Blogs

First Amendment arguments get short shrift from judge in Guardian v. Weekly lawsuit

By Andy Van De Voorde

Apparently unsatisfied with a $15.6 million jury verdict in its predatory pricing lawsuit against SF Weekly, the Bay Guardian Friday asked a judge to give it even more.

During a post-trial hearing, Guardian attorney Ralph C. Alldredge told Superior Court Judge Marla J. Miller that his client wanted the entire $6.4 million verdict trebled rather than only the portion of the damages incurred within one year of the filing of the complaint.

The effect would have been to turn a $15.6 million verdict into a $19.2 million verdict.

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Fresh off the Haight Street sidewalk: The California Herald (formerly known as the San Francisco Herald) is leaving the print world and going online-only effective July 1. Herald Editor and Publisher Gene Mahoney writes:

"All good things come to an end. Or in the case of the Herald, all pretty good things come to an end.

Actually, the Herald’s not really ending. It just won’t be printed on paper anymore. You’ll have to go online to read it at californiaherald.net. It will also “come out” more frequently than it has in the past few years. I’m planning on every month.

Don’t be sad, because I’m not. Actually, this is the most excited I’ve been since I started the San Francisco Herald ten years ago. Or at least since its heyday, in July 2001, where it was all over the place with a full-color picture of a half-naked Terri Nunn on the cover."

Mahoney adds that he regrets starting editions of the Herald for Santa Monica, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, Sacramento, etc. "as it just took too much time and effort for too little reward." But unlike other papers, he says he never lost money on the project. "It’s always been profitable, just not as much as I wanted it to be." --Janine Kahn

By Benjamin Wachs

Last night the San Francisco Animal Welfare Commission held a public hearing on the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) because they wanted to find out what kind of impact a spraying program designed to eradicate animals might have on…um…animals.

That was just the first of many ironies shot across reason’s bow.

The next one came when state Department of Food and Agriculture representative Bob Dowell (who heads the Light Brown Apple Moth program) tried to explain why the spraying was needed. I’ve heard Dowell give this speech before … and the justification for why the spraying is needed is always “crop damage.” If we don’t eradicate LBAM, it will wipe out California agriculture … it’s that dangerous.

But this time, he busted out a different explanation: we need to attack the Light Brown Apple Moth with pesticides because we’re worried about the impact of pesticides.

Say what? Dowell explained: there’s going to be a huge proliferation of LBAM across California in the next few years (if we don’t stop it), and since they can damage plants, farmers and people who see the LBAM in their plant nurseries or their gardens are going to want to stop them. And, to stop them, they’ll spray them with pesticides. Which is bad. So, if we don’t want to see an enormous spike in pesticide use to stop LBAM, we need to immediately use pesticides to stop LBAM.

We need to spray the village to save the village. Yes, we have really reached this point.

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S.F. gives Dhaliwal brothers the bureaucratic kiss-off

By Joe Eskenazi

After thoroughly vetting complaints lodged in March by the survivors of the Christmas Day zoo rampage — that provided Fox news with astounding new ways to portray San Francisco as a hotbed of unholy bestial fury — the city has, in perfect legalese, told the victims of the tiger attack to go shit in their hats.

“An investigation of your client’s claim filed with the City and County of San Francisco has revealed no indication of liability on the part of the City and County. Accordingly, your claim is DENIED,” reads City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s Thursday rejoinder to Amritpal and Kulbir Dhaliwal’s claims of physical and emotional injuries resulting from the tiger attack that left Carlos Sousa, Jr. dead (and, yes, Herrera used the blog-like all-caps to hammer home his point).

The city’s rationale: This ain’t my problem!

Herrera, ever helpful, refers the Dhaliwal’s attorneys, Mark Geragos and Shepard Kopp, to direct their legal fury to:

San Francisco Zoological Society
1 Zoo Road
San Francisco, CA 94132

(Herrera included a line reading “attn: Wayne Reading” — in other words, the zoo’s CFO has been notified that he's just had a legal wolfpack loosed on him).

You can read the terse PDF here.

Back in November of 2007 the Internet Archive, a local tech non-profit responsible for, among other things, the Wayback Machine - was slapped with a spooky National Security Letter by the FBI requesting personal data of one of the Archive's users. Rather than just fork over the information, founder Brewster Kahle decided to fight it.The letter included a gag order disallowing Kahle to discuss the issue with anyone but his attorneys, who were also gagged. Luckily, Kahle's attorneys include not only members of the ACLU but of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a SF group who have waded into the murky and relatively new field of free speech and the Web.

The FBI's request was ominous for a glut a reasons, the least of which is that the Archive is legally recognized as a library by the state of California. As a press release from the ACLU and EFF states "the lawsuit is the first known challenge to an NSL served on a library since Congress amended the national security letter provision in 2006 to limit the FBI's power to demand records from libraries."

Yesterday the FBI withdrew the letter and agreed to unseal the case. Here's Kahle's statement on the Archive Web site, and here's the WAPO article.

Full Disclosure: Yours truly used to work at the Archive and my unbiased opinion is that they kick ass.--Andy Wright

"Hello, I am America's sexiest mayor" — Shalom, ani ha'rosh ir hachi sexy b'artzot ha'brit.

"In most solemn truth I tell you that one of you will betray me — yes, Daly, I'm looking at you."

By Joe Eskenazi

Sometimes, you just can't resist. How many folks have posed for "I'm king of the world!" photos on the bows of cruise ships? How many of us have assembled a foursome to cross Abbey Road?

And, when in Jerusalem retracing the steps of Jesus, who hasn't suddenly portrayed himself as the Messiah? Well ... not everyone, actually. But our mayor sure did:

At one of the Stations of the Cross, Newsom placed his hand on a wall stone, said to be the one Jesus touched on his walk to his crucifixion. He then placed his hands on the cheeks of his fiancée and jokingly said, “I heal you.”

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By Benjamin Wachs

If two lesbians got married and moved to New York, would anybody notice?

While it’s received virtually no media coverage up here, the answer is yes – and the fight for gay marriage in New York took a cautious step forward yesterday when the state’s highest court announced that it would not hear an appeal of a lawsuit by an upstate New York county … making gay marriage, at least temporarily, the law of the land.

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Pool photograph by Vladimir Rodionov

Standing a full 9-foot-7, outgoing Russian president Vladimir Putin presided over the today's inauguration of his favored son, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin's scene-stealing speech — he warned his foes they would soon have a size-30 boot in their asses — points to his continued hand (and foot) on the reins of government.

The inauguration (complete with a set of dwarf soldiers in adorable Crimean War-era uniforms sans gangrene) was an eye-opener for the West. Previously, we knew Medvedev was young (42) and loves Black Sabbath. Now we also know he's short — why, it's as if he'd fit right in Putin's pocket! Ho, ho ho!

In other news, The New York Times continued its arcane insistence on using middle initials: That'd be Vladimir V. Putin and Dmitry A. Medvedev. This, theoretically, clears things up for readers: "No, no, no, this is an article about Vladimir V. Putin. Not that other guy — we do get that a lot!"

Incidentally, the "V." stands for Vladimirovich; the "A." for Anatolyevich. That ought to clear things up.

— Joe Eskenazi

This is the headline that greeted SFGate readers this morning. Someone who is no fan of columnist Mark Morford appears to have thrown up a string of spammish dribble in place of Morford's usual Wednesday offering (unless of course this is the Wednesday offering). Click for more screenshots and "Kick-up porno dvd for mmorford!!! Kylie Minogue Kick-up porno!!! Penelope Cruz Stunning photo!!!"

Note: There will be no kick-up porno and no stunning photos of Penelope Cruz after the jump.

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By Benjamin Wachs

This just in: According to a communication provided to today's Board of Supervisors meeting, Mayor Gavin Newsom has vetoed the proposal to require all government meetings that can be recorded and broadcast to be recorded and broadcast.

The motion, proposed by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, would have opened up every government meeting in San Francisco to convenient public scrutiny - and only cost $70 thousand.

Spokespeople for Hizzoner have not yet returned calls for comment ... maybe they think the public doesn't need to hear that, either.

Is it just me, or could we probably find $70 thousand under the cushions of Gavin Newsom's couch? Maybe we should take up a collection. I'll pledge $100 for open government. Anybody else?

More on this as it develops.

Geez Louise. Remember how we told you that Naked Yoga Guy George Davis was having a (naked) book signing last Thursday? Well it turns out the cops spoiled the party by hauling him off for the sixth time in his, er, "career" as a public nudist. (Davis says it's his sixth arrest by "police count," but his 10th arrest from his perspective.)

If they thought that would discourage Davis, they're wrong, though. He says he'll be back at Fisherman's Wharf tomorrow strutting his stuff and signing copies of his new book "Weapons of Mass Deception."

Behind the cut: An open letter Davis sent us about the ordeal. --Janine Kahn

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The adorably named Webby Awards were founded in 1996 and have come to be thought of as “the Oscars of the web,” although at this point they may actually be more valid than their film counterpart. (Titanic, anyone?)

The awards are the brain child of San Francisco filmmaker named Tiffany Shlain whose most recent effort is a short called The Tribe that utilizes, among other elements, archival footage and dioramas to tell a side by side history of Barbie and the Jewish people.

This year’s Webby Awards recognized several SF based sites. Wired.com took home Best Copy/Writing. Flickr garnered two awards, Best Practices and Community (in which they nabbed not only the official award, but the People’s Voice Award as well.) Digg received a People’s Voice Award for Best Practices. Numerous other SF based sites were nominated, including Burner favorite Laughing Squid and Thrillist, which offers a San Francisco edition, and purveyors of all things twee- Cute Overload.

Congratulations, guys! You all got to take home this, er, weird mounted spring thing. --Andy Wright

Photo | Joe Eskenazi

Talk about a "You and me vs. the world" attitude!

The justly proud residents of this San Francisco hovel managed to skip all talk about trespassing or noise-making or even jaywalking. Simply put, if you don't live here, put your hands on the wall and remember to duck when they put you in the back of the patrol car. They're calling the cops!

To see all of our past S.F. Signs of the Apocalypse entries, just click on "S.F. Signs of the Apocalypse" in the Tags section. And remember, you can contribute photos of unusual S.F.-area signs for to me right here.

-- Joe Eskenazi

By Benjamin Wachs

Monday, May 5, 10 a.m. – Government Audit & Oversight Committee

Every once in a while you come across a meeting so packed with government that you think “It would take a crowbar to wedge one more relevant item in here!” Then you realize it could happen because there’s a crowbar appropriations bill right there on the agenda.

This is one of those meetings.

First let’s start with the big numbers. Did you know it’s expensive to renovate an airport?

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Around three o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday a column of black smoke unraveled over Dolores Park and several dozen hipsters lifted their noses to the sky and wondered what had caused it. A nearby house had caught fire, and not just any house, but the unusually decorated abode on 17th Street between Church and Sanchez that sports a garage door emblazoned with a large blue Buddha head and a trompe l’oeil façade of green bricks.

By the time I hoofed it over there, the black smoke had been reduced to a sputtering gray and four fire trucks and over a dozen fire fighters were on the scene taking care of business. There was no damage visible on the outside.

The only spectacle a cluster of rubberneckers were treated to was when a hose nearly escaped the grasp of a fireman who shouted for help and threw his body on top of it. Several nearby fire fighters ran to help their compatriot and the result has a well contained fire hose and a wet dogpile of firefighters. A poorly composed picture of this incident after the jump. Don’t worry, I’ve drawn an arrow pointing you toward the action.

Condolences to whoever owns that uniquely painted home.

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