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Video at link Nancy Pelosi claims protesters are "carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare."

The National Endowment for the Arts may be spending some of the money it received from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund nude simulated-sex dances, Saturday night "pervert" revues and the airing of pornographic horror films at art houses in San Francisco. ... [S]ome of the NEA's grants are spicing up more than the economy. A few of their more risque choices have some taxpayer advocates hot under the collar, including a $50,000 infusion for the Frameline film house, which recently screened Thundercrack, "the world's only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women and...

Swine flu claims NorCal nurse, 2 new moms Associated Press - July 31, 2009 1:14 PM ET SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Health officials say a Sacramento-area cancer nurse's death is the first among California health care workers related to swine flu. Mercy San Juan Medical Center spokesman Bryan Gardner says officials at the Carmichael hospital do not know if 51-year-old Karen Ann Hays contracted the virus on the job. She died July 17. In the San Francisco Bay area, two new mothers died from the virus, also known as H1N1, shortly after giving birth. A 33-year-old Marin County woman was...

The July 8 issue of Catholic San Francisco covered the 2009 book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, by Matt Baglio. The Rite, describes the training and practice of San Francisco-born Father Gary Thomas, a contemporary Bay Area exorcist. In 2005, Father Thomas was sent by San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath to study in Rome under master exorcist Capuchin Father Carmine De Filippis. Father Thomas observed 80 exorcisms as Fr. De Filippis apprentice. From the Catholic San Francisco, article: “What sets exorcists apart from priests who are skeptical of the ministry may be their biblical belief in the...

Six years ago, homosexual activists made a huge fuss after Harry and Pepper, two male Magellanic penguins, shacked up at the San Francisco Zoo. Among other things, they claimed the birds, by behaving like stereotypical human homosexuals as glorified by network TV and the news media, were breaking homosexual stereotypes. One 2007 Web article was especially fawning (and rather graphic in describing penguin anatomy and reproductive rituals). Theirs was not love at first sight, readers learned, but these "lovebirds, attached at the wing," overcame their differences and fell madly in love. (The attraction purportedly had something to do with Pepper's...

As the economy struggles, and most of us with it, a few more join the seven-figure clubThe number of millionaire families in the Bay Area jumped 10.2 percent, from 123,621 to 136,120, according to a report from Merrill Lynch and Claritas. Similar gains were won by the wealthy in Los Angeles and San Diego, according to The World Wealth Report. What, no word on Fresno? Scott Anderson, a senior economist with Wells Fargo, takes issue with the report. "As a reading of the health of California's wealthy, I'm not sure that's the best indication to go by," Anderson told the...

Hotel foreclosures spread throughout California Andrew S. Ross Sunday, July 12, 2009 The "challenges" for San Francisco's biggest business are coming thick and fast. That oft-used word at last Tuesday's San Francisco Visitors & Convention Bureau luncheon rang loud and clear two days later when the Four Seasons Hotel on Market Street defaulted on a $90 million loan. Those who might have forgotten were reminded that Nob Hill's famed Stanford Court Hotel had gone into receivership two weeks earlier, owing $89 million after its new owners bought the place for $93 million two years ago and spent $32 million in...

Link only - San Francisco to Consider Cat De-Clawing Ban

SAN FRANCISCO—Doughnuts could be a distant memory for San Francisco city workers. They must now follow "healthy meeting" guidelines under a sweeping initiative unveiled by Mayor Gavin Newsom Thursday to encourage better eating. That means less junk food and smaller portions at staff meetings. The mayor is also ordering all city departments to help locate vacant or unused city-owned land that could be used to grow food. Vendors that offer healthy food will get preference for city contracts and permits. All vending machines on city property additionally will have to meet new nutrition standards.

S.F. mayor orders healthy food in cityPosted on: Thursday, 9 July 2009, 19:48 CDT All San Francisco city departments must audit unused land in the city to see if it can be turned into community gardens or farms, the mayor said. In addition, food vendors contracting with the city must offer healthful and sustainable food, all vending machines on city property must offer healthful food options and farmers' markets must begin accepting food stamps, Mayor Gavin Newsom said, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. There also will be no more doughnut shop runs before meetings and conferences held by city workers,...

San Francisco celebrates diversity with the 39th annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade & Festival this weekend. Dozens of pride-related events take place throughout the Bay Area during the week to entertain the thousands of celebrants making the pilgrimage to San Francisco, but the big weekend party at Civic Center Plaza has been known to draw vast crowds in the hundreds of thousands. This year's event theme keeps the recent struggle for the legalization of same-sex marriage at the forefront of the celebration, drawing the theme concept “In Order to Form a More Perfect Union” from the Preamble to...

Readers of Catholic Online are familiar with the group which calls itself the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.” They claim international membership. One of their most active chapters is located in San Francisco, California. They summarize their mission as “Defining San Francisco Values Since 1979” on their outlandish San Francisco web site. In an editorial in 2007 entitled “Scandal in San Francisco”, I wrote an account of their sacrilegious activities during Holy Mass on October 7, 2007 at the Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco, California. They hate the Catholic Church because she stands for the truth concerning the dignity...

Reporting from San Francisco -- The assault on Amanda Kiefer at dusk in San Francisco's posh Pacific Heights was extraordinary enough for its cruelty. A stranger, later identified as Alexander Izaguirre, snatched her purse and hopped into an SUV, police say. The driver sped forward to run Kiefer down. Terrified, she leaped onto the hood and saw Izaguirre and the driver laughing. The driver slammed on the brakes, propelling Kiefer to the pavement. Her skull fractured. Blood oozed from her ear. Only after the July 2008 attack did Kiefer learn of the crime's political ramifications. Izaguirre, police told her, was...

She will be in San Francisco to help kick off a new White House push toward volunteerism. Mrs. Obama will deliver the keynote address to the "National Conference on Volunteering and Service" at 5 p.m. More than 4,000 national and international volunteer and service leaders are expected for the three-day conference at the Moscone Center, but the First Lady is clearly the headline act. The visit kicks off United We Serve, a national call to community service from President Obama. Before she hits Moscone, Michelle Obama will join California's First Lady Maria Shriver to help participate in the building of...

Looking to bring new blood into the San Francisco Police Department, Mayor Gavin Newsom has reached outside the city and selected George Gascon, police chief of Mesa, Ariz., to replace outgoing Chief Heather Fong.

Pride Parade, celebration has a political bent Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, June 14, 2009 The 39th annual San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade is June 28 and is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., traveling west along Market Street from Beale Street to Eighth Street. The party will continue at Civic Center, with live music, speakers, food and drinks. All ages are welcome. The event is free. The Pride Parade caps a month of gay-themed festivities and is expected to draw its regular cast of colorful characters and city leaders, gawkers and cheering spectators. There will...

A prisoner who says he was tortured while being held for nearly four years as a suspected terrorist can sue former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo for coming up with the legal theories that justified his alleged treatment, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White's decision marks the first time a government lawyer has been held potentially responsible for the abuse of detainees. "Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct," White said in refusing to dismiss Jose Padilla's lawsuit against Yoo. If Padilla, now serving...

When the San Francisco school board voted last month to restore the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, it seemed that sanity had prevailed -- three years after the board voted to kill the popular program. Finally, the board had put students' welfare ahead of its ruthless political correctness. Wrong. Unless the school board votes to recognize that JROTC fulfills students' high school physical education requirements at Tuesday's board meeting, the board's vote to keep JROTC could be viewed as a conniving stunt and a cruel hoax. If students cannot get PE credit -- as they could before the board...

This Friday would have been slain San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk’s 79th birthday, and California state senator Mark Leno has introduced legislation to mark the date with a state holiday. The bill doesn’t call for a furlough from work, but instead instructs the governor to proclaim a “Harvey Milk Day” and designates “that date as having special significance in the public schools and educational institutions” and encourages them to “conduct suitable commemorative exercises.” The legislation passed muster with the state senate in overwhelming fashion last week. Though only about one in five Californians polled supports the measure, and Governor Arnold...

Around 175 people were arrested in San Francisco while taking part in peaceful protests against a California Supreme Court decision to uphold a ban on same-sex marriage, police said. A spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department said the arrests came as demonstrators blocked an intersection near the court building. Those arrested were released at the scene, Sergeant Lyn Tomioka told AFP. California's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a referendum that outlawed gay marriage, but said 18,000 same-sex weddings carried out before the ban would remain valid. Gay and lesbian activists had sought to overturn the result of a November...