San Francisco city politicos are reeling from revelations in a federal court filing submitted by Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow’s lawyers that seem to implicate Mayor Ed Lee and others at City Hall in the wide-ranging racketeering case. Matier and Ross say new probes are looking into the allegations. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
“San Francisco criminal prosecutors and the city attorney’s office have opened probes into whether the tentacles of a racketeering case involving an alleged Chinatown gang leader extend to City Hall, The Chronicle has learned.
“Word of the probes came a day after attorneys for racketeering defendant Raymond ‘Shrimp Boy’ Chow went public Tuesday with a federal court filing that sought to implicate city officials in bribery, campaign money laundering and a range of other misconduct. Their argument: Plenty of City Hall officials were engaged in wrongdoing, but they got a pass while Chow got a criminal case.”
Mayor Ed Lee, who is accused of taking bribes in the court filings, shrugged off the allegations, saying it was a desperate attempt to deflect blame from Chow. Emily Green, Heather Knight and Debra J. Saunders at SFGate:
“In a telephone interview Wednesday, Lee called the allegations “sensational” and said reading them was like reading a comic book.
“’It’s sad they have to draw me into this,’ he said, adding that there is no merit in the allegations that he took bribes or engaged in pay-to-play politics.”
A new report from the US Department of Agriculture has revealed that, for the first time in its history, fire-related services have burned up more than half of the US Forest Service budget – and the problem is only predicted to get worse. Michael Doyle at McClatchy:
“For the first time in the Forest Service’s 110-year history, the agency is spending more than half its budget on fire-related activities. Unless something changes, the new 16-page report predicts, firefighting will consume two-thirds of the agency’s budget within a decade.
“’We have been pointing out this challenge for the past few years, but we have not been able to address it through our current budget process,’ Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell noted.
“The Forest Service reports spending 52 percent of its total discretionary budget on firefighting preparedness, suppression, hazardous fuels reduction and related programs this year. In 1995, fire activities accounted for 16 percent of the agency’s budget.”
California made its final payment Wednesday on the $14.2 billion the state borrowed to plug a massive budget deficit after voters passed Prop. 57 to approve the loan. Juliet Williams, AP:
“California closed an ugly chapter in its financial history on Wednesday by making its final payment on $14.2 billion in costly borrowing that plugged a budget deficit 11 years ago but eventually cost taxpayers about $5 billion in interest and fees.
“State Treasurer John Chiang and Director of Finance Michael Cohen announced the final payment of nearly $929 million toward the Economic Recovery Bonds, debt that was approved by voters in 2004 after then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger led a bipartisan campaign promoting them.”
And, speaking of Chiang, guess who just might be running for governor? Chris Megerian, LA Times:
"’I'm contemplating it,’ Chiang said Wednesday when asked whether he would seek the governor's office in 2018. ‘That's a decision that will take a little while.’"
The State Fish and Game Commission has voted to ban bobcat trapping in California - to become law, the ban would need approval of the state Office of Administrative Law and the secretary of state.
Tonight, Fox News will broadcast the first televised debate of the 2016 Presidential election season, featuring the 10 top-polling GOP candidates. Fresno mayor Ashley Swearingen isn’t waiting for the debate to make up her mind- she has already thrown her support behind former Florida governor Jeb Bush.
The Bee’s Jim Miller tallied up the cost of the Special Election for the East Bay’s 7th Senate District: $12.1 million. To put that in context, that’s more than all parties spent on the referendum on Scottish Independence…
Today marks a grim anniversary: seventy years ago today, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in the waning days of World War II, the first-ever use of nuclear weapons in combat. An estimated 90,000–166,000 people were killed in the attack, which was followed, three days later by the bombing of Nagasaki.
Gizmodo UK has compiled a list of 16 incredible facts about the Hiroshima bombing, including the story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi who was present at both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, and lived to tell the tale.
“Tsutomu Yamaguchi worked for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagasaki and on the 6th August 1945 he was visiting the city of Hiroshima on business. He was caught in the blast but managed to survive, and despite his wounds was able to travel back to Nagasaki the next day. Unfortunately for him on August 9th the Americans then dropped Fat Man on to the city he had just arrived in.
“Astonishingly, despite being hit by two nukes he survived this too, and in fact only died in 2010, at the ripe old age of 93.”
