Election-talk usually doesn’t attract our attention until after Labor Day, but there have been some notable developments recently on the topic of marijuana.
Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act, is on everyone’s list of Most Divisive Issues for November. If passed, adults...
The number of Internet users in China recently surpassed 400 million, according to state media. And that makes it the world's most wired country. It's also making it more difficult for the government to control all those users.
But it's trying.
Often those controls affect internet businesses like...
Radical Ideas
If you’re a working mom or dad, you probably know a little something about multi-tasking, especially when it comes to chores around the house. This is especially true for professional women. When biologist Carol Greider got the call from Stockholm letting her know that she had won the Nobel Prize...
The Governor's Department of Finance has revealed one of the sources of California's budget crisis: tax breaks. Its most recent estimate of credits, exemptions and deductions totals more than $40 billion for this budget year. Next year is projected to be even higher.
Some $30 billion of that is...
A new style of living is becoming increasingly popular in the Bay Area, and across the country. It’s called cohousing, and it’s sort of like dorm-style living for adults -- only instead of a room, you get a house. The concept originated in Denmark. Its growth in the United States is thanks in large...
It took just a couple of years for America’s subprime mortgage market to collapse. Best-selling author Michael Lewis thinks steps should have been taken to ease the crash that helped cause a global financial crisis.
MICHAEL LEWIS: You look at this story and you say, “That world was insane, it needs...
Transportation Watch
Billboards of fashionable models along the highway, step aside! Roadside advertisements could now come in smaller sizes.
The California State Assembly Committee on Transportation is set to have a hearing today on a bill—SB1453—that would give the Department of Motor and Vehicles the green light to...
John Beckett, the man responsible for one of San Francisco’s most recognized buildings, has died at 92.
Transamerica Corp., originally a holding company for San Francisco-based Bank of America, became one of the largest conglomerates in the country under Beckett’s direction. At it’s peak,...
With the recent release of the iPad and the launch of the newest iPhone, Apple stores have been bustling with tech-crazed energy. But a more somber crowd will gather at Apple’s flagship store near Union Square in San Francisco tonight, organized by the Chinese Progressive Association. At...
Transportation Watch
Currently, the Bay Bridge is only open to automobile traffic. The new eastern span of the bridge, which connects Oakland and Yerba Buena, is expected to be completed in 2011-2013 and will feature a bicycle-pedestrian-maintenance pathway on either side. However, once on Yerba Buena, bicyclists will...
Economic Edge
As any visitor who takes an antique streetcar through the mid-market district finds out, there’s much more to San Francisco than just tourist attractions. Many mayors have tried to revitalize the area but none have succeeded.
The stretch is dominated by vacant buildings, Single Room Occupancies (...
Economic Edge
One of the country's leading bagel chains got its start right here in the Bay Area. We'll give you a second to guess which one.
Okay, the answer is Noah's Bagels.
Founder Noah Alper is a Berkeley resident and a self-professed "serial entrepreneur." He started six hugely successful businesses...
Transportation Watch
In the Bay Area we like to pride ourselves on community, sharing and leading the country in all things green. The casual carpool--a symbiotic relationship between drivers and riders heading into the city from the East Bay on their daily commute--has all of these. Drivers pick up unknown passengers...
The rather anomalous past few years of recession aside, we are currently living in a period of great prosperity in the US. More people are getting high school and college degrees than ever before, a greater percentage of the population is in the job market and owns a home. There's a ton of money...
KALW Investigates
It’s getting to be summer, and that means fruits like strawberries and mangos are coming into season. In Bay Area cities, you don’t necessarily have to go to a grocery store to get them. You can find lone men, and sometimes women, on street corners around the region standing next to big boxes of...
As promised, the Governor released his budget this afternoon, and also as promised, he's proposing some drastic cuts to close the state's $19.1 billion deficit. A couple highlights (and low-lights) via the LA Times and Sacramento Bee:
- The complete elimination of CalWorks, the state's welfare to...
The past few years have been called a "he-cession" or "mancession" because of the economic downturn's disproportionate effect on men. Roughly 80 percent of jobs lost in the US since the recession began were held by men. The fact that the troubles that caused the collapse were brewed in belly of the...
Economic Edge
The national health care reform package will have a big impact on the economy, yet many Americans are still out of work, and not just newcomers to the job market.
There are some two million adults in the US who are 55 years or older and unemployed. They’ll spend an average of...
KALW's Steven Short profiles a shopping alternative in the first of a two-part series.
This piece originally aired on November 25, 2008.
Economic Edge
It's not easy for reporters to get into San Quentin, so when KALW's Nancy Mullane visited the prison, she took advantage of the opportunity to find a San Quentin inmate who is no stranger to KALW.
Inmate Richard Gilliam is part of KALW's street team--community reporters who are helping us document...
Carletta Sue Kay
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