Free Republic

Count our own George Gascon among the nation's police chiefs speaking out against a controversial Arizona immigration bill that would require police officers in that state to arrest anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. Gascon, who was the top cop in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa before being tapped for the San Francisco job last year, said the Arizona legislation "will have a catastrophic effect on policing and set back community policing efforts for decades." Some cops are warning the law would impede their efforts to fight violent crime because witnesses and victims will be reluctant to...

SF crime is down -- as long as you aren't talking rapes or homicideFrom reporter Nanette Asimov April 19 2010 at 06:38 PM The bottom line at Chief George Gascon's news conference today was that crime dropped 13 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with last year. But turn off the slide projector and look at the rapes, robberies and homicides not featured on the big screen. All were higher in the first three months of 2010 than during the same time last year. Rape was up 33 percent, from 33 incidents last year to 44 this...

JACKSON (AP) — A teen who challenged a ban on same-sex prom dates will get a second chance to don a tuxedo and dance at an event in San Francisco often referred to as the ‘‘lesbian prom.’’ The National Center for Lesbian Rights has invited Constance McMillen and Ceara Sturgis, a Mississippi student who fought to wear a tuxedo in a yearbook photo, to its 33rd anniversary celebration on May 1. The event is often referred to as the ‘‘lesbian prom,’’ said NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell. Nearly 2,000 people are expected to attend the celebration in San Francisco, Kendell...

Pelosi basks in health care victory in S.F. Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer, March 29, 2010 San Francisco -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, celebrating the passage of the health insurance overhaul, said in San Francisco on Sunday that she's not worried about Republicans' plans to take over Congress this fall by campaigning for a repeal of the law.

On March 20, a coalition of communist groups, 9/11 “Truth” activists and anti-Israel extremists gathered in San Francisco to protest against — well, just about everything. The event was in theory an “anti-war” rally timed to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, but since that war is basically over, the anti-war movement now has not only evaporated almost completely but has also lost its focus, as a plethora of tangential issues and petty gripes have taken center stage. Read more: http://pajamasmedia.com/zombie/

Daly wants Lennar to apologize after its security guard is cuffed to pole The flap won't die down over an armed security guard working for Lennar Corp. who was handcuffed to a light pole after being kicked out of a community meeting about the developer's project to remake the former Hunters Point naval shipyard.

The tough call for Gavin Newsom would be to stick around as mayor of San Francisco. It would be difficult, gutty, and a leap of faith into an uncertain future. He's not going to do it. Newsom made it clear at Wednesday's media event in the Tenderloin that a run for California lieutenant governor is a foregone conclusion. Just a few hours after the event Newsom pulled the paperwork at the elections office and paid the fee to run. He'll make it official today or Friday. There are a hundred good reasons why he should leave the mayor's office with...

SNIPPET: "(03-03) 17:42 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Three cousins from Hayward have been charged in San Francisco with a hate crime and assault for allegedly firing a BB rifle at the face of a man they believed was gay, an attack the men videotaped, authorities said Wednesday." SNIPPET: "Mohammad Habibzada, Shafiq Hashemi and Sayed Bassam, all 24, are scheduled to be arraigned today in San Francisco Superior Court. They are free on $50,000 bond apiece." SNIPPET: "Investigators believe the assailants chose the victim because he appeared to be gay. When the men were pulled over, police found a video camera...

An unimaginably big "megastorm" could hit the Bay Area and California as hard or harder than an earthquake, a researcher with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) warned Thursday in Menlo Park. Dale A. Cox heads an interdisciplinary scientific team investigating anything on Earth that can go wrong -- sometimes very wrong. Speaking at noon to USGS colleagues and staff and to the public Thursday evening, Cox outlined the possibilities and impacts of what he calls an ARkStorm. The term is a play on "Noah's Ark" based on the initials AR. Those stand for a relatively new meteorological term: an...

In a shocking letter to his disgruntled fans, KSFO (560-AM) radio host Lee Rodgers told them he was fired from the station but probably would have quit anyway, because Citadel, owned by Farid Suleman, had pushed him toward making positive statements about Muslims.

(San Francisco)-Every day, when the main library opens, John Banks is waiting to get inside. He finds a spot and stays until closing time. Then his wheelchair takes him back to the bus terminal where he spends his nights.

Veteran KSFO morning personality, Lee Rodgers, has been let go at the Citadel-owned, right-wing talk station, it has now been confirmed. Weeknight host, Brian Sussman will replace Rodgers. KSFO is the sister station of KGO radio. Attempts to reach station management were unsuccessful. On KSFO's web site, Rodgers is not listed on its weekday schedule, and an independent source close to the station, told me, via e-mail, that Rodgers "was out." It is not known why Rodgers was 'shown the door, although his hefty financial contract may have contributed to the sudden decision. His ex co-host, Melanie Morgan, left the...

The oldest trophy in sports is coming to San Francisco. After fighting in the courts for years, and spending hundreds of millions of dollars, billionaire Larry Ellison won the America's Cup on Sunday with a technological marvel of a sailing yacht. Ellison's syndicate, BMW Oracle Racing, won the second race in the best-of-three series by five minutes, 26 seconds over cup defender Alinghi, which is owned by Ellison's archrival, Swiss biotech magnate Ernesto Bertarelli. Two days earlier, Ellison's trimaran, USA-17, won the first race by 15 1/2 minutes. "It feels spectacular," said a jubilant Ellison, holding the tall, silver ewer...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Directors of the agency that oversees the Golden Gate Bridge have moved a step closer to approving a suicide barrier along the historic span. The board voted 16-0 to approve an environmental impact report that examines the consequences of hanging steel nets 20 feet below the bridge deck on each side. About 25 people per year die in jumps from the bridge.....

William Tenn/Phil Klass died on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at age 89. He leaves his wife, Fruma and his daughter, Adina.

Is Stranger in a Stranger Land by Robert Heinlein the Catcher in the Rye for the science-fiction set? Yes, I think you could say that about the 1962 Hugo winner in one important sense. When author J.D. Salinger died this past Wednesday, I must confess it was convenient for me (if not for him), because it got people talking about his most famous novel. The Catcher in the Rye occupies an interesting position in the literary landscape: It's inarguably a classic, and inarguably a popular classic at that — a book that a lot of people have not only heard...

Visualize for a moment what would happen if San Francisco hosted a rally on the hot-button topic of abortion. How many people would you expect to show up to support each side? Well, considering that San Francisco is the city that regularly votes in overwhelming numbers for Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, two of the strongest abortion advocates in Congress, and that San Francisco is perceived as being among the most liberal cities in the nation, you would likely anticipate the pro-choice side to vastly outnumber the pro-life side at any rally. You couldn’t be more wrong. Because when the...

Michael Savage, the conservative badboy shockjock whom progressives love to hate, is returning to the airwaves of the Bay Area next week -- with his debut on a local all-sports sports station. Savage will debut on 50,000 watt KTRB-AM, which is known as XTRA Sports 860 AM, beginning Feb. 1, he says. He was a fixture on KSFO-AM until 2003 and after that on KNEW-AM -- but he was dropped last September after managers said the station was "headed in a new direction." Savage, a resident of San Francisco, was asked about the change by Chronicle comrade Joe Garofoli in...

Supervisor Bevan Dufty met manthing sweeping up outside a nightclub While San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is all about policy and results now, and not personality and process, mayoral hopeful and Supervisor Bevan Dufty's new relationship might prove that the personal is still political. Dufty announced at a fundraiser -- his campaign for mayor, still in its early days, has raised $50,000 so far -- that he's in a new relationship with local realtor Pat Patricelli. "I was sweeping up broken glass outside Moby at 5:30 in the morning when he walked by with his dog, Luna," Dufty told...

It is not your imagination. There really are more dogs strolling through public spaces with their owners. Animals are going where they have never gone before. "In San Francisco, it is just so much more in your face," says Emily Simone, a senior field manager for Guide Dogs for the Blind. "In the '80s and especially in the '90s, I've just seen an explosion. We've become animal obsessed. The East Coast and San Francisco are particular hotbeds for advocacy." San Francisco has become a city filled with "service animals," meaning the owner has a permit that allows him or her...