Tag: San Francisco

California’s Fast-Food Minimum Wage Hike Could Spell Trouble for Public Schools

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff
Kids being served lunch at school

Two policies backed by Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom could place serious strain on California’s already fiscally unhealthy public schools.

California’s new minimum wage law, which took effect Monday, guarantees a wage of at least $20 an hour for workers at fast food chains with 60 or more locations across the country, The Associated Press reported. The new law, however, does not apply to food service workers in the state’s public schools, forcing them to compete in a more expensive labor market just as schools are preparing for an increase in demand for food workers due to the state’s new universal free lunch program.

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Commentary: Supreme Court Takes on California’s Uber-Disclosure Laws Aiming to Crack Down on ‘Dark Money’ Ads

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff
San Francisco City Hall

When you watch a political ad, often you’ll see a disclaimer of who the ad was paid for by, usually a political action committee, but what about the donors to the committee? Or the donor’s donors?

That’s the bridge that a San Francisco campaign finance law seeks to cross — now being challenged at the U.S. Supreme Court in No on E v. Chiu — and to prohibit an incredibly common practice in campaign finance, which are donations from anonymous sources.

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California Fast Food Workers Face Layoffs as State’s $20 Minimum Wage Goes into Effect

Just the News
Auntie Anne's employees

All fast-food employees, regardless of age, will see a $20 an hour minimum wage in California, while the federal minimum wage is between $4.25 and $7.25, depending on age and length of time working.

California fast-food chains are laying off workers, raising prices and deciding against opening new stores as the state implements a minimum wage that is more than 175 percent higher than that required by the federal government.

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San Francisco to Vote on Measure to Drug-Test Welfare Recipients

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff
San Francisco

The far-left city of San Francisco will soon be voting on measures that could reverse liberal policies when it comes to crime, drug use, and homelessness, in what would mark a stunning rebuke of progressive policies in the Democratic stronghold.

As reported by Fox News, when Californians go to vote on Tuesday in the “Super Tuesday” primaries, San Francisco residents will be able to vote on several ballot measures including Proposition F and Proposition E.

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States File Brief in Lawsuit to Force VA to Cover Gender Affirming Surgery

The Center Square
Doctors performing surgery

A group of states filed a friend of the court brief supporting a transgender veterans group that filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs seeking gender-confirmation surgery for 163,000 transgender veterans.

The Transgender American Veterans Association lawsuit, filed last month, seeks an order that the Department of Veterans Affairs act on the group’s 2016 rule-making petition for gender-confirmation surgery.

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San Francisco Facing Deadliest Year Ever for Overdoses

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The far-left city of San Francisco is set to have its deadliest year on record in terms of drug overdoses, further emphasizing the coastal city’s struggles with rising crime, homelessness, and drug abuse.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the California city recorded 692 accidental overdose deaths from January to October of 2023, as reported by the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner last month. By the end of the year, that total is expected to top 800, surpassing the previous record of 720 deaths in 2020.

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Starbucks Shutters Seven Stores in Crime-Ridden Parts of San Francisco

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Starbucks plans to close seven stores located in downtown San Francisco in October, a spokesperson for the company confirmed.

The corporation looked into “several factors” when it decided to close the seven locations, and added that it would continue to invest in San Francisco through its 40 other company-owned locations in the city, a Starbucks spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Although the company declined to comment on whether crime was a factor that led to its decision, all seven of the closing locations — Mission & Main, Geary & Taylor, 425 Battery, 398 Market St, 4th & Market, 555 California and Bush & Van Ness — are situated in or near the city’s troubledTenderloin district, a Starbucks store map showed.

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San Francisco Homeless Camps Hit Highest Number in Three Years

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The number of homeless camps that have sprouted up all across San Francisco is now at the highest point since 2020.

The Daily Caller reports that more people moved into homeless shelters in just the first six months of 2023 than during any other six-month period since 2021, according to information compiled by the San Francisco Standard. There are 523 homeless camps in the city as of July of this year, the highest total since 530 camps in October of 2020. Across these 523 camps, there are over 4,000 homeless people in San Francisco.

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Governments Across America Spend Millions to Put Homeless in Hotels

The Center Square

In states like California, Colorado, Washington and Arizona, cities this summer are spending millions buying hotels and converting them to shelters for the homeless.

In Los Angeles, there is a ballot initiative in 2024 to require hotels to use vacant rooms to house homeless people besides paying customers. The American Hotel & Lodging Association has objected to the proposal.

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Workers at Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco Told to Work from Home Due to Crime

Just the News

The Department of Health and Human Services is telling hundreds of California-based employees to work from home for the foreseeable future due to rising crime in the area surrounding the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco.

The 18-story building also houses the Labor and Transportation separtment and the office of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

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Chinese Intelligence Arm Quietly Operates ‘Service Centers’ in Seven U.S. Cities

Admin

by Philip Lenczycki   A Chinese intelligence agency quietly operates “service centers” in seven American cities, all of which have had contact with Beijing’s national police authority, according to state media reports and government records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work…

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Commentary: What a Difference a Real District Attorney Makes

Admin

Chesa Boudin, named after cop-killer Joanne Chesimard, and son of Weather Underground terrorists Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, was elected district attorney of San Francisco in November 2020. Criminals were happy with the outcome.

“Chesa Boudin threw a monkey wrench into the city’s criminal justice system,” recalls Richie Greenberg, San Francisco resident and business consultant. “Amid a series of high-profile cases, his promise to release repeat criminals and to allow quality of life crimes to go unpunished, San Francisco descended into a scofflaw paradise.”

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Commentary: What to Do About American’s Decline

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Twenty-first-century America was on a trajectory of gradual decline — until it began to implode.

Was the accelerant the COVID-19 pandemic and unhinged lockdowns? Or was the catalyst the woke revolution fueled by the 2020 summer of exempted rioting, looting, arson, and violence? Or was it perhaps the deranged fixation on removing Donald Trump from the presidency and destroying the rule of law in the process? Or all that and more?

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Americans Continue to Flee Crime-Ridden Blue Cities for the Burbs and Red States, New Census Data Shows

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Americans once again fled large cities for suburbs and Republican-led states in massive numbers from June 2021 to June 2022, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of U.S. Census data.

More than 800,000 people in total left the country’s large metropolitan areas, compared to 1.2 million the year before, in an ongoing trend sparked by the pandemic, according to the WSJ. Ten of the nation’s 25 largest metropolitan areas saw population loss, and most of the top cities that saw population gains were located in red states.

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San Francisco’s Reparations Proposal Would Give $5 Million Each to Qualifying Black Residents

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The City of San Francisco is considering a reparations plan that would give $5 million lump sum payments to each eligible black person, according to its 2022 draft plan.

Recipients are required to be 18 or older, to have identified as black or African American on public documents for at least ten years and to meet at least two qualifications from a list of possible relationships one may have with incidents such as drug-related incarceration or slavery, according to the proposal. The proposal also recommends that the city formally apologize for past wrongdoings, establish a new city office to execute the plan and create a committee to “ensure equity and continuity in the implementation of relevant policy initiatives.”

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San Francisco Has More than 130 Gender Options for Its Guaranteed Income for Transgender People Program

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

There are more than 130 gender, sexual orientation and pronoun options listed on the San Francisco’s Guaranteed Income For Transgender People (GIFT) program application.

Under the GIFT program, 55 San Francisco residents who earn less than $600 monthly and identify as one of the many genders listed will receive $1,200 per month. Aside from woman and man, some of the genders eligible for the money include “genderfuck,” “boi,” “sistergirls” and “butch.”

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San Francisco Fires Long-Time Elections Official to Meet Its Racial Equity Goals

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The San Francisco elections commission decided last week to not renew director John Arntz’s contract, not because he failed to fulfill his duties, but because they wanted to hire a minority replacement, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The city commission voted to not renew Arntz’s five-year deal and instead will hire an independent recruiter to assess applicants for the position along with Arntz, should he choose to reapply, according to the SF Chronicle. Arntz, who was hired in 2002, did not receive a new contract because the commission wanted to carry out San Francisco’s “racial equity” plan that aims to maintain a “high level” of racial diversity in every government position.

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San Francisco Launches Guaranteed Income Program for Transgender Community

The Center Square

San Francisco city officials announced Wednesday they would launch a new guaranteed income program for the city’s transgender community.

The program, dubbed the Guaranteed Income for Trans People (GIFT), will provide 55, low-income transgender city residents with $1,200 each month for up to 18 months. The pilot program is the first of its kind for trans individuals in the city, though San Francisco has launched several other programs in recent years.

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House Speaker Pelosi’s Husband, Paul, Attacked at Couple’s San Francisco Home

Just the News

The husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Paul Pelosi, was attacked at the couple’s home in San Francisco early Friday morning.

A statement from the speaker’s office said the assailant broke into the couple’s residence and that Paul Pelosi, an investor, needed medical attention and is expected to make a full recovery.

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Homeless People Sue Liberal City for Taking Their Belongings, Kicking Them Out of Public Spaces

Admin

Multiple homeless individuals and the Coalition on Homelessness sued the city of San Francisco, California, Tuesday for allegedly arresting people lacking available shelter and destroying belongings, without providing affordable housing options.

The city has subjected homeless people to “ongoing criminalization and property destruction practices,” according to the lawsuit. It contends San Francisco has violated Eighth Amendment cruel and unusual punishment protections by threatening, citing, arresting and removing homeless individuals from public spaces and infringed on Fourth Amendment rights by illegally confiscating and destroying possessions.

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San Francisco Spends Millions to House and Then Evict Its Homeless

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

San Francisco, California, has spent millions of dollars housing the homeless before spending more to evict them, again, according to recent documents obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Since 2019, the city has spent over $160 million every fiscal year on “permanent supportive housing” – i.e. single-room-occupancy hotels (SROs) across the city – as part of Mayor London Breed’s administration’s response to the city’s homelessness crisis, according to the documents obtained by the Chronicle.

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Commentary: The Criminal Order Beneath the ‘Chaos’ of San Francisco’s Tenderloin

RealClearWire

The epicenter of the political earthquakes rattling San Francisco’s progressive establishment is a 30-square-block neighborhood in the center of downtown known as the Tenderloin. Adjacent to some of the city’s most famous attractions, including the high-end shopping district Union Square, the old money redoubt of Nob Hill, historic Chinatown, and the city’s gold-capped City Hall, it is home to a giant, open-air drug bazaar. Tents fill the sidewalks. Addicts sit on curbs and lean against walls, nodding off to their fentanyl and heroin fixes, or wander around in meth-induced psychotic states. Drug dealers stake out their turf and sell in broad daylight, while the immigrant families in the five-story, pre-war apartment buildings shepherd their kids to school, trying to maintain as normal an existence as they can.

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Commentary: The Recall of San Francisco D.A. Boudin Reveals Democrats’ Rift with Minority Voters

Admin

As the dust has settled in the days since a political earthquake hit California with the landslide recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a distinct voting pattern has emerged.

Precinct-by-precinct voting maps show minority voters backing the recall in much higher numbers than college-educated, affluent white progressives, with very few exceptions. It’s not difficult to understand why, California political analysts across the spectrum tell RealClearPolitics. Minority communities suffer more when crimes rates are soaring than insulated wealthier neighborhoods with more protections and money for security.

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Commentary: San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s Recall Shows How the Criminal Justice Reform Movement Doesn’t Work

RealClearWire

Two and a half years ago, pre-COVID and before surging crime and fentanyl overdoses gripped San Francisco, District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s left-wing lineage seemed a perfect fit for the liberal bastion by the bay.

Likewise, California Rep. Karen Bass was a barometer of Los Angeles’ transformation into a sprawling progressive metropolis. A former Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman, Bass was a top contender to become Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020 and was considered a likely contender for a statewide office.

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Far-Left San Francisco District Attorney Recalled in Landslide

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

With seven states holding their primaries on Tuesday, perhaps the biggest upset came out of San Francisco, California, where incumbent District Attorney Chesa Boudin (D-Calif.) was successfully recalled in a landslide.

As reported by Axios, Boudin’s recall could mark a significant turning point in the rise of progressive prosecutors getting elected to district attorney positions all across the country, often with the backing of far-left billionaire George Soros. Boudin, like other far-left district attorneys, was accused of being soft on crime since he took office in 2020. His tenure was marked by a spike in crime throughout San Francisco, particularly brazen robberies of various convenience stores in broad daylight, as well as assaults, an increase in public drug use, and a rise in homelessness.

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San Francisco Spent $160 Million Only to Have Homeless People Die in Rat-Infested Hotels

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

A housing project based out of old hotels in San Francisco became the site of overdoses, rampant crime, violence and unsafe living conditions, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report.

The hotels are the main components of the city’s $160 million permanent supportive housing program, which failed in its goal of helping residents gain enough stability to find independence and their own housing, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. A quarter of the tenants tracked by the government after exiting supportive housing in 2020 died.

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New Poll Is Bad News for a Californian Left-Wing DA Facing Recall

Admin

A new poll showed San Francisco voters overwhelmingly back the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Roughly 68% of likely primary voters said they would vote to recall Boudin, including 64% of registered Democrats, according to a poll conducted by EMC Research. Nearly three out of four voters had an unfavorable opinion of Boudin, and 61% agreed he was “responsible for rising crime rates in San Francisco, especially burglaries and thefts.”

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San Francisco Parents Lead Recall of Three School Board Members

Cooper Moran

Parents and residents of San Francisco overwhelmingly voted to recall three school board members in the city’s first recall election since 1983.

Alison Collins, Faauuga Moliga and Gabriella Lopez all lost their positions on the governing body, as the “Yes” option to the recall question gained more than 70 percent in all three cases. 

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