San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/category/government-politics/)
San Francisco cannot prove it follows an aspect of its encampment clearing policy intended to help people retain essential belongings. Despite 588 clearings from January to mid-November, the city lacks evidence of a single signed declaration that staff advised unhoused people to separate essentials from property it was confiscating.
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 4, we examine the ethical implications of the lab’s use of radioactive substances on humans, when neither scientists nor study participants knew enough about the risks to offer informed consent — and how taking such gambles may have seemed more excusable in an atomic-age context than today.
An effort is under way to recall District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio for supporting the closure of a 2-mile section of the Great Highway to cars. Anti-incumbent sentiment persists in San Francisco, but wealthy donors are unlikely to support a recall and would probably back the supervisor financially should he face voters in a special election.
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 3, we show how the lab’s scientific agenda expanded from monitoring workers’ occupational exposures to using radioactive substances in mock atomic combat and clinical experiments that included topical, oral and intravenous administration of potentially harmful isotopes.
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 2, we examine public records that prove that exposing humans to radiation was part of the known cost of the lab’s research program, a toll accepted by top military and civilian brass at every level of the chain of command, from Washington down to the docks.
In the first of two podcast episodes of “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” reporter Rebecca Bowe traces the soil contamination plaguing a Navy shipyard back to its origins — 20th century nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific.
Environmental justice advocates, scholars and military officials describe their experiences battling over land redevelopment, and reckoning with the legacy of a radiation laboratory that sometimes used human subjects.
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
Part 1, the series overview, was co-published by the Guardian. Listen to the two-episode “Exposed” podcast, which will be broadcast on KALW Public Radio. See also: Parts 2-6, laying out the origins, methodologies, ethics, documentation and public health legacy of the lab.
In the second of two podcast episodes of “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” reporter Rebecca Bowe lays out what we know from scattered documents and a few remaining eyewitnesses about a Cold War research program that pushed ethical boundaries in the name of national defense.
Bowe speaks with veterans who describe their experiences as guinea pigs in field decontamination exercises that yielded little useful data, and talks with colleague Chris Roberts about what the surviving record say about tests involving injection and ingestion of radioactive substances.
The San Francisco Public Press is publishing results for the 15 local propositions on the November 5 ballot.
If you’re unhoused, you might wonder if you are eligible to cast a ballot this November. The answer is yes — even without a fixed address. We’ve tried to answer the big questions you might have about voting while experiencing homelessness in this how-to guide, to make sure your voice is heard this Election Day.
San Franciscans this election are weighing whether Propositions D or E would bring the reforms that City Hall’s commission system needs.
John Monson, co-chair of the city’s civil grand jury, discusses the origins of the commission system and the role that public bodies have played in governance.
