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Afghanistan's illusions of legitimacy

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - Oct. 20 (Opinion) - It goes without saying that a legitimate government would follow the rules of the constitution. And it's in America's interest to have the most legitimate Afghan government possible: Otherwise, for what are we fighting? Unfortunately, holding a runoff election may not be the best way to provide Afghanistan with a functional government. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/20/EDIM1A7PF0.DTL#ixzz0UUI6PvVi

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Hellman to invest $5 million in journalism nonprofit

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By James Temple - Sep. 25 (News Analysis) - San Francisco financier Warren Hellman will invest $5 million to develop a nonprofit journalism venture that will provide regional news coverage online and feed stories to media partners including KQED and possibly the New York Times. The goal of the organization, which is expected to begin next year and create "more than dozens" of positions, is to ensure thorough coverage of local politics, social issues, education and other topics as the traditional media industry shrivels. "We've lost a lot," said Hellman, who specifically bemoaned dwindling reporting on subjects like the San Francisco Ballet, local business openings and vetting of political candidates. "We're going to be meeting an unmet need."

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Doing away with dams

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - Aug. 16 (Editorial) - Dams aren't the infrastructure darlings they once were. Since 1999, 430 dams have come down, according to the American Rivers environmental group. The reasons are largely economic: Maintenance is high as the concrete walls age. Also, power needs can be supplied by other sources. The decline of migrating salmon and steelhead are also a factor. These problems don't mean all dams are doomed or new ones will never be built. Dam defenders note that hydropower is produced without emissions. And flood control and growing water needs remain issues that are suited for the water-controlling structures.

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Impatience builds over slow-moving stimulus

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Carolyn Lochhead - Jul. 12 (News Analysis) - The record-breaking $787 billion fiscal stimulus package that Congress passed in February is not breaking records on the job front. In California, with 11.5 percent unemployment, it has done little more than prevent layoffs of state workers. In response, Democrats who sold the stimulus as a way to cap the national unemployment rate at 8 percent are scrambling to explain why hundreds of thousands of jobs disappear each month. And House Republicans, who voted unanimously against the stimulus, have again ridiculed funding to save San Francisco Bay's salt marsh harvest mouse as an example of waste by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, although the mouse lives outside her San Francisco district.

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Nearly all Bay Area state parks would close

Fri, 29 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Kelly Zito - May. 29 (News Report) - Nearly 50 parks, beaches and historic sites in the greater Bay Area region, including Mount Tamalpais, Angel Island and Big Sur, would close under a draft plan outlining how California's 279 parks would be affected by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts.

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No child left to move ahead

Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Matt Levinson - May. 07 (Opinion) - Several years ago, when I taught Advanced Placement U.S. history, I had a student who grossly underperformed during the school year, yet somehow managed to score a 5 on the AP exam. When I asked him how he managed to accomplish this feat, he said, "I spent two weeks straight studying, reading, and reviewing, and that's all I needed."

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School districts find out their cut of stimulus

Wed, 06 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Nanette Asimov - May. 06 (News Report) - California school districts are about to get their first hard cash from the federal stimulus package, their share of the nearly $1.2 billion in extra funding the state has so far received for educating low-income children and students with disabilities.

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Obama administration takes on school reform

Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - May. 05 (Editorial) - More spending, however, does not necessarily translate into better schools. Duncan's challenge is to spend the money quickly and strategically while ratcheting up accountability measures for both teachers and students.

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How Obama's first 100 days stack up

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Joe Garofoli - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - The seed that could haunt Obama's presidency and derail his ambitious agenda could be an investigation of torture techniques used on terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, analysts said.

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S.F. homeless population grew 2% in 2 years

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Heather Knight - Apr. 27 (News Report) - San Francisco's homeless population remains markedly clustered in the Tenderloin district and consists of a smaller percentage of out-of-towners than two years ago, according to a new city report.

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Loon festival canceled - lake is drying up

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Sandra Chereb - Apr. 26 (Special Report) - the reason is Walker Lake itself. Its water quality and levels have declined and along with them the rich bounty of small fish that attracted the loons. The result: Hawthorne's Loon Festival, held each year in late April, was canceled, replaced by a day to bring awareness to Walker Lake's teetering ecosystem and ongoing, multimillion-dollar and multifaceted efforts to save it from a salty demise.

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Some get the tea, others get the bag

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Debra J. Saunders - Apr. 14 (Opinion) - In December 1773, Bostonians held a Tea Party in Boston Harbor to protest excessive British taxes. "No taxation without representation" was their message. On Wednesday, April 15, Americans will hold rallies across the country to protest onerous taxes. Organizers have a motto for their Tea Day - "taxed enough already."

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Die, newspaper, die?

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Mark Morford - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - The gurus are all aflutter. Shirky, Winer, Johnson et al, a smart, motley crew of big-name, big-brained tech seers and programmers and futurists have weighed in, guys you've probably never heard of unless you're a Slashdot regular or a co-founder of Digg or have a fetish for hardcore database programming, or maybe if you were stargazing at this year's big SXSW Interactive event in Austin, Twittering your thumbs off as the digiterati elite strolled around like minor deities. Mark Zuckerberg! Nate Silver! Bruce Effing Sterling! OMG! It's all fascinating stuff, sort of. In the wake of the hugely depressing shutdown of the Rocky and the Seattle P.I., and with recent death threats to the SF Chronicle and what looks to be a savage year indeed for print newspapers everywhere, these big guns have all stepped away from their normal discussions of deep tech arcania and turned their attention to a 500-year-old technology undergoing its first epic, bloody revolution.

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African American churches join fight for health

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Elizabeth Fernandez - Mar. 01 (Special Report) - In the last year, Tami Crane, a mother of three in San Ramon, has lost nearly 100 pounds. All credit, she says, goes to her church. Staci Smith, 45, who teaches sixth-graders in Oakland, was on dialysis after her kidneys failed. But shortly after getting a transplant last summer, she started working out with fellow parishioners and now says she's in the best shape of her life. Both women are involved in a competition among African American churches and community organizations in the East Bay designed to help their members live healthier lives. By promoting physical activity, good nutrition and health education, the competition aims to reduce disproportionately high rates of stroke and heart disease among people of color.

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Race high on agenda of Holder's Justice Dept.

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Leslie Fulbright - Feb. 23 (News Report) - President Obama declined to make race a central theme of his campaign, but the man he tapped as the country's top law enforcement officer is making it clear that race relations will be a priority.

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Meg Whitman makes case on how she's different

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Carla Marinucci - Feb. 13 (News Report) - California gubernatorial candidate and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, formally opening what may be the toughest bid of her long career, insisted she is offering a skill set and product that are very different from those of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a parade of other wealthy political novices who have run for the state's highest office.

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Technology not the panacea for education

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Todd Oppenheimer - Feb. 04 (Opinion) - Now that Arne Duncan, President Obama's new education secretary, has presented the administration's $150 billion plan for reviving our education system, it's time to start separating Obama's smart ideas for schools from his dumb ones. The first folly Duncan could dispense with - at an enormous cost saving - would be Obama's desire to outfit the nation's classrooms with new computers. His big push for this idea occurred in December, when he said, "Every child should have the chance to get online," Obama said, "and they'll get that chance when I'm president - because that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world."

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Too big to fail, too big to jail

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 28 (Editorial) - Karl Rove recently described George W. Bush as a book lover, writing, "There is a myth perpetuated by Bush critics that he would rather burn a book than read one." There will be many histories written about the Bush administration. What will they use for source material? The Bush White House was sued for losing e-mails, and for skirting laws intended to protect public records. A federal judge ordered White House computers scoured for e-mails just days before Bush left office. Three hundred million e-mails reportedly went to the National Archives, but 23 million e-mails remain "lost." Vice President Dick Cheney left office in a wheelchair due to a back injury suffered when moving boxes out of his office. He has not only hobbled a nation in his attempt to sequester information - he hobbled himself. Cheney also won court approval to decide which of his records remain private. President Obama was questioned by George Stephanopoulos about the possibility of prosecuting Bush administration officials. Obama said: "We're still evaluating how we're going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions and so forth. ... I don't believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand, I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backward ... what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future, as opposed to looking at what we got wrong in the past."

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Why Feinstein broke with Obama on Panetta

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Carla Marinucci - Jan. 07 (News Analysis) - Those who know Feinstein well and have worked intimately with her insist that her public critique of Panetta was not personal in nature. Though the two have competed on the political stage - a movement in 1998 to get Panetta to run for governor was derailed largely by rumors that Feinstein would throw her hat in the ring - insiders say that this week's dustup was more a message to the incoming Obama administration about Beltway politics.

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Californians to Bush: the feeling's mutual

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Carla Marinucci - Jan. 05 (Special Report) - With just 15 days remaining for the Bush administration, political observers note that the Republican president's chilly relationship with the decidedly blue state - a relationship that is poised to undergo a revolution with Democratic President-elect Barack Obama - means that many here will define the Bush legacy in California as forgettable at best.

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Bush: Only time will tell about his legacy

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Carolyn Lochhead - Jan. 04 (News Analysis) - Love him or hate him, George W. Bush leaves office among the most consequential presidents in modern history. Like his home state of Texas, his presidency was big. He sought "to end tyranny in the world." He began two wars. He cut taxes three times, tried to privatize Social Security, and added the biggest expansion of Medicare since it was created under Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. He took on AIDS in Africa and redrew the federal role in education. He named two relatively young conservatives to the Supreme Court. He declared by himself a "global war on terror" and asserted unprecedented executive powers to fight it.

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When the warmest year in history isn't

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Debra J. Saunders - Dec. 01 (Opinion) - When it comes to global warming, newspapers play up stories that reinforce the prevalent the-sky-is-falling belief that global warming is human-caused and catastrophic. But if a study or scientist does not portend the end of the world as we know it, it rarely rates as news. In that spirit, many papers (including The Chronicle) have reported on a UC San Diego science historian who reviewed 928 abstracts of peer-reviewed articles on global warming published between 1993 and 2003, and concluded, "Remarkably, none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position."

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Reports: 16 killed in Mumbai shootings

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Ramola Talwar Badam - Nov. 26 (News Report) - Gunmen targeted luxury hotels, a popular tourist attraction and a crowded train station in at least seven attacks in India's financial capital, killing 16 people and wounding 90, officials and media reports said.

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The untruths live on after election

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Joe Garofoli - Nov. 09 (News Report) - Phoenix - Even after hearing John McCain's election night concession speech - described as gracious by many inside and outside his Arizona Biltmore Resort party - the tone among some of his core supporters in Phoenix was anything but. To some there, President-elect Barack Obama was still a "socialist," the "liberal media" was still "hiding" stories, and others wished that the campaign had hammered Obama harder for "palling around" with 1960s domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. In other words, many of the distortions and half-truths repeated by the McCain-Palin campaign - even after being disproved by independent fact-checkers - still packed a powerful half-life. "The McCain people were reprehensible in some of the things they said," said Joseph Tuman, a professor of political and legal communication at San Francisco State University and author of "Political Communication in American Campaigns." "But I don't think this was any worse than a lot of campaigns." The difference, Tuman said, was that the media landscape has changed. The 24-hour online world - where anybody with a hand-held camera can publish a campaign video - has created a hyperbolic environment where every tidbit is spread globally within seconds. And repeated and relayed endlessly. Voters are drowning in information, much of it rich with distortion.

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Palin suggests Chronicle withheld Obama remarks

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Carla Marinucci - Nov. 03 (News Report) - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in a campaign appearance Sunday, criticized comments about coal technology that Sen. Barack Obama made to The Chronicle editorial board in January, and suggested that the newspaper withheld the information from the public - even though the interview has been posted on the newspaper's Web site since it was given. At a rally in Ohio, Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, used the taped remarks to attack Obama's energy policy.

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