The decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court on Friday to reject an appeal by far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro means the former army captain could be sent to prison as early as the last week of November, a court source told AFP. Bolsonaro was convicted in September of a failed coup plot against centre-left President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after the former unionist’s narrow victory in the 2022 elections.
Brazil‘s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro is running out of options to avoid prison, after judges on Friday rejected his appeal against a 27-year sentence for a botched coup bid.
Four of the five judges on the Supreme Court panel voted to sentence Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison for five crimes, including participating in an armed criminal organisation, attempting to violently abolish democracy and organising a coup.
Prosecutors said the scheme – which included plans to assassinate Lula and a top Supreme Court judge – failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass.
A panel of Supreme Court judges weighing Bolsonaro’s appeal all voted to uphold the sentence last week. The result was not considered official until midnight on Friday.
A source at the court, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that once the result of the hearing is published – which could take place as early as Monday – the defence will have five days to submit a new appeal.
However, this appeal can be “quickly” quashed by lead judge Alexandre de Moraes, who will then publish the final judgment.
“Generally, after the publication of the final judgment, the arrest warrant is issued on the same day” by the lead judge, and it is Moraes who will decide where the arrest happens, explained Thiago Bottino, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation Law School.
The court source estimated that Bolsonaro could be sent to prison in the last week of November, according to court procedure timelines.
The 70-year-old former army captain, who maintains his innocence, has been under house arrest since August for violating precautionary measures in a separate case.
Because of health problems stemming from a stabbing attack in 2018, he could ask to serve his prison term at home.
‘Ready to kill’
The charges against Bolsonaro focused on his efforts to undermine the voting system to allege fraud if Lula won the election and later justify a military intervention.
Then there was the plot to assassinate Lula, his Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, and Moraes, which prosecutors said Bolsonaro had approved.
“We were ready to kill a lot of people,” a man suspected of being part of the planned hit squad, federal police agent Wladimir Soares, said in an audio message made public by the Supreme Court.
“We were only awaiting orders from the president, but he backed down,” Soares added.
In rejecting the appeal, Moraes reaffirmed that there had been a deliberate coup attempt orchestrated under Bolsonaro’s leadership, with ample proof of his involvement.
He underscored Bolsonaro’s role in instigating a January 8 assault on buildings housing Brazil’s congress and other democratic institutions, when rioting supporters demanded a military takeover to oust Lula.
Moraes ruled that the sentence of 27 years and three months was based on Bolsonaro’s high culpability as president and the severity and impact of the crimes.
The judge said Bolsonaro’s age had already been considered as a mitigating factor.
Three other judges on the panel also rejected the appeal.
Also on Friday, a majority of judges on the same panel voted to move forward with a criminal case against Bolsonaro’s son, the federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, for the crime of “coercion”.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, who currently lives in the United States, was charged by Brazil’s chief prosecutor in September for lobbying for US sanctions in a bid to sway the outcome of the coup trial against his father.
The younger Bolsonaro has claimed credit for pushing the White House to raise tariffs on US imports of Brazilian goods to 50 percent in retaliation for the criminal case against his father.
Collateral damage from the Epstein files: Larry Summers
The Greeks had a phrase for it: ‘Character is fate.’
Like the proverbial bad penny, Larry Summers keeps turning up. He has now turned up in the Epstein files, revealing not only a long-standing chummy relationship with the sexual predator, but explicit emails worthy of a nerdy tenth grader looking for advice on how to bed an evasive girlfriend. Epstein should know.
Summers wrote in his email that his coy mistress kept ducking trysts. “And then I said. Did u really rearrange the weekend we were going to be together because guy number 3 was coming … I dint want to be in a gift giving competition while being the friend without benefits.”
He put this in an email. To Jeffrey Epstein. Poor Larry, a friend without benefits.
This was in 2019, long after Epstein’s sordid history was well documented. And Epstein advised Summers, “shes smart. making you pay for past errors … you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring., no whining showed strentgh.”
Summers was married at the time to Harvard professor Elisa New, who is still his wife. And while he was seeking Epstein’s advice on how to two-time his spouse, Summers was also enlisting Epstein to raise $110,000 for one of New’s poetry projects. Nice touch, better than sending flowers. If this sleazy attitude toward women rings a vague bell, let’s recall that Summers’s contempt for women’s intellectual capacities was one of the main factors that led to his ouster as Harvard president. In another email to Epstein, Summers wrote that he still believed that.
This week, Summers put out a statement of groveling apology. “I have great regrets in my life,” he wrote. “As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.” A little late. And totally in character.
In the aftermath of these icky revelations, a number of commentators have called for Summers’s long-delayed banishment from elite posts and especially from institutions connected to the Democrats. Today, in a scoop for the Prospect, Dan Boguslaw revealed that Summers is slated to be the economic policy lead on the Center for American Progress’s “Project 2029” effort.
I agree that it’s long past time to jettison Summers as hopelessly contaminated. But there are far more serious reasons to dump Summers than his gross connections with Epstein.
For starters, his wretched advice as Obama’s top economic aide during the financial collapse and the ensuing, needlessly prolonged recession consigned tens of millions of Americans to avoidable economic misery, and led to a backlash that gave us Donald Trump. As disgusting as the Epstein revelations are, that’s worse.
Summers’s perverse advice to Obama took three forms. First, he vetoed an economic stimulus package of a scale adequate to cut short the damage and spur a rapid recovery. (When Joe Biden, faced with a similar economic threat in 2021 and 2022, did deliver an adequate stimulus, Summers played the role of skunk at the picnic and wrongly attacked Biden for causing inflation that was mainly the result of COVID-driven supply chain shortages, delivering talking points to Republicans. And this guy is now in charge of the 2029 project?)
Second, Summers gave Obama terrible advice on the kind of financial reform needed, given that Wall Street excesses had caused the collapse. Summers, with his own close Wall Street connections, blocked efforts to break up the biggest banks and oust their corrupt management, as is the practice in disasters of this scale where management is culpable. He also whipped against an Obama promise to change the law to allow primary residence mortgage terms to be modified in bankruptcy. Third, Summers and his economic team persuaded Obama that the recovery was well under way as early as 2009, when unemployment was still raging, and blocked the efforts of progressives in Congress to pass a second stimulus package.
But it gets even worse. It was Summers, as Clinton’s Treasury secretary, who relentlessly promoted the extreme deregulation of Wall Street, especially the deregulation of derivatives, that led to the toxic speculation which caused the financial collapse in the first place. So Summers has no business being let anywhere near economic policy, least of all Democrats’ economic policy. If you can stand more detail, I wrote this extended investigative piece on Summers’s career for the Prospect in 2020, titled “Falling Upward.” What’s consistent is the man’s character. The penny, incidentally, is about to be discontinued. Summers should have been discontinued long ago.
After decades in the House of Representatives, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has announced she will not seek reelection next year. The Onion looks back at the former House speaker’s life and career.
1940
Born in Baltimore with mark of the gavel on her forearm.
1961
Poses for photo with President John F. Kennedy at inaugural ball after begging dad to spring for VIP meet-and-greet passes.
1994–1997
The Lost Years.
1999
First and last time an intern gets her lunch order wrong.
2007
Remains seated during State of Union speech while George W. Bush nearly chokes to death on pretzel.
2010
Rallies House Democrats to pass legislation that controversially benefits Americans.
Family members of a Colombian fisherman killed in one of the Trump administration’s illegal strikes on boats in the Caribbean is preparing to take legal action over what they describe as the murder of their loved one.
The New York Timesreported Thursday that the family of Alejandro Carranza “has hired an American lawyer, who said he was preparing a legal claim.”
The lawyer, Dan Kovalik, told the Times that the impending case is important both because “the family deserves compensation for the loss” of Alejandro and, more broadly to stop the Trump administration from killing people with impunity.
“We want this case to help stop these killings from taking place again,” Kovalik said. “This is murder, and it is destroying rule of law.”
The description of Carranza’s killing as murder aligns with the views of United Nations experts and human rights advocates who have characterized the Trump administration’s bombings in international waters as extrajudicial killings. To date, the administration has carried out at least 19 strikes on vessels in international waters, killing an estimated 75-80 people in total.
“I never thought I would lose my father in this way,” said Cheila Carranza, Alejandro’s 14-year-old daughter.
Trump has claimed, without providing any evidence, that the targeted vessels were smuggling drugs to the US. Though his body has yet to be found, Carranza is believed to have been killed in an attack in the Caribbean on September 15, part of the Trump administration’s broader military campaign and buildup in the region that has sparked fears of a direct US war with Venezuela and other nations.
The attack infuriated Colombia President Gustavo Petro, who suspended intelligence cooperation with the US in response and accused the Trump administration of trampling international law.
“If intelligence communications only serve to kill fishermen with missiles, it is not only irrational, but a crime against humanity, insofar as the murder of civilians is systematic,” Petro wrote in a lengthy social media post earlier this week.
“Colombia respects international law and defends it because it is the only wall we have as a human civilization against the barbarism that threatens to take over all of humanity,” he added.
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Bill Christeson holds a sign calling for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, November 12, 2025, outside the U.S. Capitol. Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
Well, now we have it. On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released another batch of documents related to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Among them were several emails about Donald Trump. One was from Epstein to his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell back in 2011. He wrote: “i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there[.]” (Excuse the spelling and grammar errors, that’s all Jeffrey.)
By now, we’re all familiar with what “spent hours” meant in the context of rich, powerful men and Epstein’s victims—particularly given the reference to ‘barking,’ which has to mean going to prosecutors or the media.
Epstein also wrote to the author Michael Wolff in 2019: “[victim] mara lago … trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop[.]” This appears to be a reference to Maxwell picking up victims at Mar-a-Lago—raising the question of whether Trump was mad at Epstein’s abuses, or for “taking our people,” as he said in July.
This certainly puts some more intrigue on the seating yesterday of Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), the 218th vote on the discharge petition in the House to release the Epstein files, as well as the Trump administration’s increasingly desperate campaign to stop that vote.
But I have just one question: Was President Biden’s pick to run federal law enforcement, former Attorney General Merrick Garland, kicked in the head by a particularly irritable mule right before assuming office in 2021, and did he thereby spend the next four years wandering around the Justice Department bumping into things and saying, “It feels like I am forgetting something. Where am I?” Because otherwise his term in office is looking like the greatest law enforcement failure in American history, and Biden’s decision to nominate Garland the most catastrophic personnel decision by any Democratic president since James Buchanan.
As we at the Prospect have covered for years now, this is only the latest in about 10,000 stories implicating Trump in Epstein’s abuses. Let’s review some highlights again!
2002: Trump tells New York magazine: “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy … He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
2003: As part of an incredibly revolting book celebrating Epstein’s 50th birthday, Trump sends a birthday note with a hand-drawn note of a pubescent, nude female form, and a poem reading in part: “Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that? … A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
2008: Epstein is finally investigated for sexual abuse of minors. Then-U.S. attorney Alex Acosta grants Epstein one of the most bizarre sweetheart deals in American legal history, in which Epstein not only secretly pled to a much lesser charge of soliciting an underage prostitute, but also got all his unnamed accomplices immunized forever.
2011: Epstein sends the above email.
2016: Epstein claims in another email that he is hanging out in Trump Tower a week after the election.
2017: Trump nominates Acosta, who has no relevant experience, to run the Department of Labor, which he does until 2019.
2019: Epstein is finally indicted for sexual abuse. A few months later, he apparently commits suicide under the most suspicious circumstances imaginable.
2022: Maxwell is convicted of conspiring with Epstein to abuse children, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
2025: Trump, back in office, fires the prosecutor who successfully prosecuted Epstein. His lawyers have a meeting with Maxwell. She subsequently says that Trump definitely didn’t do anything wrong, and then she is transferred to apparently the cushiest prison cell in the Western Hemisphere, according to a recent whistleblower report, which includes a service puppy.
That is leaving much out, including Epstein saying on tape that Trump was “my closest friend for 10 years.” I’d argue that this recent email is the most directly damning single piece of evidence, but in context the weight of it all is overwhelming. Any fool can figure out what was going on here.
So why are we only hearing about these emails now? They came from Epstein’s personal email account. Are we really to think that the Biden-era Justice Department could not find or get access to this, when the Trump-era DOJ clearly did? It was a regular Gmail account, for crying out loud, and Epstein, being dead, could not fight them in court. The Epstein estate happily honored the request this year for the birthday book. Google would have tripped over themselves obeying a legitimate order, which could have been obtained easily, to turn over the records of the most notorious pedophile in the world.
Indeed, the incriminating email is actually seen as part of a reply from Maxwell, and the “Gmax” address was known from previous court proceedings. It simply beggars belief.
Given Garland’s other behavior—like the fact that he dragged his feet for months on prosecuting Trump directly for January 6th, and as a recent book by Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis reported, halted the investigation for weeks to avoid influencing the 2022 midterms, even though Trump was not on the ballot—I think it is at least plausible that Garland knew about these emails, and refused to leak them or (better yet) have Trump prosecuted just like Maxwell, because he was obsessed with performing political neutrality. By this view, it is unsporting not to give your high-profile political opponents every possible benefit of the legal doubt, to the point where they get away with grotesque violations of legal procedure, and skate on many crimes.
Let’s not let the rest of the Democratic apparatus off the hook. These emails were released by House Oversight Committee Democrats. That committee existed from 2019 to 2022, when Democrats held the House majority. Yet there was no effort to subpoena this material.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump ran for president three times, and we have photographic, audio, and video evidence of his relationship with Epstein. Outside of maybe a couple of billboards with unknown funders in the South during the 2024 primaries, the Epstein issue never came up in a paid ad from Democrats in any of those campaigns. In fact, the candidate who ran on the Epstein files in 2024 was Trump! “When they go low, we go high” is a syndrome that Democrats are afflicted with, but letting your opponent off the hook from a scandal that would have toppled virtually anyone in the world who had this kind of evidence against them is mind-blowing.
An important task for the leader of any republic is to prevent rebellions or insurrections. That’s why the Constitution formally enables the suspension of habeas corpus in such circumstances. Biden had a relatively easy task compared to Abraham Lincoln. All Biden had to do was enforce the law against a man who broke it in the most blatant fashion imaginable; or failing that, ruin him politically by any means to hand. Even if these emails could not have been published through the normal process, which they almost certainly could have been—thousands of other Epstein emails were unsealed in early 2024—Biden and/or Garland should have just leaked them. Preventing a fascist from becoming president is more important than stuffy adherence to the letter of Department of Justice internal rules.
The fact that there is written evidence indicating that Donald Trump either knew about or was somehow involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile ring, and the Biden administration failed to either find or publicize it, might just doom the American republic.
Ryan Cooper is the Prospect’s managing editor, and author of How Are You Going to Pay for That?: Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics. He was previously a national correspondent for The… More by Ryan Cooper
Protesters rally outside the Starbucks at 62 New Scotland Avenue on Saturday, September 27, 2025, in Albany, New York.
(Jim Franco/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)
As its workers fight for a living wage and for the company to address hundreds of labor violation complaints, Starbucks Workers United says it’s prepared for the “biggest and longest” strike in the company’s history.
As hundreds of Starbucks workers go on strike across the US to protest the company’s unfair labor practices, its union is telling customers to boycott the company in hopes of pressuring it to return to the bargaining table to negotiate its first union contract.
“As of today, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE,” said Starbucks Workers United, the union representing nearly 10,000 baristas, on social media Thursday. “We’re prepared for this to become the biggest and longest [unfair labor practices] strike in Starbucks history.”
The strike comes after negotiations between the union and the company stalled out in April. Last week, 92% of union baristas voted to authorize a strike as the company’s lucrative holiday season began. They are hoping to turn the company’s annual “Red Cup Day,” during which it gives out free reusable cups to customers, into a “Red Cup Rebellion.”
The union says three of its core demands remain unmet. It has called for the company to address “rampant” understaffing, which it says has led to longer wait times for customers and overwhelmed staff, while simultaneously leaving workers without enough hours to afford the cost of living.
It also seeks higher take-home pay for workers. Starting baristas make just over $15 per hour, which data from MIT shows is not enough to afford the cost of living in any US state when working 40 hours a week. According to the union, most Starbucks workers receive fewer than 20 hours of work per week, rendering them ineligible for benefits.
The union has drawn a contrast between its workers’ pay, which averages less than $15,000 a year, and that of CEO Brian Niccol, who raked in a total compensation package of $96 million in just four months after taking over last year.
“Too many of us rely on SNAP or Medicaid just to get by, and most baristas still don’t earn a livable wage. In a majority of states, starting pay is just $15.25 an hour—and even then, we’re not getting the 20 hours a week we need to qualify for benefits,” said Jasmine Leli, a barista and strike captain from Buffalo, New York, where the first Starbucks store in the nation voted to unionize back in 2021.
The company has gone nearly four years without recognizing it. While it claims to have engaged with the union in “good faith,” the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has found Starbucks guilty of over 500 labor law violations, making it the worst violator in modern history.
These have included illegal firings and disciplinary actions against union organizers, the illegal withholding of wages and benefits, threats to close stores that unionize, and illegal surveillance of employees. More than 700 unfair labor practice charges made against the company remain unresolved, including 125 of them filed since January.
According to an estimate from the Strategic Organizing Center, Starbucks’ union-busting had cost the company more than $240 million through February 2024. That money was lost in the form of legal fees and payments to consultants, as well as productivity lost due to anti-union store closures and captive audience meetings.
“Things have only gone backwards at Starbucks under Niccol’s leadership,” Leli said. “But a fair union contract and the resolution of hundreds of unfair labor practice charges are essential to the company’s turnaround.”
The union has argued that in order to meet their demands for a fair contract, it would cost less than a single day’s sales.
The strike begins just days after 85 US lawmakers—led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—sent letters demanding that the company stop union-busting and negotiate a fair deal with its employees.
“Starbucks is not a poor company,” the Senate letter said to Niccol. “Last year, Starbucks made over $3.6 billion in profit and paid out nearly $5 billion in stock buybacks and dividends. In fact, in the first three quarters of the year, Starbucks made $1.7 billion in profit and paid out over $2 billion in dividends. Last year, you made $95 million in compensation for the four months you worked in 2024, roughly 6,666 times more than what your average worker was paid for the entire year.”
“Despite that extravagant spending on executives and shareholders, Starbucks refuses to reach an agreement with its own workers even though you are less than one average day’s sales apart from a contract,” it continued. “Starbucks must reverse course from its current posture, resolve its existing labor disputes, and bargain a fair contract in good faith with these employees.”
The strike will begin at 65 stores across more than 40 US cities, with rallies scheduled in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Columbus, and Anaheim, among other locations. The union said the strike is “open-ended,” with no set end date, and that baristas across more than 550 unionized stores across the country are prepared to join in.
“If Starbucks keeps stonewalling a fair contract and refusing to end union-busting, they’ll see their business grind to a halt,” said Michelle Eisen, a spokesperson for Starbucks Workers United, who has worked as a barista for 15 years. “’No contract, no coffee’ is more than a tagline—it’s a pledge to interrupt Starbucks’ operations and profits until a fair union contract and an end to unfair labor practices are won.”
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New texts raise more questions about Mayor Daniel Lurie’s vetting of newest supervisor, Beya Alcaraz
by Joe Eskenazi November 13, 2025 (MissionLocal.com)
Mayor Daniel Lurie and his District 4 Supervisor appointee Beya Alcaraz take a merchant walk on Irving Street on Nov. 7, 2025. Photo by Junyao Yang.
Update: Four hours after publication of this piece, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced that Beya Alcaraz had resigned as supervisor.
In a series of text messages obtained by Mission Local, Mayor Daniel Lurie’s new pick to lead District 4, Beya Alcaraz, wrote that she paid some of her former pet shop workers “under the table,” apparently misreporting her business expenditures and skimping on paying taxes by doing so.
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She texted that her taxes “will be less, since I pay people under the table now…” and estimated that her business held perhaps $75,000 in cash “on top of the reported revenue.”
Alcaraz also wrote of writing off dinners and drinks with friends or “clients” as a business expense, and then sometimes receiving cash back from her companions.
Mission Local verified that the messages are from Alcaraz’s cell number.
Accounting professionals said that while business owners cutting corners and writing off personal expenses is common, the potential tax-dodging is more serious.
Jerry Dratler, a retired accountant and the former chief accounting officer of Williams Sonoma, said that behavior of this sort is “pretty prevalent” in this and every city, among businesses small, medium and large. He said the practice of overstating business expenses by paying for non-work events — and then being remunerated in cash — was “a foot fault.”
But he saw Alcaraz’s texts as tantamount to an admission that she filed false tax returns — “and that’s pretty damn serious. That goes beyond being a sloppy business operator.”
Texts between new District 4 supervisor Beya Alcaraz and Julia Baran, who took over Alcaraz’s former pet store.
Lurie on Friday tapped Alcaraz for the District 4 seat left vacant for 20 days after the departure of recalled former supervisor Joel Engardio. The March 28 text messages further cloud the appointment of Alcaraz, a 29-year-old with no experience in government or serious involvement in community service. It also raises more questions about the vetting and decision-making process by Lurie to select Alcaraz.
In a statement, Alcaraz said, “I don’t owe a dollar in taxes, and I paid the young people who came to work in my store because I believe in my core that young people in my community and every community deserve to be paid for their work. I worked seven days a week to keep my business open through the pandemic and always ensure that my employees were paid, and I’m going to use that experience every day as I work to make life easier for small businesses and families in the Sunset.”
A statement from the mayor’s office read “Supervisor Alcaraz knows how hard it is to run a small business in San Francisco. She’s going to bring the same grit and determination she brought to her business to her new role advocating for families and small businesses in the Sunset.”
The mayor’s office did not answer questions regarding if it knew about Alcaraz’s alleged business practices, or condoned them.
Lurie has rejected the notion that his nomination was a misguided or cavalier endeavor. Alcaraz was “absolutely” vetted,” he told a gaggle of reporters including Channel 7’s Monica Madden. “She can’t help that she’s 29 years old.”
Mayor Daniel Lurie and his District 4 Supervisor appointee Beya Alcaraz take a merchant walk on Irving Street on Nov. 7, 2025. Photo by Junyao Yang.
The March 28 text message exchange was between Alcaraz and Julia Baran, who took over Alcaraz’s pet store, the Animal Connection, from Alcaraz in May.
Baran’s experience taking over Animal Connection from Alcaraz was also the crux of a story published by the San Francisco Standard on Nov. 10 — Baran shared documents showing that Animal Connection “was in the red by tens of thousands of dollars” between 2020 and 2023. Baran also spoke of and shared videos depicting Animal Connection as beset with rodent infestations, a foul odor, “squalor” and a stash of dead pets sitting in the freezer.
When the prospective buyer Baran asked Alcaraz about work schedules for pet shop staffers, Alcaraz noted that “my under the tables come in as needed. And then I have another under the table seasonal hire when the boarding gets busy!”
In the text exchange, Alcaraz said she estimated there was an additional $50,000 to $75,000 in cash on top of the reported revenue in the business’ ledger. Baran replied “Between the two under the table you’re paying them about $30K a year, so I figured it was at least that.”
While the business listed expenses of $35,000 for taxes and licenses, Alcaraz texted “It will be less, since I pay people under the table now, but that’s payroll taxes and sales tax mostly.”
Dratler noted that it is “not illegal per se” to keep messy books. “But if you use that information to file your tax return?” That, he says, is different.
Sharky Laguana, the former president of the small business commission, said that the behavior described in the text messages is unambiguously illegal. But he said he still has sympathy for Alcaraz and all small business owners.
“The law requires employers to collect and remit taxes for payroll and withhold workers’ taxes. There is no dispute that is what the law requires,” he said. “With that said, there are a lot of cases where the ability to get paid under the table helps people who are on the edge of poverty. It helps people who are immigrants.”
On top of paying workers under the table, Alcaraz wrote in the texts that “I also live off a big portion of the non cash revenue. I spend expense [sic] a bit of money on my personal life so I can use it as a tax deduction. E.g. I pay for my dinner and drinks with my friends or ‘clients’ as a business expense and then they may or may not pay me back in cash. When you see meals and entertainment, office meals, travel, etc that’s usually what that’s for.”
Baran is 26 and, like Alcaraz, a city native. She said she is not paying workers under the table or writing off nights out as business expenses. Following publication of the Standard article on Friday, she was contacted by the mayor’s office. After she shared several photos and videos of wretched conditions in the pet shop, a mayoral aide texted “Are there specific actions you’re hoping we can do to remedy the situation?”
Baran tells Mission Local that there are: “They should own up to what they did, apologize and promise to do better.”
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Managing Editor/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.
“Your humble narrator” was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.
He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.
The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.More by Joe Eskenazi
From State Senator Scott Wiener (senator.wiener@outreach.senate.ca.gov)
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San Mateo County YMCA Community Resource Center, 840 W Orange Avenue, South SF. Food Distribution: 2nd and 4th Thursday each month, 9 to 10:30 am. Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, Get Food | Second Harvest of Silicon Valley Roberta Cerri Teglia Center, 285 Abbot Ave, 3rd Floor, Daly City. Congregate Meals (60+): Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30 to 2:30 pm. Call (650) 829-3800 to enroll.
Local restaurants (Must show your EBT card and ID) Devil’s Teeth Baking Company, Devil’s Teeth Baking Company Up to 4 free breakfast sandwiches per week for SNAP recipients available at all three locations: 1 Embarcadero Center, 3619 Balboa and 3876 Noriega. Open Daily, hours vary.
Rusty Ladle, Rusty Ladle, San Francisco Free tomato or chicken soup or hot dogs for kids 12 and under, parents get 25% off select items. 3645 Lawton Street, SF 94122. Wednesday to Sunday, hours vary.
Tacos El Patron (SF), Free kids’ meals for SNAP recipients, child must be present. 1500 South Van Ness, #100, SF 94110. Open Daily, 10 am to 10 pm.
Al Pastor Papi (SF) Up to 4 free burritos per family per week. Beans & rice or chicken options and bottled water. 232 O’Farrell, SF. Tuesday – Saturday, 11 am to 8 pm.
1. Friday, 10:30am – 12:30pm, Protest Against the Israeli Consulate
456 Montgomery St. SF
israeli consulate NOT welcome in the Bay Area
Come and join Noisemakers Against Genocide (NAG) and autonomous activists in letting the israeli consulate know that they are NOT welcome in SF Bay Area!
Bring noisemakers, drums, banners, whistles, horns and flags to make a proper ruckus!
Join JVP Kids & Families, East Bay Families for Ceasefire, & Beyt Tikkun for this family friendly Shabbat extravaganza in support of the Oakland Peoples’ Arms Embargo on Friday, November 14th.
We will start at Grand Lake Theater for flyering and banner drop for the Oakland Peoples’ Arms Embargo at 5:30 PM. Then, we will move to a Kabbat Shabbat – with additional kid-friendly programming – and vegetarian Shabbat Potluck with Beyt Tikkun at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland (865 14th Street Oakland) at 6:30 PM. Option to start eating alongside Kabbalat Shabbat services for our kiddos and families that eat on the earlier side.
3. Friday, 6:00pm – 8:30pm, Report-back from Bay Area Refuse Fascism Volunteers in DC—Nov 5 it began—Trump Must Go Now
First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco TSK Room 1187 Franklin St SF
Doors open 6:00pm
Program: 6:30pm
Learn first-hand about November 5th – the beginning of an unrelenting, nonviolent struggle in the nation’s capital — a movement to bring about the Fall of the Trump Fascist Regime.
– See videos and photos from the Nov. 5 march & rally – Hear in-person accounts from on-the-ground volunteers – Discuss how to sustain and grow the momentum to make this unifying demand a reality: TRUMP MUST GO NOW!
Speakers: George Martin, Rossing Branch Secretary of Fired Rössing Executive Branch Of The Mineworkers Union Of Nambia (NUM) Marcia Kauatjitotje, NWU Husab Mine Eagle Nightwatch MASWU Fired Lourens Ricarto Soroseb, Namibian Haseb mine Security Workers Union Fired For Union Organizing At Husab Mine South African Socialists Sadare Oladimeji. Trade Unionist & Revolutionary Socialism, Nigeria
The growing world economic crisis, wars and Trump’s tariffs are having devastating results in South Africa and Namibia. At the same time the massive privatization of public services and frontal union busting attacks on workers in Namibia, South Africa and Nigeria are intensifying. Join workers from South Africa and Namibian miners and trade unionists from the Rossing and Husab uranium mines in Namibia who will speak about the ongoing struggle.
Workers are again facing apartheid conditions and being forced into contract labor the system that operated under apartheid in South Africa and Namibia which was a colony of South Africa under the apartheid regime.
There will also be a discussion about the recent threat of Trump to militarily attack Nigeria. They will also report on their work to defend their fellow union members and also discuss the linking up of this struggle with workers in the United States and around the world.
On Saturday, November 15th we will gather for a peaceful rally and march in the neighborhoods where some of our country’s wealthiest corporate billionaires live. They try to insulate themselves from realities on the ground and the real life pain and suffering they are causing while they enrich themselves. They need to hear from us. These events are also happening in San Diego, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley on the same day.
We need to let them know that if the country keeps moving in the oppressive direction it is going, they will not be able to count on the consumer participation and financial assurance they depend on. Companies like Tesla and Target have begun to learn this.
Our families and communities are under attack, with the federal government grabbing people off the streets without due process and cutting vital services such as food assistance and healthcare. We face all this, while a small group of very powerful and wealthy corporate billionaires get even richer.
We will not be focusing on any particular homes, but instead march peacefully in the community in the spirit of unity and love, not division and hate.
November 15th is not a one-off action but the beginning of sustained campaigning to help the corporate billionaires open their eyes to the harm they are fueling.
6. Saturday, 12Noon – 2:00pm, Trump Regime Take Down (every Saturday)
Corner Van Ness & O’Farrell SF
We do not consent to Trump and his billionaire allies taking a chainsaw to our government and our economy for their benefit! San Francisco is a sanctuary city and We the People need to defend the values that make it so. Let’s stand united and oppose the endless assaults on our communities, our civil rights, the rule of law, and our democracy.
What you can do: • If you’ve got signs, flags, cardboard cutouts, or any protest visuals you want to make, bring ’em! We also have spare signs to lend. • If you have whistles, drums, cowbells, or other noisemakers, bring ’em! • Musicians are welcome and encouraged. Sing the song of democracy!
This weekly event is hosted by Indivisible SF and 50501 SF (organizers of the San Francisco No Kings March
7. Saturday, 2:00pm – 4:00pm, Panel: Fascism, ICE, Project 2025 & Why We Need a General Strike
Bernal Heights Library 500 Cortland SF
Join a forum on the ICE raids, militarization of our cities, the government shutdown and the calls for a general strike by Brandon Johnson, the Mayor of Chicago and Sara Nelson, President of AFA-CWA.
Working people are under assault from the fascist immigration raids to the attacks on public education, public services, healthcare and the government shutdown to the US support for Israeli genocide and the Trump’s war on Venezuela and Colombia.
The danger of martial law and the use of the National Guard, ICE and US troops to institute a fascist take-over is growing and it is funded with $170 billion from Trump’s budget earlier this year. This panel will also look at how working people are being affected and why some unions are taking action including UAW NOLSW-LAE which had a one-day work action with a picket of the ICE office in San Francisco.
The call by Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson and AFA-CWA president Sara Nelson on No King’s Day for a national general strike will be discussed and how working people and unions can build support for such action to stop the war on working people, unions, the poor and immigrants.
Speakers: UAW NOLSW-LAE Cheryl Thorton – SEIU 1021 SF Community Healthcare Chap. Chair Sang Hae Kil – SJSU Professor & CFA Leader Lisa Milos – UPTE Members For Palestine. Steve Zeltzer – WorkWeek Ricardo Ortiz – Labor Researcher & Puerto Rican Internationalist
Now that we are almost at the end of the first year of the new administration nationally, Statewide, and Citywide, where does our vaunted and fair City stand? Tim Redmond who is the publisher of 48 Hills, San Francisco’s online independent news and culture site will provide some answers. Etc. etc.
Tim will discuss the latest news surrounding the very new situation we citizens find ourselves in. and how it is playing out on the local level, based on his insider’s knowledge about the local and national players. He will also offer various suggestions on what ordinary citizens can do to play a role that will lay the path for the future of our City and country..
9. Sunday, 2:00pm, ANNOUNCEMENT: EMERGENCY RALLY FOR SUDAN
Meet at:
415 Mission St.
SF
After more than 940 days of an apocalyptic war, the world has finally turned its eyes towards Sudan amidst a backdrop of UAE-backed RSF massacres, famine, and blockade in Sudan’s western capital, El Fasher.
Join us as we march in unity against Mubadala Investment Company in San Francisco, one of the many financial centers of the UAE’s imperial influence
Since October 2023, historian Assal Rad and journalist Sana Saeed have closely tracked media coverage of the genocide in Gaza, highlighting how much of it aligns with the Israeli narrative and distorts key facts — contributing to widespread misinformation and disinformation.
Our speakers will present examples of headlines that obscure the facts, and we will have some time to practice our media literacy skills!
Dr. Assal Rad is a historian of the modern Middle East. She works on research and writing related to U.S. foreign policy issues, the Middle East, contemporary Iran, and Israel/Palestine. Her writing can be seen in Newsweek, The National Interest, The Independent, Foreign Policy and more, and she has appeared as a commentator on BBC World, Al Jazeera, CNN, and NPR. Assal completed a PhD in History from the University of California, Irvine in 2018 and is the author of The State of Resistance: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
Sana Saeed is an award-winning journalist and media critic known for her sharp analysis of how media shapes public perception. She previously hosted the shows Backspace and The Occupation Style Guide at AJ+ that illuminated the ways mainstream news frames narratives around war, colonialism, and resistance. Since October 2023, she has been at the forefront of critically exposing how U.S. media propaganda is used to justify war crimes and shape public discourse around the genocide in Gaza.
BOATS DEPART FROM PIER 33 EVERY 15 MINUTES FROM 4:15 – 6:00 AM. ALL BOATS RETURN BY 9:00 AM. TICKETS $15.50, CHILDREN UNDER 5 FREE TICKET BOOTH OPENS 3:30 AM, LIMITED TICKETS ON SALE DAY OF EVENT. ADVANCE TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
The event is wheelchair accessible. Please respect the special seating for elders and handicapped and feel free to bring your own chairs and blankets, No drugs, alcohol, marijuana use or sales are permitted on the island. Visit ITC’s webpage, www.iitc.org or IITC’s Facebook event page for updates. For media requests, contact IITC’s San Francisco Office, (415) 641-4482, Morning Star Gali, morningstar@treatycouncil.org, (916) 996-6580, or Marina Hernandez, marina@treatycouncil.org, (650) 255-1594.
All are welcome to join us to honor our ancestors and give thanks for the survival of our Nations, cultures, and ways of life. We will also commemorate the 1969 Alcatraz Occupation that sparked the national and international Indigenous Peoples’ movement for justice, rights, and truth in history.
A successful political playbook for fighting climate change and expanding democracy from the New York socialist movement
Climate inaction is already causing widespread suffering and devastation around the world. How can citizens take collective action? Fabian Holt argues that we must go beyond protest and direct action, and turn to the potential of hybrid organizations that bring together social movements and political parties. One such “movement party” with recent political success is the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA), which has become the city’s main organization for movement climate politics, running multi-year climate pressure campaigns and a slate of climate-focused electoral campaigns, as well as spearheading the first Green New Deal legislation in the country, the New York State Build Public Renewables Act of 2023.
Organize or Burn situates the NYC-DSA in the history of the democratic socialist movement in the United States, combining a political history of the insurgent international left with a richly textured local ethnography of the organization’s place in the climate movement and relationship to the Democratic Party. Holt argues that NYC-DSA has developed a distinct approach to political organizing that has broad relevance to citizen climate mobilization. The organizational innovation specifically involves integrating micro-level organizing in individual campaigns and macro-level organization-building, synthesizing approaches from traditions of social movements and electoral campaigns in the US. Ultimately, Holt shows that NYC-DSA can offer powerful lessons in how political collective action can be meaningful in the present moment of political turbulence, from the very concrete perspective of a local movement world. An engaging read for political organizers, scholars, and concerned citizens, Organize or Burn provides new insights and solutions for the climate crisis.
(Goodreads.com)
Help Outreach Working Group lift the fog of corporate media. Donate to help us maintain this website and distribute literature on the street.
We protest Heritage Foundation EVERY MONDAY (Join us!!!!) By admin | September 2, 2025 | Uncategorized Cliff Cash Comedy Premiered Jul 26, 2025 Every Monday at The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Ave. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza Every Friday at Fox News D.C. 400 N. Capitol St. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza We are... Continue reading →
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We protest Heritage Foundation EVERY MONDAY (Join us!!!!) By admin | September 2, 2025 | Uncategorized Cliff Cash Comedy Premiered Jul 26, 2025 Every Monday at The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Ave. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza Every Friday at Fox News D.C. 400 N. Capitol St. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza We are... Continue reading →
One Million Rising: Strategic Non-Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism Virtual Event · Hosted by No Kings Time Wednesdays 8 – 9:30pm EDT Location Virtual event Join from anywhere About this event Across the country, authoritarian forces are getting bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations,... Continue reading →
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