San Francisco's shelter system leaves some out in the cold

By Allison Budner on Wednesday, Mar 10, 4:06pm

In January, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced his goal to reduce the number of homeless people on San Francisco’s streets by 50% and the city’s overall homeless count by 30% by the end of 2010. And he vowed not to leave office before his goals were met. Newsom’s New Year’s resolution is an ambitious one, and he hasn't given any concrete details on how he would finance his plan in the face of a $522 million budget deficit for the coming fiscal year. He also hasn't said where the approximately 3,200...

Arts and Culture

Sex and the Bible: The Opera

By Crosscurrents Producer on Wednesday, Mar 10, 4:38pm

You may not learn this in Sunday School, but the Bible contains some pretty racy stuff. Using innocuous phrases like "to know" or "to lie with" someone, the Bible carries stories of incest, passion, and well, sex. Lots of sex. Opera composer Mark Alburger saw the potential on this aspect of the Good Book, and so begat his latest work, called: Sex and the Bible: The Opera, running through this weekend at San Francisco's Community Music Center. Reporter Bridget Huber has more. NOTE: for any...

Arts and Culture

A haunting portrait of the foreclosure crisis

By Crosscurrents Producer on Wednesday, Mar 10, 5:10pm

California's financial crisis has forced many people into homelessness and many people have abandoned their homes. The city of Stockton has one of the highest home foreclosure rates in the country. Forbes recently ranked it the second most miserable city in America. When the foreclosure crisis hit Stockton, photographer Kirk Crippens became curious about what went wrong. He used his camera to capture the schrapnel — scenes that changed him forever. KALW’s Hana Baba visited Crippens at his SF...

Economy, Labor and Biz

Worker co-operatives: from hippy fringe to economic mainstream

By Rina Palta on Tuesday, Mar 9, 3:08pm

We hear a lot about job creation as a tool for getting people out of poverty. But let’s face it, even if you have a job that pays enough for the rent, food, and a couple movies each month, you may not be accumulating wealth. According to a recent study by the consulting group Asset Building Strategies, 22% of Americans -- and much larger percentages of women and minorities -- are what’s called “asset poor.” That means if their income went away, they would not have enough money or belongings to...

Arts and Culture

Behind the scenes at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival

By Kevin Robinson on Tuesday, Mar 9, 3:12pm

The Asian American community here in San Francisco is incredibly diverse. To capture the many stories, histories and experiences of this community around the country, you can imagine that you’d need six theatres, ten days and over a hundred storytellers to get even close. That’s what’s promised at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, starting this Thursday.KALW’s Kevin Robinson spoke with Assistant Programming Director Vicci Ho about the festival lineup, and she says...

Health, Science and Environment

Empowering South Asian women against domestic violence

By Hana Baba on Tuesday, Mar 9, 2:56pm

Yesterday was International Women’s Day, celebrated by communities worldwide since 1975. Locally, the organization Global Arts and Education awarded six Bay Area women the “Extraordinary Public Service Award” at its International Women’s Day Awards Breakfast. Asian-American Assemblywoman Fiona Ma of San Francisco was one of them. She was recognized for her commitment to victims of domestic violence in California. The Bay Area is home to many Asian women’s support groups whose state funding has...

Recent Articles

Politics and Watchdog Reporting

This is your map on bikes

By Nathanael Johnson on Wednesday, Mar 10, 4:54pm

Google Maps just announced that it's added a feature to map optimum bicycle routes. So now when you hit the "get directions" button you can choose "By car," "By public transit," "Walking," and now: "Bicycling."Marc Caswell, program manager for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition was excited by the...

Politics and Watchdog Reporting

To carry or not to carry

By Erica Mu on Wednesday, Mar 10, 3:15pm

It’s a gray Saturday morning at an outdoor mall in Walnut Creek. Elevator music quietly plays from speakers hovering above the manicured walkway. This is Locust Street: clean, safe, lined with upscale retail clothing stores and chain restaurants; a place where you’d be comfortable taking your...

Cops and Courts

The Criminal Justice Conversations Podcast with David Onek, Part 3

By Rina Palta on Wednesday, Mar 10, 11:43am

The Criminal Justice Conversations Podcast, a co-production of the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice and the Berkeley School of Journalism, features in-depth, thirty-minute interviews with a wide range of criminal justice leaders: law enforcement officials, policymakers, advocates, service...

Economy, Labor and Biz

Street Team: How the recession hits home daycare

By Crosscurrents Producer on Tuesday, Mar 9, 2:54pm

At KALW News, we’ve been documenting the recession through our Economic Edge project. This next piece is actually a success story and it comes from a member of our Street Team of community reporters. Street Team member Mitzi Mock spoke with Jasmine Ward, who recently opened a home daycare in her...

Economy, Labor and Biz

Bay Area jobs on the up and up!

By Max Jacobs on Tuesday, Mar 9, 12:12pm

If you didn’t get a chance to enjoy the sunshine today, you can at least enjoy the encouraging job market forecast. A survey released today indicates that hiring rates in the Bay Area are on the up and up. According to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey (MEOS) released by the employment...

Arts and Culture

The pleasure kills

By Max Jacobs on Tuesday, Mar 9, 11:57am

The pleasure kills play the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco on Wednesday March 10th. Here's the song "Smash Up the Radio" from the San Francisco band.

Politics and Watchdog Reporting

Connecting the Dots: top news stories for Tuesday, March 9th

By Ben Trefny on Tuesday, Mar 9, 10:18am

Let's start with the elephant in the state: the general budget. Late yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that called for more than $2 billion in spending reductions starting this summer...Meanwhile, the California Legislature approved a Democratic bill, yesterday, aimed at...