• The trial on prison overcrowding began today. This could blow another hole in our budget, or could end up in a mass release of prisoners. Either way, this is yet another sad day for a failed corrections system in the state.
• We've already run out of money in our fire fighting budget, and exceeded the budget allocation by over $200 million. Tack it on to the 12Billion in deficit, I suppose.
• Jerry McNerney as the Secretary of Energy? It seems like more rumor than fact, and his spokesman is denying any contact with Barack Obama. But this would start a chain reaction and would likely set up a contested special election. McNerney hasn't been the best Congressman, but he does have fairly substantial knowledge about energy issues, particularly wind power.
• Markos has an important post on the Prop. 8 protests, the Human Rights Campaign, and grassroots politics.
• Disgraced conservative former SF Supervisor Ed Jew pleaded guilty to lying about where he lived in order to run for Supervisor. Ed Jew lasted only a few months before trying to shake down a business in the City. SF is better for his absence.
• "America's Sheriff" Mike Carona's exploits are getting detailed in his corruption trial. Yesterday we learned that one of his contributors got something of a "get out of jail free" card. Fun, just like a board game!
• In election counting news, Tom McClintock's lead over Charlie Brown is down to 562 votes, with provisionals to come, which usually favor Democrats.
Ed Jew, SF District 4 Supervisor, has been "suspended" by the Mayor and City Attorney Dennis Herrera today, putting him one step closer to irrelevance. Interestingly, the Mayor stuck close to home when picking a successor, and plucked Carmen Chu from his budget office. Many were expecting Newsom to appoint Doug Chan, his pick in the District 4 elections last year. But, well, "Many", you were wrong! Hah! Rubes! (The fact that I thought it was going to be Chan myself as late as yesterday are merely coincidental. I, of course, am no rube. There, it's on the internet, so it's Permanent!)
Anyway, I'm trying to get some more information on Ms. Chu. Local women's groups had been applying pressure to the mayor to appoint a woman, and they seem to have been successful, at least on that score.
One more interesting quote from the article:
Chu has an address on Ulloa Street in the Sunset, the mayor's office said.
Local Blog-gadfly "marc" at leftinsf reports that Ms. Chu has voted exactly once in San Francisco. Interesting pick so far. If you have more info on her, leave it in the comments or shoot me an email. UPDATE: Here's this the press conference announcement (w/video).
Yesterday, the Feds indicted him, and he's in federal court today. The Mayor has demanded that he resign his position. And rightly so, the Mayor, and all of the supervisors and most other City/County officials have called on him to resign. He should do so, like yesterday, and let SF move on.
So, your humble (haha) front page contributer knows a thing or two about City Attorney investigations. In fact, I once had to go down and have two investigators grill me on tape for an annoyingly long time. I didn't complain. I didn't hire an attorney. I didn't hide, because I had done nothing wrong. Which, from my personal knowledge of the dynamics, makes in my mind this look even sketchier.
I know we've had a lot of SF politics on the front page, but only because it has been interesting. And the last thing this state needs is wannabe SF politicians getting the Paris Hilton treatment.
The California Water Conservation Authority announced Friday that it had appointed Ed Jew as California’s first Water Czar. Jew, a member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, said “I am delighted to share my experience of strict water conservation to help all of California during this difficult time.”
Ed Jew -- the $40,000 man -- is out on $135,000 bail and headed for arraignment on 9 felony counts. Know as "Supervisor No" for his record, it appears "no" was also the answer to whether he lived in San Francisco and was honest with investigators.
With a good chance of a special election being combined with the November recall, it is important to consider how this -- taken with the recall campaign against Jake McGoldrick in the district to the north -- could change the strategic dynamics for ballot measures in San Francisco in the next 12 months.
These two conservative westside districts (the Sunset and Richmond), along with Gavin Newsom's expensive GOTV effort could make this fall an awful time for progressive initiatives. Pretty much the opposite of next June. San Francisco has always played an important role as an incubator lab for progressive policy that can then be exported across the state and nation. But will this be a year for defense instead?
And what cool ideas would you suggest to take advantage of the overwhelming progressive potential next June?
Forget about Tapiocagate. Forget about rumors of arson, tax fraud, illegal evictions, and activity surrounding the pot club in one of his buildings. Forget even about questions surrounding his own residency is San Francisco. This alone proves that Supervisor Ed Jew is a liar.
You can the conservative out of the Republican Party but...:
FBI agents carrying out a criminal investigation searched the City Hall office of San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew on Friday and several other properties tied to the rookie lawmaker.
Federal authorities familiar with the probe refused to discuss what the FBI was looking for, but Jew told The Chronicle that agents questioned him about $40,000 in cash he had accepted from a group of businessmen who had sought his help with city permit problems.
With the FBI apparently having multiple pages listing the serial numbers of specific $100 bills, Jew replied something about, "an unorthodox way of paying."
[Jew] is a former local Republican Party vice chairman but changed his party affiliation to Democrat before running for office in 2006.
In today's SF Examiner, Supervisor Ed Jew goes on a rant against, well, city spending in general:
After only two months in office, I am already tiring of hearing ideas that require a blank check from taxpayers. This Board of Supervisors needs to stop spending money with the irresponsible abandon of children at a shopping mall, confident that Mommy and Daddy will pay the bill no matter how much it is. (SF Examiner 3/1/07)
Well, if Supervisor Jew had as his intention to become an outcast on the Board, excellent work. I don't know exactly where he thinks he is governing but it's not the OC (sorry Andrew...but it's true). We here in SF tend to accept taxes as the price for living in such a great city. The Club for Growth isn't welcome here, nor is their rhetoric.
The funny part of this, the program that he's railing against is actually less than optimal. I agree that providing discounted MUNI passes to people 18-24 shouldn't be a top priority, but perhaps a college student discount would be more targeted. Or wait, we have this great program, the Working Families Credit, perhaps we could include a discounted MUNI pass in that program for low-income San Franciscans. No, that would be integration with programs from different politicians (WFC=Mayor, Treasurer. Fast Pass Discount=Board). Who would take the credit??
I give Supervisor McGoldrick credit for the idea, but perhaps we could target better. At least SF's progressives have come up with some exciting ideas, what have you got, Supervisor Jew?
