You hear alot about conflicts between labor and environmental groups. There’s some news from spotted owl country, though, that shows the divisions are sometimes exaggerated:

In their lawsuits, the environmental and labor groups said that the state agency, rushing to meet a March 1999 deadline for approval, gave short shrift to the likely effects of 10 years of heavy logging. They said state law requires economic projections for 100 years into the future.

Want another example of why we should Say No To Pombo?How about this:

Prospects are fading for a rewrite of the nation’s endangered species protection law this year as key senators hesitate to move anything that would have to be meshed with legislation written last fall by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.

Some senators have expressed concern that any bill they pass, even if it gains bipartisan consensus, would still have to be blended with Pombo’s aggressive rewrite. And Pombo’s bill goes way too far in easing environmental protection, according to many critics.

Living in San Francisco, where many of our best-known politicians are gay, we often forget that just an hour away, being gay can have a pretty drastic effect on your political career. Slowly, that’s starting to change.

West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon has anxiously kept his sexual orientation a secret his entire political career.

He broke his silence on the subject Wednesday night at the annual State of the City dinner at West Sacramento City Hall.

Three organizations that submitted a joint proposal for San Francisco’s TechConnect project released an audacious proposal today. Megacorporations IBM and Cisco, together with local nonprofit Seakay, issued a press release which included some more details of their bid for San Francisco, but also a pledge to move forward with their plan to create free municipal networks, regardless of whether they win the TechConnect bid.

The release is not available on their websites, but it is reproduced on Muniwireless.com, along with some commentary.

Over the weekend, I was part of the United Educators of San Francisco’s phone bank, calling members to remind UESF members to vote on Wednesday, 3/29 from 4-7:30 p.m. at Kezar Pavilion, 755 Stanyan (between Haight and Waller).

This is a Strike Authorization Vote. It would give the UESF negotiating team another tool as they negotiate a fair contract for teachers and paraprofessionals.

Obviously, a key sticking point is salary. UESF hasn’t gotten a raise in over three years-even though the District has gotten Cost of Living Adjustment of 10% from the State for state funds (the majority of funding for education comes from the State) for the last 2 years. Next year, the projected COLA that SFUSD will get from the state is 6.96%.

Join us for the third annual SF Political Trivia Contest with master of ceremonies Public Defender Jeff Adachi, Supervisor Chris Daly, School Board Commissioners Eric Mar and Chris Daly, Building Commissioner Debra Walker, LeftinSF Host Robert Halaand, Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club President Greg Shaw, Milk Club VPs Larry Roberts & Kelly Dugan and others on Thursday, March 30 from 7-9 p.m. at Cafe Royale, 800 Post (Leavenworth).

Categories include the “Streets of San Francisco,” “Art and Politics” and “You Thought that You Knew San Francisco.”

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to stand up for religious freedom. So why do I disagree with Debra Saunders about her position that the City is intolerant of religious freedom? She made this argument because the City will stop giving money to Catholic Charities for social services if it stops allowing gays and lesbians to adopt. The key issue here is that they are receiving City money. They can choose to follow anti-discrimination laws or not. If not, then they don’t get City money. Period.

Churches have every right to promote their values but not on the taxpayer’s dime.

I just came back from SF Jazz’s presentation of the Ellis Marsalis Quartet.

Beside being an outstanding jazz musician, Ellis Marsalis have been a “mentor to many of this generation’s jazz players” (USA Today). Marsalis was the first teacher at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts program in the 1970’s and taught many greats, including Harry Connick, Jr. He was also a professor at the University of New Orleans. And his legacy includes four sons who are outstanding jazz musicians in their own right-Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason who performed with his dad at this year’s SF Jazz festival.

Verne Kopytoff of the Chronicle has a long, thorough article about Gavin’s relationship with Google today. It seems like he was looking into the possiblity that their relationship might mean preferential treatment for the Mountain View company when it comes time to decide who gets the contract to implement San Francisco’s Wi-Fi network.

Newsom did not always accept the favors, even reimbursing Google for the flight from Switzerland after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos. But the documents show that Google’s top executives have forged close personal ties to Newsom over the past few years.

Two things we’re known for covering here on Left In SF are slash fiction and San Francisco politics.

But we have to give props to SFist for their brilliant melding of the two with their Chris/Gavin slash post from yesterday.

“Chris,” Gavin rasped. “Chris. I can’t believe it’s been two years since we’ve talked. I miss you. I miss your big strong arms holding me.”