By Andrew Ross – SF Chronicle, January 19, 2012

In which we attend a press conference at Herb Caen’s favorite bar, thrown by supporters trying to head off its eviction after 36 years on Powell Street.

The place was packed with many attendees sporting “Save the Gold Dust” T-shirts. There to voice their support were Supervisors Scott Wiener, David Chiu, and Jane Kim, who was Acting Mayor for the day. (Ed Lee was in Washington).

The bar, said Chiu, to cheers, “is an important part of the fabric of Union Square and of San Francisco. We’re just asking the landlord to come back to the table.” Kim echoed the sentiment, and signed off by wishing Janis Joplin, one of Gold Dust’s former celebrity patrons, happy birthday. (She would have been 69 today).

Up next was PR maven, Sam Singer, speaking for the landlord, Handlery Hotel, which owns several buildings in the area. He was straight and to the point. “The lease is up. This place is through this year,” he said, to a chorus of boos.

Singer explained that the bar’s proprietors — as my column reported last week — had signed a clause allowing the landlord to give them 90 days notice if another business wanted to take over the space. (Apparently it’s not, as had been reported, The Limited).

There is space nearby owned by the Handlery Hotel, which the bar is welcome to take over, should the existing tenants agree, he said. Perhaps at Lefty O’Douls around the corner, which the bar’s proprietors also lease.

And there, basically, it was left, apart from patrons sticking around for the 25 cent drinks on offer.

I heard talk of a lawsuit being filed, and a push to protect the bar under the city’s historic preservation ordinance.

We’ll see.

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Singer Associates, the West Coast’s premier public relations and corporate communications agency, is, for the sixth time in eight years, a finalist in the PRWeek Awards’ “Agency of the Year” category.

A PRWeek Award is the highest accolade in the PR industry, given each year to the best corporate, nonprofit, and agency teams as well as to the campaigns that they produce. The award will be announced on March 1, 2012 at the Grand Hyatt, New York City.

Singer Associates possesses the experience to handle the most difficult crises, public policy issues and communications projects, yet the agency’s size makes it agile enough to give personal service to each client. The agency’s dedication and expertise have fueled its success since its founding in 2000, when Sam Singer started it with a staff of four in San Francisco.

The agency has been a finalist six times for PRWeek’s “PR Agency of the Year.” Additionally, Sam Singer was PR News’ 2008 “Spokesperson of the Year” and agency Executive Vice President, Adam Alberti and  Vice President, Jason Barnett, were named to PRWeek’s “Top 40 Under 40” that cites individuals under the age of 40 who “demonstrate innovative thinking, strong determination, and results that indicate a long and successful career in the PR industry.”

San Francisco Chronicle, December 28, 2011

The earsplitting howl of the wood chipper signaled an early end of the holiday season for more than two dozen Christmas trees at San Francisco’s Civic Center Tuesday.

As workers for Recology, the city’s garbage company, fed the leftovers from tree sales lots into the maw of the giant green machine, a steady stream of wood chips flew out the other end into a waiting truck.

“We’re trying to educate the public to not just toss their old Christmas trees in the back yard, but put them out with their regular trash so they can be chipped and sent out to energy facilities in Woodland and Tracy,” said Kevin Danaher, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Environment.

“This is a resource,” added Robert Reed of Recology. “We need to use it.”

This isn’t something new for the city, which has been “treecycling” the holiday foliage for 25 years. But recent years have seen a boost in efforts both to find new sources of energy for the country and to reuse what once went straight to the landfill.

“We’re now capturing 78 percent of the city’s waste for recycling and composting,” Danaher added. Chipping the city’s tens of thousands of Christmas trees “is upcycling, which means taking something out of the waste stream and creating a new product, in this case, energy.”

Composting isn’t an option for the evergreens, because they’re too acidic to properly decompose. But last year the city turned Christmas trees into 514 tons of wood chips, which can provide 75 percent of the energy of coal, said Jared Blumenfeld, a regional administrator for the federal Environmental Protection Agency. A Nevada power company already is paying people $1 each for their trees.

In San Francisco, trees can be left out on the regular trash collection days in the two weeks after New Year’s Day, said Reed. The trees should be stripped of all tinsel, string, stands, flocking and wires and set outside, separate from the regular trash bins.

The tree-chipping program also provides a bit of welcome relief at the city’s often-aromatic trash transfer station, better know as the dump on the Brisbane border.

“We’ll have so many trees down at the dump in the next two weeks the whole place will smell like Christmas trees,” Reed said.

Company Submits Evidence of Fraud and other Crimes to Ecuador’s Prosecutor General

Business Wire, December 21, 2011

Chevron Corporation CVX -0.19% today published a letter submitted to Galo Chiriboga, Ecuador’s Prosecutor General, documenting evidence of fraud and corruption in the litigation against Chevron in Ecuador. The company called on Ecuadorian authorities to investigate the misconduct of the plaintiffs’ lawyers and the presiding judge, Nicholas Zambrano, in the drafting of the fraudulent judgment rendered against Chevron earlier this year.

Chevron submitted evidence showing that plaintiffs’ representatives–including Steven Donziger, Pablo Fajardo, Juan Pablo Saenz, Julio Prieto, and Luis Yanza–covertly worked with Judge Zambrano to draft the judgment. The letter states that the fraudulent conduct “is causing serious, ongoing harm to Chevron Corporation and to the Republic of Ecuador.”

“To date, the plaintiffs’ representatives have failed to offer any explanation for how their internal, never-filed documents came to appear in the fraudulent Lago Agrio judgment,” said Hewitt Pate, Chevron vice president and general counsel. “Nor has the Judge explained how the plaintiffs’ private work came to be included in the decision bearing his name. In the interest of justice and due process, it is incumbent upon the authorities in Ecuador to investigate the full extent of this misconduct.”

There is substantial and unrefuted evidence that the judgment against Chevron is fraudulent. The evidence provided to the Prosecutor General includes:

– The judgment copies exact language from a June 2009 email that Fajardo sent to Donziger, Saenz, and Prieto. The body of the email includes a short memo from a not-yet identified third party and a “transcri[ption]” of a published Ecuadorian court opinion. That “transcription” contains numerous mistakes not found in the published court opinion itself. The judgment repeats all of these mistakes, exactly, as well as a citation error Fajardo made in his email.

– The judgment also refers to several test samples by names that are not found in the record, but rather in private spreadsheets created by the plaintiffs, which contain information from the plaintiffs’ own database. The judgment replicates errors contained in the plaintiffs’ database and replicates errors in the database attributing data to the wrong experts and confuses measurement units.

– The judgment contains language from a private memorandum authored by plaintiffs’ attorney Juan Pablo Saenz and other members of plaintiffs’ legal team around November 2007 regarding a Chevron subsidiary’s merger with Texaco. No fewer than fifteen instances, significant portions of the Saenz memorandum, including entire sentences, appear verbatim or nearly verbatim in the judgment.

Much of this evidence is corroborated by expert analyses commissioned by Chevron that found the similarities between the plaintiffs’ documents and the judgment are too great to be coincidence, and concluded that either plaintiffs wrote at least part of the judgment, or the author(s) of the judgment had access to documents prepared by the plaintiffs’ representatives and lawyers that were never submitted during the trial.

“This evidence raises disturbing questions about who is really behind the Lago Agrio judgment,” added Pate. “This is just the latest chapter in an established pattern of fraud being carried out by plaintiffs’ lawyers and their representatives.”

In addition to the letter, Chevron has submitted corresponding evidence including video outtakes, emails, and other documents to prosecutors in Ecuador. The letter can be reviewed at www.chevron.com/ecuador .

Chevron Corporation is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. The company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com .

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Michael Cabanatuan – San Francisco Chronicle, December 2, 2011

When most people ponder the past at the Transbay Terminal construction site, they imagine the hustle and bustle of gray-suited commuters swarming in and out of the Art Deco-style train depot in the mid-20th century.

But archaeologists working at the site during demolition of the dingy old terminal last winter and construction of its grand replacement have unearthed artifacts that help reveal what it must have been like to live in the Irish working-class neighborhood that existed in that part of the South of Market in the mid- to late 1800s.

They’ve dug up bottles that once held soda, booze and medical remedies, ceramic doll heads, iron toilets, dishes and toothbrushes. There are also iron cogs from foundries and factories, the rudder of a ship, a dog collar – even a small gold nugget that was melted down, probably during the Gold Rush.

The artifacts will go on display beginning today in the lobby of 201 Mission St., a high-rise at the south end of the construction site that houses the headquarters for the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, the agency building the $4.2 billion transit terminal expected to open in 2017. The museum-like exhibition of about 70 small items – and not including the gold – will be available for public viewing during business hours through February, giving the public a chance to glimpse into life in the 1870s.

“I think it was pretty hard – cramped living conditions, not a lot of money,” said Paul Farnsworth, an archaeological consultant on the project. “Long working hours for men, and you came back to a small house filled with a lot of people. Women stayed in the cramped house taking care of kids all day. It must have been a hard existence for everybody.”

Archaeologists are required on major construction projects to protect and collect cultural resources. In the case of the Transbay site, Farnsworth said, historical maps revealed a crowded neighborhood of 20-foot-wide houses, shops and factories along Natoma and Minna streets between Second and Beale streets.

The neighborhood was almost entirely filled with Irish immigrants except for a Chinese laundry run by seven young men who lived and worked on the ground floor of a three-story building at 47 Minna St., Farnsworth said.

Archaeologists dig in what they figure would be the backyards, and discover piles of broken shards of glass and china, nails and bones of animals, mostly cows. Most of what was uncovered, except for the gold, was unremarkable, the detritus of daily life.

“These were the kinds of things anyone could afford,” Farnsworth said. “Nothing special.”

There’s a blue soda bottle from the Bay City Soda Water Co., which operated from 1871 to 1913; the cover of an apothecary jar adorned with a drawing of a circus scene, and a squarish brown bottle of Dr. J. Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters, which contained 47 percent alcohol – booze masquerading as medicine.

“That much alcohol would cure anything,” said Farnwsworth.

Other finds include a bone toothbrush, a clay tobacco pipe, an iron rope pulley probably from a factory, a small crucible for melting metals and pouring them into molds, and a porcelain doll’s head with a hairstyle that causes Farnsworth to guess it came from the 1940s.

“We found quite a few doll’s heads – all of them were broken to some extent,” he said.

Behind the laundry, archaeologists found a remarkably well-preserved gray stoneware rice bowl with a blue floral design and a black porcelain bottle that probably once held 96- to 106-proof rice wine or a liquor called Ng Ka Pi that packed quite a kick.

“And they probably needed it,” Farnsworth said.

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By Braden Reddall – Reuters, November 28, 2011

Arbitrators expect to rule as early as next month on whether they can hear a dispute between Chevron Corp and Ecuador related to a marathon pollution liability case, according to a letter to the lawyers involved.

The tribunal, working under The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), ordered the Republic of Ecuador in February to suspend enforcement of any judgment in the lawsuit filed by rainforest dwellers against Chevron.

Chevron lost that case a few days later, as the company had expected. A New York judge then sought to freeze the $18 billion judgment against the second-largest U.S. oil company, before he was overruled on appeal.

Chevron, arguing the judicial process in Ecuador was corrupted, is now banking on the arbitrators, who must first decide whether they will become the latest body to weigh in on what has become a landmark international legal battle.

“The current expectation is that the decision will be issued in the course of late December 2011 or early January 2012,” Martin Doe of the PCA wrote in a Nov. 11 letter, which wound up in the filings of related U.S. lawsuits.

“If that goes our way, we can begin arguments on the merits,” a Chevron spokesman said on Monday.

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The Amazon Post – November 29, 2011

Chevron has filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York a motion for attachment, seeking to prevent the Lago Agrio plaintiffs, lawyers, and financiers from collecting and dissipating monies based upon the fraudulent judgment that they have obtained through collusion with a corrupt Ecuadorian court. This motion relates to Chevron’s fraud and RICO claims against those pursuing sham environmental claims against it.

In a separate proceeding, Chevron awaits the opinion of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with respect to its suit seeking a declaration that the fraudulent judgment is unenforceable.

The motion for attachment can be downloaded here.

By Emily DeRuy – San Francisco Chronicle, November 22, 2011

San Francisco’s garbage company says it expects to collect the 1 millionth ton of food scraps today, a milestone meant to remind holiday cooks to sort out their potato peelings and turkey bones.

The compost that will be picked up today at Scoma’s Restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf will be added to the piles of coffee grounds and banana peels collected around San Francisco, which in 2009 became the first U.S. city to require residents and businesses to sort their green waste.

The tons of food scraps collected each week are turned into rich soil that is sent to Northern California farms and vineyards.

Since composting became mandatory in the city, more than 90 cities worldwide have imposed similar laws, officials said.

And the program has also helped push the city’s diversion rate – or the amount of trash kept out of landfills due to recycling or composting – to the nation’s highest. Robert Reed, a spokesman for the Recology garbage company, said San Francisco keeps 78 percent of its refuse out of landfills.

“San Francisco has embraced urban composting,” Reed said. “Once people found out it was like recycling, and that it’s easy to do in this city, it took off.”

City residents are required to separate waste into three categories – trash, recycling and green waste. Recycling and composting are free, while the trash fee varies depending on the size of a household’s bin.

Officials from the city’s Department of the Environment point out that there are a number of ways uneaten food is put to use. For example, some unused food from restaurants and stores may be sent to charitable organizations or used as animal feed.

“But composting is really the biggest thing because we take such a wide range of materials, and San Francisco serves as a model not just for the rest of the country, but for the world,” said Jack Macy, the city’s commercial zero-waste coordinator.

Composting tips

Place a paper bag inside the kitchen pail provided for compost, or line it with newspaper to avoid a mess. Remember not to use plastic bags – they’re not compostable.

Sprinkle baking soda on the compost if it starts to smell.

Deter flies with citrus, lavender, eucalyptus or lemongrass oils by placing a few drops on a cloth and leaving it inside or on top of the pail.

Check to see if something is compostable before you throw it away. Take-out containers, pizza boxes, coffee cups and wine corks are all compostable.

If you generate almost no garbage, you may be able to utilize the 20-gallon cart service, which can save you $2 per month.

For more information, go to http://sfg.ly/uqxKKC.

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Ecuador should repeal insult laws (desacato) and all norms that criminalize defamation of public officials and institutions, Human Rights Watch said today.

On November 14, 2011, Human Rights Watch submitted a joint amicus brief with the Center for Freedom of Expression and Information of the University of Palermo (Argentina) before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, arguing that desacato norms violate Ecuador’s international human rights obligations.

“Under international law, desacato laws grant an unjustified, special protection to public officials and therefore limit free expression and must be repealed,” the brief says. “Such special protection should not exist given that, in a democracy, public officials should be subject to greater scrutiny and criticism, an essential element to promote debate about public interest matters.”

The brief was submitted in a case brought before the Constitutional Court in May by the Ecuadorian nongovernmental organization Fundamedios. The case challenges article 230 of the Ecuadorian Criminal Code – under which anyone who “offends” the president or other government authorities may be sentenced to up to three months in prison for offending officials and up to two years for offending the president.

A hearing on the case is scheduled for November 16.

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The media holding company of Philip Anschutz​ today sold the San Francisco Examiner newspaper to a consortium led by Black Press​ Group, a Canadian publishing company with more than 170 newspapers in North America.

Founded in 1863, the newspaper was owned by Clarity Media Group, which had bought it seven years ago from the Fang family, who had purchased it from the Hearst Corporation​.

Clarity is the Denver-based holding company for Anschutz-owned media properties, which includes the Washington Examiner and other examiner.com news portal websites.

“When we purchased the Examiner we wanted to provide readers and advertisers with a credible, second daily newspaper, devoted to local reporting,” Clarity CEO Ryan McKibben said in a statement. “Thanks to the excellent staff at the San Francisco Examiner, we achieved that, and much more.”

The Examiner became a free daily newspaper in 2003.

Expansions to its newspaper titles in Washington and purchases in Oklahoma made it “clear that owning a single newspaper asset on the West Coast was no longer consistent with our evolving business plan,” McKibben said.

The sale is expected to close Nov. 30 for undisclosed terms.

Black Press runs a number of daily and community newspapers, among them the Star-Advertiser in Honolulu and The Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio. The company is controlled by David Black and his family.

Singer Associates Public Relations in San Francisco has represented the Hearst Corporation when it sold the paper to the Fang Family and in the later transaction where Anschutz Investments purchased the paper from the Fang family.

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