The federal corruption and racketeering case against Chinatown figure Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow and former state Sen. Leland Yee is getting curiouser and curiouser. The mayor of San Francisco, Ed Lee, is being mentioned in court filings and a state lawmaker wore a wire for the feds, among other things. The word for this is "Wow!"
From the Chronicle's Bob Egelko and Emily Green: "In an explosive court filing, lawyers for a former Chinatown gang leader said Tuesday that federal authorities shielded San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee from prosecution despite evidence from the FBI that he had taken bribes, funneled through two members of the city’s Human Rights Commission."
"The two alleged go-betweens, Nazly Mohajer and Zula Jones, both told undercover federal agents that “Ed Lee knew he was taking money illegally,” attorneys for Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow said in federal court papers. They did not provide any confirming statements from agents about Lee, whose spokesman denied wrongdoing.
"Chow is charged with running a Chinese American community organization as a racketeering enterprise. His lawyers said documents provided by prosecutors, in the pretrial evidence-gathering procedure known as discovery, support Chow’s claims of selective prosecution by showing that FBI agents in the same undercover investigation found evidence of corruption by Lee, other local government officials and civil rights leaders, none of whom was charged."
As for the lawmaker wearing a hidden recorder, Matier and Ross tell the tale: "It happened back in 2009, when Chiu was a San Francisco supervisor and Chow was busy cultivating his image as a “changed man.”
"Chiu, whose district included Chinatown, had called on the city to pull $35,000 in funding for the neighborhood’s popular Night Market after it was revealed that Chow had taken over as manager."
"Chiu had earlier given a proclamation recognizing the good works of Chow’s Chee Kung Tong organization. When he called for the Night Market’s funding to be pulled, Chiu told us his office would never have handed out the pat on the back had he known of Chow’s criminal past."
And for those who would like a handy roadmap to the case, the LAT thoughtfully has provided one.
Meanwhile, back at Clear Lake, the voracious Rocky Fire is still chewing up the landscape.
From Randi Rossmann in the Press Democrat: "Firefighters took advantage of cooler temperatures and a light drizzle Tuesday as they stepped up containment of the 67,000-acre Rocky fire, establishing solid lines around 20 percent of the blaze during what was the calmest day for crews since the fire began a week ago."
"The progress was considered a big break in the battle against the state’s largest blaze, which until Tuesday had been nearly uncontrollable, racing over rural properties and wildland, burning more than 50 structures, and as late as Monday, jumping a major highway firefighters had hoped to use to halt the advance."
"The fire burned an additional 3,000 acres Tuesday, expanding in the wildland north of Highway 20 near where it jumped the road Monday afternoon."
Californa's elections officer is mounting a get-out-the-vote drive -- sort of -- in an effort to allow felons to cast ballots.
From the LAT's Paige St. John: "California election officials are reversing a policy that prevents 45,000 felons from casting ballots, placing the state in the forefront of a movement to boost voting rights for ex-criminals."
"California has until now maintained that state law prohibits felons from voting not only when they are in prison or on parole but also when they are under community supervision."
"Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Tuesday that the state would now back voting rights for felons on community supervision, which is generally overseen by county probation departments."
The top executive at the nation's largest public pension fund, CalPERS, says a proposed pension-reform initiative aimed at next year's ballot has numerous legal problems.
From the Bee's John Ortiz: "A proposed ballot measure that would make future pension benefits subject to voter approval is fraught with legal and administrative peril, according to a letter from CalPERS’ chief executive officer, eliciting a response from one of the measure’s proponents that the assessment is a “lie.”
"The measure filed by former San Diego councilman Carl DeMaio and former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed would constitutionally require voter approval for future retirement-benefit increases. Employees hired on Jan. 2019 and later would not receive the kind of guaranteed pensions now common for public employees unless voters in each jurisdiction authorized continuing those plans."
"While the measure would impact pension benefits, it also contains a provision that states it will not impact death or disability benefits."
And from our "Find a Place to Pee" file comes word of a San Francisco street light pole that toppled over because of the corrosion from too much urine at the base. That's what we said.
"Concerns about San Francisco’s decaying light poles were ignited Monday night after one corroded by urine toppled onto a car, narrowly missing the driver."
"The three-story-tall lamp post at Pine and Taylor streets snapped around 6:30 Monday and landed on a nearby car, almost crushing the driver. No one was injured."
"A perfect storm of conditions rusted out the base of the pole, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission officials say, and caused it to fall. At the time, the lamp post, which was already old, was damaged by urine and weighed down by an oversized banner."
“We believe there was some contribution of dog or human urine on the base of the pole,” PUC spokesman Tyrone Jue said. “It has actually been an issue for us in the past. We encourage people and dogs alike to do their business in other places, like a proper restroom or one of our fire hydrants, which are stronger and made out of cast iron.”
Just another day in Baghdad by the Bay ....