A phony voting booth that was set up last October in Chinatown to help elderly voters cast their mail-in ballots won’t spur any criminal charges, the District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday. The booth — set up by supporters of then-candidate Mayor Ed Lee — was a lightning rod for his many opponents, who called for a full investigation of the operation. The alleged malfeasance included accusations that a bevy of blue-shirted campaign workers supplied voters with plastic stencils that could be placed over ballots to single out specific candidates and issues. Read More

A city program designed to provide low-income residents with discounts on their water bills is a comprehensive mess, according to a new audit by the City Controller’s Office. The report, released Tuesday, found failures in almost every aspect of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Customer Assistance Program. Critical problems were identified with the program’s implementation, maintenance and users — including potentially more than 500 city employees, most of whom don’t come close to meeting low-income thresholds. Read More

This being San Francisco, an ambitious bid by the Warriors to install an NBA arena on The City’s waterfront by 2017 will need solid community support to go smoothly. And the community, it seems, is bouncing on the rim. An online poll circulated last week by the South Beach/Rincon/Mission Bay Neighborhood Association asked its members to weigh in on their fears and hopes about the facility, slated for the prime location of Piers 30 and 32, set between the Giants’ AT&T Park and the Bay Bridge. Read More

Two men who attacked Falun Gong practitioners this summer over their unflattering views on China were ordered by a San Francisco neighborhood court to write apology letters and were told to stay 10 feet away from the victims. One of the men also must take anger management classes. Read More

Ballot language describing November’s Proposition F confusingly suggests the measure would mean swift removal of Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, attorneys for an environmental group argued 
Tuesday. Restore Hetch Hetchy’s lawyers noted that their proposal merely asks city voters to spend $8 million to study how San Francisco could replace the water and power supplied by the reservoir. Any decision to remove the reservoir’s O’Shaughnessy Dam would require another vote, possibly in 2016. Read More

While new cases of HIV have continued to decline, other documented instances of sexually transmitted diseases are on a continuous multi-year rise in San Francisco and across California. Some local clinics are attempting to combat the spike with additional testing methods for syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia that involve checks of the throat and rectum — steps not currently endorsed as essential by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Read More