"California simply lacks the fiscal capacity to guarantee public-pension payments, particularly given the wave of state employees set to retire in future years."
-Perry Wong and I-Ling Shen, authors of a report called "Addressing California’s Pension Shortfalls: The Role of Demographics in Designing Solutions"
"My priorities are to elect a Democratic Congress. In order to do that, it is essential for me -- time is money for me -- to move around this country, to amass the resources, put my candidates on TV. Whether I get a bigger majority in my district or not is not the point. The point for me is to get a bigger majority in the Congress of the United States, and that's how I choose to use my time. Whether I get a bigger majority in my district is not the point."
-Nancy Pelosi, when asked at a press conference in Washington state if she would consider a debate with her Republican opponent in San Francisco
"It seems to be a rather safe substance with very low potential for addiction and withdrawal. There are 8 million people in the United States that are relatively chronic marijuana users and many of them are highly functioning people that hold full-time jobs and are creative members of society."
-Dr. Donald Abrams, professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and chief of hematology and oncology at SF General Hospital, on the health effects of marijuana
"If you start using it way too much, it starts affecting your life just like alcohol or any other drug does. Your relationships suffer. Financially, you suffer. Employment and school-wise, you suffer. All the things that go along with dependence on any drug, I see that as the most chronic problem with marijuana. People abuse it."
-Alan Budney, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
"I was worried about the police. Call it a father's intuition."
-Jack Bryson, whose sons were with Oscar Grant the night he was shot to death by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle