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Same-sex marriage takes the day as court calls Prop. 8 unconstitutional

Kristine Magnuson, SF Public Press — Feb 7 2012 - 11:20pm
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Same-sex marriage proponents celebrated an important victory Tuesday in San Francisco following the 9th Circuit Court’s ruling that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional. Backers of Proposition 8 were expected to appeal, either by asking for a review by a full panelof the court or by appealing directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

State funding ends for California libraries

Holly McDede, KALW News — Feb 6 2012 - 7:15pm

The bad news is that state funding for California libraries has been completely eliminated. There’s not really any good news about that, except that it was expected. This past July, state library funding was sliced in half, and there was a trigger amendment attached to the budget that would eliminate state funding for public libraries at midyear if the state's revenue projections were not met. Needless to say, they weren’t.

Taxi officials studying taxi app, passenger feedback

Jerold Chinn, SF Public Press — Feb 6 2012 - 5:47pm

Finding a cab in the city may soon get easier for San Francisco residents and visitors to the city. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation, which oversees taxi services in the city, is working on developing an application to help make it easier for people to find a cab.

Payday loan industry: the stories

Ambika Kandasamy, SF Public Press — Feb 3 2012 - 9:44pm

Public Press writer Rick Jurgens reported on San Francisco's payday loan industry in our Winter 2011 print edition. He found that large corporations like Wells Fargo and Credit Suisse are among the biggest backers of these profitable low-finance firms. A subsequent whirl around the world of social media has revealed that payday loans are a fact of financial life for many, and some alternatives do exist. 

End of redevelopment agencies traps billions in local government loans

Kendall Taggart, California Watch — Feb 2 2012 - 9:17pm

More than 400 redevelopment agencies have been officially shuttered, leaving a trail of uncertainty – and a potentially staggering debt load. Across the state, cities and counties have loaned more than $4 billion to their redevelopment agencies over the past few decades, but according to the law governing how agencies will be dissolved, they may not be able to recover that money.

S.F. transportation agency apologizes, reassesses parking meter plan

Rigoberto Hernandez, Mission Local — Feb 1 2012 - 5:43pm

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency agreed to assess people’s parking needs block by block in the Mission and other southeastern neighborhoods before installing any new parking meters. That marked a change in the agency’s attitude since a Jan. 13 meeting in which a hearing officer approved the installation of about 5,000 parking meters in several eastern neighborhoods, despite the objections of hundreds of people who spoke unanimously in opposition to the proposal.

California drugmaker's HIV prevention pill sparks public health debate

Bernice Yeung, California Watch — Jan 30 2012 - 1:38pm

Foster City drugmaker Gilead recently updated its application with the federal Food and Drug Administration for approval to market its HIV treatment medication Truvada as an  HIV prevention pill. If the FDA approves Truvada for preventive use, it “would be the first agent indicated for uninfected individuals to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV through sex,” according to a company statement at the time of the filing in December 2011.

Ordinance would put restrictions on Castro District plazas

T.J. Johnston, SF Public Press — Jan 26 2012 - 1:13pm

A proposal to regulate two popular Castro District hangouts by restricting chairs and shopping carts is a step closer to becoming city law. The Board of Supervisors will decide Tuesday on an ordinance, which passed the Land Use Committee this week, that would ban nighttime sitting, sleeping, vending, smoking and even pushing a shopping cart in Harvey Milk and Jane Warner Plazas.

Fight brewing over historic California plan to close last 3 youth prisons

Susan Ferriss, IWATCH News — Jan 26 2012 - 10:13am

California, often a trendsetter, could make history if it approves Gov. Jerry Brown’s bid to close all state-run youth prisons and eliminate its state Division of Juvenile Justice. Much depends, though, on whether the state’s politically influential prison guards, probation officers and district attorneys can be convinced — or forced by legislators — to agree to Brown’s proposal. That won’t be an easy sell, due to both public-safety arguments and sure-to-surface haggling over just who pays to house juvenile offenders.

S.F. supervisors weigh local oversight of FBI terrorism investigations

Mina Kim, KQED News Fix — Jan 25 2012 - 4:22pm

San Francisco supervisors are considering legislation that will require local control and civilian oversight of terrorism investigations the San Francisco Police Department undertakes with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Calling it "The Portland Solution" because it mirrors a similar ordinance enacted in Oregon, Supervisor Jane Kim said that  her legislation does nothing more than restore transparency to intelligence gathering by police officers working with FBI agents.

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 Huge development on fringe of Bay sparks debate over ‘smart growth’

Plans to develop the 1,436-acre Cargill Salt Flats has set off an intense debate on how and where to house the Bay Area’s growing population in an era of climate change and rising sea levels.


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