A kiosk distributes a William Shakespeare poem at a BART station in the San Francisco Bay Area. Maria Avila/BART hide caption

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Maria Avila/BART

A kiosk distributes a William Shakespeare poem at a BART station in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Maria Avila/BART

Do you ever get to the train station and realize you forgot to bring something to read? Yes, we all have our phones, but many of us still like to go old school and read something printed.

Well, there’s a kiosk for that. In the San Francisco Bay Area, at least.

“You enter the fare gates and you’ll see a kiosk that is lit up and it tells you can get a one minute, a three minute, or a five minute story,” says Alicia Trost, the chief communications officer for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit – known as BART. “You hover your hand over which length you want and it dispenses a long receipt like short story.”

It’s that simple. Riders have printed nearly 20,000 short stories and poems since the program was launched last March.

Some are classic short stories, and some are new original works, like Rainbows by Erica Johnson.

“[W]e always had this place, our place, our home. Away from the prejudice and the preachers,” Johnson writes. “Away from those who saw our relationship as wrong. Just you, me, and the beach with water as far as the eye could see.”

Trost also wants to introduce local writers to local riders.

“We wanted to do something where we do a call to artists in the Bay Area to submit stories for a contest,” Trost says. “And as of right now, we’ve received about 120 submissions. The winning stories would go into our dispensers and then you would be a published artist and BART helped make you be a published artist and I love that.”

Ridership on transit systems across the country have been down the past half century, so could short stories save transit?

Consolation thinks so.

“At the end of the day all transit agencies right now are doing everything they can to improve the rider experience. So I absolutely think we will get more riders just because of short stories,” she says.

And you’ll never be without something to read.

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Patient Responses May Influence Services and Funding; Help Experts Understand Causes, Treatment, Prevention

By Suzanne Leigh

Kim Rhoads, MD, MPH (left) and Carina Marquez, MD, will co-lead community engagement for the Let’s Figure Out Long COVID – Tell Us Your Story, Bay Area study.

UC San Francisco, San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) and San Mateo County Health (SMC Health) are partnering with local community groups in a quest to learn about long COVID. To achieve this, researchers from the project, Let’s Figure Out Long COVID – Tell Us Your Story, Bay Area, will be calling local residents of all ethnicities and backgrounds who previously had COVID.

Long COVID, also known as post-acute sequelae of SARS-COv-2 (PASC), refers to both physical and mental health symptoms that last long after an initial infection. Those symptoms may start during infection and never go away or may appear weeks or months afterwards. Common complaints include fatigue, shortness of breath, pain, problems with concentration, depression and anxiety.

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Project Phase I

Researchers will call at least 1,000 San Francisco and San Mateo adult residents who had COVID at least three months ago.

Project Phase II

Some previous interviewees will be asked to join a more detailed research study called RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) that will last three to four years. Study participants will be compensated for their time.

The goals of the project are to learn how common long COVID is in the community – information that is critical in impacting funding for local health departments and services for those debilitated by the condition – as well as to learn what causes it, and how to prevent and treat it.

In Phase I of the project, researchers will call San Francisco and San Mateo County adult residents who had COVID at least three months ago. Whether they have fully recovered or still have symptoms, their experiences will inform researchers about the frequency of long COVID. All ethnic groups and neighborhoods will be represented, and researchers are especially interested in hearing from Black/African American, Latino, Pacific Islander and Native American communities who have experienced higher rates of infections, hospitalizations and deaths than other groups.

In Phase II, some people who were previously interviewed will be asked to join a more detailed research study sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health. This study, called RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery), will last three to four years. Study participants will be compensated for their time.

COVID Has Had ‘Devastating Impact’ on Marginalized Communities

“Aside from the devastating impact COVID has had on societally marginalized communities, we have no idea what the long-term consequences will be,” said Kim Rhoads, MD, MPH, from the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and the study’s community engagement co lead.

“The project will help us get a better handle on how many people are affected by long COVID, and how we might intervene to reduce the additional burden the disease will likely place on communities of color,” added Rhoads, who is also the founder of Umoja Health Partners, which unites local organizations combatting COVID-19 in Black communities, as well as the director of the Office of Community Engagement at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“Ensuring representation and equity in the community is fundamental to this study,” says Carina Marquez, pictured here (center right) at a COVID testing event in San Francisco’s Mission District. Image by Susan Merrell

“We know that communities have concerns about the effects of long COVID, and we still have a lot to learn about this condition,” said Susan Philip, MD, San Francisco’s Health Officer. “This is why it is vital that we make progress in studying long COVID in communities of color that have been most impacted by COVID-19. We need to know how we can best treat it, to inform how we can provide a targeted public health approach toward supporting communities where it is needed most,” she said.

“The partnership with UCSF and SFDPH will enable us to enhance “our capacity to understand the long-term effects of COVID,” said Curtis Chan, MD, San Mateo County’s deputy health officer. “This will help us prevent and treat long COVID, and strengthen our county’s analysis of other health inequities in the future,” he said.

“Through our patient care and work in the community, we have seen firsthand the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on Latino and Black communities in the Bay Area,” said Carina Marquez, MD, of the UCSF Department of Medicine and the study’s community engagement co-lead. “Ensuring representation and equity in the community is fundamental to this study.”

Minority Populations ‘Need to Have Their Stories Heard’

Community organizations will assist in ensuring that input from the community accurately reflects those ethnic groups and neighborhoods where COVID-19 has been most prevalent.

“Black, Latinx and Pacific Islander communities in San Mateo County need to have their stories heard about the impact of long COVID. Many are suffering in silence,” said Lisa Tealer, executive director of the Bay Area Community Health Advisory Council, who is working with the San Francisco Latino Task Force and Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates in its outreach efforts. Valerie Tulier-Laiwa, executive committee member of the San Francisco Latino Task Force, said she would welcome the results of the study, “so we can continue to improve health outcomes for communities of color heavily impacted by COVID-19.”

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Christmas in San Francisco is known for ice skating in Union Square, drunk Santas crawling down Polk Street and a very weird Christmas tree. Historically the day has brought with it some even stranger news. We dug into the archives to find the Christmas Day stories that could maybe only happen here.

By the time Christmas rolled around in 1967, hippies were a thing, nowhere more so than in San Francisco. Headline writers took aim at the longhairs and used “hippie” liberally and usually pejoratively. When Berkeley student Orville Jeffers was found to have stolen a tiger from San Francisco Zoo, he was deemed a hippie tiger kidnapper, despite Jeffers not looking particularly groovy in his mug shot.

Jeffers’ motive for breaking into the zoo with three friends and a hacksaw one night to steal Jimmie the cat? “I went to the zoo, and saw Jimmie and fell in love with him. I had to have him.” Sadly, the story did not end in the spirit of free love. After running out of money in LA a few weeks later, Jeffers sold the hot cat to a pet store, which turned it in to authorities. Jeffers was charged with catnapping and Jimmie returned to San Francisco Zoo, only to die a week later from choking on a piece of meat.

The San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 26, 1967.

San Francisco Examiner / Archival

‘Television Ghosts Blamed On Reflections From Fog’

On Christmas Day 1955, San Franciscans apparently had some concerns about ghosts living in their television sets. The Examiner was happy to put folks’ fears to rest with news that the specters were in fact caused by San Francisco’s fog bouncing beams around the city and into people’s homes. While it’s easy to mock the worried viewers, at the time, TVs were still relatively new technology in homes, and the concern doesn’t seem much more irrational than the fear that microwaves cause cancer (they don’t) or that 5G technology is giving you COVID (it’s not).

The San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 26, 1955.

San Francisco Examiner / Archival

‘Slow Old Man’s Scooter Has Fast Cops Reeling’

Bay Bridge highway patrol had to contend with a “little old man” attempting to cross from San Francisco to Oakland on a tiny green scooter that trundled at under 10 mph on Christmas Day 1956.

Three police cars, sirens blaring, chased down the unnamed scofflaw (vehicles with under 5 horsepower are forbidden on the bridge), leading to the man falling off his scooter on the eastern span of the bridge.

He told the police he had bought the scooter as a Christmas gift to himself and was making his way to Oakland for a family Christmas dinner. After giving him the fright of his life, the cops eventually showed some Christmas cheer in not citing the man and helped him get to his destination. But there was no word on how he got the vehicle back to San Francisco.

The San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 26, 1956.

San Francisco Examiner / Archival

‘Beer, Whole Pitcher of It, Saves Flaming Car’

This one isn’t in San Francisco, but made the front page of the Examiner on Boxing Day 1933.

The story, with its Yoda-like headline construction, reveals the heroism of a drunk in LA saving a cop car from a fiery end. Only one quote is attributed to the man who swilled a pitcher of beer on the flames: “Whe’sha fire?

The story calls to mind the Vacaville man caught in the 2020 wildfires who extinguished a fire in his home with Bud Light.

The San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 26, 1933.

San Francisco Examiner / Archival

‘Bomb Slays, And Wrecks Hindu Temple’

One of the most tragic, and mysterious, stories from the Christmas archives concerns the 1914 bombing of Vedanta Temple in Cow Hollow. There are conflicting reports exactly how the bombing occurred, but Hindu leader Swami Trigunatita was left dead after a former student walked into the temple during a service with a bomb in a hat box. We dug into the story earlier in the year, and made the argument for why the old temple at 2963 Webster St. may be the most beautiful building in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Examiner front page, Dec. 28, 1914.

San Francisco Examiner

‘Wonderful Town’

We’ll end on this small and delightful Herb Caen column published the day after Christmas in 1956 about nothing in particular, which makes it all the more wonderful. Dated gender stereotypes aside, Caen’s summary of Christmas Day in the city has a proud and poignant heart. It’s not hard to see why Caen’s love letters to the city made him a household name and earned him a Pulitzer Prize. “In the crowded bars, there were no strangers whatever,” the famed columnist wrote. “A cool and joyful day, fading into a warm and wonderful night – starry eyed and aglow with a million lights. May they always burn as brightly, all over the world.”

The San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 26, 1956.

San Francisco Examiner / Archival

The post The strangest San Francisco Christmas Day tales appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

This project challenges city leaders and the entire Bay Area to care more, to do more, and to help build a better Bay Area for our future. We address the problems within the district from the inside out.

Join ABC7 in our commitment to reporting from the Tenderloin. Watch our latest 30-minutes streaming special, “50 Blocks: Stories from the Tenderloin,” in the video player above.

Or by downloading the ABC7 Bay Area App to watch on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple and Android TV.

ABC7 News has covered stories in the Tenderloin ever since the station was founded in 1949, but this recent commitment came about after one particular event.

In December 2021, Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin in response to the city’s drug overdose crisis. The mayor stated more than 700 people died due to drug overdoses in 2021, which at the time was nearly double the city’s COVID-19 death toll.

The ultra-lethal synthetic opioid fentanyl was believed to be responsible for the crisis and the vast majority of all fentanyl sales were happening in the tenderloin.

After this announcement, ABC7 News committed to reporting on how the emergency initiative unfolded, what difference it made, and what happened after the declaration was over.

This is a timeline of our reporting:

December 2021

Dec 17: State of Emergency Declared

When Mayor London Breed declared a State of Emergency in Tenderloin, she explained the keys to her plan would be, “To disrupt the illegal activity in the neighborhood, to get people the treatment and support they need, and to make the Tenderloin a safer, more livable place for the families and children who call the neighborhood home.”

She cited the COVID-19 emergency declaration as a template that allowed them to “cut through the bureaucracy and barriers that get in the way of decisive action, we can get things done and make real, tangible progress.”

One of the key pieces of her plan was the opening of a linkage center, which would connect Tenderloin residents with basic health and human services quickly and easily, including behavior health care, substance abuse treatment, and housing assistance.

ABC7 examined the mayor’s plan to figure out how it would work to make the city safer for residents, visitors.

Jan 2022

Jan 18: Tenderloin Linkage Center Opens

Officials said once fully staffed, the center on Market Street would be able to serve up to 100 guests at a time, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“I am optimistic that the new Linkage Center will provide new and useful services for Tenderloin residents who are battling mental illness and drug addiction,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “I am also watching its success closely to see if it could be converted into a Citywide resource as the permanent site of the upcoming Mental Health SF Service Center.”

Mayor Breed appeared on ABC7’s Getting Answers show to talk about the center.

February 2022

As the mayor’s plan began to actually happen, ABC7 News started actively reporting in the tenderloin to see how it was going. We walked through the streets with the captain of the Tenderloin station as he explained why 85% of SF’s drug arrests happen in this district.

ABC7 News also talked to a Tenderloin historian about how its rich history sheds light on its current role as a containment zone for vice.

Feb 8: Drug Addicts’ Families Protest Linkage Center

Not everyone was in favor of the new Linkage Center. A group of mothers staged a protest at the center because it has a safe injection site. That’s a place where drug users can take drugs while being monitored by a staff member so they do not overdose. The Department of Public Health said the staff has already reversed an average of three overdoses a week since the site opened. But the protestors say the site may only be making the crisis worse.

“You have to quit enabling them,” one demonstrator exclaimed. “Giving them everything they need. Why would I ever leave?”

Feb 23: Nonprofit Worker Shot In Broad Daylight

At the end of the month, a city ambassador from the nonprofit Urban Alchemy was shot, prompting residents to plead for more help saying, “It’s the Tenderloin. Nobody feels safe in the Tenderloin.”

Mayor Breed said this to ABC7 News, “We are definitely going to need to step up our presence. Both our wellness teams and our police and a number of other resources in order to ensure safety. Not just for people who are part of Urban Alchemy , but the entire community.”

Concerns later surfaced that the nonprofit, that received millions from the city to hire ambassadors, might be exploiting a loophole that exempts charitable organizations from having employees receive standardized security training. ABC7 News talked with our colleagues at the San Francisco Standard about this claim.

March 2022

Part of the mayor’s plan was to make the tenderloin a safer and more livable space. One key to that goal was to literally make the streets cleaner. ABC7 News went along as cleaning teams went out to work on cleaning up the Tenderloin’s streets.

“It’s daunting to be honest, because we can clean the street and 10 minutes later it looks like we have never been there.”

ABC7 also followed along with one family to see how they viewed the effort. Jacques Bidjima walks his two children to school in the Tenderloin everyday. They have two routes available. One could be described as bad, the other as awful.

“I start hating myself,” he said. “How can I have my kids growing up in an environment like this? I don’t have much choice.”

March 16: Mayor Breed Ends Emergency Declaration

Ninety days after the State of Emergency was declared, it came up for review. Mayor Breed announced she would allow it to expire and said the Tenderloin’s emergency declaration improved conditions, but still had a long road ahead. The city reported that 345 people were placed in shelters with another 154 going to permanent supportive housing.

The city agrees changing the persistent culture there will take more than 90 days and says the Linkage Center will continue to operate through June, but now under the direction of the public health department.

April 2022

April 4: Linkage Center Protests Escalate

The same group that protested the Linkage Center’s safe injection site escalated their protest by purchasing a billboard in Union Square calling out open drug use. The billboard read, “Famous for the world over for our brains, beauty and now dirt-cheap fentanyl.”

Organizers say they put the billboard up in response to the Mayor ending the emergency declaration and then heading to Europe to pitch San Francisco as a tourist destination.

“And we’re like, wait a minute, it’s not changed,” one organizer said. “We should still be in a state of emergency. And then she went to Europe and said, ‘Come to San Francisco. It’s fine.’ Um, no, it’s not fine. It’s really not.”

April 29: Another Urban Alchemy ambassador shot

The shooting happened in broad daylight and police said a search for the suspect was underway.

June 2022

June 16: City Announces Tenderloin Linkage Center Will Close In December

While the center got a 6-month extension to operate until the end of 2022, Mayor London Breed declined to fund the center in her latest budget proposal. A spokesperson for the mayor said the Linkage Center was only meant to be a temporary solution until they could develop longer term plans for the tenderloin.

June 23: City Announces Opening Of First Sobering Center

The center named SoMa RISE was described as , “a safe indoor space for people who are intoxicated… to come in off the streets, rest and stabilize, and get connected to care and services.”

They also said it would service the Tenderloin neighborhood by helping fill some of the void left by the Linkage Center.

So Where Does That Leave The Tenderloin Now?

ABC7 News is trying to answer that in our latest 30-minute streaming special, ”50 Blocks: Stories from the Tenderloin.”

You can stream the full documentary by downloading the ABC7 Bay Area App to watch on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple and Android TV or by watching it in the video player on this story.

Click here to see more ABC7 Originals content.

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

The post 50 Blocks: Tales from San Francisco’s Tenderloin District appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

There’s no escaping the tech industry when you live in San Francisco, but ever since the beginning of the pandemic, it can feel as if the tech industry itself is trying to escape the city by the bay.

The theme of the past couple of years in Silicon Valley has largely been one of exodus, which continued this year with companies like Slack and Robinhood pivoting to remote work policies. The familiar perks that come with those offices are also slowly being put into question, with Meta doing away with laundry service and the architect behind Google’s campus speaking out about the dangers of its all-inclusive nature.

Crypto has also dominated news cycles, from startups utilizing the technology for novel uses like air monitoring to local companies running confounding Super Bowl ads. Streaming services have become obsessed with startup horror stories. CEOs have not exactly been on their best behavior, major computing companies have been defeated by hackers and perhaps most notably, Elon Musk has leveled up from Twitter troll to Twitter king.

Here are all of SFGATE’s best tech stories of 2022 so far, which we’ll be updating throughout the year.

Elon Musk talks Twitter takeover in extended interview at TED2022 Vancouver

“In a 45-minute interview at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver, Elon Musk had a lot to say.

“Whereas the mercurial tech entrepreneur most often speaks in short tweets, today he spoke with TED host Chris Anderson about everything from sleeping on the floor of the Fremont Tesla factory to how he hopes to save democracy with a hostile takeover of Twitter.” — Dan Gentile, read more

San Francisco VC firm required job applicants to take online IQ test

“The owner of a San Francisco-based venture capital firm apologized after his company faced a social media backlash for requiring job applicants to take an online IQ test.

“Aneel Ranadive, the founder of Soma Capital and the son of Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, posted the mea culpa on Twitter after screenshots of a Soma job application with the IQ test requirement circulated online.” — Joshua Bote, read more

Major Silicon Valley chip manufacturer Nvidia hit by ‘malicious’ cyber attack

“A major Silicon Valley microchip manufacturer has been hit by a cyber attack which one insider told the Telegraph, which first broke the news, ‘completely compromised’ the tech firm’s internal systems.

“Nvidia, headquartered in Santa Clara, was first affected Wednesday, when its email system and developer resources went down following what the Telegraph reported to be a malicious network intrusion.

“Since then, it appears that parts of Nvidia’s email system has returned, the Telegraph reported, but the company has yet to reveal any specifics about the cyber attack. It is unclear if any customers are affected.” — Joshua Bote, read more

No bar in San Francisco has a Mark Zuckerberg anecdote as good as Phone Booth’s

“The list of famous people who have [been to Phone Booth] is long and eclectic. I mean sure, we all expect John Waters to have drank at the Phone Booth (he’s done so twice), but so have Chloe Sevigny, Michael Fassbender, Spike Jonze, Michael Stipe, Andy Samberg, Hope Sandoval and many more.

“’So, Mark Zuckerberg has been here,’ [the owner] Steve tells me during my third drink, ‘which was a fiasco.’” — Stuart Schuffman, read more

Better.com CEO Vishal Garg to be reinstated after mass Zoom layoff controversy

“Vishal Garg, the contentious founder of the digital mortgage lending service Better.com, has been reinstated as CEO following his brutal mass layoff of about 900 employees right before the holidays last year via Zoom.

“In a letter sent to employees Tuesday evening obtained by SFGATE, Garg confirmed his return ‘to work full-time at Better’ and apologized to staff for his indiscretion.” — Joshua Bote, read more

Googleplex, the corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc.

SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Major Bay Area-based tech company calls employees back to office

“Google told employees Wednesday that its voluntary-work-from-home period, which has been in place for two years ago, will end April 4, a company spokesperson told SFGATE.

“Employees in the San Francisco Bay Area and some of its other offices in the US, UK and Asia Pacific will be required to come to work in person three times a week. Employees can have two days of remote work.

“’We plan to use the month of March to help employees transition to their new routines and then aim to be fully functional in our hybrid working approach by April 4,’ Google said.” — Amy Graff, read more

Meta employee upset as Facebook parent company ends laundry perk

“An engineer for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, with a self-reported total compensation — or TC, which includes salary, stock options and other benefits — of $850,000 took to the anonymous job forum blindly to complain about the perks, or lack thereof, that awaited their return to the office.

“Aside from complaints about restrictions on free dinners, downturns in the market leading to a $200,000 reduction in his TC and cut ‘childcare reimbursements,’ the poster lamented the loss of laundry services provided by Meta.” — Joshua Bote, read more

The man behind Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters says fancy tech offices are ‘dangerous’

“Celebrated architect Clive Wilkinson, in an interview with NPR, decried the pervasiveness of the all-inclusive tech office — despite having helped build Googleplex, arguably the definitive tech campus.

“He argues that workers offering everything they need in a singular site blurs the line between work and non-work, a line that has been obliterated during the course of the pandemic. It also encourages creativity.

“’Work-life balance cannot be achieved by spending all your life on a work campus,’ Wilkinson told NPR. ‘It’s not real. It’s not really engaging with the world in the way most people do.’” — Joshua Bote, read more

A view inside Bandcamp’s Oakland headquarters.

bandcamp

Epic Games acquires Oakland-based Bandcamp and music fans are quite worried

“The Oakland-based company [Bandcamp], which also operated a physical record shop and performance space on Broadway pre-pandemic, has one of the few artist-friendly distribution models in the industry. Although you can stream tracks for free, the site tries to steer the listener toward purchasing music, either digitally or as physical media, with an average of 82% of the net revenue going directly to artists.

“So the music industry internet let out a collective gasp when it was announced Wednesday morning that Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, Gears of War and Unreal, has acquired Bandcamp. The deal was announced by Bandcamp CEO and co-founder Ethan Diamond in a blog post that was short on details but stressed a shared vision with Epic of building ‘the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world.’” — Dan Gentile, read more

Slack to sublease 200,000 square feet of office space in move to ‘digital-first’ work

“The corporate messaging platform service Slack is no longer the holder of one of the largest office space leases in San Francisco, reported the San Francisco Business Times on Wednesday.

“The tech company is subleasing its space on 45 Fremont St., which spans more than 200,000 square feet, just three years after it moved into the space around the time of its IPO. The San Francisco Business Times ranked the lease the fifth largest of 2019.

“Its main headquarters are still open.” — Joshua Bote, read more

Controversial Silicon Valley company Robinhood to allow nearly all employees to work remotely

“Another Silicon Valley tech company is joining the ranks of Dropbox and Adobe in pivoting almost entirely into remote work.

“Robinhood, the Menlo Park-based stock management app most notorious for its place in the GameStop short selling frenzy of last year, announced Wednesday in a blog post that it would ‘be staying primarily remote’ going forward.

“‘Our teams have done amazing work and built a strong workplace community during these uncertain and challenging times, and we’re excited to continue to offer them the flexibility they’ve asked for by staying primarily remote,’ the company said.” — Joshua Bote, read more

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Travis Kalanick in “Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber.”

Photo Illustration: SFGATE / Elizabeth Morris / Showtime

Showtime’s Uber series ‘Super Pumped’ shows the horrors of Silicon Valley

“Unless you’ve been living under a yellow-checkered rock lined with cracked black vinyl and a credit card machine that mysteriously doesn’t work, you’ve likely heard of Uber.

“The ride-hailing company that disrupted the taxi industry has become a household name. Its rise and many falls was recounted in a 594 page best-seller by New York Times journalist (and San Francisco resident) Mike Isaac, which lends its title to Showtime’s new startup drama ‘Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber.’” — Dan Gentile, read more

Theranos swag floods eBay following Holmes’ guilty verdict

“At long last, the verdict in Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos trial is in. The infamous Silicon Valley huckster was found guilty of two counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud (she was acquitted on a handful of other charges) and now faces up to 20 years in prison for each count.

“As you can imagine, Twitter was ablaze with its typical deluge of hot takes and observations, but it wasn’t the only over-active corner of the internet following the trial verdict.

“Over on eBay, a microeconomy of Theranos-branded swag exploded in the wake of the jury’s announcement (special shout out to Washington Post tech culture reporter Nitasha Tiku for tipping the trend on Twitter).” — Brian Boyle, read more

Salesforce opens ranch in the California redwoods for employees to connect in person

“As the COVID-19 pandemic finally wanes, Salesforce is luring its employees away from Zoom and back to in-person meetings with an alluring ‘workspace’: a tranquil resort-like ranch with an infinity-edge hot tub and guided nature walks in the California redwoods.

“The San Francisco-based cloud computing pioneer announced Thursday that employees will begin to visit the new Trailblazer Ranch in Scotts Valley in March for onboarding, training, skills building, talent development and generally to connect with colleagues in person.” — Amy Graff, read more

Apple joins other Bay Area tech giants in responding to Russian invasion of Ukraine

“Across the globe, national governments and corporations have made sharp rebukes of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. In the Bay Area, tech companies have also taken measures to sanction Russia and ensure their platforms aren’t being used as strategic tools of war. Here’s how each of these major companies has responded.” — Dan Gentile, read more

Here’s what happened if you scanned the QR code in Coinbase’s strange Super Bowl commercial

“Every Super Bowl is defined by its commercials, and this year, one of the clips that had everyone talking was predictably related to cryptocurrency exchange.

“Coinbase’s 60-second spot was simple. A colour-changing QR code bounced around the black screen like a DVD screensaver (you know, the ones you’d watch for 15 minutes while you waited for the logo to hit one of the corners of the screen because it was so oddly satisfying? )” — Amanda Bartlett, read more

This startup pays Bay Area residents to monitor their air quality — in crypto

“Every summer as wildfire season approaches, everyone in the Bay Area becomes very aware of the air we breathe. We obsessively refresh websites like PurpleAir to tell whether it’s safe to open windows and compete to buy air filtering systems before they sell out.

“Running an air filter may give peace of mind, but it’s hard to tell whether they’re just scratching a hypochondriac itch. One company, called Planetwatch, aims to help people find out — and earn cryptocurrency in the process.” — Dan Gentile, read more

The post The most important San Francisco tech information tales of 2022 to this point appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

In Spring of 2020 Alison Cook Beatty Dance was booked and ready to present 11 Companies from around the country in Artists In Motion 2020. But when COVID-19 and Broadway shut down, Artists In Motion 2020 was canceled. The Arts community saw performance after performance canceled, theaters shut down, and dance companies and studios folding. Alison stayed in touch with all of the choreographers who were accepted into this shared event and promised that when the time was right she would remount the performance.

Alison wanted to honor the artists chosen to participate in Artists In Motion 2020 so she created Artists In Motion Mini for 2022 with 3 companies based in the NYC area, one night only! Alison intends to still honor the other artists from 2020 in the future.

Alison started Artists In Motion in 2019 at Peridance, honoring her teacher Graciela Kozak. The goal was to have a two-weekend run and bring artists together to support each other. Making a performance venue accessible to all; with professional photography, lighting designers, videographers, and invite reviewers to come to write about the vital work these dance artists were doing. This 2022 performance is supported by many generous individuals and organizations such as Dance NYC, The NY Cultural Development Fund, NYSCA, and most important ticket buyers. Please continue to support live arts!

REGISTRATION

https://alisoncookbeattydance.networkforgood.com/events/38831-artists-in-motion-mini-2022

MARCH 12TH, 2022 8PM

A classically-based modern dance company exploring the universal human condition through expansive and emotionally-driven movement grounded in American modern dance while exploring new approaches to finding unique creative expression. The Company will perform two world premieres. This performance is made possible by support from Dance NYC, The NY Dept of Cultural Affairs, and NYSCA. www.alisoncookbeattydance.org

Ms. Cook-Beatty will present two World Premieres in ARTISTS IN MOTION MINI 2022. About Michael Kerr and DanceKerr & Dancers

Michael Anthony Kerr founded DanceKerr & Dancers (a sponsored artist with Performance Zone Inc. dba The Field) in 2015. Mr. Kerr is pursuing doctoral studies as an Arnhold Fellow Recipient in the Ed.D Dance Education Program at Columbia University, Teachers College. He holds permanent NYS K-12 Teacher Certification in Dance and has been employed with the NYCDOE since 1996. Read more of Michael’s bio on the Company’s website: https://dancekerr.com/

Kerr’s developing repertoire of dances is rooted in modern and contemporary dance techniques that play with the contrast of stillness and great physicality within the realm of dance expressionism. His dances are a by-product of the lived experience translated into DANCE, emulating internal struggles and successes; as well as other unexpected sources of inspiration.

Kerr will present “Salto di Fede” in ARTISTS IN MOTION MINI; “The notion of taking chances in life is experienced by all and is the inspiration for creating Salto di Fede, Italian for a leap of faith. This modern dance quartet celebrates transitory moments when courage, desire, faith, and wisdom commingle, leading us to take a leap of faith into the unknown in pursuit of our dreams.”

Artistic Director / Company Highlight! Artistic Director and choreographer, Brenda R. Neville, for over two decades, has performed and choreographed in over 18 different countries including Argentina, China, Hungary, Japan, Romania, and Spain with companies such as the Milwaukee Ballet, Indianapolis Dance Company, AllNations Dance Company, Marc DeGarmo & Dancers and Covenant Ballet Theater of Brooklyn. To learn more about her and her Company go to https://www.nevilledance.org/about.html

Founded in 2005 by Brenda R. Neville, the Manhattan-based company of 6-12 dancers and guests perform New York City seasons, concerts, festival performances, and touring engagements for audiences of all ages and ethnicities. Founded as a means of opening cross-cultural dialogues between differing dance genres and nationalities, Neville Dance Theater fosters an artistic exchange of styles, outlooks, and attitudes, instilling an appreciation for the beauty, value, and significance of dance as a living art form for today and generations to come.

Neville Dance Theater will perform excerpts from “Children’s Corner” (2017), a Neoclassical ballet in six movements choreographed by Nanako Kitagawa inspired by the frolicking and playful musical score, by the same name, by Claude Debussy in ARTISTS IN MOTION MINI 2022.

Artistic director and choreographer Meagan Ahern is a San Francisco Bay Area native. She graduated with a BFA from SUNY Purchase CoD in May 2019, is a graduate in the Licentiate Royal Academy of Dance program in London, and trained as a certified ballet teacher under the Royal Academy of Dance Syllabus. Since founding MEAGmove in 2019, she has shown work at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, Triskelion Arts, Abrons Art Center, and virtually.

MEAGmove is a project-based company that utilizes the talents of local New York City freelance dancers. The mission of MEAGmove is to foster a great sense of community within rehearsals and performances. They strive to add a new source of networking through connections the dancers make with each other. MEAGmove’s belief is that the key to a successful product on stage starts with good group morals and an understanding of the common vision of what we are trying to achieve throughout the entire process. They study movement ideas based around weight, momentum, and counterbalance to achieve the most honest portrayal of what it means to be a human being. To learn more about Meagan and MEAGmove please visit https://www.meagmove.com/.

Meagan will present “yesterday feels like tomorrow” in ARTISTS IN MOTION MINI; an exploration within the uncertainty of how we perceive reality. How many forms of ourselves do we have, and which one is real?

The post Alison Prepare dinner Beatty Dance Presents MOVING STORIES appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – My journey to understanding the homeless problem in San Francisco took me to Fisherman’s Wharf – where I found a young man sniffing the sidewalk with a stuffed animal under his arm.

His name is Cory Harris. He is 25 years old.

“I’m from San Diego, but the coronavirus and cleanup have just moved away.”

I asked him how long he’s been homeless. He pretty much tells me his whole life.

“Just a shame … moving from house to house, no real parents who could take care of it.”

At some point he was a foster child.

But now: “I sleep outside … I have a sheet.”

I asked if he was trying to get any services … any help.

A closer look at the homeless crisis in San Francisco

“I tried, but they didn’t really want to help me, they refused me.”

Cory says the last place he went for help was on Larkin Street Youth Services.

So I decided to go next and find out why it didn’t work out with Cory.

It turns out that it might be because he’s just a bit too old to qualify for her help.

They let me and my camera in one of their shelters on Ellis Street on the edge of the Tenderloin known as the Lark Inn.

This is reserved for young people between the ages of 18 and 24.

Those who qualify will receive welcome kits of toiletries and linens.

Once inside, colorful murals with uplifting messages greet you.

While a sunny landscape cheers this hallway, the actual bedrooms are a bit bleak.

There are cement floors, replacement furniture, plastic bins, and metal lockers for storing items.

Some beds are currently not sleeping because they are only half full due to the pandemic.

“My experience is that it’s a place where you can lay your head at night when you have nothing else.”

This firsthand perspective is from Dale Jones, a resident of the Lark Inn.

I met the 22-year-old, originally from Contra Costa County, while he was at the Youth Services Access Point on Larkin Street on Golden Gate Avenue.

Dale didn’t want to go into details about how he got homeless in San Francisco, but rather described what his life was like before he found a place at the shelter.

“Couch surfing, house-to-house bouncing in the year before I came here, I lived with seven different family members, a couple of different houses in a hotel, a couple of times on an Airbnb.”

Now he tells me that he is making optimal use of the resources available to him and that he reports to his clerk here once a week.

“I’m already on the waiting list for basically cheaper apartments that will help me pay, so just go through it.”

The access side vibe is more of a college student cafe than a bureaucrat’s waiting room.

Even 12-year-olds can stop by here and have warm meals.

You have access to laundry and showers, a wardrobe and toiletries.

Below are resources to get a GED, college financial aid, or job search help.

Dale is now enrolled in a job program hoping to work as a security guard and then enroll in college.

He likes knowing that he can visit this place every day.

“At least I know they let me work Monday through Friday. At the moment I have a set program, before which I was literally from house to house, from couch to couch, day after day. “

Larkin Street Youth Services says the work to end young people’s homelessness is rare, brief and one-time.

Sherilyn Adams is the executive director.

“We know that around 50% of people over the age of 18 who are homeless had their first experience between the ages of 18 and 25, right? So we know the faster we intervene to prevent chronic homelessness. The other bit is, the longer you are outside, the more damaging it is to your health and wellbeing. “

While at the access point, I met a familiar face.

“What’s the matter with you since I last saw you? Just to survive. “

Cory was there to shower and get something to eat.

However, the 25-year-old will probably find it more difficult to find a place to sleep than it was a year ago.

“We don’t have a great system in San Francisco for the 25-35 year olds in general. Because the age range of people who are homeless is 70, 75 … and we prioritize people based on how long they have been homeless.

“And it is sometimes very difficult for people who are newly homeless and live in this way from 25 to 35 years.”

Meanwhile, Cory continues to try to get the help he needs.

“I’ve looked around [for housing]… no luck yet. “

Larkin Street Youth Services would not confirm whether they would assist Cory in finding help, but said they are able to assist those who join the system before they are 25 and will continue to receive after they are 25 .

They say they have accommodated over 400 young people so far this year.

KRON4 will continue our efforts to investigate the situation on the streets, but we also need your help. If there’s anything you think we need to see or hear, email OnTheStreets@KRON4.com

The post Assembly the youth experiencing homelessness in San Francisco: Their tales appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A window being repaired on the 45th floor of a skyscraper in Rincon Hill fell in the street Thursday afternoon and broke, but thankfully no one was injured.

Shortly after 2 p.m., the San Francisco Department of Emergency Services tweeted that people and vehicles should avoid the 1st Street and Folsom intersection due to an unspecified obstacle, and said emergency services were on site.

ALERTSF: Avoid 1st and Folsom Streets due to obstruction. Rescue workers are on site.

Expect traffic delays, consider alternative routes, and allow for additional travel time. For live traffic information, visit https://t.co/KhHeZty2yc. https://t.co/0X8I1BpZUE

– San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (@SF_emergency) September 30, 2021

CONTINUE READING: The Marin district judge provisionally denies the overcrowding of prisoners in San Quentin. to reduce

The San Francisco Fire Department’s Twitter account later confirmed that a window being repaired on the building had fallen and broken on the sidewalk below.

CONTINUE READING: Car escaping from CHP has AC transit bus plowed in Oakland Home

The post included a photo showing the type of platform used for window cleaning that hangs on the side of the building.

The area designated by @SF_emergency #ALERTSF for the 1st and Folsom area was avoided for a window that fell from the 45th floor during a repair. No injuries. pic.twitter.com/CPXwSRw5JC

– SAN FRANCISCO FIRE BRIGADE MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) September 30, 2021

MORE NEWS: Cal Fire Confirms Estrada Fire Was Started By Controlled Combustion And Is On 150 Acres; Evacuations arranged

It took the crews about half an hour to clear the broken glass from the sidewalk and the road near the intersection. There were no injuries.

The post No Accidents After Excessive-Rise Window Falls 45 Tales to San Francisco Road Throughout Repairs – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A window being repaired on the 45th floor of a skyscraper in Rincon Hill fell in the street Thursday afternoon and broke, but thankfully no one was injured.

Shortly after 2 p.m., the San Francisco Department of Emergency Services tweeted that people and vehicles should avoid the 1st Street and Folsom intersection due to an unspecified obstacle, and said emergency services were on site.

ALERTSF: Avoid 1st and Folsom Streets due to obstruction. Rescue workers are on site.

Expect traffic delays, consider alternative routes and allow for additional travel time. For live traffic information, visit https://t.co/KhHeZty2yc. https://t.co/0X8I1BpZUE

– San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (@SF_emergency) September 30, 2021

CONTINUE READING: Major illegal marijuana grows in Alameda County; 100,000 plants, $ 10 million in cash seized

The San Francisco Fire Department’s Twitter account later confirmed that a window being repaired on the building had fallen and broken on the sidewalk below.

CONTINUE READING: Fire hardening is found to be effective in saving homes; Insurance not yet on board

The post included a photo showing the type of platform used for window cleaning that hangs on the side of the building.

The area designated by @SF_emergency #ALERTSF for the 1st and Folsom area was avoided for a window that fell from the 45th floor during a repair. No injuries. pic.twitter.com/CPXwSRw5JC

– SAN FRANCISCO FIRE BRIGADE MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) September 30, 2021

MORE NEWS: Drought in California: Wasted freshwater flows into the San Jose Storm Drain

It took the crews about half an hour to clear the broken glass from the sidewalk and the road near the intersection. There were no injuries.

The post No Accidents After Excessive-Rise Window Falls 45 Tales to San Francisco Road Throughout Repairs – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

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Tuesday June 05, 2018 Black Bear Cub & Mama Bear Momma bear is very attentive and protective of her new little cub at Herring Cove. According to Alaska Department of Fish & Game, “Bears tend to be solitary animals except for females with cubs. Bear cubs are born mid-winter, tiny and blind, and nurse through the winter sharing their mother’s fat reserves through her rich milk. A female will typically have two or three cubs, and they will stay with her until heading out on their own as two-year-olds. Mother bears are fiercely protective of their cubs.” (Living with Bears, Safety in Bear Country – ADF&G) Front Page Feature Photo By CINDY BALZER ©2018 Ketchikan: Ken C. Eichner Healing Garden Ribbon Cutting Wednesday – Ken Eichner was an aviation pioneer who was instrumental in navigating the direction of Ketchikan in the twentieth century. The co-founder of both the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad and TEMSCO Helicopters, he died at the age of 88 in 2007. Ken C. Eichner Photo courtesy PKMC His legacy will continue with the opening of the Ken C. Eichner Healing Garden at PeaceHealth Ketchikan Wednesday. The garden is an outgrowth of the Eichner family’s generosity. The gift they made in his memory in 2014 is the largest private donation made to the Ketchikan Medical Center Foundation. Everyone is invited to the grand opening celebration Wednesday, June 06, at 12:30 for the ribbon cutting ceremony followed by lunch with the Eichner family. Elements of Eichner’s career are included in the garden. Helicopter blades and parts are incorporated into the design along with native plants and flowers and seating which will include benches and chairs and tables. A handcrafted iron gate by artist Rhonda Green, depicts a helicopter pulling the American Flag, a tradition for Ken to kick-off the fourth of July parade. – More… Tuesday PM – June 05, 2018 Ketchikan: RACE TO ALASKA ORGANIZERS SHIFT GEARS – Race to Alaska, now in its 4th year, just closed it’s registration and 47 teams will be at the start line. “This is when we start looking at our field on racers for who we think might win and who is going to make a really good story.” says Race Boss Daniel Evans. It’s his belief that it will be a slower paced year then in the past. “We don’t have the concentration of larger multi-hulls we’ve had in prior years. They’ll be some fast boats, but the average boat size has gone down.” In the burgeoning tradition of the race there are those teams that are pushing the boundaries. For the first time ever there is a prone paddler attempting the race. Team Extreme Sobriety will attempt to complete the race laying on his stomach and paddling the board with his hands all the way to Ketchikan. “Yeah, and he intends to ride a bicycle from Ketchikan back home on Bainbridge Island.” Daniel added, “We also have a 40’ international offshore racing boat from the 80’s (Superfriends), a team trying to be the first to complete the race by pedal power alone (Take me to the Volcano), 2 teams returning (PT Watercraft and Trak Kayaks) are trying to beat the world records they set for fastest solo and fastest kayak with no sail and another Stand up Paddler (Torrent) who is using the race to fuel a documentary to raise awareness about Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD in veterans. There is no end to the stories this year. And the tracker is a good place to start.The tracker is a free to view map that allows online viewers to follow each team and even connects viewers to team social media pages. Daniel and the media film crew will follow the race on a variety of power boats recording and interviewing the teams as they find their own way to make it to Ketchikan. “We kind of make it up as we go,” said Zach Carver, the creative mind behind most of R2AKs videos. “We go where we have to to get the shots and stay up editing and cutting while the boat moves to the next location. It’s a kind of 24 hours a day operation. And it’s during that time that we start to see the stories of the race grow and become tangible.” All of the video clips and well as daily updates and the tracker can be found online for free. – More… Tuesday PM – June 05, 2018 Alaska: Scientists find pre-earthquake activity in central Alaska By FRITZ FREUDENBERGER – Earth scientists consistently look for a reliable way to forecast earthquakes. New research from University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute professor Carl Tape may help in that endeavor, due to a unique set of circumstances.  “Our observations have recorded an unequivocally interesting sequence of events,” Tape said.  Tape and his colleagues found evidence for accelerating activity before a 2016 earthquake in a laterally moving fault zone in central Alaska. The activity included a phenomenon known as very low-frequency earthquakes, referring to the type of energy waves associated with it.  Typical earthquakes have two associated energy waves, called the P and S waves. Very low-frequency earthquakes do not have such signals. Instead, their waves occur on much lower frequencies. “Most earthquakes start abruptly, but not always,” said Luciana Astiz, a program director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Earth Sciences, which supported the research. “A fault zone in central Alaska monitored by new scientific instruments offers a look at a more complex process. This study reports the first observations of a slow process that transitions into an earthquake — something previously observed only in laboratory experiments. These new observations contribute toward understanding the physics of earthquakes.” In 2015, Tape installed 13 seismic stations in the Minto Flats of central Alaska to capture the area’s fault activity. Nine days later, the instruments recorded a long-duration, very low-frequency process, normally only seen in deep subduction zones. This event showed a small amount of activity gathering, or nucleating, in a central area below the surface. It did not lead to an earthquake. A second, similar event in 2016 led to a key observation. At Minto Flats, a magnitude 3.7 quake occurred at a depth of about 10.5 miles, not an unusual event in itself. However, the event was preceded by a 12-hour accelerating sequence of earthquakes and 22 seconds of distinct high- and low-frequency waves in a concentrated area. Tape said that this kind of slow event transitioning into a rupture had previously only been seen in laboratory experiments.  – More… Tuesday PM – June 06, 2018 MONEY MATTERS: FINANCE 101 FOR WIDOWS By MARY LYNNE DAHL, CFP® – Financial problems are common at all ages, for both sexes and across all income groups of people. Widowhood is difficult for everybody, but for some women, it creates a major stumbling block over making necessary financial decisions she may not be qualified to make. This does not have to be that way, however. Widowhood brings a new perspective on money to many women. While men have concerns, too, they have demonstrated less stress over the financial aspects of widowhood as compared to women, statistically. For whatever reasons, more women than men report being fearful and apprehensive of making the necessary and sometimes new financial decisions they face as a result of being widowed. The big issue for most women, especially those who have stayed at home, raised their children and remained out of the workforce, are having a reliable and adequate source of income. The easiest and least expensive solution to this problem is life insurance on the wage earner, oftentimes through an inexpensive policy purchased through the employer. It is generally accepted that the amount should be enough to produce income to support the family at least until all the children are grown and educated, but I have observed that employer policies may not offer enough to meet this need. If that is the case, an inexpensive term life policy can be purchased to provide the additional amount needed. Many women report, however, that they do not know if their deceased husband did, in fact, have any life insurance, either through his employer or additionally through a privately purchased policy. Sometimes they do know, but are unaware of the cost, the death benefit or how to access this much needed insurance. I recall speaking with a woman one time who had been widowed about 7 months earlier and was still paying the premiums on her deceased husband’s life insurance policy. When I showed surprise at this and asked her why she was paying the premiums, her reply was that it was “a bill, and I pay all the bills as soon as they come in.” I gently informed her, of course, that she should notify the company of her husband’s death, stop paying premiums and collect the death benefit was now hers, tax-free. She was a little embarrassed but got on with making even more financial decisions after that. Along with lack of knowledge about the income needed to run their households, women report a lack of knowledge about prioritizing the expenses for the household and family, particularly for expenses related to home maintenance, vehicles, insurance, credit cards, taxes and contributions to retirement plans. This lack of knowledge usually stems directly from not participating in the financial aspects of marriage and family life, not from any specific inability to manage money, however. It is the result of an arrangement in the marriage that delegates all financial matters to the husband and all family/child matters to the wife. This arrangement may work well while both husband and wife are alive, but it falls apart when the husband dies. The result of not understanding the household expenses is sometimes chronic overspending and the accumulation of credit card debt for a newly widowed woman. – More… Tuesday PM – June 05, 2018 Norwegian Bliss Norwegian Bliss is one of the largest ships to sail in Alaskan waters making her debue in Ketchikan Monday – June 4th. Norwegian Bliss has 20 decks, 2,038 staterooms and capacity for 4,000 passengers. Front Page Feature Photo by STEPHEN SPEIGHTS ©2018 DAVE KIFFER: It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s megaship!! – OMG, a cruise ship blocked out the sun this week! Yeah, yeah, I get that everything blocks out the sun in Our Fair Salmon City. Especially the endless clouds. Which reminds me that once upon a time, one of my smarty pants cousins from Seattle said that Ketchikan must be on Venus because it is always covered in clouds. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. At least our atmosphere is not full of sulfuric acid and other modern pollutants like Seattle, I responded, showing off my impeccable grasp of Venusian meteorology. Of course, that was before the atmosphere of Seattle became 97.8 percent cannabis smoke. Oh, did I just say that? But, I digress. Anyway, a cruise ship blocked the sun in Ketchikan this week. It was an amazing astronomical event. One in which hundreds of Ketchikan residents immediately went outside their abodes and raised their cell phones to the sky to snap pictures of said nautical/celestial event. At least that is impression that I got from Facebook, where posting after posting  after posting appeared of photos the “Great Blissful Norwegian Eclipse of 2018.” – More… Tuesday PM – June 05, 2018 Political Cartoon: Bill Clinton’s MeToo Mistake By Kevin Siers ©2018, The Charlotte Observer, NC Distributed to paid subscribers for publication by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. For all we have, we owe thanks By Rep. Dan Ortiz – Last week I had the honor and privilege of attending the Kayhi Scholarship Awards assembly at the Ketchikan High School Auditorium.  More than 6 million dollars in scholarships were offered to the Kayhi graduating class of 2018 and more than 3 million dollars were accepted. This is evidence of the hard work put forth by the students who were able to qualify for these scholarships and educational opportunities. It is also evidence of the ready support of their families, teachers, counselors, coaches, and the entire community of Ketchikan. What struck me even more however, was that last Wednesday night’s scholarship assembly was just another of the countless examples that are before us each day, reminding us of how blessed we are to live in the community, state and country we call home.  I’m guilty of taking for granted the amazing freedoms that we enjoy in this country – from the freedom of religion, to the freedom of speech and all the other freedoms that come with living in the United States of America.  And, as the saying goes, it’s important to remember that, “freedom isn’t free.”  – More… Tuesday PM – May 29, 2018 Let’s make Alaska home of the next big idea By Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Energy Secretary Rick Perry – Over the next few days, the University of Alaska will host a unique event that brings dozens of the world’s best and brightest scientists to Fairbanks. Known as National Lab Day, this forum will provide an incredible opportunity for Alaskans to form new partnerships with the individuals who run our nation’s premier research institutions. If national parks were America’s best idea, National Labs were our smartest. From their founding more than 70 years ago, the laboratories now affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy have been engines of remarkable scientific achievement. Breakthroughs in renewable energy, the worldwide web, satellite technologies and safe drinking water are just a few of the many innovations to emerge from the likes of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge and Sandia over the years. – More… Tuesday PM – May 29, 2018 The Stand for Salmon Deception By Curtis Thayer – The Alaska Chamber has long been an outspoken voice for pro-business policies that grow our economy and create economic opportunities for Alaskans. For several years, especially during the recent economic slump, we’ve advocated for a state fiscal plan that limits government spending and supports private sector growth. Our annual public opinion survey found that 60 percent of Alaskans rate the state’s economy as poor. It’s a shocking number, and an indicator of how pessimistic Alaskans are about their ability to work and make a living here. Alaska already has the unwanted distinction of having the highest unemployment rate in the country. Getting our economy and our state back on track requires some hard decisions and a vision for the future, but, in the short term, we have some serious obstacles right before us. – More… Tuesday PM – May 29, 2018 Ketchikan Taxpayers & Assembly/School Board – or – The Ant and Grasshopper By Dan Bockhorst – In Delphi, Greece around 582 BC, Aesop narrated a fable of a grasshopper that spent the summer frolicking while an ant gathered food for the coming winter. When winter arrived, the grasshopper didn’t have enough to eat and begged the ant for food. The ant reminded the grasshopper of its failure to prepare for lean times and told it to frolic elsewhere. 2,600 years later and 5,775 miles away, the ant and grasshopper fable is playing out here in Ketchikan. The School Board asked the Borough Assembly to provide 12% more local discretionary funding for schools next year compared to this year. Unsatisfied with the requested 12% increase, four members of the Borough Assembly gave the School Board a 22% increase for next year, nearly double the Board’s request. – More… Friday PM – May 25, 2018 More for less. By A. M. Johnson – Regarding the recent action of the Ketchikan assembly in funding actions, with the bent of the community fastly approaching the social levels of San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland, it is not surprising that fiscal responsibility has arrived at the point common sense has left the circus and the clowns now run the show. – More… Friday PM – May 25, 2018 Open Letter RE Community Grants: KGB Mayor Landis By Glen Thompson – Dear Mayor Landis, At the Regular Assembly Meeting of May 7, 2018, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly (“Assembly”) introduced Ordinance 1859, adopting the FY2019 Borough Budget, and set that ordinance for public hearing at the Regular Assembly Meeting of May 21, 2018. Draft Ordinance 1859, as presented to the Assembly for introduction, included $139,740 in community grant appropriations out of the General Fund to eleven non-profit entities that can be classified as Social Service agencies. Merriam-Webster defines Social Service as: – More… Friday PM – May 18, 2018 2020 GO TO HELL, DOT By David G Hanger – While Juneau gets pristine roads without a pothole anywhere, Ketchikan gets a damned dog and pony show put on by DOT that includes toy trucks and hard hats for the kids. Plus the announcement that no improvements will be made to that hole in the road between the Coast Guard base and Saxman for at least three years. How much of this is racist????!!! Saxman is, of course, an Indian community. In the meantime there are two sets of memorial wreaths, etc. set out to honor those who have been killed on that stretch of road in the past two or three years, which definitely makes this the most dangerous stretch of road on this rock. – More… Friday AM – May 18, 2018 The Mysterious Jim Duncan By Tom Crosier – I worked with Jim Duncan’s son, Rick on the F/V Margaret Ann, catching Dungeness crab in the areas around Bell Island. We sent 1500 pounds of live crab a week to Seattle by Alaska Airline. – More… Friday AM – May 18, 2018 HB 312 strips away your rights By Andree McLeod – Lawmakers have again willfully and intentionally stripped away constitutionally protected rights of due process. House Bill 312 is, in part, an Act relating to arrest without a warrant for assault in the fourth degree at a health care facility. It impacts everyone, especially people who live with brain illness and cognitive impairments, such as autism, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Traumatic Brain Injury, and mental illness, among other brain illness. In their attempt to deal with an increased crime rate, lawmakers found the courage to strip away the rights of individuals who are at their most vulnerable, when they’re brought to medical facilities experiencing confusion and severe bouts of psychosis, mania, disorientation, and other symptoms of brain and cognitive impairments unrelated to substance abuse. – More… Friday PM – May 11, 2018 Webmail your letter or Email Your Letter To: editor@sitnews.us  Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright and may not be reprinted or redistributed without written permission from and payment of required fees to the proper sources. E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so, granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.

The Local Paper is available online. Click here for this week’s printed edition (PDF)

The post SitNews – Tales In The Information – Ketchikan, Alaska appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.