San Francisco

Via the Asian Law Caucus. It sounds like a good event for Bay Area folks on an issue that will come back into the nationwide spotlight in 2010 - immigration reform. - Karlo

Practical measure would increase public safety and prevent innocent youth from being torn from their families

What: SF Board of Supervisors will vote on a proposal to restore due process to immigrant youth.

When: Tuesday, Oct. 20th at 2:00 PM

Where: San Francisco City Hall, Legislative Chamber, Room 250

Who: Youth, parents, teachers, faith leaders, and attorneys supporting due process for youth.

A good mix today -- some technology, service, and policy for you. Enjoy!

• Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco, uses technology to announce his campaign for California's governorship, with his campaign focusing on generational change as a message.
• Steve Schmidt and David Plouffe took the time to sit down and talk about the 2008 election at the University of Delaware Thursday night. Plouffe talked about the importance of young voters to the campaign and the point in time when the Obama campaign sensed the momentum changing.
• Youth Service America's Global Youth and Service Day events are being held this weekend. From a press release: "During GYSD, the largest service event in the world and an initiative of Youth Service America (YSA), young people will participate in and facilitate projects with families, schools, community and faith-based organizations, and businesses; they focus on serious issues such as climate change, education, poverty, health, hunger and homelessness." Over 1,800 projects were planned around the world for this event -- double the number of projects held last year.
• techPresident covers the signing of the Serve America Act, specifically the development of serve.gov, a Web 2.0 clearinghouse for service opportunities run by the government.
• Google and Personal Democracy Forum are launching a fellowship program for those interested in developing new ways of using technology to make change and influence government and policy:
  

  Google and Personal Democracy Forum are teaming up to offer registration fellowships that cover the full forum registration costs and a meal with Googlers for twenty well-qualified, creative political entrepreneurs to attend this year's conference on June 29-30 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

  Fellows will be chosen based on evidence of how you've turned ideas into action and into new applications of technology in the political or civic arena.

  Go to the link and apply by May 8th if interested.

• The House Financial Services Committee passed the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights (H.R. 627) on Wednesday. The House passed similar legislation last year, but it stalled in the Senate.
• Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) is a bit upset that he won't be able to reap the benefits of serving as a hero to the private student loan industry. Obama and the House and Senate negotiators in the budget process have agreed to use budget reconciliation for student lending legislation, effectively diminishing Nelson's influence. Ezra Klein reports.
• Speaking of Ezra Klein, someone got a new gig at the Washington Post. Klein's post on this can be found here. Klein starts May 18.
• An alternative view of Ashton Kutcher's Twitter quest at AdAge.

Your Sunday reading. Enjoy!

• All those new Democratic voters are emerging as a huge force for Obama everywhere, especially in Pennsylvania.
• Time's "battleground" profile on the race in Virginia.
• Video of a great interview between Luke Russert and Barack Obama on young people. This was a long time ago politically -- Luke asks Obama about the "lipstick" comments:

• Although they're too young to vote, they're not too young to be politically involved.
• Ari Melber looks at the ground-breaking Obama GOTV operation.
• Talk about a generational divide brewing: a first grade class surprises their lesbian teacher by throwing rose petals at her San Francisco City Hall wedding ceremony.
• An article at the Personal Democracy Forum looks at the renovation of change.org and what it can become.
• Obama signs at Quantico -- one of the largest military bases in America?? Sounds like change to me!
• The Houston Chronicle has a write-up confirming what we already know: college students have to scale a plethora of obstacles in order to actually vote.