Feature Archives

On December 9th, the Washington Post reported that current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was one of four members of Congress who was secretly briefed in 2002 about interrogation techniques that included the torture known as waterboarding -- and Pelosi had not raised objections to it. The next day, about twenty Code Pink members and other antiwar activists gathered outside of Pelosi's local office to conduct an emergency protest.

On Monday, December 10th, Supervisor Chris Daly hosted a hearing on the controversial San Francisco gang injunctions. Community members criticized the proposal, calling it racist and ineffective. They called on the city to address the root causes of violence not the symptoms.

A Rally and Press Conference will be held on Thursday, December 13th outside of Nancy Pelosi’s office to demand that she and Congress take action to fix the Medicare system, and to guarantee its future funding. Protesters will gather outside of the Federal Building at 450 Golden Gate Ave. (on the Polk Street side) at 1:30pm. Organizers of the December 13th protest say that Medicare needs to be improved, and expanded to cover everyone - regardless of their age, health, job status, income, or residency.

The November 7th spill of bunker fuel from the Cosco Busan, South Korea-bound container ship, is shaping up to be much more serious than early reports indicated and appears to be the worst ship-related spill in more than a decade. The Coast Guard estimates that over 58,000 gallons of fuel were spilled from the accident. Only a fraction of those gallons of fuel have been contained thus far. San Francisco Baykeeper is investigating why initial reports underestimated the size of the spill and why the Coast Guard failed to immediately coordinate its response with the Office of Spill Prevention and Response.

On November 8th, Michael Mukasey was confirmed as attorney general by the full US Senate in a 53 to 40 vote. The Democrats who voted in support of Mukasey were Feinstein, Schumer, Bayh, Carper, Landrieu and Nelson. All four Democratic senators who are running for president did not vote. Before Feinstein came out for Mukasey, he appeared to be unable to get enough votes to get out of committee due to his refusal to declare water-boarding a form of torture. Several protests against Mukasey have taken place in San Francisco.

On Wednesday, November 7th, the movement to free the Jena 6 will face a challenge. On that day, four of the six -- Theodore Shaw, Robert Bailey, Bryan Purvis, and Mychal Bell -- are expected in court for pre-trial hearings. The ANSWER Coalition is organizing rallies in front of local courthouses across the country that day with the demand to "free the Jena 6 and drop all the charges." In San Francisco, supporters of the Jena 6 will gather on Wednesday at 5:00pm for a rally outside of the Federal Courthouse at 7th and Mission Streets. There will also be a teach-in about the Jena Six on Saturday, November 10th at Evergreen Valley College.

On Saturday, November 3rd, San Francisco hosted one of over 1,400 rallies across the country to call on political leaders to "Step It Up" by strengthening policies to cut carbon emissions. Step It Up has called the campaign "the largest coordinated climate change event in U.S. history." Step It Up San Francisco featured a carnival-like atmosphere complete with a Toss Out Fossil Fuel sock toss, sidewalk chalk, electric cars, and solar-powered smoothies. The crowd gave City Hall the "green finger" by stamping their fingers with green ink and symbolically pointing at City Hall.