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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>[This column was reported for Political Breakdown, a bimonthly newsletter offering analysis and context on Bay Area and California political news. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/political-breakdown\">Click here to subscribe\u003c/a>.]\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054886/john-burton-architect-of-california-democratic-machine-dies-at-92\">John Burton died on Sunday\u003c/a>, an event marking the release of his memoir, \u003ca href=\"https://politics-prose.com/book/9798881809089?srsltid=AfmBOor1H3GOn268Vqjuo7VMyDymf48kEBZVeC9THd3CoEw_ahfojRj4\">\u003cem>I Yell Because I Care\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, was planned for Tuesday night. His death transformed a literary evening at the California Museum, a block from the Capitol, into a celebration of Burton’s life and legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the end-of-session crush looming, attendance was essentially de rigueur for members following in Burton’s footsteps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really impossible to be here at this event and not feel the weight of loss of not having our friend, Mr. John Burton, with us,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas told the crowd. “He was family to all of us in public service. His presence, his voice, his heart filled every single room he entered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The son of a farmworker and the first Assembly speaker from the Salinas Valley, Rivas praised Burton’s insistence on standing up for the little guy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“John was unapologetic. He was relentless. But he always used his power to fight for those with the least amount of power: Foster youth, farm workers, the poor, the overlooked, the voiceless,” Rivas said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Willie Brown, who was first elected to the state Assembly in 1964 along with Burton, was there to remember the friend he met in 1951.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“John Burton, in the world of politics, meant a lot. But in the world of friendship, he meant even more,” Brown said. “He was a very, very difficult friend to satisfy, sometimes almost impossible, but for all the right reasons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055433\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055433\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (center left) walks down O Street in downtown Sacramento toward the California Museum to attend a reception launching the late John Burton’s memoir, “I Yell Because I Care,” on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At 91, Brown has attended many funerals of his contemporaries. The former Assembly speaker joked about his longevity as he walked into the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have, for a long time, wanted to make sure that I’d be around to say goodbye to everybody I ever met. And so far, I’m reaching that goal,” he said. “From the group of people whom I started with in 1964, when there were 10 of us, there’s one.” That would be him.[aside postID=news_12055315 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/GettyImages-1415221422_qed.jpg']Burton’s daughter, Kimiko, remembered her father’s relentless focus on helping those who needed it most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For him, it was helping the downtrodden and the underdog. He really felt an obligation to help people who didn’t have a voice, who don’t have lobbyists,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was an expectation that Gov. Gavin Newsom would speak. He arrived but did not enter the courtyard where the program was underway. Instead, he was spotted just outside, talking quietly with Kimiko Burton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterward, I asked her what he said. “I love you,” she said, choking back tears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our fathers were friends when we were children, and so when I had anticipated that my dad would be here, I texted Gavin and I said, ‘My dad wants you here not because you’re the governor but because you’re Billy’s son,’” she said, referring to Newsom’s late father, former Judge Bill Newsom. “We were just telling stories about when we were young and when our dads were younger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055435\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055435\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The memoir of the late John Burton displayed at the California Museum in Sacramento on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Burton name has long carried weight in California politics. I arrived in California in 1981, and it wasn’t long before Burton caught my attention. In 1982, Burton, then one of the city’s congressional representatives, announced he would not seek re-election, choosing instead to come home and deal with his addiction to cocaine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following year, his older brother, Phil, a high-octane powerbroker in Washington, died suddenly of a heart attack. His widow, Sala Burton, replaced him in Congress. On her deathbed in 1987, Sala urged a young Nancy Pelosi to run for her seat in Congress to keep the Burton legacy alive. The rest, as they say, is history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “Burton machine” wielded outsize influence on who represented San Francisco in both Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. Led by Phil, the Burtons mastered the art of gerrymandering — drawing districts to maximize the number of Democrats elected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055437\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055437\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas delivers remarks during the reception for the late John Burton’s memoir, “I Yell Because I Care,” at the California Museum in Sacramento on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At a time when critics say Democrats have lost touch with working-class and non-college-educated voters, Burton spent his entire career laser-focused on those who needed government’s help most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2017, as he was stepping down as chair of the state Democratic Party, I asked Burton how he wanted to be remembered. After a long pause, he said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That when I left Sacramento, poor people and blind, disabled and women on what they used to call welfare, had more money than they had when I came in,” Burton said, adding, “I just tried to do the best I could for people. If you’re in a position of power or influence, you take care of those who ain’t got it, who don’t have the power. They don’t have anybody but you or somebody fighting for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another event celebrating Burton’s memoir is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>[This column was reported for Political Breakdown, a bimonthly newsletter offering analysis and context on Bay Area and California political news. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/political-breakdown\">Click here to subscribe\u003c/a>.]\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054886/john-burton-architect-of-california-democratic-machine-dies-at-92\">John Burton died on Sunday\u003c/a>, an event marking the release of his memoir, \u003ca href=\"https://politics-prose.com/book/9798881809089?srsltid=AfmBOor1H3GOn268Vqjuo7VMyDymf48kEBZVeC9THd3CoEw_ahfojRj4\">\u003cem>I Yell Because I Care\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, was planned for Tuesday night. His death transformed a literary evening at the California Museum, a block from the Capitol, into a celebration of Burton’s life and legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the end-of-session crush looming, attendance was essentially de rigueur for members following in Burton’s footsteps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really impossible to be here at this event and not feel the weight of loss of not having our friend, Mr. John Burton, with us,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas told the crowd. “He was family to all of us in public service. His presence, his voice, his heart filled every single room he entered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The son of a farmworker and the first Assembly speaker from the Salinas Valley, Rivas praised Burton’s insistence on standing up for the little guy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“John was unapologetic. He was relentless. But he always used his power to fight for those with the least amount of power: Foster youth, farm workers, the poor, the overlooked, the voiceless,” Rivas said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Willie Brown, who was first elected to the state Assembly in 1964 along with Burton, was there to remember the friend he met in 1951.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“John Burton, in the world of politics, meant a lot. But in the world of friendship, he meant even more,” Brown said. “He was a very, very difficult friend to satisfy, sometimes almost impossible, but for all the right reasons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055433\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055433\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (center left) walks down O Street in downtown Sacramento toward the California Museum to attend a reception launching the late John Burton’s memoir, “I Yell Because I Care,” on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At 91, Brown has attended many funerals of his contemporaries. The former Assembly speaker joked about his longevity as he walked into the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have, for a long time, wanted to make sure that I’d be around to say goodbye to everybody I ever met. And so far, I’m reaching that goal,” he said. “From the group of people whom I started with in 1964, when there were 10 of us, there’s one.” That would be him.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Burton’s daughter, Kimiko, remembered her father’s relentless focus on helping those who needed it most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For him, it was helping the downtrodden and the underdog. He really felt an obligation to help people who didn’t have a voice, who don’t have lobbyists,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was an expectation that Gov. Gavin Newsom would speak. He arrived but did not enter the courtyard where the program was underway. Instead, he was spotted just outside, talking quietly with Kimiko Burton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterward, I asked her what he said. “I love you,” she said, choking back tears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our fathers were friends when we were children, and so when I had anticipated that my dad would be here, I texted Gavin and I said, ‘My dad wants you here not because you’re the governor but because you’re Billy’s son,’” she said, referring to Newsom’s late father, former Judge Bill Newsom. “We were just telling stories about when we were young and when our dads were younger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055435\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055435\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The memoir of the late John Burton displayed at the California Museum in Sacramento on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Burton name has long carried weight in California politics. I arrived in California in 1981, and it wasn’t long before Burton caught my attention. In 1982, Burton, then one of the city’s congressional representatives, announced he would not seek re-election, choosing instead to come home and deal with his addiction to cocaine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following year, his older brother, Phil, a high-octane powerbroker in Washington, died suddenly of a heart attack. His widow, Sala Burton, replaced him in Congress. On her deathbed in 1987, Sala urged a young Nancy Pelosi to run for her seat in Congress to keep the Burton legacy alive. The rest, as they say, is history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “Burton machine” wielded outsize influence on who represented San Francisco in both Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. Led by Phil, the Burtons mastered the art of gerrymandering — drawing districts to maximize the number of Democrats elected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055437\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055437\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas delivers remarks during the reception for the late John Burton’s memoir, “I Yell Because I Care,” at the California Museum in Sacramento on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At a time when critics say Democrats have lost touch with working-class and non-college-educated voters, Burton spent his entire career laser-focused on those who needed government’s help most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2017, as he was stepping down as chair of the state Democratic Party, I asked Burton how he wanted to be remembered. After a long pause, he said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That when I left Sacramento, poor people and blind, disabled and women on what they used to call welfare, had more money than they had when I came in,” Burton said, adding, “I just tried to do the best I could for people. If you’re in a position of power or influence, you take care of those who ain’t got it, who don’t have the power. They don’t have anybody but you or somebody fighting for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another event celebrating Burton’s memoir is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The name Willie Brown is synonymous with power politics in California. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He became the first Black speaker of the state Assembly in 1980 and held the job for a record 14 years, often with help from Republicans. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After term limits forced him to leave the Legislature, he ran for mayor of San Francisco, serving eight years in that job.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott and Marisa sit down with Brown in his San Francisco office to discuss his path from segregated Mineola, Texas, to the height of power in California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The name Willie Brown is synonymous with power politics in California. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He became the first Black speaker of the state Assembly in 1980 and held the job for a record 14 years, often with help from Republicans. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After term limits forced him to leave the Legislature, he ran for mayor of San Francisco, serving eight years in that job.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott and Marisa sit down with Brown in his San Francisco office to discuss his path from segregated Mineola, Texas, to the height of power in California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A veritable “Who’s Who” of state and local politics turned out at City Hall Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the 90th birthday of Willie L. Brown Jr., who, as speaker of the Assembly and later as mayor, mastered the art of raw power politics in California like few others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was held in the North Light Court in the Beaux-Arts style building, whose $300 million restoration Brown oversaw as mayor, down to the grand (some would say ostentatious) gold leaf finish on its majestic dome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his way into the event, as he was mobbed by well-wishers, I asked Brown how it felt to be 90. “Like a hundred.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980205\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980205\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown greets and has his photo taken with guests at a celebration of his 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The party drew many past and current elected officials, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed and her counterpart Karen Bass from Los Angeles, who was one of the many to follow Brown as speaker of the state Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Karen Bass, mayor, Los Angeles\"]‘Everybody here has a Willie Brown story. … And I’m one of those people.’[/pullquote]“Everybody here has a Willie Brown story, and there’s a couple of hundred people,” Bass said. “And the stories are specific about how he influenced their life and helped determine their future. And I’m one of those people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Brown’s signature qualities was his ability to get along with people he disagreed with, regardless of political party. In 1988, a few disgruntled Democrats in his caucus tried to overthrow him as speaker. The coup attempt failed, but one of the so-called “Gang of 5,” then-Assemblymember Rusty Areias, recalled how he and Brown moved on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980172\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (center left) sits and laughs with Willie Brown at a celebration of Brown’s 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He called me and said, ‘Hey, I know we have some differences right now, but this too will pass. And, we’ll be good again.’ And, you know, that’s exactly what happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Rusty Areias, former Assembly member\"]‘You know, I spent some time at Harvard and Chico State, but I really went to Brown University. He’s a great leader.’[/pullquote]Areias, who now runs a political consulting firm in Sacramento, said Brown taught him everything he knows about politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, I spent some time at Harvard and Chico State, but I really went to Brown University. He’s a great leader. He’s a clear thinker, and he’s a good friend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Retired San Francisco judge John Dearman recalls meeting Brown in the 1960s when they were both lawyers and eventually formed a law practice together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980214\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980214\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robin Brown (front center) and other guests watch and take photos as Willie Brown speaks at a celebration of his 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He has this unique ability of meeting and being able to get along at first sight with anybody. He can start a conversation with anybody, and he is very glib,” Dearman said. What people often miss about Brown, he added, is that he really cares about people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"John Dearman, retired San Francisco judge\"]‘He has this unique ability of meeting and being able to get along at first sight with anybody. He can start a conversation with anybody, and he is very glib.’[/pullquote]“He has a lot of heart. People get the wrong impression because he’s so sure of himself and they think that he’s arrogant. And maybe he is, but also, he has a lot of heart, and he really is interested in people,” said Dearman, who was appointed judge by then-Gov. Jerry Brown at Willie Brown’s urging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Politicians were not the only ones who turned out to celebrate Brown. His family, including his long-estranged wife Blanche and their daughters, were there to celebrate him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My father is smart, funny, charismatic — a magician, he makes magical things happen,” said Brown’s oldest daughter Susan. “He’s also very strict. So when he needs something, we hop to it, and we take care of it immediately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, known for his colorful fashion style, was decked out in a salmon-color jacket, pink shirt, and matching socks with white stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980173\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980173\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown wears pink star socks at a celebration of Willie Brown’s 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His former press secretary, P.J. Johnston, who helped organize the event, joked that Brown once chastised him and sent him home “for having the temerity to wear linen in January.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The ‘Ayatollah of the Assembly’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Brown was born in segregated Mineola, Texas, on March 20, 1934, which he said had “almost nothing” going for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He came to San Francisco in 1951, staying with his Uncle Itsie Collins. Brown hoped to attend Stanford but had no way to pay for that high-priced education. Instead, he went to San Francisco State University where he met another young political prospect, John Burton, whose brother Phillip became a political powerhouse in local and national politics until his sudden death in 1983.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown graduated with a law degree from UC Hastings (now UC Law San Francisco) in 1958, a time when few Black attorneys were practicing law in San Francisco. He started out as a defense attorney with, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02tcU0Uja_E\">as he told KQED in 2023\u003c/a>, clients that included pimps, prostitutes and others few attorneys sought out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980171\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980171\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks at a celebration of Willie Brown’s 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Brown ran for the state Assembly in 1962, losing narrowly to the Democratic incumbent in the primary. But two years later, he prevailed, heading to Sacramento at the age of 30, where he made friendships with powerful lawmakers, lobbyists and others who would eventually help propel him to the first Black speaker in California, a job he held for a record 14 years. Ruling with something of an iron fist, no detail was too small to oversee. He proclaimed himself “the Ayatollah of the Assembly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, Brown championed civil rights, including a successful effort to decriminalize homosexuality in California in 1975.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First as speaker and later as mayor, Brown was often associated with people investigated by the FBI for political corruption. Several people in Brown’s political orbit went to prison in San Francisco, but Brown was never indicted. He was too careful for that, once joking that “the e in e-mail stands for ‘evidence.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980175\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980175\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown speaks at a celebration of his 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier just this week, one of Brown’s political protégés, Harlan Kelly, was sentenced to four years in federal prison after being convicted of charges related to bribery as part of a sweeping investigation into corruption in San Francisco’s government. Brown was among those writing to the judge seeking leniency in Kelly’s sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, Brown became the face of a campaign to enact term limits, which voters passed in 1990. Some ads for Proposition 140 included the phrase “join me in giving Willie Brown the ‘boot.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown often jokes that if voters hadn’t approved term limits, he’d still be speaker. However, he acknowledges that he “never, ever would have known the great joy of being the mayor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980169\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980169\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins pose for a photo at a celebration of Brown’s 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In retrospect, Brown told KQED he got much more tangible things done in City Hall than at the state Capitol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A legislative body does not execute. A legislative body opines. In the capacity of the CEO of a city, as is the case with every mayorship, that’s where you really get the chance to demonstrate if you can do things,” Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, asked as he was leaving the mayor’s office in 2004 what he would be remembered for, Brown said “bricks and mortar.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many persons who hold the job of mayor are, in fact, known for what they built. Period. And I have a lot of those,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Willie Brown\"]‘Many persons who hold the job of mayor are, in fact, known for what they built. Period. And I have a lot of those.’[/pullquote]As San Francisco mayor, Brown oversaw the construction of a new ballpark for the San Francisco Giants, Mission Bay with its anchor tenant of UCSF, and the restoration of the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might be said that Brown’s most enduring legacy will be the people he helped elevate into public office, including the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vice-President Kamala Harris, who Brown once dated when she was a deputy district attorney in Alameda County. As speaker, Brown appointed Harris to a state appeals board for people who were denied unemployment benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The night Brown was elected mayor in 1995, it was Harris who handed him a baseball cap emblazoned with the name he was often called in his new job: “Da Mayor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980203\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980203\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Susan Horsefall wears a hat from Willie Brown’s 1995 campaign for Mayor of San Francisco at a celebration at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Vice President Harris was not there and did not send a recorded greeting, nor did Gavin Newsom, who Brown also helped launch into politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mayor Breed gave her predecessor and mentor something she joked he already had: a key to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because any time you show up anywhere, the doors are always open,” Breed said. “You will always be our forever mayor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for what Brown was thinking about on this momentous day, he joked, “I’m looking forward to 91. Ninety is behind me already.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California political giant and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown celebrated a milestone birthday this week. At 90 years old, his influence is still reflected in city and state politics today.",
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"title": "Willie Brown Celebrates 90th Birthday With California Political Powerhouses | KQED",
"description": "California political giant and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown celebrated a milestone birthday this week. At 90 years old, his influence is still reflected in city and state politics today.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A veritable “Who’s Who” of state and local politics turned out at City Hall Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the 90th birthday of Willie L. Brown Jr., who, as speaker of the Assembly and later as mayor, mastered the art of raw power politics in California like few others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was held in the North Light Court in the Beaux-Arts style building, whose $300 million restoration Brown oversaw as mayor, down to the grand (some would say ostentatious) gold leaf finish on its majestic dome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his way into the event, as he was mobbed by well-wishers, I asked Brown how it felt to be 90. “Like a hundred.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980205\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980205\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown greets and has his photo taken with guests at a celebration of his 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The party drew many past and current elected officials, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed and her counterpart Karen Bass from Los Angeles, who was one of the many to follow Brown as speaker of the state Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Everybody here has a Willie Brown story. … And I’m one of those people.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Everybody here has a Willie Brown story, and there’s a couple of hundred people,” Bass said. “And the stories are specific about how he influenced their life and helped determine their future. And I’m one of those people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Brown’s signature qualities was his ability to get along with people he disagreed with, regardless of political party. In 1988, a few disgruntled Democrats in his caucus tried to overthrow him as speaker. The coup attempt failed, but one of the so-called “Gang of 5,” then-Assemblymember Rusty Areias, recalled how he and Brown moved on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980172\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (center left) sits and laughs with Willie Brown at a celebration of Brown’s 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He called me and said, ‘Hey, I know we have some differences right now, but this too will pass. And, we’ll be good again.’ And, you know, that’s exactly what happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘You know, I spent some time at Harvard and Chico State, but I really went to Brown University. He’s a great leader.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Areias, who now runs a political consulting firm in Sacramento, said Brown taught him everything he knows about politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, I spent some time at Harvard and Chico State, but I really went to Brown University. He’s a great leader. He’s a clear thinker, and he’s a good friend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Retired San Francisco judge John Dearman recalls meeting Brown in the 1960s when they were both lawyers and eventually formed a law practice together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980214\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980214\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-14-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robin Brown (front center) and other guests watch and take photos as Willie Brown speaks at a celebration of his 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He has this unique ability of meeting and being able to get along at first sight with anybody. He can start a conversation with anybody, and he is very glib,” Dearman said. What people often miss about Brown, he added, is that he really cares about people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘He has this unique ability of meeting and being able to get along at first sight with anybody. He can start a conversation with anybody, and he is very glib.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“He has a lot of heart. People get the wrong impression because he’s so sure of himself and they think that he’s arrogant. And maybe he is, but also, he has a lot of heart, and he really is interested in people,” said Dearman, who was appointed judge by then-Gov. Jerry Brown at Willie Brown’s urging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Politicians were not the only ones who turned out to celebrate Brown. His family, including his long-estranged wife Blanche and their daughters, were there to celebrate him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My father is smart, funny, charismatic — a magician, he makes magical things happen,” said Brown’s oldest daughter Susan. “He’s also very strict. So when he needs something, we hop to it, and we take care of it immediately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, known for his colorful fashion style, was decked out in a salmon-color jacket, pink shirt, and matching socks with white stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980173\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980173\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-11-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown wears pink star socks at a celebration of Willie Brown’s 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His former press secretary, P.J. Johnston, who helped organize the event, joked that Brown once chastised him and sent him home “for having the temerity to wear linen in January.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The ‘Ayatollah of the Assembly’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Brown was born in segregated Mineola, Texas, on March 20, 1934, which he said had “almost nothing” going for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He came to San Francisco in 1951, staying with his Uncle Itsie Collins. Brown hoped to attend Stanford but had no way to pay for that high-priced education. Instead, he went to San Francisco State University where he met another young political prospect, John Burton, whose brother Phillip became a political powerhouse in local and national politics until his sudden death in 1983.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown graduated with a law degree from UC Hastings (now UC Law San Francisco) in 1958, a time when few Black attorneys were practicing law in San Francisco. He started out as a defense attorney with, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02tcU0Uja_E\">as he told KQED in 2023\u003c/a>, clients that included pimps, prostitutes and others few attorneys sought out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980171\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980171\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks at a celebration of Willie Brown’s 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Brown ran for the state Assembly in 1962, losing narrowly to the Democratic incumbent in the primary. But two years later, he prevailed, heading to Sacramento at the age of 30, where he made friendships with powerful lawmakers, lobbyists and others who would eventually help propel him to the first Black speaker in California, a job he held for a record 14 years. Ruling with something of an iron fist, no detail was too small to oversee. He proclaimed himself “the Ayatollah of the Assembly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, Brown championed civil rights, including a successful effort to decriminalize homosexuality in California in 1975.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First as speaker and later as mayor, Brown was often associated with people investigated by the FBI for political corruption. Several people in Brown’s political orbit went to prison in San Francisco, but Brown was never indicted. He was too careful for that, once joking that “the e in e-mail stands for ‘evidence.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980175\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980175\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-13-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown speaks at a celebration of his 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier just this week, one of Brown’s political protégés, Harlan Kelly, was sentenced to four years in federal prison after being convicted of charges related to bribery as part of a sweeping investigation into corruption in San Francisco’s government. Brown was among those writing to the judge seeking leniency in Kelly’s sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, Brown became the face of a campaign to enact term limits, which voters passed in 1990. Some ads for Proposition 140 included the phrase “join me in giving Willie Brown the ‘boot.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown often jokes that if voters hadn’t approved term limits, he’d still be speaker. However, he acknowledges that he “never, ever would have known the great joy of being the mayor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11980169\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11980169\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240320-WILLIE-BROWNS-90TH-MD-06-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willie Brown and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins pose for a photo at a celebration of Brown’s 90th birthday at City Hall in San Francisco on March 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In retrospect, Brown told KQED he got much more tangible things done in City Hall than at the state Capitol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A legislative body does not execute. A legislative body opines. In the capacity of the CEO of a city, as is the case with every mayorship, that’s where you really get the chance to demonstrate if you can do things,” Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, asked as he was leaving the mayor’s office in 2004 what he would be remembered for, Brown said “bricks and mortar.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many persons who hold the job of mayor are, in fact, known for what they built. Period. And I have a lot of those,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "'This Is Just a Start': At Pride, Post-Roe Threat to Marriage Equality Casts a Shadow",
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"content": "\u003cp>The sun shone down on Market and Noe streets on Saturday, cleared of cars and filled with smiling people. Vendors sold paintings of an idealized Castro neighborhood to passers-by. A drag queen in a yellow jumpsuit sashayed on a stage sporting signage behind her that read \"FAMILY PRIDE\" — this was San Francisco's first annual Family Pride block party. Parents held children on their shoulders and swayed to the beat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Husbands Maple Chen and Collin Anthony Chen pushed their stroller through it all. But as their 6-month-old son Henry goggled, wide-eyed but calm, at the sights of his very first Pride weekend, a familiar worry were on his fathers' minds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade curtailing abortion rights across the country weren't weighty enough, a warning came written in the opinion of Justice Clarence Thomas, a stray few lines amid the 213-page decision that could change the course of the country, and their family's life.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"James Cox, advocacy director, Oakland Black Pride\"]'This is just a start, taking away women's rights. Next it's going to be taking away LGBTQ rights, trans rights, the rights of interracial couples. Like, how far are they going to go with this?'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A court ruling on same-sex marriages could be reconsidered by the court next, Justice Thomas wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"When I was a teenager, I never thought having kids would be possible, that our relationships would ever be recognized legally,\" Collin Anthony Chen told KQED. \"So then when I finally was able to have Henry and, of course, Maple as well, the relationship, I just couldn't believe it. I was just in shock. I was in awe.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He's anxious now, he said: \"If we're going back to the decisions that have been made by the Supreme Court, all of that is now in jeopardy.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's especially worrisome, Maple Chen said, \"if we're thinking about our next kid.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11918057\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11918057 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1-800x573.jpg\" alt=\"Two women stand together with arms around each other in the middle of the street.\" width=\"800\" height=\"573\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1-800x573.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1-1020x730.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1-160x115.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1-1536x1099.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wives Luisa Hurtado and Nicole Brown pose for a photo at the Family Pride block party on Saturday, June 25, 2022. \u003ccite>(Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Their family wasn't alone in their concern. Wives Luisa Hurtado and Nicole Brown also were at the Family Pride block party. They worried how losing same-sex marriage rights would affect their co-owned business, and their hope to adopt a child from Colombia, where Hurtado hails from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We want to adopt and kind of have kids that are also part of my culture,\" Hurtado said. They thought there had been enough progress in both countries to make that dream a reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even worse, Brown felt Thomas' warning spurred unanswered questions that could lead to diminished lives. \"What if we can't be gay at work? What if we need to shield ourselves, and be a fraction of who we are?\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the bay, Lake Merritt played host to Oakland Black Pride. James Cox, advocacy director for the eponymous organization that sponsors the event, said despite the Pride weekend celebrations, the recent Supreme Court decision was top of everybody's mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is just a start, taking away women’s rights. Next it’s going to be taking away LGBTQ rights, trans rights, the rights of interracial couples. Like, how far are they going to go with this?\" they asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Friday's decision, Justice Thomas cited three past rulings to revisit, centering on contraception, sodomy and same-sex marriage. Melissa Murray, an NYU legal scholar with expertise in constitutional law, told NPR that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/06/25/1107663904/roe-v-wade-repeal-raises-questions-about-other-constitutional-rights\">Thomas essentially pointed the way toward other laws the public could push for reconsideration\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In doing so, he's essentially inviting future challenges to rights of same-sex marriage, rights of contraception, rights of parents to raise their children in the manner of their choosing,\" Murray said. \"All of those rights are underlaid by the same grant of liberty that Roe was underlaid by, and that has been found to be insufficient to root this in constitutional protection.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while Thomas' fellow conservative justices explicitly wrote that their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade should not, and would not, affect those other decisions, the liberal justices plainly disagreed in their dissenting opinion.[aside postID=\"arts_13915237,news_11918017\" label=\"Related Posts\"]\"No one should be confident that this majority is done\u003cbr>\nwith its work,\" wrote justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer. \"The right Roe and Casey recognized does not stand alone. To the contrary, the Court has linked it for decades to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rights, the justices wrote, \"are all part of the same constitutional fabric.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown — the self-proclaimed \"Ayatollah of the Assembly,\" a political star-maker and long-respected political watcher — made a similar analysis to KQED on Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They're full of shit,\" said Brown in regard to the statements by conservative justices assuring people that the Dobbs decision would not affect same-sex marriage. (His opinion was phrased in what was \u003cem>perhaps\u003c/em> a more pointed fashion than that of the liberal Supreme Court justices.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked whether he thought Justice Thomas is alone on the court in his opinion, Brown replied, \"Not at all. Of course he isn't alone.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown spoke from just outside an annual Pride breakfast hosted by the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, an annual feast before the parade where LGBTQ+ advocates and politicians hobnob. The club's San Franciscan namesake, writer Alice B. Toklas, lived with writer Gertrude Stein in Paris for years as they hosted art salons together; theirs has been described as \"\u003ca href=\"https://jweekly.com/2016/12/23/paris-and-gay-love-through-the-eyes-of-gertrude-stein-and-alice-b-toklas/\">one of the best gay love stories of the 20th century\u003c/a>.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Toklas died in Paris at the age of 89. But even in her \u003ca href=\"https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/03/specials/stein-toklasobit.html\">New York Times obituary\u003c/a>, which was written in 1967, she was described merely as Stein's \"longtime friend.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunday morning, inside the walls of the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Hotel, politicians warned attendees of the Toklas Pride breakfast that conservatives threaten to take the country back to such an era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"These laws that they're passing are creating absolute terror for members of our community across this country,\" said State Sen. Scott Wiener, specifically naming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose now-infamous \"\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089221657/dont-say-gay-florida-desantis\">Don't Say Gay\u003c/a>\" bill restricts schools from discussing everyday gay life. It's \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/10/1091543359/15-states-dont-say-gay-anti-transgender-bills\">also inspired copycat bills\u003c/a> throughout the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"These laws are not just bad. We all deal with bad laws that get passed,\" Wiener told the crowd. \"These are laws that literally question whether our community has a right to exist, whether we have a right to exist.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, who is openly gay, has received multiple death threats, including a recent bomb threat that was deemed credible enough to send a bomb squad to his home. He noted that it wasn't that long ago that people with hate in their hearts would drive long distances to beat gay men in the Castro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We're used to violence, unfortunately, in this community. We also know how to fight back,\" Wiener said. \"Clarence Thomas did us a favor by saying the quiet part out loud, that Roe is just the beginning. They want to reinstate anti-sodomy laws. They want to end marriage equality. They want to end contraception.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"So guess what? We're not going back\" to those times, Wiener said. \"Not ever. That means we should be pissed off and should anger-tweet, but that's not enough. We have to win elections.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also at the Pride breakfast, offered another solution: putting Republicans on the record about their positions, in Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/FitzTheReporter/status/1541097167951040512\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"So what we plan to do is put all these things back on the agenda so we can put them on the record. Enshrining Roe v. Wade as law of the land. Passing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/02/24/969591569/house-to-vote-on-equality-act-heres-what-the-law-would-do\">Equality Act,\u003c/a>\" Pelosi said, referring to a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But outside the breakfast, late in the morning as the crowds for the Pride parade began to form on Market Street, Brown sounded a more clear-eyed warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We went to sleep a long time ago as Democrats. We had no vision of what tomorrow could be like. And as we achieved all the things we achieved, redefining, etcetera, we didn't understand we needed to protect them,\" he said, referring to abortion rights and rights for LGBTQ+ communities. \"The Republicans knew exactly how to ultimately get rid of them, and they did what they needed to do at every level. They started with justices of the peace and [went] all the way up to the Supreme Court. That's the way it is.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing just before the Hyatt's wide, revolving doors, Brown and this reporter could see Pride revelers beginning to gather outside. Brown gave his view plainly: Democrats have failed. And with those failures come very real consequences not only for people who can become pregnant but, soon, possibly everyone who was celebrating under the colorful Pride banners fluttering just outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED's Daphne Young contributed to this report. NPR's Michael Martin also contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The sun shone down on Market and Noe streets on Saturday, cleared of cars and filled with smiling people. Vendors sold paintings of an idealized Castro neighborhood to passers-by. A drag queen in a yellow jumpsuit sashayed on a stage sporting signage behind her that read \"FAMILY PRIDE\" — this was San Francisco's first annual Family Pride block party. Parents held children on their shoulders and swayed to the beat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Husbands Maple Chen and Collin Anthony Chen pushed their stroller through it all. But as their 6-month-old son Henry goggled, wide-eyed but calm, at the sights of his very first Pride weekend, a familiar worry were on his fathers' minds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade curtailing abortion rights across the country weren't weighty enough, a warning came written in the opinion of Justice Clarence Thomas, a stray few lines amid the 213-page decision that could change the course of the country, and their family's life.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'This is just a start, taking away women's rights. Next it's going to be taking away LGBTQ rights, trans rights, the rights of interracial couples. Like, how far are they going to go with this?'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A court ruling on same-sex marriages could be reconsidered by the court next, Justice Thomas wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"When I was a teenager, I never thought having kids would be possible, that our relationships would ever be recognized legally,\" Collin Anthony Chen told KQED. \"So then when I finally was able to have Henry and, of course, Maple as well, the relationship, I just couldn't believe it. I was just in shock. I was in awe.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He's anxious now, he said: \"If we're going back to the decisions that have been made by the Supreme Court, all of that is now in jeopardy.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's especially worrisome, Maple Chen said, \"if we're thinking about our next kid.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11918057\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11918057 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1-800x573.jpg\" alt=\"Two women stand together with arms around each other in the middle of the street.\" width=\"800\" height=\"573\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1-800x573.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1-1020x730.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1-160x115.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1-1536x1099.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/HurtadoandNicole-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wives Luisa Hurtado and Nicole Brown pose for a photo at the Family Pride block party on Saturday, June 25, 2022. \u003ccite>(Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Their family wasn't alone in their concern. Wives Luisa Hurtado and Nicole Brown also were at the Family Pride block party. They worried how losing same-sex marriage rights would affect their co-owned business, and their hope to adopt a child from Colombia, where Hurtado hails from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We want to adopt and kind of have kids that are also part of my culture,\" Hurtado said. They thought there had been enough progress in both countries to make that dream a reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even worse, Brown felt Thomas' warning spurred unanswered questions that could lead to diminished lives. \"What if we can't be gay at work? What if we need to shield ourselves, and be a fraction of who we are?\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the bay, Lake Merritt played host to Oakland Black Pride. James Cox, advocacy director for the eponymous organization that sponsors the event, said despite the Pride weekend celebrations, the recent Supreme Court decision was top of everybody's mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is just a start, taking away women’s rights. Next it’s going to be taking away LGBTQ rights, trans rights, the rights of interracial couples. Like, how far are they going to go with this?\" they asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Friday's decision, Justice Thomas cited three past rulings to revisit, centering on contraception, sodomy and same-sex marriage. Melissa Murray, an NYU legal scholar with expertise in constitutional law, told NPR that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/06/25/1107663904/roe-v-wade-repeal-raises-questions-about-other-constitutional-rights\">Thomas essentially pointed the way toward other laws the public could push for reconsideration\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In doing so, he's essentially inviting future challenges to rights of same-sex marriage, rights of contraception, rights of parents to raise their children in the manner of their choosing,\" Murray said. \"All of those rights are underlaid by the same grant of liberty that Roe was underlaid by, and that has been found to be insufficient to root this in constitutional protection.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while Thomas' fellow conservative justices explicitly wrote that their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade should not, and would not, affect those other decisions, the liberal justices plainly disagreed in their dissenting opinion.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\"No one should be confident that this majority is done\u003cbr>\nwith its work,\" wrote justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer. \"The right Roe and Casey recognized does not stand alone. To the contrary, the Court has linked it for decades to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rights, the justices wrote, \"are all part of the same constitutional fabric.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown — the self-proclaimed \"Ayatollah of the Assembly,\" a political star-maker and long-respected political watcher — made a similar analysis to KQED on Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They're full of shit,\" said Brown in regard to the statements by conservative justices assuring people that the Dobbs decision would not affect same-sex marriage. (His opinion was phrased in what was \u003cem>perhaps\u003c/em> a more pointed fashion than that of the liberal Supreme Court justices.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked whether he thought Justice Thomas is alone on the court in his opinion, Brown replied, \"Not at all. Of course he isn't alone.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown spoke from just outside an annual Pride breakfast hosted by the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, an annual feast before the parade where LGBTQ+ advocates and politicians hobnob. The club's San Franciscan namesake, writer Alice B. Toklas, lived with writer Gertrude Stein in Paris for years as they hosted art salons together; theirs has been described as \"\u003ca href=\"https://jweekly.com/2016/12/23/paris-and-gay-love-through-the-eyes-of-gertrude-stein-and-alice-b-toklas/\">one of the best gay love stories of the 20th century\u003c/a>.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Toklas died in Paris at the age of 89. But even in her \u003ca href=\"https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/03/specials/stein-toklasobit.html\">New York Times obituary\u003c/a>, which was written in 1967, she was described merely as Stein's \"longtime friend.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunday morning, inside the walls of the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Hotel, politicians warned attendees of the Toklas Pride breakfast that conservatives threaten to take the country back to such an era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"These laws that they're passing are creating absolute terror for members of our community across this country,\" said State Sen. Scott Wiener, specifically naming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose now-infamous \"\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089221657/dont-say-gay-florida-desantis\">Don't Say Gay\u003c/a>\" bill restricts schools from discussing everyday gay life. It's \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/10/1091543359/15-states-dont-say-gay-anti-transgender-bills\">also inspired copycat bills\u003c/a> throughout the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"These laws are not just bad. We all deal with bad laws that get passed,\" Wiener told the crowd. \"These are laws that literally question whether our community has a right to exist, whether we have a right to exist.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, who is openly gay, has received multiple death threats, including a recent bomb threat that was deemed credible enough to send a bomb squad to his home. He noted that it wasn't that long ago that people with hate in their hearts would drive long distances to beat gay men in the Castro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We're used to violence, unfortunately, in this community. We also know how to fight back,\" Wiener said. \"Clarence Thomas did us a favor by saying the quiet part out loud, that Roe is just the beginning. They want to reinstate anti-sodomy laws. They want to end marriage equality. They want to end contraception.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"So guess what? We're not going back\" to those times, Wiener said. \"Not ever. That means we should be pissed off and should anger-tweet, but that's not enough. We have to win elections.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also at the Pride breakfast, offered another solution: putting Republicans on the record about their positions, in Congress.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\"So what we plan to do is put all these things back on the agenda so we can put them on the record. Enshrining Roe v. Wade as law of the land. Passing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/02/24/969591569/house-to-vote-on-equality-act-heres-what-the-law-would-do\">Equality Act,\u003c/a>\" Pelosi said, referring to a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But outside the breakfast, late in the morning as the crowds for the Pride parade began to form on Market Street, Brown sounded a more clear-eyed warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We went to sleep a long time ago as Democrats. We had no vision of what tomorrow could be like. And as we achieved all the things we achieved, redefining, etcetera, we didn't understand we needed to protect them,\" he said, referring to abortion rights and rights for LGBTQ+ communities. \"The Republicans knew exactly how to ultimately get rid of them, and they did what they needed to do at every level. They started with justices of the peace and [went] all the way up to the Supreme Court. That's the way it is.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing just before the Hyatt's wide, revolving doors, Brown and this reporter could see Pride revelers beginning to gather outside. Brown gave his view plainly: Democrats have failed. And with those failures come very real consequences not only for people who can become pregnant but, soon, possibly everyone who was celebrating under the colorful Pride banners fluttering just outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED's Daphne Young contributed to this report. NPR's Michael Martin also contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Nuru Scandal: Former Mayor Willie Brown Reflects on Long-Time Allies Charged by FBI",
"title": "Nuru Scandal: Former Mayor Willie Brown Reflects on Long-Time Allies Charged by FBI",
"headTitle": "KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>The news hit last week — the U.S. attorney's office charged yet another San Francisco official in connection to a bribery scheme. Yes, again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The corruption probe in San Francisco, it seems, is ever-expanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849113/u-s-attorney-charges-san-francisco-department-head-with-fraud-in-connection-to-bribery-scheme\">Harlan Kelly resigned\u003c/a> as the San Francisco Public Utility Commission's general manager just last week after denying charges made by the FBI and U.S. attorney's office. He is the third San Francisco department head to resign or otherwise lose his office in the wake of this corruption scandal: First was former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, in late January, who was charged in connection with a bribery scheme, and then the Department of Building Inspection's former director, Tom Hui, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">who resigned after it was revealed\u003c/a> he breached ethics laws by dining with billionaire developers seeking to curry his favor in a project's approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly's wife, City Administrator Naomi Kelly, is also implicated in this affair, having taken trips to China and allegedly taking cash to community figure Rose Pak, according to the FBI. Naomi Kelly is now on a leave of absence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scandal has even ensnared Mayor London Breed, at least tangentially, after she \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11801734/sf-mayor-breed-reveals-she-once-dated-mohammed-nuru-received-gift-from-him\">publicly admitted \u003c/a>she had accepted $5,600 in car repairs from Nuru in 2019, a gift she did not initially report despite a legal requirement to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of these figures saw their careers in city service begin under Mayor Willie Brown. He appointed Harlan Kelly city engineer in 1996, Naomi Kelly was executive \u003ca href=\"https://onesanfrancisco.org/team/naomi-kelly\">director of the Taxicab Commission under Brown\u003c/a> and Nuru \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Cleanup-wizard-in-a-messy-scandal-DPW-aide-has-2795062.php\">was first brought into City Hall by Brown in various roles. \u003c/a>Even Breed served at the Treasure Island Development Authority after working on Brown's mayoral campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, now a San Francisco Chronicle columnist, is funding Nuru's defense, according to \u003ca href=\"https://nobhillgazette.com/the-interview-willie-brown-uncensored/\">an interview he gave to the Nob Hill Gazette\u003c/a>. He spoke with KQED the day allegations against Harlan Kelly were released to reflect on the ever-expanding scandal around his many former staffers.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nThis interview has been edited for space and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez: You've known these people — Nuru, Harlan, and Naomi, in particular — for years. Are these allegations a surprise to you? Are the reactions from the public a surprise to you?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Willie Brown: \u003c/strong>I don't understand what the object (of people's ire) happens to be, frankly, because the kind of thing they're talking about, and the kind of thing they're doing, doesn't seem to have a whole lot of implications for the operation of city government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's not like someone built a bridge and used inferior products to build the bridge, and therefore risked the lives of lots of people. Or built a rail line and built equipment that risked the lives of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It sounds like these people have been entertained and have been more tolerant of those entertaining them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Well isn't this something where people are angry that people may have been given an upper hand in winning contracts after wining and dining public officials?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the law, it says the lowest eligible qualified bidder is what we (approve), and I think we potentially get the worst (contractors) and ignore the best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have always thought the quality of the structure should be what determines it, not the price (of the bid).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How this affects the public is one thing, but how have you reacted to these allegations personally? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It affects people personally because it's always sad when any friend or relative has a serious illness or problem of any sort, and that includes a serious problem with law enforcement people. Yes, you're always concerned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I'm always sorry to see that any of my friends, my supporters, become the object of any actions that would disrupt their career paths, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I would hope that it would never happen to any of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>These aren't just your friends, though, right? People have described Nuru and the Kellys as your proteges. Didn't they learn from you? Did you not have a mentor/mentee relationship with these public officials, and take them under your wing, so to speak?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news organization writes down that everyone is a protege of mine, period. They never say they're a protege of everyone else that might exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I must have the most awesome influence of anyone alive. The story doesn't work unless they're a \"protege of Willie Brown.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Are they someone who supported my candidacy for mayor? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did they in many cases have some promotions? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did they earn them? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think anyone goes under anybody's \"wing.\" I think people observe how you operate. They will ask you questions or learn from you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But unless you learn from them every day, or talk to them like I'm talking to you — is that a protege?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't recall ever doing anything except trying to convince people to do good work in public service, at all levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that translates to people being proteges, then I accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You've seen city and state government from almost every angle. How rampant are schemes like the ones the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office have alleged here?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are very few people I know who would seek that kind of help, that might create that kind of problem for them on the integrity side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the people I've dealt with in 40 or more years, and when I served as speaker of the Assembly, I had 79 members of the Legislature, and all of them spent six or more years in the halls of the Legislature. They would develop friendships and et cetera. They'd develop informational sources. They voted for bills or against bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The counsel has always been: \"Make sure the result is in the best interest of the public.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I'm trying to understand what you said earlier, that this scandal has had no impact on services rendered by city government. That structures weren't necessarily falling apart. Do you mean to say, as long as the city doesn't collapse on itself, and services are delivered, the occasional bout of alleged graft is OK?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think people even think that way, frankly. If people viewed it as something that would embarrass them, people wouldn't do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are people who are thieves. And there are people who seek money benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But people do not think, I don't think, in terms of someone buying you a drink, or buying you dinner, or anything of that nature, that there's anything that caused them to influence or give up their responsibility to public service for the benefit of the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If this isn't a failure of government, then, how should the public look at these accusations?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think transparency is really important. I think they should know everything. And be entitled to have one explain everything if this calls to a person's attention their belief is that they've done something inconsistent with the best interest (of the people).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People should be able to prove they know what the relationships were, that everything done was in the best interest, the highest quality of the public service, and let the world know that you did that — let that be the judge of your conduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You're one of the few folks who would have real insight into how Mayor London Breed's administration must be reacting to this unfolding scandal. That's three department heads stepping down in a single year related to corruption allegations. What's going on in the mayor's office right now, would you say?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I served as mayor of San Francisco, every time any department ran afoul in any fashion, on the conduct side, it was always attributed in some fashion to my inability to spot that person as a potential problem, and therefore it was my responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As mayor, you have the responsibility for all things, ultimately. You don't have the blame, but you do have to exercise good judgment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as I thought (former mayors) Ed Lee did, and Art Agnos did, and Frank Jordan did, even though I defeated Frank Jordan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It was so many department heads, though. Does that mean there might be a broader problem? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Please don't draw any conclusion based on raw numbers. Jesus. You do that and you really impose on the head person an enormous burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, (during my administration) the (district attorney) \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/07/14/after-fajitagate\">indicted my whole command structure\u003c/a> of the police department. He indicted everybody, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I had to literally tolerate that. Ultimately, the courts ruled he never should have done that, and the courts gave them all back their lives for career purposes, without them having to ever answer that they were indicted. They all walked into my office and placed down their guns and badges. Except for the chief, he came in by himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what does that say about what Mayor London Breed is going through?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have no idea, I'm not that connected to the current mayor's operation, I can tell you about \u003cem>my\u003c/em> operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think I could speculate, frankly, how my operation would be. But I know any time a department head was confronted, or a member of law enforcement, we moved as quickly as we could to protect the public interest, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I think the big question here, given the wide reach of the scandal, for people who live and work in the city, is probably pretty simple — should people still have confidence in San Francisco government?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think people should never lose confidence in government, period. I don't think government rises or falls based on the conduct of a few. Trump proves that today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Dec. 8: This story has been updated to clarify that Mayor London Breed did not report she had accepted $5,600 in car repairs from Mohammed Nuru in 2019, \"initially.\" She has since reported it. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "As the Nuru scandal continues to sweep through San Francisco, KQED spoke to former Mayor Willie Brown on his reaction to the allegations. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The news hit last week — the U.S. attorney's office charged yet another San Francisco official in connection to a bribery scheme. Yes, again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The corruption probe in San Francisco, it seems, is ever-expanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849113/u-s-attorney-charges-san-francisco-department-head-with-fraud-in-connection-to-bribery-scheme\">Harlan Kelly resigned\u003c/a> as the San Francisco Public Utility Commission's general manager just last week after denying charges made by the FBI and U.S. attorney's office. He is the third San Francisco department head to resign or otherwise lose his office in the wake of this corruption scandal: First was former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, in late January, who was charged in connection with a bribery scheme, and then the Department of Building Inspection's former director, Tom Hui, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11826653/bad-policies-and-practices-report-highlights-weak-sf-laws-that-enable-public-corruption\">who resigned after it was revealed\u003c/a> he breached ethics laws by dining with billionaire developers seeking to curry his favor in a project's approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly's wife, City Administrator Naomi Kelly, is also implicated in this affair, having taken trips to China and allegedly taking cash to community figure Rose Pak, according to the FBI. Naomi Kelly is now on a leave of absence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scandal has even ensnared Mayor London Breed, at least tangentially, after she \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11801734/sf-mayor-breed-reveals-she-once-dated-mohammed-nuru-received-gift-from-him\">publicly admitted \u003c/a>she had accepted $5,600 in car repairs from Nuru in 2019, a gift she did not initially report despite a legal requirement to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of these figures saw their careers in city service begin under Mayor Willie Brown. He appointed Harlan Kelly city engineer in 1996, Naomi Kelly was executive \u003ca href=\"https://onesanfrancisco.org/team/naomi-kelly\">director of the Taxicab Commission under Brown\u003c/a> and Nuru \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Cleanup-wizard-in-a-messy-scandal-DPW-aide-has-2795062.php\">was first brought into City Hall by Brown in various roles. \u003c/a>Even Breed served at the Treasure Island Development Authority after working on Brown's mayoral campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown, now a San Francisco Chronicle columnist, is funding Nuru's defense, according to \u003ca href=\"https://nobhillgazette.com/the-interview-willie-brown-uncensored/\">an interview he gave to the Nob Hill Gazette\u003c/a>. He spoke with KQED the day allegations against Harlan Kelly were released to reflect on the ever-expanding scandal around his many former staffers.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nThis interview has been edited for space and clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez: You've known these people — Nuru, Harlan, and Naomi, in particular — for years. Are these allegations a surprise to you? Are the reactions from the public a surprise to you?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Willie Brown: \u003c/strong>I don't understand what the object (of people's ire) happens to be, frankly, because the kind of thing they're talking about, and the kind of thing they're doing, doesn't seem to have a whole lot of implications for the operation of city government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's not like someone built a bridge and used inferior products to build the bridge, and therefore risked the lives of lots of people. Or built a rail line and built equipment that risked the lives of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It sounds like these people have been entertained and have been more tolerant of those entertaining them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Well isn't this something where people are angry that people may have been given an upper hand in winning contracts after wining and dining public officials?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the law, it says the lowest eligible qualified bidder is what we (approve), and I think we potentially get the worst (contractors) and ignore the best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have always thought the quality of the structure should be what determines it, not the price (of the bid).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How this affects the public is one thing, but how have you reacted to these allegations personally? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It affects people personally because it's always sad when any friend or relative has a serious illness or problem of any sort, and that includes a serious problem with law enforcement people. Yes, you're always concerned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I'm always sorry to see that any of my friends, my supporters, become the object of any actions that would disrupt their career paths, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I would hope that it would never happen to any of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>These aren't just your friends, though, right? People have described Nuru and the Kellys as your proteges. Didn't they learn from you? Did you not have a mentor/mentee relationship with these public officials, and take them under your wing, so to speak?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news organization writes down that everyone is a protege of mine, period. They never say they're a protege of everyone else that might exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I must have the most awesome influence of anyone alive. The story doesn't work unless they're a \"protege of Willie Brown.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Are they someone who supported my candidacy for mayor? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did they in many cases have some promotions? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did they earn them? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think anyone goes under anybody's \"wing.\" I think people observe how you operate. They will ask you questions or learn from you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But unless you learn from them every day, or talk to them like I'm talking to you — is that a protege?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't recall ever doing anything except trying to convince people to do good work in public service, at all levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that translates to people being proteges, then I accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You've seen city and state government from almost every angle. How rampant are schemes like the ones the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office have alleged here?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are very few people I know who would seek that kind of help, that might create that kind of problem for them on the integrity side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the people I've dealt with in 40 or more years, and when I served as speaker of the Assembly, I had 79 members of the Legislature, and all of them spent six or more years in the halls of the Legislature. They would develop friendships and et cetera. They'd develop informational sources. They voted for bills or against bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The counsel has always been: \"Make sure the result is in the best interest of the public.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I'm trying to understand what you said earlier, that this scandal has had no impact on services rendered by city government. That structures weren't necessarily falling apart. Do you mean to say, as long as the city doesn't collapse on itself, and services are delivered, the occasional bout of alleged graft is OK?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think people even think that way, frankly. If people viewed it as something that would embarrass them, people wouldn't do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are people who are thieves. And there are people who seek money benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But people do not think, I don't think, in terms of someone buying you a drink, or buying you dinner, or anything of that nature, that there's anything that caused them to influence or give up their responsibility to public service for the benefit of the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>If this isn't a failure of government, then, how should the public look at these accusations?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think transparency is really important. I think they should know everything. And be entitled to have one explain everything if this calls to a person's attention their belief is that they've done something inconsistent with the best interest (of the people).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People should be able to prove they know what the relationships were, that everything done was in the best interest, the highest quality of the public service, and let the world know that you did that — let that be the judge of your conduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You're one of the few folks who would have real insight into how Mayor London Breed's administration must be reacting to this unfolding scandal. That's three department heads stepping down in a single year related to corruption allegations. What's going on in the mayor's office right now, would you say?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I served as mayor of San Francisco, every time any department ran afoul in any fashion, on the conduct side, it was always attributed in some fashion to my inability to spot that person as a potential problem, and therefore it was my responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As mayor, you have the responsibility for all things, ultimately. You don't have the blame, but you do have to exercise good judgment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as I thought (former mayors) Ed Lee did, and Art Agnos did, and Frank Jordan did, even though I defeated Frank Jordan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It was so many department heads, though. Does that mean there might be a broader problem? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Please don't draw any conclusion based on raw numbers. Jesus. You do that and you really impose on the head person an enormous burden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, (during my administration) the (district attorney) \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/07/14/after-fajitagate\">indicted my whole command structure\u003c/a> of the police department. He indicted everybody, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I had to literally tolerate that. Ultimately, the courts ruled he never should have done that, and the courts gave them all back their lives for career purposes, without them having to ever answer that they were indicted. They all walked into my office and placed down their guns and badges. Except for the chief, he came in by himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what does that say about what Mayor London Breed is going through?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have no idea, I'm not that connected to the current mayor's operation, I can tell you about \u003cem>my\u003c/em> operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don't think I could speculate, frankly, how my operation would be. But I know any time a department head was confronted, or a member of law enforcement, we moved as quickly as we could to protect the public interest, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I think the big question here, given the wide reach of the scandal, for people who live and work in the city, is probably pretty simple — should people still have confidence in San Francisco government?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think people should never lose confidence in government, period. I don't think government rises or falls based on the conduct of a few. Trump proves that today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Dec. 8: This story has been updated to clarify that Mayor London Breed did not report she had accepted $5,600 in car repairs from Mohammed Nuru in 2019, \"initially.\" She has since reported it. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "james-fang-san-franciscos-last-elected-republican-dies-at-58",
"title": "James Fang, San Francisco's Last Elected Republican, Dies at 58",
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"headTitle": "James Fang, San Francisco’s Last Elected Republican, Dies at 58 | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>James Fang, San Francisco’s last elected Republican, died Friday at the age of 58.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Fang’s family said he died of “natural causes.” Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown told KQED Fang died of a “heart attack.” The Fang family could not be reached for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fang is survived by his wife, Daphne, his mother, Florence, and brother, Ted. For decades, the Fang family long held sway with their newspapers, the San Francisco Independent, AsianWeek and at one time, the San Francisco Examiner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He had a very happy life,” his family wrote, in a statement. “The family wishes to share their appreciation for the expressions of support from everyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fang left his stamp on Bay Area culture as publisher of AsianWeek for more than a decade, until its closure in 2009. He was also the president of the San Francisco Examiner newspaper after the Fang family\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfweekly.com/news/terminal-condition/\"> bought it in 2000\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elected to the BART Board of Directors in 1990, Fang served until he was ousted by Nick Josefowitz in 2014. Fang was a noted proponent of an effort to extend BART out to Ocean Beach through San Francisco’s West Side, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/bart-looking-west-toward-geary-boulevard-in-transbay-crossing-study/\">an effort that may now finally be gaining traction as BART studies a second Transbay Tube\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noting Fang’s prominence in the Asian community, particularly the monolingual Chinese community, Brown said San Francisco lost an important voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For years, they were part of the business of letting San Franciscans know about other San Franciscans,” Brown said. “He was an alternative voice for BART and for all of us. But without that voice, San Francisco is harmed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pius Lee, a former San Francisco police commissioner and prominent Chinatown community member, said Fang and AsianWeek gave the monolingual Chinese community a voice in the English-language world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For once, our message could be published in an English paper so all people could read that,” Lee said. “It was so important. He’s prominent not only in the Chinese community, but outside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Burton, a prominent former chair of the California Democratic Party, was also a long-time friend of the Fang family. Burton told KQED he was “stunned” by Fang’s death, particularly because he was so young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was a fine young man from a fine family, I wish his family and everybody, Florence, and Ted, (well)” Burton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A San Francisco native and alum of Lowell High School, Fang interned with Rep. Phillip Burton, brother to John.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11833555\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11833555 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-1376x1032.jpg 1376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-1044x783.jpg 1044w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-632x474.jpg 632w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-536x402.jpg 536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of James Fang, third from left, in the 1979 Lowell High School yearbook, in the ‘Bike Club.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Allan Low)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Recreation and Park Department Commissioner Allan Low was a friend of Fang since they were both teenagers attending Lowell. They also both interned for Burton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In high school, Low recalled Fang was in the “Bike Club” and was an avid runner. Later, when they were both interns for Rep. Burton, Low remembered Fang often had his back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Burton always liked Chesterfield Lights cigarettes and a particular gin, and I couldn’t buy it because I wasn’t 21,” Low remembered. “I always had to use James’ ID.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Low recalled Fang as humorous, outspoken, politically ambitious, and an ardent champion for San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While our politics might’ve been different, he was a good guy,” who at heart was always “a city kid,” Low said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s political leanings changed around Fang, eventually crowding out its few elected Republicans until only Fang remained. Critics of his BART Board of Directors race in 2014 often noted a need to oust San Francisco’s last remaining Republican holding office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite that political loss, and what it represented, Low said, “Deep down, he always loved the city.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>James Fang, San Francisco’s last elected Republican, died Friday at the age of 58.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Fang’s family said he died of “natural causes.” Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown told KQED Fang died of a “heart attack.” The Fang family could not be reached for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fang is survived by his wife, Daphne, his mother, Florence, and brother, Ted. For decades, the Fang family long held sway with their newspapers, the San Francisco Independent, AsianWeek and at one time, the San Francisco Examiner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He had a very happy life,” his family wrote, in a statement. “The family wishes to share their appreciation for the expressions of support from everyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fang left his stamp on Bay Area culture as publisher of AsianWeek for more than a decade, until its closure in 2009. He was also the president of the San Francisco Examiner newspaper after the Fang family\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfweekly.com/news/terminal-condition/\"> bought it in 2000\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elected to the BART Board of Directors in 1990, Fang served until he was ousted by Nick Josefowitz in 2014. Fang was a noted proponent of an effort to extend BART out to Ocean Beach through San Francisco’s West Side, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/bart-looking-west-toward-geary-boulevard-in-transbay-crossing-study/\">an effort that may now finally be gaining traction as BART studies a second Transbay Tube\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noting Fang’s prominence in the Asian community, particularly the monolingual Chinese community, Brown said San Francisco lost an important voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For years, they were part of the business of letting San Franciscans know about other San Franciscans,” Brown said. “He was an alternative voice for BART and for all of us. But without that voice, San Francisco is harmed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pius Lee, a former San Francisco police commissioner and prominent Chinatown community member, said Fang and AsianWeek gave the monolingual Chinese community a voice in the English-language world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For once, our message could be published in an English paper so all people could read that,” Lee said. “It was so important. He’s prominent not only in the Chinese community, but outside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Burton, a prominent former chair of the California Democratic Party, was also a long-time friend of the Fang family. Burton told KQED he was “stunned” by Fang’s death, particularly because he was so young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was a fine young man from a fine family, I wish his family and everybody, Florence, and Ted, (well)” Burton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A San Francisco native and alum of Lowell High School, Fang interned with Rep. Phillip Burton, brother to John.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11833555\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11833555 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-1376x1032.jpg 1376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-1044x783.jpg 1044w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-632x474.jpg 632w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091-536x402.jpg 536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/IMG_18091.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of James Fang, third from left, in the 1979 Lowell High School yearbook, in the ‘Bike Club.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Allan Low)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Recreation and Park Department Commissioner Allan Low was a friend of Fang since they were both teenagers attending Lowell. They also both interned for Burton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In high school, Low recalled Fang was in the “Bike Club” and was an avid runner. Later, when they were both interns for Rep. Burton, Low remembered Fang often had his back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Burton always liked Chesterfield Lights cigarettes and a particular gin, and I couldn’t buy it because I wasn’t 21,” Low remembered. “I always had to use James’ ID.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Low recalled Fang as humorous, outspoken, politically ambitious, and an ardent champion for San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While our politics might’ve been different, he was a good guy,” who at heart was always “a city kid,” Low said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s political leanings changed around Fang, eventually crowding out its few elected Republicans until only Fang remained. Critics of his BART Board of Directors race in 2014 often noted a need to oust San Francisco’s last remaining Republican holding office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite that political loss, and what it represented, Low said, “Deep down, he always loved the city.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"order": 9
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
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"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
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},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
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"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
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"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"order": 11
},
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"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
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"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
},
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"planet-money": {
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"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5Nzk2MzI2MTEx",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
"meta": {
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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