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Thursday, March 10, 2016
Breaking News / Law & Order Jury: SF Cops Who Shot, Killed Alex Nieto Did Not Use Excessive Force
Posted By Chris Roberts on Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 2:35 PM
The San Francisco police officers who shot and killed Alejandro "Alex" Nieto at Bernal Hill Park in March 2014 did not use excessive force, a federal jury ruled Thursday.
Nieto, 28, a city native and a security guard at an area nightclub, was approached by a rookie police officer and his training sergeant responding to a 911 call reporting a man with a gun on March 21, 2014.
After a brief encounter, in which Nieto was told to put up his hands but pulled out a Taser, police opened fire. As many as 50 shots were fired, and Nieto was shot at least 15 times.
The jury reached their verdict in a civil trial following a lawsuit brought by Nieto's family, who argued that his civil rights were violated via the use of unconstitutional excessive force. In federal civil cases, juries' verdicts must be unanimous.
Sexytime James Deen's Porn Company Fined For Not Using Condoms
Posted By Chris Roberts on Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 1:30 PM
The adult film company of James Deen — the porn star ex of Kink.com fame, let loose from the Mission District fetish empire's stable of studs last year after allegations of rape from his former partner and other co-stars — has been slapped with a hefty fine for disobeying state safety regulations.
That is: Third Rock Enterprises, Deen's company, faces fines of up to $77,785 for not using condoms on set, according to TheWrap.
You may recall the efforts of the Aids Healthcare Foundation to put California's porn performers in all kinds of protective clothing: dental dams, goggles, gloves, and other latex layers that, porn stars say, are unnecessary and would drive the adult film business to other wilder states in the west.
Recently, Cal/OSHA's board voted against requiring that kind of gear, but the same agency also found that Deen's company "failed" to vaccinate employees properly, according to reports.
That is: Third Rock Enterprises, Deen's company, faces fines of up to $77,785 for not using condoms on set, according to TheWrap.
You may recall the efforts of the Aids Healthcare Foundation to put California's porn performers in all kinds of protective clothing: dental dams, goggles, gloves, and other latex layers that, porn stars say, are unnecessary and would drive the adult film business to other wilder states in the west.
Recently, Cal/OSHA's board voted against requiring that kind of gear, but the same agency also found that Deen's company "failed" to vaccinate employees properly, according to reports.
Only in SF / Tech Millennial Problems: When Your Boss is Mindful of Your Needs
Posted By Max DeNike on Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 12:30 PM
It’s not easy to find an employer who “gets” you. Most bosses are working for the company employing you and the boss, and that means the company comes first. But what’s good for the company is not always good for the employee. For millennials, this is hard to take.
Americans work hard. If you’re an American and you have a job, you know how hard you work. And if you don’t, check out this handy chart showing exactly how much you work. The 40-hour job has become the 50-hour job. If you don’t work 50 or more hours in a week, there’s something wrong with you. Especially if you’re a tech professional.
Thankfully, one boss gets it. Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, believes his employees work too much, and this stifles innovation — that all important cornerstone of any successful disrupter.
Yesterday's Crimes Yesterday's Crimes: The Night Stalker Comes To San Francisco
Posted By Bob Calhoun on Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 11:55 AM
By mid-August 1985, Richard Ramirez had murdered 14 people and raped several others in the Los Angeles suburbs. (A first victim, 9-year-old Mei Lung, found murdered and raped in the basement of a Tenderloin hotel in 1984, was connected to him decades later.)
Since the beginning of his reign of terror the year before, the then-unidentified serial killer collected nicknames the way he did victims. The press and police referred to him as "The Valley Intruder" or "The Walk-In Killer," but none of his aliases inflamed the public imagination until he took a trip to San Francisco and became the Night Stalker.
Ramirez had murdered four people and attacked four others in July 1985. He started off August by attacking a couple in Northridge on August 6. He then killed Elyas Abowath, 31, and repeatedly sodomized Sakina Abowath, 27, in the couples' Diamond Bar home two days later. Fearing that the Southern California media had raised too much awareness of him, Ramirez struck north in search of new hunting grounds.
Sometime after August 8, Ramirez checked into the Bristol Hotel on Hyde Street in the Tenderloin.
"The people we get here I would call third-class types," Bristol Hotel manager Alex Melnikov told the San Francisco Chronicle in 1985. "About 70 percent are on dope. I don't ask a lot of questions."
Ramirez left his room smelling like skunk and drew a pentagram on the bathroom door that police later removed as evidence.
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Law & Order "Shot on Keith Street": Remixed iPhone Ads Featuring Mario Woods Pop Up in SF
Posted By Max DeNike on Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 11:32 AM
Last March, Apple blanketed San Francisco with ads touting the quality of the camera in its then relatively new iPhone 6. Responding to the National Geographic-worthy billboard-sized nature art, some enterprising city dwellers took to the streets to show off another, more realistic side of smartphone art.
That little bit of guerrilla advertising was hilarious and likely would make City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s civic-minded blood boil. But we’re guessing Herrera and other City Hall elites might let slide a new “vandalism” campaign featuring the likes of Mario Woods, who was killed by police in the Bayview late last year.
Popping up on Twitter and Instagram in the past day is a fake iPhone camera ad featuring a photo of Woods with the tagline “Shot on Keith St.” In smaller letters next to that, it says, “by San Francisco Police Mario Woods / 21 times.”
Only in SF / WTF? Fact: San Francisco Has Oil Wells, Makes Money from Drilling
Posted By Chris Roberts on Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 10:46 AM
You think you know a city. San Francisco, the "greenest city" in America, that bastion of environmentalism where elected officials openly call for an end to the use of fossil fuels, is in the oil business on the side.
The San Francisco Examiner brings us the news that the city has owned 800 acres of land in Kern County near Bakersfield since 1941, when a local businessman willed the land to the city as a gift.
The land is currently leased to Chevron, who pays the city about $320,000 a year for the right to drill, the newspaper reported. Supervisor John Avalos, who has minted himself as the most reliable critic of the nation's addiction to fossil fuels, has introduced legislation that would end the drilling. Problem is, that would also end a revenue stream to the
city's parks and libraries.
The San Francisco Examiner brings us the news that the city has owned 800 acres of land in Kern County near Bakersfield since 1941, when a local businessman willed the land to the city as a gift.
The land is currently leased to Chevron, who pays the city about $320,000 a year for the right to drill, the newspaper reported. Supervisor John Avalos, who has minted himself as the most reliable critic of the nation's addiction to fossil fuels, has introduced legislation that would end the drilling. Problem is, that would also end a revenue stream to the
city's parks and libraries.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Housing Massive Ellis Act Eviction, Possibly City's Biggest-Ever, at Mid-Market Lofts
Posted By Chris Roberts on Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 11:59 AM
The saga of 1049 Market Street — affordable live-work lofts populated by artists, photographers, and musicians near Civic Center — just took another turn, after the landlord there filed what activists say is the biggest Ellis Act eviction in the city's history to get the remaining tenants out.
Since the fall of 2013, an ownership group led by San Mateo County resident John Gall, a Stanford grad and former pro baseball player, has been trying to remove residential tenants from some of the 84 units at 1049 Market Street, a former commercial building that at some point, possibly in the wild bygone days of the 1990s, was converted — illegally — to residential use.
Gall has said that returning the building to its legal purpose of commercial use and converting the lofts to offices is the only way his investors' financials work out.
Now it appears he's taking the nuclear option, using the Ellis Act — a state law that allows a landlord to empty a building in order to "go out of business" and then sell it, albeit with restrictions — to get the tenants out, according to housing activists, who are planning a rally at the building for later today.
Economy / Housing Supervisor: Homelessness is in "State of Emergency" in SF
Posted By Max DeNike on Tue, Mar 8, 2016 at 11:01 AM
Supervisor David Campos says homelessness in San Francisco has reached a state of emergency. He is blaming Mayor Ed Lee for not doing enough to alleviate the problem, while calling on his colleagues on the board to take immediate action to help those living on the streets.
Declaring a state of emergency — the kind of proclamation usually reserved for the aftermath of a natural disaster — would be unique for addressing homelessness. It would cut out much of the red tape that slows government-led projects. In Campos’ mind, it would mean the city could immediately build more of the popular Navigation Centers on municipal property.
Campos’ move could create controversy for several reasons, not the least of which is the plan to build a shelter for alcoholics and one for intravenous drug users. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported, people would be able to drink and safely inject drugs at the respective sites.
Monday, March 7, 2016
Uh-oh / WTF? "You Raped My Wallet" and People Named "Rape": Uber's Bizarre Defense of Rape Allegations
Posted By Chris Roberts on Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 2:32 PM
Over the weekend, BuzzFeed News published screenshots purported to be from the desktop computers of Uber customer service representatives, showing what appear to be 11,000 customer service requests alleging rape or sexual assault from Uber passengers and drivers.
This bombshell was paired with another report that outlined how the company had replaced U.S.-based customer service representatives (all contractors, of course) from U.S.-based "Centers of Excellence" — Uber's terminology — to cheaper contract labor based overseas.
Uber immediately dismissed the numbers and offered its own. There were only five complaints of rape between 2012 and 2015, and 170 "legitimate" complaints of sexual assault over that same time frame, according to the company. The reason for the vast discrepancy? People named Rape, people with the word "Rape" in their name (Like Don Draper, the company says) and people saying stuff like, "you raped my wallet."
BuzzFeed's screenshots purport to show 5,827 customer service tickets complaining of "rape," and over 6,100 tickets complaining of sexual assault. It was not immediately clear what time frame is covered.uber has a pretty… jarring explanation for the number of sexual assaults in ubers https://t.co/lmmuSdAf6T pic.twitter.com/XofrjXDg4f
— noah kulwin (@nkulw) March 6, 2016
Uber declined to allow a BuzzFeed reporter to sit with an Uber customer service representative to check the screenshots' veracity, citing privacy concerns, but insisted on five rape reports and 170 sexual assault reports over a three-year period.
Politics Ed Lee Gives S.F. Mayoral Kiss of Death to Hillary Clinton
Posted By Chris Roberts on Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 7:00 AM
Over the weekend, as our friends at SFist noted, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee appeared at a campaign rally in his native Washington state ahead of the March 26 Democratic Primary there.
Ed's choice: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a friend-of-tech who of late has been a fixture in California, appearing at tony homes in the Peninsula for fundraisers (the Hillster graced Atherton on Feb. 21; her husband, cigar aficionado Billster, popped into Hillsborough earlier in the year.)
Ed's not feeling the Bern, and neither are his powerful friends: Hillary's the choice of every big-time local elected Democrat, including Lee's mayoral predecessors Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Willie Brown, Jr., and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (the latter of whom was ready for Hillary way back in 2013).
But, as past results have shown, this might not be an endorsement Hillary wants. When he was mayor, Gavin also endorsed Hillary — and how'd that turn out?
Popular Stories
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Millennial Problems: When Your Boss is Mindful of Your Needs 2
@ 12:30 PM On Thu, March 10 -
Massive Ellis Act Eviction, Possibly City's Biggest-Ever, at Mid-Market Lofts 9
@ 11:59 AM On Tue, March 8 -
Yesterday's Crimes: The Night Stalker Comes To San Francisco 2
@ 11:55 AM On Thu, March 10 -
"Shot on Keith Street": Remixed iPhone Ads Featuring Mario Woods Pop Up in SF 2
@ 11:32 AM On Wed, March 9 -
James Deen's Porn Company Fined For Not Using Condoms 3
@ 1:30 PM On Thu, March 10
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