Political Lobbyists

Fat Cats and Big Fish: New Rules Won't Starve Those at the Top of the Political Food Chain

Board of Supervisors: Get Used to Muddle in the Middle

By this time next week, barring an event recalling a Strom Thurmond phone book-reading filibuster, San Francisco will have a newly minted Board of Supervisors president. Incumbent David Chiu is in a solid position, but others, including Scott Wiener, are making plays of their own. It'll be intriguin ... More >>

Mexican Study: Marijuana Legalization Would Hurt Cartels -- Badly

Backers of marijuana legalization measures on the ballot next week in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon -- sorry, California, but nobody ponied up the cash to give us the choice -- have an enemy with means: Mexican drug cartels, whose profits might dip as a result of legalization, according to a new ... More >>

Pelosi Takes Shots at GOP, Lobbyists for Targeting Occupy Protesters in 'Message War'

​House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is rallying Democrats to defend the sundry Occupy movements that have sprung up across the country, appealing in a fundraising e-mail for money to help combat a "message war" against protesters orchestrated by GOP-connected lobbyists.Pelosi's e-mail was provoked ... More >>

Drug Disposal Bill To Be Introduced Tuesday -- Whether Gavin Newsom Likes It or Not

Note: unused pills do not make appropriate Christmas gifts.​Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi has called off negotiations with drug manufacturers, and will on Tuesday introduce legislation setting up an industry-funded program encouraging consumers to return unused prescription drugs to pharmacies.With Ma ... More >>

Big Pharma lobbies against S.F. drug proposal

Arizona Immigration Law Has Sucked $141 Million From State Economy, Report Says

​Remember the Board of Supervisors' tepid boycott of Arizona to revolt against that state's strict "papers please" immigration law? Many lambasted our city's boycott as yet another symbolic, feckless meddling in affairs far afield of San Francisco's issues.  But San Francisco was not alone in ... More >>

Report Touting Prop. 23 'Simply Nonsense' -- Stanford Prof

Matt SmithHere's what we'll do, y'see: We'll put out crazy-assed think-tank reports, and see if people believe 'em.​The Pacific Research Institute bills itself as a think tank that champions freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility by advancing free-market policy solutions. But judging fr ... More >>

Cell Phone Industry Suing San Francisco For Your Good, Lawsuit Claims

techzblog.inHey, Mom! I want a rainbow in my brain, too! ​Lobbyists from the Cellular Telephone Industry Association are suing San Francisco over the Cell Phone Right-To-Know ordinance, claiming the city is not allowed to make decisions involving the wireless industry. But they're not doing th ... More >>

Stimulus Wreckage

Despite having been accused of deceptive business practices by the attorney general, former students, and ex-employees, Corinthian Colleges are getting millions in federal stimulus dollars.

City Gave Lobbyist the Go-Ahead to Push For Controversial Assembly Bill -- Or Did It?

Whether you're a king or just a street-sweeper, sooner or later you dance with the ... State Legislation Committee​We've written a bit about how San Francisco recently officially lobbied for a state Assembly bill that would limit public access to government data. AB 1336 would allow cities to moun ... More >>

S.F. pays lobbyist to advocate for government secrecy, critics say

Critics Accuse City of Paying Lobbyists to Weaken Public Access Laws

​Yesterday we reported on how, despite detailed complaints from the public, San Francisco's lobbyists were skipping out on requirements to file with the Ethics Commission and report how they're using public money. Now, open government activists, spurred into sifting through some of the city's Sacr ... More >>

San Francisco Lobbyists' Failure to Report Their Activities -- For Years -- Was No Secret

​The San Francisco Examiner this week reported that while the lobbyists San Francisco employs to push for the city's interests in Sacramento and elsewhere are required to file reports detailing how they're spending nearly half a million dollars of public money four times a year, they have, in ... More >>

SF Enviros Blast Obama's Swiss Cheese Lobbying Rules

Barack Obama kicked off his presidency by limiting his administration's vulnerability to lobbyists. By May, however, it seemed clear that resourceful Democratic Party insiders would circumvent the limited ban. San Francisco's Amazon Watch has just denounced former Clinton Administration trade repres ... More >>

The Labor Lobby

S.F. unions do a lot of lobbying. They just don't report it.

Critics: Firefighter Union's 'Save Our Firehouses' Campaign Exposes Weakness of S.F. Lobbyist Laws

Sure you can give a suit like this to a city official. Just remember to report it within 10 days.On Friday we reported on how an ad campaign pushed by San Francisco's firefighter union -- but conspicuously not listing the union's name -- apparently violated San Francisco's lobbying laws. In this cit ... More >>

Where's the Fire? Union's Chron Ad, Campaign Stir Accusations of Improper Lobbying.

Whether an orchestrated campaign to spur the general public to call or write their city councilmen is benevolent or nefarious depends upon the cause at hand. But to argue that such a campaign doesn't constitute "lobbying" is to take up a losing battle with the good folks at Merriam-Webster. The ad t ... More >>

City Considers Loosening Lobbyist Rules -- Good Government Types Not Amused

With the eyes of every reporter and politico on today's budget-cutting Board of Supervisors meeting, the city's Ethics Commission will open discussion this afternoon on myriad changes to the city's lobbyist ordinance, including whether to do away with rules preventing consultants from accepting pay ... More >>

Law Requires Lobbyists to Disclose Little

John Burton’s Murky Role in Perata Probe

Chiu on This

Troublemaker H. Brown makes trouble in District 3 supes race.

'07 Golden Gate Bridge Jump Count - 35

Greening the Left

Tycoons will pay to generate leftist ideas in voters' minds, but now they want to see results

Spoon

Gimme Fiction

Partners in Slime

The California service employees' union and the nursing home industry join forces to increase corporate profit, grow union membership, and sell out abused nursing home patients

Recalling a Historical Mistake

Why voters should defeat the move to recall Gov. Davis -- and then work to eliminate the recall and initiative provisions from state law

Attack of the Self-Serving Pol!

A deft film in which a southland legislator and lazy journalists rewrite history, blame Enron for the energy crisis, and leave Sacramento corruption untouched

Best City Transportation Improvement

Valencia Street Bike Lane

Opening Pandora's Box

Once-secret documents reveal the tobacco industry's battle to gut anti-smoking education in California. Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and former Gov. Pete Wilson helped.

Cothran

Cothran

Multimedia Zilch

The computer revolution still hasn't come to San Francisco government

Ringmaster Willie

Although Mayor Brown's opening acts have impressed, he's also allowed more than a few rogue elephants under his Big Top. We begin our stampede watch.

Dog Bites

Drugs, Politics, and Money

The medical-marijuana movement is riled by the generosity of a pro-legislation PAC

Legal Largess

The Longest Shot

Dark-horse mayoral hopeful Joel Ventresca wants your vote

Paper Trails

Paper Trails

City Slackers

A guide toSan Francisco political corruption -past, present, and future

Letters

Dialing for AIDS Dollars

National group soaks donors for telemarketing scheme as Republicans seize Capitol Hill

Paper Trails