Jackie Speier
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 12th district
Incumbent
Assumed office April 8, 2008
Preceded by	Tom Lantos
Member of the California Senate from the 8th district
In office 1998–2006
Preceded by	Quentin L. Kopp
Succeeded by	Leland Yee
Member of the California State Assembly from the 19th district
In office 1986–1996
Preceded by	Lou Papan
Succeeded by	Lou Papan
San Mateo County Supervisor
In office 1980–1986
Personal details
Born	(1950-05-14) May 14, 1950 (age 62) San Francisco, California
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Barry Dennis
Children	Jackson, Stephanie
Residence	Hillsborough, California
Alma mater	University of California, Davis; University of California, Hastings College of the Law
Occupation	Attorney, political assistant
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	Congresswoman Jackie Speier

Karen Lorraine Jacqueline "Jackie" Speier^[1] ( /ˈspɪər/; born May 14, 1950) is the U.S. Representative for California's 12th congressional district, serving since 2008. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County (formerly part of the district represented by her political mentor, Leo Ryan) and the southwest quarter of San Francisco.

She is also a former member of the California State Senate who represented parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties. On April 8, 2008, she won the special election for the vacated United States House of Representatives seat of late Congressman Tom Lantos.^[2]

Family[link]

Speier was born in 1950 in San Francisco and grew up in an apolitical, working-class family. Her mother, Nancy (née Kanchelian), was Armenian American, and her father, Fred Speier, was the son of a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany.^[3][4] Speier took Jacqueline as her confirmation name after Jackie Kennedy.^[5] She is a graduate of Mercy High School in Burlingame, which is where her daughter attended as a freshman in the 2008–2009 school year. She earned a B.A. from the University of California, Davis, and a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in 1976.^[6]

Speier's first husband, Dr. Steve Sierra,^[7] died in a car accident in 1994 at the age of 53.^[8] At the time, she was two months pregnant with their second child, a daughter named Stephanie.^[8] They also had a son, Jackson Kent, to whom Speier gave birth in 1988^[7] while she was serving as a member of the California State Assembly, the first woman in that legislature to do so.^[8] Speier then supported her children as a widowed single mother before marrying Barry Dennis, an investment consultant, in 2001.^[7][9]

Congressional aide[link]

Congressman Leo Ryan

Speier served as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan. Speier was part of the November 1978 fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by the Reverend Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers, almost all of whom were American citizens who had moved to Jonestown with Jones in 1977 and 1978.^[5] Speier was one of only two members of the mission who were concerned enough about potential violence to make out a will before traveling to Jonestown.^[10] Several Peoples Temple members ambushed the investigative team and others boarding the plane to leave Jonestown on November 18. Five people died, including Congressman Ryan. While attempting to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with the other members of the team, Speier was shot five times and waited 22 hours before help arrived.^[11] The murder of Congressman Ryan was the only assassination of a Congressman in the line of duty in the history of the United States.^[12] That same day, over 900 of the remaining members of the Peoples Temple died in Jonestown and Georgetown.

Political career[link]

San Mateo County[link]

Speier's political career began with an unsuccessful run to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Congressman Ryan (the seat she holds now).^[5] She lost the Democratic primary to another former Ryan staffer, G.W. "Joe" Holsinger, who went on to lose to the Republican candidate, San Mateo County Supervisor Bill Royer.

Speier won her first election in 1980, when she ran for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and defeated a 20-year incumbent. At the time, she was the youngest person ever elected to the board. She was reelected in 1984, and was later selected as chairwoman.^[11]

California State Assembly[link]

In 1986, midway through her second term on the Board of Supervisors, she ran for the California State Assembly from a district in northern San Mateo County. She won by a few hundred votes. She was reelected five more times, the last as the nominee of both the Democratic and Republican parties.^[13]

California State Senate[link]

Speier as a California state senator

California state term limits forced Speier to give up her Assembly seat in 1996, but in 1998 she was elected to the California State Senate. In 2002, she was elected to a second term with 78.2% of the vote.^[14] As a state senator, Speier was instrumental in securing $127 million funding for major service improvements to Caltrain, for which the commuter rail agency named a new locomotive (no. 925) for her. Speier also focused on representing consumer rights.^[15] Senator Speier was termed out of the California State Senate in 2006. Speier served as assistant president pro tempore of the California State Senate during her last term.

Caltrain Locomotive Named after Jackie Speier

Candidate for Lieutenant Governor of California[link]

In 2006, Speier ran in the Democratic primary for Lieutenant governor of California against insurance commissioner John Garamendi and state senator Liz Figueroa. At the June 6, 2006, elections, Speier was defeated by Garamendi in a close race. Garamendi received 42.9%, Speier received 39.3%, and Figueroa received the remaining 17.8% of the vote.

2008 presidential campaign[link]

Speier endorsed Hillary Clinton's bid for president.^[16]

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives[link]

On January 13, 2008, Speier announced she was running for the House seat being vacated by 14-term representative Tom Lantos, who announced on January 2, 2008, that he was not seeking re-election. Speier had spent much of 2007 building support to challenge Lantos in the Democratic primary.^[17]

On January 17, 2008, Lantos endorsed Speier as his successor. She also picked up endorsements from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, Congressman Mike Thompson and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Lantos died February 11, 2008. Speier won a special primary election on April 8, 2008, to fill the remainder of his term, which ended in January 2009. She won an outright majority, avoiding a runoff that would have been held on June 3, coinciding with the regular primary election.^[18] Speier easily won the Democratic primary on June 3. The 12th is so heavily Democratic that this virtually assured her of a full term.^[19] She was elected to a full term in November with 75 percent of the vote.

On July 11, 2008, Speier introduced her first bill, the Gasoline Savings and Speed Limit Reduction Act, which would set a national speed limit of 60 mph in urban areas and 65 mph on less-populated stretches of highway.

Political views[link]

Earlier photo of Speier

Abortion[link]

Speier supports legal abortion. When she took the National Political Awareness Test in 2002, she answered, “Abortions should always be legally available.”^[20] The organization NARAL Pro-Choice America rated Jackie Speier as 100% on interest group ratings because she supported the choice of abortion in her voting for legislation.^[21] Also, in 2008 the Planned Parenthood Organization gave Speier a 100% on her actions regarding abortion.^[20] In a speech on the House floor on February 17, 2011, Speier said that she herself had undergone an emergency D&E procedure when complications developed in a wanted pregnancy.^[22][23]

Gun control[link]

Speier believes in a stricter view of gun control. According to her answers on the NPAT (National Political Awareness Test) she would like to require safety locks on all guns and background checks on prospective buyers as well as ban certain guns (other than for hunting) and strengthen state restrictions on buying and owning guns.^[20] To show that her legislation currently follows what she answered on the NPAT, when the Gun Owners of America graded Jackie Speier, they gave her an ‘F’ and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Jack Berman Advocacy Center gave her a 100%.^[20][21] Other organizations that gave Speier a low grade on loosening the restrictions on gun use include:\ the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of California.^[20]

Environment and energy[link]

Speier is concerned for the protection of the environment and wants to preserve the health of this planet. She lists as evidence the decline of salmon on the West Coast as proof of global warming.^[24] Speier believes global warming poses a growing danger and negatively affects the environment. When she spoke to the House on the subject of global warming and the environment, she expressed a desire “to craft a bipartisan and commonsense energy plan that makes polluters pay, provides for middle class energy tax credits, and creates a new industry and lots of good, clean, green jobs.”^[25] Jackie Speier is working to improve energy legislation with the Clean Air Rebate Act of 2009, the Home Star Act and the American Clean Energy and Security Act.^[26][27]

Congressional committee assignments[link]

• Committee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Transportation Security
• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending
  • Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs

Caucuses[link]

• Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (Associate Member)

Electoral history[link]

Books[link]

• This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down, by Deborah Collins Stephens, Michealene Cristini Risley, Jackie Speier, and Jan Yanehiro, 2007, ISBN 978-1-57324-305-6

See also[link]

	Government of the United States portal
	Law portal
	Politics portal
	San Francisco Bay Area portal

• Armenian American Political Action Committee
• Armenian National Committee of America
• List of Armenian-Americans

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Jackie Speier on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource

• Jackie Speier official U.S. House site
• Jackie Speier for Congress official campaign site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs

Speeches

• Jackie Speier and Deborah Stephens Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders seminar mp3.

Media, press

• Speier seeks national speed limit to save gas, July 11, 2008, San Francisco Chronicle
• Jackie Speier– moving on, moving up: Survivor of Jonestown ambush plans run for lieutenant governor, November 16, 2003, San Francisco Chronicle
• Reforming California's Prisons: An Interview With Jackie Speier, Mother Jones (magazine), July 7, 2005

Honors

• Commencement Speaker, San Francisco State University, 2006
• Senator Jackie Speier one of honored guests at banquet, Armenian National Committee of America Western Region, October 2006.

Video

• This Is Not The Life I Ordered, preview of book, promotional video with Jackie Speier

v t e Congressman Leo J. Ryan Tributes Leo J. Ryan Award · Leo J. Ryan Memorial Park · Leo J. Ryan Federal Building Books USA/From Where We Stand · Understanding California Government and Politics Legislation Hughes-Ryan Act Awards Congressional Gold Medal (List of recipients) People Patricia Ryan · Jackie Speier Wikisource · Wikimedia Commons · Wikquote

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Ronn Owens (born Ronald Lowenstein on October 17, 1945, in New York City), is an American talk radio host. Owens is the top-rated talk radio host on KGO in San Francisco^{[1][not in citation given][citation needed]}

Career[link]

Owens began his career in broadcasting in 1968 after graduating from Temple University. He hosted radio programs in Atlanta, Miami, Cleveland, and Philadelphia before moving to KGO Radio of San Francisco in 1975. In 2004, the Disney/ABC-owned station signed Owens to an eight-year guaranteed contract to continue hosting The Ronn Owens Program. The Ronn Owens Program has over 500,000 regular listeners^{[citation needed]}.

Owens was off the KGO airwaves during an 88-day contract dispute that ended in February 1995. Reportedly, the dispute involved a difference of opinion over whether to allow national syndication of Owens's show.^[2]

Between 1997 and 1998, Owens's show was simulcast in Los Angeles on KABC, also owned by Disney. Owens took the time slot held by Michael Jackson, whose ratings were declining. Despite signing a five-year contract to do the simulcast, after one year Owens himself vacated the time slot at KABC because his show had failed to generate adequate ratings in Los Angeles. Owens reportedly blamed both Jackson and KABC—Jackson for "taking shots" at Owens "on the air and off the air" and KABC for failing to promote Owens's show. Disney reportedly bought out the remainder of Owens's simulcast contract.^[3]

Ronn Owens left his broadcast two hours early on Monday, September 17, 2007, after spending his first hour sounding very lethargic. He returned to the air on September 24, 2007, explaining that he had been diagnosed with transient global amnesia (TGA), which is a type of amnesia involving the sudden, temporary disturbance in an otherwise healthy person's memory.

Highlights and Accomplishments[link]

This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (February 2012)

In 2002, Talkers magazine named Owens one of its 25 Greatest Radio Talk Show Hosts of All Time. He was ranked 13th, making him the top local personality in the country. ^[4]

In 2003 and again in 2010, Owens won the Marconi Award for Major Market Personality of the Year by the National Association of Broadcasters. ^{[5] [6]}

In 2005 ^[7], 2007^{[citation needed]}, 2008^{[citation needed]}, and 2010^{[citation needed]} Owens was nominated for the National Radio Hall of Fame, but was not inducted.

In 2006, he was named 2006 Talk Show Personality of the Year by Radio and Records ^[8]http://www.radioandrecords.com/Conventions/TRS2006/awards/index.asp </ref>.

In 2007, he was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame.^[9]

His first book, Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right Are Wrong, was published in 2004.

Personal[link]

Owens is married to former KCBS anchor Jan Black. They have two daughters, Sarah and Laura.

Bibliography[link]

"Voice of Reason: Why the Left and Right are Wrong" published by John Wiley and Sons

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ronn Owens's official website
• KGO biography
• Talkers profile
• It's Ronn Owens' World, We Just Live In It
• In a world of demagogues and dittoheads, centrist Ronn Owens celebrates 30 years, San Francisco Chronicle, October 27, 2005
• Owens Marks 30 Years Of Talk At KGO, San Jose Mercury News, October 27, 2005
• [1] America's Top Radio Talk Show Hosts

Barbara Jean Lee (born July 16, 1946) is the U.S. Representative for California's 9th congressional district, serving since 1998. She is a member of the Democratic Party. She is the first woman to represent that district. Lee was the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and was the Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Lee is notable as the only member of either house of Congress to vote against the authorization of use of force following the September 11, 2001 attacks.^[1] This made her a hero among many in the anti-war movement.^[2] Lee has been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq and supports legislation creating a Department of Peace.

Early life and education[link]

Early portrait of Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Lee was born in El Paso, Texas. She moved from Texas to California in 1960 with her military family parents, and attended San Fernando High School in San Fernando, California.^[3] She was a young single mother of two receiving public assistance when she began attending college.^[4][5] Lee was educated at Mills College and received an M.S.W. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975.^[6]

Political career[link]

While a student at Mills College, she was a volunteer at the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party's Community Learning Center and worked on Panther co-founder Bobby Seale's 1973 Oakland mayoral campaign.^[7] Lee was a staff member for United States Representative Ron Dellums and a member of the California State Assembly and the California State Senate before entering the House. As a staffer to Representative Delllums, she traveled to Grenada to have the government there vett the report Representative Dellums planned to present to Congress. In the report Representative Dellums planned to state that the airport would not pose a military threat to United States national security. As noted in Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the '60 on page 163, "Another document retrieved after Grenada's liberation provided he postscript. In a diary entry dated March 22, 1980, Grenadian Defense Minister Liam James had written: "The Revo[lution] has been able to crush counter revolution internationally. Airport will be used by Cuban and Soviet military."" She ran for Congress in a special election that created a year-long series of five special elections as various East Bay politicians vied for political office. (For a detailed account of these elections, see Special election musical chairs.)

The vote against AUMF[link]

Barbara Lee

Lee gained national attention in 2001 as the only member of congress to vote "No" on the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF), stating that she voted no not because she opposed military action but because she believed the AUMF, as written, granted overly-broad powers to wage war to the president at a time when the facts regarding the situation were not yet clear. She "warned her colleagues to be 'careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target.'"^[8] Lee explained "It was a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the September 11 events—anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation's long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit. In granting these overly broad powers, the Congress failed its responsibility to understand the dimensions of its declaration.... The president has the constitutional authority to protect the nation from further attack and he has mobilized the armed forces to do just that. The Congress should have waited for the facts to be presented and then acted with fuller knowledge of the consequences of our action."

Congresswoman Barbara Lee

This vote made nationwide news reports and brought about a large and extremely polarized response, with the volume of calls gridlocking the switchboard of her Capitol Hill office. Although it appears to have reflected the beliefs of the majority of her constituents, the majority of responses from elsewhere in the nation were angry and hostile, some referring to her as "communist" and "traitor". Many of the responses included death threats against her or her family to the point that the Capitol Police provided round-the-clock plainclothes bodyguards.^[9] She was also criticized by politicians and in editorial pages of conservative-leaning newspapers, e.g. John Fund's column in The Wall Street Journal.^[10]

Other positions[link]

Barbara Lee meets with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and the STS-129 space shuttle crew

Lee's opposition to the death penalty was recognized in 2002 by Death Penalty Focus, when they presented her with the Mario Cuomo Act of Courage Award.^[11] Lee voted against the Iraq War Resolution in 2002.^[12] Lee was one of the 31 who voted in the House to not count the electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.^[13]

Lee is the author of the Shirley A. Chisholm United States-Caribbean Educational Exchange Act, H.R. 176, which would enhance U.S. foreign relations with CARICOM nations. This act directs the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop a comprehensive program that extends and expands existing primary and secondary school initiatives in the Caribbean to provide: (1) teacher training methods; and (2) increased community involvement in school activities.^[14] The bill is named for former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, who helped inspire Lee to become involved in politics when Chisholm ran for the Democratic nomination for President; Lee became the Northern California Chair of the Chisholm campaign.

Barbara Lee meets with Barack Obama

She hinted to the Oakland Tribune that she would run for the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus in September 2008, following the end of her four-year term as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.^[15] On September 29, 2008, Lee was one of 95 Democrats to vote against the defeated Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.^[16] However, she voted for a modified version on October 3.^[17]

Barbara Lee speaks at the Opening Reception of the Quilt Challenge exhibition

On November, 2009 Lee was one of 36 Representatives to vote "nay" on House Resolution 867, which condemned the UN's Goldstone Report.^[18] Lee was strongly critical of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which places restrictions on health insurance plans providing coverage for abortions in the context of the Affordable Health Care for America Act.^[19]

Although Lee is considered a liberal Democrat, she has occasionally split with members of her own party throughout her Congressional career, especially on foreign policy matters. She voted in favor of limiting military operations in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, against authorizing air strikes, and in favor of a Republican-backed plan to completely withdraw U.S. troops from the operation, all in 1999.^[20][21][22] Lee was one of only 46 Democrats to vote for the Online Freedom of Speech Act of 2005.^[23] Lee was one of only 13 Democrats to vote against an emergency supplemental appropriations bill in 2007 which, among other things, funded the war in Iraq but required withdrawal of U.S. forces to begin by October 1.^[24] However, Lee voted in favor of overriding President Bush's veto of the measure on May 2.^[25] Lee voted to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011.^[26][27] Lee also voted in favor of similar resolutions involving troop withdrawal from Pakistan and, most recently, Libya.^[28][29] Lee also joined her Republican colleagues, one of 70 Democrats to do so, in voting against a resolution to authorize limited use of force in Libya.^[30] Lee was also one of only 36 Democrats to vote in favor of limiting funds appropriated for military operations in Libya.^[31]

Personal life and public image[link]

Barbara Lee at the Opening Reception

Lee has two grown sons, Tony and Craig, both of whom work in the insurance industry.^{[citation needed]}

Lee endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President in the 2008 primary.^[32]

Lee was ranked as the sixth-most Progressive member of the House by the National Journal, based on roll-call votes on economic, social and foreign policy issues in 2006.^[33] Lee received a 97% progressive rating from "The Progressive Punch,"^[34] and a 4% conservative rating from the American Conservative Union.^[35]

In 2003, she was awarded 'special recognition' as a Woman of Peace at the Global Exchange Human Rights Awards in San Francisco with Bianca Jagger, Arundhati Roy and Kathy Kelly.

In 2010, Lee took the food stamp challenge and also appeared in the documentary film Food Stamped.

Committee assignments[link]

U.S. Representative Barbara Lee

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
  • Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

Caucuses[link]

• Congressional Caucus on HIV/AIDS (Co-Chair)
• Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus(Co-Chair)
• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional Black Caucus
  • Co-Chair of the CBC Outreach Task Force
• Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (Associate Member)
• Congressional Caucus on Global Road Safety (Member)
• International Conservation Caucus
• Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus

Electoral history[link]

References[link]