#immigration #SanFranciso

"San Francisco immigration court shuts down, striking at heart of historic advocacy

The speedy shuttering of the main immigration courthouse in San Francisco affects over 100,000 pending immigration cases, slowing down their consideration and leaving more immigrants in limbo and at risk of deportation.

But it also deals a symbolic blow to a region that has long stood at the vanguard of immigration advocacy.

For decades, the San Francisco immigration court was where immigrants living between California's Central Valley and central Oregon could make the case for why they shouldn't be deported. The broad jurisdiction made it one of the busiest immigration courts in the country, hearing thousands of cases a year.

It was also one of the courts most likely to grant an immigrants' asylum application to stay in the U.S. Its closing comes as the Trump administration seeks to limit pathways for many foreigners to enter or stay in the country.

'It's part of the message that the Trump administration is sending, that they're not open to asylum seekers. And one way of doing that is closing the court that has been very generous to asylum seekers,' said Bill Hing, a law and migration studies professor at the University of San Francisco. 'It's sending a message that the progressive cases that have come out of San Francisco are going to end.'

Earlier this year, the Justice Department, which oversees immigration courts, announced it would not be renewing the lease on the building at 100 Montgomery St. — the main courthouse in San Francisco, with 21 courtrooms. The move followed the termination and resignation of nearly all the judges who worked out of that location. The closure, which was supposed to happen at the end of the year but has been accelerated, sends 100,000 cases to the Concord Immigration Court, about an hour away across the San Francisco Bay."

https://www.npr.org/2026/06/10/g-s1-126345/san-franciso-court-immigration-closure-asylum-layoffs

100 Years of Movie Musicals: The Fleet’s In (1942)

Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the movie musical, and to celebrate I’m embarking on a two-year project to watch 100 movie musicals from 1927 to the present!

Title: The Fleet’s In
Release Date: January 24, 1942
Director: Victor Schertzinger
Production Company: Paramount Pictures
Main Cast:

• Dorothy Lamour as the Countess
• William Holden as Casey Kirby
• Eddie Bracken as Barney Waters
• Betty Hutton as Bessie
• Betty Jane Rhodes as Diana Golden
• Barbara Britton as Eileen
• Jimmy Dorsey as himself
• Cass Daley as Cissie

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

Shy sailor Casey Kirby suddenly becomes known as a sea wolf when his picture is taken with a famous actress. Things get complicated when bets are placed on his prowess with the ladies.

My Thoughts:

The shy and intellectual* sailor Casey Kirby inadvertently gets selected for a promotional photo of a movie star kissing a sailor.  Among the crew on his ship, Casey gets the reputation as a ladies men and the sailors start a betting pool on whether or not he can kiss the standoffish night club singer “The Countess” at their next shore leave in San Francisco.  The b-plot involves Casey’s buddy Barney Waters who needs Casey to win the bet to avoid a beating being aggressively pursued by The Countess’ fellow performer and housemate Bessie.  Betty Hutton plays Bessie as a Manic Pixie Nightmare Girl and is the funniest thing in this movie.

The plot is kind of meh, and a little icky, so fortunately there’s not much of it between musical numbers.  In fact, most of the movie features stage performances of song, dance, and comic bits.  It’s like someone filmed a vaudeville show and decided to edit in a service comedy around it once the U.S. entered the Second World War.  It should be noted this movie had to be in production before Pearl Harbor, and there’s no mention of a war, so it was good timing, I guess?  Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra appear prominently in the film, and the songs by Victor Schertzinger and Johnny Mercer features standard like “Tangerine”, “I Remember You”, and “Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In a Hurry.”

* – It’s entirely possible that Casey is being coded as gay as he even says “I don’t like girls and they don’t like me” but a movie in 1942  isn’t going to make that explicit.

Rating: ***

Early this morning, the last pull in at Potrero Division before this Muni yard closes for years for a major reconstruction and expansion project.

This facility has been in operation for 111 years. The end of an era!

#Transit #publictransit #sanfranciso #muni #sfmuni

One of the best movies we’ve seen this year 👍🏼👍🏼 based on Alysia Abbott’s wonderful memoir, set in #Sanfranciso in the 1970s through the early 1990s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairyland_(film)

Painted Ladies Close Up - Vibrant Sky

Available here: https://joegiacaloneart.pixels.com/featured/painted-ladies-close-up-vibrant-sky-joseph-s-giacalone.html

#sanfranciso #art #photography #mastoart #fediart

Vibrant Sky Over The Painted Ladies

Available here: https://joegiacaloneart.pixels.com/featured/vibrant-sky-over-the-painted-ladies-joseph-s-giacalone.html

#sanfranciso #art #photography #mastoart #fediart #buyintoart