U.S. Attorney's Office

Medical Cannabis Advocates to Rally in Statewide Protest Against the Feds

Medical cannabis supporters will rally in front of the San Francisco Federal Building at noon today, joining Sacramento and Los Angeles to protest the feds' nonstop stonewalling of California medical marijuana laws. Rally organizers are urging protesters to contact California Attorney General Kamal ... More >>

Gilbert Lam, Department of Homeland Security Employee, Arrested on Kiddie Porn Charges

A San Francisco man employed by the federal Department of Homeland Security was arrested and charged with two felonies for possessing and distributing child pornography, police said. Gilbert Lam, 37, was arrested at his San Francisco home on March 9 and has since been charged in San Francisco Super ... More >>

William J. Wise, Mastermind of Massive Ponzi Scheme, Pleads Guilty

William J. Wise admitted in court that he operated a massive 10-year scheme to defraud some 1,200 investors by selling fake Certificates of Deposit, federal prosecutors said today.The CDs were issued by three different entities -- Millennium Bank, United Trust of Switzerland and Sterling Bank and T ... More >>

Want to Open a Medical Marijuana Dispensary in S.F.? The DEA Is Onto You

We're no police theorist, but the goals of a law enforcement action are simple: to prevent, to intervene, or otherwise dissuade behavior deemed illegal.If this is the case, the federal Justice Department's crackdown on California's medical marijuana industry is only partway there; about a dozen Bay ... More >>

Former San Mateo County Employees Charged With Stealing From The Dead

"They're climbing in your windows, snatching your stuff up." Could those be lyrics riffing off the the hilarious Antoine Dodson YouTube hit, or a reference to an FBI investigation in San Mateo County? Actually, they're both. On Friday, FBI agents arrested Mandy Natchi Yagi, 54, and Peter Wong, 43, f ... More >>

California Congressmen Push Spending Cuts on Federal Marijuana Enforcement

Budget hawks incensed over San Francisco's supposedly profligate spending ought to spend a few minutes at Congress, observing the dollar requests submitted by federal departments.Take the $28.2 billion, 111,998-employee federal Department of Justice, for example. The country's 12,000 employees in Un ... More >>

Guillermo Herrera, MS-13 Gang Member, Gets Life in Prison

Life in prison probably won't do much to stop them ​Guillermo Herrera, better known as "Sparky," a San Francisco M-13 gang member, was sentenced today to life in prison for racketeering related charges. He is the last of six convicted MS-13 members to receive a life sentence. Herrera and his five ... More >>

Obama's Medical Marijuana Crackdown: Two S.F. Pot Clubs to Close

And Divinity Tree, and Green Door Sacramento, and maybe Medithrive​Lombard Street is in the city's oft-posh Marina District, but that stretch of US-101 that leads from the Golden Gate Bridge down through Van Ness Avenue includes seedy motels as well as high-end boutiques. It might have also contai ... More >>

Feds Renege on Plea Deal for State-Legal Medical Marijuana Providers

SF WeeklyScott Feil​Scott Feil wants to go to prison. And the United States wants to put him there. That, however, is where the common ground between Feil -- one of the state-legal medical marijuana providers the federal government is prosecuting -- and the Department of Justice ends.Three of the ... More >>

Oscar Grant Supporters Petition Department of Justice to Investigate BART

The fight continues​More than 500 people have signed a petition urging the United States Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to speed up its investigation of Oscar Grant's death at the Fruitvale BART station in 2009. Last year, before ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involu ... More >>

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

The Feds Bury Border Patrol Abuses of Immigrants, But What's Been Unearthed Reveals a Culture of Cruelty

Fantasy Voter Fraud

Paul Shin Devine, Apple Manager Accused of $1 Million Kickback Scheme: Here's the Civil Suit

The civil suit vs. alleged bad apple Paul Shin Devine is stuffed with damning allegations​Suit names Asian firms accused of conspiring with former Apple employee in kickback schemeYesterday we reported on the federal indictment of Paul Shin Devine, a former Apple global supply manager accused of m ... More >>

Feds' Case Against Bonds Evaporating

Feds Losing Their Heads​The quest to incarcerate home run champion Barry Lamar Bonds took a perhaps fatal twist on Friday, when a judge ruled that prosecutors cannot use key evidence in their case to prove the 45-year old slugger lied about using steroids.

S.F. Files Suit, Claims $1 Million Stolen From City Funds

​The city of San Francisco yesterday filed suit vs. a company called Rehab Financial Corporation that has contracted with the city for 20 years, claiming it stole $1 million in city funds set aside to assist low-income homeowners. In the suit, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera alleges Reh ... More >>

Local Pot Club Supplier Made Purported $200K a Year

Role models?​For readers thinking of a career change, here's toke for thought: If you become a supplier to local pot clubs, you can apparently make around $200,000 per year.According to a federal forfeiture complaint for more than $800,000 cash belonging to alleged pot club supplier Avery Badenhop ... More >>

THE SF Bay Guardian's SHAKEDOWN HITS A SNAG

Enter the Dragon Head

Raymond Chow says he's left his gangster days behind to help bring peace to Chinatown's streets. Is he for real?

Get Your Smokin’ Hot Electricity News!

All-in or Nothing

Rene Medina’s Colma casino brought life to a city of cemeteries. It also brought federal agents looking for corruption.

Invisible Man

Unlike the other U.S. attorneys fired by the Bushies, Kevin Ryan.

Earl’s Last Laugh

Exiled in retirement after Fajitagate, ex–Police Chief Earl Sanders has re-emerged with a fresh account of the infamous Zebra murders. And his critics are on the warpath.

Pay to Play

The son of a world—renowned chef says he wanted to reform the phone industry. The feds say he wanted to get rich quick.

Bounty Hunted

A man who pursued illegal immigrants for deportation found himself handcuffed by the feds and accused of impersonating a federal agent

Echoes of the Revolution

The struggle between Bay Area law enforcement and the Black Panthers is still going on after 35 years

Untouchable

Half of U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan's lawyers have quit. But as he remains bunkered against criticism, who's minding the shop?

Speaking of Phones...

Get Out of Jail Free

In the process of taking down the city's baddest gangsters, prosecutors and cops set some very scary people free.

Bait and Snitch

Lying under oath, threatening witnesses, revealing the names of federal agents -- it's just another day on the job for one of the DEA's paid drug informants

Little Fish, Big Fish

Memo to Ashcroft: Why aren't you pursuing Barry Bonds the way you did Martha Stewart?

Son of Super Swindler

The unsettling link between a group of firms that sell financial planning services to elderly Californians and one of the most notorious con men in U.S. history

The Fix Is In

At least that's what Janet Campbell claimed about construction bids at UCSF, where she soon found herself out of a job

A Vote of Competence

This is no time for softheaded governing. In this election, Prop. F and Dennis Herrera pass the confidence test; MUD fails completely.

Digital Wage

What a difference a year makes, to the country, and to the New Economy

A Sentence Without an Ending

The "used-car rabbi" gets probation instead of jail, but the question of what he did with millions of dollars in donations remains unanswered

The Great Minnow Hunt

Why did the U.S. Attorney's Office angle for fingerlings -- and apparently ignore trophy catches -- during its corruption investigation at the San Francisco Housing Authority?

Twice Burned

A Hong Kong mob's attempted takeover of Chinatown went up in flames when a gang arsonist snitched. Now Peter Chong, the mob's alleged U.S. leader, is in custody and feeling the heat.

Silicon Valley Shakedown

A con man feeds on fear and paranoia in the software business

Dog Bites

The Housing Authority's Dirty Dozen

Twelve convicted drug dealers and other major felons have recently been employed by the San Francisco Housing Authority. But are there even more criminals on the public payroll?

School of Scandal

U.S. alleges $3 million fraud at Oakland's Laney College; 400 "students" involved

Duck! You're in Wine Country

Why do police in bucolic Santa Rosa kill more citizens per capita than cops in crime-ridden cities like San Francisco and New York?

The DA's Svengali

Earlier this year, the District Attorney's Office was flirting with farce. Then Terence Hallinan called in David Millstein.

The War Womb (Part II)

For every direct action against an abortion clinic staged by Operation Rescue, expect an equal and opposite reaction by the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights.