Best Make Money

(11-26) 22:47 PST New York (AP) –

Giant balloons, floats, marching bands and clowns with confetti brought smiles to hundreds of thousands of revelers eager to catch a glimpse of a parade as steeped in Thanksgiving Day tradition as turkey and pumpkin pie.

Images

View Larger Images

More News

Police: Suspect in police deaths hurt, maybe dead 11.30.09

Innovative Tenderloin court has fans, skeptics 11.30.09

Possible A's sites a case of fantasy baseball? 11.30.09

Dispute pits accident victims against insurers 11.30.09

Crowds six to seven people deep lined the streets of Manhattan on Thursday for the 83rd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as merrymakers gathered nationwide for massive parades in cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia.

Soldiers in war zones received phone calls of appreciation from President Barack Obama, while astronauts hovering above the Earth’s surface feasted on turkey smuggled aboard the space shuttle Atlantis.

In New York City, Miss America Katie Stam waved to crowds from a Statue of Liberty float she shared with Meb Keflezighi, the first American in 27 years to win the New York City Marathon.

Shailesh Dighe and his family came to the fabled parade to snap pictures of celebrities including rapper Jay Sean and singer-actress Keke Palmer. Despite the crowds, Dighe said the parade is “totally worth it.”

“When you watch it on TV, you don’t get that feeling,” said Dighe, who splits his time between Manhattan and Princeton, N.J.

For the first time, the parade route bypassed Broadway, which cuts a diagonal slice through Manhattan, as it made its way south from the Upper West Side to the finish at Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square.

The new route traverses the grid of the city’s streets and avenues, includes turns around five corners, and is slightly longer than in previous years — 2.65 miles compared with 2.5 miles.

Johanna Castillo, 38, of Guttenberg, N.J., said the new route seemed to better accommodate the crowds.

“I was very blessed to get here at the time I did and find a spot” a half-hour before parade time, said Castillo, who arrived with her two children.

Maryann Alonzo, 48, of Queens, N.Y., has been coming to the parade since she was a baby. She showed up Thursday with her daughter and friends to cheer on her father, who’s been performing in the parade for 25 years as a clown.

“This is our Thanksgiving,” Alonzo said. “More than the food.”

Celebrity entertainment included Italian tenor Andrea Boccelli, comedian Jimmy Fallon, former “American Idol” star Katharine McPhee and singers Gloria Gaynor and Carly Simon.

Elsewhere, tens of thousands gathered in the streets of downtown Detroit for the 83rd annual America’s Thanksgiving Parade. The country’s longest-run Thanksgiving Day parade was held in Philadelphia for its 90th year.

In Detroit, where the September unemployment rate was 17.3 percent, parade organizers set up three locations where revelers could drop off donations of canned food for the area food bank.

Eugene Peterson, 35, an unemployed construction worker from Detroit, said he had plenty to be thankful for.

“I’m thankful we have a president who understands we’re going through a hard time,” Peterson said. “I’m thankful they extended unemployment (benefits) because there ain’t no jobs around here. It’s kind of like government showing yeah, they care.”

Aboard Atlantis, astronauts expecting to give thanks with pantry leftovers were surprised by turkey dinners with candied yams, freeze-dried cornbread stuffing and green beans — just add water. NASA suspected the station’s new skipper was responsible for the Thanksgiving feast.

Obama enjoyed a quiet holiday at the White House with his family and telephoned 10 members of the U.S. military stationed in war zones to thank them for their service.

As daylight faded in Afghanistan, soldiers huddled inside a crude wooden hut to tuck into Thanksgiving turkeys the unit itself had fattened and to give thanks for having survived a year of combat.

Dense fog delayed some flights Thursday for Thanksgiving travelers headed to the Washington and Baltimore areas.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the fog prompted a ground stop for flights arriving Thursday morning at all three Washington-area airports. Departing flights were apparently not affected. The FAA lifted its ground stop by 10:30 a.m.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Irwin in Detroit and Denis D. Gray in Baraki-Barak, Afghanistan, and AP Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn in Cape Canaveral, Fla., contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS that Keflezighi is the first American in 27 years to win the New York City Marathon.)

Oakland boosters are ready to present Major League Baseball with four possible sites for a new A’s ballpark.

Images

View Larger Image

Matier & Ross

Possible A’s sites a case of fantasy baseball? 11.30.09

Muni rider: Tooth bandit followed her off bus 11.29.09

S.F. mayor dumps head of Film Commission 11.25.09

Gun opponents up in arms as Jerry Brown aids NRA 11.23.09

More Matier & Ross »

They are:

– The current Oakland Coliseum site.

– Oak and Third streets, just south of Jack London Square.

– The old Howard Street terminal on the waterfront, a bit north of the Coliseum and on the other side of the Nimitz Freeway.

– Howard Street on the northeast side of the Embarcadero.

Sources close to the search tell us that Mayor Ron Dellums’ message to Major League Baseball will be, “We have the site, we have the community and business support, and we have the political unity to get the job done.”

Most of the sites, however, have already been reviewed by A’s co-owner Lew Wolff, and he considers them unworkable.

“We think we’ve exhausted every option in Oakland,” Wolff told us the other day.

The team is focusing on possibilities in San Jose, which the San Francisco Giants consider their territory.

Still, Oakland boosters – led by Sen. Barbara Boxer’s son Doug Boxer – have been lobbying Major League Baseball hard to keep the team in the city. As a result, baseball has sent in a three-member commission to take a look at possible sites.

The city’s pitch seems to be directed more at the committee than at the A’s.

“We’ll leave it to the committee to comment on what to do next,” Wolff said.

Sex tent: San Francisco mayoral candidate Bevan Dufty has landed smack in the middle of a touchy neighborhood problem – public sex at the Folsom Street Fair.

For years, the annual outdoor bacchanal was a feast of fetishes and public fellatio. But that may be changing.

According to the Bay Area Reporter, two people went up to a couple of cops during July’s Up Your Alley Fair (the little brother of the Folsom Street bash) and complained about the public sex going on in plain sight. The cops explained that this was San Francisco and that the unwritten rule for the fair was, live and let live.

The pair filed a complaint with the Office of Citizen Complaints against the 14 officers assigned to Up Your Alley. So when the Folsom Street Fair rolled around a couple of months later, police brass – not wanting to get any more officers in trouble – started cracking down.

After a couple of warnings, people having public sex at the Folsom Street Fair were ejected from the festivities.

“It set a new tone about how they were going to handle the event,” said Dufty, whose district includes the Castro.

A meeting was called, and up popped the idea of setting up a tent where people could have sex – or just watch – but where the proceedings would not be visible from the outside.

Dufty said he wasn’t sure if the issue was big enough at this point to recommend any action.

“There are definitely people interested in seeing more public sex,” Dufty said, but “right now, I’d just take it under advisement and wait and see what develops.”

Spoken like a true candidate.

Ready, willing and …: He’s facing a gantlet of opposition from both parties, but Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado remains confident he will be approved as the state’s next lieutenant governor.

“My hope is that this will not be about payback, but about my qualifications for the job,” Maldonado said.

Maybe, but even the 42-year-old member of a wealthy Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County) farming family knows this is all about politics – some of which is very personal.

For starters, at least three other state senators – including one fellow Republican – want the lieutenant governor’s job. They do not want Maldonado to have an upper hand in the 2010 election.

Then there’s Maldonado’s record, which includes voting for tax hikes (which angered Republicans), and demanding, in return, that a constitutional amendment for open primaries go before voters this June (which angered Democrats).

Maldonado says at least one person is happy about his nomination – his father, who immigrated from Mexico shortly before Maldonado was born.

“Forty-three years ago, he crossed the border with nothing in his pocket, and now this,” Maldonado said. “Only in America.”

Did Dad see the announcement when the governor made it on “The Jay Leno Show”?

“No,” Maldonado said. “He saw it on the news. ‘Jay Leno’ isn’t on Telemundo.”

EXTRA! Catch our blog at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.

Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Phil can be seen on the KPIX morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815 or e-mail matierandross@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

As a self-described “starving” filmmaker, Michael Herbert was looking on this account that any opportunity to show off his work.

Images

View Larger Image

Get Quote

Symbol Lookup

More Business

Ahead of the bell: Apple had forcible weekend 11.30.09

Stock futures modestly higher ahead of opening 11.30.09

Hawaii among several destinations luring Chinese 11.30.09

IRS has $3.6 the masses in undeliverable Ill. refunds 11.30.09

So Herbert, 24, was thrilled then he beat 300 applicants to win a “creative invite” on Talenthouse.com and was whisked on the farther side to London this month to shoot video of a concert through popular R&B artist Rihanna.

Although all he received was the supplant and a new Nokia phone, “the payoff is artistic expression,” the New Jersey tenant said in a phone interview shortly after the concert. “I slip on’t think you could beat that. These contests are a passage for me to stand out from everybody else who is making video or film today.”

Talenthouse, based in Mountain View, relaunched in June in the manner that a Web site that gives established artists, design firms and marketers accession to a world of creative talent. The site is a mingle of crowd sourcing and social network marketing, with contests and collaborations capsule the fields of music, photography, film, fashion, writing and graphic design.

Critics utter such “spec work,” or creative work done for free on the pledge or hope of compensation, can marginalize the work of professionals in those industries. AIGA, a professional design coterie formerly known as the American Institute for Graphic Arts, discourages members from soliciting spec act because it “compromises the quality of work you are entitled to and likewise violates a tacit, long-standing ethical standard in the communication design declaration.”

But Talenthouse chief executive Roman Scharf says his company wants to get ready “young artists with ways to be seen, to be connected and to have existence compensated.”

Some of Talenthouse’s projects offer the lure of specie. Adidas, for example, is offering $20,000 to find designers to arrive up with customized protective goggles that will be worn by a British gymnast in the 2010 Winter Olympic games. Talenthouse will conduct a de~d to determine the finalists.

Advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty is oblation $20,000 to be split among filmmakers, photographers and graphic artists who share in designing a campaign for a personal safety alarm for women.

There are likewise contests to write a short horror film screenplay or to design T-shirts and main division covers. Scharf, who is also a co-founder of Internet telephony strong Jajah Inc. of Mountain View, said Talenthouse plans to generate its revenue from company sponsorships, which are shared with the aspiring artists.

Other challenges proposal participants a stage to show off their talent with big names. Supermodel Naomi Campbell, according to example, is searching for a new model who will get to share in one of her fashion shoots. Campbell will select from the upper side 20 finalists voted by Talenthouse members.

Musicians Boy George and Dr. Dre be under the necessity also sponsored creative invitations, and Talenthouse has received support from hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and actor Stephen Dorff.

Rupert Parkes, known being of the cl~s who drum and bass record producer and artist Photek, is choosing the winner of a call to combat to remix one of his tracks. Parkes said he was in the way that surprised by the quality of the top remixes, he now plans to exercise them in a retrospective album. Also, he’s planning another require to find a vocalist for another album.

“Maybe one of these kids gets picked up and gets a career out of this,” Parkes said.

Parkes tried Talenthouse to the degree that a favor to a friend, company founder and creative director Amos Pizzey, onetime melodist and producer for the British pop group Culture Club. “I went from helping a loved to ‘My God, I can actually use this,’ ” Parkes said.

It’s severely new that the Web has been used to discover new faculty, although sometimes the results have been mixed.

In 1999, award-lovely singer-songwriter Carole Bayer Sager and producer-songwriter David Foster launched Tonos.com, a position designed to bring talented but unsigned musicians to the attention of of authority industry professionals. But the company, which hoped to generate revenue from one side advertising, sponsorships and services, folded in 2003.

A San Francisco position called Idealive.com, also designed to match musicians, painters, filmmakers and other artists with investors, shut down because of funding problems in 2001.

But greater quantity recently, the Internet has been used successfully as a talent scout.

Snack food producer Frito-Lay used an online contest to determine an issue two unemployed filmmakers, brothers Dave and Joe Herbert (no relation to Michael Herbert), who produced a Super Bowl commercial for Doritos for less than $2,000.

Last week, a computer-generated destitute film titled “Live Music” – a yearlong collaboration of 51 animators brought into junction on Facebook – made it to the big screen as a exordium. to the full-length feature “Planet 51.”

Automaker Audi used contributions from its pressingly 400,000 fans on Facebook to design two concept cars – vehicles that potency appear in model year 2030 – that will be entered in a design rivalship next week in Los Angeles.

In music, members of the distaff band Journey discovered a new lead singer, Arnel Pineda of the Philippines, in which case watching YouTube videos two years ago.

But Parkes said that by YouTube or other social networking sites, “you’re searching for a needle in a haystack. Basically, this brings a lump of needles to you in one place.”

Analyst Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group well-known that the recession has increased the need for such spec moil sites as CrowdSpring.com, 99designs.com and iStockphoto.com that similarly ~-house into a global marketplace of creative talent for reduced costs.

“Social media is the two a threat and opportunity for designers,” Owyang said in a give out. With spec work, “right or wrong, it’s here to stay.”

E-post Benny Evangelista at bevangelista@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on boy-servant DC – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

(11-29) 04:00 PST Atlanta –

Researchers lately found an insect in north Georgia that has never before been reported in the Western Hemisphere – and its arrival could subsist both a blessing and a curse.

Images

View Larger Image

Get Quote

Symbol Lookup

More Business

Ahead of the bell: Apple had violent weekend 11.30.09

Stock futures modestly higher ahead of cleft 11.30.09

Hawaii among several destinations luring Chinese 11.30.09

IRS has $3.6 million in undeliverable Ill. refunds 11.30.09

Some might celebrate the arrival of the kudzu-munching bug, what one. could help control the invasive vine that drapes much of the South. However, the bug also feasts on valuable crops like soybeans and other legumes.

As of Nov. 12, the insect was reported in nine arctic Georgia counties, mostly on homes and other buildings with nearby kudzu patches. Experts aren’t firm yet how fast or wide the bug will spread or by what means damaging it might be to crops.

“I think in time it’s going to be dispersed significantly,” said Dan Suiter, an associate professor of entomology at the University of Georgia’s Griffin campus. “But solely time will tell.”

Suiter and Lisa Ames, director of the university’s Homeowner Insect and Weed Diagnostics Lab, first received specimens of the bug from pest-control companies and county agricultural officials in mid-October. Neither had ~more seen it before and both initially misidentified it.

Just before Halloween, Dow AgroScience room researcher Joe Eger visited the University of Georgia campus, and Suiter happened to afford him a specimen. That turned out to be a lucky shatter.

“There are literally five people in the U.S. who could’ve identified this insect,” and Eger was some of them, Suiter said.

An insect enthusiast who has devoted a great number of time to studying stink bug varieties, Eger quickly recognized the bug since a bean plataspid, a native of India and China that is commonly called lablab bug and round stink bug.

It was not good news.

The brownish bugs be obliged a narrow head and a wide, rounded back end and are a minute bigger than the eraser on a pencil, Eger said. They waggle a bit when they walk but fly quickly.

As a diversity of stink bug, the insect gives off an odor when threatened that Suiter describes being of the kind which “a mildly offensive, bitter smell.”

Kudzu was introduced into the United States from Asia at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, according to the Nature Conservancy Web situation. From the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, farmers in the South were encouraged to furnish with ~s it to prevent soil erosion. But in the warm Southern climate, the invasive species quickly got out of control, growing at a standard of up to a foot a day and smothering other plants.

It’s uninvestigated how the bug got into this country, Suiter said, adding that it could be the subject of hitched a ride in someone’s suitcase or on a point sample.

When the new bug was identified, Suiter reached out to look if any kudzu experts knew if the bug had ever been imported from Asia to control the plant. However, he was told it was ruled out as of its taste for soybeans.

The stink bug feeds on the seeds of the beans and other pulse, and also sucks juices from plants. That leaves holes that can cause the plant to wilt or allow bacteria to seep in.

As consecrated wafer plants die off in the cooler fall weather, the bugs are looking in opposition to places to spend the winter, settling into attics and cracks in timber-land siding on houses, Suiter said.

Jim Chase, an entomologist for bane-control company Terminix, said customers in several north Georgia counties started avocation with complaints about the bugs several weeks ago, but he wasn’t enduring how many confirmed cases they’d had. Some of the bugs were discovered ~ the agency of Terminix agents who were called for other problems.

The bug was discovered after most legume crops had been harvested, and it has only been bespeckled in the northern part of the state so far, while in the greatest degree farms are in the south. After waiting out the winter, the bugs faculty of volition likely come out again in the spring to lay eggs, Suiter uttered.

And they can quickly hitch a ride to other parts of the public on cars and clothing.

So far, no sightings of the bug require been reported outside of Georgia, but state and federal officials are closely watching the insects.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture is working with the University of Georgia and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to learn additional about the bean plataspid and what might be done to bridle it, Assistant Agriculture Commissioner James Sutton said in an e-mailed matter. Growers should be aware of the new pest and should obstruct their crops carefully, he wrote.

“While the insect is new to the U.S., at the opening of day indications are that our agronomic practices should be able to superintendence it,” he wrote. “Eradication does not appear to be likely, in the manner that the insect appears to be widespread and well established.”

This apprentice appeared on page D – 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

(11-28) 20:10 PST New York (AP) –

A television executive says the couple who crashed President Barack Obama’s first state dinner is offering to talk to broadcast networks about it for a payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Images

View Larger Images

More News

Gentle manner makes Chiu stand out at City Hall 11.29.09

Sign of good times: Big bashes are back 11.29.09

Fairfield family gets help with rent 11.29.09

Health care lessons from Europe 11.29.09

The executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not publicly discuss bookings, told The Associated Press that representatives for Michaele and Tareq Salahi contacted networks to urge them to “get their bids in” for an interview. The executive says the Virginia couple was looking for a payment in the mid-six figures range.

The couple’s success in getting into the state dinner Tuesday without an invitation embarrassed the White House and Secret Service.

The woman, who was pictured at the dinner greeting both the president and Vice President Joe Biden, is a reality TV hopeful trying to get on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of D.C.” Representatives for the Salahis did not immediately return telephone and e-mail requests for comment.

Network news divisions say they don’t pay for interviews. They have, for eagerly-sought interviews in the past, offered to pay for access to exclusive material like pictures or videos from their subjects.

Meanwhile, CNN confirmed that the Salahis had canceled an appearance they had scheduled for “Larry King Live” on Monday.

(11-26) 22:47 PST New York (AP) –

Giant balloons, floats, marching bands and clowns with confetti brought smiles to hundreds of thousands of revelers eager to catch a glimpse of a parade as steeped in Thanksgiving Day tradition as turkey and pumpkin pie.

Images

View Larger Images

More News

Gentle manner makes Chiu stand out at City Hall 11.29.09

Sign of good times: Big bashes are back 11.29.09

Fairfield family gets help with rent 11.29.09

Health care lessons from Europe 11.29.09

Crowds six to seven people deep lined the streets of Manhattan on Thursday for the 83rd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as merrymakers gathered nationwide for massive parades in cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia.

Soldiers in war zones received phone calls of appreciation from President Barack Obama, while astronauts hovering above the Earth’s surface feasted on turkey smuggled aboard the space shuttle Atlantis.

In New York City, Miss America Katie Stam waved to crowds from a Statue of Liberty float she shared with Meb Keflezighi, the first American in 27 years to win the New York City Marathon.

Shailesh Dighe and his family came to the fabled parade to snap pictures of celebrities including rapper Jay Sean and singer-actress Keke Palmer. Despite the crowds, Dighe said the parade is “totally worth it.”

“When you watch it on TV, you don’t get that feeling,” said Dighe, who splits his time between Manhattan and Princeton, N.J.

For the first time, the parade route bypassed Broadway, which cuts a diagonal slice through Manhattan, as it made its way south from the Upper West Side to the finish at Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square.

The new route traverses the grid of the city’s streets and avenues, includes turns around five corners, and is slightly longer than in previous years — 2.65 miles compared with 2.5 miles.

Johanna Castillo, 38, of Guttenberg, N.J., said the new route seemed to better accommodate the crowds.

“I was very blessed to get here at the time I did and find a spot” a half-hour before parade time, said Castillo, who arrived with her two children.

Maryann Alonzo, 48, of Queens, N.Y., has been coming to the parade since she was a baby. She showed up Thursday with her daughter and friends to cheer on her father, who’s been performing in the parade for 25 years as a clown.

“This is our Thanksgiving,” Alonzo said. “More than the food.”

Celebrity entertainment included Italian tenor Andrea Boccelli, comedian Jimmy Fallon, former “American Idol” star Katharine McPhee and singers Gloria Gaynor and Carly Simon.

Elsewhere, tens of thousands gathered in the streets of downtown Detroit for the 83rd annual America’s Thanksgiving Parade. The country’s longest-run Thanksgiving Day parade was held in Philadelphia for its 90th year.

In Detroit, where the September unemployment rate was 17.3 percent, parade organizers set up three locations where revelers could drop off donations of canned food for the area food bank.

Eugene Peterson, 35, an unemployed construction worker from Detroit, said he had plenty to be thankful for.

“I’m thankful we have a president who understands we’re going through a hard time,” Peterson said. “I’m thankful they extended unemployment (benefits) because there ain’t no jobs around here. It’s kind of like government showing yeah, they care.”

Aboard Atlantis, astronauts expecting to give thanks with pantry leftovers were surprised by turkey dinners with candied yams, freeze-dried cornbread stuffing and green beans — just add water. NASA suspected the station’s new skipper was responsible for the Thanksgiving feast.

Obama enjoyed a quiet holiday at the White House with his family and telephoned 10 members of the U.S. military stationed in war zones to thank them for their service.

As daylight faded in Afghanistan, soldiers huddled inside a crude wooden hut to tuck into Thanksgiving turkeys the unit itself had fattened and to give thanks for having survived a year of combat.

Dense fog delayed some flights Thursday for Thanksgiving travelers headed to the Washington and Baltimore areas.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the fog prompted a ground stop for flights arriving Thursday morning at all three Washington-area airports. Departing flights were apparently not affected. The FAA lifted its ground stop by 10:30 a.m.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Irwin in Detroit and Denis D. Gray in Baraki-Barak, Afghanistan, and AP Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn in Cape Canaveral, Fla., contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS that Keflezighi is the first American in 27 years to win the New York City Marathon.)

Sam Mogannam corsets in constant motion as he zips through Bi-Rite Market, the San Francisco grocery that has been in his house since the 1960s – answering questions, exchanging hugs with customers, and showing against the store’s densely packed inventory and locavore credentials.

Images

View More Images

Get Quote

Symbol Lookup

More Business

NY toughens penalties on this account that employer retaliation 11.27.09

SoCal experimental plane crash injures 1 11.27.09

New Jersey lawmaker pushing beneficial to windmills on piers 11.27.09

Saab: New buyers emerge subsequent to Koenigsegg collapse 11.27.09

He sweeps his arm to surround the wine wall and the array of cheeses; clambers up a ladder to the rooftop herb garden and beehives; peers into the diet locker where huge lamb haunches await butchering; darts down the shape to the Creamery, Bi-Rite’s ice cream shop; and surrounding the corner to 18 Reasons, its new “community space for dexterity and food.”

“We put the kitchen in the heart of the save because we want people to see and smell what we complete,” he said, motioning at the narrow space where a corps of workers busily chopped vegetables, assembled sandwiches and stuffed sausages. “We’re irksome to stimulate all the senses, not just the palate.”

Bi-Rite is a mini-command built on sustainable food, much of it local and organic, packed into exclusive small storefronts in the heart of the Mission, a stone’s throw from Dolores Park. As the owner, Mogannam marshals 75 store workers into a constant ballet to discuss some 40,000 grocery purchases a month.

Mogannam, 41, a previous chef who looks like an earnest grad student, speaks fluidly in the speech of new-millennium gastronomy.

“Food is critical in our lives; we require to be more conscious of what we eat, how we gnaw into, who we share it with, really understand the sourcing and provenance of which provides us with our energy,” he said. “We’re very favored to live in an amazing place in the world where a great number of people are fanatic about their food and what they simple fellow in their bodies.”

A foodie haven

The store attracts a cadre of true foodies. Joann Kochevar and her husband, David, who live in Oakdale (Stanislaus County), tend hitherward by whenever they’re in San Francisco.

“The variety, the freshness – I could stay in the present life for days,” she said as she selected Fujis for a Thanksgiving pie.

Bi-Rite brings in yearly transactions revenues of about $4,000 per square foot. By contrast, traditionary supermarket revenues are $200 to $300 per square foot and Whole Foods brings in $900 to $1,000 by square foot, he said.

“I see Bi-Rite as one of those distinguished lights that shows how we could redevelop a regional food regularity in the Bay Area,” said Anya Fernald, director of Live Culture Co., every Oakland company that consults on sustainable food and agriculture. “Sam has pulled unitedly a clear, tight vision. He’s building a really strong supply chain and developing lateral businesses.”

Mogannam is also unique for his common commitment, she said.

“He’s made the bold choice of form his store and his neighborhood better and better, rather than calamitous to replicate it and do it in Danville,” Fernald said.

Mogannam’s male parent and uncle bought Bi-Rite in 1964 and he basically grew up there, taking the streetcar from West Portal after school starting at maturity 6 to sweep, stock shelves and eventually work the cash annals.

“I vowed never to be in the grocery business,” he declared.

Instead, he became a chef, training in Switzerland for a year, cooking at Oakland’s Pasta Shop, and first appearance his own Financial District restaurant, Rendezvous du Monde.

But after the eating-house’s landlord raised his rent, Mogannam’s father persuaded him to take outer Bi-Rite, which had been in other hands for several years. Mogannam unwavering to put a kitchen in the store – a relatively new concept for 1998. The location wasn’t yet chi-chi; most shop windows still had iron gates, there was gang activity and enduring drunks on the street, he said.

“We took over the duration, gutted it, put in a kitchen,” he said. “People in the vicinage remembered me as a kid and thought I was crazy.”

Over time, the grocery expanded. Mogannam’s wife, Anne Walker, a pastry chef, originally worked away of a rented kitchen making baked goods for the store. When extent down the block opened up, Walker and her staff took it upper. They wanted a retail presence, but the area already had a satiety of bakeries.

“We felt like ice cream would do well through the community,” Walker said.

Creamery expanding

With flavors like honey lavender, Earl Grey and ricanelas (cinnamon concreted sugar cream with snickerdoodles), the Bi-Rite Creamery now produces some 450 gallons a week. It shortly will expand next door, almost doubling its size.

About 18 months ~ne, Bi-Rite rented a minuscule storefront around the corner to throw 18 Reasons, a nonprofit community center focused on increasing connections between consumers and producers of food. About 500 residents pay $40 a year to subsist members, and other businesses have chipped in as sponsors.

The nonprofit hosts subsistence education classes, winemaker dinners and conversations with farmers. Upcoming events embrace Butterfest ’09, “a two-hour extravaganza of all things butter.”

A unite of years ago Bi-Rite bought a small plot in Sonoma at what place it grows tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, squash, beans and greens.

“Simon Richard, our give rise to buyer, is an ex-farmer and was itching to get his hands foul and grow food again,” Mogannam said. “We decided to take our chances and institute growing crops.” A neighbor read about the farm and offered up her Noe Valley backyard, to what Bi-Rite now grows “inner-city greens.”

Local produce

The 5,000 pounds of cause the Sonoma farm produces are a minuscule percentage of what the supply carries, but is another step in getting closer to food sources, he related.

So are the beehives on the roof, which produce a honey that tastes of jasmine and fennel, the pair found in abundance in the area. “The beekeepers were sweet plenty to name the two queens after my daughters, Olive and Zoe,” Mogannam reported.

Zoe, who is 6, is already asking her parents when she’ll deviate working in the store the way her dad did as a kid.

“She thinks she wants to be an ice cream scooper,” Mogannam afore~. “I’d put money into seeing her in the store this approach summer a few hours a week. The staff digs her; she knows she’ll be seized of a ball.”

– Bi-Rite Market, 3639 18th St. (between Guerrero and Dolores streets), San Francisco, (415) 241-9760; www.biritemarket.com

– Bi-Rite Creamery, 3692 18th St., (415) 626-5600, biritecreamery.com

– 18 Reasons, 593 Guerrero St., (415) 241-9760, www.18reasons.org

E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Here’s a sampling of greater retailers and shopping centers opening early today:

12:01 a.m.: Toys R Us

Images

View Larger Image

Get Quote

Symbol Lookup

More Business

Portland sweeps above UCLA 74-47 in 76 Classic 11.26.09

Oil slides to literal $74 as Dubai woes roil markets 11.26.09

Jobs, political economy complicate Brazil's Amazon fight 11.26.09

Rush starts in the same manner with holiday shopping season revs up 11.26.09

3 a.m.: Old Navy

4 a.m.: J.C. Penney, Kohl’s, Sears

5 a.m.: Best Buy, Burlington Coat Factory, Macy’s, Sports Authority, Target, Walmart

6 a.m.: Home Depot, Kmart, Lowe’s, Staples

7 a.m.: Westfield San Francisco Centre

8 a.m.: Stanford Shopping Center

Also, have a portion your Black Friday deals, experiences and more by tweeting #shopsf. Read the tweets at links.sfgate.com/ZIUK

Source: Chronicle inquiry

This article appeared on page DC – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

(11-29) 17:29 PST NEW YORK, (AP) –

Fred Joseph, who during the time that CEO of investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert helped create the modern junk-bond market in the 1980s before the firm’s exhaustion, has died. He was 72.

Get Quote

Symbol Lookup

More Business

Hawaii amidst several destinations luring Chinese 11.29.09

Stimulus grant for Calif jobless order questioned 11.29.09

Tough times turning newspaper lenders into owners 11.29.09

Former Drexel CEO Fred Joseph dies at 72 11.29.09

Joseph died Friday at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center later a long fight with multiple myeloma. His death was announced ~ means of John F. Sorte, CEO of Morgan Joseph & Co. Inc., an investment bank Joseph helped found.

Joseph, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, arrived put ~ Wall Street in 1963, joining the corporate finance department of E.F. Hutton. He later moved to Shearson Hammill, resurrection to chief operating officer before leaving to join Drexel’s corporate finance department in 1974 when Shearson was bought out by Hayden Stone.

He was named CEO of Drexel in 1985. With associate executive Michael Milken, the company expanded the market for low-rated bonds, which most investors at the time considered too much of a jeopard but which quickly began to dominate the financial world.

The produce from junk-bond sales helped finance a wave of cutthroat corporate buyouts and made Drexel one of the most revered firms in c~tinuance Wall Street. But the company ultimately succumbed to a four-year convict investigation into charges that Milken and others had used inside denunciation to trade shares of companies considered takeover targets.

Milken ultimately pleaded actually offending in 1989 to securities violations, served 22 months in prison and was fined $600 a thousand thousand. The scandal drove Drexel to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy security the following year.

Joseph ultimately accepted blame for failing to supervise Milken, remark at the time that as CEO, he must bear responsibility in the place of whatever “transpired on my watch.” Joseph was banned from any managerial standing with a securities firm for some time and agreed to pay a $3 very great number fine to federal thrift regulators.

He went on to serve while chairman of consulting firm Clovebrook Capital from 1994 to 1998, and at that time as an adviser and managing director at ING Barings LLC because three years.

With a group of partners, he later acquired Morgan Lewis Githens & Ahn, which was renamed Morgan Joseph & Co. Inc., an investment bank focused forward serving mid-sized companies.

“He was a man of honor and important courage, and has always been an inspiration to all who knew him,” Sorte related in a statement. “All of us will miss his sage recommendation, his iridescent smile and the warm professional manner that endeared Fred to everyone, from primary year associates to long-time clients.”

Joseph was a member of the committee of directors of Watsco Inc. and American Biltrite Inc., and a depositary of WNET/Channel Thirteen. He also was a director of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

(11-27) 22:54 PST , (AP) –

The nation’s shoppers took advantage of deals on toys and TVs with some renewed vigor in stores and online on Black Friday after a year of concentrating their spending on basic necessities.

Images

View More Images

Video

View Larger Size

Get Quote

Symbol Lookup

More Business

GPS cell phone apps challenge standalone devices 11.29.09

Netanyahu to Germany for joint session with Merkel 11.29.09

Powerful clan denies role in Philippine massacre 11.29.09

Geneva: Police use tear gas on WTO protest 11.29.09

Though the first numbers won’t be available until Saturday, early reports indicated bigger crowds than last year, with people buying more and even throwing in some items for themselves.

It was an encouraging sign for retailers, which have suffered through a year of sales declines, and perhaps also for the broader economy, which could use a kickstart from consumer spending.

In Chicago, Dan Montgomery and his wife carted bulging Macy’s bags, proclaiming the department stores had “killer deals.” Their favorite buy? A set of two skillets for $19.99, marked down from $100.

Still, mall operators said more shoppers were sticking to making purchases in cash and debit cards instead of credit. “I like cash because when you’re out of cash, you’re out of cash. And you don’t have the hangover in January,” Montgomery said.

Worries about jobs clearly were on shoppers’ minds. Most people buying for themselves were picking up practical things that were deeply discounted such as pillows, pajamas and coffee makers, according to stores and analysts.

“With the layoff there have been a few cutbacks, but with the great sales they’re offering this year, I think it’s, overall, going to be a great Christmas for my two granddaughters,” said Ernest Bell of Marietta, Ga., who was laid off in April from his job as an information technology support representative and was at the local Walmart on Friday.

The nation’s retailers ushered in the traditional start of the holiday shopping season with expanded hours and deep discounts in hopes of getting people to spend.

Online, Walmart.com, Amazon.com and other online retailers also grabbed for a piece of the action, pushing deals on Thursday and even earlier in the week. Several large retailers, including Walmart and many Old Navy locations, even opened on Thanksgiving.

Those stores now have to figure out how to keep people coming back through Dec. 25.

Though there were isolated reports of squabbles, the pre-dawn crowds were generally calm. Stores took extra precautions to control the throngs after a Walmart worker on Long Island was trampled to death last year on Black Friday.

Analysts monitoring the malls said shoppers were less frenetic, having researched deals before going shopping. Extended hours also gave shoppers more time to grab deals both online and in stores than a year ago. Most Walmart stores were open on Thanksgiving to prevent the mad dash of shoppers for its Friday 5 a.m. specials.

ShopLocal, a subsidiary of publisher Gannett Co., on Friday said traffic was up 27 percent at top retailers’ online sites featuring their Black Friday ads.

Stores were encouraged that shoppers appeared to be a little freer with their spending. Best Buy, Sears Holdings Corp. and Mall of America, as well as mall operators Taubman Centers and Simon Property Group, offered signs people were buying more than last year.

An average of about 1,000 people were in line for midnight openings at Toys R Us stores, CEO Gerald Storch said. After setting aside 100 Zhu Zhu Pets hamsters for each location, Toys R Us came back with several shipments of the hot toy for several of its stores Friday.

Even luxury stores, which generally aren’t the big attractions for Black Friday, had brisk traffic, according to analysts.

More than 5,000 people were at Macy’s Herald Square store in New York early Friday, slightly more than last year, Macy’s CEO Terry J. Lundgren said. Among the most popular items were Tommy Hilfiger $99 bomber jackets, marked down from $450.

Dondrae May, a manager at a Best Buy in Framingham, Mass., said shoppers started lining up at 4 p.m. Thursday — 13 hours before opening. He said shoppers were filling their baskets with more items than a year ago, when they were shellshocked after the financial meltdown. The biggest draws were laptops, TVs and GPS systems, he said.

The chain had sold out of all of its early morning specials within two hours of the 5 a.m. opening, spokesman Scott Morris said.

While Black Friday is not a bellwether for the season, analysts are studying Friday’s receipts to better understand the mindset of shoppers like Laura Frankito, a nurse who found herself at Kohl’s outside Cleveland buying a Snuggie blanket-robe for her aunt and Tony Hawk T-shirts for her nephew.

She’s only giving money to her two children, and she pointed out her newfound practicality by saying she wouldn’t get a $12.99 canine version of the Snuggie for her sister’s dog.

“There would have been a year when I would have gotten that,” she said.

___

Associated Press Writer Lisa Cornwell in Cincinnati, AP Writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta and AP Retail Writers Betsy Vereckey and Mae Anderson in New York City, Ashley Heher in Chicago, Emily Fredrix in Cleveland, and Vinnee Tong in San Francisco contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS to “Simon Property Group” instead of “Simon Properties.”)