Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO, July 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Weeks after their male counterparts stoked controversy by changing their rules to allow openly gay members, Girl Scouts USA made history in their own way after some 90+ of their members and their families marched in San Francisco’s recent Gay Pride Parade - the first time they have ever done so. Girl Scouts of Northern California announced their participation in the parade in a post on their official Facebook page, accompanied by a photo of the girls in uniform carrying a Girl Scouts banner.  "I want them to be able to tell their children they...

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward making lots of money. That's Jamen Shively's thesis, anyway. The former Microsoft manager, 45, is embarking on a publicity tour for the marijuana enterprise he's happy to label the "Starbucks" of pot. "Yes, we can" is for Shively "yes, we are big marijuana" -- and he's getting ready for what he believes is The Next Big Thing: legal pot -- everywhere. With his trusty sidekick, former Mexican president Vicente Fox -- a partner of Shively's in Diego Pellicer, Inc., the nation's first "premium marijuana" retail brand -- in...

As if the morning commute couldn't have gotten worse for everyone. A big-rig driver reportedly slammed into the toll plaza at the Golden Gate Bridge as he tried desperately to make his way to San Francisco. The bizarre crash happened during rush hour at about 8:43 a.m. along the third southbound lane from the left at the toll plaza on the southern end of the bridge, CHP Officer Andrew Barclay told KTVU. Naturally, the toll plaza was damaged, as was the front of the truck, and everyone's mood about the morning commute. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. Now for the burning...

Perhaps you, like me, assumed that the City of San Francisco, California would avoid any governmental sponsorship of a particular religion, and would never house a place of worship of a specific religion on its own property. And if such government sponsorship ever came to light, you would be certain that the ACLU and the atheist activists would raise their voices in protest. But not when it comes to Islam. The San Francisco Chronicle's investigative duo Matier and Ross tell us: Muslim cabbies now have their very own place at San Francisco International Airport to wash their hands and feet...

An indecent exposure citation was reported Wednesday on the 400 block of Nancy Pelosi Drive in San Francisco. The city renamed Middle Drive East, which connects Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and John F. Kennedy Drive, after the House minority leader last year. “When I heard about it I said, ‘No, no, please don’t do that. I’m embarrassed, please don’t do that,’” Pelosi said at the ceremony last year, “until I heard that it was between JFK and MLK Jr. Drive and then I thought, ‘Well, I would like to go there and bear witness to the greatness of those...

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A San Francisco high school senior is suspended because of a poem she wrote which dealt with the school shooting in Connecticut. What she wrote has left officials with a dilemma. It was a dark poem and in the wake of the Connecticut tragedy, it raised red flags and triggered a quick response by school officials. Now the student is facing the possibility of being expelled. "I understand the killings in Connecticut. I know why he pulled the trigger," said Courtni Webb, the suspended student. **SNIP** She says she didn't turn in the poem as an...

Not that anyone in California would be allowed by law to pollute the environment with such a behemoth of a vehicle, but one garage near AT&T Park in San Francisco was charging "Full Size" SUVs and trucks $130 to park for Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night. Hummers get no breaks, you know? But, if you drive a "compact SUV" or a "Minivan," it'll cost you only a cool hundred. It's 90 bucks for a car the size of a Prius or a '69 Dodge Dart. No word on what it'd cost to stunt park your Bullitt...

San Francisco's persistent fascination with public power is up for another test. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will consider an attractive but flawed plan to offer clean energy and shake up the utility landscape. At issue is a long-studied proposal that tests the public appetite for going 100 percent renewable on electric power, an option not offered by the city's only provider, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The proposal is public-power-lite, afforded by a state law that allows a city to line up renewable energy as a consumer option. The plan, called CleanPowerSF, calls for an outside source to...

Bullitt’s got nothing on Block. DC Shoes founder and professional rally driver Ken Block has taken his brand of insane stunt driving to the streets of San Francisco in the fifth installment of his series of viral Gymkhana videos, which are designed to burn up the web as well as several sets of tires. In it, the extreme sports star invades the city in his 600 hp Ford Fiesta racecar via the Bay Bridge and proceeds to drift and jump his way through its streets, performing a bevy of impressive technical moves along the way. In two clips, he literally...

Fifty years after three prisoners broke out of Alcatraz through a spoon-dug tunnel and launched a raft made of raincoats into the San Francisco Bay in a bid for freedom, a lone U.S. marshal is still looking for them. Whether inmates Frank Morris, 35, John Anglin, 32, and his brother Clarence Anglin, 31, made it to safety on June 11, 1962, or sank to a watery grave is not known. U.S. Marshal Michael Dyke, the only official investigator still assigned to the case, has an educated guess.

The US military Tuesday vehemently denied a media report that special forces had been parachuted into North Korea on intelligence-gathering missions, saying a source had been misquoted. Current affairs magazine The Diplomat quoted Brigadier General Neil Tolley, commander of special forces in South Korea, as saying soldiers from the US and South Korea had been dropped across the border for "special reconnaissance" missions. But Colonel Jonathan Withington, public affairs officer for US Forces Korea, said some reporting of the conference had taken Tolley "completely out of context". "Quotes have been made up and attributed to him," he said, denying that...

Nurses who went on strike in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles to be locked outBy Associated Press Updated: Saturday, December 24, 10:50 PM OAKLAND, Calif. — Hospital officials say nurses who staged a one-day strike against nine hospitals in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles will not be allowed to return to work Friday. Thursday’s strike — the second in three months — and the planned lockout are the latest in a series of disputes between nurses and hospital management over health care costs, staffing levels and sick leave. The California Nurses Association — the...

At least 85 arrested as S.F. camp clearedBy the Associated Press Posted: 12/08/2011 01:01:23 AM PST SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- At least 85 people were arrested as police cleared San Francisco's Occupy encampment early Wednesday, police said. Officials had not compiled exact numbers by Wednesday afternoon, but most of the approximately 85 people were cited and released after the daybreak raid, said Officer Albie Esparza. About 15 people who were arrested on a variety of charges, ranging from resisting arrest to assault with a deadly weapon, were still in custody, Esparza said. More than 100 officers carried out the raid,...

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) -- Two police officers were attacked with sharp objects by protestors in an Occupy San Francisco march this afternoon, police said. Protestors were marching in the area of Embarcadero and Broadway around 3:30 p.m. today when the attacks occurred, according to police. Officers accompanying the march were attempting to prevent demonstrators from taking over the middle of the intersection, where Muni light rail lines are located. Police say a woman emerged from the crowd and attacked one of the officers with what was described as an exacto blade attached to a pen or pencil like object. She...

SF plan would offer tax break for hiring felonsRachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer October 18, 2011 04:00 AM San Francisco businesses that hire people with felony convictions would get a tax break, under legislation expected to be introduced today. "Ex-felons are among the most challenged populations in getting work," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who is crafting the plan. Persuading an employer to hire a convicted felon, particularly in this economy when the unemployment rate is hovering just under 10 percent, is difficult, especially when there's a wide pool of job applicants without felony records.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Something could soon be coming between San Francisco's proud nudists and their unusual freedom to bare it all. Walking around naked is legal in the city under most circumstances, but a city supervisor concerned about public health and sanitation introduced legislation Tuesday that would require the clothing averse to put a cloth or other barrier under their bottoms if they take a seat in public. > Wiener represents the city's Castro District, where a group of men locals refer to as "the naked guys" is known to strut its stuff, and some residents have grown weary...

<p>Around 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 95-year-old Castagnola's on Fisherman's Wharf (286 Jefferson St.) was buzzing. With a holiday weekend swelling the reservation book, the dining room was full and the Saturday night comedy show was set to begin.</p> <p>Then the kitchen staff walked out.</p>

The decision by Bay Area Rapid Transit officials to cut off cellphone service Thursday evening – to forestall a planned protest – raises a fundamental question: Do Americans have a basic right to digital free speech or to digitally organized assembly? Because July protests against BART police shootings had turned violent, BART officials took the unusual step to protect public safety, they said. The tactic may have worked: No protests took place Thursday night at BART stations. Temporarily shutting down cell service and beefing up police patrols were "great tool[s] to utilize for this specific purpose," BART police Lt. Andy...

Beware any candidate who tells you he is not a politician -- after he refers to himself in the third person. That would be San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who on occasion now refers to himself as "Ed Lee." In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle's John Cote on Sunday, Ed Lee asserted, "I am not a politician." Ed Lee also told Cote: "Ed Lee is not changing. I've changed my mind, but I'm still the Ed Lee that (people) know." The change to which Ed Lee referred is his decision to go back on a pledge made in...

The San Francisco Superior Court is laying off more than 40 percent of its staff and shuttering 25 courtrooms because of budget cuts. Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein said Monday that the cuts mean it will take many more hours to pay a traffic ticket in person, up to 18 months to finalize a divorce and five years for a lawsuit to go to trial. The cuts go into effect on Sept. 30 and are needed to close a $13.75 million deficit. Some 200 of the court's 480 workers will be let go, including 11 of 12 commissioners who preside over...