SF Sheriff’s Department offers unique eviction assistance

SF Sheriff’s Department offers unique eviction assistance

On a Thursday afternoon, two men — one in a lavender shirt and paisley tie, and the other in a pale blue shirt and plaid tie — stepped out of a white Ford minivan and knocked on the door of a home in the Bayview. A woman answered the door, and, prompted by their questions, revealed a laundry list of problems: she recently had been robbed and raped, and was being evicted for the $2,000…

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A Hollywood occasion at Warriors’ season opener

A Hollywood occasion at Warriors’ season opener

The Golden State Warriors emerged Wednesday night with the largest season-opener victory margin in franchise history, and they did it the Hollywood way, as the Los Angeles Lakers have traditionally done unto them. Warriors co-owner Peter Guber brought “Rush Hour” actor Chris Tucker as his guest, while part-owner Craig Johnson used Halloween as an excuse to dress up as Jack Nicholson, the Lakers’ No. 1 celebrity fan. Johnson sat courtside along with a friend disguised…

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Ellis Act evictions changing landscape of San Francisco housing

Ellis Act evictions changing landscape of San Francisco housing

Home for Gum Gee Lee and her husband, Poon Heung Lee, has been a three-bedroom apartment at 1508-A Jackson St. near Chinatown since 1979. They have raised seven children there. Now the immigrants from China and their 48-year-old disabled daughter are the only tenants remaining in the eight-unit complex. That could change in just a couple of days. As “Wednesday, September 25, 2013 6:01 AM” fast approaches, the Lees cannot ignore the “Notice to Vacate”…

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Bay Area man envisions environmentally conscious home built from old Bay Bridge scraps

Bay Area man envisions environmentally conscious home built from old Bay Bridge scraps

David Grieshaber drove across the idea last year. As he crossed the Bay Bridge with his wife, brainstorming unique ways to build an environmentally conscious house using recycled materials, he thought: What would become of the original eastern span once the new bridge opened? Neither he nor his wife had a clue, so Grieshaber decided to call Caltrans. After being rerouted to a half-dozen representatives, he was informed that the majority of the scraps likely…

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First Latino councilman in Compton embraces challenge

First Latino councilman in Compton embraces challenge

COMPTON — Three days after being elected the first Latino council member in Compton’s history, 26-year-old Isaac Galvan called a unity meeting at Raspados Los Portales, a tiny restaurant in his district. The twenty-some Latinos who showed, a commingling of Galvan’s supporters and doubters, listened on as the District 2 councilman-elect in a dress shirt and shoes said: “I called you to be here because I’m the new councilman and I need your guys’ help….

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Compton Mayor sworn in, signals changing of guard

Compton Mayor sworn in, signals changing of guard

COMPTON — The dignitaries poured in, the mariachi band played and a few hundred community members surrounded the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial outside City Hall Tuesday afternoon to witness the oath of office ceremony swearing in six elected city officials – two of them new, young faces. “Hola. Buenos dias,” said 26-year-old Isaac Galvan, the first Latino City Council member in Compton’s history and first to be sworn in. “I’m grateful that the voters…

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LA voters clamp down on medical marijuana

LA voters clamp down on medical marijuana

LOS ANGELES — In this city where a lack of medical marijuana regulation made it the “Wild West” compared to the Bay Area, a historic election with three competing ballot measures has finally brought some order. The winning measure, Proposition D — the most conservative of the three — gained 62.6 percent support from voters as a compromise between the City Council and a key labor union. The measure limits medical marijuana activities to about 130 pot shops…

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U.S. immigration bill proposal a top story for one country abroad

U.S. immigration bill proposal a top story for one country abroad

While the Boston Marathon bombings and fertilizer plant explosion in West Texas had Latin American news outlets scouring for wire reports, press from one Spanish-speaking country maintained a physical presence in Washington for the bipartisan immigration bill introduced Wednesday morning. Yes, it’s obvious – Mexico. Like media in the U.S., El Universal, one of the largest newspapers in Mexico City, published a straightforward piece titled, “Immigration reform plan presented before the Senate.” Unsurprisingly, the paper first…

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Chart of the Week: New York City’s income disparities via subway lines

Chart of the Week: New York City’s income disparities via subway lines

The New Yorker came out with an impressive interactive infographic that makes a sad American problem interesting to navigate. Income inequality is particularly acute in New York City, according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and Larry Buchanan maps it out on the city’s subway. We took a digital ride on each line and took note of the median household income at each stop. Here’s a snapshot of that journey at a couple of…

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Boston Marathon sympathizers bear hearts in risky digital spaces

Boston Marathon sympathizers bear hearts in risky digital spaces

From the depraved violence of the Boston Marathon bombing emerged a heartening human response. Local and nationwide sympathizers opened their hearts and homes to bombing victims, publicly sharing selfless offers of generosity — along with their names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and neighborhoods in a Google document set up by The Boston Globe simply titled, “I have a place to offer.” Here is an image of the beginning of the massive doc. We blurred out…

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