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Quizzing the Candidates Leaves a Secret Paper Trail

05.31.2016
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By Laurel Rosenhall, CALmatters
The eight-page document reads like a contract, asking candidates seeking a seat in the Legislature to pledge support for workers organizing unions. It lists priority issues – including health care, immigration and retirement benefits – and asks if the candidate will be a “supporter,” “champion” or “partner” as the union pursues its agenda in Sacramento. The answers are a secret paper trail left by politicians who have sought backing this year from the Service Employees International Union, one of the state’s most powerful labor groups. The union won’t share the completed documents with the public. But it will pull out candidate’s responses later when they cast votes as lawmakers.

Climate Change
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Waterfront Developers Would Be Winners in Proposed Property Tax to Fight Sea Level Rise

05.31.2016
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A first-ever regional property tax on the June 7 primary ballot is being touted by its sponsors as an issue of environmental protection and public safety. Restoration of badly degraded wetlands and tidal marshes around San Francisco Bay could protect urbanized areas from the threat of intermittent and permanent flooding that could reach as high as 8 feet by the end of this century, they say. » Read more

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Is San Francisco’s New ‘Dream’ School Living Up to Its Potential?

05.26.2016
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By Ninna Gaensler-Debs, KALW Crosscurrents
Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School is the only noncharter public middle school in Bayview-Hunters Point. Sixty percent of the kids in the school’s inaugural sixth grade class live in the neighborhood. For a long time, the odds have been stacked against these kids. Data from Bayview clinics from 2013 shows that almost 70 percent of youth in the area have been exposed to at least one Adverse Childhood Experience. Children with four or more of such experiences are more than 30 times more likely to have learning or behavioral problems in school.

News
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Where to Throw Your Dog Poop and Other Cost-Saving Energy Tips

05.25.2016
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By Peter Schurmann, New America Media
“Choice” and “control” aren’t exactly the first things that come to mind when the utility bill arrives, especially for low-income households. If anything, it’s the contrary. But Allen Fernandez Smith, manager of Low-Income Programs and Strategies for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., is working to change that. “I see gas and electricity as a basic right,” said Smith. “It should be affordable.

News
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Contretemps Quieted: S.F. Ends Picnic Reservations for Dolores Park Lawns

05.24.2016
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By Dan Brekke, KQED News Fix
It’s been awhile — weeks, at least — since San Francisco has seen a dust-up over gentrification and the rise of techies, hipsters, bros, post-hipsters, steam punks and nouveau grungesters who are remaking the city in their own image. Or images. The wait for the next contretemps is over. In fact, the contretemps itself is over, even before it really got up a good head of steam. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix. 
 

News
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Utilities Want to Plug In More Electric Drivers

05.23.2016
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By Andrea Kissack, KQED News Fix/KQED Science
What region leads the nation in electric car sales? Here’s a hint, one of the city mayors drives a plug-in hybrid and Tesla Motors is located there. Well, that was kind of a big hint. Yes, the No. 1 market for electric vehicle adoption is the San Francisco Bay Area (S.F. Mayor Ed Lee drives a Chevy Volt).

News
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California Counts: What It Takes to Bring People to the Polls

05.19.2016
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By Kristen Lepore, KQED News Fix/The California Report
It’s no secret that California has low voter turnout. What will it take to bring people to the polls? KPCC and KQED came together in San Francisco Tuesday night to chat with community members and political analysts about what’s holding Californians back in the weeks leading up to the state primary on June 7. The town hall was moderated by Larry Mantle, host of KPCC’s AirTalk, and Scott Shafer, senior editor of KQED’s California Politics and Government Desk. It was hosted by California Counts, a collaboration with KPCC in Los Angeles, KQED in San Francisco, Capital Public Radio in Sacramento and KPBS in San Diego.

News
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Burning Man Artists Bid Farewell to Treasure Island’s Building 180

05.18.2016
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By Rachael Myrow, KQED News Fix/KQED Arts
“Cheers,” said one partygoer to another. “To the beginning of the end.”
The party — a warehouse rave for about 2,000 people — was called Terminus. It was a farewell party — a Baby Burning Man to mark the end of something special at Building 180 on Treasure Island. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix/KQED Arts.

News
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In California, Lessons on Transgender Student Access to Facilities

05.17.2016
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By Jane Meredith Adams, EdSource
As schools across the nation work, often for the first time, to ensure a welcoming environment for students who are transgender, California has lessons to share, according to educators, advocates and students. The first is, in the words of Eric Guthertz, principal of Mission High School in San Francisco, “there is no need to freak out.” A second is that school leaders who have bought into the idea of “school climate” improvements – including anti-bullying programs, mental health support for students and staff, and alternative approaches to suspensions and expulsions – are going to intuitively understand that the focus should be on the needs of the individual transgender student. A third is to educate the parent community about transgender children and teenagers. Read the complete story at EdSource.

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State Senator Urges Undocumented Parents to Sign Kids Up for Health Care

05.16.2016
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By Viji Sundaram, New America Media
Kicking off his statewide tour to promote California’s Health for All Kids program, the new law’s author, State Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County), said undocumented parents should set their fears aside and enroll their children in the program. The legislation would expand the state’s health insurance program for low-income people. “There’s a misconception among immigrants” that asking for government help could land them in trouble, Lara said.  He made this observation during a May 12 media presentation at San Francisco’s Mission Neighborhood Health Center. Read the complete story at New America Media.