Author Archives: San Francisco Public Press

By KQED News Staff and Wires The California Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down a petition in which the sponsors of Proposition 8 sought to have the ban on same-sex marriage put back into effect in most of the state. The court, in an order issued in San Francisco, declined to grant a hearing on […]

By Asha DuMonthier, New America Media While drones have played an increasingly prominent role in America’s military and surveillance operations – at home and abroad – lesser known is the growing use of this new technology in civilian life. Some of these applications are far less sinister than one might expect. For Jason Lam, owner of […]

By Vickie Cheng, New America Media Elsa Eder stands in her lab coat, preparing to inject genes from one cell into another. Biotechnology isn’t something the 40-year-old former journalist ever expected to be studying, but when she lost her job with a local media outlet at the height of the Great Recession she was suddenly […]

By Stephanie Martin, KQED As many as 325,000 U.S. children are at risk for being sexually exploited, according to one of the more reliable assessments. The FBI’s sting operation against child prostitution announced Monday included numerous sites in the Bay Area; 12 children across multiple counties were rescued. Many children’s advocates consider Oakland, in particular, […]

By Molly Oleson, Mission Local Leanna Peng, of Oakland, is happy to be getting out of town this Saturday. Not only because she’ll be starting a two-week vacation from her job in San Francisco, but because she won’t be around if Bay Area Rapid Transit employees decide to strike again on Monday. “I take BART […]

By Casey Miner, KALW If someone you loved was suffering from a serious mental illness, or seemed like they were on the verge of a psychotic breakdown, you might think you could turn to a psychiatric hospital for help. But in California, that might not do you much good. Institutions have the right to turn […]

By Maureen Nandini Mitra, Earth Island Journal A plan by the state of California to include overseas forest conservation projects as part of its carbon offset scheme is drawing criticism from some environmental and indigenous groups who say the effort will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If that weren’t confusing enough (for non-policy […]

By Joshua Johnson, KQED News Fix Think the George Zimmerman verdict couldn’t have happened under California law? Not necessarily. Florida may have a so-called “stand-your-ground” policy written into its laws, but it is possible that a California jury under very similar circumstances could have also handed down an acquittal. KQED’s Joshua Johnson discussed California’s stand-your-ground […]

Asiana Flight 214 may have crashed in San Francisco, but only the 64 American citizens who were on the flight can automatically sue the airline in U.S. courts– and benefit from this country’s generous injury lawsuit payouts. That’s because of the Montreal Convention, an international treaty that governs international aviation disasters. The Montreal Convention limits […]