City Hall
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Pensions, infrastructure and public health trimmed in 3rd year of San Francisco deficits

08.31.2011
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Police and firefighter unions will pay more out of pocket toward their pensions. Disease prevention programs and street beautification will be scaled back. At least $37 million in capital projects will be added to a growing deferred maintenance backlog.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts approved in July forestalled a fiscal day of reckoning for San Francisco, a city that for three years has, like hundreds of local governments across the country, struggled to stay solvent in response to a fluctuating tax base and rising labor costs. » Read more

City Hall
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An appreciation: Eric Quezada, 1965-2011, a champion for social and economic justice

08.26.2011
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When Eric Quezada — for decades a community organizer and widely respected leader on housing and economic justice and immigrants’ rights — died Wednesday after a seven-year struggle with cancer, there was an immediate outpouring of grief, love and appreciation from progressive friends and allies across San Francisco and the nation. » Read more

Health

Japan nuclear crisis calls future of atomic energy into question

08.25.2011
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Edited by Anne Shisko & Ambika Kandasamy
World Affairs Council panelists say U.S. facing big demand for clean source of power
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, caused by the magnitude 8.9 earthquake and tsunami, has opened a dialogue about nuclear energy policy and safety of reactors in the U.S. » Read more

From the Newsroom

Once Magazine, an iPad photojournalism app, launches in San Francisco

08.24.2011
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There are promising media startups all over the Bay Area, and one experiment in high-quality photography is based in San Francisco and launches today. It’s an iPad app called Once Magazine, and it’s founded by our very own Jackson Solway, who designed the first print edition of the Public Press last year and also directed photography for local publisher McSweeney’s on its 2009 San Francisco Panorama newspaper project. Solway has been slaving away with a handful of ultrabright colleagues in the company’s sparse Dogpatch headquarters focused on creating what they say is a first — an app for the iPad that takes photojournalism to a new level by giving it the attention and design sensibility it deserves. There are many undereployed but brilliantly talented photographers out there with too few paying outlets. Once Magazine is unique in that it relies mostly on app sales through iTunes, so you know it will be very attentive to the response it gets from its audience.

Bay Area
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Safe Harbor

08.23.2011
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Welcoming porpoises back to San Francisco Bay
Cavallo Point at Fort Baker is not just a place to watch sailboats go by as the morning sun illuminates the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s also a great place to watch the water surge in and out with the tides. » Read more

Aging
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Facing cuts, nonprofits forced to lobby City Hall to save immigration program

08.17.2011
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Year after year, private organizations strategize and line up clients to push for last-minute ‘add-backs’
For clients at Self-Help for the Elderly, the citizenship classes taught by volunteer instructor Joanne Lee are a perfect fit: Classes are held at a convenient Chinatown location, senior clientele are easily accommodated and the material is taught in both English and Chinese. » Read more

From the Newsroom

SF Public Press partners with KQED Public Broadcasting on Networked Journalism project

08.15.2011
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KQED Public Media is partnering with the San Francisco Public Press and three other Bay Area nonprofit news organizations to share news stories on the radio and online. The project, called “Networked Journalism,” is an initiative incubated by J Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. We are thrilled that KQED, the largest public broadcaster in the region, is reaching out to startup news organizations such as the Public Press that are expanding the definition of public media. We have gotten coverage of this partnership and congratulations from all across the country, including Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard and the magazine of the public broadcasting industry, Current. We think this will help position the Public Press as a leader in public media locally as we seek funding, public attention and future collaborations.

City Hall

Millions in savings unclaimed; after audits, Muni revealed $20 million excess overtime

08.15.2011
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UPDATE 8/19/11: Hear reporter Angela Hart discuss her story with KQED News, a Public Press reporting partner (fast-forward to second item)
San Francisco could have saved at least $33.5 million over the last two years’ budgets if departments, commissions and contractors had acted on advice from regular audits pointing out government waste and inefficiencies. » Read more