This year's overall winner at the Westminster Dog Show is 10-years-old and came out of retirement to compete. So the possibility of a comeback for his look-alike intrugues us.
Is it just us, or does Stump the Sussex spaniel ...
landlord in writing that they no longer wish to receive further offers
of payments to vacate;
You can review a complete list of the proposition's text, including the suspended measures, here. The next court date is April 27.
As part of his quest to become governor, Mayor Gavin Newsom held his latest "town hall" last night in San Jose. The question-and-lecture session attracted about 200 locals and a dozen protesters who trekked down from San Francisco. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed joked he'd invited the demonstrators to make Gavin "feel at home."
We'll spare you a major analysis for now. In the meantime, here are some random highlights of the evening:
• Newsom let slip that he will be announcing his own economic stimulus package today, which will include $25 million for no-interest loans to small businesses. He didn't make clear where the money will be coming from for his plan.
• Gavin has a foster brother who's been in and out of prison for dealing crack. He divulged that tidbit during a discussion about a federal judge's order this week to release thousands of inmates from overcrowded prisons.
• Quotable: "I will never say one thing publicly that is different from what I say privately."
• Is Gavin a Deadhead? When it came out that a questioner shared the same name as the Grateful Dead's late frontman, Newsom couldn't resist quoting Jerry Garcia: "You don't want to be the best of the best, you want to be the only one who does what you do." Somehow Newsom related this back to education, which, frankly, I didn't understand because I wasn't on acid.
• While Newsom charmed the crowd inside, demonstrators stood outside waving homemade signs like "Gavin Newsom: The Man Without a Plan" and "San Jose: Don't get sick in S.F." The protesters were part of an labor-supported group objecting to, among other things, Newsom's proposed budget cuts to public health. Quipped Gavin: "Chuck's right -- it does make me feel at home."
• Afterward, Newsom talked to reporters and seemed a little prickly when the Chron's Erin Allday mentioned something about new Board President David Chiu convening a meeting with labor and business leaders over the weekend to talk about solutions to the city's budget crisis. The Chron had reported that Newsom was "notably missing" from the meeting. Newsom grumbled to Allday that he's had many meetings with people (surprisingly, he didn't use the word "stakeholders") to deal with the budget, and he'd been having them before Chiu was even elected. Sounds like the mayor didn't appreciate being upstaged by the new North Beach supe. So much for that new spirit of cooperation in City Hall.
• Newsom, who has a major following on Facebook, definitely attracted a younger crowd than you usually see at a political event (at least one without Barack Obama as the keynote speaker). Whether this translates into votes at election time is questionable for a variety of reasons. To wit: After Newsom finished, I asked a young looking gal if she liked what she heard. She did. One problem - she's in high school and can't vote.
| Coming to a San Francisco park near you? |
It took a plummeting economy and disastrous wars in the Middle East to make America awful enough to rise up above centuries of racial strife with the election of Barack Obama, The Onion reported Nov. 5.
In San Francisco, it has taken a half-billion-dollar budget deficit, criminals roaming with impunity through the streets, parks littered with abandoned syringes, and packs of near-feral dogs menacing children to inspire the city to rise above a state of semifeudalism. For this, we can thank small-statured, large-ambitioned Marcus Santiago, chief security guard of San Francisco's parks.
This week's SF Weekly describes Santiago's quest to elevate his force of 14 park docents -- known as "rangers" -- to full police status. What wasn't sufficiently emphasized in the column was the potential of Santiago's crusade to accomplish a form of bureaucratic jujitsu in which San Francisco's $500 million budget deficit is exploited to enhance, rather than impoverish, the lives of San Franciscans.
Parks interim chief Jared Blumenfeld has thrown his weight behind Santiago's proposal to give his officers, now essentially Mountie-hat-wearing security guards, police powers that include making arrests, investigating crimes, and enforcing laws other than mere park ordinances against things like camping. The idea is to garner money from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security set aside for bona fide law enforcement agencies.
Along with new powers, Santiago is pushing for new duties, which would raise money for the city while making it more pleasant.
Among proposals Santiago is backing:
