Posts Tagged ‘City Hall’
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
City Attorney Dennis J. Herrera can’t abide companies that don’t prove their claims. So today he’s going after Intelligender LLC because of its “in-home fetal gender prediction product“ that you can get at Walgreens. For the record:
“IntelliGender, the Plano, Texas, creator of the “Boy or Girl Gender Prediction Test,” says scientists isolated certain hormones that when combined with a “proprietary mix of chemicals” react differently if a woman is carrying a boy or a girl. It claims that within 10 minutes of taking the urine test, a woman will be able to tell her baby’s gender. The specimen will turn green if it’s a boy, and orange if it’s a girl.”
The question is about accuracy, primarily.
San Francisco’s Happy Warrior:
As always, follow the action on the Twitter.
Herrera demands proof of accuracy, safety claims by IntelliGender in-home test
City Attorney invokes authority under Unfair Competition Law in seeking evidence for marketing claims by gender prediction test sold in S.F.
SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2010) — City Attorney Dennis Herrera today invoked his legal authority under California’s Unfair Competition Law to demand substantiation for advertising claims by Intelligender LLC that its in-home fetal gender prediction product, which is sold and marketed in San Francisco, is “totally safe” and over 90 percent accurate.
“California law empowers public sector attorneys to seek proof for marketing claims for products sold to the consumers they’re responsible to protect,” said Herrera. “Intelligender is a product that came to our attention in which some of the advertised claims are dubious, and for which supporting evidence is notably unavailable to potential customers. Women and families interested in purchasing products like this are entitled to see the evidence that will enable them to be better informed consumers.”
According to Herrera’s letter to the Plano, Tex.-based manufacturer:
“The IntelliGender Test purports to accurately identify the gender of a fetus as early as 10 weeks after pregnancy, and well before ultrasound confirmation of fetal gender is available to expectant mothers. However, according to online reviews of your product, it appears that your advertising claim that the IntelliGender Test is ‘over 90% accurate’ is questionable. Additionally, as your product packaging does not identify the contents of the IntelliGender Test, there are concerns about the safety and proper means of disposal of the Test.
“The San Francisco City Attorney hereby requests that you provide evidence of the facts supporting the advertising claims of IntelliGender listed below, pursuant to California Business and Professions Code §17508, which empowers city attorneys to request substantiation of purportedly fact-based advertising claims. For all claims listed below indicating that scientific methods were utilized, please include full reports of experiments, methods, results, and outcomes, in addition to the CVs and biographies of the clinicians retained to perform these trials and tests.”
Herrera asked that Intelligender provide documentation responsive to his request by the end of the month, noting that we would consider seeking “an immediate termination or modification of the claim,” as state law provides, if the information were not forthcoming.
All the deets after the jump.
(more…)
Tags: 17508, 3105 New Britton, accuracy, attorneys, boy, Business and Professions Code, california, city attorney, City Hall, dennis herrera, dennis j herrera, dr., drive, Evidence, gender, girl, home, in home, inelligender, Intelli Gender, kit, law, LLC, plano, prediction, pregnancy, product, proof, public sector, Rebecca Griffin, reports, San Francisco, sex, stick, test, testing, texas, twins, tx, ultrasound, Unfair Competition, walgreens
Posted in law | No Comments »
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
This was the scene at Geary and Steiner in the Western Addition / Japantown area today as hundreds gathered to see the debut of the new Hamilton Recreation Center and Pool. This place has it all – basketball, tennis courts, giant murals, the works.
Click to expand
After hearing a performance from students at the Willie L. Brown, Jr. College Preparatory Academy…
…and some brief heckling from Giants Cap, who wants laid-off RPD employees rehired…
…out comes Ross Mirkarimi, your District 5 Supervisor, to give his stemwinder, as seen on this CNN iReport (entitled “‘Bay Area Girls’” Teanage Girls perform [Pat Benatar's 'I love Rock and Roll'] at the Inaugural of the Hamilton Recreation Center”) and then cut the ribbon:
The mise-en-scene inside - it’s like a mini water park. Throw in an orca or two and then there’d be no reason to travel to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (aka Marine World) in Vallejo:
But who’s that atop the ladder for the yellow slide wearing his street clothes? It’s Ross!
Here he comes down the slide…
…and here’s the aftermath, looked like fun. Bill Wilson should have some good shots of the wettened supe. [Like this.]
OTOH, the orange slide is terrifying, apparently:
(I think you’re supposed to cross your arms like you’re an ejecting pilot – that’s what some people were doing in the orange tube/slide contraption.)
Not sure how much it costs to employ six(!) lifeguards (that would seem a lot more than required at slide-free Sava Pool in the Parkside) but oh well.
Bon courage, Ham Rec!
Tags: (415), 1900, 2010, 5, 6, 6th, b ball, band, basketball, bay area girls, blvd., board of supervisors, boulevard, center, City Hall, courts, cut, debut, department, dept., district, district 5, expressway, fillmore, five, geary, gym water, ham rec, hamilton, hamilton rec, i love rock and roll, japantown, kick off, kickoff, life guards, lifeguards, march, Mirkarimi, mural, opening, orange, park and recreation, parks and recreation, pat benatar, playground, pool, post, recreation, recreation and park, Recreation and Park Department, ribbon, ribbon cutting, ross, ross mirkarimi, rpd, San Francisco, scott, SF, slides, splash, steiner, street, Supervisor, swim, swimming, swimsuit, tennis, waterslides, western addition, wet, yellow
Posted in parks | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 5th, 2010
That’s the news of last night from City Hall. Get up to speed on the issues here.
The next step is to see what happens at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. (How much lobbying do you get when you spend five figures on a lobbyist? We’ll soon see.)
This speaker was no fan of the new fees at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Certainly, he was outnumbered last night:
What if the fees get approved and things don’t work out? Then down will come the pay kiosks and then other options, possibly a ”tasteful sponsorship” (such as the “Chuck Schwab Co. Australia Garden*” or something) could generate a little money.
We’ll Find Out Soon Enough.
*Words from a Commissioner last night, they didn’t make the transcript.
Tags: 16, 2009, 2010, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, beverage, Bill Gaede, board, board of supervisors, botanical, botanical garden, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, City Hall, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, directors, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, Family, fee, food, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, jared blumenfeld, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, save, secretary, Society, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, suggested, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, vendor, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in parks | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
[UPDATE: Let's see here, you can discover what some local celebrities think about this idea here at Manatease's YouTube Channel and, well, here's an uncredited single-panel comic on the subject discovered by LocalColorist, see comment.]
This was the scene the other day near Golden Gate Park’s Strybing Arboretum, aka San Francisco Botanical Garden. These protesters were politely picketing San Francisco’s semi-public, semi-photo-op Budget Town Hall at the County Fair Building when an elected official walked up and asked, “What kind of protest is this?”
Indeed. These picketers, called the “Society people” by their opponents, support the idea of charging non-residents $7 to get into Strybing. Why? So there’s enough money around such that three Strybing-dedicated gardeners won’t get laid off during our Great Recession.
This gaggle of self-described “plant people” certainly are timely, as the Board of the Recreation and Park Department (RPD) will decide this auslander admission issue on Thursday, March 4th at City Hall. The question after that would be how the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will react.
Now, unlike last year, RPD isn’t having any big meetings to air out public concerns, probably because RPD knows how they would go – 250 San Franciscans would show up and the bulk of them would be strongly opposed to the charging of any fee to any one at any time.
AFAIK, the 2010 plan is similar to the more recent of the two 2009 plans in that only people who reside outside of the City and County of San Francisco would be charged. The Big Question is how many nonresidents would show up to pony up some cash and how much the program would cost to implement. After this program is up and running, the Next Obvious Step would be to charge San Francisco residents as well. Would that next step come in a matter of weeks, months, or years? There are no promises from anyone on that score.
The Save the Botanical Garden people are saying that not charging $7 would amount to ”depriving community residents of a tranquil place to visit.” Does Strybing need to become a “world class arboretum” in order to remain a “tranquil place” to visit? It would be easy to argue with the Society on this point.
Now, let’s have a go at the official FAQ:
“Isn’t a non-resident fee the first step toward a fee for everyone?”
The answer is yes. Hells yes, obviously.
“Isn’t the fee taking the Botanical Garden a step closer to privatization?”
No. This is a red herring, from the Sierra Club, for one, I think.
“Won’t setting up the booths to collect the fee and bringing in new workers just cost more than you’ll collect? Won’t setting up the booths to collect the fee and bringing in new workers just cost more than you’ll collect?”
Almost certainly not. The older “Cadillac Plan” of spending vast sums on infrastructure to enable the charging of fees might have had that risk, but there’s no reason that a well-run program, particularly one that makes the use of volunteers, wouldn’t net at least a little money.
“Why doesn’t the SF Botanical Garden Society just do more?”
Good question. The Garden Society, and they’re by no means alone on this, want to spend Other People’s Money on their pet projects. Some of them figure that Strybing needs 16 dedicated gardeners to become “world-class” and that they’ll never ever get the funding for that many from the City of San Francisco, recession or no recession.
Here’s the thing – “saving the botanical garden” will have the effect of excluding hundreds of thousands of people from Strybing. If you are a “plant person” then this is a small price to pay. And actually, plant people might even prefer to keep out the riff-raff. So, charging admission is a double win – more plants and fewer people.
If you’re a people person, you might prefer the “Keep the Arboretum Free” point of view. I guarantee you that the average person motivated enough to attend the public meetings last year would strongly favor having fewer gardeners around if maintaining the current crew meant throwing up a pay wall by installing checkpoints Charlie.
We’ll see how it goes.
Now, was this a grass roots movement in front of the Budget Town Hall? You know, this group of Society people and the P.R. volk with their identical signs and their unsigned petitions
You Make The Call.
Tags: 2009, 2010, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, beverage, Bill Gaede, board, board of supervisors, botanical, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, City Hall, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, directors, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, fee, food, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, jared blumenfeld, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, save, secretary, Society, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, suggested, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, vendor, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in parks | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Our San Francisco Ballet has just announced the new schedule for its LGBT-friendly Nite Out performance/reception package: Program 2, The Little Mermaid (aka Program 5), and Program 7.
Check out all three right here.
The debut of The Little Mermaid will be featured next month:
See you there!
Post-Ballet Receptions for the LGBT* Community
Single tickets now available!
Experience a ballet company as diverse as our community. San Francisco Ballet invites the LGBT* community to its 2010 Nite Out series featuring three dynamic evenings of world-class dance and an exclusive post-performance party.
Each Evening in the Nite Out Package includes a full evening’s entertainment
- Meet the Artist Interview – 7pm
Deepen your appreciation and knowledge of dance! Learn about the choreographers, dancers, or visiting artists in these salon-style interviews.
-
Performance – 8pm
Friday,
February 12 -
Program 2 - Robbins’
Opus 19/The Dreamer,
Wheeldon World Premiere, Taylor’s
Company BFriday,
April 9 -
Program 7 - Wheeldon’s
Rush,
Possokhov World Premiere, Robbins’
The Concert
- Reception – 10:30pm to Midnight
Mingle with new friends and SF Ballet dancers at an exclusive hosted cocktail party with wines by Gallo, cocktails featuring Swan’s Neck Vodka, and light hors d’oeuvres. Plus enjoy great music, ambiance, and views of City Hall from the Dress Circle Foyer. Plus, new this season, have the chance to win fabulous prizes from HUGO BOSS, boon hotel + spa, and more at each event.
Series Pricing
The Nite Out Package is a great value with prices starting at just $40 per performance! Individual tickets including the reception start at just $45.
How to Order:
Online
To purchase the Nite Out 3-performance package,
click here.
To purchase individual tickets,
log in and enter promo code
niteout.
By Phone
Call 415.865.2000, Monday–Friday, 10am–4pm and mention Nite Out.
Don’t miss the rest of our exciting season!
For the most savings and benefits, including flexible ticket exchange, you can also add the Nite Out 3-performance receptions to a 5- or 8- Principal Series Package for just $60. Purchase a Series D or Series N Friday evening subscription, then add the Nite Out Reception Package to your shopping cart from the
subscriptions page.
* Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender
Tags: Ballet, blgt, boon hotel + spa, City Hall, cocktail, Company B, concert, Dress Circle, Foyer, gallo, Gay, grove, hors d’oeuvres, HUGO BOSS, Lesbian, LGBT, lgbtq, Little Mermaid, night out, nite out, Opus 19/The Dreamer, party, Possokhov, prizes, Program 2, Program 7, queer, reception, rush, San Francisco, Swan’s Neck, van ness, vodka, Wheeldon, World Premiere
Posted in Ballet | No Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
[UPDATE: Joshua Sabatini has an update - the next committee hearing will be on February 22, 2010.]
Your San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar wants to expand Article 19F of the San Francisco Public Health Code – you know, the one from 1994 that prohibits smoking in enclosed areas and sports stadiums.
Check out the current rules after the jump, but don’t get used to them as they could be changing soon. This afternoon’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors Committee on Land Use & Economic Development could lead to some changes.
A graphic from this afternoon’s rally – secondhand smoke levels from outdoor dining areas at two unnamed cafes in North Beach are considered dangerous by the EPA:
80 souls were there before the committee meeting began:
Eric Mar and supporters enjoying a healthy smoke-free ride in the Richmond District back in 2008:
Brace yourselves:
COMMUNITY RALLY TO SUPPORT EXPANDING PROTECTIONS FROM SECOND HAND SMOKE
Rally & Press Conference Before the Board of Supervisors Committee
Hearing on Ordinance that Closes the Gaps in Public Health Code
Polk Street City Hall Steps
Monday, February 1 at 12:00 noon
WHAT: A rally and press conference to support an ordinance that will
expand protection from second hand smoke by closing gaps in the
San Francisco Public Health Code. San Francisco is poised to
join 18 other Bay Area cities in offering protection from
second hand smoke by prohibiting smoking in many outdoor areas
such as farmers markets, outdoor dining areas, theater and ATM
lines, hotel and motel lobby areas, and other places frequented
by members of the public. The rally will convene just before
the meeting of the Board of Supervisors Committee on Land Use &
Economic Development, which will hear the proposed legislation
for the first time.
WHO: A large crowd of community members including families, tenants,
tenant advocates, members of the Chinese Progressive
Association and San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition;
Supervisor Eric Mar, Supervisor John Avalos, Jul Lynn Parsons
(Co-Chair of Mayor’s Disability Council), Carol McGruder
(Tobacco Free Coalition member); Alex Tom (Tobacco Free
Coalition; Chinese Progressive Association) and others.
BACKGROUND:
The proposed ordinance would update Article 19F of the San Francisco Health Code, the landmark legislation adopted in 1994 that protects residents and visitors from second hand smoke. If approved by the Board of Supervisors and signed by the Mayor, San Francisco would join a long list of other Bay Area cities that have already expanded protection from second hand smoke for their residents to include many outdoor areas.
(more…)
Tags: 1, 1994, 19f, Alex Tom, areas, Article, Article 19F, association, bars, board, Carol McGruder, chinese, Chinese Progressive, Chinese Progressive Association, Cigarettes, City Hall, civic center, Co-Chair, coalition, district, enclosed, enclosed areas, eric mar, john avalos, Jul Lynn Parsons, Mayor’s Disability Council, one, Protections, protest, Public Health Code, rally, richmond, San Francisco, San Francisco Public Health Code, San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition, Second-Hand, smoke, smoking, sports, sports stadiums, stadiums, steps, Supervisor, Tobacco Free, Tobacco Free Coalition
Posted in government, health | No Comments »
Friday, January 29th, 2010
This was the scene today in Civic Center, where hundreds of Coptic Christians rallied for religious freedom and an end to the recent violence in Egypt.
Details at 40 Going On 28.
Tags: 2010, 29, 29th, christians, christmas, City Hall, civic center, coffins, copt, coptic, egypt, egyptian, eve, freedom, funeral, january, mass, mid-east, Naj Hammadi, rally, religion, religious, San Francisco, violence
Posted in religion | 2 Comments »
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
I don’t know, it seems San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is a little hacked off these days because President Barack Obama didn’t want the two of them to be photographed together back in 2004, a time when Gavin was seen as uniquely emblematic of the marriage equality issue. Barack didn’t want photos of the two of them together on the Associated Press wire available for publication in every podunk newspaper all over the country – he didn’t want to deal with that issue.
All right, fair enough. But I can recall a time when Gavin himself was hacked off over a certain photograph depicting marriage equality being on the AP wire.
Leave us travel back to aught-four, when gay weddings were going on all over City Hall. At the time, some folks from Room 200 were very sensitive about the idea of the Mayor being photographed or filmed while he himself was officiating weddings. For whatever reason.
So when he agreed, as a courtesy, to officiate the wedding of a couple of blondes in his elegant office*, the press was emphatically banned despite the fact that they (quite reasonably) felt that they were invited to the ceremony. The media were forced to bide their time waiting just outside the Mayor’s Office.
And this was the scene of the scrum in the hallway afterwards. You might find Waldo in there, but not Gavin:
But look, here he is officiating the ceremony just five minutes before:
This particular photo was processed, emailed, released to the AP, and published in podunk newspapers within hours, to the consequent consternation of the mayor’s people. It seems perfectly cromulent now but, at the time, this kind of scene was seen by some as Too Hot For Publication.
Of course that certainly was a bold move Gavin made in 2004, no doubt about it. I’ll tell you, back in the 1990’s I took a course from a local professor who, in 2003, strongly supported and volunteered for Gavin’s brainy opponent in that year’s mayoral election. But soon thereafter, said professor’s opinion of Mayor Newsom did a 180 solely because of the marriage equality issue - the prof. would go on and on about how much he appreciated Gavin’s actions, and later on, he actually supported Gavin’s reelection (along with the good bulk of everybody else) in 2007.
So nobody doubts the mayor of San Francisco really stuck his neck out on this issue back in the day. But students of history should be foregiven if they can’t square their memories of 2004 100% with what’s being said in 2010.
Just saying.
*Hello, Maureen’s fact-checkers in New Yawk? Starting up a “boutique wine shop in Napa Valley” makes about as much sense as opening a coal shop in Newcastle. How about a Napa Valley wine shop in San Francisco – that would be a lot closer to the mark. Just saying.
Tags: 2004, 2010, Barack Obama, City Hall, equality, gavin newsom, Gay, GLBT, Lesbian, LGBT, marriage, Mayor, media, Photograph, San Francisco, weddings
Posted in Gay, politics | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Market Street Railway President President Rick Laubscher has some thoughts this morning about MUNI’s proposal to raise the cash fare for the F-Market historic streetcar line.
Will the F-Line turn into another fiasco like we just had with the $7 CultureBus 74X? And how will MUNI leader Nat Ford manage to get by making an annual salary that’s merely $308,000 more per year than our Governor’s?
We should get some answers today at City Hall. Stay tuned.
Here are Rick’s Eight Points:
1. The F-line is a core Muni service and should be treated as such.
2. Muni should collect the fares it’s already charging.
3. The F-line is cost-effective at its current fares.
4. Staff’s revenue assumptions from the fare increase are dubious
5. Different fares at the same Muni stops will slow down operations.
6. “Let ‘em buy a Fast Pass” is not an acceptable response.
7. Exceptionally high fares on the F-line hurt the city’s economic vitality.
8. Muni wants to penalize a line that “people want.”
And here’s Rick missive to MUNI riders:
$5 for an F-line Ride? An Open Letter to Nat Ford January 19, 2010 by Rick Laubscher, Market Street Railway
On behalf of Market Street Railway, I have sent the email excerpted below to SFMTA Executive Director/CEO Nathaniel P. Ford, Sr. All are welcome to borrow and elaborate on any of these arguments in your own communications with decision-makers on this matter.
Remember, the SFMTA Board gives initial considerations to its staff’s 2010 budget recommendations, including the proposal to raise F-line fares from $2 to $5, Tuesday, January 19 at 2 p.m., Room 400, City Hall.
You can reach Mr. Ford at 415-701-4720 or by email here. You can register your opinion with the SFMTA Board members by emailing this address. You can also reach Mayor Newsom at 415-554-6141 or by email here. Your opinion counts.
Read the whole thing, after the jump.
Tags: 2, 2010, 5, budget, bus, City Hall, civic center, cultureBus, CultureBus II, F, f market, fare, historic, increase, Line, market, market street railway, mta, Muni, nat ford, proposal, SFMTA, streetcar, trolley
Posted in transit | No Comments »
