San Francisco News Blog

In an April cover story, we looked at the dilemma facing the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state agency created through Proposition 71 to fund stem-cell research: Should the landmark agency direct the remainder of its $3 billion in research funds towards "adult" stem cells -- which are closer to clinical applications, albeit for less serious ailments -- or to embryonic stem cells, which offer hope to intractable degenerative diseases such as juvenile diabetes and multiple sclerosis?

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CIRM board member Jeff Sheehy told SF Weekly back in April that this was "an identity issue" for the agency, particularly since it was founded in response to Bush Administration restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research.

"If we are going to say that we're going to work with adult stem cells, we can be in the translational phase and the clinic now," said Sheehy, who is also communications director for UCSF's AIDS Research Institute. "While they're going to be of benefit to a great many people in California, these adult-stem-cell approaches are probably not going to have a big impact on these severe degenerative diseases that really motivated a great number of people to support Prop. 71, like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, spinal-cord injuries."

Well, the owner of Ocean Avenue Books, who was cited for battery at the scene, has spoken. Diane Goodman told Valleywag her side of the story this week. When we called her up, she reiterated that it was actually Sean C. who started the fight after she showed up to apologize for the e-mails.

"I was about to go in and I said, 'This is about the Yelp thing,' and that's when he freaked out," Goodman told the SF Weekly. "And he rushed forward and grabbed me like, 'You fucking bitch!' And we both toppled over back down the steps. He kind of slapped me down. That's exactly how it went."

The story didn't coincide with the headline. The purported San Francisco backlash consisted of one guy  on a bike who got a ticket for running a stop sign in Portola Valley. More striking, however, was the question of what strap-hanging Big Apple readers might find interesting about a San Mateo County traffic ticket -- even one wrapped in the sort of bogus Times trend story Slate columnist Jack Shafer has made a steady sideline of outing. (Ex SF Weekly editor Shafer's latest roundup began with a story about a phony NYT-reported trend in which men supposedly grew pot-bellies on purpose because it had become fashionable.)

John Grubb, a spokesman for the Bay Area Council, confirmed what SF Weekly had heard through the grapevine: Reilly will direct his first campaign in 14 years in leading the charge for a state constitutional convention.

"I can't discuss details of his contract," said Grubb. "But let's just say we're getting a really good deal for the advice we're getting."

The Bay Area Council is a consortium of the region's 75 largest employers, including folks you've heard of such as Google, Yahoo, Wells Fargo, BART, The Chronicle -- and Clint Reilly.

Messages for Reilly have not yet been returned. But Grubb had an interesting rationale of why the BAC would, in essence, opt to play its coming political match with a wooden tennis racquet. 

​On the one hand, following Mayor Gavin Newsom's abrupt withdrawal from the governor's race, he spent quality time back in a beautiful city nestled in the bosom of the Pacific. On the other hand -- it was in Hilo, Hawaii.

When you take off for an impromptu jaunt several thousand miles away from City Hall and even your top aides don't know where you are -- well, gifts are in order. Here's a gift guide from the Aloha State:

Acting Mayor Carmen Chu: T-shirt reading "I was controversial acting mayor and all I got was this lousy T-shirt," size small. Also, macadamia nuts.

Board President David Chiu: T-shirt reading "I shoulda been acting mayor and all I got was this lousy T-shirt," also size small. And macadamia nuts.

Mayoral Spokesman Nathan Ballard: A new chair to replace the one that is now unusable after he realized the mayor took off to Hawaii without telling him.

Several online commenters purporting to be Fennedy's family members left laments at the bottom of our original article ("...he is a Son a brother my lil cousin, he was warmth, a smile, and someones best friend. He was a still full of life he was so many things but most of all he is lost and I will miss him. it is sad that Halloween will never be the same! He was on his way to see his mother that night and now she will never see her son. may this crime not go unsolved.").

So, when it came to light several days later that the dead man was not Malik Fennedy but Malik Sohan, it created an uncomfortable situation. Were the grief-stricken relatives writing tributes to a man who was still laughing and joking as he walked around the city? Did Fennedy actually make it to his mother's house? And how did the Medical Examiner's misidentification occur? Stephen Gelman, the administrator for the Medical Examiner, got back to us today and answered many of our questions.

Malik Fennedy is not dead. But, then again, Malik Fennedy wasn't really alive, either.
 

The promised land

​The city's Public Utilities Commission and Local Agency Formation Commission -- commonly known as LAFCo, the commission helps formulate energy policy -- yesterday issued a Request for Proposals from potential bidders who would run the program. Called CleanPowerSF, the initiative is a "community choice aggregation" plan that would allow the city to pool all its power customers together and offer them to a private supplier.

CleanPowerSF's purpose is to break up PG&E's monopoly on the city's power supply, ushering in more renewable and local sources of energy. (As such, it has the support of many "public power" advocates, who have supported past unsuccessful efforts to gain voter approval for a city takeover of PG&E's local power grid.) But the softened bid requirements -- in particular the loosening of the city's commitment to CleanPowerSF providing rates for customers at or below those of PG&E -- raise questions about where the effort is headed. In theory, the less stringent bid request could lead to a program that is less green, and more expensive for the city's ratepayers, than what CleanPowerSF proponents have promised.

The tide is turning...

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A Santa Cruz man named Robert Norse twice gave the Sieg Heil to members of that city's government, in 2002 and 2004. Following his '04 ejection, he sued the city for abrogating his First Amendment rights. That case made it all the way to the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with the city of Santa Cruz' claim that it was authorized to eject anyone who "disrupts the proceedings of the Council." Yet that case was remanded back to San Francisco District Court as the 9th was uncertain how to assess the "reasonableness" of giving Norse the heave-ho.

Well, the district court determined that it was plenty reasonable to toss Norse. And, in a ruling released this week, the 9th once again concurred. And this time they saw a video of Norse's behavior: "The [2004] videotape shows that Norse was engaged in a parade about the Council chambers, protesting the Council's action and his conduct was clearly disruptive," wrote Judge Mary M. Schroeder. "...The behavior that prompted Norse's [2002] ejection was his giving a Nazi salute in support of a disruptive member of the audience who had refused to leave the podium after the presiding officer ruled the speaker's time had expired ... the salute was obviously intended as a criticism or condemnation of the ruling."

1. Putting the bizarre cherry atop a surreal sundae, an expert witness gave what rationale for 21-year-old homeless man Kenneth Herron entering the San Francisco Zoo's Grizzly Bear Grotto?

A. The defendant believed he was a spiritual cousin of the bears, and wished to free them from their metaphysical bonds
B. The defendant became flummoxed when attempting to exit the park, and found himself in the bear pit.
C. The bears beckoned him to enter the area
D. The voice of a male model told him to enter the bear pit and save a troubled woman.

2. Speaking of Herron's trial, the judge made a counter-intuitive ruling and tossed the trespassing charge filed against the bear-baiter. What did a legal expert called by SF Weekly exclaim when perusing the pertinent case law?

A. "Holy Mackerel! You can go into a bear place, spend the night, and not violate any laws."
B. "Wow! Who wouldn't want to jump into the bear pit now?"
C. "That is the god-damnest thing I ever saw."
D. "I can't believe he made that ruling. And I can't believe I agree with him."

3. So, Gavin Newsom dropped out of the governor's race. How did he explain this to his legions of Twitter followers?

A."Sorry Folks. Had 2 put the fam 1st." 
B."The $ Race was a killr. I h8 it." 
C. "O-bla-di, o-bla-da, life goes on, bra."
D. " ... "