Saturday, December 20, 2008

NextArts' Tony Imperial Sends Threatening Emails To Blogger Zennie Abraham

Regardless of my constant written requests for him to stop, NextArts' Tony Imperial , the producer of the planned San Francisco Obama Inauguration Simulcast, continues to send threatening emails to me.  I've sent a simple "please leave me alone" reply to his emails, five times as of this writing. 

NextArts' Tony Imperial claims that I was using my blog to try to stop his planned program from taking place, when in point of fact I have written that it was a great thing to do, but Imperial has some massive political cleanup work to do.  He's upset Obama volunteers, SF movers and shakers, and now this blogger, which he claims to have filed a baseless lawsuit against. 

Imperials just will not stop and now I consider him to be a threat.  The only reason I'm making this public is to prove that he can't "chill" this blogger and also to inform the general public of his behavior and to protect myself. 

Jerry Brown urges court to scrap Prop. 8 - Inside Bay Area

Jerry Brown orders scrapping Prop. 8 - Inside Bay Area: “SAN FRANCISCO—California Attorney General Jerry Brown changed course on the state's new same-sex marriage ban Friday and urged the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8.
In a dramatic reversal, Brown filed a legal brief saying the measure that amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is itself unconstitutional because it deprives a minority group of a fundamental right. Earlier, Brown had said he would defend the ballot measure against legal challenges from gay marriage supporters.
But Brown said he reached a different conclusion "upon further reflection and a deeper probing into all the aspects of our Constitution."
"It became evident that the Article 1 provision guaranteeing basic liberty, which includes the right to marry, took precedence over the initiative," he said in an interview Friday night. "Based on my duty to defend the law and the entire Constitution, I concluded the court should protect the right to marry even in the face of the 52 percent vote."”

--This is Jerry Brown's finest hour. Period.

Friday, December 19, 2008

RIAA Stops Lawsuits, But Not the Threats

For years the RIAA has been filing lawsuits against thousands of individuals who allegedly shared copyrighted music. Following recent court setbacks, the lobby group has announced it will stop mass lawsuits. Instead, it will focus on cutting deals with ISPs to disconnect ‘IP-addresses’ that repeatedly share copyrighted music.

read more | digg story

Bernard Madoff Screwed Feds to the Tune of $17 billion in Ponzi Scheme

Even Uncle Sam may get burned by Bernard Madoff. Investors who lost their fortunes in Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme will end up paying far less in taxes and may even be eligible for refunds, according to accounting experts. By some estimates, the Internal Revenue Service could be out as much as $17 billion in lost tax revenue.

read more | digg story

Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Assault 12-Year old

As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me."

read more | digg story

Sac. Mayor Kevin Johnson announces goals to cut traffic congestion - Latest News - sacbee.com

Kevin Johnson Johnson - Latest News - sacbee.com: “Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson on Friday announced his intention to make transportation a top focus in the coming months -- including working with other agencies to find a way to cut congestion on the Capital City Freeway and eventually get 10,000 more people living along the region's light-rail line.

Johnson said it starts with a lobbying tour he and others from Sacramento will make next month to Washington, D.C., to win funds from an expected federal economic stimulus package for infrastructure projects.

"Next month, I plan a full-court press to make sure Sacramento gets its fair share for transportation projects," he said. "It's about jobs, its about improvement. It's about quality of life. It's about moving quickly."”

My friend from Cal days is making his mark and quickly. He's rightly going after the dollars needed to put Sacramento to work.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

AFL Suspends 2009 Season

AFL Suspends 2009 Season
By Dr Bill Chachkes-Managing Partner-Football Reporters Online

Sad but True: the AFL will not play in 2009. It seems that the economic downturn has hit even sports (except for baseball which is still paying grossly inflated salaries to marginal players-Maybe they will suspend operations for a year when people stop showing up to watch a poor product!). I have received several e-mails from AFL fans asking "What's the deal here? One went so far as to insinuate that someone must have embezzled some cash somewhere for this to happen. I can assure you to the best of my knowledge, no one has stolen any cash from The AFL. They simply need to "restructure" for the benefit of the players and the game to continue.

The question now is "Does the AFL return in 2010?" My Guess is Yes, but many of the players that made up the 2008 AFL will be gone. Most veteran players will find work playing in Canada, a few might get into the NFL next fall, some may head to AF2, which as of this moment is still in operation, still some more will turn to coaching at the High School and college level, or return to college as students.

F.R.O. Will do everything it can to bring you whatever we learn over the next few weeks...