This morning at St. Mary's Cathedral, thousands of people gathered for the funeral of San Francisco firefighters Vincent Perez and Anthony Valerio -- marking the fourth time in the past 20 years that the life of a San Francisco firefighter was honored at that location.
Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Governor Jerry Brown, Mayor Ed Lee, and Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom comprised just a fraction of the city officials who filled the pews to pay their respects to the two men from Station 26 who died fighting a fire turned flash fire in Diamond Heights on June 2.
Outside the cathedral, firefighters from Alaska, Canada, and Mexico mingled with other officers. There was barely any wiggle room to be found among the sea of blue and white caps.
Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey, principal owners of SF Weekly's parent company, are permitted to sue the Phoenix special prosecutor who had them arrested and jailed on bogus charges in 2007, a San Francisco appeals court has ruled.
However, a majority on a three-judge Ninth Circuit Court panel ruled that our bosses won't be allowed to go after the notorious sheriff behind the scandal, Maricopa County's Joe Arpaio.
Dissenting Judge Jay Bybee scolded his colleagues for seemingly failing to recognize that Arpaio's actions were so outrageous that Larkin and Lacey should be allowed to sue him.
"This is a sordid tale of abuse of public office," wrote Bybee, adding there was clear evidence of "Arpaio's extensive involvement in the alleged violations of Plaintiffs' clearly established constitutional rights."
Running a city is not easy. We get it. It'd be foolish to expect a place as complex and sometimes-provincial as San Francisco to always smoothly operate, yet occasionally there's a municipal breakdown that defies easy explanation. And, it's quite possible, city law.
Take the Marijuana Offenses Oversight Committee (MOOC). The City Hall-sanctioned body was formed by the Board of Supervisors and is under the jurisdiction of the General Services Agency (Mayor Ed Lee's old stamping grounds). It has a few key tasks, but none more important than ensuring the city adheres to its
To do this, MOOC is charged with requesting marijuana arrest totals from the police department. SFPD is supposed to release these numbers to MOOC, which then advises the Board of Supervisors on law enforcement trends and suggests reforms to ensure the city is adhering to its own laws.
In past years, MOOC has been able to do its job. It required much haranguing and hand-wringing to get the SFPD to release the numbers, but release the numbers the SFPD always did.
This year, however? No response, no calls, nothing
"We've done everything I can think of," says Smith, who says that multiple requests sent via registered mail as long as three months ago have gone unanswered. "I don't know what else to do."
Huge red ladder trucks from Alameda were parked along the Embarcadero this morning, and it wasn't difficult to figure out why. It's traditional that firefighters come from miles away to parade their apparatus at funerals. It's also traditional for them to park in front of churches and cross their trucks' ladders as a salute to a fallen comrade, as if they were crossing swords.
There is another tradition among fire departments: Employees ― sometimes thousands of them ― from around the city and state get paid not to work and to attend the funerals of someone many of them didn't know. Off-duty firefighters can be called in to cover all those shifts ― and you would assume overtime is involved. (Our calls to the San Francisco Fire Department and Alameda Fire Department have not been returned.)
While many readers may think this is a crass approach to a tragedy where two San Francisco firefighters lost their lives, so be it. Of course, there is no way to put a price on the worth of the men who died doing their duty. But I think the question regarding the cost of the tribute is worth asking when the city and the fire department are facing huge budget cuts that may affect service and firefighter jobs.
I wondered: How could the Alameda Fire Department afford to have its employees here when it couldn't afford to have them trained in water rescue, which resulted in one man recently taking his own life while standing chest-deep in water with fire department personnel standing by?
If Anthony Weiner's sordid debacle taught us anything, it's that your social networking can have serious consequences on your real life. It's not hard to think of friends who have revealed a bit too much on Facebook. Speaking from experience, we can also say that we've had potential employers look at our Facebook profile, and we've looked at the Facebook profiles of potential employees.
Palo Alto-based startup Reppler is out to help you prevent some of those faux pas by scanning your Facebook page for potential embarrassments and helping you fix 'em up before they cost you. What you find when the service looks at your profile may surprise you.
A scientific task force evaluating psychological conditions for formal inclusion in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will recommend that the controversial theory known as "Parental Alienation Syndrome" (PAS) or "Parental Alienation" not be included in the manual, according to early reports.
Writing in Psychology Today, psychologist Paula J. Caplan states that she has received a letter from American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Task Force chair David Kupfer and Task Force public representative James McNulty indicating that the disorder will not be recommended for inclusion:
Updated at 3 p.m: Someone purporting to be from KSFO has responded to this piece with this thoughtful tweet:
Original Post:
One terrible truth of life is that on occasion talk-radio listeners wander out of earshot and languish momentarily without anyone telling them what they should be mad about. That's why KSFO created its text message Patriot Alerts program, which promises to alert its subscribers to "higher taxes" and "threats to your rights and freedoms."
The idea is that KSFO -- the local home of Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and other media professionals who make bank denouncing media professionals -- remains forever vigilant, surveying a nation in crisis, and then sending what matters straight to patriots' pants.
Two months back, SF Weekly signed up for KSFO's texts. Here's what we got when we set our freedoms to vibrate:
Update, 2:30 p.m.: Steve Ralls from Immigration Equality e-mailed SF Weekly to say that Bradford Wells did not have a heart attack.
home from the hospital, and resting. He did not have a heart attack, but has
been experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath throughout the week. Both,
apparently, intensified this afternoon, and he was taken to the hospital as a
precaution.
week for both Anthony and Bradford, and no doubt the obstacles they've faced in
their quest to remain together have added to Bradford's already fragile health
conditions."
Can you believe how many commenters on last week's article took the position that because some cyclists break the law, it is okay for drivers to hit any cyclists they see? Crazy!
We racked up 178 comments, mostly expressing frustration at cyclists who ride through stop signs or red lights or get in other people's way.
Yup, those cyclists are out there. There are lots of them. But that's not what last week's article was about. It was about drivers who hit cyclists who are obeying the law.
But that seems to be where some of the confusion comes from: What exactly does "obeying the law" mean? Are bikes allowed on Franklin Street? Are they allowed to take the full lane?
Where there's smoke, there's fire, and in this case -- also a body.
Firefighters responded to a small brush fire near Buena Vista Park at 4:39 a.m., and in the process of extinguishing flames, discovered a partially burned body. Police have determined the person was already dead, and have marked the death as suspicious.
Homicide and the Arson Task Force are investigating, according to Bay City News and KGO. No information about the victim is available at this time.
First a body in a bag, now one in the park. Check back for updates.
