He began writing for Rolling Stone magazine in 1968, in its eighth issue. He had a full-time job at another publication: Pacific Telephone’s employee magazine. By night, he was a volunteer editor at East West, a bilingual Chinatown newspaper. In May, 1969, Ben joined Rolling Stone as news editor. His interview subjects included Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, the Jackson 5, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, the Grateful Dead, Ike & Tina Turner, Diane Keaton, and Steve Martin. The Ray Charles interview won the Deems Taylor Award for Magazine Writing in 1974. Ben was also a weekend DJ on KSAN from 1970 to 1979. He wrote and narrated a syndicated radio special, San Francisco: What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been, which won a Billboard Award for Broadcast Excellence. He was the host of KQED-FM's live, weekly arts show, Fog City Radio, and has co-anchored KTVU-TV’s coverage of the Chinese New Year Parades since the Year of the Ox–or 1997. visit Ben Fong Torres's website
Mark Curtis is a 30 year professional in Radio and TV, all over America. Mark covered the entire 2008 Presidential campaign, traveling the country with all of the candidates as a blogger and freelance political analyst. He was first, the Capitol Correspondent in the Washington, D.C. bureau, for all Cox Televisions stations, including KTVU. In January 1999, he moved to Oakland, to become Co-Anchor of the “KTVU Morning News,” which became the # 1 local early morning newscast in the Bay Area for the past 6 years. His new book, “Age of Obama: A Reporter’s Journey with Clinton, McCain and Obama in the Making of the President 2008” is being released Inaugural week 2009 by Nimble Books, Inc. visit Mark Curtis's website
In early 2005, Supervisor Chris Daly invited John to work as a Legislative Aide in his office where John opened the doors wide to ensure that the voices of San Francisco's most vulnerable communities were heard. In his role as Legislative Aide, John has focused on making City government and the budget work for the people of all the City's neighborhoods—not just the powerful and connected. His even-handed work on the City budget has drawn strong praise from Supervisors across the political spectrum, including Supervisors Sean Elsbernd and Ross Mirkarimi. John fought to make government more efficient, expanded funding for affordable housing and for vital programs like childcare, health and mental services, park restorations, and senior programs. He helped secure funding for the Geneva Office Building and in 2005 fought to keep the OMI Family Resource Center open.
Dr. Susan Campbell has authored nine books on relationships and conflict resolution, has delivered hundreds of seminars and workshop internationally, and has counseled thousands of individuals and couples. In demand with the press, radio and TV to help interpret the status of contemporary human work and love relations, she has appeared on CNN’s NewsNight and Good Morning America and Dr. Dean Edell.
Accomplished in the business world, Susan has directed a think tank, run non-profit organizations, consulted to Fortune 500 companies, and guest lectured at the Harvard, Stanford, and UCLA business schools.
An avid adventurer and proponent of "living your life out loud," she has made millions, lost millions, lived in other cultures, and spent two years sailing her 47-foot sailboat halfway around the world.
Some of her more well-known book titles are: The Couples Journey, Beyond the Power Struggle, andGetting Real.
Her most recent research and writing has focused on dating – a scene widely regarded as fraught with tension and lacking in directness—and she proposes an exciting new model for dating and relating in her book,Truth in Dating: Find Love by Getting Real. Susan is gratified by the feedback from her publisher that in bookstores this book is “flying off the shelves…” Visit Susan's Website here
ART AND FILM FOR TEENAGERS RON CHASE, DIRECTOR
Craig is a senior Web-oriented software engineer, with around twenty-five years of experience (including 18 years at IBM), and has become a leader in online community by virtue of running www.craigslist.org for over 9 years. He's compiled extensive experience evangelizing, leading and building, including work at Bank of America and Charles Schwab. In 1995, he started craigslist which serves as a non-commercial community bulletin board with classifieds and discussion forums. Using a common sense, down-to-earth approach, craigslist strives to make the 'net more personal and authentic, while advocating social responsibility through the promotion of small, non-profit organizations. Craig's community activities include being on the advisory boards of Climate Theatre and Haight-Ashbury Food Program as well as supporting local writers through Grotto Nights. Craig has been featured in the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Business Week, Time Magazine, and Esquire Magazine.
"We know that as our City becomes more and more expensive, we are losing the diversity that every San Franciscan values so greatly. For almost 8 years, I have worked at City Hall to support and preserve this precious diversity. While in office, I have fought with all of my heart for economic, social, and environmental justice in San Francisco. Along the way we've won big victories on affordable housing, tenants' rights, homeless services, public health, immigrant rights, the environment, and senior and kids' services.We've also opened the door to everyday San Franciscans to help level the playing field of politics." visit Supervisor Chris Daley's website
Cindy's world changed forever on April 4, 2004, when her eldest child, Casey Austin, was killed while serving in Iraq. He was 24 years old. Casey, who was a Specialist in the First Cavalry Unit in Sadr City, was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star posthumously for his valor in combat. In response to this tragedy, Cindy Sheehan founded the Gold Star Families for Peace in January 2005. This organization, which is comprised of family members who have had relatives die as a result of war, is dedicated to ending the occupation in Iraq and bringing our troops home. In August 2005, Cindy traveled to Crawford, Texas, with the goal of speaking personally to President Bush to demand an end to the occupation of Iraq. Other peace activists joined Cindy's efforts and the demonstrations that came to be known as "Camp Casey" began. Camp Casey was a regular gathering held whenever Bush was in Crawford, Texas, and it drew thousands of activists and celebrities from all over the world to protest the Iraq conflict. _________________________________________ __________________________________ In 1971, two special people made an unconventional decision. Adding to their already large family of ten children (six biological, four adopted), Robert and Dorothy DeBolt adopted Sunee, a child paralyzed by polio. This child, who would have been labeled ‘unadoptable’ by most agencies, brought so much delight to their family that the DeBolts eventually adopted nine more children with special needs.
Stephen Elliott: Well, "Sex for America" lies at the intersection of my two favorite topics, politics and sex. I've worked in politics and done a fair amount of political organizing. The first nonfiction I ever wrote was about a political campaign. Then I started writing politically inspired fiction and then did a nonfiction book about the 2004 presidential campaign, which involved spending a year traveling with all the presidential candidates. While that was going on, at the exact same time I'm really getting into politics, I start openly exploring my sexuality in my writing. The result of that was my novel "Happy Baby" and my story collection "My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up" (which is actually more of a sexual memoir). So "Sex for America" makes a lot of sense to me. It's an anthology of politically inspired erotica, and the stories are amazing.
Sitting as the Vice Chair of the Public Safety Committee, Sophie is a lead voice in tackling the challenges of her community head on championing quality of life issues with the goal of ensuring San Francisco is vibrant and safe for all. As a member of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee Sophie has been a driving force pushing for accountability in local government and increasing economic development opportunities. And, as the only African American on the Board, Sophie is committed to implementing true social and environmental justice principles in the local governance.
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The Bayview Hunters Point Foundation
Jacob Moody excutive director
The Interview with Jacob Moody
The Bayview Hunters Point Foundation for Community Improvement, Inc. is a non-profit community-based human services agency founded in 1971. The Foundation was created to address the needs of a predominantly African American, isolated community where essential social services such as legal assistance, drug rehabilitation, and mental health care were unavailable. Programs have now expanded to respond to San Francisco’s diverse communities and client populations and include substance abuse and mental health treatment, youth services, violence prevention/intervention and HIV/AIDS support services. Many of the Foundation’s services are offered citywide. The services provided by the Foundation demonstrate a concern for community issues as well as the ability to meet community needs.
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World War II veteran "SF profiles"
Gordon Low
Gordon Low is a veteran of WWII, his father was a WWI veteran, and his oldest son (a helicopter pilot) was shot down in Vietnam two times. Join me as I interview this special 90 year old proud American.
