Mayor Kirk Caldwell of Honolulu, Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco and Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington DC. Tell Sister City, Seoul, South Korea, That We’re Opposed to the Torture and Consumption of Dogs and Cats. Seoul became sister city with Honolulu in 1973, San Francisco in 1976, and Washington DC in 2006. Yet Seoul, South Korea is responsible for the horrendous dog and cat meat trade. In South Korea, the home of global companies such as Hyundai/Kia, Samsung, LG, Daewoo, SK, POSCO,…, an estimated 2 – 2.5 million dogs are tortured and slaughtered every year because of the greed of dog eaters and the dog meat industry. And one of the largest markets in South Korea that sells dogs dead and alive for meat is the infamous “Gyeongdong Market” in Seoul Metropolitan City. If you have ever wondered what a hell would be like, just take a visit or watch the videos on Gyeongdong Market. This place is a “Hell on Earth” with innocent man’s best friends in cages after cages waiting for the heartless customers to order them to be slaughtered on the spot by electrocution, hanging, beating,…and thrown into boiling water sometimes while they are still alive. Dogs are being killed in full view of other dogs terrified in cages, in public and in broad daylight. Thousands of dogs tortured all their lives in unimaginable misery and agony in dog farms around the country meet their tragic ends at this market. Also, many abandoned former pets end up in this market as meat giving shame to the human race. Based on a recent news article (South Korea’s dog meat clash http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/542514.html), there are 8 slaughterhouses around Cheongnyangri residential area near Gyeongdong market alone. There are laws in South Korea against selling dogs and cats for consumption yet these laws are blatantly ignored. Seoul Metropolitan City is indeed a “Heartless, Lawless World”! Please watch this undercover video by animal rights activists in South Korea:  http://youtu.be/3uR8R8Mu70Q ; Please inform Mayor Won-Soon Park that citizens of Honolulu, San Francisco and Washington DC and their friends insist that they issue an official document mandating that the following existing laws be enforced: Livestock Product Sanitary Control Act, Article 2, Item 1 which governs the raising, slaughter and disposal of livestock and the processing, distribution and inspection of livestock products, does not categorize dogs as livestock that can be processed as food.  Therefore this makes the dog meat industry technically illegal.  Food Sanitation Act, Article 7, Clause 1, Korean Food Standards Codex specified by the Food and Drug Administration, does not include dogs in the list of raw materials that can be processed and cooked as food, therefore making raising and slaughtering dogs for consumption illegal. Animal Protection Act: ARTICLE 3. BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR PROTECTION OF ANIMALS Each person shall endeavor to observe the following principles in raising, caring for, or protecting an animal: 1. Each person shall ensure that an animal maintains its natural behavior and original physical shape to live an ordinary life; 2. Each person shall ensure that an animal does not suffer from thirst, hunger, or malnutrition; Each person shall ensure that an animal is free to express normal behavior without experiencing discomfort; 4. Each person shall ensure that an animal is free from pain, injury, and disease; 5. Each person shall ensure that an animal is free from fear and distress. ARTICLE 8. PROHIBITION OF ANIMAL ABUSE ① No one shall commit the following acts toward animals: 1. Act of killing by brutal methods, such as hanging 2. Act of Killing in public or in another animal’s presence ③ No one shall commit the following acts toward abandoned or abused animals: 1. Act of capture and sell or kill. 2. Act of trade or purchase knowing that the animals are abandoned or abused. ARTICLE 9. ANIMAL TRANSPORTATION ① Anyone transporting an animal that has been selected by decree from the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries must make an effort to abide by the following: 1. Ensure that the animals are properly fed, watered and drive carefully so that animals are not shocked or harmed from sudden departures or stops. 2. The vehicle used for transportation must be built to prevent any harm during transportation and to minimize any pain due to poor ventilation or sudden changes in temperature, etc. 4. Avoid any possible injuries while moving an animal and minimize any pain or discomfort, such as sudden changes in body temperature or difficulty in breathing. ARTICLE 46. PUNISHMENT ① Anyone who violates Article 8, Clause 1 through 3 shall be punished with up to one year in prison or a maximum fine of 10 million Korean won ($7,000 USD). Ministry of Environment's Conservation of Water Quality and Ecosystem Act,  Article 15 Clause 1 Item 2 and Article 78 Item 3, the act of discharging excrements, livestock wastewater, animal carcass, waste materials or sludge into public water is punishable by up to one year in prison or a maximum fine of 10 million Korean won ($7,000 USD). Livestock Safety Management Act, slaughterhouses are only authorized to slaughter animals they are registered to handle. No slaughterhouse is registered to slaughter dogs because dogs are not subject to slaughter under this law. We believe these demands are in line with the goal of sister cities to establish friendly communications in the areas of tourism, commerce, cultural exchange and public health. International and Korean media coverage of the brutal dog and cat meat trade in South Korea has stained Seoul, South Korea’s image and severely tarnished your city’s sister city relationship. The time to end this tragedy is now. Thank you for taking swift action. PS:  Click here to find more ways to contact the Mayors of Honolulu, San Francisco and Washington DC.  http://koreandogs.org/contact-mayors-of-seoul-sister-cities/ It's very quick and simple.   http://koreandogs.org/

The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Commission has currently accepted three development plans for the San Francisco icon the Palace of Fine Arts. Two involve remaking the old Exploratorium site into a luxury hotel with small nods to the arts, and the third involves creating a high end restaurant with "museum". None of those proposals preserve the site as the important cultural/educational center San Franciscans have known it to be, nor do they keep it a community space that is open and available to ALL people. Once again, our officials are preparing to sell out from under us another piece of San Fransisco heritage, a heritage that belongs solely to the citizens of this City and to those who share a love for it . We demand that the Palace of Fine Arts be developed ONLY as a cultural/educational center.

This past spring the World Heath Organization concluded that glyphosate, the world's most widely used pesticide, is a "probable carcinogen" and should be labelled as such.  Several lawsuits have recently been filed against Monsanto, the maker of glyphosate herbicides (trade name "Roundup"), for allegedly causing cancer in agricultural workers who regularly use Roundup. And an MIT researcher has correlated rising glyphosate use with rising rates of autism in children. Nevertheless, many city governments, such as San Francisco, are still spraying glyphosate all over public parks, outside of schools, in places where children and pets play. I was recently walking through my neighborhood public park in San Francisco (where my little boy goes to nursery school), and found signs posted all around the playground, soccer field and nursery school announcing that glyphosate will be sprayed next week.  These signs were in wooded areas with mulch and dirt on the ground, no weeds anywhere in site.  It appears to be a preventive campaign simply to stop anything from growing in these areas, perhaps just a routine "general maintenance" initiative. A few of my local neighbors have mentioned to me that their dogs who once played freely in this particular park came down with unusual mouth and nose cancers, and now they believe this San Francisco government practice of spraying Roundup in this park is the reason for this. If this sounds like just a local issue within San Francisco, it is not. Roundup/glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world, and city governments, organizations and companies spray it EVERYWHERE as a cost-effective approach to weed removal.  Glyphosate may have an important place in agriculture (another debate entirely), but a possibly-carcinogenic pesticide should not be sprayed thoughtlessly around schools and public parks for no good reason.  It is too much of a gamble with our public health. Please help me make our public spaces safer, by urging lawmakers to ban the use of glyphosate in schools, playgrounds and public parks.

  On July 13th 2011 in San Francisco, Alex Benshimol and Doug Gentry, a married California couple, will face every same-sex binational couple’s worst nightmare: a deportation hearing. As anyone following this issue knows, for years there has been little hope for same-sex binational couples seeking to reside together in the US. Many are legally married like Alex and Doug, but are still treated as legal strangers in the eyes of our own government. For many years, and certainly since DOMA became law, our families have been discriminated against.  At best, our foreign partners and spouses have managed to stay in the US with temporary visas related to work or study, but are deprived of access to a “green card” on the basis of their relationship. These couples cannot build a future together and live with tremendous insecurity. Far more often we are forced to live apart in different countries; exiled to one of the more than 20 countries in the world that respect our families; or forced to live in the United States in the shadows with constant uncertainty; fear of deportation and ruin hanging over our heads. This destroys marriages, and tears apart our families. It is a humanitarian crisis that must come to an end. Alex came into the U.S. 12 years ago from Venezuela and overstayed a tourist visa, an immigration violation that straight binational couples can easily remedy once married; as a gay married couple, Alex and Doug do not have that option. We believe the political will of our elected leaders must be directed at this issue so that DOMA is repealed quickly. All American citizens deserve the right to pursue life and happiness with the liberty and equality guaranteed us all by our Constitution. We need our elected officials to show leadership and resolve on this issue. The Obama administration has the power to protect couples like Alex and Doug so they are not torn apart by deportation.  Join us in declaring that the cruel discrimination that has been inflicted on us by unjust laws MUST finally come to an end. Please join Out4Immigration, Stop the Deportations, GetEQUAL, Marriage Equality USA, and your fellow citizens in urging President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano to take action to recognize Doug and Alex’s marriage and prevent another family from being torn apart!  

The "Coltrane Church" has been in the Fillmore since 1971 and is the oldest and only church born out of the music of John Coltrane. The present political climate of profit over people continues to devastate the African American population of the Fillmore, leaving the "Coltrane Church" to stand alone as the sole historic proprietors of the music and culture of jazz as a means to enlighten. The managers of the West Bay Conference Center are seeking to DOUBLE the amount of our rent and our lease is up, leaving us with our backs against a wall. Tell the West Bay Conference Center to honor their community subsidized rental rates and KEEP THE COLTRANE CHURCH IN THE FILLMORE. The San Francisco Fillmore district formerly known as the "Harlem of the West" and the African American population in the district of "The Fillmore"contributed to the culture of blues, jazz and gospel music. Presently the population and culture of the African American community has all been but destroyed, along with its learning institutions, churches and venues of musical expression. The Coltrane Church has and will continue its stance against this kind of injustice. As the Apostles of Sound and Agents of Social Justice, the John Coltrane Church is the last voice for justice and equity on Fillmore Street. Let your voice be heard by signing the petition in full support of the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church remaining in the West Bay Conference Center.  2016 brings us into our 48th year of service. Thank you for signing the petition and helping us to continue serving the global community.    

We are demanding that San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee fire SFPD Chief Suhr. In the five years since Chief Greg Suhr has taken control of the San Francisco Police Department it has become a paramilitary organization. According to SFPD’s CompStat, there have been over 30 officer involved shootings that have resulted in the killing of 21 people, since Mayor Ed Lee appointed Suhr as chief in 2011. We can no longer stand by as our citizens are brutally murdered by those that have taken an oath to protect and serve. We can no longer support a police department wrought with corruption and criminal behavior. The racist texts, the racial profiling, the murderous tactics, and the regularly practiced terrorism on San Francisco's most marginalized communities all point to the deep and immediate need for drastic reforms. I stand in support of Maria Cristina Gutierrez, Ilyich (Equipto) Sato, Edwin Lindo, Ike Pinkston, Sellassie Blackwell and others who are participating in the “Hunger For Justice SF” hunger strike that started April 21st, and is taking place in front of the Mission Police Station in San Francisco (#HungerforJusticeSF). I support their demands that Chief Suhr resign from his position as Chief of SFPD. If he does not resign, we demand that Mayor Lee listen to the will of the people and fire him. If Mayor Lee refuses to do so, then we demand that he resign as Mayor of San Francisco. Contact Mayor Edwin Lee at (phone: 415-554-6141 email: mayoredwinlee@sfgov.org) and tell him... We stand with the Hunger for Justice strikers at Mission Police Station. WE DEMAND THAT YOU FIRE CHIEF SUHR IMMEDIATELY!  

We have a man who doesn’t like homosexuals, is a hypocrite racist in his own office, promotes Islamophobia, promotes Anti-Semitic abuse, prefers white Caucasians versus diversity in his office, abuses tax dollars, creates a fictitious commission to cover his own wrong doings with no agenda, clearly doesn’t know how to lead, is an ego-maniac with a temper problem, does back door deals for his own political gain, is purely corrupt in no simple way, and won’t prosecute white DAs that openly commit crimes in his own office – so why do we have him in power? George Gascón, District Attorney of San Francisco, has promoted injust favoritism, abuse of power, obstruction of justice and racism in his office during his tenure. We are asking you to get involved to remove him from office. San Francisco deserves better. Our outcry, against this justice, on Facebook page has accumulated over 100,000 followers in one week. How many more leaks from his internal office have to be released showing his wrong doings before he is removed? Please hold yourself true to the commitment of serving this great nation. We want Gascón removed from the SF District Attorney office. Leak #1: Corruption within George Gascón’s District Attorney’s Office Revealed! http://bit.ly/gasconleaks Leak #2: Meet O'Bryan Joseph Kenney, the DA that works under George Gascón who got a DUI in 2014 by blowing a 0.13 and through his connections with the DA got it reduced to a Wet Reckless with no punishment from his office. Kenney continues to prosecute cases in San Francisco District Attorney's Office, including prosecuting DUIs. http://bit.ly/gasconlk2 Leak #3: How George Gascón hired 2 more Crooked DAs charged with Prosecutorial Misconduct from Solano County. http://bit.ly/gasconleaks3 Leak #4: How George Gascón Controls the San Francisco Media. http://bit.ly/gasconleaks4 Explosive Leak #5!: George Gascón’s House of Cards crumbling. Homophobic, Islamophobia, Anti-Semitic, Racist, and more. http://bit.ly/gasconleaks5 Leak #6: SF District Attorney, Linda Allen, lied to the members of a jury by performing prosecutorial misconduct during her closing arguments, which sentenced an African-American, Jamal Trulove, to life in imprisonment for murder. http://bit.ly/gasconleaks6

The Natural Areas Program of SF Recreations and Parks Department (NAP)was originally intended to protect and nourish a sampling of SanFrancisco's plant heritage where it existed. That is worthwhile.Yet today the program has morphed into an empire that is claimingcontrol of one-fourth of city parkland to create barely-sustainablenative plant museums. It will drastically alter our parks in a programthat:-Cuts down 18,500 healthy trees, simply because they are considered non-native.-Uses more toxic pesticides than the rest of SF RPD put together,though it is only 1/4 of SF RPD's total area.-Closes nearly 10 miles of popular hiking and jogging trails.-Destroys impenetrable thickets and trees that provide shelter andprotection for wildlife.-Replaces existing vibrant green landscapes with dry, brown grasslandand piles of brush.Please do not let NAP destroy our parks in a misguided attempt to turnback the evolutionary clock and re-create an idealized "better"environment from a time before European settlers arrived, a time whenSan Francisco was mostly sand dunes and rocks, with few trees. Ourcity faces strict prioritization of scarce resources that whenallocated to parks should be to keep them safe and accessible, notcreate fenced-off gardens in the process destroying what we alreadyhave. This so-called “wholesale habitat conversion” would require tensof millions of dollars in taxpayer funding and unprecedentedbroad-scale volunteer hours for modest gains, if any.We, the undersigned, do not want to return our parks to such a barrenlandscape absent for centuries. We ask that you stop NAP fromdestroying trees, spraying dangerous herbicides, ripping outunderstory habitat, disrupting a healthy ecosystem that supportshundreds of species, and restricting access to our city parks.

                                                                                                                     http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/12/07/video-evidence-appears-to-contradict-sfpd-account-of-mario-woods-killing                                        On 12/2/15  several San Francisco Police Officers killed a special needs man who was small in stature and mentally challenged MARIO WOODS. Approximately, 5-10 officers had him encircled at gun point and told him to drop the butter knife ...all the videos of the crime scene show the 26 year old was not comprehending the police commands and was limping slowing in a non-combative and non-violent manner as many special needs children do, and then the police gunned him down execution style in front of many shocked taxpayers. Without investigation of the situation Chief Suhr immediately speaks to the MEDIA (press conference) stating he supports his officers actions. It is never okay to gun down a person who is retreating from you and is not showing aggressive behavior. A MENTAL HEALTH SPECIALIST OR POLICE NEGOTIATOR SHOULD HAVE BEEN CALLED TO THE SCENE. THE OFFICERS HAD PLENTY OF TIME TO DIFFUSE THE SITUATION IN A NON-VIOLENT MANNER.  WE NEED CHIEF SUHR TO RESIGN IMMEDIATELY. TOO MANY OFFICER INVOLVED MURDERS  in San Francisco, ON HIS WATCH!! PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION DEMANDING FOR THE REMOVAL OF CHIEF SUHR, IMMEDIATELY.

I love San Francisco, and have been proud to call it home for nearly 20 years. We have a golden opportunity to show off our best features to all the visitors making their way here for the Super Bowl. We should put our best foot forward. The Super Bowl 50 committee has requested SFMTA remove overhead Muni lines along Market Street. Dismantling public transit in this heavily trafficked corridor in preparation for that influx of people is not the way to showcase our city. We will need more ways to move people around the city, not fewer. The overhead power lines are a part of the city and its character, they are far from “unsightly.” Plus, the streetcars they service are a great bit of San Francisco charm. I live on one side of the city and work on the other. Commuting on MUNI during this period was already going to be difficult, but this proposal would make it nigh impossible. And the cost of this request is expected to run “seven figures” and necessitate “lots of overtime.” This disruption will last much longer than the 8 days leading up to the game.  I urge the Citizen Advisory Council recommend SFMTA reject this proposal on December 3rd.   (Photo credit: torbakhopper)