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SF Mayor Ed Lee changes mind, will seek full term (SF Chronicle)
Ed Lee will announce today that he is running for a full four-year term as San Francisco mayor, vaulting himself to the top of a crowded field of candidates while breaking a promise not to run that sealed his appointment as interim mayor seven months ago.
"I've changed my mind," Lee told The Chronicle in an interview Sunday. "I know it might be hard for people to understand that change ... but my change of mind in seeking this office has everything to do with wanting what's best for this city."
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Poll: Ed Lee popular, but short of majority to win (SF Chronicle)
If, as expected, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee takes out papers today to run for a full term, he will be the instant front-runner.
According to a recent CBS 5-SurveyUSA poll of 528 San Francisco voters, Lee would get 35 percent of the vote if the election were held today.
- Housing authority taps federal funds to boost employee retirements (San Jose Mercury News)
Santa Clara County's housing authority could have spent $16 million of federal funds to help more struggling families put a roof over their heads. Instead, it chose to more than double the value of its employees' retirement benefits.
That may sound unusual, but federal housing officials say it was an allowable expense. Still, the switch from a 401(k)-style retirement plan to a pension allowing workers to retire early -- with guaranteed lifetime payments -- is raising eyebrows at a time when generous public employee pensions are under fire.
- Brown's shaky bet on $4 billion (Contra Costa Times)
Amid growing fears of a double-dip recession -- punctuated by the stock market's harrowing plunge -- Gov. Jerry Brown's bet on a $4 billion tax surge to bolster the state's coffers is looking illusory at best, economists say.
And that means in a matter of months California's students, poor and disabled could be paying big-time for the state's gamble on a rebounding economy. Without a bull market pumping out a generous batch of capital gains, Californians can expect another round of severe budget cuts in January.
Oakland’s job picture could be brightening a bit as workers are expected to return to the job soon at the site of Oakland International Airport’s new control tower.
Hundreds of airport construction projects were left in limbo and 60 workers were furloughed in Oakland as the Federal Aviation Administration was partially shut down for two weeks. But Congress passed legislation last week restoring the FAA’s operating authority
- AM Alert: CSU presidents' salaries get closer look (Sacramento Bee)
How much should California University University presidents get paid? The controversial subject is back in focus as a special committee of the CSU Board of Trustees discusses how those executives are selected and compensated. The committee meets in Long Beach at the Chancellor's Office, 401 Golden Shore, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today and again on Aug. 24. As The Bee's Laurel Rosenhall has reported, CSU trustees voted last month to award the new president of San Diego State a salary $100,000 higher than his predecessor's. The same day, they hiked tuition.
- California Supreme Court pick Liu accustomed to hot seat (Contra Costa Times)
A few days after his recent nomination to the California Supreme Court, UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu found himself in familiar territory.
Conservative Republicans were calling him a "bad choice" for the state's high court. Foes of gay marriage branded him biased and unfit for the job. Critics tried to tar him with the ghost of former Chief Justice Rose Bird, Gov. Jerry Brown's most infamous and ill-fated past Supreme Court choice. But for the 40-year-old Liu, the latest slings and epithets are old hat...
- Conference Promotes Diversity in Cycling (Oakland North)
Anthony Taylor is a cyclist from Minneapolis, Minn., and just in town for the weekend, but he knows a lot about the biking scene in Oakland and the East Bay.
The names roll off his tongue: Oakland Yellowjackets, Red Bike and Green, Bikes for Life, Richmond Spokes, The East Bay Bike Coalition, and the scraper bike movement.
“That’s what I know about Oakland,” he said.
Taylor is the vice president of the National Brotherhood of Cyclists, a network of predominately African-American cycling clubs around the country that promotes the health benefits of cycling and wants to bring more diversity to the sport.
The group is holding its second-annual conference in Oakland this weekend.