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On June 22, the Public Press printed a pilot newspaper! It’s 28 pages, with two sections, three investigative reports, a full-page graphic novel and 50 other articles by our staff and an array of public media and civic organizations, including KALW, KQED, Commonwealth Club, World Affairs Council, California Watch and Consumers Union. Buy a copy at one of 35 retail locations ($2). Or mail-order a paper via PayPal ($5).

Select articles from the print edition will go online through July.

Summer 2010

Berkeley scientists’ next green energy alternative: stomach bug to biofuel

Ambika Kandasamy, SF Public Press — Aug 31 2010 - 9:43am

A team of local biotech researchers may have found a way to avoid using essential food crops for fuel by genetically modifying harmless strains of a bacteria most people associate with human food poisoning. The result is an extremely expensive fuel — hardly competitive with fossil fuels at $25 per gallon — but marks the beginning of a new look at green energy.

Ask an environmentalist: Driving vs. flying? Clothes compost? Wind-powered Safeway? Ozone anxiety?

Jon Mooallem, SF Public Press — Aug 24 2010 - 4:40pm

Which has a bigger carbon footprint, flying or driving from SF to LA? Can I compost my old clothing? Can a Safeway really be wind-powered? What’s the deal with the ozone layer? Writer Jon Mooallem digs into quandaries both weighty and lightheaded.

Run down? Pay up — a list of San Francisco blighted properties

Angela Hart, SF Public Press — Aug 16 2010 - 2:49pm

More than half a year after the Department of Building Inspection launched an ambitious effort to catalog unused and blighted properties in the city — a process that ultimately could bring in millions of dollars in property and transfer taxes and developer fees — the effort has been hobbled by layoffs in the department.

The Board of Supervisors passed an anti-blight law unanimously in November 2009. It requires property owners whose buildings are vacant or abandoned to register them with the city and fix up their dilapidated exteriors. The law is intended to reduce crime, clean up neighborhood blight and stimulate economic and social activity.

‘Socially responsible outsourcing’ takes tech jobs to developing world

Ambika Kandasamy, SF Public Press — Aug 12 2010 - 10:41am
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A local nonprofit group is making a name for itself in the tech world by providing U.S.-based companies with low-priced online labor in developing countries. While thousands of for-profit companies have been offshoring tech jobs for years, San Francisco-based Samasource says it wants to turn online work into a tool to alleviate poverty.

Getting schooled in post-racial America

Rachel Swan, SF Public Press — Aug 10 2010 - 2:47pm

Any artist who promises to end racism in about an hour will earn his fair share of cynics. Comedian W. Kamau Bell was well aware of that when he launched his solo comedy show, “The W. Kamau Bell Curve,” in fall 2007.

Athletes vie with birds in Golden Gate Park’s environmental turf war

Dan Hirsch, SF Public Press — Aug 9 2010 - 11:05am

A swath of ground at the western end of Golden Gate Park has stirred debate among soccer players, neighborhood residents, astronomers and environmentalists. The disputed turf is the Beach Chalet Soccer Fields. A plan to replace the grass surface with artificial turf has been put on hold by the Recreation and Park Commission which has ordered an environmental impact report on the project.

At Amybelle’s wash & dry, clean your clothes and work history

Saul Sugarman, SF Public Press — Aug 2 2010 - 9:32am
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Historically, many laundromats have provided cover for seedier operations such as money laundering, gang violence, or more recently in Oakland, marijuana peddling. But a family-run shop in the Richmond District is trying a far different experiment: free Wi-Fi and career counseling.

Of course banks resist reform, MIT professor says

Shawn Gaynor, SF Public Press — Jul 20 2010 - 5:31pm

As the financial crisis drags on, Congress and the Obama administration are taking up regulatory reform of the banks at the center of the crisis. The San Francisco Public Press spoke with Simon Johnson, MIT professor of economics and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. Johnson, author of "13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown," shared his views May 13 before the World Affairs Council.

Muni drivers try to shift the bulls-eye

Anna Rendall, SF Public Press — Jul 19 2010 - 2:20pm

Hands clasped and brows furrowed, Gabriel Desalla sat quietly for the first half of the Bay Area Transportation Advisory Committee meeting. He is one of 2,172 union workers in the transit agency who are under increasing pressure to make concessions that would restore recently cut Muni services. In a small conference room in Bayview-Hunters Point San Francisco, Desalla waits for committee president, Emanuel Andreas, to open the floor for discussion. The topic, as usual, is the ongoing battle over salaries, health benefits and work rules. The SFMTA says that reforms are needed to improve financial efficiency but many Muni drivers are resistant to the changes proposed. The concessions the city has sought include changes to healthcare benefits for dependents and allowing part-time drivers.

Stranded: One man’s fight to re-establish safe haven for Haitian street kids

J. Malcolm Garcia, SF Public Press — Jul 15 2010 - 2:01pm

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti — I first met Michael Brewer in 2005 when I was in Port au Prince reporting on Citie Soleil, a notoriously violent ghetto at the time. Michael, a Texas native and a registered nurse turned child advocate, ran a nonprofit organization called Haitian Street Kids Inc. and spent a lot of time in Citie Soleil helping homeless children.

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