Rebecca Bowe

Did Newsom forget to mention COPS cash during budget talks?

07.31.09 - 12:04 pm | Rebecca Bowe |

(6)

By Rebecca Bowe

The San Francisco Police Department received $16.5 million in federal funding through the Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) hiring grant program, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced July 28.

That’s a lot compared with the sums allocated to other cities throughout the country, but it’s just a fraction of the $89 million that Mayor Newsom and then-Police Chief Heather Fong requested for the SFPD in mid-April. Read more »

City Hall's collaborators

Budget deal leaves progressives uneasy as more bad news looms

07.29.09 - 12:48 am | Rebecca Bowe |

(0)

rebeccab@sfbg.com

As the Board of Supervisors prepared to give final approval to the city budget July 21, Sup. John Avalos, who chairs the board's Budget and Finance Committee, told his colleagues the budget deal that he and President David Chiu negotiated with Mayor Gavin Newsom is "ushering in a new spirit of cooperation and collaboration at City Hall."

But at the end of the day, frantic last-minute revisions and indignant criticism from Avalos's progressive colleagues felt more like a family feud than the culmination of a team effort. Read more »

PG&E watch: The rate hike, the LNG pipeline and the $82 million corporate giveaway

07.24.09 - 1:11 pm | Rebecca Bowe |

(0)

By Rebecca Bowe

Image courtesy of TURN

Pacfic Gas & Electric Co. Read more »

A messy wrap for city budget

07.22.09 - 1:35 pm | Rebecca Bowe |

(6)

By Rebecca Bowe

Emotions run high and things get messy when there’s so much less cash to go around. Just as San Francisco’s 2009-2010 fiscal year budget was finally approved at yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, the news from Sacramento was that the long-awaited state budget deal bridges California’s gaping budget deficit in part by raiding local-government coffers.

San Francisco’s own hacked-up budget went through a round of last-minute changes at yesterday’s meeting before approval, marking last-ditch efforts by Sups. Read more »

Bitter medicine

Health care reform groups fear the cure may be worse than the disease

07.22.09 - 1:27 am | Steven T. Jones and Rebecca Bowe |

(0)

news@sfbg.com

The Democratic Party has been promising a major overhaul of the health care system for a generation or more. Now, with President Barack Obama and his party's congressional leaders in a strong position to finally reach that elusive goal by next month, this should be a momentous time for the reform movement.

So why are so many health reform advocacy groups unhappy?Read more »

Journalist bruised by Deputy Sheriff while trying to film Supervisors meeting

07.15.09 - 9:20 am | Rebecca Bowe |

(8)

By Rebecca Bowe

Luke Thomas, the journalist behind the popular San Francisco blog Fog City Journal, posted Read more »

S.F. helipads generate a whirlwind of controversy

07.10.09 - 2:19 pm | Rebecca Bowe |

(10)

by Rebecca Bowe

The Children’s Hospital at UCSF in Mission Bay won’t be completed until 2014, but the debate about the helipad proposed for the facility’s roof has been simmering for several years, and the project is headed to the Board of Supervisors for approval in the next several weeks. Read more »

Board approves sale of CTs - but there's a twist

07.09.09 - 11:22 am | Rebecca Bowe |

(2)

By Rebecca Bowe

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the sale of four city-owned combustion turbines, with a final vote on the matter still pending. But an amendment to the ordinance built in some wiggle room for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to reconsider as strategies advance to shut down the Potrero power plant.

The CTs -- which can be used to produce electricity during periods of peak demand -- were nearly used to develop in-city electric generating facilities last year that would have replaced the existing Potrero power plant. Read more »

Nip it in the bud

Supervisors condemn PG&E ballot measure

07.08.09 - 12:52 am | Rebecca Bowe |

(0)

rebeccab@sfbg.com

GREEN CITY Imagine if San Franciscans had the choice of sending the check for their monthly electricity fees to one of two places. Option A is a massive private utility company, serving up fossil fuel-fired and nuclear-powered energy, presided over by a CEO who got paid nearly $9 million last year. Option B is a publicly-owned program run by local government that offers a substantial percentage of green electricity from sources such as wind, solar, and tidal power. Read more »

More kablooey brought to you by PG&E

07.06.09 - 9:18 am | Rebecca Bowe |

(2)

By Rebecca Bowe

477px-Explosion.svg.png

A blast that occurred this morning at Fourth and Market in downtown San Francisco was caused by an explosion from a PG&E manhole cover. Read more »