Lynn Woolsey, phone home.

The former North Bay House member is one of six former members of Congress who are taking testimony at a public hearing this at the National Press Club on what the U.S. government really knows about extraterrestrial life.

Yes. Really.

“The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure of an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race will attempt to accomplish what the Congress has failed to do for forty-five years – seek out the facts surrounding the most important issue of this or any other time,” according to the hearing’s website.

Besides Woolsey, also plumbing the final frontier’s mysteries this week are former U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Alaksa, and former Reps. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md.; Merrill Cook, R-Utah; Darlene Hooley, D-Ore.; and Carolyn Kilpatrick, D-Mich.

The multi-day hearing, which started Monday and ends Friday, promises testimony from about 40 researchers and military/agency witnesses and is being live-streamed in English and Spanish – but it’s viewable only after paying a $3.80 subscription.

The event was organized by the Paradigm Research Group – a UFO conspiracy-theory group in Bethesda, Md., founded by activist Stephen Bassett, which invited the former lawmakers to use their House-honed skills in interviewing witnesses.

The White House in November 2011 answered a pair of petitions seeking disclosure of information on extraterrestrial life – including a petition launched by Bassett – by stating “the U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.”

Woolsey, 75, retired last year after 10 terms in the House; she was succeeded by Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael.

More than 100 House members from both sides of the aisle have signed on to co-sponsor a bill that would require background checks for all commercial gun sales.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, chairman of the House Democrats’ gun-violence task force, and Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., introduced H.R. 1565 on April 15, two days before the Senate rejected the identical Manchin-Toomey amendment.

“We won’t take ‘no’ for an answer when it comes to passing commonsense laws that keep guns from criminals, terrorist and the dangerously mentally ill,” Thompson and King said in a news release today. “This debate isn’t over. The American people deserve for this bill to be signed into law.”

The bill would expand the existing background check system to cover all commercial firearm sales, including those at gun shows, over the internet or in classified ads; it would not cover private, person-to-person sales, as California’s law does.

This widening of background checks is tempered by several nods to those concerned about Second Amendment rights: The bill bans the government from creating a federal registry and makes the misuse of records a felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. It also lets gun owners use a state concealed-carry permit issued within the last five years in lieu of a background check, and allows interstate handgun sales from licensed dealers.

And it improves the National Instant Criminal Background Check System by offering incentives to states to improve reporting of criminals and the dangerously mentally ill and by directing future grants toward better record-sharing systems; federal funds would be reduced to states that don’t comply.

The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary and Veterans’ Affairs committees.

The King-Thompson bill’s original co-authors are Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.; Pat Meehan, R-Pa.; Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y.; and Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.

From the greater Bay Area, co-sponsors include Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto; Sam Farr, D-Santa Cruz; John Garamendi, D-Fairfield; Mike Honda, D-San Jose; Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael; Barbara Lee, D-Oakland; Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose; Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco; Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo; and Eric Swalwell, D-Pleasanton.

The locals who haven’t signed on are Reps. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton; and George Miller, D-Martinez. I’ve reached out to their offices to find out where they stand on the bill, and will update this item accordingly.

UPDATE @ 1 P.M. TUESDAY 5/7: McNerney and Miller both have signed on.

Following in the footsteps of former colleague Pete Stark, Rep. Mike Honda has spoken out on behalf of a “National Day of Reason” this Thursday, May 2, to counter the government-sponsored National Day of Prayer.

“The National Day of Reason celebrates the application of reason and the positive impact it has had on humanity,” Honda, D-San Jose, declared in the Congressional Record last Thursday. “It is also an opportunity to reaffirm the Constitutional separation of religion and government.”

The American Humanist Association says support from Honda and from Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., is particularly notable this year in light of the recent controversy over the refusal to include secular representation at the official memorial service honoring the victims of the recent Boston bombings.

The group says the National Day of Prayer Task Force’s state purpose to represent “a Judeo-Christian expression of the national observance” is exclusionary.

“Our elected officials dishonor their office and their constituents when they promote and attend divisive events that tell a growing minority of Americans that they aren’t worthy of full citizenship,” AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt said in a news release. “Our secular government has no business endorsing expression of some beliefs while excluding others.”

The National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 by an act of Congress to be held each year on the first Thursday of May. The AHA created the National Day of Reason “to celebrate reason — a concept all Americans can support — and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship.”

Stark – who was Congress’ only avowed atheist, and who was unseated last year by fellow Democrat Eric Swalwell – had issued several National Day of Reason proclamations while in office. Honda describes his religious belief as Protestant Christian.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan arrives tomorrow, Tuesday, April 30, for a three-day Bay Area visit to highlight the need for more high-quality early learning programs and innovative teaching strategies.

Duncan tomorrow will tour and host a media availability at San Francisco’s Cross Cultural Family Center, which provides child-care services in cross-cultural settings — emphasizing the big role family and community play in promoting positive development of young children. After that, he’ll speak at the American Educational Research Association’s 94th annual meeting in San Francisco, delivering remarks on major issues facing students, educators, policymakers, and other education stakeholders.

On Wednesday, Duncan is scheduled to join Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale to help kick off a nationwide effort to improve early education. The initiative follows the release in February of a “For Each and Every Child” report by the 27-member Equity and Excellence Commission, which was formed under legislation authored by Honda.

Duncan also is scheduled Wednesday and Thursday to deliver remarks at the New Schools Venture Fund’s annual summit, an event at San Francisco’s Everett Middle School, and at the Education Writers Association’s National Seminar at Stanford University.

Duncan is touting the Education Department’s new blueprint for Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching (RESPECT), which among other calls for teacher salaries to be competitive with professions like architecture, medicine and law, more support for novice teachers and more career opportunities for veterans.

Mark the date: It might be the one day you hear some Democrats saying nice things about former President George W. Bush.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated today in Dallas.

From House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco:

“Today, we take the opportunity to honor our 43rd President, George W. Bush, for his service to our country. No matter whether you agreed with his policies, there was never any doubt that he was a leader of conviction, dedication to duty, and faith in American ideals.

“Committed to taking concrete steps on energy independence, President Bush bucked the partisan divide to work with Democrats in setting higher fuel economy standards that reduce our dependence on foreign oil and ensure a stronger and cleaner future for our country. While many events may distinguish his presidency, his devotion to combatting the scourge of HIV/AIDS will certainly define his legacy. Thanks to his commitment to work with Congress in establishing PEPFAR, we are saving millions of lives around the world and working toward the day when we completely eliminate new HIV infections among children.

“I hope the George W. Bush Library long stands as a true tribute to his passion, patriotism, and presidency.”

Read the remarks President Obama delivered at the dedication ceremony, after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »

Activists are descending today upon the offices of federal officials across the Bay Area, and across the nation, to deliver petitions urging the protection of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans’ benefits from cuts proposed by President Obama.

Organized by MoveOn.org, it appears there’ll be gatherings at noon at the offices of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in Oakland, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, Rep. Eric Swalwell in Pleasanton, Rep. Jackie Speier in San Mateo, Rep. George Miller in Concord, Rep. Zoe Lofgren in San Jose, and Rep. Jared Huffman in San Rafael.

“I supported President Obama for reelection, but I won’t support him cutting Social Security,” said Frank Burton of Castro Valley, co-organizer of the event at Swalwell’s office. “Seniors depend on Social Security, and the cut in the cost-of-living adjustment is based on false logic. Seniors need the full cost-of-living adjustment because of huge increases in medical costs every year.”

Clark Sullivan of San Francisco said he helped organize the event at Pelosi’s office “because most people collecting Social Security are already starving for several days at the end of the month.

“Cutting benefits would increase the already unacceptable level of human misery for Americans who have paid a lifetime of taxes to support Social Security,” he said. “The Social Security Act has been one of the most successful federal programs ever enacted and is more solvent than it ever has been. There is no need to tamper with its current success.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren has been sued by another Democratic House member who claims he was wrongly censured for ethical violations while Lofgren chaired the Ethics Committee.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday in Washington, D.C., by Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., also names House Speaker John Boehner and a slew of Ethics Committee members and staffers. Boehner wasn’t yet Speaker in December 2010 when the House voted 333-79 to censure Rangel, but does now have the power to remove the action from the Congressional Record.

Rangel’s lawsuit claims Lofgren, D-San Jose, and Jo Bonner, R-Ala., then the Ethics Committee’s ranking Republican, “knowingly deceived” the House before the vote, “knowing then that their statements were false.” Evidence was withheld that could’ve helped clear him, he claims.

Lofgren specifically “deceptively misrepresented what had occurred during the proceedings before the committee” when advising the House that Rangel’s “pre-vote proceedings were conducted fairly, honestly, without bias and according to the law, when she knew this was not so.”

Lofgren declined to comment Tuesday.

Per the Associated Press, the committee found that Rangel had underpaid the IRS for 17 years by failing to pay taxes on income from a rental unit in a Dominican Republic resort, had filed misleading financial disclosure reports, had set up a campaign office in the Harlem building where he lived that had been designated for residential use only and had used congressional letterheads to solicit donations for a center named after him at City College of New York.

It was only the 23rd time in the House’s history that a member was censured, the most severe punishment short of expulsion.

U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell is declaring now that the Transportation Security Administration has decided to delay implementing its new policy allowing certain knives and sporting equipment on plans.

Swalwell, a freshman member of the Homeland Security Transportation Subcommittee, had taken a lead role in grilling TSA officials at hearings and organizing other House members to write in opposition to the policy, which they say was revised without adequate input from pilots and flight attendants.

“Today’s announcement by TSA is welcome news for airline passengers and crews,” Swalwell, D-Pleasanton, said in a news release. “I appreciate that TSA Administrator Pistole listened to the 133 Members of Congress who signed our letter asking for this reversal in policy, stakeholders like pilots and flight attendants, and the general public who oppose this disturbing decision. This delay in implementation is a positive step by the Administrator that will allow stakeholders to have their rightful input into a decision that directly affects their safety and that of the flying public.”

After months Rep. Mike Honda rolling out high-profile endorsements, the fellow Democrat who’s challenging him announced today he has one of California’s statewide electeds in his corner: Ro Khanna has Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s support.

“I’m proud to support Ro. I know he will govern from a place of courage and authenticity,” Newsom said in a statement issued by Khanna’s campaign. “He has many innovative ideas to grow California’s economy and to apply technology to make government better for all his constituents.”

Khanna, 36, of Fremont, said he’s grateful to be endorsed by Newsom, whom he called “a public servant who represents all the best qualities of the 17th District. He is truly a pioneer in finding ways to technologically transform government to achieve a more open and efficient democracy.”

Khanna also said Newsom’s “early leadership on same-sex marriage makes him a public figure to admire and emulate.”

Making politics more tech friendly and vice versa is a key theme in Khanna’s campaign, just as it is of “Citizenville,” Newsom’s recent book on how to modernize government and increase political participation among the nation’s increasingly diverse citizenry. And both Khanna – a former Obama administration Commerce Department official – and Newsom have tried to cast themselves as younger, more dynamic alternatives to an older political dynamic.

Khanna just formally announced his candidacy a few weeks ago, but rumors have been flying for many months. Honda, D-San Jose, used that time to roll out a series of endorsements from the likes of President Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, current and former chairs of the Democratic National Committee, and almost all of California’s House Democrats.

A Bay Area congresswoman is working with local police to train hotel managers how to recognize and thwart human trafficking related to prostitution.

Rep. Jackie Speier will join with the Burlingame and South San Francisco police departments in hosting a training session tomorrow, Friday, April 19, at the Hilton San Francisco Bayfront in Burlingame.

“Hotels and motels are an essential component in the vicious network of human trafficking,” Speier, D-San Mateo, said in a news release. “The people working in hotels can help prevent sex trafficking if they know how to recognize signs that are not always obvious and contact the authorities when they do. For example, in a recent case on the Peninsula, a hotel worker contacted the police after noting that the same individual had rented two hotel rooms for four different young women two days in a row. Not only were the victims rescued, but their traffickers are facing lengthy sentences and fine.”

Managers at the training will hear from public officials and experts about the severity of human trafficking in the area, learn how to recognize victims and how to interfere. Speakers will include Burlingame Mayor Ann Keighran, Burlingame Police Chief Ed Wood, South San Francisco Police Sergeant Billy Schwartz and representatives from the Burlingame Hotel Manager’s Safety Association.

Speier’s office says sex trafficking is considered the third-largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world; it is estimated 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders, and an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 domestic minors are forced into sex work every year in the United States.

This will be the third hotel training Speier and law enforcement have held since she helped launch the Zero Tolerance Anti-Trafficking Initiative in San Mateo County.