By Andy Van De Voorde
In a morning session marked by colorful exchanges and a game of musical chairs in the jury box, jury alternates were selected in the Bay Guardian’s predatory pricing lawsuit against the Weekly. The panel of twelve jurors and five alternates, three days in the making, will return to court tomorrow to hear long-awaited opening statements in the case.
Although it appeared that the twelve members of the regular jury had been chosen last week, two jurors already sworn in were excused from the panel on Monday. A woman who owns her own trucking company was excused for a personal hardship; the other, a lab technician, was sent home after he told the judge he had decided neither newspaper deserved to win because both support “prostitution” by printing explicit personal ads.
You've probably walked by the Wired issue with Sarah Silverman on the cover. She is gorgeous, Jewish, and hilarious. Even an anti-Semite would shrug and go, "Well, two out of three ain't bad." They have a quick how-to on getting prepared for the Winter Olympics with your luging, because there's no better display of athleticism than donning a body condom suit and flying through a slip 'n' slide. — James Y Lee
Though it's the first clear day in a carnival goldfish's lifetime, perhaps it would have been better to not leave the apartment at all today, San Francisco.
Take this smattering of petty atrocities on the front page of SFgate.com:
•Workers crushed in PG&E boiler collapse, one dead;
•Panhandler shot to death by cops;
•Driver shot on freeway in Richmond;
•Santa Rosa man shot to death (for those scoring at home, that's three consecutive headlines with the word "shot" in them);
•20-year-old man killed in San Pablo (he, too, was shot — but Chron copy editors draw the line at four straight "shots" — or else they are shot);
•A local man pulled a Sonny Bono and died while skiing;
•Mormon leader Gordon Hinckley dies — yet Gordon Liddy and John Hinckley live on. Why God? Why?
•Finally, it's going to rain again. A lot.
Stay out of the news, people,
— Joe Eskenazi
A collapsing boiler at a former Bayview PG&E plant killed a worker today, left another with life-threatening injures and has a third still trapped within:
A call at about noon reported some sort of boiler accident that trapped several people, fire department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said.Talmidge said one person had been removed from the building with life-threatening injuries and another worker remained trapped inside. She said a third worker had been killed.
More as we learn it...
Update, 2:10 p.m.: Both of the surviving workers have been hospitalized with serious injuries.
By Benjamin Wachs
Let's skip straight to the good stuff.
Wednesday, January 30 – Budget and Finance Committee
It’s nerve-wracking to see an agenda item titled: “Emergency contract to design and install permanent high voltage electrical distribution system at San Francisco General Hospital.”
Um … what?
Did you know that San Francisco General Hospital had recently “experienced a major failure in its high voltage electrical distribution system, requiring emergency response … the temporary setup including re-routing of high voltage cables and doubling-up on circuit breakers …” and that the whole affair is “vulnerable to compromise and failure because they lack proper seismic support and are connected by exposed cables posing an unsafe condition”?
Because I did not.
Holy shit.
Let's hope they ... you know ... fix that. Should we even be waiting until Wednesday's committee meeting?
Now back to your regularly scheduled government, which is a lot less exciting but does involve even more tiger-attacky goodness.
Monday, January 28:
10 a.m. – Government Audit and Oversight Committee
By Will Harper
By now you've probably read that Mayor Gavin Newsom is using money from other cash-strapped departments to pay the salaries of some of his aides. As Friday's Chron story conceded, Newsom isn’t the first mayor to engage in this budgetary shell-game. What the story doesn’t mention is that the issue came up last year during the budget process, but nothing ever happened.
A homeless man yesterday ran from San Francisco police citing him for panhandling and then allegedly whipped out a kitchen knife when cornered. This one ended the way you'd think it would:
When the officer tried to detain the man, he ran east on Greenwich, SFPD SPokesman Sgt. Steve Mannina said.The officer called for backup. At Greenwich and Polk Street, the officer and two colleagues who had pulled up in a marked squad car approached the panhandler, who turned toward them with a knife, Mannina said.
The officers repeatedly ordered the man to drop the weapon, which they described as a kitchen knife with an 8-inch blade, Mannina said.
The man lunged with the knife, prompting one of the officers to open fire, Mannina said. ... The man died at 6:25 p.m. Sunday at San Francisco General Hospital, according to the medical examiner's office. His name was not released pending notification of his family.
— Joe Eskenazi
If you're a waiter or a sleazy car salesman, you know that subtle body language can subconsciously suggest a purchase. Tom Sullivan, a restaurant consultant, came up with the "Sullivan Nod" to increase appetizer purchases. It claims to work up to 70 percent of the time. Learn how to do it and turn into a friggin' bobblehead next time you want something. — James Y. Lee
Question answered: after a brief quip by SFist last week about that ubiquitous dude who hangs out around Market holding the big, yellow "JESUS CHRIST LOVES YOU" sign, the good folks over at whatimseeing decided to find out exactly who he is. Here's the scoop:
Photo courtesy/whatimseeing.com
-- Brian Bernbaum
An interesting transformation back to the '70s is taking place in the Castro this week during filming of the Gus Van Sant Harvey Milk biopic Milk -- particularly a stretch of block between 18th and 19th.
Castro Shopper has an impressive breakdown of all the changes, from newly devolved storefronts to vintage cars, and according to Curbed SF, rumor has it that the modern parking meters have been replaced with their retro ancestors. Check out photos here. (via Curbed SF)
Photo | courtesy/Castro Shopper
-- Brian Bernbaum
