Recall Hearing Underway In SF

More than two dozen satellite broadcast trucks are lined up this morning outside a San Francisco federal court that is holding a hearing on the state´s recall election this afternoon.

The media presence is overwhelming as reporters jostled for position on the sidewalk outside the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in downtown San Francisco.

Curious onlookers — including backpacking tourists and a collection of transients — have stopped to pause and gazed at the spectacle as it grows by the hour.

The court has made the rare move of allowing both a still photographer and a television camera inside the court to document the proceedings that have become the focal point of California politics and the nation´s curiosity.

The hearing before 11 circuit judges was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.