Sam Spade's San Francisco

Published since 2005. San Francisco is a city that belongs to the people of the world. Hence this blog has a global focus. The name "Sam Spade's San Francisco" refers to an exciting era in the City's history, the time of Dashiell Hammett's fictional gumshoe and San Francisco character, Sam Spade. My name is Tom Dunn and I edit the blog. I'm not as exciting as Sam Spade, but I am definitely a San Francisco character.Contact or on Twitter -- Search blog below.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Noir City 9 Film Festival - Castro Theatre - San Francisco - January 21 to 30, 2011

Are you ready for the insanity?

NOIR CITY 9 returns to its usual majestic venue, the Castro Theatre, from January 21 to January 30, 2011 with "Who's Crazy Now?" a lineup of twenty-four tales of madness, ranging from the legendary Oscar-winning performances by Ingrid Bergman (Gaslight) and Ronald Colman (A Double Life)--to obscure rarities, all presented as originally intended, in glorious 35mm celluloid, in a great movie palace, before an appreciative audience.

Regular NOIR CITY attendees will see the ultimate payoff from their loyal patronage among the rarities: three brand new 35mm prints funded by the Film Noir Foundation: Curtis Bernhardt's High Wall (1947); Harold D. Schuster's Loophole (1954); and Jack Bernhard's The Hunted (1948). In addition to contributing to film preservation just by attending the festival, the audience at one of the screenings will vote on whether or not the FNF should preserve that title. Which title it will be is one of several surprises, including unannounced guests and unscheduled screenings of short films before some of the features.

Want to get the full NOIR CITY experience?

Why not buy Passports for you and your favorite femme fatale or homme fatal? Passports ($100) grant the bearer admission to every show. Passport holders will have a chance to mingle with fellow noir lovers at the opening reception where they can chat, imbibe, and dig the coolest music. Passports can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets, as well as individual tickets for double features ($10). Patrons can also purchase tickets for the same low price at the Castro box office on the day of show.

Directions to the Castro Theatre

Have something to eat before the movie just around the corner

Have a drink after the movie right on the corner

Pete Souza's White House Pic du Jour for January 19, 2011

President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao of China wave to children attending the ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Jan. 19, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Pete Souza is the White House Chief Photographer. He has the highest security clearance in the country. Number One. He goes wherever the President goes -- aboard Air Force One, riding with POTUS inside or very near the Presidential limousine in each motorcade, walking with the President behind the scenes and occasionally even into the private Obama family residence inside the White House. The entire photo collection of the daily life of the President is kept and becomes part of the public archives. They will eventually end-up in the Obama Presidential Library when it is established.

I declared myself as a Barack Obama fan and supporter in this post from October 26, 2006: Barack Obama, our Best Hope since RFK. I am following the President's remarkable journey closely and it is proving to be a deeply impressive experience. Barack Obama is absolutely destined to be recognized as one of the greatest of America's presidents. Of that I have absolutely no doubt. I am so fortunate to be alive at this point in history. Through the work of the White House Photographer we can all become eyewitnesses to this absolutely fascinating moment in history.

Every day Pete Souza posts a picture of the day on the White House website. I simply download and post Pete's choice for the day, or, Pete's Pic du Jour. It is a daily visual chronicle of the life of President Barack Obama. The office of the White House Photographer allows me, a plain doughnut kind of guy in San Francisco, to follow the daily life of the President inside the White House or aboard Air Force One or wherever on the planet he may be.

Pete Souza is the luckiest guy on eatrth. He landed a job as President Obama's White House Photographer. He is an "invisible" member of the family and of the staff. Pete Souza goes wherever Barack Obama goes. Not since Matthew Brady, who had the good fortune to photograph President Abraham Lincoln on a number of occasions, has a photographer had such an opportunity to be on the tip of the cutting edge of critically important American history.

PBS obtained permission (very rare permission) to tail Pete Souza wherever he went. The documentary, called The President's Photographer: 50 years in the Oval Office, provides a very rare and unique inside view of what it's really like to be tailing the President of the United States. There are some great shots of previous White House Photographers going back to the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson who started the tradition of documenting (almost) every minute of the President's life in office. The first real "member of the family" Presidential Photographer was Yoichi "Okie" Okamoto who did .

In the documentary you almost feel you are walking right along with Pete Souza, rushing right by the Secret Service and right up to the Boss. It is an impressive experience. Watch it at pbs.org/the-presidents-photographer/

The White House also has some interesting videos available online from a series called "Inside the White House".

Enjoy

San Ramon man, Dave Chhabria, 30, sent to federal prison for keeping 13,000 child porn photos

Dave Prem Chhabria was sentenced yesterday to 57 months in prison for possession of child pornography, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced.

Pursuant to a plea agreement with the government, Chhabria, 30, pleaded guilty on Nov. 4, 2010, to possession of child pornography in violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 2252(a)(4)(B). According to the plea agreement, Chhabria admitted to possessing computer equipment and media that was found to contain more than 13,000 images of child pornography, and more than 200 child pornography videos.

Chhabria first came to the attention of the San Ramon police when members of the public complained that he had been seen peering into the bedroom windows of young girls, and on one occasion had aimed a flashlight into a 13-year-old girl’s bedroom while she was undressing for bed. Chhabria later admitted to police that he had used Google Earth software to plot escape routes if he was ever caught peering into young girls’ bedrooms, and would time his visits based on when he thought girls would be trying on new clothes for school.

The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton following a guilty plea to a one count information charging possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B). Judge Hamilton also sentenced the defendant to a five-year period of supervised release. The defendant is currently in custody.

Owen Martikan is the Assistant United States Attorney who prosecuted the case with the assistance of Elise Etter. The prosecution is the result of a one-year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in conjunction with the San Ramon Police Department.

Further Information:

- Case #: CR10-0803 PJH

- A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

- Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

- Judges' calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court's website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.

Announcing JFK50.org -- celebrating the legacy of President John F. Kennedy

In celebration of the 50^th anniversary of President Kennedy's inauguration, today the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has officially launched www.JFK50.org - an innovative multimedia website designed to reflect the vibrancy and excitement of the Kennedy administration.

Fifty years have passed since President John Fitzgerald Kennedy sparked an era of progress, innovation, and inspiration based on excellence. As we celebrate this milestone anniversary, our aspiration is to bring forward his words and ideas to ignite the imagination of youth, and to challenge them to define their own call to greatness.

As the centerpiece of the anniversary celebration, www.JFK50.org was created to invite young visitors to explore the legacy of JFK through the core themes of public service, science and innovation, civil rights, domestic affairs, the arts, foreign policy and diplomacy and the environment.

Features of the website include:

A media rich interactive graphic novel that will bring to life the events of that era as they occurred fifty years ago;

A video mosaic legacy gallery showcasing people who are continuing JFK's legacy in their respective field;
Downloadable exhibits that users can customize and produce.

Get inspired. Go to www.JFK50.org today.

Visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Online

www.jfklibrary.org Shop at the Museum Store

Find us on Facebook Download our Podcasts
Watch Videos on YouTube Follow JFK's 1960 Campaign on Twitter

Big FBI Mafia Bust - largest takedown in FBI history -- Godfathers behind bars today!

Early this morning FBI agents and partner law enforcement officers began arresting nearly 130 members of the Mafia in New York City and other East Coast cities charged in the largest nationally coordinated organized crime takedown in the Bureau’s history.

Members of New York’s infamous Five Families—the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Luchese crime organizations—were rounded up along with members of the New Jersery-based DeCavalcante family and New England Mafia to face charges including murder, drug trafficking, arson, loan sharking, illegal gambling, witness tampering, labor racketeering, and extortion.

In one case involving the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) at the Ports of New York and New Jersey, the alleged extortion has been going on for years.

More than 30 of the subjects indicted were “made” members of the Mafia (see graphic), including several high-ranking family members. The arrests, predominantly in New York, are expected to seriously disrupt some of the crime families’ operations.

"The notion that today's mob families are more genteel and less violent than in the past is put to lie by the charges contained in the indictments unsealed today,” said Janice Fedarcyk, assistant director in charge of our New York Field Office. “Even more of a myth is the notion that the mob is a thing of the past; that La Cosa Nostra is a shadow of its former self.”

The Mafia—also known as La Cosa Nostra (LCN)—may have taken on a diminished criminal role in some areas of the country, but in New York, the Five Families are still “extremely strong and viable,” said Dave Shafer, an assistant special agent in charge who supervises FBI organized crime investigations in New York.

Today’s operation began before dawn. Some 500 FBI personnel—along with about 200 local, state, and other federal law enforcement officers—took part, including key agencies such as the New York Police Department and the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.

By 11 a.m., more than 110 of the 127 subjects charged had been taken into custody.

The idea for a nationally coordinated LCN takedown originated at the Department of Justice last summer, said Shafer, a veteran organized crime investigator. “We have done big LCN takedowns before, but never one this big.”

Among those charged:

- Luigi Manocchio , 83 -- the former boss of the New England LCN

- Andrew Russo, 76 -- street boss of the Colombo family

- Benjamin Castellazzo, 73 -- acting underboss of the Colombo family

- Richard Fusco, 74 -- consigliere of the Colombo family

- Joseph Corozzo, 69 -- consigliere of the Gambino family

- Bartolomeo Vernace, 61 -- a member of the Gambino family administration

The LCN operates in many U.S. cities and routinely engages in threats and violence to extort victims, eliminate rivals, and obstruct justice. In the union case involving the ILA, court documents allege that the Genovese family has engaged in a multi-decade conspiracy to influence and control the unions and businesses on the New York-area piers.

“If there’s money to be made,” said Diego Rodriguez, (that's Special Agent Rodriguez in the photo) special agent in charge of the FBI’s New York criminal division, “LCN will do it.” He noted that today’s Mafia has adapted to the times. “They are still involved in gambling and loan sharking, for example, but in the old days the local shoemaker took the betting slips. Now it’s offshore online gambling and money laundering. If you investigate LCN in New York,” Rodriguez added, “it’s a target-rich environment.”

Resources:

- Mafia Organization Chart (.pdf)
- FBI Washington News release
- FBI New York News release
- FBI Rhode Island News release

- The American Mafia (Wikipedia)

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

SFPD solves wild Tenderloin murder in under 24-hours

It is not unusual to hear a lot of noise from some folks in San Francisco about what a lousy job the San Francisco Police Department is doing to solve crime. Complaints like that get a lot of attention, but when the SFPD does a fine and professional job, it largely goes unnoticed.

Here is a story that deserves to be told. It's about a murder SFPD Inspectors solved in under 24-hours. It should be noted that Chief Jeff Godown was Assistant Chief and in charge of the Operations Division before his promotion to the top job. He deserves a good amount of the credit.

Here's the story:

San Francisco Police have arrested a suspect in the brazen Polk Street Café shooting death which occurred on Thursday, January 13, 2011.

That's Chief Jeff Godown in the photo. The three stars on his collar indicate the rank of the Assistant Chief. He wears four stars these days.

On January 13th at 4:24pm, San Francisco police officers responded to a shooting call on the 900 Block of Polk Street. Officers found Terry Turner, age 29, of San Francisco, inside the café suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Mr. Turner died at the scene.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect chased Mr. Turner through the occupied café to a back room where he shot Mr. Turner multiple times. This back room contained two large picture windows that faced the street. The suspect fled the scene and no café patrons were injured in the attack.

As a result of interviews and the review of physical evidence, police developed information on possible suspects. Leads and tips from the community led to the identity of a person of interest. On Friday, January 14, 2011 Homicide Inspectors arrested a 30 year old male, San Francisco
resident for this homicide. Release of the suspect’s identity is pending formal booking at County Jail.

As a result of the collaborative efforts of SFPD Officers, Homicide Inspectors, Crime Scene Investigators and members of the community who came forward with information, the San Francisco Police Department was able to identify the suspect of this brazen homicide. The Police Department conducted an exhaustive investigation and used every available resource to solve this crime and make and arrest in under twenty four hours.

Good work by San Francisco's Finest!

California Tax Collection Agents going after 900,000 people who didn't file a 2009 tax return

While most people are working on their 2010 state tax returns, the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) today announced that it is contacting more than 900,000 people who did not file a 2009 state income tax return.

FTB finds nonfilers by using more than 400 million income records it receives each year from third parties such as the IRS, banks, employers, state departments, and other sources. In addition, FTB uses occupational licenses and mortgage interest payment information to detect others who may also have a requirement to file a state tax return. FTB then contacts those who earned California income, but did not file a return for the 2009 filing year.
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Last year, FTB collected more than $550 million through these efforts..

Since the 1950s, FTB has contacted people who may have a filing requirement, but have not filed a tax return. Individuals contacted have 30 days to file their state tax return or show why one is not due. When a required return is not filed, FTB issues a tax assessment using income records to estimate the amount of state tax due. The assessment includes interest, fees, and penalties of up to 50 percent.

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FTB provides more information for those receiving notices at ftb.ca.gov. From the home page, select the Bills and Notices tab, and then under the Tax Debt Section, select: Respond to request or demand for tax return.

Taxpayers can request more time to respond, retrieve information that can assist them in filing a tax return, request tax forms, learn about payment options, sign up to receive an email reminder to file, and access other services. Individuals can also call FTB at 866.204.7902 to get information.

HOWEVER .... your best course of action is to call an tax lawyer. An attorney at law specializing in tax law may be able to get your tax bill lowered by as much as 90% depending on the age of the debt and your current income. See: IRS and California tax help: you have a right to talk to a tax attorney free of charge. Know your rights!

University of Southern California (USC) buys classical FM station KDFC in San Francisco

Say goodbye to San Francisco classical music station KDFC (102.1 Mhz FM). On Monday, January 24th, KDFC is signing off the air on 102.1 for the last time.

Entercom Communications, KDFC's owner, announced it has sold the call letters, programming and intellectual properties to the University of Southern California. Entercom will retain control of 102.1 and will begin broadcasting their classic rock station, San Jose based KUFX (98.5 FM), in San Francisco at 102.1FM. Note: KUFX brands itself in San Jose as 98.5 K-FOX

Read this news release about the purchase from USC: USC Helps Preserve Classical Music in Bay Area

USC recently bought the KUSF wavelength band (90.3 MHz) from the University of San Francisco. The current KUSF will continue as an online station only.

The new public radio listener-supported KDFC will broadcast over the old KUSF 90.3 FM. Anyone who was a KUSF listener can tell you the reception is good only in the City of San Francisco and fades fast elsewhere. The new KDFC will be something akin to taking the name plate off a Freightliner truck and putting it on the hood of a Volkswagen. The sign may still read Freightliner, but it will really be a little bitty VW.

KDFC will also broadcast over 89.9 in the wine country.
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Note to Comcast: please be sure to add the new USC-KDFC and USF-KUSF online station to your music offerings for cable subscribers in the SF Bay Area.

The good news for KDFC listeners (and I am among them) is that Dianne Nicolini, Hoyt Smith, Rik Malone, and Ray White will continue as on-air hosts. The even better news is that with USC owning and operating KDFC we can expect interaction with the SF arts and culture community will likely grow.

Hopefully we will see the partnership between KDFC and the San Francisco Symphony strengthen and grow.

I came across this photo of the back of a Muni Culture Bus. Remember the Culture Bus? It was an idea the City had to run a yellow-painted Muni bus on a loop around town stopping at the museums and arts venues. In this ironic photo an advertising poster on the back of the bus promotes 102.1 KDFC. Now the station and the bus are history.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

San Francisco Ocean Film Festival 2011 Call for Volunteers and Mixer

The volunteer sign-up site for the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival, March 9 - 13, 2011 is now officially open!

There are a lot of people from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz who have volunteered in the past or have expressed interest in getting involved. Learn more about available opportunities on the Volunteer Page of the Festival's website, or use the online sign-up form to register for shifts during the Festival weekend.

This year, in addition to volunteering at the festival, you have the opportunity to volunteer in a bigger way. They have Volunteer Committees opportunities in categories including event planning, marketing, festival operations and more. Committees are currently forming and can vary from 1 hour to 10 hours per week, leading up to the festival.

Join the Festival crew and fellow volunteers at the upcoming

Volunteer Mixer

in "The Big Room"

at Sports Basement in the Presidio,

from 6:00pm to 8:30pm

on Friday, January 21st

Come learn more about the 2011 Volunteer Committees or volunteering for the five-day Festival and meet other volunteers from the Festival.

Refreshments will be served, music will be playing and good times will be flowing. Please RSVP for the Volunteer Mixer at .

Pete Souza's White House Pic du Jour for January 18, 2011

President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao of China begin their working dinner in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House, Jan. 18, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Pete Souza is the White House Chief Photographer. He has the highest security clearance in the country. Number One. He goes wherever the President goes -- aboard Air Force One, riding with POTUS inside or very near the Presidential limousine in each motorcade, walking with the President behind the scenes and occasionally even into the private Obama family residence inside the White House. The entire photo collection of the daily life of the President is kept and becomes part of the public archives. They will eventually end-up in the Obama Presidential Library when it is established.

The White House also has some interesting videos available online from a series called "Inside the White House".

Enjoy

Pete Souza's White House Pic du Jour for January 17, 2011

First Lady Michelle Obama and daughter Malia paint during a service project in the cafeteria of Stuart Hobson Middle School in Washington, D.C., Jan. 17, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

The White House also has some interesting videos available online from a series called "Inside the White House".

Enjoy

Pete Souza's White House Pic du Jour for January 16, 2011

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and daughters Sasha and Malia (hidden behind other parishioners) sing during church services at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The White House also has some interesting videos available online from a series called "Inside the White House".

Enjoy

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