After serving more than 30 years of a life sentence in the clink, would-be presidential assassin and -- oddly enough -- FBI informant Sara Jane Moore was sprung on parole yesterday at the ripe old age of 77. On Sept. 22 1975 Moore squeezed off a .38-caliber shot at Gerald Ford in front of the St. Francis Hotel but missed when a disabled ex-Marine grabbed her arm. Apparently Ford was not popular with California radicals at the time, as Moore's attempt on his life was the second in three weeks. The above photo shows the president "wincing" at the sound of the shot.
Photo courtesy/Ford Presidential Library
-- Brian Bernbaum
It's official: Gavin Newsom and girlfriend Jennifer Siebel are engaged to be married. According to the Chronicle's "knowledgeable sources" the mayor popped the question in Hawaii over the weekend. Aww, how disgustingly sweet! But don't go looking for a registry yet, as the couple hasn't settled on a wedding date. It will, of course, be Newsom's second marriage since 2001 when he tied the knot with Kimberly Guifoyle. Good luck you crazy kids. (via SFist)
Photo courtesy/Laura Morton (Chronicle)
-- Brian Bernbaum
Fellow denizens of San Francisco: Happy Damn New Year!
One of our resolutions here at The Snitch is to get more great photos up on the page. Why? Because we can.
So, here's hoping everyone woke up in the same place they fell asleep. We lift a toast of a.m. Gatorade to you all.
Best,
Joe Eskenazi
Photo | From flickr.com, taken by Asim Goheer
Longtime UCSF doctor “retires” to Palestinian territories
By Joe Eskenazi
When Dr. Robert Stern met me in front of the Cole Valley bakery he makes sure to buy a fresh baguette from every morning, he was decked out in an eye-catching bright vest, a matching plaid shirt and tie and, to tie it all together, noticeably rose-colored spectacles.
He’s going to stand out in East Jerusalem. No doubt about it.
After 31 years as a professor and researcher at U.C. San Francisco Hospital, Stern retired in December – “But I’m not a guy who goes on cruises or plays golf.”
Instead, later this month, the 72-year-old will traipse to the Holy Land where he’ll head up the pathology department at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem.
Stern, a German-born Jew whose family fled der Vaterland in 1938, is taking over a department that probably has less money to spend than UCSF allots for floor wax. He’s leaving his comfortable home within walking distance of his lab for a dorm room in East Jerusalem. He’ll be earning a stipend – but he didn’t even ask how much. And his safety? “It’s going to be an issue. There are no guarantees,” he says, quietly.
“I am apprehensive, bordering on being scared. But everyone has to get out of their comfort zone. That’s where you learn.”
Simply put, Stern has reached the point in his life ...
Every Tuesday morning we profile one of the Bay's many cool blogs in a segment we call -- BetterKnowanSFBlog. This week: thoughts from LiveJournal's Kimmy Nguyen and Krissy Teegerstrom.
Photo of LiveJournal's Krissy Teegerstrom courtesy of mattdork on Flickr.
By Tyler Callister
In 1999, LiveJournal helped pioneer both the blogging revolution and the social networking revolution. It predates blog services like WordPress and Moveable Type, and it predates social networking giants like MySpace and Facebook. Some LiveJournal users have been at it for close to a decade.
As we reported a few weeks ago...
