. >>> the battle over proposition 8 returned to court today, and in just the last hour the attorneys for both sides spoke out about the case. ktvu's ken pritchett is live in san francisco, where the issue over who presided over the prop 8 case and video of the trial was argued. ken. >> reporter: i was in the courtroom this afternoon and here was the main argument of the day: should the judge who ruled that proposition 8 was unconstitutional have revealed that he himself was gay? judge vaughn walker did reveal that he was in a long-term gay relationship, but he only did that once he retired. same sex opponents, same sex marriage opponents, say that that judge should have revealed that before he took the case and before he ultimately overturned the gay marriage ban. >> a gay or lesbian judge, in a long-term relationship that desired to marry would have an obvious and clear direct interest in the outcome of the case and be sitting on his or her own case. >> reporter: attorney charles cooper arguing in support of proposition 8, said that judge walker had a vested interest in the outcome

proposition k has funded the design portion. this will be implemented next year into 2013 with construction. this can implement this part of that project which allows for early implementation and also savings. the next project is the bicycle lanes project. the project would install 1 mile of the bus ways. the mta will restore approximately 42 spaces on marine street dutch marin st. east of evans. -- of 42 spaces on that marin st. east evans. the net result is a loss of parking spaces and these have been approved in october. the funds will leverage a grant that has a march expiration date. if there are any weather delays that cost delays to the project, and this would be the element installed at a later date to make sure that that expiration date is met. there is some conceptual work that is going on at to the intersection. these conversations are happening between the mta, the planning department, the mayor's office, the ports. we understand that the discussions would be complete by the end of this calendar year and they will no

in 2007, the voters passed proposition g which required any neighborhood commercial district to have a conditional use authorization formula for formula retail and further defined the formula retail use. that's a little bit about the legislative history. the definition for what is a formula retail is any type of retail or sales activity which has 11 are more along with that shop being applied for locations in the united states. in addition, they have to have to of the following features -- either a standardized path of merchandise, standard de corps or color scheme, standard facade, or trademark and service mark. that is the current definition of formula retail and it applies to a number of types of retail controls and this was also approved by the voters in 2007. i could list those specifically. the listed in your report on page 2 if you are interested. i did hear regina go over the conditional use criteria of the planning commission uses to make a determination as to whether or not formula retail would be necessary or desirable for any particular location, so i won't go over those

now, proposition a, that will allow us to add about six more. >> this is part of a bay trail? >> not the sand and cisco bay trail, which goes all the way around the bay -- the sand and cisco bay trail, which goes for all the way around the bay. >>. walking trail or bicycle? >> it is both. >> ok, dan has to go. thank you very much. >> thank you, enjoy the water. >> ok, we're going to go around to the front door and look at this. the ferry building was originally built on woodpiles. that were driven down into the mud. not the bad rock. it is almost impossible to find bad rap here -- it is almost impossible to find that rocked -- bedrock. they brought this so they could build the ventilation shaft, and the construction materials were brought here. the same thing is true if you go up to camp mather. a lot of what you see at camp mather was built, part of the construction shack and places for people to lift when they build the dam. the same thing is true here. this is the bart ventilation shaft and the ferry. the average water depth isz about 40 feet, and that is about right. on th

with the propositions that religions poison some things. where christopher hitchens and richard dawkins to announce that they were compared to invade held in order to rest a variety of them arrested priests, i would wish them well although for reasons of personal inconvenience i could not join them. [laughter] in some respects, as dr. johnson said, the proposition that atheism poisons everything hardly requires a dissent. the inquiry is not needed he said. the last state of which atheism was a possibility in social and social thought was also the last date in which it was a possibility and social thought. i ask you to cast your mind back around 1790, 1791 in france, paris in front of the cathedral of notre dame and standing there somewhat elaborated by my historical allowed -- is the green eyed fanatical and l'enfant -- l'enfant and they are looking at notre dame and one guy says to the other, which you we'd do with this pile of gothic junk? and the answer is, let's rename it. good idea. each man was hoping they would call it after themselv

happening and that they haven't interest in seeing that the spirit and intent and words of the proposition are carried forward, so i just wanted to let you know that we will be continuing those discussions and, again, in keeping with the requirements of prop a. i did want you to know that the mayor had convened a meeting with me and the bike coalition, and the mayor's transportation policy advisor one month or so ago. that topic, we have since had some discussions, staff level, between our communications folks, the bike folks, the coalition with the police department along the lines of what you're talking about. from my observation, i agree with you on the acuteness of the need, and it is helpful to get that direction and support from the board. we will make sure to accelerate those efforts, and then finally, just a reminder, we have our workshop coming up on november. 14. it will be an all-day workshop starting at the mason center. the main things we will be covering is we will be giving an update on where we are with the strategic plan for the next six years, to get your feedback on that

since the voters passed proposition gee, this is a chart showing conditional use authorizations and the outcome of those applications with our department. this shows permits that were approved. about 65 percent sign were approved. these are the ones we are currently reviewing. these are similar because they may be related results. this one in red is the disapproved one. they were either disapproved by the planning commission or on appeal by the board of supervisors. if we are reviewing the application that looks like it is not consistent, necessary or desirable with the neighborhood, we will encourage the sponsor to not proceed with their application. when you see the applications that are withdrawn, they may be once headed toward disapproval and we advise them of that and we -- and they withdrew their permit application. it is a lot of maps. >> if you want to look at that geographically, and that's what i just handed out to the supervisors, this is a map of the active, approved, withdrawn or disapproved throughout the city. i don't know if they can zoom in at all, but i was going to sh

in 2007, san francisco approved proposition g which required any formula retail use trying to move into any of our neighborhood commercial districts to obtain a conditional use authorizations. since that time, we have seen a huge number of applications for formula retail businesses to move into san francisco and there has not been a serious attempt to analyze the impact these companies are having on our local economies and neighborhoods. i'm well aware of how difficult it is for our small businesses to survive in these hard economic times and i have heard from the small business commission and many merchants in my neighborhood throughout the city -- and throughout the city on how hard it is as they feel threatened by the growing presence of formula retail competitors. many provide substandard wages and benefits to their workers and bring them buildings and facades not in keeping with the character of our neighborhoods. it is imperative that we have a clear understanding of how our city is being changed by their presence. the purpose of this hearing is to get a better understanding of th

after he interpreted her body langge as a proposition. the maid's lawyers call the book complete fantasy. >>> republican presidential candidate michele bachmann had her own take on reality when she told a crowd she would close the u.s. embassy in iran if he was president. it came following the british's government decision to withdraw persona personnel ar the embassy was attacked. bachmann said -- the u.s. has not had an embassy in iran in more than three decades. bachmann's camp says she knows that and was simply speaking hypothetically. >>> esident obama had his own embassy hoops tuesday. he referred to the british embassy as the english embassy. and then followed by calling it the embassy of the united kingdom. the "daily mail" called that a mistake as well. finally president obama outpacing the predecessors quickly when it comes to fundraising events. cbs mark noelleer tweeted wednesday the president's total for year is 69 fundraisers. compare it to 21 for bill clinton at this point in his third year in office. and 41 for george w. bu

he interpreted her "seductive body language " as a proposition.n panetta greeted j.r. martinez at theç pentagon. you have to love that picture. a fan of the show invited martinez to the pentagon. you see the moment there. love that picture. should be my screen safer. in 2003, he was severely burned over 40% of his body while serving his country in iraq. john huntsman's daughters have come out with their first cover song called huntsman's back. it is set to sexy back. ♪ anti-aging problem, there's a different cream. i challenge that with olay. i've found one cream with everything i'm looking for... olay total effects. with 7 age defying effects in just one, easy to use cream. i've swapped to all-in-one total effects. why don't you swap too? so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. e

. >>> we will hear arguments on two of the legal issues surrounding proposition 8. now supporters want the court to set aside last year's ruling that declared proposition 8 unconstitutional. they say the ruling should not stand because the judge who made it did not disclose that he was in a long-term same sex relationship. the court will also hear whether rulings on whether video of that ruling should be heard. >>> now the backers of the recall petition have until may 14th to gather the nearly 20,000 signatures needed to qualify the measure for the ballot to recall mayor jean quan. a second group has also filed a petition with the office. they will determine whether they can have two recall groups at the same time. >>> parents of a toddler critically wounded from a toddler are now making a request. he was shot while in the arms of his father. doctors in oakland say the boy is brain dead and he should be removed from life support because he will not likely survive. but his parents are asking for more time and looking for a second opinion from another medical team. >>

. >> that agreement had 89 senators out of 100 agree on a proposition that would continue the middle class tax cut, would give certainty and assurance that as of january 1st there wouldn't be a tax cut, give 48 million americans assurance that they would still have access to their medicare doctors and give 2.3 million americans an assurance they wouldn't lose their unemployment insurance and therefore their ability to support themselves and their families. >> at this point -- >> that's what we're urging us to dosh. >> at this point having known -- we know how we got to this point. >> right. >> how do we move this thing forward? clearly we're at a gridlock here. do you have new ideas or suggestions? >> suzanne, when you say we're at gridlock, the senate overwhelmingly greed and mcconnell said this was designed to past. very frankly the house bill was designed to fail, we know that. the president said he wouldn't sign it and senate said they wouldn't pass it. they passed it to the senate anyway knowing full well it would put us in that position. the way to get beyond this is to say, ok

that there's not enough money to pay for things like proposition 98 which mandates that californianscrease spending on education. so the state passed a law saying they don't have to pay for things that fe passed a law requiring themselves to pay for. >> people say how could this have happened? well, it happened because they bought a bag of bull (beep) and voted for it. >> reporter: you cuss more than a west coast rapper. >> who? >> reporter: but california has a solution to reduce its $26 billion deficit, a new law requiring all e-commerce companies like amazon.com to pay state sales tax. what did amazon do? >> amazon launched an expensive campaign to overturn the law through a ballot measure. >> reporter: that's right amazon.com is using-- what else? -- but direct democracy paying firms to collect names at $3 per signature. its democracy at its finest. according to republican state assemblyman tim donnelly. >> this is freedom. freedom takes on many forms. >> reporter: what are you say to go the criticisms that this is being hijacked as a process by major companies? >> in this case t

the biggest was the 2008 passage of proposition 8. >> i think that people have seen the damage done by taking away civil rights. >> she is speaking on behalf of love, honor, cherish. they are behind a new initiative that would change california's constitution to allow gay marriage. >> i am excited about it. >> reporter: not all gay marriage advocates want to go back to the ballot box. ruled unconstitutional prop 8 is on appeal and a decision is expected soon. an advocate in october said the court fight provides hope and that it would not back a initiative to avoid a campaign in which more work needs to be done to gain pubtic support. backers of the ballot don't want to rely on the courts alone. >> the length of time it would take to go through the courts, those are variables that we don't have control over. >> putting a ballot before voters. they have approval to gather signatures. they need 800,000 by may 14. a challenge but not one that would stop them. ken pritchett, ktvu channel 2 news. >>> today, supports of a balt to levis the 3 strikes law started collecting signatures. it would

we defended the proposition of mainstream media in new york a couple of years ago. the reality is the attention span is quite short. >> that will be a problem. there is an interesting conflict. >> the nation is not un- mainstream media. it has been around for a long time. you say it is minority ideas pushing the nation. minority ideas get a hearing in "the nation." everybody has a blog. is there such a thing as a minority idea? >> minority idea comes from the fact that there are issues that do not get the attention they deserve. part of what "venation" tries to do is drive issues into a national conversation that are off the radar. we did a special issue 34 years ago called "the new inequality. -- we did a special issue three or four years ago called "the new inequality." i would like to publish agait again. there was a tough piece about ronald lauder's management strategy. the occupy movement is moving "the new york times) to cover issues like that. that is important. critical mindedness is also what "venation" is about -- "the nation" is about. >> what single thin

possible action item of the public service commission to enter into the agreement to authorize the proposition for commercial paper programs. >> similar item -- have a motion? and the second? and is there any public comment? all of those in favor? the item will carry. >> item 17, for the capital improvement program contract -- and the obsolete sewer project, increasing the contract with a time extension. >> ok. this item is worth a few words. >> good afternoon, commissioners. the sunnyvale on solar project has gone very well. the tunnelling was very effective. we will actually be activating the main title in january to begin providing flood protection and this project has been selected to receive $11 million in grant funding for the department of water resources. the modification in front of you will enable us to improve the local sewers, to provide additional flood protection. we will use the same technology that works so well. originally there was going to be a separate contract, that would create significant disruption to the neighborhood, and traffic, and was very close to home. the modifi

of the proposition 8 top trial should be publicly accessible. >>mark: a south bay high school achieving coat is behind bars suspected of sexually abusing a minor over three months beginning in september while he was coaching at andrew hill high school and energy athletics and san jose. investigators say the abuse began over a three month period ended in not believe there are any other victims. >>darya: we're back with more in a couple minutes. here's a live look outside from the roof on van ness ave. the fog is a floating and around the bay to date. is it little gentle breeze and school temperatures. we will be right back. >>mark: the fog is rolling in and around the bay area. here is a look from san francisco, our roof camera. >>darya: much of the bay area continues to thrive despite a lackluster national economy. silicon valley's of the biggest jump in employment. the number of jobs grew 3.2%. gabe slate takes a look at the effect. >>gabe: there are now so many new tech startups near market and second street that they are calling this. start u

proposition a was a parks fund adopted by voters in 2008 helping to fund parks at pier 70 and other parks along the port. with all of these tools still, the financial plan looks like it is not financially in balance. we hope that changes with the addition of our new private development partner for city development, but we are still looking for additional tools to make it happen. there are plans in the master plan, up to 3 million square feet of commercial space that may include research and development or office space. that would be subject to the jobs housing linkage fees we talked about earlier, and we expect millions of dollars to be generated from that project to the city's affordable housing fund. next, i want to segue from that discussion. staff had been thinking about different areas of property that might be appropriate for affordable housing, and one of the areas we thought of is the broadway parcells. these are mainly parking lots in the northern waterfront. they have been the subject of prior proposals. as we were looking for a potential area shall propose, affordable housing s

a panel of federal judges hears arguments related to proposition 8, california's voter approved ban on same-sex marriage. scientists at nasa discovers an earth-like planet in distant space, leaving researchers to look for signs of civilization. >>> and on this 70th anniversary of pearl harbor, some firsthand accounts from veterans who were there, coming up next. >> belva: good evening, i'm belva davis. welcome to "this week in northern california." joining me on our news panel is scott schafer from public radio and josh richmonday, legal and political affairs reporter from the oakland tribune. has the message of the occupy movement taken a turn politically? >> well, i think people that far and wide across the country and around the world have to be listening to what the occupy is saying by now. here in california, i think that the governor had a plan for a while and the rhetoric is giving a plan into action. what happened this week is the governor rolled out a plan for the initiative that he wants to put on next november's ballot to raise taxes on millionaires, high-income earners, no

was included when we decided to move forward with proposition d. -- g. because our revenues are growing, we are assuming we will not be able to withdraw from the ring in david reserve -- rainy day reserves. while we start with our lost up on balance we assumed in the current year budget, we have healthy growth and our tax revenues. $165.9 million next year. the year after, that is a good sign of our economic recovery, something that the mayor has talked about that he wants to make even more robust and speed up even more with his economic plan. it is a good sign, a sign that we are out of the recession in the city. however, we do have a revenue loss is projected. particularly from the state. as i have talked about in previous meetings, reductions in the metical rate at a good hospital, cuts in laguna honda. other states, particularly at the human resources agency, other reductions at mental health, one-time revenue, various other changes. all in all, from this year to next year, the prediction is we will see a net change of $20 million in revenues, and th

rboc was founded for proposition p, designed for sunset on january 1, 2013. we're in the middle of the process of conducting three audits and in the middle of the implementation of a significant number of the recent capital programs and soon to come on board the sewer capital programs as well. because of that, we are asking the puc to support the extension. rboc is a separate independent oversight body, recognized for its transparency. because of that, it has been favorable to the bond rating. we believe the extension is a worthy one. we ask for your support. thank you. president moran: ok, thank you. commissioners from any questions on this item? public comment? seeing none, men have a motion? >> so moved. second. president moran: all those in favor? opposed? the item carries. thank you for your work. i appreciate you taking the time to come here today. you're not compensated. we recognize that. we value the service you put in. thank you. now, getting back on track. my intention is at 3:00 to call the budget item. so in the next half hour, let's try to get t