AltWeeklies Wire
Dirty Secrets Under the Big Top
Lawsuits charge Ringling Bros. with abusing animals, endangering public health, and sabotaging its critics via former CIA spooks. This October, a federal court could finally determine whether rough, regular treatment of endangered Asian elephants by circus handlers constitutes illegal animal abuse. Could this be the end of the circus as we know it?
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Steve Jones |
08-15-2008 |
Animal Issues
New Report Casts Bad Light on Popular Sunscreensnew
The nonpartisan, nonprofit Environmental Working Group studied 952 sunscreens with a SPF of 15 or higher and discovered that 80 percent contain harmful chemicals and didn't really protect skin from the most damaging rays of the sun.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Amanda Witherell |
08-13-2008 |
Science
Canvassers, Telemarketers and Parking Officials Talk About Doing Work People Hatenew
They call during dinner time. They interrupt your picnic at the park. They write parking tickets. We talk to some of these people, to find out not only just how badly they're treated, but also why they continue to show up for work, day after day.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Phil Eil |
08-13-2008 |
Business & Labor
Rock Riffs Meet Classical Chops in the Hands of Judgement Daynew
For a mutant that's half-string quartet, half-power trio, this triple threat of violin, cello, and drums turns out to be mighty tough.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dina Maccabee |
08-13-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Judgement Day
'Sputnik Mania' Takes a Hot Look at the Cold Warnew
Two decades ago, when communism in most territories ended with a whimper, the Cold War era officially died with it. But David Hoffman's documentary Sputnik Mania turns the Way Back Machine to that long moment when it was overwhelmingly, virulently alive.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
08-13-2008 |
Reviews
Why Does the Bay Area Have a Hard Time Harboring Hip-Hop Venues?new
Hip-hop is one of the most popular genres on earth, and San Francisco is a world-class city. Yet this town seems hostile toward this musical nightlife with such revenue-generating potential. Why?
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Garrett Caples |
08-06-2008 |
Music
Clean Energy Act Makes the Ballot in San Francisconew
It isn't the only charter amendment on the November ballot, but it's already shaping up to be the political lightning rod of this fall's election.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Janna Brancolini and Sarah Phelan |
07-31-2008 |
Environment
Pelosi Backs Bush on Iran Plansnew
How in the world does the representative of perhaps the most antiwar city in the country sign off on the United States doing this to another nation?
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Tom Gallagher |
07-31-2008 |
Commentary
San Francisco is a Dangerous Town for Butterfliesnew
According to lepidopterist Liam O'Brien, 24 of 58 local species have been wiped out in regional extinctions caused mainly by habitat destruction. Another three or four, he said, will likely be gone within the next five years.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kat Renz |
07-23-2008 |
Animal Issues
How One San Fran Woman Helped Nail a Notorious Weapons Smugglernew
Investigator Kathi Austin helped expose notorious arms dealer Victor Bout and awaken the world to a key human rights struggle.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
G.W. Schulz |
07-23-2008 |
Crime & Justice
'Wanted and Desired' Takes Aim at Roman Polanski and the Culture of Celebritynew
Some critics will probably deride Wanted and Desired as pure hagiography, or worse yet, a legitimization of Polanski's crimes and subsequent fugitive status. But Zenovich's intentions circumnavigate any idol worship, as her refusal to err toward his guilt or exoneration makes clear.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Erik Morse |
07-23-2008 |
Reviews
'Winning Our Energy Independence' Takes on 'The Three Poisons'new
S. David Freeman lays out a plan to phase out Big Coal, Big Oil, and nuclear over 30 years while meeting the needs of our high-energy society by implementing renewable technologies that already exist: sun, wind, and renewably generated hydrogen, supplemented by small hydroelectric, geothermal, and certain biofuels.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Diana Scott |
07-10-2008 |
Nonfiction
What if Courageous California Pols Had Put a $2/Gallon Tax on Gas Five Years Ago?new
The SUVs and Hummers would be long gone. Public transit would be booming. And with 1.5 billion gallons of gas sold per year in the state, there would be $3 billion more each year in new revenue. Enough to fund huge improvements in urban transportation systems. The high-speed rail line to Los Angeles would be well underway. Traffic (and pollution, and global warming) would have dropped dramatically.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Tim Redmond |
07-10-2008 |
Transportation
'The Wackness' Captures 1994's Halcyon Hustlenew
Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) may not be as brainy and broken as Holden Caulfield or as mortality-fixated and mundane as Andrew Largeman of Garden State, but Peck hits the right notes of cringe-inducing yet pungent realism required to turn this potential cipher into a full-fledged character.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
07-10-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: The Wackness, Jonathan Levine
Death of 17-Year-Old Pregnant Farm Worker Incites Campaign Against Trader Joe'snew
The California Division of Industrial Relations has opened an investigation of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez's death and her employer, Merced Farm Labor. But activists connected to the case want to send the message even further, to stores like Trader Joe's that market products made with cheap or exploited agricultural labor.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Amanda Witherell |
07-10-2008 |
Business & Labor
