Results tagged “government”

SF Appeal brings it to our attention that smarmy San Francisco-based (located on Maiden Lane, specifically) "independent integrated marketing communications company," Criswell and Associates, earned about $700K in the past couple of months producing anti-same-sex marriage ads for Stand For Marriage Maine with the help of SF production company Coyote Films.

The definition of the federal hate crimes law might finally get expanded to include sexual orientation, as the House of Representatives approved the bill yesterday, which was an attachment of the $680 billion Defense Authorization Bill. The Senate could vote on the bill as soon as next week. Obama has said he will sign it into law -- unlike his predecessor, and Pelosi said this legislation has been on her agenda for two decades.

The latest tip on SFist's contribute page informed us that the The San Francisco Office of Vital Records has a notice on their website regarding a recent break-in at their office: "As a result of large amounts of certified paper being stolen, this office is unable to produce birth and/or death certificates." The paper will be restocked on Tuesday. At first we thought actual birth and death certificates were stolen, but it sounds like just the special paper was. Although fraudulent activities can still be had after such a theft, we're glad that San Francisco's vital records are still safe and sound.

Yesterday, Mayor Newsom's office announced a new initiative called JOBS NOW!, which aims to fund jobs using federal stimulus money for 1,000 San Francisco residents who have at least one child and earn less than twice the federal poverty level, which equals about $37,000 a year for a family of three or $44,000 for a family of four. The $25 million worth of federal funds will subsidize the successful candidates' salaries at jobs provided by the local government, private businesses, and nonprofits through September of 2010. Employers will be responsible for the workers' Social Security and other payroll taxes.

Facing a nearly $7 billion potential loss this fiscal year, The United States Postal Service selected 677 branches nationwide for either closure or consolidation, including more than a couple dozen in the Bay Area. Threatened post offices in San Francisco are the Civic Center P.O. Box Unit, the Federal Building, and the McLaren branches. Thanks to electronic communication, mail volume decreased by 9.5 billion pieces last year and is expected to fall by 28 billion pieces this year.

A class of 17 juniors and seniors at the Urban School of San Francisco have brought environmental education into the 21st Century with their comprehensive eco-wiki, Greening San Francisco. Currently the site covers six main topics: Environmental justice, Waste reduction, Climate change, Reducing toxins, Alternative fuels, and Water use.

              

Funny, this didn't seem to be a problem last year.

Brass Tax: DJs Fred Funk, Goldilox, Loosebeats, and Tung throw down house, breaks, and hip hop beats. But douchey and unoriginal said beats ain't! At Amnesia, everything is quirky and creatively beat, so...have at it at the Mission boutique club. Starts at 9:39 p.m. at Amnesia; $5.

Every year, California fills out a bunch of forms, dots a lot of i's, and writes up some reports to send off to the EPA for permission to be granted a waiver from EPA rules to create their own carbon dioxide emission limits. This all started in the 70s when California pollution wasn't so groovy and was made more of a priority recently when the state decided to do something about Global Warming as the Federal Government was too busy thinking Global Warming was nothing but the blabberings of a bunch of tree-hugging hippies and wanted that cute little polar bear to die. Everytime the state had sent out the request, the state had been granted a waiver. But not this year-- our request just got ixnayed.

The feds have gotten big bucks for the value of the Busan, so it now has one less hurdle to jump before heading home.

Carole Migden's girlfriend (OK then, "wife?" We refuse to use the sterile and patronizing "partner") Cris Arguedas, it seems, now must deal with yet another San Francisco diva: Barry Bonds. According to the Sacto Bee, the letter "h" eschewing lawyer "joined the defense team of baseball star Barry Bonds last week, as the long-time Sam Francisco Giant pleaded not guilty to charges of perjury." Arguedas is now part of a high-profile team that will...

-- Cinewhores Present Midnight Cowboy (1970): Although tame by today's smut-filled standards -- oh, you heard right! -- Midnight Cowboy has the distinction of being the only X-rated film to have ever snagged the Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The film -- about the friendship between Joe, a rookie New York City hustler, and Ratso, a terminally-ill New Yorker -- is prefaced by a reading by queer author Kirk Read. (Oh, and Sylvia Miles is simply fucking awesome in Midnight Cowboy.) Doors open at 6:30 p.m. at ATA; $5-$20 (all donations go to benefiting the St. James Infirmary.)

An update on news about the oil spill

Monica Lewinsky's interest level in working for SF city government just went up a notch, as the SF Board of Supes overwhelmingly voted down Chris Daly's proposal to ban office affairs between supervisors and supervisees. (No, not affairs with supervisors like Chris Daly is a supervisor, affairs with supervisors like your boss. We could probably get a proposition on the ballot barring affairs between the San Francisco Supervisors and their constituents, though -- because, come on, ew.)

The sands of Marin and San Mateo have officially reopened to the public. (We recommend hitting the beach in the fall. There's something luxurious about walking on the beach, bundled up in winter clothing.) What's more, 50 wild birds have been cleaned up and released at Pillar Point Yacht Harbor at Half Moon Bay. But what's worse, "the spill has cost the U.S. government $1.4 million, money spent on operations by the Coast Guard,...

Choose your allusion-- the sword of Damocles finally striking, the chickens coming home to roost, karma being an ill-tempered bitch-- but Barry Lamar is now up against it for breaking the law, breaking the law. Personally, we were a bit stunned that it happened coming as it did years after the actual case, but we're cavemen-- we fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses us!

Weep no more, my lady. After handing over an apology to the sobbing mother of a Chinese journalist that they helped imprison, Yahoo now must hand over an undisclosed amount to the scribes. Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao, the latter a former journalist at Contemporary Business News, will receive a hefty, unknown amount from Yahoo, Inc. The Chinese journalists sued Yahoo, blaming them for their imprisonment and torture by Chinese government officials. "According to...

Image: EFF

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos threw down some serious shade today. "While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," he cried, shaming two senior Yahoo officials. Why? Because the Sunnyvale company named names, handing over private information about Chinese journalist Shi Tao's online pro-democracy action to country officials. (Or, as the New York Times so eloquently put it, their "complicity with an oppressive communist regime." Oh snap.) This landed...

Well, well, well. According to Alix Rosenthal (Citizens for Halloween), ahem: Word has arrived from a credible source in city government. The City has rented 120 toilets to be placed in the Castro by 5pm today. It may not prevent all of the public urination, but it is certainly better than no toilets at all. We are thrilled that the City made the right decision, even though they could have done more to decrease...

Yesterday, we got a press release touting the fact that the city was going to issue a proclamation to Perry Mann, founder of the Exotic Erotic Ball, and Snoop Dogg. Our reaction? Get! Out! But after the news was released, bigger wigs got together and basically decided "what the frak are we thinking?" and so the proclamation was taken back.

The Office of the Controller and the Office of the Legislative Analysit want to know: what's up with special events? Apparently, Bevan Dufty's been poking around, asking questions; and at his behest, a couple of government-types banged out a report about how the city could do a better job of managing events. The report asks, and we paraphrase: could SF make itself more attractive by attracting more attractions? Can events be improved by fixing the setup process? Can the city do a better job of getting and spending events-money? The answers may surprise you!

Good news for students of the struggle of the proletariat: even if you don't have time to read Marx, there are alternatives. Like Paul Krugman, Harpers, Howard Zin, Noam Chomsky, the Guardian of London -- and even our very own home-grown SF Bay Guardian.

Even though he runs without any serious opponent, Newsom's camp is still pulling their hair out over this election and the turnout. Newsom'07 Phone Bank sent us a release, with the following:

Photo of a bunch of old cell phone chargers along with news of a new universal standard.

After staunching out the Arizona Cardinals last week, the Niners head to St. Louis to try to get ahead at the expense of the reeling Rams and claw ahead in the NFC West race.

Remember the Jamba Juice hepatitis A scare? And remember how we said there were gymnasts competing in a national meet in San Jose a few weeks ago? Well -- you guessed it -- it turns out the gymnasts might have been exposed to the virus. The hepatitis A carrier made smoothies for the gymnasts during the meet and in the trade shows outside. She claims she used good hygiene and food safety practices throughout (wearing gloves, for instance), so the chance of infection is fairly low, but they're warning gymnasts anyways. Hey, while we're on the topic of gymnasts, does anyone else remember the movie ? So good.

But for those of you that this applies to (or those of you thinking about owning property in the future), consider this a bit of a PSA. Prop 13 will only let the government increase its valuation of your property for tax purposes by 2% -- but should you let them take even that much in a down market (understatement? perhaps; we'll leave that to the experts)? Point is, you might want to think about contesting your revaluation.

Forget that Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, and Chris Cooper star in The Kingdom. The divine Jason Bateman also appears -- reason enough to check out this action flick.

Since February, that's $670,381.39. It's been a busy month for lawyers: Muni's conceding $131,695.06 (about the cost of a bribe to Ted Stevens, or one foot of collapsed-bridge repairs, or a single union employee, or an English teacher in Seoul, or your very own hair salon) in settlements for August in nine separate cases.