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Bay Area Food Banks Brace for ‘Worrisome’ Cut to Food Stamps

By Mark Andrew Boyer, KQED News Fix
Bay Area food banks struggled throughout the Great Recession and its aftermath to feed the region’s poor and hungry. Now they are facing a new challenge: a new federal farm bill, passed by the House on this week and now awaiting a Senate vote, that will cut food-stamp funding by billions of dollars over the next decade. Paul Ash, executive director of the SF-Marin Food Bank, says the cuts will likely force people to seek meals at local food pantries and soup kitchens supplied by the food banks. “This is going to stretch every food bank in the state. It is all going to come down to our resources, and how many more people come to our food pantries,” he said. 
Kathy Jackson, chief of Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, echoed those concerns.

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A Botanist, a Bay Area Island and a Big Surprise

By Alessandra Bergamin, Bay Nature 
For Mike Wood, 1995 was the year of discovery. That was the year the U.S. Navy found him, a well-traveled botanist with a penchant for history, and commissioned him to undertake a rare plant survey of Yerba Buena Island as the Navy prepared to withdraw from the base. For the Navy, the rare plant survey was one part of a required, environmental impact review that would primarily be used to assess any groundwater or soil contamination from hazardous materials. But that original survey has since been adapted and used in the planning process for the redevelopment of Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island. Like thousands of other Bay Area residents, Wood had driven through the five-lane Yerba Buena tunnel countless times.

Front page of San Francisco Public Press Winter 2014 edition, Issue No. 13

Issue No. 13 is here!

Special Report: Public School Inequality
Parent fundraising for elementary education in San Francisco public schools has skyrocketed 800 percent in the past 10 years. This largesse has saved classroom programs and teaching positions at schools with strong PTAs. But it has also widened the gap between rich and poor, showing how schools chiefly serving students from low-income families suffered more from state budget cuts. The Winter 2014 edition of the newspaper, Issue No. 13, is available at these retail outlets ($1) and by mail order ($4).

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Hetch Hetchy’s S.F., Peninsula Customers Are Asked to Cut Water Use by 10 Percent

By Dan Brekke, KQED News Fix 
San Francisco officials are issuing a request for all customers of the Hetch Hetchy water system — that’s everyone in the city, plus roughly 1.8 million customers in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties — to reduce water use by 10 percent, effective this Friday. Tyrone Jue, a spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, said the agency is asking only for a 10 percent reduction, rather than a 20 percent voluntary cut requested by Gov. Jerry Brown, because the water district’s customers are already “very conscious about their water use.”
The agency says San Francisco’s water use is about 88 gallons per capita per day — less than half of the statewide average of 197, according to the agency. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.  

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Rewriting 24th Street: Will Bookstore Alley Survive?

By Erica Hellerstein, Mission Local
On an uncharacteristically warm Saturday afternoon in the Mission, 24th street bustled with activity. To a steady tune of traffic and cumbia, pedestrians weaved up and down the sidewalk, popping into hip cafes, old-school panaderias and a growing number of independent bookstores on what is becoming known as “Bookstore Alley.”
In the past several years, four bookstores have opened within a small-block radius: Adobe Books, Alley Cat Books, Press: Works on Paper and Modern Times Bookstore Collective. Although each store has its own character and clientele, it remains to be seen if the four newcomers can survive. “It’s interesting because a lot of people are now thinking of 24th as a bookstore row,’’ said Ashton Di Vito, a collective member at Modern Times Bookstore, which is having a difficult time. “This is a really good city for bookstores, a very literary city.”

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Audio Interview: Board Game Teaches California’s Cap-and-Trade Climate Program

Public Press reporter Chorel Centers sat down with editor Michael Stoll and illustrator Anna Vignet to discuss the creation of a board game that allows teaches players how California’s year-old cap-and-trade greenhouse gas pollution control program works. It’s part of a trend of “gamification” of the news, using interactive formats to engage audiences and teach complex policy issues. » Read more

Issue 13, Winter 2014

Issue 13: Summer 2014

Reporters examined tax records from PTAs and data from the city’s public schools. While fundraising helped a small number of elementary schools avoid the worst effects of recent budget cuts, belts continued to tighten at schools with more economically disadvantaged students. » Read more