The newest star at MSNBC is Rachel Maddow, a graduate of Castro Valley High School and Stanford University, a former San Francisco ACT-UP activist and once a host on the Air America radio network. The Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli says Maddow’s “fledgling show offers a glimmer of hope that civil conversation could occur on cable, even during a political campaign in which the networks spend hours parsing the meaning of ‘lipstick on a pig.'” (Photo credit: Virginia Sherwood, NBC)