Sharon Papo first wed her wife, Amber Weiss, in a commitment ceremony in 2005. Then they had a state-recognized ceremony in 2008, when same-sex marriage was briefly legal in California. And finally, as a method of changing hearts and minds after same-sex marriage became illegal with the passage of Proposition 8, they indulged in six more unofficial wedding ceremonies.
Read More
A California state assembly bill aimed at San Francisco’s circumcision ban on the November ballot seeks to make it clear that no local law can restrict the practice.San Francisco resident Lloyd Schofield gathered more than 12,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot, which would make circumcision of a minor in The City a misdemeanor with a $1,000 fine and up to a year behind bars.
Read More
Democrats seem to suffer under the delusion that there is some difference between cuts to Medicare beneficiaries and cuts to Medicare reimbursement payments to health care providers.
Read More
There was considerable consternation last week when a minor California politician from a place most people can’t find on a map offered the suggestion that the state should be split in two, a kind of red-versus-blue version of our once-golden place.
The proposal got a lot of knees jerking and a number of tongues flapping, and you have to wonder why. After all, the idea is so 1850s.
Read More
If you think government employee unions already have too much power in California, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Last week, the state Legislature sent a bill to Gov. Jerry Brown that would essentially place public employee unions in charge of the commissions that oversee public employees.
Read More
Could California’s noble experiment in redrawing legislative and congressional districts be collapsing?
It’s the obvious question because the new Citizens Redistricting Commission has decided to skip publication of a second draft of redistricting maps and, in effect, take the process behind semiclosed doors as it nears a deadline for final maps.
The first set of draft maps drew sharp criticism from Hispanic rights groups for sidestepping the federal Voting Rights Act requiring
Read More
From a distance, it looked as if Gov. Jerry Brown had been successful last month in making California redevelopment agencies a thing of the past. Redevelopment supporters decried the loss of projects they said couldn’t be done any other way, while opponents hailed the end to wasteful spending and public subsidies for wealthy developers.
But politics, it turns out, is never that simple.
Read More
Burlingame has gone bright green, but it’s the other San Mateo County cities that ought to feel envious.Mayor Terry Nagel said Burlingame is “ahead of schedule” for meeting the state’s carbon emission reduction goals. Meanwhile, about two-thirds of county cities don’t even have climate action plans yet.
Read More
Cities across San Mateo County are analyzing whether their redevelopment agencies can afford the annual payments mandated by new state laws or whether they will be forced to close.Each city is handling things differently, but Foster City’s Redevelopment Agency looks sure to perish.
Read More
"A sense of confidence in the courts is essential to maintain the fabric of ordered liberty for a free people,” former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger said. The things that “could destroy that confidence and do incalculable damage to society,” he added, include inefficiency and delays in the judicial system and people believing the courts no longer protect their legal rights and keep them safe.
Sadly, it looks as if we are heading into that crisis of confidence.
Read More
URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/topics/california?page=15
