San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/2016/12/page/2/)
A fiery Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday rallied scientists fearful that decades of crucial climate data could disappear after President-elect Donald Trump takes control of the federal government.
Brown delivered an emotional speech to hundreds of scientists at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. » Read more
After rejecting two similar measures, San Francisco voters in November granted noncitizen parents the right to vote in school board elections.
But the election of Donald Trump has cast a pall of fear and uncertainty as local stakeholders scramble to figure out how to enable the city’s undocumented immigrant residents to vote for members of the San Francisco Board of Education without increasing their risk of deportation, which the president-elect has threatened. » Read more
By Elizabeth Aguilera, Calmatters.org
Ever since Maribel Solache began teaching her own version of driver’s ed in Spanish two years ago, the classes — held around San Diego County — have been jammed. She estimates she’s helped some 3,000 students earn their licenses. But lately, apprehension has smothered that enthusiasm. “More people come with fear. They say ‘what is going to happen to my information?’ ” she said.
On Thanksgiving Day, Von, who is homeless and would only give his “street name,” was getting his hair cut for free in a makeshift salon near Taylor and Market streets in the Tenderloin.
Turkey dinners were being served in the open air on Jones Street, a block away, and when Von’s cut was finished he headed that way, his cane in one hand and his sleeping bag in the other. » Read more
By Brian Rinker, Mission Local
Instead of writing wish lists for Santa Claus, immigrant activists gathered on the steps of City Hall Monday to write letters to Mayor Ed Lee urging him to provide more funding to the public defender’s office in the anticipation of a Donald Trump presidency that promises to deport thousands of undocumented people. So far, Lee has resisted such pleas to increase funding for the public defender’s office. Early Monday morning, Lorena Melgarejo woke her daughter up, “We’re not going to school today. We’re going to City Hall to fight for immigrants’ rights.”
Read the complete story at Mission Local.
By Laura Klivans, KQED News Fix/The California Report
Brittany Jones is burrowed into her seat on a BART car, catching some sleep before the morning commuters arrive. As the car starts to fill with people, she finally pulls down her jacket, uncovering her face. The whoosh of the doors, the sweaty surge of denim and backpacks: This is her alarm clock. Jones is 24, a student at Laney College in Oakland, and homeless. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix/The California Report.
By Brittany Hosea-Small, KQED News Fix/The California Report
The saying “dogs are a man’s best friend” is just a phrase, but to those living on the streets and battling housing insecurity, it can be the honest truth. For people who are contending with homelessness, their companion animals are the world to them. They are their family, their children and their sense of security. But getting proper medical care for their animals can often be even harder than getting it for themselves. This is where Veterinary Street Outreach Services comes in.
Final election results show that San Francisco voters narrowly passed Proposition Q, creating new policies for how the city clears tent encampments where homeless people live.
But that law may be a nonstarter, because there is virtually no indoor shelter available to get tent dwellers off city streets. » Read more
By Laura Waxmann, Mission Local
Residents in the northeastern Mission District are forming a community group to push local government toward ending homeless encampments in the area, while a pair of nuns displaced from the Tenderloin tries to gather support for a soup kitchen in the neighborhood that neighbors fear will attract only more homeless. The nuns are Marie Benedicte and Marie Valerie of the Fraternite Notre Dame Mary of Nazareth, and their appearance surprised even Andrew Presley, a resident of Natoma Street and one of the organizers of a neighborhood meeting on Monday night. Read the complete story at Mission Local.
By Laura Newberry, Mission Local
When it comes to doing business, Leaf isn’t discreet. The friendly 25-year-old saunters around Dolores Park in San Francisco with a big teddy bear on his shoulder and a ring of plastic marijuana leaves around his neck. You can’t miss him. Selling weed is his game, one he won’t quit anytime soon. Yes, recreational cannabis was just legalized in California on Nov.