesnew
According to Chief George Gascón, the Police Department has flooded upper Haight Street with cops assigned to write tickets for so-called "quality of life" violations, such as off-leash or tagless dogs, jaywalking, and other minor offenses.
SF Weekly |
Matt Smith |
01-27-2010 |
Housing & Development
While Mayor Vows to Reduce Homeless Population, City Eyes Cutting Shelter Bedsnew
Gavin Newsom has earned a reputation as someone willing to make passionate statements about plans to fix up public housing, reform the civil service system, upgrade parks, or reduce homelessness, and then quickly turn away as if he'd never said anything at all.
SF Weekly |
Matt Smith |
01-20-2010 |
Policy Issues
Bay Area Organizations Appear to be Part of a Secretive Group with a Bizarre Radical Pastnew
Knowledgeable sources say that the Physicians Organizing Committee is one of several Bay Area front groups set up to disguise a strange political cult. Although a representative for the committee denied the link, it has shared personnel with an alleged cult front group and received a grant from a nonprofit linked to the cult.
Politics are Crippling California's Services to the Disablednew
In addition to being a lifeline for needy disabled Californians, the state Department of Social Services' In-Home Supportive Services program is a cash cow for Democrats. The program's political status has made it a target for Republicans, who characterize it as a bastion of fraud and corruption, and thus ripe for $1.1 billion in cuts.
SF Weekly |
Matt Smith |
10-28-2009 |
Commentary
SFPD Still Uses Unreliable Polygraph to Screen Recruitsnew
Polygraph examinations have constituted a routine part of checks conducted on potential recruits for as long as the SFPD's current background examination supervisor can remember. And it seems as if people are still fooling the machine.
SF Weekly |
Matt Smith |
08-12-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Marriage Equality Can Be Achieved by Separating Church and Statenew
While many have denounced the Proposition 8 decision as sanctioning discrimination, few have asked why the state is in the marriage business in the first place. But there is an under-the radar movement to take the fight for gay equality in an unexpected direction.
Bike Hater Rob Anderson Advances the Cause of Cycling in S.F.new
During the past four years, San Francisco has been prevented from installing amenities for cyclists thanks to the legal efforts of a local gadfly. But local policy wonks say bicyclists' rights have progressed more thanks to his efforts than they would have without them.
SF Weekly |
Matt Smith |
05-27-2009 |
Transportation
When a Mother Is Tried for Murder: The Case of Linda Woonew
Linda Woo's bizarre, Fatal Attraction–like act was sparked by a confluence of individual circumstances many can understand, which included depression, extreme motherly attachment, heartbreak, and a delusional attempt at a solution.
SF Weekly |
Matt Smith |
04-30-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Arrests Cast Doubt on the Prosecution of a San Francisco Mannew
Arrests in Palm Springs cast doubt on the prosecution of a San Francisco man in a sex tourism case.
SF Weekly |
Matt Smith |
03-20-2009 |
Crime & Justice
How Federal Home Loan Banks Exacerbated the Banking Meltdownnew
There are plenty of bad guys in the current banking collapse, but I want to introduce you to some unsung villains: the executives running little-known, federally chartered bankers' cooperatives called Federal Home Loan Banks.
Tags: finance, Federal Home Loan Banks
An Investigator Re-Encounters an Old Rival in the Latest Banking Crisisnew
Richard Newsom is campaigning against what he sees as corruption among overseers of America's savings and loan industry. He is perennially, and profanely, annoyed: Regulators today "lack both the stones and the expertise" to rein in rogue bankers, he claims.
