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San Francisco voters are likely to be asked in November to weigh in on two measures aimed at imposing hefty taxes on downtown businesses, wealthy homeowners and law firms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Downtown businesses, law firms and wealthy property owners in San Francisco could be forced to pay more in taxes - in some case tens of thousands of dollars more - under proposals being debated today at City Hall. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's plan to get people to exercise in the streets by shutting a main city thoroughfare on two Sundays this summer is expected to hit a roadblock today at the Board of Supervisors, where lawmakers are concerned about the potential impact on local businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For the first time in recent memory, the weekly San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting will be canceled today because a local newspaper forgot to publish a notice announcing the meeting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Franciscans will be dancing in the streets - literally- after Mayor Gavin Newsom's office obtained the necessary permits this week to shut down 6 miles of thoroughfare during two Sundays this summer and turn the pavement into a party zone. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's chief of staff, Phil Ginsburg, announced his resignation Thursday, and Newsom named the city's former point man on homeless issues, Trent Rhorer, to the post - the third person to hold the job since the mayor took office in 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a constitutional right to possess guns for self-defense, the National Rifle Association sued San Francisco and its Housing Authority for banning firearms in the authority's public housing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mayor Gavin Newsom marked the 3 millionth call to San Francisco's 311 line, saying Wednesday that even more call-takers need to be hired to meet the high demand of calls from residents requesting everything from bus schedules to information about city services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A who's who of San Francisco political players will be hobnobbing this evening at a swanky fundraiser in the Neiman Marcus rotunda to honor a big-city mayor who is considered a superstar in the state Democratic Party. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco has added hundreds of highly paid government managers to the payroll since Mayor Gavin Newsom took office four years ago, a new city report has found - a revelation that frustrates labor union leaders as they brace for scores of low-level city workers to be laid off in coming months as officials struggle to balance a massive budget deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco transit officials said Monday that a June 14 Muni train crash near the Giants ballpark, which injured 16 people, was not the result of a mechanical failure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Every day at 6 a.m., the same old-timers in this small Northern California farm town begin wandering into the Kountry Kitchen, where regulars have their favorite seats at the counter and a spunky waitress named Fran serves up the usual. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Amanda Camerer and Jorge Mujica got married on such short notice that the bride had trouble finding something borrowed and something blue in time for their ceremony Thursday morning in the Kern County Clerk's Office. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has always looked to Robert Kennedy as a political role model, but he now finds himself following in the footsteps of Jerry Springer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A little-known but highly influential San Francisco political group is about to add some big-name local politicians to its ranks after voters on Tuesday elected three members of the Board of Supervisors to the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee and handed control of the body to the city's left-leaning progressive forces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposal to solve San Francisco's $338 million budget deficit by cutting social services and allowing hundreds of inmates to complete their jail sentences from home drew criticism Tuesday from lawmakers and advocates, some of whom are planning a protest in front of the mayor's home to show him just how angry they are. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mayor Gavin Newsom unveiled a record $6.5 billion budget Monday that seeks to erase San Francisco's huge budget deficit by laying off scores of city workers, allowing hundreds of prisoners to complete their jail sentences at home and shuttering a homeless drop-in center in the gritty Tenderloin. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The proposed budget would fund three new police academy classes, bringing 150 additional officers into the department. That would mean that for the first time since voters approved mandatory staffing requirements in 1994, the department would have 1,971 officers in its ranks - the minimum number required under city law. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tourists are flocking to San Francisco in droves. Property and sales taxes are up. Unemployment is down. Residents and businesses are spending money - lots of money - to live and work in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco government managers and department heads have agreed to take five unpaid days off in the upcoming fiscal year to help the city reduce a budget deficit of more than $300 million. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fresno, meet Gavin Newsom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had barely been on the job a month back in 2004 when he ordered the city to issue marriages licenses to gay and lesbian couples. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Tenderloin might be one of San Francisco's most violent neighborhoods, but a controversial report released Tuesday calls for closing its police station - along with four others around the city - in an effort to fight crime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco small-business owners now have a one-stop shop in City Hall to help them navigate their way through the often complicated world of running a business, thanks to a new small-business assistance center opened Monday in the treasurer/tax collector's office. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rather than tossing loose change into a panhandler's empty cup, San Francisco officials want you instead to slide your spare quarters and nickels into a homeless meter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A full-fledged political battle is brewing between San Francisco's moderate and progressive forces - and this time it's not over affordable housing, the mayor or any other topic the two sides usually love to debate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Paris turns the banks of the Seine into a palm tree-studded, sandy-beach hangout in the summertime, and Bogota, Colombia, bans cars from its busy thoroughfares once a week and gives free aerobics classes in the streets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As San Francisco's population of African American residents has decreased in recent years, the population of black men and women locked up in the San Francisco County Jail has increased dramatically, Sheriff Michael Hennessey said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco's projected budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is now about $305 million - $33 million less than an earlier projection, according to a new report by the San Francisco controller's office. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mayor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a measure that would have required San Francisco government meetings to be broadcast on the Internet, saying the move would cost too much. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Free ukulele lessons in San Francisco could be a thing of the past under a series of fee increases that City Hall is considering to help offset a whopping $338 million budget deficit. Archery summer camp will probably cost more, too. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In most parts of San Francisco, it's against the law to feed the pigeons. You can't smoke in parks, near a bus shelter or, for that matter, near many doorways. It's also technically illegal to walk a cat without a leash. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco supervisors and police commissioners blasted Police Chief Heather Fong Wednesday for what they said was the premature posting of a letter on her department's Web site that refuted the findings of a study criticizing the top brass' implementation of a police foot-patrol program. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A man who police said robbed a Hayward bank in January was arrested this week after he allegedly spent the stolen cash - marked with red ink after a dye pack exploded in his getaway bag - at a betting machine at Bay Meadows racetrack. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A 12-year-old San Francisco girl missing since Monday is a possible runaway who may be staying with a man, police said Wednesday, a theory that one relative denounced as "lies." [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Police are searching for a 12-year-old San Francisco girl who has been missing since Monday morning when she told her mother she was headed to school on the bus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A 20-year-old hiker walking along a rugged coastal trail above Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands died Monday after falling over the cliff, and her hiking partner was injured when he attempted to rescue her, authorities said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A 66-year-old San Francisco woman who spent two decades working as a hotel housekeeper was struck and killed Friday by a city Department of Public Works pickup truck as she walked to a neighborhood wash-and-dry on her day off, authorities and relatives said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco residents will soon be able to toss even more plastic items- from buckets to toys- into the recycling bin. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco officials spent months preparing for the arrival of the Olympic torch, but their decision Wednesday to cut the route short and drastically alter the torchbearers' path was an act of desperation just before opening ceremonies kicked off, sources said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

San Francisco officials say they are confident the city will host a successful Olympic torch run Wednesday and avoid a repeat of the chaos that engulfed the relay in Paris, where police were forced to extinguish torches and carry the flame in a bus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]