The Grid

One of the jurors, Janetta Jones, smelled a rat and contacted the lawyer on the other side of the case. Just a few weeks earlier Jones had joined eight other jurors in finding that the Ex and the Agency had bid below cost in 1994 for a municipal advertising contract -- specifically to harm a competitor, the San Francisco Independent. Now the S.F. judge who presided over the trial wants Connolly to explain her tactics as he considers a request from the Independent that interviews with jurors by either side be prohibited.

Human Rights 1, Myanmar 0
The selective purchasing law preventing S.F. from doing business with investors in the brutal regime of Myanmar (formerly Burma) has exacted its first intended result.

Motorola Inc., the telecommunications giant from Illinois, pulled out of Myanmar this month. (The company had sold equipment to the regime and had stationed an employee in Rangoon to talk about more deals with the government.)

The move paves the way for Motorola to obtain a $50 million contract with the city to provide an emergency radio system for police, firefighters, and paramedics. Of Motorola's decision to pull out of Myanmar, spokesperson Pat Sturmon says: "It was a business decision based on an annual corporate reorganization."

Maybe. But it also demonstrated to other companies that pulling out of Myanmar has benefits here at home.

George Cothran (gcothran@sfweekly.com) and Chuck Finnie (cfinnie@sfweekly.com) welcome tips, suggestions, and innuendo. Complaints, however, can be sent to SF Weekly, Attn: The Grid, 425 Brannan, San Francisco,