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San Francisco officials concerned about possible Census undercount

As the U.S. Census Bureau gears up for the 2010 count, it has made a significant change in how it engages immigrants — this is causing some city officials concern that San Francisco may lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, which in turn may lead to distorted electoral representation. » Read more

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SF supes skirt law in restoring funds to service providers

 Amid intense lobbying to restore social-service funding to this year’s budget, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors earmarked $1 million for specific organizations, flouting the city charter.
The law, however, requires budget and “add-back” funds be directed to city departments, which can then disburse monies to nonprofit contractors. » Read more

Public Presser breaks news on excessive overtime pay to city firefighters

On July 15, Kevin Stark of The Public Press, as part of the community-funded City Budget Watchdog series, reported exclusively that the San Francisco Fire Department was the only major city division whose overtime pay grew in the past year — to the tune of $26.4 million in fiscal year 2008-09, an increase of 14 percent. This startling finding was reported in light of the city dealing with a $438 million deficit. Nearly a month later — on Aug. 12 — the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner both had prominent front-page stories, following Stark’s findings of excessive overtime pay to city firefighters. The Chronicle article reported that 89 city workers made more than $30,000 each in overtime pay during the first six months of 2009 — and that firefighters collected the most.

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Gascon lists long-term goals, need for SFPD reform

Flanked by his command staff in the Hall of Justice hearing room, new San Francisco police Chief George Gascon addressed the media Tuesday morning on his long-term goals for the department — to take a hard-hitting stance against organized crime, to address the city’s diversity issues and to implement a plan to fix outdated policing facilities and strengthen the department’s current operational structure. » Read more

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Third streetcar accident in a month snarls Market St.

A streetcar on Market Street struck a woman Tuesday afternoon, marking the third significant Muni accident in less than a month.
The woman, whose injuries were not life-threatening, was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, said Judson True, spokesman for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. » Read more

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Twitter silenced in attack; other social networking sites hit

Thursday morning saw a shockingly successful denial-of-service attack on social networking sites Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal.
Twitter was down for several hours, while Facebook and LiveJournal users encountered errors, slow service and other problems. 
In a denial-of-service attack, an attacker tries to prevent an internet site or service from functioning efficiently, thus denying access of information or services to legitimate users. » Read more