San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/2014/12/)
By Vinnee Tong, The California Report
On Friday, undocumented immigrants in California can reclaim a long-lost privilege: the right to stand in line at the DMV. It is the first day that immigrants living in California illegally can apply for a license. That right was recently secured in 2013, when state lawmakers passed AB60. Read the complete story at The California Report.
By Ted Goldberg/KQED News Fix
Michael Picker, appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to become the new president of the California Public Utilities Commission, told KQED he is not concerned about the close ties the agency has had with PG&E. He also said he thinks the large regulatory agency is too focused on the Bay Area. Picker, whose appointment will become effective at the beginning of the new year, said he wants the agency to more aggressively investigate safety violations and evolve into a stronger and faster enforcer of rules governing the state’s energy and transportation industries. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.
By Marissa Ortega-Welch, The California Report/KQED Science
The day after Christmas marks the 10th anniversary of the deadliest tsunami on record. An underwater earthquake measuring 9.1 in magnitude formed waves up to 65 feet high that crashed into the Indian subcontinent. More than 230,000 lives were lost, with the greatest fatalities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. The tragedy was a worldwide wake-up call. It triggered a decade of improvements to tsunami warning and response technology.
By Lisa Pickoff-White, KQED News Fix
With just two days to go until Christmas, local food banks are still looking for donations. Kathy Jackson, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, says that the organization is short of its end-of-year goals by $6 million in monetary donations, 25 percent in dry food donations and 2,015 turkeys. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.
By Katie Brigham, KQED News Fix/The California Report
At 58 years old, Clarence Cook finally has a place of his own to call home. Living on the streets of San Francisco since 1997, the Army veteran has been in and out of jail for more than three decades while battling a heroin addiction. Today, Cook has been clean for six months. Earlier this month, he become one of the first 30 residents to move into 250 Kearny — a single-room-occupancy property on the edge of San Francisco’s Financial District that has been newly renovated to house 130 homeless veterans. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix/The California Report.
Part of a special report on homelessness and mental health in San Francisco in the fall 2014 print edition.
It started as the summer weather descended on the Mission District: Shabby tents popped up in clusters of three or four along residential streets at dusk. » Read more
By Katrina Schwartz, The California Report/State of Health
California’s network of 230 school-based health clinics are set to incubate a new education program meant to address the environmental factors that trigger asthma attacks. The Environmental Protection Agency awarded a $600,000 grant to the Oakland-based Public Health Institute’s Regional Asthma Management & Prevention program. The program is now set to design a training program for the state’s school-based clinic staff on how to prevent and manage environmental asthma triggers in school, at home and in the community. Asthma affects 900,000 children in California and 7 million children nationwide. The disease causes airways in the lungs to swell and narrow.
By Liza Veale, KALW Crosscurrents
Earlier this fall, San Francisco Muni buses displayed an ad that may have upset you. Or angered you. Or made you feel threatened. The Muni ad was part of an anti-Islam campaign calling itself the American Freedom Defense Initiative. It was not the first time the campaign’s ads ran on Muni buses, and it probably will not be the last.
By Jane Meredith Adams, EdSource/The California Report
California’s enthusiasm for healthy school lunches appears unlikely to change under a congressional budget bill headed to President Barack Obama for signature that would allow states to weaken new federal school nutrition requirements. The changes to the regulations for the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 — part of a $1.1 trillion budget agreement passed on Saturday — are the latest in a heated conflict over the new National School Lunch Program menus, which call for increased servings of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and reductions in fats and sodium. Read the complete story at EdSource/The California Report.
By Dan Brekke, The California Report
It’s raining again, and if you believe weather forecasters and the computer models on which they rely, we’re in for wet weather for most of this week. That comes on top of an outlandish volume of water that fell across the state last week, variously computed as between 17 million and 100 million gallons per square mile to 10 trillion gallons statewide. Read the complete story at The California Report.