Email Author Matt Smith

Awards

• 2011 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  "Distressed Properties"

• 2011 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  "City Hounds the Homeless"

• 2011 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  "Hypocritical Mayor"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published June 17, 2009

  "On Thin Ice"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published June 3, 2009

  "Domestic Spouses"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published May 6, 2009

  "Bumping Frights"

• 2009 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  Matt Smith columns

• 2008 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  Matt Smith columns

• 2007 - Maggies: The Magazine Awards of Western Publishing, published April 26, 2006

  "Bank of Indifference"

• 2007 - Peninsula Press Club Awards

  Matt Smith columns

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2011 Stories by Matt Smith

• Judges Wish to Condemn Court Bureaucracy with Death by 1,000 Cuts

  published Jul 13, 2011

  Sacramento trial judges wish to condemn what they call the bloated, insular, arrogant, and inefficient state court bureaucracy with death by 1,000 cuts, according to survey results reported in Courtho... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Why It Matters That San Franciscans Pooped 87,000 Tons Last Year

  published Jul 12, 2011

  You've heard of shitloads. But that's nothing compared to a "SFload," a term we've coined to identify the unbelievable amount of crap excreted by San Franciscans last year.According to the just-releas... More >>

• Con Man Paul Noe Linked to Online Sock Puppets Defending His Latest Scheme

  published Jul 08, 2011

  Those who saw the comments section of my June 29 column, "Veteran Con Man Back To Swindling Elderly Veterans," might get the impression that readers don't like it when we expose the lies of a career s... More >>

• Jerry Brown Rehires Official Who Protested State Building Privatization

  published Jul 07, 2011

  After he was quoted in the Snitch protesting a proposed sale of 24 government office buildings to private investors, Arnold Schwarzenegger fired Donald Casper from his job as a state buildings co... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Cyclists Need Air Horns, Not Bells, to Clear Crowds on Golden Gate Bridge

  published Jul 06, 2011

  Cyclists commuting between San Francisco and Marin County face another three months of frustration as crews complete seismic work that has closed the bike path on the west edge of the Golden Gate Brid... More >>

• S.F. Ferry Ticketers to Strike Today to Protest Automation

  published Jul 01, 2011

  UPDATE: Media outlets are reporting that the planned strike has been called off. Original story 7:25 a.m.:Ticket taking on the Golden Gate ferry system has been one of the last manual labor jobs kept ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Con Man Paul Noe's Scheme to Make Money Off Elderly Veterans

  published Jun 29, 2011

  This week's Matt Smith column describes how con man Paul Noe II is back to his old practice of persuading seniors to enter into financial transactions they don't fully understand, ones that stretch wh... More >>

• FCC Scrutinizes KUSF Sale, Demands E-Mails from USF President

  published Jun 29, 2011

  The Federal Communications Commission is taking a hard look at the proposed sale of KUSF, as evidenced by a letter demanding receipts, communications, and other inside documents and correspondence amo... More >>

• San Francisco Could Reap Millions from Cellphone Antennae

  published Jun 27, 2011

  San Francisco is always looking for new ways to close the budget gap. And with a more than $300 deficit this year, it's time to get a little creative. The city's Planning Department is suggesting the ... More >>

• Veteran Con Man Back to Swindling Elderly Veterans

  published June 29, 2011

  Fleshy, dark-haired, stuttering Paul Noe II sits at a document-laden table with an elderly veteran. Noe asks the man about his military years,... More >>

• Alms Day: Hundreds Beg for Nonprofit Funding at City Hall

  published Jun 24, 2011

  In this year's iteration of an annual ritual, hundreds of workers and beneficiaries of the public agencies and nonprofits that serve San Francisco's needy mobbed City Hall on Friday. They all hoped fo... More >>

• Junkie Etiquette Getting Better: Fewer Discarded Syringes in the Tenderloin

  published Jun 24, 2011

  Tenderloin junkies are apparently cleaning up their mess. According to a new report, drug users are leaving far fewer syringes on the streets, a welcome relief to the street sweepers who have to clean... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  How to Tell Whether Your Boss Plans to Replace You with an H1B Immigrant Worker

  published Jun 23, 2011

  This week my column describes how San Francisco employers are looking to hire thousands of workers under the H1B visa program. It's reserved for companies needing to hire technical specialists that ca... More >>

• Crack Babies Who Age Out of Foster Care Are Doing Just Fine

  published Jun 22, 2011

  In San Francisco, the total number of children in foster care is declining. And while that might be good news for the government, is it good news for the kidsrSince April 2008, the number of San Franc... More >>

• San Francisco Not Losing Kids, Despite What Chronicle Story Says: Correction

  published Jun 20, 2011

  This post previously asserted that a San Francisco Chronicle story misinterpreted the latest available data in order to report a substantial trend in which the city was losing children.Teresa Ojeda, m... More >>

• H1-B Visa Program Creates Caste System for Silicon Valley

  published June 22, 2011

  After years in the economic wilderness following the 2001 dot-com crash, designers, artists, webmasters, and all sorts of multimedia,... More >>

• San Francisco Has More Asians, More Elderly, and More Tots

  published Jun 17, 2011

  San Franciscans are on average older, more Asian, more likely to ride their bike to work, and better educated than they were 10 years ago, according to a new Planning Department analysis of Census dat... More >>

• U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United Ruling Cost S.F. $290,000

  published Jun 16, 2011

  The U.S. Supreme Court's crappy Citizens United ruling, which allowed unlimited corporate funding of independent political advertising, just cost San Francisco $290,000.That Supreme Court's 2010 rulin... More >>

• Nat Ford, Muni Chief, Accused of Violating Ethics Laws -- Updated

  published Jun 15, 2011

  Nat Ford, executive director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, violated ethics rules when he moved to scuttle a lucrative parking garage contract in 2009, according to a new lawsui... More >>

• SFPD Tries to Fire Cop for Protesting Illegal Search of Journalist's Records

  published Jun 15, 2011

  In this week's column, I describe how the San Francisco Police Department is attempting to fire a 24-year veteran for resisting orders to illegally search a journalist's records.Oakland First Amendmen... More >>

• San Francisco to Sell Fiber-Optic Access

  published Jun 14, 2011

  San Francisco hopes to raise as much as $1.8 million annually by leasing out its surplus fiber-optic cable capacity, a new report says.San Francisco has operated its own internal communications system... More >>

• Seniors to S.F.: Stop Killing Us!

  published Jun 13, 2011

  San Francisco seniors are tired of being killed crossing streets -- and understandably so. That's why on Wednesday they plan to do something about it. They're inviting the public to watch them attempt... More >>

• SFPD Tries to Fire Cop for Balking at Conducting Illegal Searches

  published June 15, 2011

  In some cities, police departments fire cops who break the law. In San Francisco, they're attempting to fire one for trying not to break the... More >>

• SF Weekly Owners Allowed to Sue the Prosecutor Who Ordered Them Jailed

  published Jun 10, 2011

  Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey, principal owners of SF Weekly's parent company, are permitted to sue the Phoenix special prosecutor who had them arrested and jailed on bogus charges in 2007, a San Franc... More >>

• Campus California's Links to International Fugitive Amdi Petersen

  published Jun 08, 2011

  Irn this week's SF Weekly cover story I explore apparent links between clothes donation boxes sprouting throughout the Bay Area and a business empire reputedly run by a Danish fugitive. The story cit... More >>