California and the Red Tide
I'm a fourth generation native San Franciscan. I grew up not understanding how Richard Nixon had become president, because I'd never met a soul who voted for him. I literally never met a Republican...
View ArticleWhy you should care about the pet food recall
I'm a contributing editor for Universal Press Syndicate's Pet Connection, and for the last 10 days, my life has been completely consumed with investigating the pet food recall story, both for our...
View ArticleSystem, what system? And other lessons of the pet food recall
I'm a contributing editor for Universal Press Syndicate's Pet Connection, a pet column appearing in over 60 papers nationwide. We've been covering the pet food recall coverage on our blog since the day...
View ArticleFDA says pet food poison may be in dry food, too - and didn't rule out human...
I'm a contributing editor for Universal Press Syndicate's Pet Connection, a syndicated pet column appearing in around 70 newspapers nationwide. We've been covering the pet food recall story on our blog...
View ArticleDismantling government, one dog and cat at a time
I'm a contributing editor with Universal Press Syndicate's Pet Connection, a nationally syndicated pet feature that's in over 75 newspapers nationwide. We have been covering the pet food recall on our...
View ArticleWhat the FDA knows and won't tell you
What the FDA knows, and you don't: The FDA knows the two remaining companies who received shipments of contaminated rice protein concentrate and won't name them. I know, because when I asked them on...
View ArticleDon't let the media shift focus off the FDA
I tried to decide why the flurry of wire stories, picked up on websites, TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers around the world, with headlines about the FDA investigating whether or not the...
View ArticleWhy didn't the FDA know about today's Costco pet food recall?
I just got out of an FDA media teleconference, which I liveblogged on PetConnection, in which the FDA's David Elder said something to the effect that the FDA isn't aware of any additional pet food...
View Article24 hours of FDA silence
It's been 24 hours since the FDA last responded to my follow-up questions to yesterday's press conference about the pet food recall.More than 24 hours since reporter (and veterinarian) Dr. Debbye...
View ArticleBREAKING: FDA says thousands of pets dead, Chinese import alert expands
In an import alert buried deep on its website and just uncovered tonight, the FDA last Friday expanded its hold on imported foods from China - ingredients including Wheat Gluten, Rice Gluten, Rice...
View ArticleBREAKING: Pet food recall expanded - US, Canada, Europe UPDATED
Menu Foods has expanded its pet food recall, and this time, it's not involving wheat gluten from ChemNutra, but cross contamination. And for the first time, pet foods sent to the European market are...
View ArticlePet food recall: I was wrong
When I started covering the pet food recall for PetConnection.com and our nationally syndicated pet column for Universal Press, I thought that if this had happened to human food, it would have been...
View ArticleFDA finds melamine in human food, but says there's no news there
Late last night, I saw a story come across my news alert service, stating that tests for antibiotic residues in imported Chinese catfish had come back negative. I was going to glance at it anyway, but...
View ArticleBreaking: Another country found adding melamine to exports
The FDA announced today that a second country has been found adding melamine to an ingredient it exports.That country? The United States.
View ArticleCounty silences whistleblower animal shelter volunteers
Crossposted from Pet Connection.Let’s say you volunteer in a shelter. Let’s say there are problems, so much so that an investigation is ordered and paid for by the county that operates the shelter. And...
View ArticleSC State Sen. Kent Williams Defends Dumping Pregnant Dog at Kill Shelter
I'm a contributing editor and blogger for a nationally syndicated pet feature, and I do a lot of coverage on the ongoing movement for animal control and shelter reform in the United States. So when I...
View ArticleIt's not that kind of a horse race
I'm a contributing editor to a nationally syndicated pet feature, and one of two lead bloggers at one of the best known and most popular pet blogs, Pet Connection. I’ve had an account here since the...
View ArticleObama adopted into the Crow Nation
I haven't seen this diaried yet, despite diligent searching. If I missed something, please let me know and I'll delete.Barack Obama was formally adopted into the Crow Nation today -- and given the name...
View ArticlePlease stop saying "disenfranchise" about the primary
I'm not a lawyer; I'm a journalist. But in a conversation with a progressive Michigan attorney, my love of words and her love of the law intersected, and we both realized there's something that's been...
View ArticleGreat political songs with video
One of my jobs is as editor of a music blog based in Austin. We've covered South by Southwest for the last couple of years, and this year, my final day there was the longest and busiest of the entire...
View ArticleMy candidate has never won before
I'm posting this here and not on my personal blog because my girlfriend is a Clinton supporter, and she reads my blog, and she's deep in her grief right now. Things are hard enough between us on this...
View ArticleBarack Obama's Unlikely Donor
Half the people I know, including me, had a truly gruesome week. But there was one bright moment in the last 24 hours, and it's something I might normally write about on my blog but I can't because......
View ArticleWe ask Olbermann, Rove, more: Anti-gay attack machine out of gas?
The anti-gay attack machine worked before; will it work again? I'm a contributing writer for queer media cites AfterEllen.com/AfterElton.com, and today they're running my article that asks just that...
View ArticleTaking away my rights is wrong
I answered the door of my home in San Francisco this morning, and a man smiled at me from my porch. "I'm here from Yes on Proposition 8," he said. That's the evil-spirited California proposition to...
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Cranky dog bloggers for Obama
It started as a joke. A few dog bloggers who noticed we were all supporting Obama during the primary started calling ourselves "Cranky Dog Bloggers for Obama."Then the crankiest and best known of us...
View ArticleSick, and poor... and American
I have a friend who works hard, sometimes two jobs at a time. She gets fired over and over, for reasons she doesn't always understand. Nearly anyone would have seen the firings coming, but she never...
View ArticleWho are you people and what did you do with the Democrats?
They spam my blog with anti-gay crap and think I won't notice... I not only notice and delete it all, I donate another hundred bucks to No on 8/Equality for All.They spam my friend Travis' blog and we...
View ArticleDianne Feinstein makes ad against Prop 8
I've been hoping to see this -- now I have. California's powerful Senator, Dianne Feinstein, has filmed an ad against Proposition 8 and we need your help to let it air in California.
View ArticleLeave every damn thing on the road: CA Prop 8
Imagine going to sleep next to your husband or wife next Tuesday night, and waking up to find out that a million strangers, people who have never so much as laid eyes on you, have voted to dissolve...
View ArticleBill Clinton robocalls, Obama statement against Prop 8 in CA
Bill Clinton's recorded voice is calling millions of California Democrats tonight with a simple message: Vote no on 8:"This is Bill Clinton calling to ask you to vote NO on Proposition 8 on Tuesday,...
View ArticleNo on 8 ad with Obama, Schwarzenegger; Magic Johnson robocalls
I think I've done a No on 8 diary every day this week. And here's another one.I wrote last night that Bill Clinton was robocalling millions of voters in California to tell them to vote No on Prop 8,...
View ArticleUPDATED WITH ACLU SUIT! Prop 8: The legal challenges are beginning
The San Francisco City Attorney is filing a legal challenge to Prop 8, the Constitutional amendment that appears to have passed (all votes have not been counted, but it's unlikely the outcome will...
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Pride flag at half mast in San Francisco's Harvey Milk Plaza
I was heading over Twin Peaks down into the Castro this morning. And I looked, as I always do, for my first glimpse of the huge Pride flag that flies over Harvey Milk Plaza.And it was there, in the...
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Harvey Milk Lives
I grew up out in the foggy western neighborhoods of San Francisco. We may have been close in distance to the Haight-Ashbury and Castro neighborhoods with their exotic hippies and queers, but...
View ArticleIt's not Obama I'm mad at; it's way too many of you
Even I don't want another Warren diary. I must be insane.I have not been one of the "OMG Obama is betraying us" crowd. Once he was elected, I pretty much let it all go. Before the election and in the...
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'Abortion hurts women' -- really?
I was driving in San Francisco today, on the freeway approaching the Bay Bridge. And there it was, in its 20x60 glory:And I thought... bullshit.
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On the Internet, everyone helps your dog
Crossposted at Pet Connection.I first "met" Suzie, or at least heard her story, on a canine nutrition email list I co-moderate. A member who volunteers at a shelter in Ontario, Canada, was wondering if...
View ArticleTwo years since the pet food recall: Has anything changed?
Crossposted at Pet Connection.Last year at this time, I was huddled over a hotel computer in Austin, using one of the only working Internet connections in the whole downtown/convention center area --...
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Day of Apprehension
If you'd asked me 15 minutes ago what the California State Supreme Court's decision on Prop 8 tomorrow is going to be, I'd have given you a very balanced answer to the effect that the Court could go...
View ArticleThe dogs of equality: Day of Decision, San Francisco
Yesterday at the "Day of Decision" rally for marriage equality in San Francisco, I noticed what an extraordinary number of dogs were there standing in solidarity with the lesbian and gay community on...
View ArticleRight-to-lifers who kill: We're missing the point
The justification for killing an abortion provider is that you're trying to prevent abortions. You know, the old, "If only someone had killed Hitler..." rationale.But here's the thing: If that were...
View ArticleThere is nothing "progressive" about mandatory spay/neuter
I really don't understand how liberals have gotten so far off track when it comes to animal legislation. Far from being supported by the Democrats who voted to pass SB 250 in the California State...
View ArticleA little dog who needs some help...
Suzie is a little while dog who came into a shelter in Ontario, Canada late last year. Her owner was an elderly man; no one really knows her story. But she was sick when she came in, and while the...
View ArticleMassive veterinary drug recall getting bigger
Crossposted at Pet Connection.The story began last summer, when the FDA sued Teva Animal Health, the largest manufacturer of generic animal drugs in the United States, after agency inspections turned...
View ArticleFDA's proposed pet food recall early warning system
Crossposted at Pet Connection.The FDA is looking for citizen/consumer input on a proposed early warning system for pet food recalls.Think you might have something to say about that?I thought so.
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Effort underway to deny Vick the Ed Block Courage Award
Crossposted at Pet Connection.Organizers at Change.org are reaching out to the animal community to bring pressure on the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation to deny Michael Vick the award.Last night,...
View ArticleI moved my money and I feel fine
I'd known for a long time I needed to say goodbye to the most abusive, dysfunctional relationship I had, but it was hard. Me and the Bank of America had been together since I was in high school, when...
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