Helen Byrne, 94, has called the same San Francisco apartment for more than eight decades, having moved in with her father and sisters when she was 12.

Her Mission District neighborhood looks a lot different these days, but Byrne's apartment is practically a time capsule from a bygone era.

She still sleeps in her childhood room, where she now spends most of her time after a fall last year. She said she wanted to spend the rest of her life here, surrounded by her long-time friends and neighbors.

But Byrne's life was turned upside down when the four-unit building was purchased in 2020 by real estate investors operating through an LLC.

Now she and the building's other decades-long tenants are trying to fend off an eviction attempt they never expected, and they could potentially be evicted from their homes within weeks.

“It was a surprise to me, a shock to me actually, that I had to move away from here,” Byrne said. “Where should I go? I’m so used to this place.”

Byrne outlived the rest of her family and lives alone, but her neighbor Cecilia Matias helps look after her.

“Right now she is strong because of this building,” Matias said. “This apartment alone makes her feel at home.”

Matias has lived in the building herself for 40 years – the first apartment her family moved into after leaving the Philippines. She and Byrne have grown close over the years, almost like a family, they say.

“She was very good to me,” Byrne said. “She’s like a daughter to me.”

Cecilia's sister also lives in the building. This also applies to Anthony Martin, who lives with his wife and son, an Iraq war veteran. Because all of the tenants have lived in the rent-controlled building for decades, their rent is much lower than San Francisco's sky-high market rates.

This is also the reason why their new landlords have been trying to get them out of their apartments since they took over the building more than three years ago.

NBC Bay Area reviewed emails that Daniel Mytels, the manager of the LLC, sent to his lender as part of the eviction case, which outlined plans to clear the building from its inception, either through buyouts or evictions.

In a 2020 email, Mytels called the building “an almost unbelievably good value,” adding that the property is “encumbered with four long-term tenants paying a total of only about $3,800 in total rent per month.” So he outlined plans to lure tenants out and rent out the apartments at higher prices. Or, if necessary, sell the empty building.

By phone, Mytels told NBC Bay Area it was a terrible situation, but said tenants' current rent cannot cover the building's operating costs.

According to letters reviewed by NBC Bay Area, landlords initially offered tenants severance packages — essentially cash for keys — in the range of $70,000 to $85,000 per unit. Even more so when everyone in the building accepted the offer, but every tenant rejected it.

“I want to stay here for the rest of my life,” Byrne said. “I have all my friends and neighbors living here with me.”

Four months after the takeover bid was rejected, tenants were bombarded with notices saying the building's owners were invoking the Ellis Act, a law that allows landlords to evict their tenants if they leave the property for at least five Take years off the rental market. In the notices of termination they were given a notice period of four months plus a legally permissible extension of one year due to the age of the tenants.

“His goal here was speculation, pure speculation,” said Steve Collier, managing attorney for the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, a San Francisco nonprofit that combats the displacement of low-income residents.

In an email, the landlord's attorney, Raymond M. Yetka, said the owners were aware of the difficulties posed by the eviction, adding: “The owner initially attempted to award significant amounts of money to the tenants for the eviction pay. However, when all tenants refused, the landlord’s only option was to terminate the lease under the Ellis Act.”

Collier said the tenants didn't want to give up the fight, in part because Byrne had nowhere else to go.

“[The Ellis Act] is often used by speculators to empty buildings and then sell them at a higher value because the long-term rent control tenants are not in the building,” Collier said.

However, the owners' lawyer defended the move.

“The Ellis Act was created to address unintended consequences of local rent control laws and allow landlords to exit the rental market when rental prices make it impossible to function as a housing provider,” Yetka wrote in an email.

Instead of moving out, however, the tenants turned to the Tenderloin Housing Clinic for help. Their Ellis Act exit window has expired and they are now fighting an eviction lawsuit in court.

“I do not want [Byrne] to go somewhere else,” Matias said. “I told her, 'You think you don't have a family, but you do.' It's me. No matter what happens, I'll take care of you.' Even though we’re not related by blood, I feel like we’re closer.”

Even their neighborhood priest, who has known Byrne and the building's other residents for more than a decade, is there to help them.

“People are not just numbers to be discarded,” Father said. John Jimenez, priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. “It is wrong that this is happening. You shouldn’t have to lose the house that you’ve lived in all your life, paid your rent and done all the responsible things.”

When asked about future plans for the building, Yetka said, among other things: “…The most likely outcomes are a sale of the vacant property as a whole or conversion of the units into Tenants-in-Common-Interests (TIC) for sale to owner-occupiers.” “

Collier said the fate of Byrne and her neighbors could be decided in court soon, possibly in the next few days.

“She’s 94,” Matias said. “She has already lived her life. But let her be happy…in peace.

The post San Francisco condominium eviction struggle – NBC Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

About two hours south of San Antonio lies the community of San Diego, Tex., a speck of a town with just under 4,000 residents. Its biggest claim to fame is the infamous “Plan of San Diego,” hatched in 1915 during the Mexican Revolution, which sought to reconquer from the U.S. government the portion of the Southwest that had been taken from Mexico in the Mexican-American War.

While the Plan of San Diego was never acted upon, the rebellious spirit of this town’s inhabitants resulted in one of the most fascinating tales in South Texas history — one that involves buried treasure, an empty Folgers coffee can and a plate of enchiladas.

The tale begins around the time the notorious rebel plan was hatched. Its protagonist was a well-educated country doctor named Jose Garcia. Garcia, who got his medical education in Mexico, came from a prominent colonial family who obtained 18th-century Spanish land grants on what would become both sides of the Texas-Mexico border.

Beginning in the 1890s, Garcia began collecting gold coins, according to family archives that would become important evidence in a Texas courtroom more than a century later. He had accrued more than 500 gold coins and built a thriving medical practice when the Great Depression broke out following the 1929 stock market crash.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt suddenly saw gold hoarding as a national security. In response, in 1933, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102, “forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States.” Americans were ordered to give up their gold coins to the Federal Reserve at an exchange rate of roughly $20 per ounce.

That was unacceptable for Garcia, who would have been paid about $10,000 (more than $230,000 in today’s money) if he had given up his gold. Instead he quietly began burying the coins in a crawl space beneath his home on St. Joseph Street in San Diego.

His treasure was a well-kept secret; he shared its existence only with his daughter, Gloria, and her husband, Hector Lopez, both of whom earned degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in the 1940s — a rarity for Hispanics at the time. After serving in the military during World War II, Hector earned a law degree from Baylor Law School.

After Garcia died in 1964, his son-in-law made several forays into the crawl space but never found the gold coins. In 1976, Gloria and Hector Lopez sold the home to a distant cousin named Alejandro Lopez. For a while, at least, the gold stash was forgotten.

Twenty-six years later, the home developed plumbing issues, and Alejandro Lopez called on the town plumber, Serafin Trevino, to fix a leak. Trevino went to the house and brought his girlfriend, Connie Mosely. Trevino entered the crawl space beneath the kitchen to get to the source of the leak, while Mosely waited for him in the kitchen.

As he dug around wet earth to expose a leaking sewer line, Trevino found the gold coins. But instead of telling the home’s owner, Trevino called up to his girlfriend, who found an empty Folgers coffee can and handed it to the plumber.

Trevino filled the can with an estimated 422 gold coins, worth about $500,000 at the time. Trevino quietly left with the treasure and began a spending spree that, according to one witness, included paying for a plate of enchiladas with a $20 gold coin. What Trevino didn’t know was that the gold piece was worth about $1,100.

But nothing stays secret for long in a small town, and soon the homeowner, Alejandro Lopez, heard about Trevino’s discovery. Lopez confronted Trevino and demanded the return of the gold coins, saying they had been given to him by Lopez’s father. Trevino responded with the classic third-grade legal argument: finders keepers.

The dispute ended up in a Duval County court, and word quickly got to Gloria Garcia-Lopez, who was then living in nearby Alice, Tex. Gloria and her husband entered the legal fray as intervenors — a third party with a stake in the case.

During the ensuing trial, Dr. Garcia’s sister, Braulia de la Garza Garcia, shared a ledger that documented her brother’s accrual of the gold coins. It became a key piece of evidence and contributed to the judge’s decision to award the treasure to Gloria Garcia-Lopez and her husband.

In the end, Gloria and her husband didn’t need the money that the gold coins would have generated for them. That’s because the Garcia family had a habit of legally documenting not only its coin collection, but also extensive land holdings.

When Dr. Garcia’s daughter and her husband died, they owned tens of thousands of acres on as many as 14 different ranches in South Texas. They amassed this real estate fortune even though their family had lost the bulk of its real estate south of the border to the Mexican government following that country’s revolution and land reforms, and in an era in which unscrupulous developers routinely stole land from Mexican American landowners.

In that great Texas tradition, oil and gas were found on many of their ranches. Gloria and Hector had no children, and when they died, their wills created the Hector and Gloria Lopez Foundation, which awards scholarships to first-generation Hispanic college students in several Texas cities. That foundation is now worth more than $200 million and is one of the country’s largest scholarship funds for Hispanic students.

They found Viking coins worth millions using metal detectors — but their discovery led to prison

And as for the gold? The family executor, a nephew of Gloria and Hector, was tasked with locating a Texas museum to donate the 400 remaining gold coins. After searching throughout the state, he chose the Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg, Tex., about an hour south of where the gold had been buried. He selected it because of the diversity of the museum’s board of trustees. Currently, the museum is showing an exhibit called Dr. Garcia’s Gold.

The gold coins are safely stored in a bank lockbox. In perfect condition, the value of the coins, some minted as early as 1836, could be as high as $12 million. But, alas, the coins are not in mint condition. Most of them have a mark believed to be a toothmark. Francisco Guajardo, the Museum of South Texas’s CEO, theorizes that during the brief time he was a rich man, the plumber Serafin Trevino bit into each of the coins to ensure they were real.

Carlos Sanchez, a longtime journalist, is director of public affairs for Hidalgo County, Tex.

The post Dr. Garcia’s gold: Buried Texas treasure, a authorized battle and a scholarship appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — Scientists, researchers, and volunteers are working on an Olympian quest – to restore the Olympian oyster to once-historic levels at a coastal wetland along the Monterey Bay, an effort that may help to curb the impacts of the warming climate.

At the legendary Swan Oyster Depot in San Francisco, the line forms early. If you’re lucky to get a seat at the seafood counter, you’re in for a treat: the restaurant just got a fresh shipment of the only oyster native to the West Coast of North America.

The Olympia oyster, native to the Puget Sound area and named after Olympia, Washington, is as small as a silver dollar but big in flavor. They are described as slightly briny with a coppery finish.

“I grew up eating these oysters and I think they’re just fantastic,” exclaimed Swan co-owner Steve Sancimino

Olympias are not endangered, but their once-abundant numbers have dramatically declined, largely due to overharvesting and mining practices during California’s Gold Rush, as well as persistent problems of pollution and loss of habitat.

Scientists, researchers, and volunteers are working to restore the Olympias to their historic levels in the wild. At this point, the Olympia oysters are not able to reproduce at numbers that can be self-sustaining.

One Bay Area restoration site is located at one of California’s largest estuaries.

“We are here to bring back oysters to Elkhorn Slough where they have lived for millennia,” explained Dr. Kerstin Wasson, who heads up the pioneering restoration project at the slough and works for NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve. “We’re doing it with optimism and hoping that if we can bring back a million oysters to Elkhorn Slough, they’ll be self-sustaining. And today is one step towards that goal.”

In the slough, because of agricultural runoff from the Salinas River, the restored oysters won’t be harvested. But their intended role is big and critical: to filter water, stabilize the shoreline, sequester carbon, and provide habitat for other creatures – all big benefits as the planet warms.

“It’s really important that we help to restore this population,” said Dr. Luke Gardner, who works for California Sea Grant as an aquaculture extension specialist. He also works for Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, which is administered by San Jose State University.

At the lab’s aquaculture hatchery, specialists “borrow” adult Olympias from the wild at Elkhorn Slough and bring them back to the hatchery to breed baby oysters that will be involved in the restoration effort.

“In a hatchery, we can control a lot of the environment and we can make sure those little babies make it through to being juveniles,” noted Gardner.

The baby oysters require tender loving care: micro-algae for food, the right temperatures, protection from predators, and plenty of fresh water.

“They’re very needy and very dirty so they are really fun to take care of, but they need a lot of attention,” said Moss Landing Marine Lab scientist Jacob Harris.

Harris told CBS News Bay Area that when the baby oysters are ready, they attach to hard surfaces, including large clam shells that are also collected from the slough. Gardner and Harris carefully gather the oyster-encrusted clam shells, put them in special mesh bags, and pack them in a cooler.

They also collected baby Olympias from their water-filled silos and put them in plastic tubs to be loaded into the van headed to Elkhorn Slough There, scientists and volunteers enthusiastically jumped into action to unpack the precious cargo.

California State University, Monterey Bay student Taylor Garcia is aware of the world’s warming change and says she wants to be part of the solution.

“There always has to be optimism when it comes to this line of work,” said Garcia. “I guess because without it, you really wouldn’t get anywhere.”

The work is unusual but makes a lot of sense. Each volunteer is tasked with counting each baby oyster stuck to a shell or floating in a small container of water. They then measure the largest one that they can spy on each shell. They then record their findings on an iPad and secure each clamshell to PVC pipes tagged with a unique identifying number.

Once all the oysters are counted, secured, and tagged – there were about 80,000 baby oysters on all the shells – the volunteers picked up the PVC pipes, and now clad in rubber boots, caravaned with their treasures down to the estuary. There, the volunteers formed a brigade, carefully passing the pipes down to the scientists, who planted them into the muddy goop and low tidal waters of Hester Marsh. The scientists will continue to monitor these sites and record what happens with each group of oysters.

“The oysters have been here for 7,000 years and on my watch, I don’t want to see them disappear from Elkhorn Slough,” said Wasson, as she lined up the pipes.

Back at Swan’s, patrons thought the effort was well worth it. If they can restore the oysters in the wild at Elkhorn Slough, perhaps they’ll see more of all kinds of oysters growing in the wild.

“I think it’s a great initiative. It benefits not only the environment but also folks who truly love oysters. So, I think it’s a win-win for everybody,” said customer Phirun Pheap.

It didn’t matter to Sancimino that these oysters were not intended to be harvested and eaten. He said that was not the point, and applauded the scientists and researchers involved.

“I’ll be honest with you, if what they’re trying to establish down in the slough works, that’ll be one step closer to reviving a native species and putting it where it belongs in this state,” declared Sancimino, as he offered fresh Olympias to his happy customers.

The post Revival of once-abundant Olympia oyster inhabitants might assist struggle results of local weather change | Information appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

From the 74-acre expanse of Marina Green, visitors can enjoy what some consider San Francisco’s last unspoiled waterfront vista – with unobstructed views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and Angel Island.

Not far from the greensward, lies the polluted site of Gashouse Cove, where a 19th century plant made gas to light and heat homes. It operated until just after the 1906 earthquake.

A plan in the works to clean up some of the waste from that plant has neighbors outraged. They say it will not clean up all the waste in the cove, and will force relocation of more than 200 boats that will block what has long been unspoiled bay views.

“The Marina Green is my front yard,” said Erin Roach, who has lived alongside Marina Green for three decades. She watched as her neighbors have fought to make PG&E clean up the toxic residue left in the area from the gas plants that were torn down long ago. “We have a long legacy of battles with PG&E,” she says.   

The cleanup is to isolate or remove contamination from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a class of chemicals that turns up in the soil and water surrounding the plants and is tied to birth defects and cancer. Some of that waste still bubbles up at the Gashouse Cove next door to the Marina Green.

Roach says she was relieved when the city reached a $190 million deal with the utility to pay to clean up the cove. But then she learned that the settlement came with what she considers an unthinkable price – the loss of the park’s expansive views of the bay. 

“When I heard that they want to put a new harbor in front of the Marina Green,” Roach said, “it kind of broke my heart.”

The plan calls for closing much of the harbor in Gashouse Cove and moving boats from there into a new larger one, running along the green. Neighbors responded by forming a group called “Keep the Waterfront Open.”

There’s a plan in the works to clean up a toxic mess along San Francisco’s shore. But neighbors say the plan comes at an unacceptable price — ruining the city’s last unspoiled waterfront view. NBC Bay Area’s Jaxon Van Derbeken has more.

“Let’s face it, San Francisco’s not the most popular city in the country right now — and this is a really beloved spot,” Roach said. “It’s a bad time for us to be giving something away that San Franciscans actually really care about and love.’’

“There’s magic here,” said Bill Clarke, who lives in the city’s Mission District, but has volunteered in the past to keep the park clean. The retired restaurateur says he has a boat docked nearby and joined the movement when he heard what park planners had in mind.

“It’s not just for the neighborhood,” he said. “It’s not just for San Francisco. It’s for all kinds of different people coming from all over the place.

“It’s such a treasure,” he added. “I can’t imagine them taking it away.”

At a Recreation and Parks board committee meeting this month, city officials hailed the Marina Improvement and Remediation Project as an historic deal that breaks a two decade long legal logjam over cleanup with PG&E.  

 “This settlement agreement helps the city achieve its goals of addressing the pollution and reinvesting in the Marina,” said Kelli Rudnick, deputy director of capital for the Recreation and Parks Department.

There will be new amenities, like kayaking and paddleboarding in the partially restored gashouse cove, she told residents, as well as revamped bathrooms serving the park. The goal, Rudnick told residents, is to make the waterfront more accessible to everyone. 

The parks department says that cleanup plan involves covering toxic sediment beneath the bay with clean material — rather than dredging up and hauling away vast amounts of toxic material. That strategy, they say, will both reduce collateral contamination and allow the clean-up to finish in just four years.

Still, neighbors who attended that hearing were not satisfied.

“This room is full of people who don’t want you to build a boat harbor on the Marina Green,” said one of the harbor front group’s organizers, Dan Clarke. Clarke had been engaged in a long legal battle with the utility over cleanup around his Marina home, which he ultimately sold to the utility as part of a legal settlement.  

Others urged that the Marina Green project be sent “back to the drawing board.” One calling it, “an incredible waste of city money” and “a project that is flawed in many ways, unsafe and unwanted by the majority of our citizens.”

The deal faces a key hurdle on Oct. 19, when the city Recreation and Parks board conducts a hearing on next steps, including whether to authorize environmental studies needed to move the project forward.

The post San Francisco’s iconic Marina waterfront neighbors struggle to protect view – NBC Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

HANEY AND PROGRAIS MEET IN BLOCKBUSTER WORLD TITLE CLASH AT CHASE CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO ON DEC 9

‘Rougorou’ defends WBC strap for the second time as ‘The Dream’ aims to become a two-weight World champion

Devin Haney and Regis Prograis will clash in a Super-Lightweight blockbuster at Chase Center in San Francisco, California on Saturday December 9, live on DAZN PPV in North America and on DAZN worldwide.

PRESALE TICKETS GO ON SALE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5 AT NOON PT – FANS INTERESTED IN SIGNING UP FOR PRESALE CAN DO SO HERE.

TICKETS GO ON SALE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 AT NOON PT AT CHASECENTER.COM.

Haney (30-0 15 KOs) returns to his Bay Area roots in his quest to become a two-weight World champion, moving up from 135lbs having become undisputed after beating George Kambosos Jr in Australia in June 2022, and then successfully defended his crown twice, once in a rematch Down Under in October and then against modern-day legend Vasiliy Lomachenko in Las Vegas in May, and now the San Francisco-born 24 year old can make more history in his first fight on his home turf.

Prograis (29-1 24 KOs) puts his WBC title on the line for the second time after successfully seeing off the Danielito Zorrilla on his New Orleans home patch in his first defense in April. ‘Rougarou’ became a two-time holder of the green and gold belt in November when he knocked out Jose Zepeda in the 11th round in Carson, California – and the 34 year old returns to The Golden State to face the former undisputed Lightweight king.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Haney. “It’s been a dream of mine to fight in my hometown. I’m excited for the opportunity to become two-division World champion in The City [The Bay] where it all started. The energy in the building is going to be electric. I haven’t fought at home since I was an amateur, so I’m looking for my city to show up and show out.

“As a kid, I always envisioned fighting at The Oracle in Oakland. Now with Chase Center, I have two dream locations with a bridge between them. So, my first order of business is to blow the roof off Chase Center on December 9 with an amazing event. I picked a focused and hungry champion to invite to my hometown. Regis is going to be trying to knock me out and that’s exactly what I need him to be TRYING to do. This is what you do when you are the youngest promoter in boxing. I’m the real face of boxing. December 9. Legacy and Money.

“On paper this is a tough fight because it’s my first fight at a heavier weight division. I’m comfortable with the plan have. God willing, I’m going to be stronger and faster than ever. I’m going to dominate him, and the Welterweight division will be put on notice.

“It’s never personal, this is a business at the end of the day. We’re two gentlemen at the end of the day, but when we get in the ring, we don’t have respect for each other. I’m going to go in in there and do my job.”

“Finally, we’re ready to go on Saturday, December 9 and I can’t wait to put on a show,” said Prograis. “I’ve already started training camp and I’ll be more than ready to do what I do best.

“Devin has done well at 135lbs but I’m the best in the world at 140lbs and I will prove that once again!

“Since my last fight they mentioned Devin’s name and that’s the only person I’ve had on my mind. I will not only beat him, but I will beat him up. I will hurt this kid. It’s nothing he can do that’s going to stop me from dominating. It’s going to be a massacre. Again, I will hurt him.”

“It’s been quite a journey from East Oakland,” said Bill Haney, Devin’s father and trainer. “Everything us represents “The Bay.” Strong and independent. It’s surreal to finally get a chance to go home where The Dream started.

“We’re taking this fight seriously. Regis is a tough guy from New Orleans. He’s a two-time champion with KO power, so he speaks with confidence. I’m anticipating a sharp strong Devin Haney at 140 lbs. This is why this is an exciting matchup.
“This fight shows the level of competition Devin is going after, and there’s no built-in excuse for either fighter. They both need to fight each other to get where they’re going. It’s a winner-take-all.”

“Regis will show that he is the best 140lb boxer in the world,” said Bobby Benton, Regis’ trainer. “He will get to show all of his skills and also his IQ against Haney.”

“I am thrilled that we can finally get our teeth into talking about one of the best fights of 2023,” said promoter Eddie Hearn. “The build-up to this one is going to be like the fight itself – intense, fiery, and explosive. There is no love lost between them and bragging rights alone are a huge prize on offer, but with Regis wanting to prove he’s the man to beat at 140lbs and Devin aiming to become a two-weight World champion as a homecoming hero, the stakes simply couldn’t be higher on what promises to be an electric night of action in San Francisco.”

The mouth-watering clash is another huge addition to DAZN’s stunning schedule to close 2023. London is the scene for World title action this weekend as Australian Cruiserweight king Jai Opetaia defends his IBF and Ring Magazine titles against Jordan Thompson, and the following weekend (October 7) an all-British blockbuster sees Nottingham’s Leigh Wood defend his WBA World Featherweight title against Leeds’ Josh Warrington in Sheffield.

Leading Super-Lightweight star Jack Catterall has hometown advantage on October 21, but former World ruler Jorge Linares has fond memories of Manchester and will be looking to rekindle them in what promises to be a war. A week later, the action switches to Cancun in Mexico as O’Shaquie Foster defends his WBC World Super-Featherweight title against big punching Mexican Rocky Hernandez.

The Super-Featherweight division remains the focus when Matchroom return to Monte Carlo on November 4, where Joe Cordina will defend his IBF World title against Texan Edward Vazquez. The next American show on Hearn’s packed slate sees future Super-Middleweight ruler Diego Pacheco continues his rise in a hometown show in Los Angeles against Marcelo Coceres.

After an incredible night in Dublin in May, Chantelle Cameron and Katie Taylor meet again in the Irish capital for the Undisputed Super-Lightweight crown, and the week after Haney and Prograis clash, there’s another fight that has boxing fans purring, as Jesse Rodriguez and Sunny Edwards head to Glendale, Arizona in a Flyweight unification battle.

“What a great night of boxing this will be”, said Jared Kass, SVP North America, “A proper fighter’s fight, which will see two of the divisions finest facing off in December in San Francisco. Watch Devin Haney vs Regis Prograis live and exclusive on DAZN PPV on December 9.”

Haney vs. Prograis is the first boxing event to be held at the world-class Chase Center in San Francisco. Opening its doors in 2019, Chase Center is an award-winning 18,064-seat sports and entertainment arena in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood that is home to the seven-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors and San Francisco’s top events and performances.

The post Regis Prograis to combat December 9 vs. Devin Haney in San Francisco – Crescent Metropolis Sports activities appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

LONDON (AP) — Wildfires fueled by climate change have ravaged communities from Maui to the Mediterranean this summer, killing many people, exhausting firefighters and fueling demand for new solutions. Enter artificial intelligence.

Firefighters and startups are using AI-enabled cameras to scan the horizon for signs of smoke. A German company is building a constellation of satellites to detect fires from space. And Microsoft is using AI models to predict where the next blaze could be sparked.

With wildfires becoming larger and more intense as the world warms, firefighters, utilities and governments are scrambling to get ahead of the flames by tapping into the latest AI technology — which has stirred both fear and excitement for its potential to transform life. While increasingly stretched first responders hope AI offers them a leg up, humans are still needed to check that the tech is accurate.

California’s main firefighting agency this summer started testing an AI system that looks for smoke from more than 1,000 mountaintop camera feeds and is now expanding it statewide.

The system is designed to find “abnormalities” and alert emergency command centers, where staffers will confirm whether it’s indeed smoke or something else in the air.

“The beauty of this is that it immediately pops up on the screen and those dispatchers or call takers are able to interrogate that screen” and determine whether to send a crew, said Phillip SeLegue, staff chief of intelligence for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The cameras, part of a network that workers previously had to watch, provide billions of bytes of data for the AI system to digest. While humans still need to confirm any smoke sightings, the system helps reduce fatigue among staffers typically monitoring multiple screens and cameras, alerting them to look only when there’s possible fire or smoke, SeLegue said.

It’s already helped. A battalion chief got a smoke alert in the middle of the night, confirmed it on his cellphone and called a command center in San Diego to scramble first responders to the remote area.

The dispatchers said that if they hadn’t been alerted, the fire would have been much larger because it likely wouldn’t have been noticed until the next morning, SeLegue said.

San Francisco startup Pano AI takes a similar approach, mounting cameras on cell towers that scan for smoke and alert customers, including fire departments, utility companies and ski resorts.

The cameras use computer vision machine learning, a type of AI.

“They’re trained very specifically to detect smoke or not, and we train them with images of smoke and images of not smoke,” CEO Sonia Kastner said.

The images are combined with feeds from government weather satellites that scan for hotspots, along with other data sources, such as social media posts.

The technology gets around one of the main problems in the traditional way of detecting wildfires — relying on 911 calls from passers-by that need confirmation from staffers before crews and water-dropping planes can be deployed.

“Generally, only one in 20 of these 911 calls are actually a wildfire. Even during fire season, it might be a cloud or fog or a barbecue,” Kastner said.

Pano AI’s systems do still rely on final confirmation, with managers playing a time lapse of the camera feed to ensure it’s smoke rising.

For fighting forest fires, “technology is becoming really essential,” said Larry Bekkedahl, senior vice president of energy delivery at Portland General Electric, Oregon’s largest utility and a Pano AI customer.

Utility companies sometimes play a role in sparking wildfires, when their power lines are knocked down by wind or struck by falling trees. Hawaii’s electric utility acknowledged that its power lines started a devastating blaze in Maui this summer after apparently being downed by high winds.

PGE, which provides electricity to 51 cities in Oregon, has deployed 26 Pano AI cameras, and Bekkedahl said they have helped speed up response and coordination with emergency services.

Previously, fire departments were “running around looking for stuff and not even really knowing exactly where it’s at,” he said. The cameras help detect fires quicker and get teams on the ground faster, shaving up to two hours off response times.

“That’s significant in terms of how fast that fire can can spread and grow,” Bekkedahl said.

Using AI to detect smoke from fires “is relatively easy,” said Juan Lavista Ferres, chief data scientist at Microsoft.

“What is not easy is to have enough cameras that cover enough places,” he said, pointing to vast, remote areas in northern Canada that have burned this summer.

Ferres’ team at Microsoft has been developing AI models to predict where fires are likely to start. They have fed the model with maps of areas that burned previously, along with climate and geospatial data.

The system has its limitations — it can’t predict random events like a lightning strike. But it can sift through historical weather and climate data to identify patterns, such as areas that are typically drier. Even a road, which indicates people are nearby, is a risk factor, Ferres said.

“It’s not going to get it all perfectly right,” he said. “But what it can do is it can build a probability map (based on) what happened in the past.”

The technology, which Microsoft plans to offer as an open source tool, can help first responders trying to figure out where to focus their limited resources, Ferres said.

Another company is looking to the heavens for a solution. German startup OroraTech analyzes satellite images with artificial intelligence.

Taking advantage of advances in camera, satellite and AI technology, OroraTech has launched two mini satellites about the size of a shoebox into low orbit, about 550 kilometers (340 miles) above Earth’s surface. The Munich-based company has ambitions to send up eight more next year and eventually put 100 into space.

As wildfires swept central Chile this year, OroraTech said it provided thermal images at night when aerial drones are used less frequently.

Weeks after OroraTech launched its second satellite, it detected a fire near the community of Keg River in northern Alberta, where flames burned remote stretches of boreal forest repeatedly this summer.

“There are algorithms on the satellite, very efficient ones to detect fires even faster,” CEO Thomas Gruebler said.

The AI also takes into account vegetation and humidity levels to identify flare-ups that could spawn devastating megafires. The technology could help thinly stretched firefighting agencies direct resources to blazes with the potential to cause the most damage.

“Because we know exactly where the fires are, we can see how the fires will propagate,” Gruebler said. “So, which fire will be the big fire in one day and which will stop on their own.”

___

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco contributed.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

The post The specter of wildfires is rising. So is new synthetic intelligence options to struggle them appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The proclamation Friday was reminiscent of Breed’s bold claim in 2021 that the city would crack down on the “bulls— that has destroyed our city,” which she said in announcing an emergency plan to address the drug and overdose crisis in the Tenderloin.

That effort brought together multiple city agencies to ramp up enforcement of dealing, clear sidewalks and offer new public health responses to drug use such as opening what became a supervised consumption site called the Tenderloin Center.

The facility closed at the end of 2022, a few months after Newsom vetoed legislation that would have allowed San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland to pilot safe consumption sites. Breed said the plan was only meant to be temporary and, on Friday, added the center “didn’t quite work out.”

Residents wait in line to get into the Tenderloin Linkage Center (also known as the Tenderloin Center), a now-defunct safe consumption site in San Francisco, on Feb. 8, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

After the closing of the Tenderloin Center and the emergency plan’s winding down, overdose rates have again increased in 2023, data from the Office of the Medical Examiner shows.

Meanwhile, public safety advocates applauded the governor’s decision to increase law enforcement around the issue, at a time when the San Francisco Police Department is struggling to recruit and retain a full workforce.

“Just the mere presence of our officers we believe will help deter and disrupt criminal activity,” Duryee said.

Newsom said that his plan “will not seek to criminalize those struggling with substance use and instead focus on disrupting the supply fueling the fentanyl crisis by holding drug suppliers and traffickers accountable,” according to a press release on the plan.

But addiction experts and advocates for people who use drugs say the move could nonetheless have unintended consequences, and negatively affect people who struggle with addiction and lack access to housing, health care or other support systems.

The post Newsom Faucets California Freeway Patrol, Nationwide Guard to Combat San Francisco’s Fentanyl Disaster appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A homeless encampment is seen in the Tenderloin of San Francisco, California, on June 6, 2023.

San Francisco
CNN
 — 

The California Highway Patrol may best be known for freeway chases and the Hollywood glamour of its motorcycle cops in television shows like “ChiPs.” But now the storied agency is patrolling the streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin as part of a multiagency effort to crack down on rampant drug dealing that’s decimating the 50-square-block area.

On one day recently, CNN watched as task force members arrested a suspected drug dealer accused of selling meth and fentanyl. Inside a plastic bag: 33 grams of fentanyl that CHP officer Andy Barclay estimates, at its worst, could potentially kill thousands of people.

“We’re looking at around 16,500 fatal doses of pure fentanyl in that small bag. Yes, 16,500 people could potentially die,” Barclay said.

A mother was raising her son in a city she loved. Then San Francisco changed and stole her boy

California Governor Gavin Newsom is spearheading the crackdown by adding resources to a problem that isn’t unique to San Francisco but has entered the national spotlight as the city’s liberal politicians face scrutiny over a perceived rise in crime.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s office says the CHP has made 100 drug-related arrests since May 30. In the last three months, according to her office, local agencies have arrested 300 suspected drug dealers, and local and state agencies have seized 103 kilos of narcotics, including 56 kilos, or 123 pounds, of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin.

“I’m proud of the CHP and CalGuard’s lifesaving efforts to shut down the Tenderloin’s poison pipeline and hold drug traffickers accountable,” Newsom said a month after shifting some CHP resources from the state’s freeways to the city’s streets.

The Tenderloin is considered ground zero for San Francisco’s open air drug market, which only expanded after Covid-19, forcing Breed to declare a state of emergency in 2021. It’s commonplace to see people using and selling drugs. Human waste, used needles and bullet casings litter the sidewalks. All the squalor is a short walk from the city’s popular Union Square – the central shopping district that attracts tourists to its upscale hotels and stores.

It’s not just crime: What’s really going on with San Francisco’s shrinking retail district

Despite the major crackdown, residents and business owners told CNN they don’t see the results in their everyday life.

No one CNN spoke with wanted to go on camera for fear of retaliation and harassment, except for Martha Hughes. She’s lived in the Tenderloin for 24 years. “I’m not scared of them; I’m not scared of anything,” she said. She’s seen the deterioration of the area firsthand. “More drug addicts, more drug dealers,” she said. “It’s just bad.”

She supports the police crackdown but doesn’t think it’s working. Her plan is to leave when she can find a more affordable living situation.

“I’m moving in a couple of years. I had to have surgery this year so I don’t have the money, but I’m out of here as soon as I can afford it. I blame this all on the politicians and they don’t really seem to care. They have a lot of big talk but there’s not enough action really,” Hughes said.

One of those politicians is San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. She was elected in 2022 after voters, fed up with crime, recalled previous district attorney, Chesa Boudin.

“We appear to be failing as city leaders,” she told CNN. “I want them to know that I am working every day to ensure that the situation changes. But I’m only one part of this system. I have had to be very vocal about the fact that there is another part of the system right now that is failing them.”

Watch: What happened to San Francisco?

Jenkins says her office has filed almost 1,000 drug dealing cases, and she’s tried to detain the most serious offenders pending trial.

“Unfortunately, they’re cycling back out onto the street almost immediately after the arrest in our case is filed to date,” she said, pointing a finger at Superior Court judges.

CNN was unable to independently confirm Jenkins’ claims. The San Francisco Superior Court had no comment.

In the last year, Jenkins said her office filed motions to keep 200 of the most egregious drug dealers behind bars while they await trial. Of the 200 motions to detain that were filed, only 17 were granted, according to Jenkins. Judges allowed the rest out on their recognizance. In these cases, the defendant agrees to appear in court when required and to comply with any imposed restrictions or conditions. In some cases, Jenkins said, the suspects did not return for hearing dates or broke the law while released.

“I’m not going to take the blame when my prosecutors are going in and arguing that these people have to remain in custody. The judges are not doing their part and that has to be revealed,” Jenkins said.

The post Medicine are offered out within the open in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Contained in the battle to curb it appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

If you’ve ever witnessed Mark Dacascos in action, whether in movies or on cooking shows, you know that his fight scenes are nothing short of extraordinary. From his appearances as Zero in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum to his impressive moves as an Iron Chef, Dacascos always delivers a jaw-dropping performance.

Now, Dacascos has joined the highly anticipated third season of Warrior, the HBO series that explores the Tong Wars of 19th Century San Francisco. The show, also available on Sky Max in the UK, takes viewers to the heart of Chinatown during a power-struggle between rival gangs, delivering eye-popping fight sequences that were originally conceived by Bruce Lee for the 1970s TV series Kung Fu.

According to a report by Empireonline.com, Dacascos portrays Kong Park, the mentor of Li Yong (played by Joe Taslim), an enforcer for the Tong gang. Together, they are set to cause significant trouble for the show’s protagonist, Ah Sahm, played by Andrew Koji, throughout the third season.

Warrior Season 3 promises exciting new additions to the storyline, including a thrilling mayoral race in San Francisco. Moreover, an incoming police chief is determined to clean up Chinatown, adding chaos and tension to the already volatile situation. And of course, viewers can expect numerous intense fight scenes that will keep them on the edge of their seats.

If you’re a fan of the show or enjoy thrilling action-packed series, mark your calendars for Warrior Season 3, premiering on Sky and NOW later this summer. In the meantime, you can watch the exhilarating fight clip featuring Mark Dacascos on repeat, and anticipate an even bigger, badder, and brawlier season.

Credit: empireonline.com

ENND

Happy New Month

Ah SahmAndrew KojiBruce LeeCentury San FranciscoIron ChefJoe TaslimKeanu ReevesKong ParkKung FuLi YongLi Yong (JMark DacascosSan FranciscoSky MaxTong WarsTong Wars of San FranciscoWarrior SeasonZero in John Wick

NNN is an online news portal that focuses on delivering up-to-date and timely breaking news from around the world. NNN provides readers with the latest news articles, reports, and analysis on a wide range of topics, including politics, business, technology, entertainment, sports, and more. To get in touch, please email editor @ nnn.ng. Disclaimer.

The post Mark Dacascos Joins Warrior Season 3 With Epic Struggle Scenes appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.