Sacla' stage a surprise opera in a school lunch hall. Watch the video here

• Salary of retired US Presidents…$180,000 FOR LIFE
• Salary of House/Senate members…$174,000 FOR LIFE
• Salary of Speaker of the House …$223,500 FOR LIFE
• Salary of Majority / Minority Leaders…$193,400 FOR LIFE
• Average salary of a teacher…$40,065
• Average salary of a deployed soldier…$38,000

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:
"I could end the deficit in five minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election". The 26th Amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only three months and eight days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971 - before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took one (1) year or less to become the law of the land - all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffett is asking everyone to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list and ask each, in turn, to do likewise.

1. The proposed Congressional Reform Act of 2017
2. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressional member collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office
3. Congressional members (past, present, & future) participate in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congressional members participate with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose
4. Congressional members can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do
5. Congressional members will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%
6. Congressional members lose their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people
7. Congressional members must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people
8. All contracts with past and present Congressional members are void effective 3/1/17

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and go back to work.

Wine is the perfect holiday gift and the wide selection of luxury brands from Treasury Wine Estates provides lots of options to delight all of your clients. Choose from wines from all of Napa's most prestigious appellations and acclaimed vineyards. Whether you are looking for a trophy bottle for your boss, or an approachable fruit forward wine for your top clients, Treasury Wine Estates has the perfect wine for you. Select single bottles, large formats (up to 9L bottles), or gift sets. Mix and match across a portfolio of widely recognized brands to precious gems.

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Whether you're looking to send gifts to your top clients, everyone in the office or a few close friends, Peju Winery has distinctive gift sets for any occasion.

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HALL Napa Valley, one of the leading Cabernet Sauvignon producers in the world, has announced the return of its premiere culinary offering, A Taste of HALL. Back for year three, the dynamic monthly culinary workshop returns with an all-star line-up of visiting Napa Valley Chefs and is designed to engage, inspire and educate guests about seasonal food and wine pairings while channeling one’s inner chef. A Taste of HALL is a two-hour, full dining experience that includes HALL and WALT wine pairings with select dishes.

Each Taste of HALL workshop includes seasonal chef-selected food and wine pairings during a two hour, demonstration workshop. Guests participate in lively discussions about seasonal food and wine pairing preferences while learning about modern technology in the kitchen.

Luxury stemware brand, Riedel Glassware, has been selected as the 2017 Series Sponsor and will be providing a custom-etched Riedel glass takeaway for each attendee. Guests will learn how selecting stemware is an important element of grape varietal expression.

Click here for details of each month’s program including Executive Chef and pairings.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, please visit hallwines.com/hall-st-helena

Additional details can be found here

December 8, 2016, 7:00 pm

This event celebrates the release of “San Francisco Appetites and Afterthoughts: In Search of the Good Life by the Golden Gate” from Grizzly Peak Press. Hot on the heels of his first book, ---Sketches from a North Beach Journal--- a sketch of the larger-than-life characters from the California Gold Rush to the present, Ernst Beyl celebrates the release of this his second book---a kaleidoscope of fragments gathered over many years searching for the good life in his hometown---and finding it. The book is a hodgepodge of obsessions that focuses on people, places and pleasures, and will place readers squarely in the middle of the narrative allowing these passions to devolve and swirl about them. Readers will discover the author's many San Francisco appetites and afterthoughts for music (jazz, blues, boogie woogie, rock 'n’ roll), restaurants, saloons, bartenders, cooking and cookbooks, prose, poetry, photography and photographers, old buildings, old girlfriends, and the quirky, bohemian culture of the city.

Ernest Beyl is a San Francisco writer who has long had a love affair with his city. When not researching and writing what he plans as a continuing series of books with San Francisco as a background, Beyl writes a monthly column for the Marina Times.

Location: 478 Green St, San Francisco, CA 94133, near the corner of Grant and Green
Price: Free

The Holiday Events Guide is your reference for a calendar full of delight this season.

For a complete list, click here

Kitchen + Bath Business Magazine selected Tahoe designer Scott Corridan as one of their judges for their prestigious Design Awards. After impressing the judges in last year’s Design Awards, Corridan was selected as a judge for his experience in the industry. He and his fellow judges were charged with reviewing more than 130 submissions for this year’s decision. The awards, now in their 18th year, select the best kitchen, bathroom and showroom projects in the industry, judged on fulfilling clients’ requirements, solving design challenges and incorporating innovative thinking in the form of aesthetics, function, product usage and technology.

scottcorridan.net

Paragon Real Estate Group is currently marketing the birthplace of Rolling Stone Magazine- 164 Belvedere Street in San Francisco’s Cole Valley neighborhood.

Between 1967 and 1971 Baron and Juliana Wolman owned and occupied the property. Baron Wolman is best known for his photography work for Rolling Stone magazine between 1967 and 1970. During Wolman’s occupancy of 164 Belvedere, he built a darkroom in the basement and used the second floor as a photography studio. Wolman photographed Frank Zappa, James Brown, Timothy Leary, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, George Harrison, The Who, Mick Jagger, Neil Young, Howlin’s Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins, B.B. King, Sly Stone, NMiles and Betty Davis, Willi Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, James Taylor, and Smokey Robinson, among others. Janis Joplin was photographed in the house, as was Grace Slick, the Grateful Dead, Blue Cheer, Creedence Clearwater Revival, many of the “groupies” for the famous Rolling Stone groupie issue, Bill Graham, and other bands and musicians.

Property details are available here

Writer. Director. Producer. Entrepreneur. Hotelier. Publisher. Storyteller.
"Francis Ford Coppola is many things to many people. Here in Wine Country, he also happens to be one of the most successful vintners around. Following his early success in Hollywood, The Godfather director quickly transplanted his family to Wine Country, where he launched an empire of a more drinkable sort. That empire began with the Inglenook Estate in Napa County’s Rutherford and grew to include two other properties in Sonoma County’s Geyserville: the Francis Ford Coppola Winery and most recently, Virginia Dare Winery. Remarkably, Coppola has been making wine almost as long as he’s been making films. We caught up with him to talk about building his empire, happiness, and what really matters in life."

Read the article here

San Francisco Office Announces Third Quarter Sales Awards
Zephyr Real Estate has announced the Third Quarter Sales Awards for its San Francisco offices. Tanya Dzhibrailova, from Zephyr’s West Portal office, retains her position as the Highest Sales Volume Award winner with a total of $28.6 million. Largest Sale Representing Buyers Award goes to Nancy Vernon-Burke, from the Pacific Heights office, with a $3.25 million transaction. Lynne Priest, from the Upper Market office, takes home the Largest Sale Representing Sellers with a $3.45 million transaction.

Marin Office Announces Third Quarter Awards
Zephyr Real Estate has announced the Third Quarter Sales Awards for its Marin office. Highest Sales Volume Award-Individual Agent went to Andrew Roth with $7.18 million. In addition, Roth received the Largest Sale Representing Buyers Award with a $2.22 million transaction. Highest Sales Volume Award-Agent Team went to David O’Brien and Deirdre O’Brien with $8.69 million.
David O’Brien also claimed the Largest Sale Representing Sellers Award with a $2.28 million transaction. Highest Number of Transactions-Individual Agent was awarded to J.J. Davis with a total of five. Highest Number of Transactions-Agent Team went to Spiro Marin with a total of nine. This team is comprised of Spiro Stratigos, Dorothy MacDougald and George Stratigos.

George Crowe Named Assistant Sales Manager at Marin Office
George Crowe has been named Assistant Sales Manager at Zephyr Real Estate’s Marin office. Crowe has been with Zephyr’s Marin team since that office opened one and a-half years ago. He is a second-generation Realtor whose mother was a broker and one of California’s first female Deputy Real Estate Commissioners.

Tressa Anderson Joins in Napa County
Tressa Anderson has joined the residential real estate services firm and will serve home buyers and sellers throughout Napa County. A Napa resident of 24 years, Anderson and her husband, Kevin, were associated with the R. H. Hess Development Company (residential and commercial) when they owned a general contracting business. Anderson originally worked in the wine industry when she moved to Northern California from her native state of Ohio.

Terra Firma Expands in Marin County
Terra Firma Global Partners has expanded its Marin County presence by opening it first permanent office and hiring five new associates in recent months. The new office is located at 999 Grant Avenue, Suite 103, in Novato. The new Marin office is the firm’s 9th location in the North Bay. The Sebastopol-based residential brokerage services company has six offices in Sonoma County and two in Napa County. In 2015, the firm closed 363 transactions for a total sales volume of $239 million. The company now has over 55 sales associates.

“The Trump Era: What the Disruption Could Mean for the Economy and Housing Market”
by Selma Hepp, Pacific Union Chief Economist & Vice President of Business Intelligence. 

Read the report here

Key takeaways from Real Estate Economic Forecast
On November 16, 2016, Pacific Union and The Mark Company held the third annual Real Estate and Economic Forecast in partnership with John Burns Real Estate Consulting in order to project Bay Area activity through 2019. Presenters Pacific Union CEO Mark A. McLaughlin; Pacific Union Chief Economist Selma Hepp; John Burns Real Estate Consulting CEO John Burns; and John Burns Real Estate Consulting Senior Vice President Dean Wehrli combined research and analysis to project what’s ahead for the Bay Area real estate market.

A link to a summary of the entire event is here.

• Bay Area Home Price Map
• Multiple Angles on a Changing San Francisco Market
• Rising Interest Rates & Bay Area Housing Affordability

The Mark Company is the authority on urban residential marketing and sales. Their method aligns buyer insights with developer goals to deliver unbeatable results.

Monthly Reports—October 2016

• San Francisco
• Oakland/Emeryville
• Santa Clara County
• San Mateo County

Trend Sheet for San Francisco—October 2016 Read the report here

2017 Residential Real Estate Market Forecast North Bay Residential Real Estate Market is Decelerating and Showing Signs of Fatigue

Read the full report here