Water that is now reserved for San Francisco and the Peninsula will go toward the drought-ravaged state, but how much and when is being hammered out in Sacramento.
Drought conditions, an aging distribution system and environmental restrictions on water usage have dried up farms and left 23 million Californians who get their drinking water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta with a shortage.
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California contractors would be limited from doing business with Iran’s energy sector if Mayor Gavin Newsom is elected governor, his campaign announced today.
The Gavinator “would sign an executive order requiring disclosure of any connection” with Iranian energy interests “or any firm assisting the regime with sensitive technology,” a campaign statement said.
The mayor in the statement said he is “committed to divesting our state’s interests” from an “oil-based Iranian regime.”
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Graduates of The City’s first training program for green jobs received praise today from Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The students successfully passed the “Environmental Field Technician” training program, preparing them for jobs in a growing environmental remediation field, according to the Mayor’s Office.
Students learned to sample, analyze and monitor groundwater, storm water, surface water, sediments and air and dust, among other entities.
“Times are tough, so we need to get creative about how we find
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The murder trial for former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle will be moved out of Alameda County due to the massive amount of publicity the case has received, a judge ruled today.
Mehserle, 27, who is charged with murder for the shooting death of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant III, 22, at the Fruitvale station in Oakland early New Year's Day, is “a real lightning rod for the community,” according to a consultant for Mehserle’s defense team.
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After a week of gubernatorial campaigning around the country, including in Pennsylvania, New York and Texas, Mayor Gavin Newsom is back in City Hall today conducting meetings, according to staffers.
He has no public events scheduled.
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Mayor Gavin Newsom will spend part of today in Texas under the label of being a unique person who gets to hang out with fellow unique people.
Newsom has been invited to speak this morning at the annual UP Experience conference in Stafford, Tex. (near Houston), where organizers are calling invitees “some of the most unique people on our planet.”
Now you know what the U and P stand for.
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It doesn’t seal the deal, but a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Sunday would make it easier for the San Francisco 49ers to build a new stadium down in Santa Clara.
The legislation, authored by Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, exempts the team from having to garner competitive bids on their proposed Santa Clara stadium, allowing them to go with whatever company they select.
Santa Clara’s city charter would ordinarily require work on the project to be publicly bid.
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Luis Cancel, The City’s director of cultural affairs, and Arts Commissioner Lorraine Garcia-Nakata have been elected to serve on the National Museum of the American Latino Commission.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Cancel and Garcia-Nakata to the commission posts, according to the San Francisco Art Commission.
The two will join 23 other prominent Latinos – including actress Eva Longoria-Parker – in helping to study a proposed national museum for American Latino culture in Washington D.C.
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Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office is showering Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson with gifts the day after a San Franciscan turned in a stolen garment bag.
The ordeal began when Johnson, who was visiting The City, was helping an elderly man get into a taxi near Union Square. Johnson says a thief made off with his garment bag containing a suit and pair of shoes.
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San Franciscans just can’t get enough of dialing 311.
And Mayor Gavin Newsom’s ideas on how to make use of The City’s complaint hotline appear endless.
The 311 call center, a Newsom pet project, is a general help line for information about city services such as Muni and allows residents to report quality-of-life complaints, like potholes or broken street lights.
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OK news for homeowners.
Not so OK news for renters.
The median price of a home in The City was stable in August, albeit weak, according to the Controller’s Office. The median price was $635,000, a 17.5 percent drop from the previous year.
“July and August brought continuing signs of stability in residential real estate, as median prices have stayed within 5 percent of each other since March,” the city controller said in a statement.
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A record 10.1 percent of San Franciscans were out of work in August, according to the latest report from the Controller’s Office.
The unemployment rate was the highest recorded since the Employment Development Department began releasing monthly data in 1990, the city department said in a statement.
The good news: Since The City has been hovering at around 10 percent for some time, “this may indicate that we are reaching a peak,” it said.
And then the Controller’s Office brings us back to Earth.
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A campaigning Mayor Gavin Newsom has no public appearances scheduled today. He was in New York and Philadelphia in the last two days fundraising for the 2010 governor’s race, and is scheduled Thursday to attend the UP Experience in Houston.
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The state can now sell 23 acres of land that is mostly used for parking lots in southeastern San Francisco to benefit a city housing development.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation this week allowing the transaction.
SB 792, authored by Sen. Mark Leno, allows the state to reconfigure the boundaries of the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area so that Lennar Corp. can move ahead with a long-awaited housing and commercial development in the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and Candlestick Point.
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Watch out, YouTube – another Gavin Newsom video is coming your way.
But don’t worry, this one won’t take 7½ hours to watch in full.
The mayor’s gubernatorial campaign is about to debut a flashy new spot on YouTube and its Web site that will last a swift 60 seconds, said campaign manager Nick Clemons.
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