San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/author/Ambika-Kandasamy/page/4/)
Despite a tough economy, attendance at the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival increased 2.5 percent from last year, said San Francisco Film Society’s executive director, Graham Leggat.
About 82,000 people attended nearly 150 screenings and other events associated with the multi-venue festival.
While giant financial service institutions in the nation are shirking under the iron hand of the economy, microcredit organizations are seeing an opposite trend — the number of lenders has been steadily increasing.
Kiva, a Web-based microcredit non-profit in San Francisco, had a record month in February as its total monthly lending soared past $3.8 million.
Arnold R. Kriegstein/ Christine Jegan
With President Obama’s executive order to allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research earlier this week, some think Proposition 71 — California’s answer to funding the controversial issue — now lacks rationale.
Prop. 71, approved by 59 percent of voters in November 2004, was the state’s way of bypassing former President George W. Bush’s restriction on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. It provided $3 billion in state bonds to fund research centers specializing in stem cell research.
But the federal reversal, combined with the economic climate that has forced the state to look for savings under every rock, has reignited a debate about whether such a huge investment by the state was a good idea.
