San Francisco Jewish Groups Say They’ll Fight Circumcision Measure

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – Local Jewish leaders have vowed to stop a San Francisco ballot measure that would outlaw circumcision in the city.

Making circumcision performed on a boy under 18 without his permission into a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine or a year in jail is an unconstitutional attack on religious freedom, Jewish leaders said Wednesday.

“The ancient Greeks tried to prevent Jews from circumcising their children and failed. Hitler tried. Stalin tried,” said Rabbi Moshe Trager, a mohel certified to circumcise infant boys in accordance with Jewish custom.

“This is a tradition that we’ve found meaningful for 3,000 years and we continue to do it,” he said.

KCBS’ Doug Sovern Reports:
[audio_link url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d0/dX/dP/dO/d4/XPO4_4.MP3" name="San Francisco Jewish Groups Say They'll Fight Circumcision Measure" artist="Doug Sovern"]

Other Jewish leaders said fighting what would be the first circumcision ban in America is going to waste money and energy that could be put to much better social use.

Lloyd Schofield, the man who succeeded in gathering 7,743 valid signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot, compared cutting the foreskin of a newborn boy to female genital circumcision, a practice already outlawed in the U.S.

“It’s genital mutilation,” he said.

Schofield said circumcision, whether carried out by religious officials or medical professionals, is a personal decision that should be made with the boy’s consent.

“His body doesn’t belong to his culture, his government, his religion or even his parents. It’s his decision,” he said.

If it does pass, the measure is certain to face a court challenge.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services may have contributed to this report.)

Phil Matier: California’s First Open Primary Election Defies Expectations

LOS ANGELES (CBS SF) – Many expected a Democratic candidate would have an easy win in the special election to fill the Southern California Congressional seat occupied for most of the last 18 years by Jane Harman.

Harman resigned in February to accept a position as head of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, setting off a contest that resulted in an unexpected run-off.

“This was a heavily Democratic district and so it was thought that the two top vote-getters would be Janice Hahn, who is a Democratic L.A. city councilwoman, and Debra Bowen, who is the secretary of state,” said KCBS and Chronicle Insider Phil Matier.

Instead Hahn, who led the pack of 15 candidates with 24.6 percent of the vote, may wind up facing off against Republican businessman Craig Huey. Bowen trails in third, separated from Huey by just 206 votes.

The slim margin means a recount before the final results are certified, but low turnout and a surge of cash from Huey in the final days of the race appeared likely to pay off once all precincts paid off.

“The Republican came in with $500,000 at the end” Matier said. The strategy? “Get a hot campaign while the two Democrats are trying to kill each other.”

KCBS And Chronicle Insider Phil Matier:
[audio_link url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d0/dX/dP/dN/dO/XPNO_4.MP3" name="California's First Open Primary Election Defies Expectations" artist="Phil Matier"]

The May 17 special election for the 36th congressional district was the first ballot under California’s new “top two” open primary system that allows for run-offs from members of the same party.

Backers had expected the system to produce more moderate candidates since the two candidates would have to compete for voters from the other party.

Matier expects the results the open primary could not deliver on its own will materialize when state lawmakers have to run in re-drawn legislative districts later this year.

“The first time these people see their new lines is going to be right about the time that budget is overdue,” Matier said.

Only 16 percent of all eligible voters participated in the primary, and nearly half of them chose to vote by mail.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services may have contributed to this report.)

California Urges Ban Of ‘Brazilian Blowout’ Hair Straightener

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – California has received hundreds of complaints from consumers in the past year about the health risks of two popular hair straightening treatments marketed under the brand Brazilian Blowout.

Dr. Michael DiBartolomeis, head of the Safe Cosmetics Program at the California Department of Public Health, said the labels do not indicate the product contains methylene glycol, a liquid form of formaldehyde.

“It hadn’t been reported to us” by the company, he said. “And formaldehyde should be. It’s a carcinogen. It also might be eventually listed as a reproductive toxin.”

KCBS’ Anna Duckworth Reports:
[audio_link url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d0/dX/dP/dM/dL/XPML_4.MP3" name="California Urges Ban Of 'Brazilian Blowout' Hair Straightener" artist="Anna Duckworth"]

DiBartolomeis and other California health officials testified before Congress on Wednesday.

In the face of growing calls from state and federal lawmakers for better labeling and even a voluntary recall of the so-called keratin treatments, Brazilian Blowout has maintained that the methylene glycol levels in its products are below acceptable levels and therefore safe to use.

Yet many stylists disagree.

Jennifer Goeres-Arce filed a complaint with state regulators last Fall after she tried the product on her own hair because so many clients at the Escondido salon where she works had requested it.

“Within 10 minutes, I knew something was wrong,” she said.

Goeres-Arce said her eyes started stinging and she had trouble breathing. A persistent headache and sore throat landed her in front of a doctor a few days later.

“They actually put me on an inhaler,” she said, a treatment that lasted two months before she was breathing normally again.

Goeres-Arce said her sister was the stylist who applied the treatment, and she had a similar reaction.

The California Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Brazilian Blowout in April accusing the company of mislabeling its products.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Average Cost Of Broadband Internet Drops 50%

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – The cost of broadband Internet access worldwide has dropped 50 percent, but access remains out of reach for many households even in the United States.

Figures released in May by the International Telecommunications Union show that lower prices in the developing world account for most of the decline in broadband cost.

Many parts of the world remain shut out of the business and educational opportunities high speed Internet access makes possible, primarily because of the price, said KCBS technology analyst Larry Magid.

“In some countries, broadband can be half a month’s salary. So clearly, if you’re talking about a huge percent of somebody’s income, it’s a major inhibition,” Magid said.

KCBS’ Technology Analyst Larry Magid:
[audio_link url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d0/dX/dP/dG/d3/XPG3_4.MP3" name="Cost Of Broadband Internet Drops By 50 Percent" artist="Larry Magid"]

The choice between basic necessities and net access can be equally stark even in the U.S.

“There are still significant populations in New York that are not online, parents and kids who don’t have access at home. And that’s a real priority to get families online so they can take advantage of all the learning opportunities,” Magid said.

And while many Americans have broadband access, Magid pointed out that most U.S. households connect at speeds that are a crawl compared to what the infrastructure in Europe and parts of Asia makes possible.

“It’s an issue the Obama administration is trying to address with its comprehensive broadband program. It’s also an issue that the private sector has to address,” he said, given that cable and telecom companies will remain the country’s primary Internet service providers.

Magid noted that Comcast and Verizon have made great strides in offering super high speed access in the Northeast and Northern California.

“We’re getting better, but if you look at the country as a whole, we’re still relatively slow,” he said.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

East Menlo Park See Big Revitalization Coming When Facebook Arrives

EAST MENLO PARK (KCBS) – The arrival of Facebook at the former Sun Microsystems campus in East Palo Alto in 2012 may finally bring the revitalization East Menlo Park has been waiting decades to see, residents and city officials said.

The social networking company’s presence will transform the community, said people living in nearby Bellhaven, a neighborhood where the median income is $25,000.

“I think that more people would move here with higher incomes and they would tear down these houses and put up bigger houses, nicer houses,” said Pepi Crummer, who has lived down the street from the Willow Road campus for 25 years.

That in turn would bode well for East Menlo Park schools, he said.

KCBS’ Mike Colgan Reports:
[audio_link url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d0/dX/dP/dF/dO/XPFO_4.MP3" name="East Menlo Park See Big Revitalization Coming When Facebook Arrives" artist="Mike Colgan"]

City Councilman Andy Cohen said 5,000 new units of housing would have to be built, but cautioned that the city of 30,000 was unlikely to see an enormous housing boom as a result.

“A lot of the 9,800 employees that Facebook is predicting within eight to ten years will not live here. They’ll live in San Francisco where the young people love to be, or the East Bay,” he said.

Sun was allowed only 3,600 employees at the Willow Road property. Facebook hopes to bring as many as 6,000 to the 57-acre site. The rest would work at two other properties on Constitution Drive.

One thing Facebook headquarters will definitely bring is traffic. Cohen said the company was working with city officials to mitigate congestion with shuttles and other forms of mass transit.

Bellhaven residents hoped that so many people coming and going would encourage a bank to open a branch in the area.

Crummer remembered a time when many of his neighbors found it all but impossible to secure a bank loan, and predicted a much brighter future.

“The banks will absolutely be happy to lend people money over here,” he said.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Local Lawmaker’s Calorie Count Idea Goes National

SANTA CLARA (KCBS)_ This Saturday, chain restaurants across the nation, like McDonalds and Denny’s, will have to post the calorie count of the items they serve to the public.

The new regulation is a feather in the cap of Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss who first introduced her idea four years ago.

The new rule was a little-known provision that was added to the Health Care Reform Bill, signed into law by President Obama back in March.

According to the Federal law, any chain restaurant with 20 outlets or more must post the calorie information on their menu boards.

Kniss said it’s a great idea despite being accused of “nanny-ism”. She added that this kind of honesty and reporting is successfully being promoted.

KCBS’ Mark Seelig: [audio_link url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d0/dW/dG/dT/d3/WGT3_4.MP3" name="Menu labels" artist="Mark Seelig"]

“I think this gives the public a fabulous opportunity to really know what they’re eating, understand what’s in it and make their own decision,” she added.

She said if you don’t care about what you eat, so be it, but that after a while you might want to know about what’s in the food you’re eating especially if you’re struggling with your weight, diabetes or heart disease.

“We’re not trying to spoil your fun, believe me. What we are trying to do is help you feel better especially in the New Year when everybody’s talking about losing weight,” said Kniss.

Some chain stores already have caloric information posted on a wall, but this law makes it mandatory to add that data to the actual menu board.

Here in California informational brochures will also have to be handed out to customers.

Officials with the National Restaurant Association say they approve of national standards for menu labeling.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

KCBS In Depth: Fighting Crime In San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)_ During this economic downturn many of us have been making due with less in our personal lives and the same goes for San Francisco’s Police Department.

Chief of Police George Gascon explains how he’s meeting goals which include staying committed to obtaining Tasers for the SFPD, and dealing with the number of unsolved murders, which has been a problem for the department in the past. Gascon admits that’s one area where there’s room for improvement.

KCBS In Depth Reports: [audio_link url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d0/dW/dG/dS/dO/WGSO_4.MP3" name="Fighting Crime in San Francisco" artist="KCBS In Depth"]

However, statistics do show a drop in violent crime since he’s taken his position in the summer of 2009. In 2008 the city had 98 homicides compared to 45 in 2009.

Gascon attributes the drop in violent crime to his highly sophisticated organization.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

San Jose Mayor Predicts Continued Budget Woes

SAN JOSE (KCBS)_ San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed is spending January 1st visiting fire stations, sitting in on police briefings and shaking hands with emergency dispatchers at the city’s communication center.

“These continue to be difficult budgetary times,” said Reed.

KCBS’ Betsy Gebhart: [audio_link url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d0/dW/dG/dT/d2/WGT2_4.MP3" name="SJ Mayor" artist="Betsy Gebhart"]

Last year most city employees took a 10 percent pay cut. On top of that, Reed successfully convinced voters to weaken the city’s binding arbitration system, a system that he contends sent police and firefighter pensions soaring.

On Saturday Reed thanked city workers for their service, but unfortunately said there are more tough times to come.

“There’s no doubt that changes are coming pensions are costing us huge amounts of money. We’re pouring money into the pension plans and draining money from other services.

Reed said negotiations start up again this month with 11 city employee unions. The mayor will be pushing for second-tier benefits for all new employees to try to stem city expenses.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Phasing In The Affordable Care Act

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)_ As the challenges to the President’s health care reform continue so does the implementation of the law.

New provisions of the Affordable Care Act include a focus on insurance companies.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said insurers will be required to spend 50 cents of every dollar on medical care and quality improvements or to provide rebates to patients.

KCBS’ Susan Kennedy: [audio_link url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d0/dW/dG/dS/dW/WGSW_4.MP3" name="Affordable Care Act" artist="Susan Kennedy"]

“Insurers will have to publicly disclose the share of the premium that they’re spending on medical care. For the first time Americans really will have the chance to understand what they’re getting,” said Sebelius.  

In addition seniors on Medicare will have access to free preventative care and lower cost prescription drugs. Consumers will also have more choices about doctors.

“They can choose any primary care physician or pediatrician in their health plan as a caregiver. Women will now have direct access to an OB-GYN and not have to go through a two-step process,” she added.

While there are lawsuits and some in Congress are intent on repealing what has become known as Obama care, Secretary Sebelius said there’s “no turning back”.

“We can’t return to the days when over the last ten years insurance charges went up 130 percent and people had less coverage and less options,” said Sebelius.

While the Affordable Care Act remains under fire, it could take a Supreme Court decision to uphold, Sebelius maintained that repealing the act would put the insurance companies back in charge.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

San Quentin Death Row Inmate Wants Clemency From Governor

SAN QUENTIN (KCBS)_ A convicted killer on San Quentin’s death row is asking Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant him clemency as one of his last acts as governor.

Schwarzenegger has until Sunday to decide Kevin Cooper’s fate whether it be a grant for clemency or the death sentence.

In June of 1983 a Chino Hills California couple, their 10-year-old daughter and 11-year-old family friend, were murdered in their home.

The couple’s eight-year-old son, whose throat was slashed, survived.

The area’s assemblyman Curt Hagman said Kevin Cooper, who was convicted of the crime 25 years ago, did it.

KCBS’ Anna Duckworth: [audio_link url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d0/dW/dG/dS/dP/WGSP_4.MP3" name="San Quentin Death Row" artist="Anna Duckworth"]

“This man took a hatchet and literally hacked up a family that was living there and it’s been a horrible memory for those who still live in Chino Valley today,” said Hagman.

DNA evidence linked Cooper to the crime, but his attorney Norman Hile said the evidence was tampered with, destroyed, and hidden in order to “frame him”.

Hile said more proof of doubt came in 2009, when five appeals-court judges signed a dissenting opinion stating Cooper is probably innocent.

“We should not have somebody executed so we don’t face what’s happened in Texas recently which is after people were executed that people were found out to be innocent,” said Hile.

Governor Schwarzenegger already denied a clemency request from Cooper back in 2004 just months into his governorship.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)