San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/2017/07/)
By Devin Katayama, KQED News Fix
When Hilary Nevis bought her house last year on 29th Street in Oakland’s Hoover-Foster neighborhood, she remembers a single person sleeping under the freeway overpass a few dozen yards from her front door. “It was a really small footprint. He didn’t bother anyone. He very much felt like my neighbor,” Nevis said. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.
By Laurel Rosenhall, CALmatters
Many California communities could open centers inviting addicts to shoot up hard drugs under a little-noticed bill that has cleared the state Assembly and now awaits a vote on the Senate floor. The goal is to reduce deaths. Here’s how the concept — modeled after a supervised drug injection facility in Vancouver, Canada — works: A user walks into a government-run clinic with some heroin in his pocket. He’s greeted by a nurse who directs him to wash his hands before offering an array of clean needles. He sits down at a sterile booth, rolls up a sleeve and shoots up.
By Miranda Leitsinger, KQED News Fix
President Donald Trump’s announcement early Wednesday that transgender people would no longer be allowed to serve was met with swift reaction and strong opposition among California’s transgender military community and congressional delegation. Trump made the announcement in a series of tweets, concluding with: “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming…victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.
California lawmakers are considering more than 130 bills aimed at solving the housing-affordability crisis. While housing activists are encouraged, the Legislature’s efforts could chip away at longstanding protections in the state’s landmark environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act.
Gov. Jerry Brown is refusing to sign any new efforts to fund housing that do not include changes that streamline the land development process. » Read more
By Ben Christopher, CALmatters
California boasts some of the toughest “fair pay” laws in the country — yet the average full-time working woman has been earning only 86 cents for every dollar earned by a man. A recent study concluded that gap won’t close before the year 2043. Two female lawmakers don’t intend to wait that long. The Legislature, which in the past two years has approved a series of bills aimed at gender pay equity for substantially similar work, is considering going even further this session. The first proposal would bar a prospective employer from asking a job applicant about prior salary; the second would require large employers to publicly disclose the median earnings of salaried employees and board members, by gender.
By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Grist
A veil of dust covers the windowsills of Ray Kidd’s home. Outside, in his backyard, particles coat a lemon tree, sticking to the fruit’s pimpled, yellow skin. “Diesel pollution,” says the 72-year-old Kidd, who has lived in West Oakland since 1973. “It’s just pervasive.” Across town, close to Lake Merritt — a more affluent part of the city — his mother’s backyard lemon tree grows untarnished. West Oakland sits directly across the water from San Francisco, putting it effectively in the center of the Bay Area.
By Carolyn Jones, EdSource
Tiaira Breaux spent much of her childhood in foster care, served time in the juvenile justice system and had to fight for sole custody of her three sons. But nothing, she said, nothing was tougher than learning high school algebra. “I could not do it. My mind could just not process it. I was so irritated, I tried to quit,” said the 26-year-old Oakland resident.
By Jenny Manrique, New America Media
Hate crimes are on the rise nationwide, including in San Francisco, where the city’s diversity also happens to be a hallmark of the San Francisco Police Department’s Hate Crimes Unit. It’s one of just a handful of such units across the country, and officials say its diversity is a key part of its mission. Read the complete story at New America Media.
By Laurel Rosenhall, CALmatters
Minutes after a bipartisan coalition of California lawmakers voted to extend the state’s landmark climate-change policy for another decade, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown stood in front of a bank of television cameras and compared the plan to one championed 30 years ago by GOP icon Ronald Reagan. Back then, the Republican president helped negotiate the Montreal protocol to curb the release of gases that were destroying the ozone layer, persuading Republicans to join Democrats in approving “an insurance policy” that made economic sense in case environmentalists were right. Brown said the California cap-and-trade program the Legislature approved Monday night won support for a similar reason. Read the complete story at CALmatters. For more information about California’s cap-and-trade program, read the San Francisco Public Press (in collaboration with Earth Island Journal and Bay Nature magazine) special report on climate change.
By Angela Johnston, KALW/Crosscurrents
If you drive east on the Bay Bridge out of San Francisco and look down at Treasure Island, it’s hard to miss what look like enormous piles of dirt. These mounds are actually the remains of old Navy barracks, ground into pieces. Now, they signify some of the first visible steps in the long-talked-about Treasure Island redevelopment. About a year ago, the city of San Francisco broke ground on the project that includes a ferry terminal, shops, restaurants and 8,000 homes. It’s a big deal for a housing-strapped city.