Despite the sunny weather, the mood outside the California Supreme Court turned bitter this morning, with marriage-equality supporters and anti-gay marriage supporters exchanging verbal jabs, as news spread that the justices had upheld Proposition 8, a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage that state voters passed in November.

Initially, this bitterness wasn’t mitigated by the court’s other piece of news, namely that the justices had, however, decided to validate the marriages of the estimated 18,000 gay couples http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2008/06/samesex_weddings_a_love_ Read more »

I'm enjoying this photo of City Attorney Dennis Herrera, as part of his office's participation in Bike to Work Day. His T-shirt is kinda scary, (it makes me think of all the lawyers who ARE driving today). But cotton shorts, as opposed to butt-clinging lycra, is definitely a good choice, me also thinks.

In March, when the Guardian reported that the Society of Professional Journalists had honored MAPlight.org with a James Madison Award for Electronic Access, folks at the Berkeley-based non-profit told me that they were about to launch MAPLight.org Los Angeles to reveal campaign contributions to L.A. politicians. Read more »

I'm sure it has nothing to do with our snarky coverage, but Craigslist has agreed to dump its erotic services section.

Text by Sarah Phelan

Courtesy of the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation.

As the Guardian's report about foreclosures in San Francisco reveals, they are concentrated in the southeast, where working people and communities of color live, making efforts to recapture these properties and resell them as affordab Read more »

Text by Sarah Phelan

Asking for change outside local nightclubs could end up costing you $100 or a stint in the county jail, thanks to a newly enacted loitering ban that's aimed at making clubbing safer but threatens First Amendment rights.

Google the phrase “we met outside the club” and you’ll get all sorts of interesting hits, mostly involving luscious bands, lascivious strippers and a crazy story titled “Getting laid Brazilian style.”

But meeting band memb Read more »

So maybe it’s more complicated than blaming it all on Craigslist, but reports that The Onion, that venerable fake news publication, is discontinuing print editions in San Francisco and Los Angeles, “because the advertising in both cities has been abysmal” got me thinking uncharitably of Read more »

For anyone who believed that Mayor Newsom was merely proposing a) to merge the Mayor’s Office of Community Investment with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and b) change how community block development grants are spent, and that none of this would happen until he got the Board of Supervisors's approval, as is required, according to the City charter, here’s a letterthat suggests that the MOCI/OEWD merger is a done deal, and t Read more »

Rev. Amos’ Brown’s recent op-ed in the Examiner is the latest in a string of attacks on anyone who suggests that anything about Lennar's redevelopment plan could be improved.

These types of attacks are called “shooting the messenger.” And while they can be effective in silencing critics, they don’t address the problems contained in the message that the (now smeared) messenger was delivering. Read more »

Text by Sarah Phelan.

It’s no secret that Mayor Gavin Newsom steals other people’s work and promotes it as his own—once that work proves to be politically popular.

He’s done it to Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, Sup. Read more »