By Zusha Elinson, Bay Citizen For the first time in more than a decade, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency released a report on the on-time arrival rate of its buses and trains without inflating the numbers. Muni’s vehicles were on time 57.2 percent of the time in August, leaving passengers waiting, and waiting, at […]
Yearly Archives: 2012
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
IRS Awards 501(c)3 Status to San Francisco Public Press
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, Sept. 14, 2012 Contact: Michael Stoll, Executive Director — 415-846-3983; Lila LaHood, Publisher — 415-846-5346 IRS Awards 501(c)3 Status to San Francisco Public Press After 32-month wait, independent ad-free newspaper finally receives charitable status, paving way for several similar nonprofit news startups SAN FRANCISCO — After more than two and a half […]
Posted inNews
Advocacy groups wary of state’s new plan for prison isolation units
By Michael Montgomery, California Watch State corrections officials are moving forward with a plan for handling prison gangs and other violent groups, including changing rules that have kept some inmates locked in special isolation units for decades. But the initiative is raising concern among prisoner rights advocates and some experts who worry that it will […]
Posted inNews
Muni to begin replacing aging fleet of buses
The city is hoping a combination of new and rehabilitated buses will improve Muni’s reliability. The Municipal Transportation Agency wants to buy 45 low-floor hybrid-diesel buses and upgrade 80 biodiesel buses.
Posted inNews
Kicked out of Cal Grant program, Academy of Art sues state agency
By Erica Perez, Bay Citizen The Academy of Art University has sued the California Student Aid Commission, arguing the state agency should not have ruled the San Francisco college’s students ineligible for Cal Grants in the 2012-13 academic year. Under new rules signed into law in June, California colleges must have a student loan default […]
Posted inNews
Wind energy could power the world, studies suggest
By KQED News and Staff Wires, KQED News Two new major studies find that wind could be used to meet the world’s power demands several times over by the year 2030. Read the complete story at KQED News.
Posted inNews
News Quiz Night on Sept. 27!
Are you a pub quiz pro? A local news junkie? Show off your big brain and support local public-interest journalism — come to News Quiz Night, a zany, interactive fundraiser for the San Francisco Public Press! Purchase tickets here: http://newsquiznight2012.eventbrite.com/ THANK YOU to our sponsors who have donated products or services to News Quiz Night, a fundraiser […]
Posted inNews
Coyotes making S.F. their newest urban habitat
By Courtney Quirin, Bay Nature Fabled as a wily shape-shifter and trickster, the coyote’s latest magic trick has been turning cities into habitat, and San Francisco is one of its latest acts. Coyotes may have evolved in the plains and deserts of Mexico and North America, but they’ve rapidly expanded their range and are now making new […]
Posted inHuman Trafficking, Immigration, Labor, Law & Justice, Public Safety
Without long-term support, human trafficking survivors at risk of re-exploitation
Some who flee captive labor conditions end up with low-wage jobs, insecure housing
People trafficked into the country receive temporary government and nonprofit social service benefits after rescue or flight from captivity: shelter, health care, counseling, employment and legal help. But once these benefits term out, counter-trafficking specialists worry that victims, who generally have little work experience and weak social and family networks, could fall back into labor conditions as exploitative as the ones they fled. As a victim of international labor trafficking, Lili Samad received government help to stay in the U.S. But she is among hundreds of trafficking survivors each year who end up, months after getting help trying to build a new life, living in marginal housing and working in low-wage jobs.
Posted inCity Hall, Labor, Law & Justice, Public Safety
San Francisco police chief to be nation’s highest paid, for overseeing 14th-largest force
By the end of September, when he receives a scheduled raise, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr will be the highest paid police chief in any major American city. A review of the police departments in the 60 largest cities in California and 24 of the largest police forces across the country found that Suhr’s annual salary of over $307,450 will push Suhr’s pay just beyond that of the Los Angeles chief.