Free Republic

In a time when governments across the country are raising every manner of fee to battle nasty budget deficits, one 86-year-old man here drew the line. Ed Leong decided to fight City Hall over badminton. And, soon, City Hall found it too hard to fight Ed Leong. Since January, Mr. Leong has campaigned against new court fees he called "disturbing and unfair" because they particularly affected ethnic Asians, especially Chinese-American players. The retiree collected 200 signatures opposing the charge, presented a petition to Mayor Gavin Newsom's office, staged a rally in front of City Hall and persistently called local politicians...

S. F. neighborhood once known as a haven for drifters is overrun by disenfranchised homeless youths SAN FRANCISCO -- From his second-floor apartment at the counterculture crossing of Haight and Ashbury streets, Arthur Evans watches a new generation of wayward youth invade his free-spirited neighborhood. The former flower child was among the legions of idealistic wanderers who migrated here during the Vietnam War to "tune in, turn on and drop out." But Evans, who has lived at the same address for 34 years, says he has never seen anything like this crowd, who use his flower bed as a bathroom...