Former San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has been one busy lady. As California’s attorney general, she has made online dating sites agree to safety measures, wrestled $2.1 million dollars from Wal-Mart for overcharging customers, and is even going after Bernie Madoff’s estate. One of my favorite legal moves by her office so far is the defense of State Controller John Chiang in a lawsuit brought by State Senator Darrell Steinberg and Assemblyman John Perez.
Read More
With Ross Mirkarimi out of office for the time being, it’s time to assess what comes next in the trial of our overly enthusiastic jailer. Having pled guilty to false imprisonment of his wife on New Year’s Eve, he now refuses to resign. Moderates must be thrilled. See, getting rid of Mirkarimi is only the end of one progressive’s political career. But by Mirkarimi insisting on the full removal process, he is imperiling the re-election of all five progressives on the Board of Supervisors.
Read More
According to the Mayo Clinic, the psychological disorder of “hoarding” is “the excessive collection of items, along with the inability to discard them.”
Read More
Back when he trusted the good people of San Francisco to make the right decisions, candidate for Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said, “I've been telling people, vote your conscience.” And side with him we did, electing him to be our Sheriff. Now Mirkarimi has been charged with domestic violence, child endangerment and witness tampering related to an alleged incident with his wife on New Year’s Eve. Thus far he has maintained his innocence, saying, “I trust in the system, and we have to let the system sort this out.”
Read More
The annual San Francisco Chamber of Commerce CityBeat poll results are out, and once again “homelessness and panhandling” top the list of citizen concerns. Because this is prime time for people to plan their summer vacations, and at least some will choose San Francisco, I wondered: Is anyone preparing tourists for frequent, forced fundraising at the hands of our enterprising residents?
I checked three 2012 San Francisco guidebooks, and here is a sampling of what they had to say on the matter:
Read More
“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.
Read More
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.
Read More
If someone lies to you and says, “Hey, I’m an attorney. Now you’re my client and everything you tell me is privileged,” does that make it so? That’s the question I want to answer now that Cheryl Wallace, lawyer for Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi’s wife, Eliana Lopez, is claiming that Lopez disclosed details about the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of Mirkarimi to neighbor Ivory Madison under the impression that her communications were protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Read More
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.)
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
“What’s the rush? He’s got until Tuesday,” said a friend who works at City Hall. It was Thursday and I had been pestering him to give up the identity of the mayor’s appointment to the vacant seat on the Board of Supervisors for District 5.
Former District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi was sworn in as Sheriff yesterday, so the seat is officially empty.
Read More
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.
Read More
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
Read More
Supervisor David Campos has proposed a charter amendment to “tweak” San Francisco’s ranked-choice voting system by expanding the number of votes each of us gets from three to “however many candidates are running for office.” For example, if his law had been in place this past November, each voter would have been able to rank all sixteen mayoral candidates in order of preference.
Read More
URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/user/6/6?page=10&=&quicktabs_6=0
