Schools emerge as new tactic in gay marriage votes
San Francisco -- In one ad after another, voters in California and Maine were besieged with images of what would supposedly happen if same-sex Marriage were legal: Students on a field trip to a Lesbian wedding, elementary kids gobbling up books featuring Gay couples, kindergartners learning about homosexuality from their teachers. The strategy worked. Overruling the courts and lawmakers, voters defeated Gay Marriage ballot measures in California last year and in Maine this week after...

Schools emerge as new tactic in gay marriage votes
In one ad after another, voters in California and Maine were besieged with images of what would supposedly happen if same-sex Marriage were legal: Students on a field trip to a Lesbian wedding, elementary kids gobbling up books featuring Gay couples, kindergartners learning about homosexuality from their teachers. The strategy worked. Overruling the courts and lawmakers, voters defeated Gay Marriage ballot measures in California last year and in Maine this week after conservatives convinced...

Gay leaders blame TV ads, Obama for loss in Maine - Yahoo! News
San Francisco – Stunned and angry, national Gay Rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama 's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the Gay-marriage debate. Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed Gay couples to wed, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for...

Oops! AP Suggests There's 'No Evidence' That Students Will Take Field Trips to Gay Nuptials: PHOTO
Reporters at the Associated Press are clearly unhappy that Maine voters turned out to refuse to honor "Gay Marriage" at the ballot box. An AP dispatch two days ago by Lisa Leff and David Sharp suggested conservatives are misleading voters with charges that have "no evidence," like students going on a field trip to a Lesbian wedding. Are they that factually challenged at AP? From Fox News on

DotBlu Resurfaces From The Deadpool, Starts Third Life As TownHog: PHOTO
A couple of weeks ago, we put DotBlu (formerly known as BluBet ) in the deadpool . The San Francisco startup, which ran an online betting play at launch which later morphed to some sort of social gaming service, discontinued its operations on October 16 despite the startup being backed by a host of star investors (Jawed Karim of YouTube fame and Kevin Hartz of Xoom / Eventbrite to name but a few). Turns out the venture still had a considerable amount of money left in the bank, which they will...

Voters oppose putting gay marriage back on the ballot, Times/USC poll finds
A small majority of California voters supports the right of Gay couples to marry, but a much larger portion of voters opposes efforts to place the issue back on the ballot next year, a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll has found. Views on same-sex Marriage were sharply polarized based on political party, with 66% of Democrats thinking it should be legal and 71% of Republicans in opposition. Nonpartisan voters were less enthusiastic than Democrats but still backed it, 59%-34%. Overall, 51% of...

The Gay -Civil Likes' Movement
As I watched the World Series this week, I could not help but think: If a player were 0-31 at bat, he would be demoted to the minor leagues. Yet, the major league players in the Gay, Lesbian, bisexual and Transgender movement can’t seem to change strategies or try new approaches. We are a creative people who produced the likes of Michelangelo, Tennessee Williams, Oscar Wilde and Perez Hilton. Yet, in our collective wisdom, we are unable to switch gears and admit that our tactics are not...

Only 45% of Oregon Supports Same Sex Marriage: PHOTO
A new public opinion study published in the American Political Science Review ranks Oregon 13th nationwide in support for same sex Marriage rights, with about 45 percent of Oregonians supporting the cause. The study backs up the assertion that support for Gay Marriage splits by age, with people ages 18-29 more than 30 percent more likely to be supportive of same sex Marriage than people over 65. It also basically affirms what Oregon LGBT group Basic Rights Oregon has been saying: our state's...

Christian Clergy To Incite Hate Crimes?!: PHOTO
Christian Anti-Defamation Commission leader Gary Cass Conservative Christian clergy are still going absolutely bat-shit crazy over the passing of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act. The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission led by Gary Cass plan to stage a publicity stunt at the US Capitol involving incendiary Hate speech directed at Gay and Lesbian Americans in an attempt to get arrested and thereby “prove” that their God-given rights to harass LGBT citizens are threatened. Can you...

Poll: Californian's Agaisnt Marriage Vote
From the LA Times: A majority of California voters opposes putting the issue of Gay Marriage back on the ballot for another referendum. According to a just-released survey by the new polling team of The Times and the University of Southern California, a small majority of Californians favors the right of Gay couples to marry. But a far larger proportion of the 1,500 registered voters in the new poll opposes putting the issue back on another statewide ballot next year. This week Maine became the...

AP Interview: Rattle looks to digital for classical future; tours US with Berlin Philharmonic
BERLIN — Sir Simon Rattle's new contract with the Berlin Philharmonic is just days old but already he's looking ahead — to the orchestra's coast-to-coast tour U.S. tour starting this week, and to the role that classical music can and will play in 21st century society. Rattle and the 128 members of the Berlin Philharmonic depart Monday for a seven-stop U.S. tour that will take them from New York and Boston to Ann Arbor, Michigan and Chicago, before wrapping up in San Francisco and...

First Bailed-Out Bank to be Shut Down by FDIC; Taxpayers Lose Another $1.4 Billion
On top of the $3.2 billion lost earlier this month when CIT filed for Bankruptcy , the federal government’s bank rescue effort is now out of another $1.7 billion because of the collapse of United Commercial Bank. The San Francisco-based bank has the distinction of being the first financial institution to receive TARP bailout money to be shut down by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The so-called “healthy bank” received $299 million in TARP funds, and its...

East West Bancorp takes over United Commercial Bank and becomes the largest Chinese American Bank!
It's been a terrible year for America as the financial slow down brought end to more than 100 properly functioning banks. This time its San Francisco’s United Commercial Bank. The bank was shut down on Friday. The bank was later taken over by East West Bancorp which made it the largest U.S. bank, which focused on the Chinese American market. United Commercial Bank had 63 branches all over the US which included 17 in Southern California. All the branches would reopen on Saturday as East...

Lead in red wine vinegars?
Here’s a post from San Francisco about how red wine vinegars may raise lead levels in children. Posted in Health and safety | Add a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. Post a Comment Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del...

Area forecast to be cold, wet
San Francisco — Temperatures will dip slightly in the coming days after a warm past couple of weeks, with Wednesday’s Veterans Day festivities likely to get rained on. Light showers are expected all day Wednesday and into Thursday, National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson said Sunday. High temperatures will slide down into the upper 50s and low 60s, he said. Last week’s highs reached the 80s. The bright, sunny skies that have been shining on The City will cloud up...

Momofuku's David Chang Talks Sabbaticals and San Francisco: PHOTO
We've always been huge fans of New York chef and restaurateur David Chang: He was Sugar's pick for Best Restaurant Chef of 2008 . By fusing innovative flavor combinations and haute kitchen techniques with casual dining, the Momofuku overlord revolutionized the restaurant scene in America. What's most refreshing about Chang, however, are his irreverent demeanor and unapologetic opinions. Even though I'd interviewed him before , when I heard Chang and his co-author, New York Times writer Peter...

Electronic Arts Buys Playfish For $275 Million
San Francisco -- Electronic Arts Inc. said Monday morning that it has acquired Playfish, a maker of social network games, for $275 million in cash. Under the terms of the deal EA will also pay another $25 million in "equity retention arrangements" and up to $100 million in additional cash consideration contingent on the achievement of certain performance milestones through December of 2011. Playfish makes games for the Facebook, MySpace and Bebo platforms, as well as the iPhone and Androind...

Police Searching For Suspects In Fatal Beating
San Francisco -- San Francisco homicide investigators are searching for suspects after finding a man beaten to death Friday night in the city's Excelsior District. Officers responded to reports of an assault in progress in the area of Munich and Cordova streets, according to police spokesman Sgt. Wilfred Williams. Officers found a man who had been badly beaten sitting in the driver's seat of a vehicle, Williams said. The victim was transported to a Hospital and pronounced dead at about 10:45...

New onstage
OPENINGS Love, God, Sex (and Other Stuff I Don't Have) Rick Reynolds picks up the next chapter in the comic lessons of his life, a bicoastal hit with "Only the Truth Is Funny," in his third solo show. The show opens the new developmental series, New Works @ the Marines. Opens Mon. Through Nov. 17. Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco. (415) 771-6900, www.marinesmemorialtheatre. com.

Jobless Numbers Hit A High Not Seen In Decades
San Francisco -- -- The nation's Unemployment rate has jumped again to the highest rate since 1983. The U.S. Labor Department put the October jobless number at 10.2 per cent. That's up from 9.8 in September. California's jobless rate was higher at 12.2 per cent. Nearly 16 million Americans are officially out of work. In San Francisco some people are just holding on to what they have. Hot dog vendor Pete Sheehy said he's just glad to have a job. "It's tough, a lot of over-qualified candidates...

Virus Frames PC Users as Pedophiles
San Francisco (KCBS/AP)  -- Of all the sinister things that Internet viruses do, this might be the worst: They can make you an unsuspecting collector of Child Pornography.   KCBS’ Matt Bigler Reports Heinous pictures and videos can be deposited on computers by viruses _ the malicious programs better known for swiping your credit card numbers. In this twist, it's your reputation that's stolen. Pedophiles can exploit virus-infected PCs to remotely store and view their stash...

Big rig plummets off the San Francisco Bay Bridge
San Francisco (AP) - A trucker is dead after his big-rig plummeted 200 feet off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge early Monday. California Highway Patrol Sgt. Trent Cross says the driver of a rig hauling produce lost control on the westbound bridge's troublesome S-curve at about 3:30 a.m. The rig went over the side and landed on Yerba Buena Island. The trucker, whose name hasn't been released, died on impact. There have been more than 42 crashes in the bridge S-curve area since it opened...

Weekend Recap - 'Precious,' J.J. Abrams, 'Battleship': PHOTO
Even though A Christmas Carol didn't earn as much money as it was expected to, there was still big Box Office news over the weekend. The probable Best Picture nominee Precious only played in 18 theaters and still nearly made two million bucks. That's a record. We're also getting to the end of the decade, which means a lot of lists you're sure to disagree with. And we found one of those on Saturday. Also, Natalie Portman talks about her upcoming Black Swan Lesbian scene, and Peter Berg's...

Lionsgate's “Precious” Sets New Record!
Lionsgate’s “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” set a new record for films opening in limited release. The indie movie’s weekend take of $1.8 million from just 18 theaters is the best gross ever for a film opening in fewer than 100 theaters, reports Variety. Last year, by comparison, Focus Features’ “Milk” grossed $268,487 from 34 theaters on its first Friday. The LA Times is reporting that the studio behind...