News
sonjatrauss.jpg

Meet the Most Committed Candidates You’ve Never Heard of

10.31.2012
|
By

By Lilah Crews-Pless, KALW News
If you’ve got a mailbox, chances are that at this point in the election season, it’s stuffed with campaign literature. You might be so sick of it that you’re considering writing in your own candidate on Election Day. It’s a whimsical way to show dissatisfaction with the candidates who are running. “I always thought you could write in Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, whoever you wanted, and the poor folks down at the Department of Elections would dutifully copy that name down,” says Bud Ryerson, one of several real write-in candidates running this election. “Turns out that’s not the case, at least not in San Francisco.”
Ryerson is in his 50s with rectangular glasses, longish gray hair and a warm smile.

Arts & Culture
20121024_ccartclass_aww_042.jpg

Budget Woes Threaten Free Lifelong Learning Classes at City College

10.31.2012
|
By

It’s a busy Wednesday morning at the Mission Creek senior center, as arts and crafts students huddled around tables covered with artificial feathers, paints, stencils and glue are assembling Halloween masks.
Vera Whelan, a diminutive 87-year-old, is hard at work on a white mask with pink and blue feathers on the pointed corners, and painted floral silhouettes. » Read more

From the Newsroom

Annual Open Board Meeting

10.31.2012
|
By

Annual Open Board Meeting
Join us this Saturday for our annual open board meeting. Our executive director, publisher and other board members will present reports on current operations and future plans. There will be time for public comment and discussion. We will provide coffee, tea and snacks. When: 10:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Nov.

News

Fall membership drive – LAST DAY!

10.31.2012
|
By

This is it. It’s the last day of our fall membership drive, and your last chance to help us reach our goal of adding 25 members, and to own one of these reusable shopping totes with our logo. We’re still just a few members shy of meeting our goal. We hope you will help us make it happen. 
As you know, we are modeled on, among other things, public broadcasting. Our funding model depends on the support of our readers to keep producing 100 percent ad-free journalism. Our independence from commercial funding allows us to cover stories that see the city and the Bay Area from the viewpoint of average people, and to cover stories and communities that traditionally receive little attention from the press. But we can’t do it alone.

News

Two days left of our membership drive!

10.30.2012
|
By

We’re in the final stretch of our fall membership drive, which runs through Wednesday, Oct. 31. We’d like to give a big THANK YOU to our newest members and renewers — your support is greatly appreciated. With just two days left, we are six members away from reaching our goal of adding 25 members during the fall drive. Time is running out.

Elections
7957555240_ec6c43a7ca_c.jpg

Food Prices at Center of Debate Over GMO Labeling in Prop 37

10.29.2012
|
By

Proposition 37, the state ballot measure requiring labels on genetically modified food, has revived a long-simmering debate about whether genetically modified food harms human health or the environment.
But it’s the claim by opponents of the measure, including large manufacturers and agribusinesses, that food prices would skyrocket if the proposition passes that is riling proponents, mostly environmentalists, public health groups and farmers. » Read more

News
treasure_island_4.jpg

Treasure Island Sites Called Safe From Radiation

10.25.2012
|
By

By Katharine  Mieszkowski and Matt Smith, Bay Citizen
State health officials have declared day care and youth centers, ballfields, some residential backyards and other sites on Treasure Island safe from radiation in response to fears about the area’s nuclear past. The surveys taken from 24 publically accessible locations were not part of the Navy’s scheduled cleanup program, but were prompted by public concern about exposure to radioactivity on the former Treasure Island Naval Station. Health department technicians found negligible levels of radiation posing no health threat at those locations, according to California Department of Public Health reports produced in response to a Bay Citizen public records request. But that doesn’t mean the former base is ready for a proposed 20,000-resident community approved this year by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. At cordoned off areas around the island, the cleanup of contamination continues in and around areas slated for future construction.

News
timthumb.jpeg

Ballot Battle Ignites Over S.F. Parks Funding

10.24.2012
|
By

By Heather Mack, Bay Nature
It would seem to be a no-brainer in eco-minded San Francisco that a $195 million bond to spruce up city parks would get a thumbs up on election day —  which is why it’s surprising that environmentalists and some neighborhood groups are adamantly against the measure. The Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond, or Proposition B, is supposed to improve the safety and quality of 200 city parks and playgrounds, enhance water quality, replant trees, and clean up environmental contamination along the waterfront. But while everyone can agree that the improvements are badly needed,  vocal opposition says what the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department really could use is an operational overhaul, rather than an influx of cash. A growing public distrust of the parks department is at the heart of the opposition. Read the complete story at Bay Nature.

News

Climate Change: Mortgaging the Future

10.22.2012
|
By

In the development rush of the 1960s, 40 percent of the San Francisco Bay was filled in. One result was Foster City, built completely on wetlands and sitting at sea level. But rising seas, higher waves and storm surges, brought on by climate change, threaten the levees in front of this city. T. Jack Foster Junior, who built this town, paints a rosier picture of the area’s future. This story is part of a media series called RISE: Climate Change and Coastal Communities by Claire Schoen Media. To see videos of all the stories in the RISE series, please visit: www.searise.org/webstories.