Gimme Something Better

From Amazon.com:

Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day (Paperback)
by Jack Boulware (Author), Silke Tudor (Author)
List Price: $18.00
This title will be released on September 29, 2009.
Pre-order now!

Product Description

An oral history of the modern punk-revival's West Coast Birthplace

Outside of New York and London, California's Bay Area claims the oldest continuous punk-rock scene in the world. Gimme Something Better brings this outrageous and influential punk scene to life, from the notorious final performance of the Sex Pistols, to Jello Biafra's bid for mayor, the rise of Maximum RocknRoll magazine, and the East Bay pop-punk sound that sold millions around the globe. Throngs of punks, including members of the Dead Kennedys, Avengers, Flipper, MDC, Green Day, Rancid, NOFX, and AFI, tell their own stories in this definitive account, from the innovative art-damage of San Francisco's Fab Mab in North Beach, to the still vibrant all-ages DIY ethos of Berkeley's Gilman Street. Compiled by longtime Bay Area journalists Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor, Gimme Something Better chronicles more than two decades of punk music, progressive politics, social consciousness, and divine decadence, told by the people who made it happen.

About the Author

Jack Boulware is the author of San Francisco Bizarro, and was a columnist at SF Weekly throughout the 1990s. His writing has appeared in many publications including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Playboy and Mojo.

Silke Tudor was born in the Bay Area and reared on punk. She was a columnist at SF Weekly and the Village Voice.
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Product Details
Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (September 29, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143113801
ISBN-13: 978-0143113805

On the Internet:

http://gimmesomethingbetter.com/

Porn star Marilyn Chambers dies at 56

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/13/BAQ7171NB7.DTL

Porn star Marilyn Chambers dies at 56
Sam Whiting, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Adult film actress Marilyn Chambers, the onetime Ivory Snow model who gained greater fame as the star of the X-rated "Behind the Green Door," was found dead Sunday by her teenage daughter at her home in Southern California. She was 56.

Authorities have not released a cause of death.

Ms. Chambers, given name Marilyn Briggs, was central to the erotic empire built by the late Mitchell brothers - Jim and Artie - at their Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre, now in its 40th year.

Ten years ago, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown proclaimed a "Marilyn Chambers Day," praising the porn queen for her "artistic presence," her "vision" and her "energy."

"That wasn't from any personal knowledge. That was all part of the allure of San Francisco," Brown said Monday. "At the time that she was doing what she was doing, it created an interest nationally if not internationally in our city. And people would come here to see if Marilyn Chambers was really dressed in snowflakes."

The snowflakes reference goes back to her debut as a teenage model for Ivory Snow, which featured her on a laundry detergent box as a young mother cuddling a laughing baby. According to journalist Warren Hinckle, chronicler of the Mitchell Brothers era, she grew up in Connecticut as the daughter of an ad executive. "She went to all the right schools and was doing all the right things," Hinckle said.

At age 18, she had made her way to San Francisco and answered an ad placed by the Mitchells, who were making films to show in their movie theater. "Behind the Green Door," released in 1972, was one of the first adult movies with a plot, of sorts. In their promotions, the Mitchells didn't mind that their star had a previous affiliation with the cleansing powers of soap.

"Without this Ivory Snow thing, they might have stayed with these small-time performers," said Rita Benton, marketing director for the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre. "It hit all the major news media in 1973. Then they promoted the movie as 'starring Marilyn Chambers, 99.44% pure.' That's what the Ivory Snow line used to be."

Made for $50,000, "Behind the Green Door" has made millions, Benton said, and still sells on DVD, as does her second movie, "Resurrection of Eve," made in 1973.

Ms. Chambers never lived full time in the Bay Area and was never a regular performer in the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre, which started live shows in 1976. She would come back for guest performances over the years. Most famously was during the administration of Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who seemed to have it in for the Mitchells. In what some described as a publicity stunt, the brothers invited Ms. Chambers, then 32, to travel north from her home and help raise morale.

Ms. Chambers did as she was asked on a February night in 1985, undressing and taking an "undulating stroll through an appreciative audience," according to a Chronicle report, an audience that included five undercover police officers. In all, it took 13 officers to make the arrest. "The force ... that took me to jail was appalling," said Ms. Chambers, who then expressed concern that she wouldn't know how to tell her mother she had been detained. "She just got over the X-rated films," she said.

A few years ago, Ms. Chambers made her last appearance at the Mitchell theater during a tribute to her. The place was packed, recalled Hinckle, who was there and got a photo of Ms. Chambers with his basset hound, Melman.

Ms. Chambers also appeared in theatrical features, including David Cronenberg's thriller "Rabid" in 1977.

She was married and divorced three times, according to the Associated Press, and is survived by her daughter, McKenna Marie Taylor; her brother, Bill Briggs; and her sister, Jann Smith.

E-mail Sam Whiting at swhiting@schronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Barry Bonds in Context

Folks – there is a shakeup at MSNBC and they are adding new programming at the 10 PM hour. If you think MSNBC could use a left wing sports commentator, please drop a quick note to letters@msnbc.com and tell them that a little Dave Z could go a long way.

In struggle and sports,

Dave Z

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090316/zirin

Barry Bonds in Context
Southpaw
By Dave Zirin
March 4, 2009

As he has done with countless pitchers over the last quarter-century, Barry Bonds made the Justice Department sweat, cower and blink. Faced with entering a court of law with a losing hand, the US Attorney's office in San Francisco has delayed the case of The US v. Barry Bonds indefinitely. Efforts to prove that the home-run king lied in grand jury testimony about his anabolic intake have for now been benched.

The prosecution will now start a lengthy appeal of Judge Susan Ilston's devastating pretrial dismissal of most of their case. It had wanted to submit reams of evidence seized from Bonds's trainer Greg Anderson, without having Anderson testify to its authenticity. Ilston refused to let them. This left the prosecution with nothing but scatological testimony from Bonds's ex-mistress that dwelled more on testicles than test results, so they chose to retreat and regroup.

The Justice Department wins 95 percent of the cases it brings to trial, and make no mistake: this case was about to become part of the other 5 percent. The only thing the Justice Department had in its favor is what it always has, unlimited time and funds, so it's rolling the dice in hopes that a three-judge panel rules against Ilston. It wants the wiretaps, the illegal search and seizures and the acts of intimidation against Anderson's family all to stand legally. This is frightening, but prosecutors will likely find themselves very disappointed. The page appears to be turning on the entire Bush era of outlaw justice, and Barry Bonds will likely benefit.

The case started when Attorney General John Ashcroft, the great champion of the Patriot Act, held a press conference in 2004 to announce that the investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative was officially underway. Having the Attorney General convene a grand jury to look into steroid use was extreme overkill, but as commentators remarked at the time, it was a shot across the bow at Bonds. Most sports fans were very comfortable with seeing the despoiler of the national pastime get crushed. Bonds has had notoriously difficult relationships with the press, fans, teammates and management throughout his career. He is also black, which makes him an easier target. But the desire to see Bonds punished came at a terrible collective cost.

The Bonds case has always been about more than the sports media have chosen to dwell on. It's not about the scourge of anabolic steroids, or a surly, arrogant athlete getting his comeuppance. It isn't even about perjury. It's about how the Justice Department under Bush became untethered from the Bill of Rights.

This week, Obama Attorney General Eric Holder has released a series of post-9/11 memos that chill the spine. As the Washington Post reported:

Justice Department appointee John Yoo argued that constitutional provisions ensuring free speech and barring warrantless searches could be disregarded by the president in wartime, allowing troops to storm a building if they suspected terrorists might be inside. In another, the department asserted that detainees could be transferred to countries known to commit human rights abuses so long as US officials did not intentionally seek their torture.

And as Michael Isikoff wrote in Newsweek:

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the US military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside the United States, deploy high-tech surveillance against US citizens and potentially suspend First Amendment freedom-of-the-press rights in order to combat the terror threat, according to a memo released Monday.

Bonds has been the most public victim of this frightening approach to law and justice. But while Americans followed the Bonds saga, and many cheered his professional demise, the real damage to civil liberties was being done. Shamefully underreported throughout the last decade were the stories of hundreds of Arabs and Muslims imprisoned and harassed through the Patriot Act, or the persecution of Sami Al Arian, or the hundreds of Maryland activists, who were spied upon for being environmentalists or anti-death penalty. They were all caught in the same net.

It is a very good thing that Holder is releasing these memos. But it's not enough. Repealing the Patriot Act is the best way to truly turn the page on a shameful era in the history of US law.

Still, the ruling of Judge Ilston and the backstepping of the San Francisco US Attorney's office is a good start. If they want to prove Bonds perjured himself, let's see if they can do it without torching the Bill of Rights in the process.

About Dave Zirin

Dave Zirin is the author of Welcome to the Terrordome: the Pain Politics and Promise of Sports (Haymarket) and the forthcoming A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). and his writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated.com, New York Newsday and The Progressive. He is the host of XM Radio's Edge of Sports Radio.

Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

The US v. Barry Bonds

The US v. Barry Bonds
By Dave Zirin

This is a story about garbage. There's the actual garbage overzealous federal investigators examined in their efforts to prosecute a surly sports celebrity. There's the shredding of the Bill of Rights, crudely ignored by the government in the name of obsession and ambition. Finally, there's the thorough trashing of people's reputations, not to mention the game of baseball. Welcome to The US v. Barry Bonds ; please disregard the stench.

The trial to prove that slugger Barry Bonds perjured himself in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) steroid investigation begins March 2. Yet after seven years of investigation, millions of dollars in work hours and countless ruined reputations, the US Attorney's Office will arrive in court with virtually no leg to stand on. Judge Susan Illston struck down most of the prosecution's case, a move ESPN legal expert Lester Munson called a "devastating" setback for prosecutors. The ruling was an indictment of not only the government's case but its entire approach toward Bonds from day one.

John Ashcroft's Justice Department always seemed irrationally determined to prosecute Bonds. It was as obsessive as the fisherman Santiago attempting to bring home the great marlin in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea . The embodiment of this obsession was IRS agent Jeff Novitzky. He broke open the BALCO case after spending a great deal of time, to the adulation of the press, literally sifting through the company's garbage and sewage.

Novitzky was given the green light by President Bush and Ashcroft to go for the jugular. In 2004, accompanied by eleven agents, he marched into Comprehensive Drug Testing, the nation's largest sports-drug testing company. Armed with a warrant to see the confidential drug tests of ten baseball players, he walked out with 4,000 supposedly sealed medical files, including every baseball player in the major leagues. As Jon Pessah wrote in ESPN magazine, "Three federal judges reviewed the raid. One asked, incredulously, if the Fourth Amendment had been repealed. Another, Susan Illston, who has presided over the BALCO trials, called Novitzky's actions a 'callous disregard' for constitutional rights. All three instructed him to return the records. Instead, Novitzky kept the evidence...."

It was a frightening abuse of power, all aimed at imprisoning a prominent African-American athlete. Yet despite the landfills of trash, the government's case always rested on a flimsy premise. Bonds's contention under oath was that anything illegal he may have ingested was without prior knowledge. The only person who could contradict Bonds was his trainer and longtime friend Greg Anderson. The government pressed Anderson to give testimony. He refused, citing a promise made by the feds that he wouldn't have to testify after pleading guilty to steroid distribution and money laundering in 2005. The feds stuck him in jail for thirteen months to soften him up, but he didn't crack.

Anderson has remained firm even though in January, twenty FBI and IRS agents raided the home of his mother-in-law and threatened to punish her for tax evasion if Anderson didn't spill. Similar threats have been made against his wife. Mark Geragos, Anderson's attorney, told Yahoo Sports, "It's such a blatant and transparent attempt to intimidate Greg. They're acting like the Gestapo. Even the mafia spares the women and children." Without Anderson, the state's case was always weak. But now itis on serious life support. Illston ruled most of Novitzky and the government's case inadmissible, for good reason.

The prosecution wanted to submit a surreptitiously recorded statement from Anderson as well as notations on what it calls his "drug calendar," even though he would not testify to authenticate any of the evidence. Illston, to her credit, said no dice and declared those items inadmissible. The government has raised the specter of jailing Anderson again, but Illston remarked in a "raised voice" that jailing someone twice for refusing to testify would be beyond the pale.

The government is hinting that it will appeal Illston's ruling, but that would indefinitely delay the trial. If the US Attorney's Office does continue the case, it has made clear its next line of offense: it will have Bonds's former mistress, Kimberly Bell, testify in detail about the alleged "shriveling" of Bonds's testicles. Jeff Novitzky should be proud.

It's way past time to say enough is enough.

Whether or not you are a Barry Bonds fan, or consider him to be just a step above a seal-clubbing, pit bull-fighting bank executive, every person of good conscience should be aghast at the way the Justice Department has gone about its business. Barry Bonds, Greg Anderson and maybe thousands of others have had their rights trampled on, all for the glory of a perjury case that looks to be going absolutely nowhere. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama have strongly indicated that the government is getting out of the steroid monitoring business. That is welcome, but after so many years, so many tax dollars and so many reputations destroyed, it all feels positively Pyrrhic.

At the end of The Old Man and the Sea, when Santiago finally returns to shore, his 18-foot catch has been reduced to a skeleton. A crowd gathers to gawk and imagine what the magnificent marlin once was. Santiago completed his journey with nothing, but he felt purified for the battle and slept deeply and proudly. As we pick through the bones of Barry Bonds, I can't imagine Jeff Novitzky feels the same.

Dave Zirin is the author of “A People’s History of Sports in the United States” (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com .

Same-sex marriage ban wins

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/05/BA3B13UM63.DTL

Same-sex marriage ban wins; opponents sue to block measure
John Wildermuth,Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 5, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO -- After a heated, divisive campaign fueled by a record $73 million of spending, California voters have approved Proposition 8, which would change the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Opponents promptly filed suit to try to block the measure from taking effect.

With 96 percent of the vote counted, Prop. 8 was winning by a decisive 400,000-vote margin, 52.2 percent to 47.8 percent. It piled up huge margins in the Central Valley and carried some Democratic strongholds such as Los Angeles County. The measure lost in every Bay Area county but Solano.

As the vote counting continued this morning, opponents of Prop. 8 filed a lawsuit directly with the state Supreme Court - whose May 15 ruling legalized same-sex marriage - asking the justices to overturn the measure.

The suit argued that Prop. 8 would change the California Constitution in such fundamental ways - taking important rights away from a minority group - that it amounted to a constitutional revision, which requires approval by the Legislature before being submitted to the voters. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lamda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

The same groups asked the court before the election to remove Prop. 8 from the ballot on those grounds. The justices refused, but left the door open for a post-election challenge.

"A major purpose of the Constitution is to protect minorities from majorities," said Elizabeth Gill, an ACLU lawyer. "Because changing that principle is a fundamental change to the organizing principles of the Constitution itself, only the Legislature can initiative such revisions."

The suit was filed on behalf of six unmarried same-sex couples and the gay rights group Equality California.

Passage of Prop. 8 leaves more than just the future of same-sex marriage up in the air. Questions have also been raised about whether the marriages of the estimated 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have wed since June will be recognized as valid.

Supporters of the ban have said their measure was intended to be applied retroactively. "We're confident voters did go to the polls to vote 'yes' to protect traditional marriage," said Chip White, a spokesman for the Prop. 8 campaign.

Same-sex marriage bans won easily Tuesday night in Florida and Arizona. It was a rematch in Arizona, which in 2006 became the only state to ever reject a ban on same-sex marriage.

The campaign in California pitted those who argued that a same-sex marriage ban was nothing more than outdated discrimination against gays and lesbians, and conservatives and Christian groups who countered that the state and the courts have no right to unilaterally change a definition of marriage that has existed for centuries.

The flood of dollars that poured into the state from every part of the country made Prop. 8 the most expensive social issue race the nation has ever seen. And behind every one of those checks was someone desperately worried about what the election result could mean to them and their state.

To San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and other opponents of Prop. 8, as well as to religious groups that backed the measure, the proposed ban on same-sex marriage was the second-most-important election in the country Tuesday.

The Prop. 8 battle, born in San Francisco, came eight years after more than 61 percent of California voters came out in favor of Prop. 22, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. But supporters had little time to savor the victory.

In 2004, Newsom set off a political and social explosion when he ordered marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples in the city. Gay and lesbian couples flocked to the city, showing up in wedding dresses and tuxes for the chance to be legally married. Despite outraged reaction from across the state and nation, Newsom didn't back down until a court ordered the city to stop issuing the same-sex licenses.

In 2005 and 2007, the Legislature passed bills that would have allowed same-sex marriage, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed them. In 2006, the state Supreme Court voted unanimously to hear several challenges to same-sex marriage and rule on them.

Opponents of same-sex marriage were ready with a challenge that became Prop. 8.

Worried that a governor after Schwarzenegger would sign a same-sex marriage bill or that the court would rule against them, Prop. 22 supporters began putting together another initiative drive to make the same-sex marriage ban part of the California Constitution, beyond the reach of either the Legislature or the courts. They raised the money and gathered more than 1.1 million signatures by this spring.

On May 15, the state Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage. The court voted 4-3 to overturn Prop. 22 and the same-sex marriage ban, ruling that the state Constitution provided a right to marry that extends to same-sex couples. The three dissenting justices argued that it was up to the voters or the Legislature, not the court, to permit same-sex marriage, a view quickly taken up by opponents of the ruling.

"Four judges ignored 4 million voters and imposed same-sex marriage on California," Prop. 8 supporters said in a TV ad. "It's no longer about tolerance. Acceptance of gay marriage is now mandatory."

It was an argument that continued all the way to election day.

But with same-sex marriage legal in California, opponents of Prop. 8 could run a totally different campaign from the type that had lost virtually every election over the issue across the nation.

Rather than arguing for same-sex marriage, opponents took the moral high ground atop the Supreme Court decision and argued that a vote for Prop. 8 was a vote for discrimination. They got another bit of help when state Attorney General Jerry Brown ordered the Prop. 8 ballot language changed to say that it "eliminates the rights of same-sex couples to marry."

Prop. 8 backers charged that politics, not legal rectitude, was behind Brown's decision. They went to court, but lost.

That allowed Prop. 8 opponents, worried that many voters were not enamored with the idea of same-sex marriage, to run a TV campaign that almost never mentioned gays or lesbians or showed them in an ad. Instead, the ads charged that Prop. 8 supporters wanted to take away rights from a single, unnamed group of people, which opponents said was not fair.

E-mail the writers at jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com and begelko@sfchronicle.com.

Food, politics mix at Slow Food Nation

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10337320

Food, politics mix at Slow Food Nation
FOOD FESTIVAL DRAWS CROWD FROM NEAR, FAR
Dana Hull
Mercury News
08/29/2008

Eating is an environmental and political act. Just ask the throngs sampling olive oil, peaches and goat cheese in the summer sun Friday, washing it all down with tap water — no plastic bottles needed.

Welcome to Slow Food Nation, a celebration of sustainable agriculture and politics that kicked off Friday in San Francisco with food, food and more food.

Though most of the 50,000 festivalgoers are Bay Area residents who already shop at the region's numerous farmers markets, several others traveled into town just for the occasion.

"I'm very interested in food, and I'm really impressed by what they've done here," said Jill Silton, 71, who flew up from Los Angeles and toured the edible Victory Garden, a vegetable garden planted in front of San Francisco City Hall. "I've heard about Slow Food and knew it was from Italy. But this is amazing. The garden is beautiful, and it should always be here."

The Slow Food philosophy wants Americans to "vote with their fork": eat locally grown and organic food; rediscover the joys of cooking; enjoy meals with family and friends; support local farmers. But in a nation that invented large-scale farming, fast food and TV dinners, that's been an uphill battle.

"We all eat every day," said Alice Waters, a sustainable food advocate best known for Chez? Panisse, her Berkeley restaurant. "There are public consequences to every decision we make."

The term "Slow Food" was coined by Carlo

Petrini, who was outraged when a McDonald's opened near the Spanish Steps in Rome nearly two decades ago. The Slow Food movement now has 85,000 members in 132 countries and is beginning to catch on here; this weekend's Slow Food Nation event is an American coming-out party of sorts.

"Everyone said that Slow Food can't work in the United States," said Petrini, who wears a snail lapel pin — the international symbol of Slow Food. "But it can. Food, farming and environmental issues are closely linked."

The weekend features several free events that are subsidized by pricier tasting workshops, tours of local wineries and ranches and swanky restaurant dinners that can cost up to $250.

In "taste pavilions" set up at Fort Mason, tickets cost $25 to $65 to sample artisan cheese, coffee and pickles. But tickets sold out so quickly that desperate pleas are posted on Craigslist.

"Wanted, ticket to Slow Food Nation food pavilion!" reads one of 70 Craigslist posts Friday. "Looking for one ticket for Friday food pavilion and also looking for two tickets to Sunday's food pavilion at Fort Mason. Will pay $50 a ticket!!!!"

But plenty of other events are free. The plaza in front of San Francisco's City Hall features dozens of California vendors selling dry farmed tomatoes, local honey, cheeses, corn and fruit. Activists are handing out seeds, and backyard gardeners can take home bricks of organic compost made from worm casings.

Charles Franklin Swift, creator of Charlie Frank's pies, stood in a broiling sun selling his famous sweet potato peach pies. Swift used to give the pies out to friends and relatives for Christmas, and then realized he could turn it into a business. Part of the Slow Food philosophy encourages consumers to get to know the people who grow, harvest and prepare the food we eat.

"In my family everyone loves sweets, but no one wanted to cook," said Swift, as he talked about his special recipe — one part peach, four parts sweet potatoes — to customers.

"Every holiday I was in the kitchen making cobblers and pies, so now it's a little business."

Some critics have derided Slow Food as being little more than the latest fad for wealthy foodies. But Swift said the spirit of the weekend is inspiring.

"This is wonderful," the Oakland resident said, as passersby returned to buy seconds. "It's about enjoying the cooking process."

Across the plaza, Casey Gustowarow sat in a big yellow school bus that's known as TheWhoFarm: The White House Organic Farm Project. TheWhoFarm is gathering petition signatures to urge the next president to plant an organic farm on the grounds of the White House.

"There's 17 acres at the White House," Gustowarow said. "At least some of that land could be turned into productive use. Food is an important issue, and we need to support supporting local agriculture in a big way."

Slow Food Nation officials say they will measure the festival's success by the small changes people make in their lives, whether that's inviting friends over for dinner or deciding to give up that drive-through breakfast.

"I went to a lecture about the global food crisis, and it was very powerful," said Bob Bela, 68, of Lenox, Mass., as he munched on Bronx grapes, grown in San Joaquin County.

"When I go home, I will support my local farmers more intentionally than I used to."

For more information on the festival or the movement, visit slowfoodnation.org

Contact Dana Hull at dhull@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-2706.

Trainer provides physical evidence against Clemens

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-clemens7feb07,0,7944007.story

Trainer reportedly provides physical evidence against Clemens
Brian McNamee is said to have given federal investigators items that he kept from earlier seasons that could link the pitcher to drug use. Clemens' lawyer accuses the trainer of deception.
By Lance Pugmire and Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
February 7, 2008

Roger Clemens' former trainer has given physical evidence to federal investigators that will confirm the pitcher used performance-enhancing drugs, the trainer's attorneys said Wednesday.

The evidence includes vials with traces of steroids and human growth hormone, blood-stained syringes and gauze pads that may contain the seven-time Cy Young Award winner's DNA, the New York Daily News reported on its website, citing an anonymous source.

The evidence has been sent to a lab for testing of drugs and blood, the Daily News reported. Depending on the results, prosecutors could seek a DNA sample from Clemens.

"If Roger Clemens' DNA is on that used needle, that's the functional equivalent of the little blue dress in the Monica Lewinsky case that forced Bill Clinton to admit his affair," former federal prosecutor Brian Lysaght said.

Lanny Breuer, an attorney for Clemens, accused trainer Brian McNamee of smearing Clemens and attacked his credibility.

"Brian McNamee is obviously a troubled man who is obsessed with doing everything possible to destroy Roger Clemens," Breuer said in a statement, adding that McNamee had lied to baseball and government investigators and "now he apparently has manufactured evidence."

"He now claims he kept blood, gauze and needles from Roger Clemens for seven years," Breuer said. "It defies all sensibility. It is just not credible -- who in their right mind does such a thing?

"As Roger has said under oath to Congress and to the American public, at no time did he take steroids or growth hormone. Despite the desperate smears of Brian McNamee, Roger is looking forward to testifying before Congress next week to set the record straight."

The disclosure is the latest dramatic development in the steroid allegations involving Clemens, which surfaced in December with the release of former Sen. George Mitchell's report examining the use of performance-enhancing substances in Major League Baseball.

McNamee told Mitchell's investigators that he injected Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, with steroids or HGH on 16 occasions in 1998, 2000 and 2001. Until now, it was not known if there was any physical evidence that might back up McNamee's allegations. Clemens has said the only injections he received from McNamee were for vitamin B-12 and the pain reliever lidocaine.

The Daily News report said McNamee kept the evidence from the 2000 and 2001 seasons out of fear Clemens would deny use of the drugs if the issue were ever investigated.

The onetime strength and conditioning coach of the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees preserved the evidence because as "a former police officer," he knew it was important to do so, Richard Emery, an attorney for McNamee, told The Times.

Emery declined to describe the evidence but said it was delivered to U.S. Justice Department investigators from San Francisco "some time ago."

McNamee and Clemens will be on Capitol Hill today. As McNamee gives his deposition, Clemens will meet several of the lawmakers scheduled to question him under oath next week -- meetings Breuer said had been in the works before Wednesday's disclosure.

Clemens was deposed Tuesday by attorneys with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He said he denied under oath having taken steroids or HGH, as McNamee has alleged.

Ronald J. Nessim, a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said Clemens is in "high jeopardy" of a criminal case if he's lying.

"It's true his reputation is in tatters, with his Hall of Fame chances being questioned and all that, but nothing he's done is criminal unless he's lying," Nessim said. "It's very brazen if he's doing it in Congress. Prosecutors and members of Congress don't like that.

" . . . Even if it's a one-on-one credibility contest, physical evidence at some point can become sufficient to prosecute. If it's powerful evidence, he's vulnerable."

Breuer said the disclosure deprived Clemens of the opportunity to refute the claim to government investigators.

"It's a complete stunt," the attorney said, "calculated to do only one thing, and that is to destroy a good man's name. Sadly, it works."

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco, which is supervising the investigation of performance-enhancing drug use in sports that started with the 2003 raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), said his office had no comment on the Daily News' report.

Emery said McNamee will discuss his turnover of the evidence at a news conference after today's deposition.

The one-on-one meetings Clemens will hold today were offered by his representatives to selected committee members in advance of next week's televised hearing. The so-called "courtesy calls" enable legislators to talk to witnesses without the five-minute limit on questioning that applies in a hearing, and outside that potentially adversarial setting.

"Roger has nothing to hide," Breuer said. "He feels the best way to show that is to meet with members and let them know he never took steroids or HGH."

Breuer said he did not know which members had accepted invitations to meet with Clemens.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com
bill.shaikin@latimes.com

Bay Area commuters face nightmare

Yet another example of why I'm happy to be out of California...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070430/ap_on_re_us/highway_collapse_45

Bay Area commuters face nightmare
By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer
4-30-7

The threat of a nightmarish morning commute led many Bay Area residents to use public transportation Monday, one day after a fiery tanker crash caused a heavily trafficked section of freeway to collapse.

Westbound traffic into the city largely flowed as usual Monday morning, except for drivers slowing on interchange lanes headed to the Bay Bridge to look at the damage.

But officials warned the afternoon drive would bring bigger headaches as traffic leaving the city is diverted away from the collapsed eastbound segment.

The elevated section of highway that carries motorists from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to a number of freeways was destroyed early Sunday when the heat of a burning gasoline tanker truck weakened part of one overpass, crumpling it onto another.

Authorities predicted that overall the crash would cause the worst disruption for commuters since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Bay Bridge itself. The sight of the soaring freeway twisted into a fractured mass of steel and concrete was reminiscent of that quake's damage.

"The most worrisome thing is the afternoon commute coming out of San Francisco toward the maze because the traffic from the Bay Bridge fans out from across three freeways," said Jeff Weiss, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. "Taking away two-thirds of the capacity is really going to cause a bottleneck."

Nearly 75,000 vehicles used the damaged portion of the road every day. But because the accident occurred where three highways converge, authorities said it could cause problems for hundreds of thousands of commuters. State transportation officials said 280,000 commuters take the Bay Bridge into San Francisco each day.

To encourage motorists to switch to public transit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger authorized free passage Monday on ferries, buses and the Bay Area Rapid Transit rail system. Extra trains were added and bus and ferry operators also expanded service.

Parking lots at outlying BART stations filled up earlier than usual for the morning commute.

"I'm mad," said Crystal McSwain, who has a commuter pass to take a trans-bay bus but switched to the more expensive BART. "My life is upside down, and I don't know how long it's going to take."

However, while some trains appeared more crowded than usual, BART officials said overall ridership did not appear greater than normal. Riders likely delayed their morning commute to avoid crowds, or stayed home, BART spokesman Jim Allison said.

Transportation officials said it could take months to repair the damaged interchanges. Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency to speed up cleanup and rebuilding efforts.

Despite the fire, the truck's driver walked away with only second-degree burns. James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, went to a gas station and called a taxi for a ride to a hospital, California Highway Patrol Officer Trent Cross said.

A preliminary investigation indicated Mosqueda may have been speeding on the curving road, he said. Mosqueda could not be reached for comment Monday; hospital officials would not transfer a call to him.

Police said he was headed from a refinery in Benicia to a gas station near the Oakland airport when the accident occurred early Sunday on the MacArthur Maze, a network of ramps and interchanges at the edge of downtown Oakland and about a half-mile from the Bay Bridge toll plaza.

Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees, softening and buckling steel beams and melting bolts, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said.

The cost of the repairs would likely run into the tens of millions of dollars, and the state was seeking federal disaster aid, Kempton said.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the accident showed how fragile the Bay Area's transportation network is, whether to an earthquake or terrorist attack.

"It's another giant wake-up call," Newsom said.
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Associated Press writer Tom Verdin in San Diego contributed to this report.