Skip to Navigation Skip to Content

Examiner Connect

Local

New Muni ads claim Israeli ‘apartheid’ against Palestinians

Zahra Billoo
Yet another salvo has been launched in the ongoing, polarizing and divisive Israel-Palestine debate — and it’s on Muni. Several San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency buses bearing a pro-Palestine, anti-Israel advertisement are currently ferrying The City’s commuters. The ads, paid for by American Muslims for Palestine, feature a quote from Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu comparing the situation in the Holy Land to apartheid in South Africa, along with a reminder that Israel receives about $3 billion in foreign aid from the U.S. Read More

Board approves gift to Gascón

George Gascon
A $26,000 gift of office furnishings received by District Attorney George Gascón was approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, but not without some questions about whether it was good practice and even if the proper disclosure form was filed. Last week, Gascón said he had requested help with obtaining furnishings. Donations rolled in, beginning with a $9,999 gift from Ron Conway, the Silicon Valley angel investor guiding San Francisco’s current tech boom. Read More

New Bay Bridge has ‘fighting chance’ to open this year

Bay Bridge repairs
The new $6.3 billion eastern portion of the Bay Bridge still “has a fighting chance” to open this year, despite concerns over structural issues, officials overseeing its construction said Tuesday. Citing myriad problems that have dogged the span’s construction, state lawmakers grilled the officials overseeing the project about the decision to use a specific type of seismic safety rods, 32 of which broke after being tightened in March. Read More

Pot enthusiast claims divine right to sell weed

Rasta Robert Joseph Simmons
This Rastafarian insists he’s no “ragamuffin.” Robert Joseph Simmons, 33, claims he’s not a lazy hippie, or in his words, a “ragamuffin,” but rather a Rastafarian minister whose refusal to abandon his beliefs might land him behind bars for a long time. Simmons said he’s facing up to eight years in prison over a pot bust because he did not accept a plea agreement with prosecutors last week that would have had him serving just 60 days. Read More

S.F. Port director signaled potential financial woes of new cruise ship terminal

San Francisco cruise terminal
The news that The City’s nascent cruise ship terminal could well lose San Francisco boatloads of money is disturbing, but hardly unanticipated. Last year, SF Weekly obtained a January 2012 e-mail from Port of San Francisco Director Monique Moyer to her staff lamenting the proposed cruise ship terminal’s financial baggage. Read More

S.F. ridesharing companies ordered to produce insurance info, including workers’ comp

Lyft
San Francisco rideshare companies Uber and Lyft have been asked by an administrative law judge to produce sealed copies of both their umbrella and excess liability insurance policies, along with proof that they are providing workers’ compensation for employees. Judge Robert Mason’s order comes as part of an ongoing rule-making process that will ultimately decide whether Uber and Lyft—along with similar companies SideCar, Tickengo, TransForm and InstantCab—have to abide by the same rules that govern traditional taxis. Read More

Community fighting to save San Mateo ice skating rink

San Mateo ice rink
The Peninsula’s only ice skating rink is scheduled to close its doors at the end of the month, but a surging public movement has been fighting to have a say in what happens to the Bridgepointe shopping center in San Mateo. The shopping center’s developer, San Francisco-based SPI Holdings, has submitted a plan to replace the ice rink with retail space. The city’s Bridgepointe master plan, drafted in 1998 when SPI developed the site, includes a requirement that a recreational space be included. Read More

Misplaced ballots were likely due to human error, elections official says

ballots
An ongoing investigation into 65 ballots that were not found or counted for months after the November election points to human error as the cause, Chief Elections Officer Mark Church has indicated. On April 12, San Mateo County election officials discovered a vault containing uncounted provisional ballots and announced the discovery the next week. Of the 65 ballot envelopes, only 35 were eligible votes, and they did not affect the election results. Read More

Peninsula fire chief recovering after fall, back surgery

A Peninsula fire chief who leads a task force of a nationally recognized search and rescue team is recovering from back surgery after falling at his San Jose home over the weekend. Menlo Park Fire Protection District Chief Harold Schapelhouman was injured when he fell while doing yard work at his home Saturday, a fire dispatcher said. Schapelhouman underwent an 11-hour surgery on Monday and “came through it well,” the dispatcher said. Read More

South City police search for masked vandal who lit car on fire

South San Francisco police are hunting for a person who smashed the window of a car and lit it on fire early Tuesday morning. Witnesses say that just after midnight a person wearing a black hoodie and a mask used a brick to smash the window before throwing a lit container with flammable liquid inside, police said. The suspect then fled in a white four-door sedan. The fire in a neighborhood near U.S. Highway 101 and Sister Cities Boulevard did not injure anyone. Read More
URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/16/16?page=12&type[story]=story&quicktabs_6=0