News
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Tech Startups Give Power Back to the Family Farm

07.17.2013
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By Mary Willis, KALW Crosscurrents
Even here in the local-food loving Bay Area, most food isn’t “farm to table.” It’s farm to processor to distributor to wholesaler to retailer to the consumer, before hitting the dining table. But shoppers increasingly want to know where their food comes from, and a growing number don’t like that long, convoluted route. A group of food lovers and techies are teaming up to shorten the supply chain by putting the food market online. Goodeggs is one of these companies, based out of the Dogpatch neighborhood in San Francisco.

Climate Change
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Make Money, Save the Planet Board Game

07.17.2013
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Update 8/2/13: Listen to Public Press editor Michael Stoll and illustrator Anna Vignet interviewed on KALW-FM about how to design a board game to teach people how California’s cap-and-trade program works.

Is it possible to maximize your individual profits while reducing overall pollution? » Read more

News
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Is $84,000 Enough for a Family of Four in San Francisco?

07.16.2013
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Last week, KQED wrote about a new budget calculator released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) that attempts to offer a contrast to the Federal Poverty Guidelines, which say a family of four is “officially” poor only if it earns less than $23,550. What EPI hoped to do was illustrate that in plenty of places (the San Francisco Bay Area certainly being one of them), $23,550 isn’t even close to enough for that four-person family. But, as many readers noted, the numbers that EPI comes up with might not be enough either. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.

News
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Lives of the Tenderloin Remembered

07.15.2013
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By Laura Flynn, KALW Crosscurrents
Nearly every city in the United States has a Tenderloin. Here in San Francisco, it’s a neighborhood home to a dozen social service agencies, low-rent residential hotels, or SROs and thousands of low-income – and-no-income – residents. Premature deaths from HIV/AIDS, heart diseasevand complications from substance use and abuse mark the lives of many in the Tenderloin. It’s a part of the city known for open drug use. It is a  place many people avoid and one where individual lives can be easily forgotten.

News
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Controversy Rages Over Potential Closure of City College of San Francisco

07.11.2013
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By Alex Emslie, KQED News Fix
Passions are running high as supporters of City College of San Francisco attempt to pressure federal authorities to reverse the school’s loss of accreditation. Hundreds of students, staff and others marched to the local U.S. Department of Education offices this week to protest the decision. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges formally revoked City College’s accreditation last week, but the decision will not take effect until July 2014, after a review and appeal process. City College staff and administrators have scrambled to get on better financial footing, streamline decision-making and better track student outcomes since the commission slapped the school with its most serious sanction a year ago. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix. 

News
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San Francisco Promotes Naturalization for Permanent Residents

07.10.2013
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By Vivian Po, New America Media
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and other city officials launched an initiative yesterday to push for naturalization among those who are eligible. One in 8 San Franciscans are permanent residents, but not naturalized citizens, preventing them from being fully engaged in civic participation, such as voting, city officials said. “We need to bring voices and communications to hidden communities and unheard communities about Pathways to Citizenship and the benefits of being citizens,” said Lee. On Tuesday, Mayor Lee, along with Board of Supervisor President David Chiu and members of more than a dozen local nonprofits and foundations, gathered at the mayor’s office to unveil the city’s Pathways to Citizenship initiative—a three-year pilot program to push for naturalization among those who are eligible. Read the complete story at New America Media. 
 

Bay Area
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Big-Time Preservation, Thanks to Carbon Credits

07.10.2013
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The ink is drying on the largest land conservation deal in Sonoma County history, and local preservationists say the promise of income from “offset” credits for absorbing atmospheric carbon helped seal the deal.
It will cost $24.5 million to permanently protect the 19,000-acre Preservation Ranch from a long-threatened vineyard and estate conversion process. » Read more

News
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New Bay Bridge Span Won’t Be Ready by Labor Day

07.08.2013
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By KQED News Staff and Wires, KQED News Fix
State transportation officials have scrapped plans to open the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge over Labor Day weekend. On Monday, they announced it will take several more months to install two steel saddles to secure an area where bolts snapped this past March. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix. For more on the delay, read Bay Bridge Labor Day Opening Delayed at KALW Crosscurrents. For an overview of the Bay Bridge project, read the Bay  Bridge Report at S.F. Public Press

California
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California’s Market for Hard-to-Verify Carbon Offsets Could Let Industry Pollute as Usual

07.08.2013
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Timber, dairy and chemical companies line up to sell credits to biggest emitters
One hot day this spring John Buckley scrambled up a dusty slope of a patch of deforested land in the middle of California’s Stanislaus National Forest in the Sierra Nevada, five miles west of Yosemite National Park, and surveyed the bleak landscape: 20 acres of blackened tree stumps and the shriveled remains of undergrowth. » Read more