• Representatives for the California force are currently on a recruitment drive, visiting four Texas colleges 
• It comes after the police department had funding cut, causing them to pay out high amounts of overtime 
• San Francisco is currently experiencing high numbers of homelessness and open drug use 

San Francisco is trying to recruit cops from Texas as it faces a shortage of officers, after businessman Marc Benioff slammed the city’s homeless and drug problems.

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is visiting four Texas university campuses throughout the month as part of a new recruitment drive. 

Candidates from outside of the state of California will take a written test, a physical ability test and an interview to see if they make they cut.

A police spokesperson told the San Francisco Standard that the number of estimated applications this year is 2,104, nearly a 20 percent increase from 1,756 last year.  

The recruitment push comes as the department faces staffing issues, causing them to pay out high amounts of overtime. 

Representatives for the California force are currently on a recruitment drive, visiting four Universities in Texas As part of the move, the SFPD are visiting four Universities, with the poster for Sam Houston State seen here The four Texan universities are Texas Southern University, Sam Houston State University, Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi

The Standard reported that between 2017 and 2022, cops spent $88.9 million more on its employees, despite working fewer hours. 

The four Texan universities are Texas Southern University, Sam Houston State University, Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. 

Following widespread calls for reforms that swept the national following the murder of George Floyd, the department in the California city had their funding cut. 

Mayor London Breed was one of the first to openly speak out in support of defunding the police.

During a July 2020 press conference, Breed said: ‘We chose to change how this city and how this country treats our young Black men.’

Breed announced $120 million would be cut from the police and sheriff’s departments to reinvest in programs that help black and brown communities.

The following year, Breed u-turned on the decision and increased the police budget as the city faced a rampant rise in property crime and looting. 

At the time, she said: ‘More aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant with all the bulls*** that has destroyed our city.’

Mayor London Breed speaks during the celebration of the 9th Annual Chinatown Night Out in San Francisco, California, United States on September 6, 2023 Latest figures up until Sunday show that there have been more homicides so far this year, than the whole of last year

Last year the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a $50 million increase in SFPD’s budget.

Latest figures up until Sunday show that there have been more homicides so far this year than the whole of last year. 

So far, there have been 40 murders in the city in 2023, while there was just 36 last year. 

Likewise, the number of robberies in the city is also higher now than for the whole of last year, with 1,989 reported incidents this year, compared to just 1,704 last year.  

The number of total crimes this year is also closely catching up with last years full total, with 36,573 crimes committed this year, compared to 37,674 in 2022.

It comes after Salesforce Inc. CEO Marc Benioff said that he had pushed officials in the city to clean the place up before the company’s annual conference. 

AI convention Dreamforce, which draws 40,000 people from around the world according to the company, was held in the city last week. 

During a press event on Wednesday, Benioff said: ‘We put a lot of pressure on the city this year. It looks great. It’s very safe right now. We’re moving in the right direction.’

Benioff, 58, held the event at the Moscone Center, which is in an area that is currently facing issues including homelessness, crime and open air drug markets, according to Kron4.

Benioff also posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: ‘San Francisco has been incredibly clean, beautiful, and safe for the last 3 days of Dreamforce.

‘It is great that the city is able to put its best foot forward for this major event that brings in 40K people from around the world, and $80M to the economy.

‘It is important to ask why the city cannot be this clean and safe every single day?’

Salesforce Inc. CEO Marc Benioff, pictured here, said he had pushed officials in the beleaguered California city to clean the place up The AI convention, which draws 40,000 people from around the world according to the company, was held in the city over the past few days

Benioff had previously warned that the company could pull the large scale convention from the city due to the ongoing problems it is facing.

He told The San Francisco Chronicle: ‘If this Dreamforce is impacted by the current situation with homelessness and drug use it may be the last Dreamforce.’

Mayor London Breed responded to Benioff’s claim that Dreamforce made the city’s transformation possible.

She told ABC7 News: ‘It’s not just because of Dreamforce. There are other conventions. This is what we do for every convention that comes to SF.

‘My pushback is San Francisco changing. Things are getting better.’

Despite this, Mayor Breed did concede that some areas of the city, particularly the Tenderloin and South of Market, did still present challenges. 

The city has struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses, and is on pace for its deadliest year yet.

More than 849 people are expected to die of drug overdoses in 2023, on pace to exceed the current record of 720 deaths in 2020

In the first five months of 2023, preliminary reports show there were 346 overdose deaths in the city – an increase of more than 40 percent from the same period in 2022.

Latest figures show that overdose deaths are continuing to rise, soaring in August with an additional 84 deaths, 66 involving fentanyl.  

Economists have warned the city is spiraling into an ‘urban doom loop’ – a vicious circle of interconnected trends and forces that send cities into economic and social ruin.

Over the past few months, dozens of retailers announced they would be vacating the downtown area of the city.

Drug addicts and the homeless congregate in the Tenderloin District of the California city Open drug use is now common in the city, something which the police are cracking down on San Francisco Police have attempted to shut down open-air drugs markets in the hard-hit Tenderloin and SoMa areas of the city. Pictured: 64-year-old Deliada Valdez who has been homeless for four years is seen in Tenderloin District of San Francisco, California, United States on August 28, 2023

Retail stalwart Old Navy announced they would be shuttering their flagship store in the area last month, becoming the latest chain to exit the city.

Nordstrom also announced they would be closing all of their locations in the city.

The company said that due to the ‘changing dynamics’ of San Francisco it would be shuttering all remaining stores in the next few months.

In April, Whole Foods announced it was closing all their locations, with Anthropologie and Office Depot having also made the same decisions.

High theft has proved a problem in the area recently, with a Walgreens in the city center resolving to chaining their freezers to stop shoplifters.

A map reveals the major businesses which have left, or plan to leave, San Francisco in recent months

A disturbing recent report showed 95 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the COVID pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent.

Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in the city’s Union Square area, just 107 are still operating, a drop of 47 percent in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.

One Target store in the city has been forced to lock up more of its products to stave off thieves.

An employee at the location previously said it was being robbed as often as ‘every ten minutes.’

Video footage of another Target has been shared on social media and shows large quantities of their stock now behind barriers.

The post San Francisco tries to recruit cops from TEXAS because it faces scarcity of a whole lot of officers and enterprise leaders like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff slam town’s widespread homelessness and drug use appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A powerful storm sweeping north through the Bering Strait on Saturday caused widespread flooding in several western Alaskan coastal communities, knocking out power and sending residents fleeing for higher ground.

The force of the water moved some homes off their foundations, and one house in Nome floated down a river until it got caught at a bridge.

The potent storm — what remains of Typhoon Merbok — has been influencing weather patterns as far away as California, where strong winds and a rare late-summer rainstorm were expected.

In Alaska, no injuries or deaths were immediately reported, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Officials had warned some places could see their worst flooding in 50 years and that the high waters could take up to 14 hours to recede.

gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration during the day.

The nearly 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) storm front has damaged roads and potentially other infrastructure, Dunleavy said at a Saturday evening news conference. Officials will evaluate any effects on water and sewer systems, seawalls, fuel storage areas, airports, and ports.

Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives were already in Alaska before the storm, and Dunleavy said they will stay to help assess damage.

“Our goal is to get the assessments done as soon as possible,” he said. “We’re going to move as quickly as we can to provide relief, provide recovery, provide the essentials that people need.”

Among the hardest hit communities was Golovin, a village of 170 or so residents who mostly sought shelter at a school or in three buildings on a hillside. Winds in the village gusted over 60 mph (95 kph) and the water rose 11 feet (3.3 meters) above the normal high tide line and was expected to rise another 2 feet (60 centimeters) Saturday before cresting.

“Most of the lower part of the community is all flooded with structures and buildings inundated,” said Ed Plumb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.

Clarabelle Lewis, the facility manager for the tribal government, the Chinik Eskimo Community, was among those who sought refuge on the hill overlooking Golovin. She and others were riding out the storm in the tribal office after securing items at their homes from the high winds and helping neighbors do the same.

“The winds were howling; it was noisy,” she said.

Most communities experienced wind gusts ranging from 41 mph (66 kph) to 67 mph (108 kph), but Cape Romanzof had peak winds of 91 mph (146 kph), the weather service said.

Lewis has never experienced a storm like this in 20 years living in Golovin.

“We’ve had flooding in the past a few times, but it was never this severe,” she said. “We’ve never had homes moved from their foundations.”

There were also reports of flooding in Hooper Bay, St. Michael’s, Unalakleet and Shaktoolik, where waves crashed over the berm in front of the community, Plumb said.

In Hooper Bay, more than 250 people took shelter inside the school, Bethel public radio station KYUK reported. The village is one of the largest along the coast with nearly 1,400 residents.

The school’s vice principal, Brittany Taraba, said three homes were knocked off their foundations and large parts of the village were flooded.

Residents are supporting each other, including donating recently caught and processed moose to feed those sheltering at the school.

“It’s really amazing to watch this community,” Taraba told KYUK.

Plumb said the storm would track through the Bering Strait on Saturday and then head into the Chukchi Sea.

“And then it’s going to kind of park and weaken just west of Point Hope,” he said of the community on Alaska’s northwest coast.

He said there would be high water in the vicinity of the northern Bering Sea through Saturday night before levels start to below through Sunday. Rising water levels farther north, in the Chukchi Sea and Kotzebue Sound areas, were expected into Sunday.

In Northern California, wind gusts up to 40 mph (64 kph) were forecast overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning along coastal areas from Sonoma County down to Santa Cruz and at higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada, the weather service said.

Winds that strong can blow down branches and drought-stressed trees and cause power outages, said weather service meteorologist Ryan Walbrun.

Storms were expected to start Sunday morning and dump up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain in coastal areas of Sonoma County and a bit less as rains move southward to the San Francisco area and into the Santa Cruz mountains, Walbrun said.

“It’s a pretty significant rain for this early in the season,” he said, adding that the storms are forecast to continue on and off through at least Monday, making commutes to work wet with slick roads.

In the Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of the state capital of Sacramento, fire crews have been fighting what has become the largest wildfire in that state so far this year. While rain is needed, the winds were a concern for crews battling the Mosquito Fire, which was 21% contained as of Saturday morning.

“The winds will definitely cause erratic fire behavior” that could ignite new hot spots despite the welcome moisture, said Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean. “The rain is not going to put out the fire but it will help.”

___

Gecker reported from San Francisco.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – An extensive Xfinity cable and internet outage was reported in the Bay Area on Monday evening and early Tuesday morning, affecting much of the Bay Area.

The DownDetector.com website showed an increase in Xfinity outages reported just before 10 p.m. More than 24,000 people reported the outage, according to the website, but rampant complaints on social media suggested the outage was widespread, affecting customers in San Francisco and the Peninsula, East Bay, and North Bay.

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The outage was so widespread that the Marin County Sheriff tweeted a reminder to residents not to call 9-1-1 to report or complain about their internet outage and to contact their provider instead.

There have been reports of internet outages across Marin and Sonoma Counties.

Please do not call 911 to ask why your internet is down. Call your Internet Service Provider. pic.twitter.com/Re5Eb560Gm

– Marin County Sheriff (@MarinSheriff) November 9, 2021

While service was restored to some customers by early Tuesday, Comcast’s service heat map showed that several Bay Area communities were still experiencing outages.

Comcast begins getting customers up and running after the widespread Internet outage in the Bay Area.

Full recovery could take some time across the region.

Comcast has not disclosed the reason for the outage – more information on this specific issue will follow.

– Mike McGuire (@ilike_mike) November 9, 2021

More than 54,000 customers reported service disruptions by Tuesday morning.

The number of outages appears to be falling significantly a few hours after a rise on Tuesday morning, which had more than twice as many reports of service problems as the previous evening around 5 p.m.

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On Tuesday morning at around 8:00 am, the Xfinity support Twitter account published that “a network problem” led to “temporary service interruptions” for some customers.

Some customers experience intermittent service interruptions due to a network problem. Our teams are actively working to bring affected customers back online as we investigate further. We apologize to those affected.

– Xfinity Support (@XfinitySupport) November 9, 2021

Meanwhile, the Xfinity outage website was loading extremely slowly on Tuesday morning. Customers were encouraged to visit the Xfinity support page or the Xfinity Response Center to see when their local outage could be resolved.

Major outages were also reported in and around Philadelphia, near Chicago, the Indianapolis area, near Detroit, New England and the Los Angeles area on Tuesday morning.

Sooooo … Comcast is down all over the city of Chicago? Fun! The whole country? Even better! #comcastdown #comcastoutage

– Nicole Oppenheim (@namoagogo) November 9, 2021

Here’s a map showing the much greater extent of the Comcast outages on the east coast. There are some outages in California but not that widespread pic.twitter.com/nysluNuHSS

– BREAK NOW !! (@GRApidsnews) November 9, 2021

Major # Internet failure detected: #Comcast in #Pennsylvania since 8:05 am

Live map and analysis
https://t.co/SKti7Iwh6B

Retweet if for you below # comcastcares #Comcastdown #Comcastoutage #nointernet #EarlyMorning pic.twitter.com/pOoFj4pe15

– Fing Internet Alert (@outagedetect) November 9, 2021

Significant #internet failure detected: #Comcast in #Indiana since 8:05 am, affecting #Chesterton #MichiganCity #Griffith +14 areas

Live map and analysis
https://t.co/gaDruAUTFL#comcastcares #Comcastdown #Comcastoutage #nointernet #EarlyMorning pic.twitter.com/PaUe8USeuD

– Fing Internet Alert (@outagedetect) November 9, 2021

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