The Bay Area Reporter distributed its first edition on April 1, 1971. While publisher Bob Aaron Ross may have chosen April Fool’s Day as a light-hearted start for the gay community’s latest bar “rag,” the newspaper would go on to do serious journalism, covering the major events of the post-Stonewall era.
Author Archives: Mel Baker
Mel Baker is the producer and a contributor to The San Francisco Public Press radio program/podcast Civic. He has worked as a national network and Bay Area broadcaster for many decades. From early training in National Public Radio’s newscast unit, to stints in the newsrooms of KGO radio and KTVU-TV, and as a news anchor and reporter at KALW and other Bay Area stations, he has embraced the responsibility of broadcast media to “enlighten and inform” the community.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Coronavirus, Health
Managing Trauma and Grief During COVID-19
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic and nearly everyone living in the United States has experienced some level of psychological distress. Clinical counselor Christoph Zepeda discusses the challenges his clients have faced during the pandemic.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Coronavirus, Health
SF Team Seeks COVID-19 Therapies and Ways to Defeat Future Coronaviruses
While attention has shifted to mass vaccinations, the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco remain focused on finding therapies to treat COVID-19 and defeat future Coronaviruses.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Coronavirus, Economy & Business, Essential Workers, Government & Politics, Labor, Vaccine Distribution
Vaccinations and Hazard Pay Remain Concerns of Grocery Store Union
Grocery store workers are the latest to be eligible for vaccination. As part of our “Essential Worker” series we spoke with Jim Araby, director of strategic campaigns for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 about how they are trying to get their 28,000 members vaccinated and why they are fighting for hazard pay during the remaining days of the pandemic.
Posted inCoronavirus, Health, Vaccine Distribution
Despite Vaccine Shortage, City to Expand Eligibility
Teachers, child care workers, police, firefighters and food service and agricultural workers will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations in San Francisco beginning Feb. 26. Mayor London Breed said Tuesday the city was ready to move past the current plan that limits vaccinations to health care workers and those over 65 years of age.
Posted inBay Area, California, Coronavirus, Health
Lockdown Ends — Outdoor Dining, Other Restrictions to Be Lifted
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Monday that the state’s decision to lift an emergency lockdown order to contain the COVID-19 surge is “good news’’ and a “cause for celebration” even as she cautioned residents that “we have to just use common sense and continue to just accept that we are going to be living with this for some time.” City leaders expect San Francisco to be placed in the purple tier, which will once again allow outdoor dining, limited indoor personal services — if clients and patrons can both wear masks — more capacity in retail stores and the reopening of outdoor museums, zoos, skate parks and golf courses.
Posted inCoronavirus, Health, News, Vaccine Distribution
SF Prepares for Next Phase of COVID-19 Vaccinations
As San Francisco health organizations move to increase the number of available COVID-19 vaccinations, the city is dealing with a holiday surge that came on top of a huge Thanksgiving increase.
Posted inCoronavirus, Health
SF Braces for Final Holiday COVID-19 Statistics
All of the staff and patients at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital who wish to are expected to be vaccinated by Wednesday. The University of California San Francisco is vaccinating 1,100 health care staffers a day, with plans to increase that number. The San Francisco Department of Public Health has inoculated over 6,000 people served […]
Posted inCoronavirus, Health
COVID-19 Surge Slows in S.F., UCSF Tests for More Contagious U.K. Variant
San Francisco remains in the most dangerous surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are signs that people’s adherence to the recent stay-at-home orders are helping. UCSF tests for more contagious variant first seen in United Kingdom.
Posted inCoronavirus, Government & Politics, News
Breed Criticizes Newsom’s Senatorial Pick, Urges San Franciscans to Stay Home for Holidays
Mayor London Breed on Tuesday called Gov. Gavin Newsom’s appointment of Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris “unfortunate.”