Marcus Semien might not be in his hometown playing for the Athletics anymore, but the Bay Area always will hold a special place in his heart.

That includes Oakland and the A’s organization.

As the team works toward relocating from the East Bay to Las Vegas, the former A’s shortstop, who now plays with the Texas Rangers, weighed in on the potential move.

“I won’t believe that they’re moving until they’re actually gone,” Semien said Monday before the Rangers-A’s three-game series at the Coliseum. “I’m an East Bay resident, the A’s mean a lot to this community. The A’s are a reason I wanted to play baseball.

“I got to come here and watch Major League Baseball, just hop on BART and sit in left field and watch the best of the best play. Them being in the Bay Area is a reason I’m here.”

Semien played in Oakland from 2015 to 2020, with his best season in 2019 when he hit .285/.369/.522 with 33 home runs and 92 RBIs. That same season, he finished third in AL MVP award voting.

His success continued after leaving the Bay. Semien shined with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2021 before landing in Texas the following season on a seven-year deal. Semien isn’t the only beloved Bay Area baseball tie that the Rangers have.

Former Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who helped lead San Francisco to three World Series titles, came out of his three-year retirement to become the Rangers manager in 2023. Bochy, too, addressed the possible relocation and hopes the City of Oakland won’t stop fighting.

“I hope they keep trying,” he said. “I loved my time that I had here. The exciting games that we played here. I feel for the fans.”

The A’s are far from done in their efforts to move to Sin City. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the paperwork for the official relocation process is underway, but there still are some steps remaining, starting with a 75 percent approval rate from league owners.

Until then, voices around the league will continue to speak on the controversial situation.

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San Francisco Fleet Week is unique because it features a disaster response joint training exercise designed to train military forces and local, county, state and federal government agencies to work together to respond to natural and man-made disasters, such as earthquakes, wildfires and industrial accidents. During her keynote address at the fleet week’s Senior Leader Symposium, Ms. Berger spoke to senior leaders in the federal, state and local emergency management field and highlighted the DON’s recently-released Climate Action 2030 strategy, which sets the course for the Navy and Marine Corps to build climate resilience and reduce the climate threat while partnering with communities to tackle shared challenges.

“Changes in global climate and other threats like pandemics are increasingly challenging our Naval forces, platforms, infrastructure and supporting communities, and intensifying conflict and humanitarian disasters around the world,” said Ms. Berger. “A more volatile world calls on the United States Navy and Marine Corps, increasing demands on our forces at home and overseas, while simultaneously impacting our capacity to respond to those demands.”

The Navy has a long history of working closely with communities in California to make Navy and Marine Corps installations climate-ready. Last year, the DON and the California Energy Commission renewed a Memorandum of Understanding to streamline collaboration and accelerate initiatives for energy and water-related projects. In September 2022, the Navy launched a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Port of San Diego to participate in California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard program, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and advance energy resilience investments in San Diego.

“We are making significant strides in partnership with California and worldwide in ensuring the DON is resilient in the face of climate change, working hand in hand with local communities and industry,” said Ms. Berger. “Recent partnerships with the California Energy Commission and Port of San Diego are critical to our climate work in the region and supports our efforts by building resilience to climate impacts and taking decisive action to reduce the climate threat.”

San Francisco Fleet Week offers the public an opportunity to take a tour of the ships and interact with service members as they showcase their ships’, units’, and services’ capabilities. It also gives the public a chance to gain a better understanding of how the sea services support the national defense of the United States and protect freedom of the seas.

For more information on San Francisco Fleet Week please visit: https://fleetweeksf.org/

The post San Francisco Fleet Week 2022 Highlights DON Catastrophe Response Capabilities, Partnerships, Local weather Motion > United States Navy > display-pressreleases appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion established Roe v. Wade, the city of San Francisco is bracing itself for potential fallout.

According to a June 24 press release from the mayor’s office, the city is working with abortion advocacy group The San Francisco Department of the Status of Women (DOSW) to identify initial steps that the city will take to prepare for the potential influx of out- of-state travelers seeking abortion services. Part of that plan includes distributing $250,000 in emergency grants to local organizations so that San Franciscans can continue receiving adequate service despite this potential influx.

The announcement also says that DOSW is in the early stages of coordinating with Bay Area advocacy groups and government agencies to assess the types of services that are currently available throughout the region — and to determine what else is needed to prepare for any future rulings that might Impact abortion services at a state level.

They’re currently assessing the capacities of abortion services in San Francisco specifically, as well.

Additionally, in June of this year, The Bar Association of San Francisco and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu introduced the Legal Alliance for Reproductive Rights: a new volunteer effort between law firms that aims to provide free legal services to people affected by the Roe v . Wade ruling.

“This decision is devastating to women and our country,” Mayor London Breed said in the press release. “San Francisco has proudly served for generations as a place that respects fundamental civil rights, including a women’s right to choose. The ramifications from this Supreme Court ruling on public health, poverty, and so many downstream consequences have yet to be seen, but right now, women are scared about what this means for them, for their daughters, for all of us.”

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Recent reports from health officials in California have indicated that the state is experiencing a sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with an exceptionally high positivity rate in the San Francisco Bay Area. The state’s health department revealed that, as of May 28, the top three counties include Contra Costa, with 12.3 percent, and Marin and Solano, both with 10.9 percent. Experts warn that gatherings associated with the Memorial Day weekend will exacerbate the situation, leading to further infections and hospitalizations.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay Area reported a COVID-19 incidence of 54 per 100,000 residents on May 20, an 80 percent increase from the previous week’s 30, while hospitalizations nearly doubled over the last month to a total of 1,708 .

Teachers protest for stronger COVID-19 safety protocols outside Oakland Unified School District headquarters on Jan. 7, 2022, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

This significant upsurge has emerged as part of the pandemic’s sixth wave under conditions in which, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on May 20, the United States’ seven-day moving average daily case rate increased by 18.8 percent relative to the previous week, along with the 24.2 percent rise in hospitalizations, both largely driven by the highly infectious and immune-evading BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariants.

The official numbers put out by the CDC, however, are likely to underestimate the infection rate, as they fail to account for asymptomatic infections or sick individuals who do not get tested. dr Bob Wachter, chair of medicine at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), recently told the New York Times that as many as one in 20 people are asymptomatic but infectious with COVID-19.

Recent data has pointed out that even infected individuals who feel fine can later suffer from long-term complications caused by COVID.

Rather than stimulating calls for the immediate closure of schools and nonessential workplaces or even the reinstatement of mask mandates—necessary measures that effectively curtail transmission—state and local officials have largely responded to this latest surge with feckless recommendations for indoor masking, in line with the Biden administration’s adamant opposition to any collective strategy to elminate SARS-CoV-2 in favor of forcing individuals to learn to “live with the virus” that has already killed at least one million Americans.

Almost two weeks ago, parroting Biden’s rhetoric, California’s Chief Epidemiologist and Deputy Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Dr. Erica Pan intimated that residents ought to resign themselves to “learning how to live with this virus,” despite that it “continues to throw curveballs” and could develop into variants capable of evading “our immunity to an extent that we really have a much larger one impact on our infrastructure.” Pan further dismissed even limited measures such as broad mask requirements and stated that a mask mandate would be considered only if there is an “increase in deaths that is really unusual severely.”

In response to last week’s discovery in local wastewater of the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants—which are even more transmissible than BA.2 and BA.2.12.1—Santa Clara County Deputy Health Officer Dr. George Han threw his hands up, stating that the continual introduction of “more and more subvariants” into his jurisdiction “is to be expected.”

Amid rampant spread of COVID-19 in the county, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has admitted to becoming infected with the virus. On May 23 Liccardo tweeted that he is “thankful that my vaccination has prevented any serious symptoms” and encouraged “everyone to get vaccinated, mask up indoors, and utilize free covid tests.” This was not followed by any endorsement of future lockdowns or even mask mandates, measures that would have prevented his own infection.

San Jose, which has a population of just under 2 million, is the largest city by population in the Bay Area and the tenth largest city in the US.

Despite walkouts of students in the Bay Area last January to demand adequate masking and outdoor seating, May spokespeople for the San Francisco Unified School District and Oakland Unified School District rejected any changes to their mask-optional policies.

On May 19, the Chronicle reached out to several public school officials in the region, including spokespeople for the San Francisco and Oakland school districts, who “uniformly” rejected any changes to their mask-optional policies. Representing the former, Laura Dudnick, seeking to assume students’ and parents’ concerns, said that the district is “following public health guidance and strongly encouraging vaccines and… masking.” Most Bay Area school districts are taking their lead.

Exemplifying the bankruptcy of this policy, in early April about 90 out of 600 attendees at San Mateo High School’s prom event, held at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, tested positive for COVID. As the Mercury News reported, although students “were strongly recommended” to wear masks, many “chose not to.”

While many officials openly downplayed the mounting threat of the current surge, some schools have been forced to implement stricter—though still limited—measures to appeal to their constituents.

Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) reinstated its mask mandates last Monday, which were lifted following Newsom’s mid-March ending of the statewide mandates, for the remaining two weeks of the school year. According to the district’s public information officer Trish McDermott, this decision was made at the recommendation of a city public health officer in the face of rising infections, often involving “at least three or more. .. occurring in the classroom, sometimes as many as five or six.”

As early as late April, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, which serves 50 stations throughout the region, began requiring riders to mask up until at least mid-July. To encourage compliance, BART police is providing masks to unmasked riders and imposing $75 citations on those who violate the mandate.

Regional health experts largely concur on the causes of the upsurge. UCSF infectious disease specialists Dr. George Rutherford and Dr. Peter Chin-Hong point to BA.2 and BA.2.12.1, which are 30-50 percent and 25 percent more transmissible than the parent Omicron virus, respectively. Further factors, notes Dr. Wachter, include the region’s high proportion of both residents who have been able to work remotely during the pandemic and—due to loosened restrictions—suddenly being exposed to the virus, and of those who have never become infected.

The evidence is a damning indictment of the response to the pandemic by both Democratic and Republican officials at the federal, state, and local levels, who march in lockstep with each other imposing the same unscientific, expressly anti-working-class policies in the interests of the financial elites. The purpose of these policies is not to protect the broad masses of American workers but, on the contrary, to ensure the unimpeded generation of profits from their labor, whatever the cost in lives and livelihoods.

To defend its own interests against the ruling class’ rapacious policy of mass death, it is vital for workers in California to form rank-and-file safety committees, independent of the trade unions and the Democratic Party, in workplaces and schools throughout the state . We urge all who agree with this perspective to contact the World Socialist Web Site today and help build and expand the West Coast Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees.

The post San Francisco Bay Space turns into California’s COVID-19 hotspot after serving as mannequin for pandemic response appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

A man named Nicholas gets care in an ambulance after overdosing in San Francisco, Calif.

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A man named Nicholas gets care in an ambulance after overdosing in San Francisco, Calif.

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It’s a sun-filled, fall day and Nicholas is strapped to an ambulance gurney near 8th and Market streets in downtown San Francisco, dazed and barely conscious. Plastic IV tubes snake around his left hand where L-O-V-E is tattooed just below his knuckles.

“Nicholas, try to wake up a little bit for me, come on,” paramedic Paula Fartash coaxes, as she unsuccessfully tries to rouse him from his drug-induced stupor.

Nicholas (we’re not using his last name because of the stigma of addiction) tells Fartash that when he started getting high in nearby U.N. Plaza park, he assumed he was smoking his drug of choice.

“This gentleman thought that he was doing meth,” the veteran San Francisco Fire Department paramedic says. “And turned out he was actually doing fentanyl as well,” the synthetic opioid many times more powerful than heroin. “So he walked over to someone and they gave him some Narcan.”

That’s the brand name for naloxone, the emergency nasal spray drug used to try to reverse an otherwise potentially fatal overdose. That someone who administered life-saving antidote was a nearby volunteer and street cleaner carrying Narcan. It’s part of a city-supported program.

San Francisco has among the highest per capita drug overdose death rates of any city in the U.S.

Faced with a stunning rise in drug overdose deaths the last few years, the vast majority tied to fentanyl, San Francisco has launched mobile teams made up of paramedics and nurses. The new Street Overdose Response Teams (SORT), a collaboration between the city’s health and fire departments, aim to deliver a broad range of support and care directly following an overdose.

“Fentanyl is a game-changer,” Dr. Hillary Kunins, the city’s director of behavioral and mental health services, says of the opioid that’s 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. “It requires a new way of thinking and resourcing.” It also, she says, “requires people to learn to work across disciplines and sometimes across organizations.”

San Francisco Department of Public Health nurses with the Street Overdose Response Team hand out Narcan as part of a broader effort to contact and help those who have recently overdosed.

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Registered nurse Louise Bisby is part of the city’s mobile outreach team that aims to help people who recently overdosed with a broad range of support services, from treatment to housing.

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Dr. Kunins previously led New York City’s response to its overdose and substance abuse crisis. She concedes they aren’t sure what combination of tools, ultimately, will work best here to not only reduce fentanyl and other drug-related deaths but also boost treatment success rates.

So the street overdose pilot project is part of a broad and ambitious strategy of interventions across city agencies.

“There is no single approach that’s going to solve this complex problem,” Kunins says. “What’s exciting and important about the work is that it is really part of a movement across the country to rethink how we address people who are at risk of overdose, who have ongoing other challenges: mental health, housing, food. And we must do this work to scale.”

Fentanyl forced city officials to change how they approached harm reduction

Capt. Michael Mason, a paramedic, is the fire department’s point person on the new program. As he races to the call for Nicholas’ overdose, he’s simultaneously coordinating with other paramedics.

“So starting directly at the scene of this overdose, we can start trying to direct this guy’s care in the best direction possible,” Mason says.

That direct engagement could include helping to find a shelter bed, reaching out to friends or a doctor, helping with food or, most importantly, seeing if a person wants to start treatment with buprenorphine or suboxone, a medicated-assisted therapy for opioid dependence.

“Get this individual suboxone, stabilize him at the [emergency department], by that afternoon they can be in a treatment program,” Mason says, “All in the context of a 911 incident.”

For many years San Francisco has championed a harm reduction public health approach to lowering drug deaths and injury. The city, known for its relative tolerance of illicit drug use, was a pioneer of clean syringe access, distribution of life-saving naloxone kits, as well as boosting access to the treatment drugs methadone and buprenorphine.

But when fentanyl hit hard here starting a few years ago, the overdose crisis spiraled and the city was forced to rethink its approach. Free Narcan and syringes weren’t enough.

San Francisco Department of Public Health nurses with the city’s new mobile outreach teams say following up with people who’ve recently survived a drug overdose is a key part of the program.

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“If fentanyl is in the drugs that you’re using, your risk of overdose triples,” Capt. Mason says, adding that the drug is now tainting most every street narcotic here: Meth, cocaine, heroin and fake opioid pills.

The new street response teams bring the clinic to the patients

Pandemic isolation and lockdowns — people using alone with no one to administer life-saving Narcan — only partially explain the historic rise in overdose deaths here.

The drug death rate, in fact, had been trending higher well before that, city medical examiner data show. In mid-2018 the numbers began to skyrocket, reaching 441 deaths in 2019. And in 2020, a whopping 712 people fatally overdosed, more than double the number of people here who died from COVID-19 during that same period.

The vast majority of those deaths – almost three-quarters –involved fentanyl.

The death toll would have been even higher if not for the wide availability of Narcan here. Well over 3,000 people reported using Narcan in the city in 2020, a self-reported figure. Officials say the real figure is probably far higher.

But health and fire department officials here, Mason says, noticed something else important: almost half of all who died of an overdose were treated or revived by a paramedic crew in the days or weeks before their death, a big signal they were headed for repeat trouble.

“Surviving a nonfatal overdose is one of the best predictors of future mortality. Anyone who survives a non-fatal overdose is a huge red flag for us, and that is what this program is about,” he says.

A key goal is trying to bring the clinic to the patients: rapid, face-to-face follow-up outreach on the street.

“We go out, we look for them, we say, ‘Hey, let’s talk about yesterday,'” says city health department nurse practitioner Kevin Lagor, as he drives through the Tenderloin neighborhood, where many of his clients live. He’s a program lead with SORT’s outreach arm.

The goal is to reach back out within 24 to 72 hours of an overdose to try to assist the person with everything from housing to treatment.

“That could be providing medical care to address their mental illness. Maybe they’re out of their meds, or maybe they want to start something to address their substance use disorder,” he says. “Just kind of, basically, meeting them where they are and seeing what they need and how we can help them.”

But to meet them where they are, the nurse teams first have to find them.

It’s a huge challenge. Many of them are homeless, living in tents on the street or in and out of shelters.

The overdose and substance abuse crisis is directly linked to the city’s epic struggles with homelessness and related challenges including mental illness. Almost 30% of all overdose deaths here are among the unhoused or people “with no fixed address.” SORT collaborates closely with the city’s other programs, including street medicine and new mental health and homeless street crisis response units.

Neil, we’re not using his full name because of his illegal drug use, is homeless and living in the city’s Tenderloin district. He says he smokes the powerful opioid fentanyl to deal with depression and chronic stomach pain.

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Homeless people living in tents line a side street in the Tenderloin district. More than 40% of all drug overdoses are in the Tenderloin and neighboring SOMA district, according to city data.

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City data show that men were almost four-times more likely to die of an accidental overdose than women. And the homeless, older San Franciscans and minority communities were disproportionately affected by the death rate. Almost quarter of all overdose deaths are among Black San Franciscans who make up just under 6% of the city’s population.

More than 40% of all overdose deaths in the last year have been concentrated in two neighborhoods: the South of Market area and the Tenderloin, according to data from the city and county chief medical examiner’s office. Those areas make up just 7% of the city’s population.

While drug deaths hit every sector of society, many who overdosed were found in city-funded hotel rooms for the homeless and in low-income apartment buildings.

“We have to remember that this is a social crisis at the intersection, particularly in San Francisco, of a housing crisis, of a mental health crisis, of people living at the margins of society,” says Dr. Dan Ciccarone, a professor and researcher at University of California, San Francisco.

Open air drug use and dealing in the Tenderloin, an area long challenged by poverty, homelessness and addiction crises, has only worsened during the pandemic. It’s common, day or night, to see people smoking or shooting up opioids or nodding out from drug use.

One 32-year-old man named Neil says he’s been homeless and living on the streets, mainly in the Tenderloin, for three years now. We’re not using his last name because of the stigma of addiction.

He says he uses fentanyl “to take the edge off” off of his depression and chronic stomach pain. He occasionally sells drugs, he says, to get money to support his habit. He soon crushes a small amount of fentanyl into a piece of tinfoil and begins to smoke the drug.

Follow-up work by nurses is full of challenges

On a recent day, nurse Lagor has half a dozen clients listed on his clipboard. He can’t find a single person.

“So we’ll just kind of keep following up with the staff at the shelter,” he says in the lobby of one facility, having been unable to find a client.

The same happens at a makeshift tent encampment behind a local Best Buy.

Outside another shelter, Lagor and his team strike out again trying to find a young man they thought they were making progress with. They’d recently written him a prescription for a supply of buprenorphine.

“He hasn’t been here in a couple of days,” Lagor says, disappointed.

“It is a bad sign. Sometimes folks disappear for a couple days and then resurface,” he says. “Then they disappear, or it just falls apart.”

And when it all falls apart, it can hit Lagor and the rest of his team hard.

“It’s a lot of death and they’re not strangers. You know, we’ve had a couple of deaths this week and we’ve, we shed tears together,” Lagor says. “It’s hard not to care about someone when you’re really trying to help them.”

Addiction and public health experts say these mobile, non-police teams mark a much-needed pivot for the city.

“It’s bold and it’s innovative. I like it,” says Dr. Ciccarone, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and a leading expert on drug use, drug users and heroin. “We need to bring in some innovations here because fentanyl is a wild card and it has caught us all by surprise. That’s what we need to do in a crisis situation: Think creatively.”

City public health department nurses Kevin Lagor and Louise Bisby, part of new mobile outreach teams, get supplies out of their SUV to bring to people who have recently survived a drug overdose.

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But Dr. Ciccarone cautions that the ravages of fentanyl and its complex stew of related challenges mean the city needs to scale-up this new street overdose response program and continue to try to break down obstacles to treatment that include bureaucratic silos, turf battles and funding woes.

“It’s definitely not enough,” he says. “We have to make sure that harm reduction is adequately funded, that our mental health system, our substance treatment system, our housing systems are adequately funded.”

So far, just two months since the program’s launch, 10% of those encountered by the SORT teams who’ve overdosed are now getting medicated assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. That includes buprenorphine or suboxone in collaboration with city’s street medicine nurses.

“I’m proud of that number,” Capt. Mason says, “and I very much look forward to increasing that.”

To get that number even higher, the fire department has applied to the state EMS agency to allow paramedics to more easily administer and prescribe those treatment drugs directly in the field.

Despite a recent slight drop in monthly fatalities the city looks to end 2021 with more than 700 overdose deaths for the second year in a row. Unfortunately, Dr. Kunins, the city’s director of behavioral health services, says San Francisco is “on track to continue this really tragic loss of life.”

Paramedics on the team look for small victories

Back on the street, another call comes in from the 911 dispatcher for a possible overdose. A middle-aged woman has been found slumped over in a McDonald’s bathroom across town in the Fillmore district.

Capt. Mason’s occasional staccato siren squawks aren’t working on a handful of indifferent drivers and pedestrians in heavy rush-hour traffic. So he hits his fire truck’s lights sirens full bore.

When they arrive, the woman tells the paramedics she has relapsed after several months of sobriety.

The heroin she bought, Mason says, was likely laced with fentanyl. Narcan saved her.

Inside the ambulance, Mason says the woman handed paramedics a crumpled, greasy brown fast-food bag and asks that they get rid of it.

“There were some clean syringes in there and what appeared to be small bags of heroin.”

Paramedic Capt. Michael Mason, of the San Francisco Fire Department, takes a bag of drugs and paraphernalia to a nearby police station for disposal. The drugs were from a woman who’d just overdosed in a nearby fast food restaurant.

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Fire Department Capt. Michael Mason with the city’s Street Overdose Response Team arrives at the scene of a reported drug overdose in downtown San Francisco.

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Mason finds out she was already part of a medicated-assisted treatment program using suboxone. He says she told them that she wants to get sober again.

“She was feeling extreme shame from experiencing a relapse,” he says. “Substance use disorder impacts millions of Americans. There’s no shame in having a relapse.”

He hopes she restarts her suboxone treatment quickly.

“As for today,” Mason says, “and as for surrendering those items and requesting they be disposed of, my hat’s off to her.”

The paramedics and nurses involved in this pilot project are dedicated to this difficult work. But all say working across multiple city agencies, treatment centers, health providers and non-profits can be exhausting.

“It’s complicated,” Mason says with a sigh, “it takes work from dozens of folks in a single encounter.”

How does he handle the strain of 12-hour shifts filled racing from overdose to overdose, including to some who seemingly don’t want help and others who don’t survive?

“For my own mental health, I have to kind of remain an optimistic warrior,” he says, driving his fire department pick-up through rush hour traffic. “There’s a quote in the Talmud that says, I won’t get it exactly right, but essentially says, “You don’t have to end this work, but you do have to start it.'”

And the woman who overdosed in the McDonald’s bathroom who wants help again? It’s a small victory.

Maybe.

It’s a start.

The post As drug ODs in San Francisco soar, a brand new speedy response workforce races to save lots of lives : NPR appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Larry Elder

Until recently, Governor Newsom’s strategy in response to the litany of attacks he received from Republican leader Larry Elder in the upcoming September 14 recall election was not to respond directly.

Newsom’s responses focused on his accomplishments, indirectly hinting at Elder’s attacks, and specifically warning voters that if Republicans were successful in recalling, Trumpism would take responsibility for the state.

But when Newsom spoke to telephone bankers at a San Jose restaurant a little over a week ago, he brought up a number of senior positions that clash with the views of the majority of Californians.

Elder, a former lawyer and Conservative talk radio host from Los Angeles, is against a minimum wage. He is skeptical about climate change. He supports school selection and offshore drilling. He is against the mask requirement in school and would abolish vaccination validation and mandatory tests for those who are not vaccinated.

“He actually wrote a comment saying that women are not as smart as men on civic, economic and political issues,” Newson said.

Last week, Newsom’s campaign posted an ad showing a picture of Elder with Trump.

Elder pushed back the connection with Trump. “The thought of them trying to characterize my campaign as an extension of you-know-who is unfair to me,” Elder told ABC Eyewitness News. “I am an insurgent candidacy – 1.7 million Californians signed the recall petition. A quarter of them were Independents and Democrats who only voted for the man two years earlier. “

Regarding Trump and the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, Larry Elder freaked out after telling the Sacramento Bee editorial staff on Aug. 2 that he didn’t believe Joe Biden stole the election.

Later, on his talk radio show “The Morning Answer,” Elder changed his mind after receiving backlash in conservative circles for disagreeing with Trump. He claimed the Sacramento Bee soundbite had been edited.

“So do I think there were all sorts of gimmicks in the elections? Absolutely. But Joe Biden is there at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Donald Trump is in Florida. So let’s just go ahead and see what we can do to win in 2024, ”Elder said.

Elder blames Newsom for California’s homelessness crisis and the unaffordable housing market. According to him, Newsom is responsible for inappropriate COVID-19 restrictions and stubborn environmental regulations.

Elder recently had a head-to-toe meeting with progressive radio host Tavis Smiley, who airs KBLA Talk 1580 in Los Angeles. Smiley challenged Elder for refusing to make amends to African Americans for the slavery atrocities and financial losses blacks suffered due to Jim Crow laws and systemic racism.

“Systemic racism is not the problem,” Elder said. Instead, he accused “the welfare state, which, he says, is the reason that“ the black family unit ”has been torn apart.

While Elder acknowledged that statistics on fatherless black family units could largely be traced back to the aftermath of slavery and the Jim Crow Laws in the past, he does not believe these factors are relevant to today’s discussion.

Elder has long taken the position that the racial wealth gap is primarily concentrated at the top of the American wealth pyramid and is not an indication of systemic racial bias.

Lately, Elder’s campaign has been on the defensive. He is being investigated by the California Fair Practices Commission (FPPC) for his candidate disclosure form. His Republican opponents have joined Newsom and the media asking him to explain his controversial statements in the past, and he has responded to questions about what he said about blacks, women, climate change and other issues – without specifically defending them or deny it.

Among the most damaging are the revelations of his ex-fiancée Alexandra Datig, a former high-class call girl who worked for Hollywood woman Heidi Fleiss. Datig accused Elder of verbal and emotional abuse, including intimidation with a .45 revolver pistol.

Elder has denied Datig’s allegations, calling them a “distraction.”

In the face of increasing scrutiny, Elder insists that his opinions and beliefs about the problems blacks face in America are all his own, and not the re-gagged topics of conversation of a controversial president (Trump).

“Since I’ve been campaigning, a lot of people have been talking about systemic racism, and I find that really bizarre. America has never been less racist than it is now, “Elder told Eyewitness News.

The post San Francisco To Open Excessive Quantity Testing Website In Response To Rise In Covid-19 Circumstances appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Water heating installation, sewer pipes, sewer cleaning

I’ve called Dennis twice now on Fast Response and both times he was at my home in seconds and got the job done

San Francisco, California (Vokus / PRWEB)
July 20, 2011

Fast Response Plumbing and Rooter San Francisco Sewer Maintenance and Replacement Special is now available in San Francisco and the Peninsula. Tree roots can adversely affect sewer lines and lead to clogging and damage to drainage systems, which can be very costly and frustrating for a home or business owner.

Fast Response Plumbing and Rooter are able to expertly repair and replace damaged systems that can be traced back to old dirt in the sewer lines. The company has experienced technicians who are dedicated to removing all debris using state-of-the-art equipment to restore normal passage through the sewers of residential or commercial properties.

“I’ve called Dennis on Fast Response twice now, and both times he was at my home in a matter of seconds and got the job done. Dennis is very competent, friendly and uncomplicated. He is also very familiar with the types of plumbing that are typical of my San Francisco area. I highly recommend Fast Response, ”said Justin R. of San Francisco, CA.

The Sewer Line Special is an exclusive offer for online customers. Channel maintenance typically costs $ 425, but online customers can get the service for as little as $ 245. Sewer replacement specials range from $ 2,000 to $ 4,500, depending on the length and depth of the sewer (up to 40 ‘long x 5’ deep). The laws on the peninsula require residents to have their drainage system in good condition and to comply with regulations.

Fast Response Plumbing and Rooter remove debris that has built up over the years and can help repair the flow of drainage and prevent backwater. With very reasonable prices and a courteous and reliable staff, the company can permanently fix all drainage problems that will save a resident a lot of money in the future.

For more information about these specials or about Fast Response Plumbing and Rooter products or services, please call (415) 912-1035 or visit http://www.fastresponseplumber-sf.com. Customers receive a free estimate every time they call.

Via Fast Response Plumbing and Rooter

Fast Response Plumbing and Rooter is a San Francisco and San Bruno plumber specializing in residential and commercial plumbing services in the San Francisco and San Mateo areas. Founded in 1996, Fast Response Plumbing and Rooter serves the Bay Area communities of Brisbane, Burlingame, Colma, Daly City, Millbrae, Pacifica, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Francisco, San Mateo, and South San Francisco. They can provide services such as installing water heaters, cleaning drains, and removing dirt in sewers.

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The city suffered over 700 overdose-related deaths last year, which led to the new initiative launched this week. Meanwhile, Allegheny County’s district attorney is copying the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s attorney’s efforts to sue the recent opioid deal, claiming it was an unsuitable deal.

San Francisco Chronicle: SF’s New Response to Drug Crisis: Teams Provide Overdose Care

As San Francisco grapples with a skyrocketing drug epidemic that killed more than 700 people last year, a new city response team took to the streets on Monday to help people who survive an overdose. The hope is to prevent a future, potentially fatal, overdose by directing people to resources and treatments. The influx of fentanyl, a potent opioid, has exacerbated the city’s drug crisis in recent years, with fatal overdoses rising from 441 in 2019 to 259 in 2018. (Shaikh Rashad, 8/2)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Allegheny County DA follows Philadelphia DA Krasner’s lead in suing over opioid agreement

Allegheny District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. is following the example of Philadelphia Attorney Larry Krasner in suing the Pennsylvania Attorney General over a proposed opioid deal. The two prosecutors are among dozens of local government agencies in Pennsylvania who have filed lawsuits against drug companies and distributors in state courts accusing them of fueling the opioid crisis – allegations the companies have denied. (Whelan and Dunn, 8/2)

The Baltimore Sun: University of Maryland Medical System Gives $ 1.2 Million to Fight Hunger in the State

The University of Maryland Medical System announced Monday that it has allocated $ 1.2 million to help tackle food insecurity in the state. The money will go to organizations already working in Maryland to reduce hunger and meet longer-term needs. Efforts in the 13 regions where the medical system operates are part of a larger effort to reduce the so-called social determinants of health that indirectly affect people’s overall wellbeing. (Cohn, 8/2)

San Antonio Express-News: Texas’ handling of $ 25 million in pandemic care fund raises questions

Two attorneys representing current and ex-Texas foster children are frustrated with the state’s slow progress in disbursing federal funds and expressed disappointment with what they see as arbitrary and arbitrary rules about who can access this assistance. “It just seems to be very dispersed about who has access to that money – some people have gotten a lot of support and others are getting no support,” said Mary Christine Reed, Austin attorney, director of Texas RioGrande Legal of Texas Foster Youth Justice Project Aid. “It’s just a kind of gamble of where you are and who you interact with and how they interpret it.” Almost $ 400 million was given to states and tribes across the country this year to help current and former foster children during the pandemic. (O’Hare, 8/2)

WUSF 89.7: States struggle with nursing home polls, HHS analysis shows

Forty percent of Florida nursing homes had not had a standard quality-of-care survey for at least 16 months, according to an analysis released by the U.S. Department of Health on Friday. The analysis showed that 284 of the 704 licensed facilities in Florida had gone out without surveys. According to the analysis, 71 percent of nursing homes across the country were older than 16 months. (8/2)

PBS NewsHour: California May Spend Billions On Permanent Shelters As Sultry Warming Blankets The State

With millions of Americans in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast facing heat warnings and rising temperatures killing hundreds of people, extreme weather conditions and their serious, sometimes fatal effects raise questions about whether infrastructure could help. Rising temperatures across the country are helping Congress attempt to pass a historic infrastructure deal that would respond to, among other things, the growing threat of climate change – leading to a new focus on so-called “resilience hubs” that coordinate aim to provide services to communities in need of help during weather disasters. The deal is targeting billions of dollars to make “infrastructure more resilient to the effects of climate change” at the federal level. In California, this advance is the focus. (Rodriguez-Delgado, 8/2)

Anchorage Daily News: Confirmation voting from the Anchorage Department of Health Director’s vote accelerated as the gathering raises questions about pandemic-related comments

Some members of the congregation said they were concerned about a comment Morgan made in an interview with Alaska’s News Source last week about avoiding a question about whether the pandemic was ongoing. “I really can’t answer that,” he said. “I think it’s a, it’s a definition – it’s a personal point of view. I wouldn’t, we’re not in a state of emergency and that’s what I’m going for. Pandemic is an adjective that describes a situation. ”He later told Alaska’s News Source that he talked about the concept of an emergency statement and that a person who is not vaccinated is in a pandemic. (Goodykoontz, 8/2)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a round-up of health coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.

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In a proposal that would shake up the city’s daily response to the homeless crisis, San Francisco community leaders on Tuesday unveiled a plan to take police out of the equation.

Under the new framework, police would no longer respond to complaints about camps or aggressive panhandling, reports of trespassing an unhodged person, and other non-emergency calls made with homeless San Franciscans. Instead, those calls and more would be routed to civilian members of a new Compassionate Alternate Response Team known as CART.

The proposal is another step in San Francisco’s ongoing police reform efforts, and comes from cities across the Bay Area and across the country facing calls to “defuse” their police departments and invest in alternative programs.

“What we’re doing right now as a city is completely failing,” said San Francisco supervisor Matt Haney, who supports CART, on Tuesday during a Zoom call announcing the proposal. “A police-led response to homelessness is costly, dangerous, ineffective and should end.”

The San Francisco Police Department responded to more than 65,000 calls related to homelessness in 2019. CART supporters say most of these calls result in the officer telling the unaccompanied person to “go along” without addressing the underlying issues that put that person on the street. In other cases, these interactions can lead to quotes and arrests, or even escalate to violence.

The San Francisco Police Department has agreed that they shouldn’t be the ones responding to certain calls related to homelessness. The San Francisco Police Department and the San Francisco Police Officers Association agreed in November that some non-emergency calls will be forwarded by the police department – including mental health exams, wellness checks, service requests in city parks, and certain public health code violations. However, the union says CART’s plan to completely segregate police involvement in a multitude of calls is too drastic and could put security at risk.

“We find it ironic that one of the measurable outcomes that the CART proposal avoids is neighborhood safety. Apparently, the safety of local residents and small business owners is by no means worth measuring,” wrote Tony Montoya, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association emailed a statement. “In addition, we would like to advise those in charge in San Francisco to resolve safety issues with employees and community workers who may send them into dangerous situations, as we recently saw workers such as social workers being attacked unexpectedly without the need for police assistance was to her aide. “

CART follows another San Francisco police reform initiative launched in November – the Street Crisis Response Team. As part of this pilot program, teams of paramedics, behavioral health professionals, and peer specialists respond to certain mental health calls instead of police officers.

CART would respond to overflowing mental health calls that the Street Crisis Response Team couldn’t handle. However, CART would also respond to requests for feel-good controls, complaints about illegal camping or blocking a sidewalk, trespassing, panhandling and suspicious activity reports from people involving unaccomodated residents.

Rescue workers would be trained to de-escalate the situation and provide conflict resolution, first aid, mental health referrals, addiction and housing services, and transportation to a hospital or service provider. CART would focus on recruiting and training homeless workers.

In addition to hiring paid road workers, CART recruited and trained volunteers to resolve minor disputes in their neighborhood.

“I think this is a really exciting time for San Francisco as we are on the front lines of changing the way our city handles these types of calls with our undocumented neighbors,” said John Hamasaki, San Francisco Police Commissioner.

San Francisco has tried in the past to provide non-police responses to homelessness, such as the Homeless Outreach Team. Proponents say, however, that these efforts have failed to adequately distance themselves from the police, which has led to distrust of the homeless community.

CART would cost the city an estimated $ 6.83 million a year. San Francisco regulators have already approved $ 2 million, and CART backers say the other $ 4.83 million should come from the police department budget. They say CART will save at least $ 11 million annually by diverting calls from law enforcement agencies.

When the program is approved and funded, it is expected to start in May.

In January 2020, the San Francisco Police Commission passed a resolution calling for new policies to prevent police officers from acting as first responders to homelessness. After a brief delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, city officials, community groups and people who are or were homeless started work on the CART policy framework in July.

To find out how such a program can best serve the community, they asked 95 unhodged Franciscans about their needs. When asked what they wanted from the program, one person replied, “To be treated like a human.”

Cindy Keener, who has been homeless for more than 15 years and participated in the CART survey, said San Francisco needs a better homeless response.

“This program will only be a blessing for everyone,” she said.

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