Steve Cooley

CA Supreme Court: Marijuana Dispensaries Can Be Banned, But At Least They're Legal

At least one major roadbloack in the way of medical cannabis reform in California was removed Monday when the California Supreme Court issued a long-awaited ruling -- which says that cities and towns can ban pot clubs. For now. At least 200 places across the state -- including San Mateo County an ... More >>

California Officials Debate Least Inhumane Way to Kill

The current method for executing people in California is as such: First pentobarbital, an anesthetic, knocks the person unconscious; next, pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant, paralyzes the body; and then potassium chloride, whose most common uses are as fertilizer and for state-sponsored killing ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Users Don't Need to be Marijuana Farmers, Court Says

It doesn't take much to join a collective or cooperative in California, be it a grocery store or a medical cannabis dispensary. In the former, perhaps all you need is a small fee; in the latter, a doctor's recommendation and the scrill required to purchase some medical bud.It certainly doesn't requi ... More >>

Prison Break: Realignment Inmates Enter Rehabilitation in S.F.

Will Kamala Harris Burn the Medical Marijuana Advocates Who Campaigned for Her?

One and the same ... when it comes to pot​While marijuana legalization dominated the news, unity was in short supply last fall during the election season among medical cannabis patients and advocates.It may be hard for nonsmokers to grasp, but Proposition 19 splintered the medical cannabis communi ... More >>

Blowing Smoke: Obama Promises One Thing, Does Another on Medical Marijuana

Ammiano's Cannabis Bill a 'Rumor' -- For Now

Buzz kill​You know the old saying: Where there's Tom Ammiano, there's cannabis. California's most cannabis-friendly assemblyman is being connected with an "omnibus cannabis bill" meant to reform, regulate, and clarify the many gray areas in California's medical marijuana laws. Aside from that, som ... More >>

A Timeline of Problems at the SFPD DNA Lab

​Through reporting over the past month, SF Weekly has uncovered multiple instances of scientifically and ethically questionable conduct by DNA analysts at the San Francisco Police Department Crime Laboratory. Our findings focus on two lapses in particular: the destruction of records of a potential ... More >>

Kamala Harris Declares Victory -- In Los Angeles

Perhaps Kamala Harris made her 'major announcement' in L.A. because of the George Lopez factor...​As expected, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris declared victory in her race for Attorney General this morning in her "major announcement" this morning in Los Angeles. "I stand before you t ... More >>

Kamala Harris Wins Attorney General Race as Steve Cooley Concedes

Tyra Banks' AG of choice, Kamala Harris, is the big winner​Say what you will about Steve Cooley, but the man can do math. The Republican candidate for attorney general would have had to beat Kamala Harris by insane margins among uncounted ballots in Harris-leaning counties. Not going to happen -- ... More >>

AG's Race Gets Nasty as Harris, Cooley Spar Over L.A. Vote Counting

Kamala Harris​It's always comforting when the race to become the state's top law-enforcement official devolves into Jerry Springer-esque paroxysms of finger-pointing and cheap campaign tactics. But that's what appears to be happening in the final stretch of the California attorney general's race, ... More >>

Elections Overtime: The Races That Haven't Finished

...And we're counting​Funny thing about Instant-Runoff Voting: The results often aren't so instant. A number of elections around the state are still undetermined. What does the future hold? Gnashing of teeth, threats of litigation, and, of course, counting, counting, and recounting. In an Instant- ... More >>

Kamala Harris: Take a Maalox

The cure for political heartache? ​To those tormented by the stunningly close Attorney General's race between Steve Cooley and Kamala Harris, San Francisco's district attorney offers a bit of medical advice: "Take a Maalox." Harris made her impromptu pitch for a particular brand of heartburn medic ... More >>

Gavin Newsom Cruises to Victory. Kamala Harris Tossup. Political Bedlam to Ensue in S.F.

Richard Haick The Giants are coming home, and Gavin is leaving it​Mayor Gavin Newsom yesterday succeeded in his long quest to get out of San Francisco politics, handily winning his race for lieutenant governor -- and leaving an unknown and yet-to-be-determined successor to humiliate the mayor of A ... More >>

Local Pols Angle for New Jobs as Harris, Newsom Vacate Seats

No: I get to be on the government oversight committee.​Notwithstanding 9.6 percent national unemployment, if you happen to be a politician in San Francisco, Nov. 03 is a great day to be in the market for a new job."It's what everybody's talking about," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, in reference ... More >>

Attorney General Race Too Close to Call; Results Could Be Weeks Away

Kamala Harris​Californians can expect to hurry up and wait for final results in the undisputed nail-biter statewide election of 2010, the attorney general's race between San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Los Angeles D.A. Steve Cooley.With all voting precincts reporting, Harris hold ... More >>

Attention, Guardianistas: Here are your endorsements.

GOP to Hammer Harris on Death Penalty with $1 million in TV Ads as Election Nears

Close observers of the 2010 California Attorney General's race probably saw this one coming. With less than two weeks remaining until election day on Nov. 2, Republican activists are going to spend about $1 million blanketing the airwaves with commercials attacking San Francisco District Attorney Ka ... More >>

Did AG Candidate Steve Cooley Let Bell Police Chief Off the Hook?

Peace Officers Association of L.A. CountySteve Cooley, left, handed disgraced Bell Police Chief Randy Adams an award in 2008. Did he do so again by not prosecuting him?​Will the bell toll for Randy Adams? A group of incensed SoCal cops are sure hoping so. Our sister publication, LA Weekly is repor ... More >>

City Attorney Dennis Herrera to S.F. Employees: No Campaigning on City Time

Whatever you do, don't say "I gave at the office..."​Dennis Herrera, who not long ago announced plans to move his operations down the hall from the city attorney's office to that of San Francisco mayor, has issued a warning to city workers feeling particularly enthusiastic about his or anyone else ... More >>

George Lopez Hosting Kamala Harris Cocktail Soiree -- You Can Still Make It!

We laughed. We cried...​For Attorney General candidate Kamala Harris, it's either up, up, up, or down, down, down. She spent much of this summer suffering the slings and arrows of her spectacular mishandling of the city's crime lab drug scandal. After attempting to nail Republican rival Steve Cool ... More >>

District Attorney Kamala Harris Makes Oprah's 2010 'O Power List'

Big guns are backing Kamala Harris​District Attorney Kamala Harris is nothing if not resilient in her campaign to be elected California's next attorney general. Just when she's getting slammed in the press for hypocritically holding on to a convicted felon's campaign donations, Harris' campaign re ... More >>

Kamala Harris Kept Felon's Donation While Insisting Opponent Return Tainted Funds

Don't worry Kamala. Tyra still loves you. ​While attorney general candidate Kamala Harris spent the past three weeks denouncing her opponent Steve Cooley for accepting tainted campaign donations, it turns out her campaign kitty contained $1,250 from ex-Democratic moneyman Norman Hsu -- now serving ... More >>

Steve Cooley's Potential Finance Scandal Ignites Kamala Harris Press Storm

Steve Cooley is accused of taking funny money from not-so-funny people​San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has wasted no time jumping on a report by our sister paper, LA Weekly, accusing her opponent in the state Attorney General's race of hypocrisy. The article, which ran yesterday, not ... More >>

Chelsea's Law Threatens To Force San Francisco Sex Offenders Into Homelessness For Life

Living like this for 10 years?​Republican Attorney General Candidate Steve Cooley is drawing heat from Kamala Harris' attorney general campaign for remarking that "You know what gets an initiative passed in California? Name it after a female ... Jessica's Law, stuff like that." Call that a sexist ... More >>

Union Boss: 'No Way' Kamala Harris Gets Cops' Endorsement for Attorney General

Tyra Banks is supporting Kamala Harris. The city's cops are not. ​California Watch has a good story up today on the role the state's influential police unions will play in deciding the attorney general's race between Kamala Harris and Steve Cooley. As reporter Timothy Sandoval notes, San Francisco ... More >>

Kamala Harris Attack Ad: Steve Cooley a Sexist Coddler of Child Molesters

D.A. Kamala Harris​San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris today released an online ad targeting her Republican opponent in the race for state attorney general. The ad (view after the jump) assails Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, in so many words, as a sexist coddler of child mol ... More >>

Big Day in Court for Candidate Harris

This is what a sexy prosecutor candidate looks like​With her solid victory in last night's Democratic primary for the vaunted post of attorney general, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris proved that she can deflect accusations of being soft of crime. At least when they come from other D ... More >>

Election 2010 Results: Demon Sheep, Gavin Newsom, Open Primaries Triumph

Meg Whitman never liked voting, but plenty of Californians voted for her​Results are starting to roll in from today's voting on ballot initiatives and primaries for statewide office. Wanna know the latest, greatest bad decisions California's electorate has chosen to impose upon itself? SF Weekly h ... More >>

Demon Sheep Makes Encore In Another Absurd Republican Campaign Ad

And this time, the demon sheep breathes fire. There's also circus music involved in this asinine ad launched today by the Tom Harman for Attorney General 2010 campaign entitled,  "Steve Cooley is a Loser." Clearly, Harman's a real class act.The context, for those who don't feel like wasting t ... More >>

Hit Pieces: Demon Sheep, Candidate Inc., Gavin Newsom & Bill O'Reilly Smitten

Quick political bytes from the week that went down easy. Carly Fiorina's bizarre attack ad against her Republican primary opponent for senate, Tom Campbell: An evil furry dressed like a sheep who wants to raise your taxes. This video has gone totally viral. People are e-mailing it around and t ... More >>

Speier Not Running for AG, Horde of Upwardly Mobile Pols Staying Put

Rep. Jackie Speier, seen here with Stephen Colbert, will continue her ride in Washington, D.C. ​Rep. Jackie Speier's newly minted spokesman Nathan Ballard just informed the world that his boss will not be leaving Congress to run for state Attorney General. Congressional seats rarely open -- especi ... More >>

Chronic City: L.A. District Attorney Says City Councils Have 'No Authority' Over Medical Pot

Los Angeles County District Attorney's OfficeD.A. Steve Cooley (left) and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich: They'll keep busting dispensaries no matter what the City Council says!​It was a petulant fit of pique, certainly entertaining, and potentially hilarious -- if safe access for so many medical ... More >>

Chronic City: L.A.'s Marijuana Dispensary Ban Could Cost City Millions

Los Angeles' proposed medical marijuana ordinance -- which would ban the sale of pot at dispensaries -- could cost the city $36 million to $74 million in lost sales tax, according to a marijuana advocacy group.Photo by lavocado, Wikimedia CommonsOpen for business on L.A.'s Ventura Boulevard... but f ... More >>

Chronic City: 77 Percent Of L.A. Residents Favor Dispensaries; Majority of West Coasters Want To Legalize Pot

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley may have believed he was safely playing to the grandstands when he promised to shut down all of L.A.'s estimated 800 to 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries, magnanimously declaring that "approximately zero" of the dispensaries were operating legally ... More >>

Chronic City: Feds Lighten Up On Medical Marijuana Just As L.A. Tightens The Screws

Photo by Rotbuche, Wikimedia CommonsLet my people grow.​In a stunning bit of role reversal, law enforcement officials in dispensary-heavy Los Angeles County are gearing up for a massive mobilization against hundreds of pot shops even while the Obama administration backs away from the federal gover ... More >>

Zipped Up

S.F. Archbishop William Levada doesn't want the public to know about decades of alleged sexual misconduct by his clerics. But why are district attorneys in San Mateo, Marin, and San Francisco helping him keep secrets?

Prosecutors' Patience Wears Thin With Levada, Mahony

Nailed?

Lawyers for hundreds of sex-abuse victims have California's Catholic dioceses in a dire financial bind. Can church leaders finagle an escape, or are they ...

The Dilemma of Sara Jane Olson

With an October trial in the offing, prosecutors had every intention of proving that Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson was a domestic terrorist who helped plant bombs under police cars 26 years ago.