When I cast my vote about 6 p.m. Tuesday, I was only the 62nd person to do so at my precinct. Less than 10 percent of registered voters in our fair city actually went to the polls. Combined with the vote-by-mail ballots, that brings us to a total 23 percent voter turnout. The last time participation was that low was November 2009, when City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Treasurer Jose Cisneros each ran unopposed for re-election.
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Suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was at the Ethics Commission on Monday, where the five commission members agreed on the procedure for deciding the procedure that will govern the hearing on whether to recommend his removal.
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“When voters are offered choices among competing [tax] measures, it depresses the support for each of them. The likely result will be all of them failing,” asserts Steve Glazer, Gov. Jerry Brown’s political strategist. Brown has proposed a tax measure for this November’s ballot, and two other groups have proposals of their own, much to Brown’s annoyance.
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One of my favorite political analysts surmises that one reason Mayor Ed Lee has not removed Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi from office, despite the fact he has been accused of domestic violence and witness tampering, is because Lee doesn’t want to empower the contingent of people who think Mirkarimi is being victimized because of politics. Still, people feel strongly about this issue.
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At this week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, our representatives considered a resolution “Urging the National Academy of Arts and Sciences Reinstate 31 Categories of Music for GRAMMY Consideration.” Do I even need to tell you who introduced it?
Eric Mar, of course. The same supervisor who sponsored a resolution calling for an “end of war and nuclear arms, and the elimination of violence of all kinds” has decided to take on a new conflict. (Though I believe his beef is with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The one he named does not seem to exist.)
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The respected independent film veteran Bingham Ray has died, the Sundance Film Festival announced on Monday. He was 57. Ray suffered a stroke while at the festival on Friday. He had been in serious but stable condition in a Provo hospital since then and was surrounded by family when he died. He was named the executive director of the San Francisco Film Society in October. News of Ray’s stroke cast a pall over the festival as veterans of the close-knit independent film community queried each other anxiously for news of his condition.
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We shouldn’t be surprised that Ross Mirkarimi’s mugshot shows him with his eyes closed. Appearing arrogant and obtuse, the sheriff is pretending like nothing is wrong.I’ve been trying to imagine what the days are like in the office of the San Francisco sheriff. Mirkarimi comes in, takes off his coat and assumes his position as the head of the department that controls jails, tracks down fugitives, provides security in our courthouses and oversees programs to assist victims of domestic violence.
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New rule: If you have a history of pushing the buttons of law enforcement and someday the public finds out you have been accused of a crime, then you can righteously declare yourself a victim of “forces at work that want to stop [you].”And your supporters will be far more enraged at the story getting out than at the fact that you have been accused of a crime.
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Happy New Year, dear readers! Having recovered from our election hangover, we must immediately reach for the next fix: the 2012 elections. What can we look forward to this November? Taxes, taxes and more taxes.
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January
The year started out with a giddy Board of Supervisors, whose members believed they had found the perfect temporary mayor. Yes, unassuming bureaucrat Edwin Lee seemed like the perfect replacement for that other guy who lives in Marin now. Unfortunately, they were too busy patting themselves on the back to realize they were readying the area to be stabbed when Mayor Mustache decided to stay in the job.
February
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URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/17516/17516?page=6&type[story]=story&quicktabs_1=0&quicktabs_6=1
