San Francisco News Blog

The remaining 20 carpenters will push forward with a lawsuit in federal court against housing giant AIMCO and several of the subcontractors working on AIMCO's federally subsidized housing units on the hill overlooking the Hunter's Point Shipyard: Fortney and Weygandt, Inc.; IMR Contractor Corporation; Bay Building Services; and Bay Area Construction Framers.

The alleged practices at the construction site that seemed plucked right out of the Jim Crow days were detailed in a 2008 SF Weekly cover story "Building Racism." While the plaintiffs signed confidentiality agreements regarding the terms of the mediation last week, some of the 20 remaining plaintiffs expressed anger at the relatively paltry amount of money they were offered -- and that some of their fellow carpenters would accept it (Because of the confidentiality agreement, SF Weekly cannot reveal the exact dollar amount). 

Jan McHugh-Smith

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A sizable group of animal-loving San Franciscans couldn't be more delighted.

"It's fantastic that her contract is not being renewed," said Hope Johnson, an SPCA volunteer-turned-outspoken critic. "I think she didn't realize what she was getting into."

"Great news!" echoed Kathleen McGarr, another ex-volunteer who is now a member of FixSanFrancisco.org, a grassroots campaign aiming to end the killing of animals in shelters. "I'm very excited."

McGarr and other like-minded former volunteers have been complaining for months about how McHugh-Smith trampled on the vision of the organization and prioritized the finances of humans over the welfare of animals.

Steve Vender, in a 2007 SF Weekly photograph

​Steve Vender was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday and arrested this afternoon, according to Brian Buckelew, spokesman for the office of District Attorney Kamala Harris. Vender was being held on $75,000 bail, and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to three years in state prison.

"Justice is silenced by the culture of intimidation," Buckelew said in an e-mail to SF Weekly. "This terrorism in all its forms has no place in the criminal justice system and must end."

Will joint ad sales bring happy days back?

​Apparently Singleton's MediaNews Group -- owner of legion Bay Area newspapers, including the Oakland Tribune, Marin Independent Journal, Contra Costa Times, and San Jose Mercury News -- is forming an ad-selling partnership with Philip Anschutz' Clarity Media Group, which owns the Examiner, a free tabloid daily distributed in San Francisco and San Mateo County.

This alliance, called the "San Francisco Bay Area Buy," will enable joint sells of ads to run in 14 of the companies' newspapers, according to the Journal. The idea is apparently to take on the ailing but still-dominant player in the market, the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Carole Migden

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Every day it seems like there's another name to add to the list of potential candidates thinking about running for the supervisor seat in District 10 (Bayview-Hunters Point, Potrero Hill). Well, today you can take one person's name off that list: Former State Sen. Carole Migden.

Migden tells SF Weekly that she's going to step aside and let a new generation of politicos compete for the seat being vacated by termed-out Supervisor Sophie Maxwell. "I'm more in a position of wishing them well and allowing them to proceed," Migden said.

Dot what?

A portal to the soul

​The American Civil Liberties Union's San Francisco-based Northern California office is launching a campaign to beef up Internet privacy. In a statement released today, the ACLU seeks to "spotlight the need to upgrade laws protecting consumer data" and unveils its nifty new Web site, dotrights.org (try saying that URL aloud five times), which features a two-minute video primer on the issue.

The statement notes that the federal law which ostensibly safeguards Internet privacy, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, was drafted in 1986, back when the only folks with Internet access were Army scientists and aliens. Today, companies and even government agencies take advantage of this lax legal landscape to collect, subpoena, and sell personal information gleaned from our Web-browsing habits -- such as what books we've recently bought.

"We're going to decertify the supplementals," confirmed deputy controller Monique Zmuda -- who had no idea when the last time was the city was forced to take this drastic a financial step. This means that the Board of Supes "is not able to act on legislation tomorrow" that would call for additional city funds to be spent. Quite simply, the money is not there; like dealing with a full e-mail inbox, the city cannot spend any more money unless it makes room by cutting the budget or crafting new revenue-generators.

Here's the back story: Several weeks ago, Supervisors John Avalos and Chris Daly introduced legislation that would have cost the city roughly $8 million dollars but staved off layoffs and reversed pay cutbacks in the health department. At the time, the controller's office had not researched the availability of the necessary city funds to pay for such a move. Now, however, the data is in -- and it's horrific. Due largely to huge shortfalls from reduced property taxes and evaporating payroll taxes, the city is $53.1 million in the hole -- and carrying only a $25 million General Fund surplus.

So when Avalos' and Daly's legislation comes up Tuesday, "procedurally there are any number of things they can do -- but they cannot pass it," warns Zmuda. "They can continue it or table it. They can continue it until other cuts are made." 

Ballard and Newsom praised one another in a release sent moments ago by the mayor's office. Newsom described his soon-to-be former employee as "unflappable, smart, and a fierce advocate," while Ballard returned the favor by calling the mayor "a gifted leader who fearlessly tackles significant issues such as health care, the environment, education and equal rights."

No news on, ahem, why these two mutual admirers have parted company. Our calls to the mayor's press office seeking Ballard were answered by an assistant who said Ballard is not around -- and he's not sure if he's stepping down soon or has already left for good.

This is significant, as it is unclear if the up to $780,000 earmarked for the project by the California Transportation Commission will evaporate with the dissolution of BART's contract with Bey. The CTC's terms originally mandated that a contract must be signed by Oct. 31. BART signed a contract with Bey on Oct. 30 -- but gave him until today to line up the aforementioned documentation. He did not, and the fate of BART's project -- and its state grant -- are uncertain. For the complete backstory, see here.

BART officials have repeatedly told SF Weekly that they are unsure what will become of the money -- or even what steps they will take next. But SF Weekly contacted the CTC -- and its deputy director implied that BART stands a decent chance of not losing out on that money.

All hail the 14-foot SEIU puppet!

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Icon Frank Chu attempts to steal SEIU's protest thunder: "The SEIU was cheated by the White House and the 12 galaxies. They cheated me out of money for being a movie star, too."

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And we thought the most interesting spectacle at the SEIU protest Thursday afternoon was going to be the 14-foot puppet. True, the affair to protest the upcoming layoffs of 600 health care and clerical positions started out pretty placid, with a man burning incense in a ceremonial cup reciting a prayer in Spanish and workers dancing to funk music outside City Hall while brandishing signs reading "I am a woman." Yet the protest quickly heated up when a phalanx of union members stormed the mayor's office chanting "We're fired up! We can't take it no more!"

The doors to Gavin Newsom's Room 200 were soon locked, with two guards barricading the door and refusing entry to the press and SEIU Local 1021 President Damita Davis-Howard.

SEIU Local 1021 President Damita Davis-Howard attempted to persuade the guards outside of the mayor's office's locked door to let her join the protest going on inside. ​

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The officials even asked the handful of folks outside the door to back away from the area immediately in front of Newsom's door when a mass of 150 protesters flooded up the steps to continue the protests with megaphones.

How many tweets will this buy?

​Yet the company probably doesn't intend to spend its nest egg on its withering newspaper properties.

Citing unnamed sources, New York Post columnist Keith Kelly reports that Hearst is sitting on a $1 billion war chest, which it probably plans to invest in "digital and non-traditional media." Kelly notes that while the Chronicle and other Hearst papers "have had near-death experiences over the past year," the company's magazines remain relatively stable. Hearst continues to bring in $7 billion of revenue annually and is still profitable as a whole, according to Kelly.

Initial stories put the date of Ferenc's report at February of 2008 -- meaning the San Francisco Police Department ostensibly sat on it for the better part of 20 months before notifying de La Plaza's friends, family, and their lawyer, Bill Fazio, of the report's existence. Yet, it turns out, this isn't quite the case. Ferenc inadvertently wrote the wrong year on the report; that 2008 should have been a 2009. So the cops sat on the report for around seven months.

Not that Fazio isn't still peeved.

"I think February is a hell of a long time," he told SF Weekly. "February to September -- how long is that?"

The age-old question that has tormented thinkers for ages -- regarding whether you could walk off with nine pianos and get away with it-- was answered Tuesday. No. You cannot.

A San Francisco jury smacked down 66-year-old piano thief Susan Gilner today, convicting her of 11 felonies in connections with selling pianos on consignment and not paying the former owners their owed share. The total tab of the stolen merchandise came to $138,000 filched from nine victims.

As owner of Encore Vintage Pianos, Gilner had entered into agreements with the hapless piano owners to move their antique instruments for an agreed upon price, 10 percent of which Gilner would keep as commission.

Following her Monday arrest she was moments ago hit with three charges by the District Attorney: murder, allegedly with a dangerous and deadly weapon (the bottle and clock) and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with allegations of great bodily injury.

It is unclear exactly what manner of clock Roueche is accused of using as a murder weapon in what must have been a horrific scene in Miller's room at the Henry Hotel at 106 Sixth Street.

Roueche will be arraigned on Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

Dennis Herrera, man in the middle

​In a letter to U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello, posted on the city attorney's Web site, Herrera asks that Russoniello "provide an assurance that if the City proceeds to implement this Amendment... City law enforcement officers and employees will not be prosecuted for violating federal criminal laws." The city law revises the sanctuary ordinance so undocumented juveniles would only be reported to federal immigration authorities if convicted of a crime -- not after they are arrested, which is the current city policy.

Herrera's letter goes on to state that if the U.S. Attorney's office does not provide "an adequate assurance" of city employees' freedom from criminal liability under the new sanctuary policy, the city might file for declaratory relief in federal court -- essentially asking a judge to decide the matter.

A crowd gathers around Supervisor David Campos after today's veto override

​"This veto override cannot really take effect," Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard said immediately after the vote, which took place at today's full board meeting. Ballard contended that the legislation cannot be enforced because it conflicts with federal immigration law. "The board can't force our law-enforcement officials to break federal law." He added, "We've got to protect our city officials from symbolic gestures like this bill, no matter how well-intentioned it is."

Supervisor David Campos, the bill's chief sponsor, anticipated this response in his remarks before the vote on the ordinance, which passed 8-3 with Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Carmen Chu and Sean Elsbernd voting no. "It is unfortunate that we are at this point," Campos said. "It saddens and pains me to say that what we hear from the mayor is that he is going to ignore the democratic process that's been followed."

Lauren Smiley

Supervisor David Campos meets the press after initial passage of his ordinance in October

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With a vote of 8-3 (Carmen Chu, Michela Alioto-Pier, and Sean Elsbernd dissenting), the supes adopted a new policy in which law enforcement would not be required to inform immigration authorities of a juvenile's status until after he or she is convicted of a felony.

A more complete writeup is forthcoming.




 

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A Sunday case described by police as a "suspicious death" at 106 Sixth Street has resulted in a murder arrest a 34-year-old woman, according to the District Attorney's office.

The San Francisco Police Department describes Kira Roueche as "involved in the death" of Cameron Miller, 42, in his room at the Henry Hotel. She was arrested earlier today and a charging decision could be made by the DA as soon as Tuesday.

If determined to be a homicide, this would be the city's 42nd of the year, coming on the heels of Alfonso Rodriguez' Friday night beating death in Crocker Amazon.

News headlines Monday suggest our warning was valid. Advanta Corp., a bank holding company specializing in small business credit cards announced today it was filing for bankruptcy, throwing into question whether the company would pay in-full investment notes advertised in the Chronicle's business section less than four months ago.

On July 12 of this year,  Advanta, bought an advertisement on page D-2 of the Chronicle's business section, surrounded by ads touting ordinary bank certificates of deposit, announcing: "You can now earn: 1 year -- 11.00 percent."

The announcement seemed unbelievable, given bank interest rates at the time topped out at about 2 percent. It apparently was. Investors now seem doomed to receive pennies on the dollar.

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."

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. 

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.

Anna McCarthy

No more seaside views for this Mission Bay resident.

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One of the Port's workers told SF Weekly that the resident had been escorted from the encampment yesterday and taken to a homeless shelter. "We're just cleaning up what's left," he said. He didn't cite any particular reasoning for the demolition, just that the Port was doing its job. A call to the Port confirmed that they mostly work with the city's Homeless Outreach Team.

Anna McCarthy

​SF Weekly has a call in to the Outreach Team to ascertain the former resident's whereabouts.

"This is the craziest thing that's ever happened to me," Sean C., as he's known on Yelp, told SF Weekly. "If I had a gun she'd probably be dead right now."

The fiasco started when Sean C. posted a two-star Yelp review for Ocean Avenue Books in the Ocean View neighborhood last week, warning: "This place is a TOTAL MESS."

Herron, 21, who has a history of mental illness, will be released by the San Francisco Sheriff's department to officials in either Sacramento or Union City -- "both of which have criminal holds placed on the defendant for open criminal matters," according to San Francisco's District Attorney's office.

Earlier today we noted that even legal scholars were shocked that Herron beat the criminal trespassing charge -- until they noted that the fine print of the law requires not just wandering onto someone else's property, but doing so with the intent of residing there. "Holy mackerel," USF law professor Bob Talbot told SF Weekly. "You can go into a bear place, spend the night, and not violate any laws."

We waited for you on Valencia for half hours at a time, expectantly stepping out on the street to see if your lights beckoned from afar. As you approached, we chanted "Be-van! Be-van!" in honor of the supervisor who lobbied to save you after Muni threatened to whack your faithful service last year. We then settled on board for your quaint, backroads route to Glen Park, dropping us right where we were going like BART never could. A crazy passenger once told us "You dropped your smile," and pushed up the edges of his mouth for effect. He was right: We shouldn't have stepped on board with anything other than glee in our hearts. Even when one of your late-night drivers always manned you like a veritable bat out of hell, taking the corners of sleepy Glen Park like a Formula One racer and nearly hurling us from our seats, we loved you still.

Thanks to ink finding its way onto a hastily assembled contract Friday evening, BART escaped the specter of its Halloween trick being hundreds of thousands in wasted state funds. Still, the day of financial reckoning may not have been eliminated but only postponed .

BART's Oct. 30 pact with contractor Solar Eclipse allows the builder 10 business days -- starting from today -- to fulfill the bonding requirements it could not line up in the proceeding weeks. If the company is unable to obtain bonding at that time, however, the contract expires -- and, it seems, so does the state's offer of roughly $800,000 to redo lighting at North Berkeley BART.

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it," said BART spokesman Linton Johnson when asked what would happen to the state grant if Solar Eclipse's contract was voided. "I'm not sure we know the answer to that just yet."

​Brown's office has released a resignation letter from Gerber, dated today, in which the former head of the AG's press office admits to "serious errors in judgment." He continues, "I suspect that the few reporters involved in the calls I taped would have readily said yes, but nonetheless it was wrong not to ask them first." Gerber states that, "as a result of my actions, I realize that I can no longer effectively serve the Office of the Attorney General."

Last week, the Chronicle reported that Gerber had taped an on-the-record conversation with Chron political reporter Carla Marinucci and two senior staff attorneys from the attorney general's office. While his actions were probably not illegal under state law, they ran counter to the typical protocols followed by both reporters and government spokespeople, and caused an unwelcome scandal for Brown, the current front-runner in the 2010 governor's race.

An duck soaked with oil by the 2007 Cosco Busan spill

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The defendants "were negligent and spilled toxic diesel fuel and or bunker fuel into San Francisco Bay while taking on fuel," reads the complaint, which was filed in San Francisco federal court. "Defendants, their agents, operators, and managers are strictly liable to plaintiffs for all losses of income or property damage that are proximately caused by the wrongful conduct of defendant."

The $10 million sum is the class action suit's estimation of "loss of fishing profits and related fish-processing profits."