Members of the exclusive Norteño gang in the Mission District got capped with a civil injunction today, barring them from hanging out each other in a 60-square-block area and from loitering after 10 p.m., according to a report in the Chronicle. Those who are subject to the preliminary injunction...can be arrested in the 60-square-block zone -- and face up to six months in jail -- if they engage in one of a number of......

Queer rights groups freaked out, threw a tizzy (understandably), and nixed their support for a workplace discrimination civil rights bill "after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., pulled transgender people from the legislation that would protect gays and lesbians from workplace discrimination." And since nothing says action like an angry missive or online petition, a letter signed by gay groups was sent to Congress yesterday demanding them to......

Un-American group the Catholic League, the nation's largest Catholic civil rights sect, has called for a boycott of Miller Beer ever since The Last Supper got the parody treatment from the Folsom Street Fair folks. Two great comments on our original post that can sum it all up, more or less: guest, "This isn't about christians, gays, or fisting; it's about ignorant American philistines too dull to understand that homages to The Last Supper......

--The heart of rock and roll is still beatin' -- at Stern Grove this afternoon. It's HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS!!!! The free show starts at 2, but we assume folks'll be lining up pretty early, beach towels and folding chairs at the ready. Stern Grove's at Sloat and 19th. --The Chinese Cultural Center screens White Tower, a documentary about deaf culture in China's Henan Province. 1 p.m., $6, 750 Kearny 3rd Floor (x......

While San Francisco is known globally for a certain worldview, those of us who actually live here know that when it comes down to particulars, we don't often agree. We can't agree on Blue Angels. We can't agree on a Muni solution. Heck, we can't even agree on what to do about Ed Jew (oh no!). But you know a banner we can all unite under? The One City One Book: San Francisco Reads program. Imagine, hordes of people reading a sort of narrative story on paper! No electricity required (save, perhaps, for reading lights). ...

Jerry Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority, was found dead in his office earlier today. Our condolences go out to his family and loved ones. That said, Falwell was known for his commitment to right-wing causes of all kinds, and in particular, his hostility to civil rights, feminists, and gays made him not particularly well-liked out here in San Francisco. Remember when he said the purple Teletubby Tinky-Winky was gay? Or when he blamed......

Here's todays wrap up of the news...

We got a frantic call from SFist Jon about a power failure making it impossible for him to do Day Around The Bay today, so we're subbing in. --There was a shooting outside the Power Exchange during rush hour yesterday. The cops did manage to catch the guy, but traffic was a mess. --Your best buys are always at Fry's -- along with an exhaustive listing of the finite dimensional representations of the closed......

The father of Shayar Aziz Jr, Shayar Aziz Not Jr., announced today he was going to file a suit in the jaw breaking of his son. The lawsuit was filed against five of the 415 Gang for "assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and violation of civil rights." Those five include the two who have already been charged, Brian Dwyer and Richard Aicardi, as well as Aicardi's two brothers and Marino Peradotto. Peradotto is the one who is part of the Marine's crack anti-acapella group unit. ...

-State Senate votes for an early primary and to extend term limits. -College students everywhere to put down the bong and stage a national day of protest over the Iraq War. Then they'll go back to using the bong. ...

Last week's winner: The East Bay Express. What? No letters about Cody's? Fret not -- there's an article. (We had no idea the reason why there's no books on the shelves there now is because they were behind on their bills!) Also -- neighbors rat out neighbors for loud parties and for opening day-care centers. Cover: Fat acceptance movement (medical, civil rights, artistic, online). Good article, which makes the no fatties cartoon running later in......

Between a skyrocketing homicide rate, brutal and incompetent police, moves to completely redevelop the last community stronghold in The City, the shutdown of a school named after a famous local civil rights leader and disproportionate incarceration rates, black people just can't seem to get a break in San Francisco. Oh, sure, if you're a rich, womanizing Democratic party machine hack (or went out with one), or are willing to do illegal electioneering on The City's......

It's part of the Politician Rulebook that for Martin Luther King Day, the politician goes to find some civil rights type group, gives a speech in which they give a bunch of homilies in praise of the good Dr., says there's still a lot of work to do, then goes back to not doing anything to accomplish any of it. Which is what Herr Governator did this Martin Luther King Day: he gave a speech at a labor-sponsored Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in San Francisco. It didn't go over very well...

You probably haven't been to a vocal concert since your high school crush object sang that solo from Carousel in the annual choir festival. What relevance does choral music have to my everyday life? you ask. Well, how about a celebration of everyone's equal right to love? San Francisco's Volti, a new-vocal music group (the adjective "new" modifies "vocal music," not the group itself, which has been around for over 25 years), is performing the world premiere of No More To Hide: An American Wedding Cantata, in tribute to last year's same-sex marriages. No More to Hide sets to music a verse from 1 John 4:7 ("Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.") and snippets from Leaves of Grass ("I dream'd in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth.") -- and for you civil rights activists on a budget, will be performed for free at City Hall next Wednesday, November 16, courtesy of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services and the Music@MONS program. (don't worry, folks, there's seats.) If you like to absorb your choral music in a more pastoral setting, Volti will perform No More To Hide, along with several other gay-themed works (more Whitman, and some Edna St. Vincent Millay) at St. Francis Lutheran on Mon. Nov. 21, which was expelled from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America for ordaining gay and lesbian pastors in 1990, and thus was totally free to bless the same-sex weddings from 2004. Tickets available here (and also a Sunday performance in Berkeley). Picture of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, same-sex marriage no. 1...

Well, the internets are all abuzz over the 8th annual "One Night Stand," put on by SomArts. We're willing to go with the flow and recommend an erotic art party -- not to mention Indra, known as the "Courtney Love of Cabaret." Wow. That's a reputation to live up to. The Bay Guardian peeps are throwing a Hell-Raiser Happy Hour at the Cannery Building. Yes, we're biased -- but it can't be worse than......

Let us begin with an invitation to what will almost certainly be one of the most unique parties in San Francisco history: today (Sunday) at Aunt Charlie's, starting at 4:00 PM, they'll be a commemorating a violent Tenderloin uprising 39 years ago, when the transgender community suddenly resisted police harassment. At the time, the Tenderloin was one of the only spots in the city where trans folks could walk around openly, but it was......

Hey, remember how we were just babbling about how Equality California gets stuff done for gay Californians, while The Human Rights Campaign mostly sits around hosting overpriced tea parties? Yeah, well, EqCa just announced that The California State Conference of the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League are supporting equal marriage rights here in CA. That'll make a huge difference later this month, when the state assembly considers AB 19. The Religious Freedom and Civil......

The Asian-American civil rights community has lost a hero with the passing of Fred Korematsu yesterday in his daughter's home in Marin. Korematsu, an American citizen and Bay Area resident, was 22 years old when FDR ordered the internment of all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Reluctant to leave his Italian-American girlfriend, Korematsu refused to go, and was arrested. He then sued, claiming that the internment camps violated his right to equal protection under the law. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and established, in Korematsu v. United States, the principle that lasts until today, that the government must provide a compelling reason before race-based classifications will be upheld. Ironically, despite the strong language, the Supreme Court found that FDR's justification of a possible threat by the Japanese was in fact a compelling reason to justify incarceration of over 100,000 American citizens. The Korematsu decision is widely considered an embarrassment of American jurisprudence, and most recently, has been cited as a cautionary tale by the Muslim-American community in the wake of 9/11. In 1983, Korematsu, through the Asian Law Caucus, sued in San Francisco federal court to reopen his case and clear his name, and won. He spent the rest of his life dedicated to ensuring that injustices like the ones he faced would never happen again. We'll keep his memory alive. Picture of Fred Korematsu with Rosa Parks by Shirley Nakao and Asianweek ...

After being blamed for the re-election of W., made a virtual pariah in the Democratic Party, and befriended by Angelina Jolie all for letting a few gay people marry, you would think that the Gavster would go quietly into that good night on the issue. After all, there’s nothing the Democratic Party hates more than some Democrat standing on principles and scaring off all those Red State types. Turns out he’s not going quietly. In fact, he has been pumping up both the jams and the volume on the issue. In the past week, he gave a speech at Harvard where he called out his fellow Democrats and yesterday, totally dissed New York Mayor Bloomberg over Hizzoner’s little problem with the issue....

Well, at least 2005 isn't going to be a total wasteland of thwarted progressive political dreams -- Ward Connerly's term on the UC Board of Regents is almost up! It's been a long 12 years. Connerly's main focus -- eliminating any acknowledgment of race in California (or less charitably, getting rid of advancement opportunities for the African-Americans and Hispanics ) -- led to his support of Prop 209 to end affirmative action (which passed) and Prop 54 to end racial categorization on state forms (which did not). Connerly, who is part Irish, American Indian, and African-American, is bitterly viewed by civil rights activists, though no one contests that he most likely genuinely believes he is furthering the cause of racial justice through his actions. Students also note that he has been a strong advocate of keeping tuition fees low. Connerly's term is up by March and he has stated that he will not run for another term. (Schwarzenegger, who appoints the Regents, declined to discuss whether he had indicated that Connerly would not be reappointed, or who might be appointed to take Connerly's place.) Picture from the Daily Californian ...

Tony Andrade, one of those loveable lugs behind the Gray Davis recall campaign, is at again and is leading another drive to curtail sex education in California classrooms. The state has just given him permission to gather petitions calling for what the proposed proposition says will be the banning of sex-ed classes from kindergarten through sixth grade and for daily parental permission slips for older students. Currently, schools already require prewritten approvals by parents before......

Just a few minutes ago, Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow published an excerpt and link to a Toronto Globe and Mail article that describes how a classic documentary on the civil rights movement, Eyes on the Prize, can no longer be sold or broadcast because the filmmakers, including John Else of Cal Berkeley's school of journalism, can't afford to re-up all the usage fees for the copyrighted material the film uses to illustrate it's story.......

Canada College celebrates European Americans....

Bay Area crime roundup...