Rep. Katie Porter left the whiteboard at home Tuesday as she paid a visit to the Mission to meet with small business owners, many of whom blame drugs and homelessness plaguing the neighborhood for their sluggish pandemic recovery.

Porter is a bit of a rock star in Democratic circles thanks to viral clips of her using erasable markers and charts to school some of the nation’s most powerful CEOs in congressional hearings, but she also showed an everywoman side Tuesday.

Drawing attention to a stain on her dress, Porter joked about an event in Stockton two days prior in which some of her most exuberant supporters managed to spill drinks on her not once, nor twice, but three times, including a dousing down the back of her dress. Jokes aside, Porter also noted that the decisions she made to refuse campaign contributions from corporate PACs and lobbyists “make me stand out” from almost every other member of Congress.

Rep. Katie Porter, a candidate for U.S. Senate, talks with Daniel Chesmore during a tour of businesses on Mission Street in San Francisco on Tuesday. | Source: Josh Koehn/The Standard

Since announcing her campaign to succeed Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate, Porter and her opponents—fellow House Reps. Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee, as well as business executive Lexi Reese—have been making whirlwind tours of California, traversing up and down the state to meet with voters, rally the support of regional power brokers and press flesh with campaign benefactors. The three Congress members and affiliated committees have collectively raised more than $36 million in the race, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Porter, who represents Orange County, caught an early flight to the Bay Area to meet with local labor leaders and fundraise before making her way to a small event hosted by the city’s Latinx Democratic Club at Senegalese restaurant Bissap Baobab. She was scheduled to fly back the same night to get home to her children.

San Francisco may be the fourth-biggest city in California, but it could play an especially outsize role in Porter’s chances of moving to the upper chamber of Congress, thanks to the city’s sizable base of progressive voters and ripe fundraising pipeline.

But anyone looking to snag the votes of San Franciscans—as well as their campaign contributions—will need to choose a side on the crises facing the city, from housing and homelessness to how to address drug addiction and treatment.

Perhaps no issue is more pressing at the moment than a court order that blocks city officials from clearing homeless encampments. Heated protests were waged last week outside a federal courthouse, and Mayor London Breed has argued the city must be “able to clear the streets.”

Outside of federal court in San Francisco, Mayor London Breed talks about the impacts of a court order blocking sweeps of homeless encampments on Aug. 23, 2023. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

Porter admitted she hadn’t studied the judge’s injunction and noted that permanent supportive housing is the best way to get people off the streets, but she seemed to offer some support for Breed’s efforts.

“I would tell you as a practical matter, I think Mayor Breed has it correct that we need places to put people, and that is a core governmental duty,” Porter said. “I do want to think about: How do we do this in a way that doesn’t replicate some of the mistakes we’ve made in the past when we’ve addressed social harms? So, it can’t be sort of, you know, move them elsewhere. We can’t incarcerate these folks. We have to think about how to think about the civil rights risks of it. But look, we need more housing. It’s going to have to be everywhere.”

On the issue of the fentanyl crisis, Porter said she has spoken with San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney about overdose reversal medicine and policies that emphasize treatment in addition to harm reduction.

“One of the things that Matt emphasized to me is that there are changes in how we do treatment,” Porter said. “So, we’re reviving people, we’re rescuing them but then they’re getting sick again. And so what we need to do is—as these treatments become less onerous and less difficult for patients—this is our moment to really invest in treatment, not just in our emergency care.”

During her trip to the Mission, Porter stopped by multiple businesses, including the reception at Bissap Baobab and short visits with the owners of Clean Cut Barbershop, Restaurante Hermelinda and Born Again Thrift.

Rep. Katie Porter, center, meets with Vanessa Porras, co-owner of Born Again Thrift, in San Francisco’s Mission on Tuesday. | Source: | Josh Koehn/The Standard

Apolonia Gomez, the barbershop owner, said that graffiti, unhoused people and street vendors have made it more difficult to grow her business. Vanessa Porras, a co-owner of the thrift shop, also noted that she felt like government officials were not paying enough attention to the local level.

Porras added that it was a definite surprise to have a congresswoman walk into her store, “especially in this part of the Mission.”

Ciaran Cleary, a six-year San Francisco resident, stopped in his tracks when he saw the candidate walking down Mission Street.

“I would support her in the crowded race,” Cleary said. “Also, I love the whiteboard.”

With very few policy differences between the candidates, Porter will face a difficult task in locking down a majority of support in San Francisco.

Schiff, who has the institutional backing of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and drew a larger crowd last month during a visit to Bissap Baobab, has a sizable lead in fundraising. Meanwhile, Lee has more name recognition locally as a 25-year congresswoman in Oakland.

Regardless, Porter sounded like a candidate who plans to lean on support from San Franciscans.

“This is not my first time to the Mission,” she said, “and it certainly won’t be my last.”

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The overdose-reversal drug, naloxone, should be available as an over-the-counter drug to help the national response to the opioid crisis, U.S. health advisers said Wednesday.

The Food and Drug Administration panel of experts voted 19-0 in favor after a full day of presentations and discussions addressing whether untrained users would be able to use the drug, formulated as a nasal spray, safely and effectively in emergency situations the change.

The positive vote, which is non-binding, came despite concerns from some panel members about the drug’s directions and packaging, which caused confusion among some people in a company study.

The manufacturer, Emergent Biosolutions, said it will revise the packaging and labeling to address these concerns. The FDA will make a final decision on the drug in the coming weeks.

Panel members urged the FDA to act quickly instead of waiting for Emergent to conduct a follow-up study with the easier-to-understand label.

Ninety-one people in the US die from opioid-related overdoses every day, but there is a tool that can reverse the effects of an overdose that more law enforcement and paramedics are carrying as part of their ongoing surgical protocol. It’s called Narcan, and here’s what you need to know about what it is, how it works, and how to use it.

“Given the climate of this crisis and its devastating consequences, there may be a much greater risk of delaying product availability,” said Maria Coyle, a pharmacy professor at Ohio State University who chaired the meeting.

The Narcan pre-filled nasal device is the leading version of the drug in the US, which is also available as an injection. If approved by the FDA, Narcan would be the first opioid treatment to make the regulatory switch to an over-the-counter drug.

The potential move represents the government’s recent effort to increase use of a drug that is a key tool in the fight against the US overdose epidemic, which kills more than 100,000 people annually. The decades-old drug can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose in minutes.

Narcan is already available without a prescription in all 50 states, where state leaders have issued standing orders for pharmacists to sell the drug to anyone who asks for it. But not all pharmacies carry it and those that do have to keep it behind the counter. The stigma attached to opioids can also deter people from asking about the drug.

“We believe that over-the-counter naloxone can help break down these barriers,” said Dr. Jody Green of the FDA, noting that the switch would allow the drug to be sold in vending machines, convenience stores and supermarkets.

Emergent presented results from a study of 70 people to show that people of different ages and backgrounds could quickly and correctly understand how to use the device in an emergency. About a third of the study participants had low reading ability, a group that the FDA says should have been larger.

FDA staffers also warned that a number of participants had difficulty following the directions, in part because of the way the multi-step directions were laid out on two sides of the box, the FDA noted.

“Where’s step one?” asked one participant, according to interview transcripts from the study provided by the FDA.

Emergent said it plans to move all directions to a single panel and add pictograms, per the FDA’s proposal.

Government officials are hoping that moving naloxone beyond the pharmacy counter will boost sales, with the potential to reduce costs. Currently, the drug can cost $50 for a two-pack if not covered by insurance.

Community advocates and organizations that support distribution of the drug welcomed the possible approval of an over-the-counter version.

“It’s going to have a tremendous impact on how people view the drug,” said Sheila Vakharia, associate director of research and academic engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance. “It will help destigmatize it and show people that it’s safe and easy to use.”

But Maya Doe-Simkins, a co-director of Remedy Alliance/For The People, worried that an over-the-counter version of narcan could also lead to a perception that it’s better than other forms of naloxone.

“We’re concerned that companies that have over-the-counter products may misrepresent injectable products,” said Doe-Simkins, who has long advocated for an over-the-counter version.

In the 1990s, death rates in the United States from painkillers began to rise steadily. Waves of death followed, led by other opioids such as heroin and, most recently, illicit fentanyl. Nearly 107,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2021, an all-time high, although recent data suggest deaths could be plateauing.

Based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Emergent Biosolutions makes most of its money from medical products purchased by the federal government for the Strategic National Stockpile, including anthrax drugs and vaccines.

In 2021, the company caught public attention for its disastrous handling of COVID-19 vaccine production for Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. Contamination problems at the company’s Baltimore facility eventually forced drugmakers to scrap the equivalent of hundreds of millions of vaccine doses.

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Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill of Cherry Hill, New Jersey contributed to this story.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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ImpactAlpha, December 12 – Senegal-based Calinounou offers an online recruitment and booking service for home cleaning, care and cooking services aims to professionalize a sector that is rife with unfair pay and working conditions.

“The level of informality in the care economy in Senegal has prevented the growth of its [workers],” said Calinounou’s Fatou Diop.

The business is working to improve the quality of domestic services jobs while keeping services affordable.

WIC Capital, which invests in businesses founded by and serving women in West Africa, invested 134 million West African francs ($215,000) in equity and quasi-equity to help Calinounou boost formal jobs and reduce gender inequalities. Calinounou also is launching a training school.

“We still have a tremendous amount of work to do to improve the working conditions of these professionals and the image of this sector,” said Diop.

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By Anthony O. Goriainoff

Victorian Plumbing Group PLC said Tuesday that pretax profit fell for the first half of fiscal 2022 after booking higher costs and a fall in revenue, and backed its guidance for the year.

The UK online retailer of bathroom products said that for the six months ended March 31, pretax profit was 2.7 million pounds ($3.3 million) compared with GBP14.5 million for the first half of fiscal 2021.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization–a metric that strips out exceptional and other one-off items–fell to GBP6.7 million from GBP20.1 million the year-prior period. The company said this reflected a reduction in gross profit margin, and the strategic rise in its marketing activity.

Revenue fell to GBP133.9 million from GBP140.7 million the year before. The company said this was due to lower demand in a tough comparable period resulting from market outperformance during Covid-19-related lockdowns.

The company said in February that it expected to deliver modest year-on-year revenue growth through the second half.

“There are well reported ongoing inflationary cost pressures and we remain acutely aware that our customers are also managing these pressures. The group will therefore continue its careful approach to price rises through the second half,” the company said.

Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com

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The Mayor of San Francisco London Breed speaks during the California Democratic Convention in San Francisco, California, June 1, 2019. (Stephen Lam / Reuters)

San Francisco Mayoress, London Breed, announced on Wednesday her support for the removal of three of the city’s school board members.

“Unfortunately, our school board’s priorities have often become very misplaced,” Breed said in a statement. “In such a difficult time, the choices we make for our children will have long-term implications.”

A group of parents collected enough signatures to hold a recall for three school board members after months of school closings, as well as renaming schools baptized after historical figures who were seen as problematic.

The dismissal is planned for February 15, 2022. On the ballot are CEO Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Alison Collins, who has stepped down from a leadership position on the board due to previous Twitter comments about Asians.

Breed appoints a replacement for a dismissed school council member. The general elections for the school board are scheduled for November 2022.

Breed self-appointed Moliga to the school board in 2018 to fill a vacant spot, and Moliga was elected for a four-year term shortly thereafter.

“The mayor doesn’t seem to care about removing the first and only Pacific Islander to hold office in San Francisco,” Moliga told the San Francisco Chronicle. Moliga said he had “made resolutions that teachers keep” and improved services in different parts of the district.

Schools in San Francisco have seen some of the longest closings in the country, with students studying from home for almost a full year as of March 2020. The city sued its own school board in February 2021 to reopen the district for face-to-face learning.

Breed supported the lawsuit against the school board and criticized the school board for announcing that it would rename schools while students were still studying remotely.

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Zachary Evans is a news writer for National online review. He is a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces and a trained violist.

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A governing body in San Francisco on Monday approved the landing of the Noe Valley home of the late pioneering lesbian couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. The decision coincided with the observance of the Lesbian Visibility Day.

The Regulators’ Land Use and Transportation Committee unanimously voted 3-0 to recommend that the full board mark the couple’s residence at 651 Duncan Street when they meet on May 4th. It is said to be the city’s first landmark honoring lesbian history.

“I knew and adored them both,” said Aaron Peskin, District 3 supervisor. “I’ve been to your house many, many times. Thank you everyone who helped mark it. Yes, it’s great. “

Peskin and Dean Preston, a member of the District 5 supervisor, jointly support the landmark request. Land Use Committee Chair, District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, said voting to recommend that the property be classified as a landmark “makes me very, very happy.”

Christina Morris, senior field director of the Los Angeles Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, argued in guest editorial the Bay Area Reporter posted online on April 23, “The Board of Supervisors should take this opportunity to review decades of oversight and inequality corrected by recognizing the Lyon-Martin-Haus as a landmark of women’s history in San Francisco and of LGBTQIA + civil rights activism. “

Preservation groups and LGBTQ historians had initially tried to make the entire property on Duncan Street a landmark in the city. They had argued that the garden plot adjacent to the hut where the women lived should also be included in the landmark, as the couple’s cremains were buried and scattered across the vacant part. The city’s planning department had also recommended that the entire property be listed as a historical monument.

Paul McKeown and his wife Meredith Jones-McKeown, who bought the property last summer for $ 2.25 million, argued that the landmark should only include the residence at 651 Duncan Street. They expressed concerns that the land marking of the vacant lot at 649 Duncan Street would affect their ability to build a new home for them and their two young daughters.

The city’s Historic Preservation Commission approved the family in a 6-1 vote in February, recommending that only the Cottage Package become the fifth city landmark, specifically related to LGBTQ history. Not only will it be the first to be exclusively about lesbian history, but it will also be the first LGBTQ landmark to be entirely in a residential area.

Gay District 8 supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who initiated the milestone process at the urging of the community, decided to follow the advice of the Conservation Advisory Board and apply for city landmark status for 651 Duncan Street only. He has also stated that he is open to renaming an urban open space near the property in honor of the women.

At Monday’s hearing, Mandelman named Lyon and Martin “giants of the early LGBTQ rights movement” whose homeland “should be properly recognized and preserved” as a key location in LGBTQ history. Since it was Lesbian Visibility Day, he remarked, “There was no better time to take this step.”

Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, which keeps the Lyon and Martin papers in their archives, helped promote the landmark and was involved in talks about the future of the house.

“We cannot exaggerate the cultural and historical importance of the house,” he told the superiors.

Shayne Watson, a lesbian and architectural historian, co-wrote a 2015 LGBTQ heritage survey in San Francisco that recommended making the couple’s home a city landmark. She noted that it would be the first landmark in the western United States to “recognize and affirm lesbian love, simply put”.

The new owners not only support the recognition of the Lyon-Martin-Haus for its historical importance to LGBTQ history, but have also committed to preserving it. They met with local conservationists and leaders of the LGBTQ community about the future use of the house and ways to document the structure for posterity.

The non-profit CyArk, which documents historical objects, is in talks with the friends of the Lyon-Martin-Haus about the use of drones to take pictures of the existing structure both outdoors and indoors and to record interviews with people in the house talk about its historical significance.

The homeowners haven’t ruled out the idea of ​​selling it to a conservation group at some point. One idea that has been circulated is to use it for an artist or activist-in-residence program as it is in a location that is likely to make it impossible to open to the public as a museum. At the hearing on Monday, Jones-McKeown thanked the city guides for advancing the request to mark only 651 Duncan Street.

“We knew nothing about Phyllis and Del when we bought the property. We now had many opportunities to learn more about them and their remarkable lives through Terry and the friends of the Lyon-Martin House,” she said. “We hope this will be an opportunity for many more people to learn more about you and your work.”

Lyon and Martin bought the property in 1955 and tended the vacant area as a garden. The couple, who first met in Seattle in 1952, co-founded the influential Daughters of Bilitis, the first political and social organization for lesbians in the United States. Her home was a meeting point within the city’s lesbian community and the location of various meetings and events.

Lyon died last April at the age of 95. Martin died in 2008 at the age of 87 weeks after the women became the first same-sex couple to legally marry in California in June.

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