San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/2017/04/page/2/)
California politicians expressed outrage in March when details of a White House budget proposal suggested President Trump would slash a $1 billion environmental grant for restoring San Francisco Bay marshes. And they were apoplectic about the executive order revoking special status for wetlands considered until now to be “waters of the United States.” » Read more
RELATED: Weakened Law Shifts Sea Rise Cost to Cities
In 1995, the Diablo Valley Ranch, a drug rehab facility in Contra Costa County, planned to expand. The problem? According to neighbors, the land it wanted to build on was contaminated with oil and toxic chemicals. » Read more
A city-commissioned environmental study that detailed how the Mission Bay neighborhood would be inundated by rising seas in coming decades went unpublished for more than a year while two showcase waterfront developments won key approvals from city officials and voters, a Public Press review of records shows. » Read more
RELATED: Projects Sailed Through Despite Dire Study
The Public Press initially inquired about the Mission Creek study in late 2014 and was told that it was in draft form and delayed for more technical information, feedback or bureaucratic review.
On Sept. » Read more
By Jessica Calefati, CalMatters
Vowing to fight public school profiteering, Democratic state lawmakers have introduced legislation that would either block or seriously limit for-profit companies’ ability to operate charter schools in California. The two proposals seek to address a growing concern among legislators that Wall Street-traded companies managing some of the state’s charters are raking in mountains of state aid while providing students a poor education. Read the complete story at CalMatters.
By Jane Meredith Adams, EdSource
Vaccination rates hit an all-time high for California kindergartners, the California Department of Public Health said recently as it announced its first findings since a new law ended the era of the “personal belief exemption” that allowed thousands of parents to choose not to vaccinate their children who attend public and private schools. The percentage of kindergartners who received all required vaccines rose to 95.6 percent in 2016-17, up from the 92.8 percent rate in 2015-16. This is the highest reported rate for the current set of immunization requirements, which began in the 2001-02 school year, the state said. Read the complete story at EdSource.
By Marisa Lagos, KQED News Fix
It’s a murder that is still driving debate nationally about so-called sanctuary cities. Thirty-two-year-old Kate Steinle was walking along the San Francisco waterfront on July 1, 2015, when shots rang out and she fell to the ground. She died at the hospital hours later. An undocumented man was arrested and charged with her murder. He’d recently been released from San Francisco jail after a court dismissed a 20-year-old marijuana charge against him.
By Marylee Williams, KALW/Crosscurrents
A line is forming outside Glide Church in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. People are waiting to get dinner or to get sent to another shelter for the night. But that’s not what Jana Lee* is here for. It’s also syringe access night here at Glide, and Lee is getting a prescription refill. Glide volunteer Kevin Smith asks for her name, jotting it down in a binder.
By Peter Jon Shuler, KQED News Fix
Senior management at San Francisco-based Wells Fargo contributed to a failure of culture that tarnished the bank’s reputation and injured customers, according to a scathing report released Monday by the bank’s board of directors. The findings of the report are the result of an investigation launched by a committee of board members last September following revelations that bank employees had opened millions of unauthorized accounts to meet aggressive sales goals. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.
By Ted Goldberg, KQED News Fix
The San Francisco International Airport can record the license plate information of everyone who uses its roads and parking garages and it can keep the data on file for more than four years. The Airport Commission voted last month on a new policy that gives more than 70 SFO employees access to a license plate information database and allows the airport to release the data to the San Francisco Police Department, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.