WHAT: Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have been driven from their homes in Kyrgyzstan by a bloody week of racial violence from majority Kyrgyz mobs. The refugees are marooned in squalid tent camps lacking sufficient food and clean water.
WHY IT’S OUTRAGEOUS: The Kyrgyzstan government has begun to acknowledge that Kyrgyz police and soldiers allowed mobs to rampage through the Uzbek neighborhoods — and some even took part in the mayhem.
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The June 15 Board of Supervisors meeting spent four hours discussing the proposed Health Department budget cuts and almost five hours on a nonbinding foreign policy resolution that should not have been on the agenda. Apparently the board has enough idle time on its hands to advise Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Middle East policy — instead of taking care of San Francisco’s affairs.
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Sixty-one days have passed since the blowout at Deepwater Horizon, and as the spill worsens, so does the political gamesmanship and government-led bungling of the recovery effort. Take President Barack Obama’s proposed six-month moratorium — not only for new deepwater drilling permits, but for all existing drilling. The White House justified the proposal on the basis of a report produced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, which touted the peer review of seven experts identified by the National Association of Engineering. The only problem?
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Who’s in town
Opera diva Patricia Racette, currently performing in the San Francisco Opera’s production of “Faust,” appears in conversation with the opera company’s Kip Kranna. The evening is part of the National Queer Arts Festival. [7:30 p.m., LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market St., S.F.]
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If Dustin Johnson or Tiger Woods are looking for inspiration at Pebble Beach on Sunday, they might want to chat with Jim Herman.
Herman, a Nationwide Tour player who made it to the U.S. Open through sectional qualifying, shot a 5-under 30 on the front nine and finished at 3-under 68. He finished at 14 over for the tournament — well out of contention, but was one of the few early finishers who enjoyed a good fourth round.
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SOMETHING TO READ
What I Would Tell Her
Edited by Andrea N. Richesin ($13.95)
Subtitled “28 Devoted Dads on Bringing Up, Holding On To and Letting Go of Their Daughters,” the anthology includes “Thrift-Store Bandits,” a story by stay-at-home dad and San Francisco writer Mike Adamick.
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WHAT: Since 2006, some 3,500 acres of the taxpayer-owned Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge along the Arizona border have been closed to Americans. It’s rated too dangerous due to Mexican gangs smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants there.
WHY: U.S. Border Patrol agents are stuck trying to control parkland violence on foot or by horseback. Strict environmental regulations prevent the Border Patrol from using vehicles in wildlife reserves — except through a special emergency permit.
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The Los Angeles Lakers have won their 16th NBA championship, dramatically rallying from a fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Boston Celtics 83-79 Thursday night in Game 7 of the NBA finals.
Kobe Bryant scored 23 points despite 6-of-24 shooting while winning his fifth title with the Lakers, who repeated as NBA champions for the first time since winning three straight from 2000-02.
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A 31-year-old woman was hospitalized after being stabbed in East Palo Alto Wednesday evening, and a suspect was arrested shortly afterward, a police detective said Thursday.
Shortly before 6:45 p.m., the stabbing was reported in the 2500 block of Emmett Way, East Palo Alto police Detective Kevin Ferreira said.
Officers arrived to the area and found the victim in front of a home and suffering from multiple stab wounds. She was taken to a local hospital and is expected to survive, Ferreira said.
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San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera asked a state commission Thursday to halt PG&E’s SmartMeter program until an investigation into the accuracy of the meters is complete.
Herrera is asking the California Public Utilities Commission to suspend its authorization for PG&E to install the SmartMeters, which are advanced utility meters that wirelessly communicate usage information to customers and utility companies.
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A 68-year-old man suspected of sexually assaulting his 8-year-old step-granddaughter multiple times at her school in San Francisco earlier this month pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that could bring life in prison.
Pedro Hernandez was arrested a week after what police and prosecutors believe was the last of at least three assaults of the girl on separate occasions at Sanchez Elementary School in the Mission district.
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A three-alarm fire displaced 207 people from a transitional housing complex in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood Thursday, a fire department dispatcher said.
One firefighter was taken to the hospital with a minor injury, and at least one resident was also hospitalized, the dispatcher said.
Firefighters responded to the fire at 111 Taylor St. around 5:40 p.m., and the response was soon heightened to three alarms.
The fire was under control by 6:30 p.m., a dispatcher said.
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Wrigley Field was frozen. You could count the degrees on one hand. In Fahrenheit!
The New York Giants didn’t care. They were the league’s powerhouse, averaging 32 points a game. The NFL Championship was theirs to lose.
They lost.
Chicago shut out the Giants’ high-scoring offense in the second half and won 14-10. The team ball went to the Bears’ defensive coordinator, George Allen.
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WHAT: A seemingly unending demand for all types of oil spill cleanup equipment and government-required protective gear keep making vital supplies run out. The recurrent shortages delay removal of the sticky mess from Gulf Coast beaches and marshes.
SLOWDOWN: Workers can be seen sitting around waiting for even the most basic supplies to arrive. Elsewhere, beach cleanup is being done by hand because there are not enough sand-sifting machines available.
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Under the Obama administration, the government is doing such a good job that it’s decided to reward itself. Last year, Uncle Sam paid out $408 million in bonuses to 1.3 million federal workers, according to the Asbury Park Press, which obtained the information through a Freedom of Information Act request. That’s about $80 million more than the previous year. About one in four federal workers received a bonus, and awards ranged from $25 to, in the case of one lucky State Department worker, $94,500.
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