Free Republic

San Francisco teachers will be paid for full-time work but only be required to work four hours a day during the coronavirus closures, according to a labor agreement approved this week. The part-time work schedule was also adopted by other districts across the state, including Los Angeles, San Diego and Oakland, although many others continue to require teachers to work a full day, which is typically up to 7.5 hours.

She trotted out these dubious accusations during an interview on PBS’s “NewsHour” in which host host Judy Woodruff challenged none of her claims — and in which she, Pelosi, had a facial mask hanging off her neck as if she were a cowboy. The claims began pouring out of the speaker after Woodruff asked her to cite the factors that have been “impeding the ability of the federal government to address this” crisis. . . . “I have tried to act in a bipartisan way,” the speaker continued Tuesday. “As I said, three bills in March, bipartisan. Easter, I had...

Muni’s massive cutback in service to cope with the coronavirus pandemic will leave just 17 bus routes active in San Francisco, with the rollout starting in phases Tuesday and taking full effect Wednesday. The decision to eliminate service on 51 of Muni’s 68 bus lines was made because almost 40% of the citywide transit system’s drivers were not expected to report for shifts Monday, said Jeffrey Tumlin, the agency’s transportation director. The drivers are considered to be in high-risk groups if they were to contract the virus. When the cuts are completed, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s system will...

... New Yorkers are also learning that “low-level” and “nonviolent” offenders feel no obligation to remain as such going forward. A man arrested for attempted rape last week in Brooklyn previously had been in jail on burglary charges and $20,000 bail. He was sprung in December in anticipation of the new policy. A man on Long Island with a history of drunken-driving convictions was arrested twice and released both times without bail inside of a two-week period—and the second time was after a crash that killed someone. Of course, these problems aren’t limited to New York. But in recent years,...

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says he hopes to reach a preliminary agreement with the Trump administration on a joint plan to help combat the city's swelling homelessness crisis when he meets with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson Friday, it was reported. Garcetti said Thursday a final deal was still days or weeks away but expressed optimism that the two sides were making progress toward an agreement to provide federal resources, including land, to augment local efforts to erect more shelter space for people living on the streets, the Los Angeles Times reported...

San Francisco, CA – San Francisco’s new district attorney fired several senior prosecutors on Friday, just two days after he was sworn into office. Chesa Boudin, who ran on a platform to fix the city’s “broken justice system” and put fewer people behind bars, was sworn into office as district attorney on Wednesday, according to KTVU. "I had to make difficult staffing decisions today in order to put in place a management team that will help me accomplish the work I committed to do for San Francisco,” Boudin said in a written statement released after the terminations became public. The...

One of Chesa Boudin’s first planned policy changes when he takes over as San Francisco’s district attorney next month seeks to answer a question that has long ignited debates in the city: Should people accused of crimes face harsher punishments if their actions allegedly benefited a street gang? The former public defender, who takes office Jan. 8, promises to put an end to filing what are known as gang enhancements against defendants — charges that can add years to felony sentences. Gang enhancements have drawn increased opposition in California, driven by statistics showing that they are disproportionately applied to people...

Oracle Corp. is pulling the plug on its annual San Francisco technology convention, relocating the event to Las Vegas in a major blow to the city's hospitality industry. The Redwood Shores company has signed a three-year agreement to bring its OpenWorld convention to the Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, citing rising hotel rates throughout the Bay Area as well as poor street conditions in San Francisco. An Oracle spokesperson confirmed the deal, first reported by CNBC.

Sydney Eicher waits with her newborn son to hear any news from her husband, Joe who is serving in the Army. Lately, their conversation is about a dog named Ragnar.  "They were on a mission and they went to this house and dog was in really bad shape," Eicher said.  She says her husband’s unit found Ragnar tied up in a compound while on a mission in a remote area of Afghanistan. One soldier, Sergeant First Class Josh Lott, traded rations for the dog.  "He had a lot of fleas and stuff,” Eicher explained. “He was really malnourished. They had to do...

It felt like deja vu for Dave Martin as he watched silent security footage of an individual breaking into his San Francisco bar in June. Within the first 16 months after it opened, Pine Tar Grill, Martin’s San Francisco Giants-themed business on Folsom Street filled with sports memorabilia, was burglarized three times. The final incident was caught on camera, showing a person breaking the glass of the front door at around 4 a.m. to steal cash, sports-related bobblehead toys and computers, Martin said. Repairs cost thousands of dollars and were a big factor in his decision to close the bar...

Mayor Breed Declares – We Won’t Blacklist NRA Contractors Fairfax, Va.– The National Rifle Association of America declared victory in San Francisco today, after Mayor London Breed formally disavowed key provisions of a municipal resolution that signaled  the blacklisting of contractors linked to the Second Amendment advocacy group.  On September 3, 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which is the legislative body for the City and County of San Francisco, unanimously approved a resolution that called for the City to investigate ties between its contractors and vendors and the NRA.  The city declared the NRA was a “domestic terrorist organization.”...

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Trump on Wednesday said he expects the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to slap San Francisco with a violation notice in the coming days related to pollution associated with the city’s homeless population. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump again took aim at Los Angeles and San Francisco over the volume of homeless people in each city. But he escalated his rhetoric, saying an announcement citing San Francisco for environmental violations would come in the next week.

The only conviction against a man accused of killing Kate Steinle in 2015 was overturned in the 1st District Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Friday. Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate was accused of shooting Steinle while she was walking with her father and friend on the San Francisco waterfront. Garcia-Zarate, a Mexican national, was in the U.S. illegally at the time of the shooting. He had previously been deported five times, and it was not known when he reentered the country. Steinle was 32 at the time of her death. Garcia-Zarate maintained that the shooting was accidental and that he...

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer has been renamed The Astounding Award for Best New Writer. The award, which is sponsored by Dell Magazines and administered by the World Science Fiction Society, was named for the editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later Analog Science Fiction and Fact). Current Analog editor Trevor Quachri said, Campbell’s provocative editorials and opinions on race, slavery, and other matters often reflected positions that went beyond just the mores of his time and are today at odds with modern values, including those held by the award’s many nominees, winners, and supporters. As we...

Izakaya Sushi Ran, the Castro's gastropub answer to the popular Sausalito restaurant Sushi Ran, has closed. Originally called Nomica when it opened in 2016, it changed names last fall and served izakaya-style small plates, mains, sushi rolls and cocktails. A message on the restaurant's website says the following: "Dear friends, Ya'll, we made a mistake! While rocks r a common prt of anti-homeless architecture, this particular rock is NOT. It's a Japanese garden. Izakaya Sushi is a valued member of the commnity & is supportive of its homeless neighbors. We apologize & offer deep appreciation to the staff https://twitter.com/TheCoalitionSF/status/1141401379094724608 …

Housing costs have become so expensive in some cities that people are renting bunk beds in a communal home for $1,200 a month. Not a bedroom. A bed. PodShare is trying to help make up for the shortage of affordable housing in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles by renting dormitory-style lodging and providing tenants a co-living experience.

The Toronto Raptors are NBA champions for the first time in franchise history. The Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors 114-110 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night to clinch the series in Golden State.

Business software maker Salesforce is telling gun retailers they must stop selling AR-15s if they want to continue using the company’s business applications. The Washington Post reports that Salesforce is a $120 billion San Francisco-based company whose “skyscraper…towers over the city as the tallest building and a major landmark.” They are now telling customers who sell firearms that they are barred from using Salesforce “technology to market products, manage customer service operations and fulfill orders” unless they cease selling AR-15s. Salesforce’s “Acceptable Use Policy” goes beyond a ban on AR-15s, to include any semiautomatic firearms “that have the capacity to...

This is the full text of the Ray Bradbury story "All Summer In A Day". If the illustrations and micro-videos are not loading properly please kindly refresh your browser. ALL SUMMER IN A DAY By Ray Bradbury "Ready?” "Now?" "Soon." "Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it?" "Look, look; see for yourself!" The children pressed to each other like so many roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering out for a look at the hidden sun. It rained.

A Few Words from a “No Man’s Sky” Time Traveler Posted on March 21, 2019 by Blake Patterson As those who follow me on any of my social feeds are quite aware, I enjoy the game No Man’s Sky. Actually, that’s something of an understatement. I’ve written quite a few words about the degree to which the boundless universe that Hello Games has given us to explore has captivated me in various blog posts over the past two and a half years. In the first of these, written three weeks after the game launched back in August 2016, I explained,...