Category: Health
Posted inHealth, Homelessness, Labor

Arrested UC Workers Released, Charged with Disrupting Public Meetings with Labor Protest 

Avatar photo by Madison Alvarado

More than 20 labor leaders and University of California workers were arrested May 15 as they protested at a UC Board of Regents meeting at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus. They were charged with willfully disturbing a meeting. 

Demonstrators, who were protesting working conditions and calling for the university to engage in fair contract negotiations, were released after a few hours, said Liz Perlman, executive director of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299 , which represents 35,000 employees across several UC campuses, medical centers, clinics and research labs. Perlman, who was arrested, said she was given a citation with a follow-up court date.

Posted inArtificial Intelligence, Government & Politics, Health, Technology

Opposite of Efficiency

Avatar photo by Jason Winshell

A team of 20 people from the U.S. Digital Service had been providing project oversight and design expertise to modernize the CDC’s National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System to ensure it would flexibly meet the diverse needs of public health departments nationwide. 

When DOGE laid off 19 of those federal employees. it stripped away the expertise and accountability needed to ensure the project would be successfully completed by federal software contractors — in effect promoting government waste and inefficiency instead of reducing or eliminating it.

Posted inEnvironment, From the Newsroom, Health, Media

Public Press Wins 2025 Izzy Award for Series Investigating Human Radiation Experimentation

Avatar photo by Michael Stoll

The San Francisco Public Press is proud to announce that our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” has been honored with a 2025 Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media.

The Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College presents this prominent national award annually to spotlight exceptional work in journalism. Named for trailblazing investigative journalist I.F. Stone, who in 1953 launched a fiercely independent newsletter that exposed government deception, racism and McCarthyism, the Izzy Award honors muckraking produced outside traditional corporate media structures.

Posted inGovernment & Politics, Health, Politics

Protesters Denounce DOGE, Health Care Cuts, Call Out Local Representatives

Avatar photo by Madison Alvarado

Facing looming threats to healthcare programs, the implementation of anti-immigrant policies, and the outsized role of billionaires in Trump’s administration, protesters gathered at Airbnb’s headquarters in San Francisco with message for state and local elected officials: “Get a f—ing backbone,” said demonstrator Fred Sherburn-Zimmer, organizing and policy director at the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco.

Around 200 people gathered outside of Airbnb’s headquarters in the South of Market neighborhood on March 28 to denounce the dismantling of government programs and call on members of Congress to push back on cuts.

Posted inEnvironment, Health, Social Justice

Toxic Waste Cleanups Take Longer in Marginalized Communities

Avatar photo by Audrey Mei Yi Brown

Toxic site cleanups take longer in marginalized communities, according to a new Public Press analysis of more than 20,000 sites of varying size across the nine-county Bay Area.

In areas that scored high on a national index of socioeconomic vulnerability, the median cleanup took more than 450 days longer than in the least vulnerable areas.

Many factors, including the type of toxin, the nature of the site and the complexity of the cleanup, could affect how long a remediation takes and explain some of the differences. But in a subset of more than 12,000 cleanups of comparable complexity, the disparities were even more pronounced.

Experts warn that prolonged exposure to contamination as a result of slow cleanups can increase the risk of illness for nearby residents.

Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Government & Politics, Health

San Francisco Tries to Mitigate Harm of Out-of-State Abortion Bans

Avatar photo by Sylvie Sturm

Anti-abortion groups have initiated increasingly aggressive activities in San Francisco since the fall of Roe v. Wade, with some ignoring protective zones around clinics and even threatening violence.

In response, community groups, nonprofits and local government have stepped up efforts to ensure access to abortions and reproductive health support in San Francisco — both for people who live in the city and for those who travel here seeking help.

Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods

Shuttered Radiation Lab Poses Ongoing Health Risks for Growing Neighborhood

Chris Roberts by Chris Roberts

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 6, we detail how cavalier attitudes toward radiation exposure and an indifference to how pollution left by the Navy might affect San Franciscans have been constants officials warned of plutonium blowing in the air three-quarters of a century ago.

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