• Six sports cars, including a Mustang, Supra, and four BMWs, were caught racing over 100 mph on San Francisco freeways on Friday, July 13. CHP officers pulled over two drivers as they switched from northbound Highway 101 to eastbound Interstate 80 toward the Bay Bridge, and the other four were stopped on Treasure Island. [KRON4]
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress that military bases in Indiana and New Jersey could soon be used to detain immigrants. The move comes as Trump officials aim to expand capacity from 60,000 to 100,000 detention beds. [Associated Press]
• A man who fell from a pier near San Francisco’s Ferry Building on Saturday morning was rescued from the Bay by firefighters, police, and the Coast Guard. Ferry passengers threw him a life preserver before he was pulled into a rescue boat and taken to the hospital with minor injuries. [KTVU]

• A child died and a driver was arrested for suspected DUI after a head-on collision Friday afternoon on Chiles Pope Valley Road in Napa. [KRON4]
• A car crashed into a South San Jose post office and caught fire early Sunday, prompting a two-alarm response and leading to one arrest as local and federal officials investigate. [KPIX]

• The former Oakland home of Tony! Toni! Toné!’s Elijah Baker is on the market for under $1 million in Redwood Heights, a neighborhood long home to a number of celebrities. [SFGate]
• Ross Dress for Less defied the odds by opening its second Market Street store in downtown San Francisco this weekend in the former Nordstrom Rack (and Saks Off 5th) space at 901 Market, just one block from its other, longtime location at 799 Market. [Chronicle]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A former San Jose police officer charged with DUI after a 2021 road-rage incident — with a child in his car — is avoiding prosecution through a military diversion program. He reportedly punched a woman in a violent case prosecutors say the law wasn’t meant to cover.

As reported by NBC Bay Area, former SJPD officer George Brown was off duty on July 24, 2021, driving near the I-280/I-680 interchange with a friend and a child relative in the car, when he narrowly avoided a collision with another vehicle. According to the Santa Clara County DA, both cars began driving aggressively before a woman in the other car threw a plastic bottle that hit Brown’s SUV. Brown mouthed to the driver to pull over, called for emergency "Code 3" backup, then pulled over near McKee Road and blocked a lane of freeway traffic.

Once stopped, Brown identified himself as a San Jose police officer, then — without provocation — punched the 5-foot-3 woman in the face, knocking her to the ground, as reported by Bay Area News Group. Prosecutors say he hit her again when she tried to stand, then joined a physical altercation between his friend and the woman's husband. By the time officers arrived, all parties had left the scene. The woman sought treatment at a hospital, and two video recordings — one from a Tesla’s dashcam and another from a witness’s phone — later corroborated her account.

Brown was charged with felony assault under color of authority, misdemeanor battery, and misdemeanor child endangerment. His friend, a Redwood City resident, was also charged with misdemeanor battery. Brown was placed on paid administrative leave and later decertified by California’s POST board for serious misconduct, as reported by KTVU. At the time, SJPD Chief Anthony Mata called the violence “detestable,” adding, “These allegations defy everything I stand for and have no place in our organization.”

In January 2025, as reported by Bay Area News Group, Brown’s criminal case was suspended after a judge granted pretrial military diversion under California Penal Code §1001.80 — newly expanded this year to include felonies. Brown’s defense argued that his PTSD from military service in Iraq was a significant factor in the offense. A defense expert supported that claim, and under the updated law, the court presumed the connection unless prosecutors could prove otherwise with “clear and convincing” evidence.

Santa Clara County DA Jeff Rosen objected, stating, “I doubt this new law was intended to give a free pass to a police officer charged with using his authority to beat a woman on a highway and put his children in danger.” Deputy DA Brian Welch said the DA’s office was unable to obtain an independent psychiatric evaluation and was hamstrung by the law’s structure. Deputy DA Vanessa Aragon added, “This is a road rage DUI. This is not the intended purpose of this statute. It is to address combat-related trauma, not simply being a veteran.”

Although California’s military diversion statute was designed for misdemeanors, as of January 1, 2025, it now allows for diversion in most non-violent felony cases, as reported by Daily Journal, a legal industry publication. Brown’s actions — punching a woman twice in front of children — do not fall under “nonviolent,” yet the court still approved diversion. If he completes the program, all charges will be dismissed, and no conviction or plea will appear on his record.

Brown’s POST license is no longer suspended, raising the possibility he could work in law enforcement again. Under current rules, diversion does not automatically trigger decertification, though he must disclose it when applying to future agencies.

As more veterans seek diversion for felony charges, critics say the law is being stretched in ways that undermine public trust. According to Deputy DA Welch, “The prosecution walks into court on a request for military diversion with one hand tied behind its back.”

Image: Evgen_Prozhyrko/Getty

Related: Rookie SFPD Officer Involved In Alleged DUI Crash Loses Job, Gets Charged On Multiple Counts

The Supreme Court has, once again, dealt a blow to transgender people serving in the United States armed forces, allowing President Trump's executive-order ban to stand while its constitutionality is being broadly questioned by lower courts.

The Supreme Court's six-member conservative majority has issued an unsigned, unexplained ruling today, granting the Trump administration's request for an emergency stay of a lower court's preliminary injunction stopping the ban on trans people in the military. The stay was requested after a judge in the Western District of Washington, Judge Benjamin H. Settle, issued a nationwide injunction in late March in a case brought by seven active service members and one who wishes to enlist.

The brief ruling explains that the injunction shall be "stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought. Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of this Court."

The ruling notes that the three liberals on the court, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented and would have allowed the injunction to remain in place.

The Ninth Circuit had previously declined to block Judge Settle's ruling pending its decision in an appeal of the case.

Judge Settle wrote, regarding one of the plaintiffs, Commander Emily Shilling, who has been a naval aviator for 19 years, "There is no claim and no evidence that she is now, or ever was, a detriment to her unit’s cohesion, or to the military’s lethality or readiness, or that she is mentally or physically unable to continue her service."

The judge, who was a George W. Bush appointee, added, "There is no claim and no evidence that Shilling herself is dishonest or selfish, or that she lacks humility or integrity. Yet absent an injunction, she will be promptly discharged solely because she is transgender."

The plaintiffs challenging the ban, both in this case and in another brought in Washington DC, have called out the "animus-laden language" that was used in Trump's executive order, which was issued on Day One of his new presidency — as promised in the Project 2025 document. As the New York Times notes, a Biden-appointed judge hearing the DC case, Judge Ana C. Reyes, argued from the bench with Trump DOJ attorneys about the biological reality that humans with varying chromosomal differences exist in nature, and that it is categorically false to say that there are only two genders, male and female.

"I mean, it's actually kind of a really important point because this executive order is premised on an assertion that's not biologically correct," Reyes said, per This American Life. "There are anywhere near about 30 different intersex examples. So someone who does not have just an XX or XY chromosome is not just male or female, they're intersex."

Reyes issued a similar injunction against the ban, and her injunction was blocked by an administrative stay issued by the DC Circuit court, which is still expected to rule on the merits of the case.

It seems clear that John Roberts and perhaps other members of the court would prefer not to take on the hot-button culture-war issue of trans rights, especially in a time when Democrats, Independents and Republicans across the country decried the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the Trump administration seems hellbent on de-legitimizing the power of the courts, full stop.

Any definitive ruling by the high court stands the chance of further disgracing it in the minds of liberals, or, contrarily, creating another constitutional crisis if Trump refuses to obey its order and plows ahead as he pleases.

As the Times notes, the Supreme Court, when it had a 5-4 conservative majority back in 2019, previously allowed a similar trans-people-in-the-military executive-order ban by the first Trump administration to stand while the issue was battled out in the lower courts. They got off the hook from having to rule on the issue when Biden took office, rescinded the Trump ban, and the cases were dropped.

LGBTQ rights groups Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation issued a statement Tuesday in response to the court's ruling, saying, "By allowing this discriminatory ban to take effect while our challenge continues, the court has temporarily sanctioned a policy that has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with prejudice. Transgender individuals meet the same standards and demonstrate the same values as all who serve. We remain steadfast in our belief that this ban violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and will ultimately be struck down."

Photo by Ian Hutchinson

• 23-year-old William O’Reilly of Boston is currently being held in the Bay Area while awaiting extradition on federal charges of conspiring to smuggle Irish nationals from Canada into the United States via boat, typically to New York or Boston. An unnamed co-conspirator told authorities that some of the individuals smuggled into the country are suspected of being involved in criminal activity. [Mercury News]
• An electric Jeep Wrangler caught on fire while charging at Google’s campus in Mountain View on Thursday, spreading to three other vehicles — two Teslas and a Honda — and resulting in about $275,000 worth of damages. Authorities said the cause of the fire appeared to be related to the car’s lithium-ion battery charging system.  [Chronicle]

• Five whales have died in the bay in the past month, raising alarms among scientists already concerned about struggling gray whale populations. Experts are investigating the causes and urging stronger protections as sightings spike and vessel strikes remain a growing threat. [Oaklandside]
• San Francisco is suing HUD over new federal grant conditions that officials say force cities to adopt Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-choice policies or lose critical homelessness funding. [David Chiu]
• Here’s how to avoid the gridlock traffic downtown and in Mission Bay during Friday night’s pivotal Warriors and Giants games. [Chronicle]

National:

• A Gaza-bound boat from Malta containing 30 humanitarians from over 21 countries, including prominent figures like Greta Thunberg, was reportedly attacked by Israeli drones early Friday morning. The crew has been posting updates as they seek safe and unhindered passage from the Maltese government. [@gazafreedomflotilla]

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• Eighty years after their heroic service, the Six Triple Eight—the only Black, all-female unit to serve overseas in WWII—has been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. The battalion worked around the clock to clear a massive mail backlog, delivering millions of undelivered letters between soldiers and their families in just three months. [Smithsonian]
• Trump’s latest budget plan slashes funds for permanent supportive housing, threatening to evict chronically homeless people — including veterans — in favor of short-term shelter programs, undermining decades of progress and pushing vulnerable residents back onto the streets. [New York Times]

Video of the Day:

• San Francisco native Margaret Cho wrote a post remembering her friend, musician Jill Sobule, who died in a house fire in Minneapolis on Thursday. Cho shared the video she made for Sobule’s 2009 song, “San Francisco,” which features cameos from various prominent San Francisco folks, including Cho, drag queen Monistat, musician Mark Eitzel, sex columnist Violet Blue, artist Henry Lewis, and writer Stephen Elliott.

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A post shared by Margaret Cho (@margaret_cho)

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Protesters turned out in droves in the Castro Wednesday evening to express resistance to President Trump's Twitter declaration that transgender people would no longer be able to serve in the US armed forces — a declaration that will still need to be made official via the Defense Department, as the New York Times explains. The crowd numbered several hundred according to the Associated Press, and as you can see in photos, there were many creative signs.

San Francisco Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, the only gay member of the Board of Supervisors, issued an angry press release Wednesday condemning the president's words, saying, "Coward Donald Trump, who obtained deferments to avoid serving in the Vietnam War, including one for an alleged bone spur suffered while golfing, is attacking the brave transgender and gender non-conforming heroes who have selflessly volunteered to serve our country. Their willingness to put their lives and bodies at risk to preserve our freedom stands in stark contrast to the hateful action taken today."

Sheehy further spoke out to ABC 7 at Wednesday's rally saying that he thinks the Trump administration is breeding the next wave of hatred in America. "This is how we've always responded to the hate and bigotry we've experienced over the years and the decades," he said of the Castro gathering. "What we do is come together with love and solidarity."

48 Hills snapped a photo of trans Navy veteran Kody Horton, who took the microphone to say, "Myself and other LGBT veterans put their asses on the line for this country and the Constitution. All I ask is for the same goddam rights that we protect your asses for. I did not put my life on the line to be shit on."

Sister Nova of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence also spoke at the rally, per ABC 7, urging young people to read more news. "Read some information and find out, and come out to one of these things and listen to what people have to say. Read the fake news... read the real news. Come out to the resistance rally and listen to these people's stories. The individual stories are what really matters."

The march proceeded down Market Street, as most Castro protests do.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports today that Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued a letter clarifying that, "There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance." And he added that the U.S. military would continue to "treat all of our personnel with respect."

Previously: 'Emergency Protest' Planned In Castro Following Trump's Ban On Trans People In The Military

Following this morning's tweet-announcement by the president of a ban on trans people serving in the military — something that could effect over 2,000 active-duty troops — an "emergency protest" has been announced in the Castro beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, at Harvey Milk Plaza.

"Please come to this emergency protest to show [Trump's] administration and the world that San Francisco stands with the transgender community," reads the Facebook announcement by a group called The Resistance. Over 500 have already said they are attending and over 1,100 others are "interested" just a couple of hours after the event was posted.

Earlier we saw some swift Twitter reaction to the president's snap decision, including from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and recently released-from-prison (but still active-duty) service member Chelsea Manning.

Politico surmises that President Trump's decision to announce the ban, without consulting even his own defense secretary (it seems), came as a result of a last-ditch effort to save a spending bill in the House that includes funding for one of Trump's key campaign promises: the wall along the Mexican border. Fighting among defense hawks and the Pentagon over funding for sex-reassignment surgery for military personnel threatened to derail the bill, and this apparently spurred Trump's early morning tweets.

The president had, allegedly, always planned to roll back some of the Obama-era protections for trans people in the military, but an outright ban had not previously been on the table, according to the New York Times.

Related: Chelsea Manning, Nancy Pelosi And Others React To Proposed Trans Military Ban

President Trump's announcement — via Twitter — Wednesday morning that he planned to ban trans people from military service is already sending waves of anger through the LGBT community and has hopefully, finally, made Caitlyn Jenner regret voting for him. (As of last week on Jimmy Kimmel she was still saying she "didn't agree" with him on some issues but she "liked some of the things he's done.")

According to a study by the RAND corporation, approximately 2,450 active-duty service members are transgender, out of a total of 1.3 million. Under Trump's own Defense Secretary Jim Mattis appears to have been caught off guard by the President's policy decision, as the New York Times reports.

Social media reaction has been swift, and is growing.

Jenner's onetime advisor in trans issues, Jennifer Finney Boylan, was quick to ask for Jenner's thoughts on Twitter, which have not yet arrived.

Chelsea Manning has already chimed in, as the San Francisco Chronicle notes, with a series of tweets both sarcastic and combative with those lashing out against her.

2018 California gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom of course had a few words.

... as did House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

And the legal community, including the ACLU and Lambda Legal, are going to be putting up an immediate fight.

Sidebar: Twitter is latching on to the fact that the military spends far more on erectile dysfunction medication than it does on medical care for trans service people, which was one of the reasons cited by the president for the ban.

Related: Trump Administration Will Bar Transgender Individuals From Serving In The Military

Of course. The minds at SF Pride have now decided that it would be a good idea to host military recruiters at this year's San Francisco Pride fete at Civic Center. "Organizers of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade throw a party where everyone is welcome," The Chronicle reports. "Now, for the first time, military recruiters will join the crowd."

More:

The California National Guard will set up two recruiting booths at this weekend's event, which organizers predict will draw 1 million people to San Francisco.

The presence of the uniformed recruiters will mark the first time the military has participated in the city's largest gay-rights celebration. It's a change enabled by the Obama administration's 2011 repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, permitting gays and lesbians to serve openly in military ranks.

"At the end of the day, we're a community-based organization, too," said Capt. Shannon Terry, public affairs officer for the California National Guard. "So we need to look like our community."

While we're all for a salad bowl of LGBT ilk, this decision sure does comes as a smack in the face of those who so strongly opposed our local Pride rulers this year. San Francisco Pride, if you recall, backtracked on the appointment of Bradley Manning, a championed gay whistleblower in the U.S. military, earlier this year. The shunning of Manning has divided the local queer community, even prompting a former District 8 Supervisor to step down as grand marshal in response

Also of note? Rape and sexual assault in the military have reached epidemic heights this year.

[Chronicle]

As we mentioned last week, the SF Pride board relented in the face of growing pressure from the city and held another public meeting Friday regarding their decision to retract the honorary appointment of Wikileaks leaker Bradley Manning to Pride Grand Marshal. The meeting was held at Metropolitan Community Church in the Castro, and as Castro Biscuit reports, the forum was attended by about 150 people, and was moderated by KQED's Scott Shafer.

More than 50 people took advantage of the opportunity to speak at the forum, including dozens of Manning supporters and the man who nominated Manning for Grand Marshall, Joey Cain. Of the speakers, only three spoke in support of the board's decision to disinvite manning, including one Log Cabin Republican, and GOPTranny blogger Katherine Kline. Supervisor David Campos surprised some by voicing his support of Manning, and insisting the Pride board find some way of honoring him in the face of this community response. The board agreed to make a decision on that by June 7.

Also, vocal members of the progressive community subsequently took advantage of Pride board secretary Lou Fischer's call for people to become members of the SF Pride organization and take part in the next vote for board members. Anyone interested is encouraged to write a letter like this one, and your ability to vote begins 60 days after acceptance of your application.

Meanwhile, across the country at Fort Meade, Maryland, Manning himself began his first day of court-martial today. He has pleaded guilty to ten charges of misconduct based on his leaking of military files, and waived his right to a jury trial. However the government is seeking a conviction based on a more extreme set of charges, including violation of the Espionage Act, and the military court trial is expected to last twelve weeks. As the NYT reports, Manning's defense attorney argued that Manning was "young, naïve, but good-intentioned" in his actions, and that he had tried to select documents to leak so as not to put fellow soldiers in harms way. "He was selective," the attorney said, "And he released these documents because he was hoping to make the world a better place."

[Castro Biscuit]
[NYT]

During last night's GOP debate, it was difficult to watch the Google logo stand next to evil, so unintentionally in contrast with its corporate logo. Case in point: Rick Santorum expressing his opinion on the defeated "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. More disturbing than Santorum's inaccurate screed ("What we're doing is playing social experimentation with—with our military right now. And that's tragic.") was the fact that the audience loudly booed an active, and homosexual, serviceman for asking about it.

Stephen Hill sent the following question into the debate: "In 2010, when I was deployed to Iraq, I had to lie about who I was, because I'm a gay soldier, and I didn't want to lose my job. My question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?"

[via Gothamist]

Your lesbian cousin in the Marines and that hot gay daddy you've been corresponding with in secret from his base in Afghanistan will no longer have to keep their loves undercover as of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday! The Pentagon is officially lifting the ban on gays serving openly in the military as of one minute past minute tonight, and though they're trying to keep it all "low-key," it's a rather historic day for the LGBT civil rights movement. Tonight will mark the end to a weird forced-closet status for thousands of people in the armed forces that extends back to a dark deal Bill Clinton made with Republicans and the military 18 years ago.

The military has no events or formal ceremonies planned to mark the occasion, but gay rights groups are preparing a series of celebrations around the country. SF's own LGBT Center will be hosting a celebration tomorrow from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at their headquarters at 1800 Market Street. Also representing at the event will be the American Legion Troop 448, the Service Members Legal Defense Network, and Outserve.

[AP/Chron]
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