Oops: Obama's Chinatown stop still serves shark fin

The Great Eastern, the Chinatown landmark in San Francisco where President Obama made one of those "unscheduled" stops on Thursday's campaign swing, still offers a $48 bowl of braised shark fin soup on its menu, according to Carla Marinucci of the San Francisco Chronicle. Advance team fail. Distribution and sale of shark fin products was banned in California last year except in a "few San Francisco venues as a result of a loophole in the law that is being challenged in the courts." Oh, and on January 4 Obama himself signed the Shark Conservation Act, which "protects most shark species from being harvested for their fins and prohibits cutting fins off a shark at sea. Federal law allows shark fin suppliers to sell the product if the fin was obtained legally, which requires keeping the carcass intact."