-- the alleged $40,000 payment from the would-be operators of tapioca drink parlors, the questions about where he really lives, the unlicensed pot club in a building that he and his parents own. that went up in flames last year. The house at 2626 Sutter St.
in Laurel Heights is one of several buildings interest. He didn't list it on his most recent financial disclosure statement with the city, however -- perhaps because it hasn't been bringing him any income lately. The money stopped coming in when the last tenant killed himself there in September 2005 by overdosing on muscle relaxant.
Two months later, Jew put the two-story house on the market for $1.19 million, but it didn't sell. The property was still vacant and available in February 2006, when, according to the Fire Department, an arsonist set it ablaze in the dead of night, causing $260,000 in damage.
through an unlocked door, doused the den and living room with gasoline, and set the place on fire. Fire Lt. Mindy Talmadge said the case is still under investigation by the joint Police and Fire Department arson task force.
After taking the house off the market, Jew obtained a permit last June for $50,000 in fire repairs and renovations, according to Department of Building Inspection records. In November, he got a permit for an additional $70,000 in As of last week, a crew was hard at work rebuilding the house. But the story doesn't end there.
According to neighbors, as workers were preparing to clean up the damage last year, a homeless man moved into the portable toilet that had been Then, one day, the portable toilet itself went up in flames. "I said to myself, 'This house has bad juju,' " said a neighbor, Robin Romdalvik. "This house is haunted forever.
" Changing lanes: State Sen. Carole Migden's frenetic drive up Interstate 80, over to Highway 12 and into the rear end of a Honda sedan is hardly going Which is ironic, given that the electoral challenge was the reason Migden was behind the wheel of her state-bought Mercury sport utility vehicle hybrid. Migden, never much of a driver to begin with, used office staffers to against her.
Now, Migden has to mix political stops in with official business, After her well-chronicled road misadventures May 18, which she ascribes either to leukemia or medicine she takes for the cancer, Migden is once again in the passenger seat. She's considering hiring a full-time driver. But whoever is behind the wheel, "it will not be at public expense," said conferences with many interesting clients over the years, but nothing could For starters, the statuesque former aide to former San Francisco Mayor studio -- right next door to the Centerfolds strip club in North Beach.
Never shy, Hwang had adorned the walls with giant swimsuit shots of herself. (Available, we might add, on her Web site, .) "Obviously, she is a very attractive woman who knows who she is and what she is," Burris told us.
of positioning himself as far away from the photos as possible. Dressed down: The other day, we reported that San Francisco Supervisor the ambassador of Venezuela, but we got one part wrong. We described Daly as being dressed down, in blue jeans and T-shirt.
In fact, he was in a suit, no tie, and a bit scruffy in appearance only because he was growing a beard -- in solidarity, he said, with Golden State State Condoleezza Rice at a Giants-Astros game. Or maybe it was Rice's mother who made it happen. Turns out Mom was the slugger's ninth-grade teacher back in Alabama.
When informed of the connection, the 76-year-old Mays (whose knees aren't what they used to be) ambled down and joined the secretary in the stands. As for why the team didn't show Rice up on the big board? Lehane, who helped hype "Fahrenheit 9/11" into the national consciousness, was over in Cannes last week to pump Michael Moore's latest film, "Sicko.
'' "It's like the Democratic convention on steroids,'' Lehane said during a 3:30 a.m. call to us the other day from his Cannes hotel room.
"Fahrenheit 9/11," which opened at the height of the 2004 presidential contest and helped frame the national political debate, will be a hard act to This time, Moore is counting on the blogosphere to help promote his film and its "call to action" against the health care industry. Which might explain why when the movie opens in the United States over the July 4th weekend, Moore -- what else -- the blogging community. EXTRA!
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