Social Policy

"Trance": Danny Boyle Follows Up the Olympics

One Million Kids in California Are Uninsured, and Most Qualify for Subsidized Programs

More than one million children in California do not have health insurance coverage, according to a report released this month by the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. The figure represents around 11 percent of the states minors. That rate, 1.5 percent higher than the nat ... More >>

Obama's Reelection Has Spurred a GOP Paradigm Shift on Immigration Reform

One of the conventional criticisms of President Obama's first term was that he failed to live up to the "Hope!" and "Change!" rhetoric on which he campaigned in 2008. Many Obama supporters, even ones who concede this point, defended him by stressing the partisan gridlock and the key policies the pre ... More >>

West Nile Virus Makes Its Way to San Francisco

September is one of the few months when San Franciscans can actually enjoy warm weather. Unfortunately, we can't really relax and enjoy it: Those freeloading mosquitoes are sucking away that one small pleasure. Health officials are warning residents to watch out for mosquitoes after they found a de ... More >>

Obama Officially Wins Health Care Debate

Now is the time to take back all the really mean things you have said about Justice John Roberts. The very conservative Supreme Court Justice gave us a reason to think that thing just might be okay when he not only sided with the liberal justices on Obamacare, but wrote the majority opinion upholdin ... More >>

Days of Rage: Immigrants and Allies Must Fight Back

Cindy Chang, Sunday School Teacher, Released After Three-Week Detention at Arizona Immigration Checkpoint

​Cindy Chang was driving from San Jose to Phoenix for a friend's wedding early this month when she was stopped at an immigration checkpoint in Eloy, Ariz. These structures are common this close to the border. Chang, a 26-year old Sunday school teacher who has lived in the Bay Area since her f ... More >>

Free-Market Biological Warfare

Medical Marijuana Patients Opposing Federal Approval of ... Medical Marijuana

umpp.orgStanding Up Against... Medical Marijuana​Medical marijuana can be good for the brain. No less an authority than the federal government's Department of Health and Human Services says so: HHS awarded to a group of doctors in 2003 a patent titled "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotect ... More >>

Minhaz Kahn, DREAM Act Eligible Student, Spared Deportation -- For Now

No deportation for Minhaz Kahn. But others might not be so lucky. ​A DREAM-Act-eligible recent college grad won reprieve on his deportation case earlier this week, yet the celebration ends there. San Francisco-based immigration officials warned attorneys that not all DREAM Act-eligible immigrants ... More >>

Luisa Argueta, DREAM Act Eligible Teen, Asks Sen. Feinstein to Stop Deportation

Luisa Argueta, center, and her mother, Brenda Gutierrez​Update, 5:30 p.m.: A Feinstein spokesperson says, "Senator Feinstein's office recently received information about the case and is currently reviewing the matter."Original post:A 19-year-old Antioch resident eligible for the DREAM Act is askin ... More >>

Gavin Newsom: Friend or Foe of Illegal Immigrant Youth?

Friend of students, foe of alleged felons.​Update: Newsom's spokesman responds. Read below.  Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom has come out today supporting a group he threw the book at during his time as San Francisco mayor: illegal immigrant youth. Newsom has sent a letter to Assemblyman Gil ... More >>

Gay Binational Couples Fighting Deportations On Obama's New DOMA Stance

​Gay couples are already using President Obama's new stance against the Defense of Marriage Act as a weapon to fight deportations of their foreign spouses. The couples hope that the administration's declaration last week that the law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman is uncon ... More >>

A Valentine's Day Fact -- STDs Are on the rise in San Francisco

Sexy time stats​Leave it to the San Francisco Public Health Department to use Valentine's Day as a way to get people to not want to have sex.Health officials decided to use this hallmark holiday to tell us the hard, cold truth about our Valentines -- they aren't so pure after all. As it turns out, ... More >>

DREAM Act Debacle: Lowell High School Grad Set For Deportation

Melissa Lee works the cameras​Congress failed again last month to corral the needed votes to put the DREAM Act back on the table -- and the fallout looks something like this: Eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Lee was on a successful trajectory; she had graduated from Lowell High School - the city's mos ... More >>

Return to Sender

How Would Immigration Reform Look if the Feds Got Off Their Duffs?

Mexican Macroeconomics

FAIR-y Tales

Patients Must Wait Month For Health Clinic Appointments

Bring a magazine. It's going to be a while. ​New patients now wait 30 days for an appointment at San Francisco public health clinics. That marathon delay is thanks in part to challenges incorporating new patients added to the government system as a result of Healthy San Francisco, the 2006 program ... More >>

Welcome to Mi Pueblito, Washington

The small-town, family-farm lifestyle that we love to celebrate is being preserved — thanks to Mexican immigrants.

Police Chief George Gascon Says Arizona Immigration Law Lets Thugs Run Wild

...Gascon says Arizona law will lead to lawlessness​San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon -- known for locking horns with anti-immigrant demagogue Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County while Gascon served as chief of police in Mesa, Arizona -- said the Grand Canyon State's much-maligned immigra ... More >>

Is Philadelphia More Immigrant-Friendly Than San Francisco?

Does Philly's Michael Nutter have more spine than Gavin Newsom?​Philadelphia's deputy mayor said yesterday that his city will likely cease cooperating with federal immigration officials by sharing records of local arrests, a policy change that would put it in the vanguard of so-called "sanctuary c ... More >>

Worlds Apart

Federal law gives gay citizens with foreign partners tough choices: Leave the U.S.A. Lose your love. Break the law.

Bookie Site Lays Odds on Controversial Arizona Immigration Law

Can I get some action here? ​If the 9-11 tragedy didn't prove Americans' indomitable will and heroic ability -- to make a buck off anything, this will. The bookmaking site youwager.com has commenced laying odds and taking bets related to the controversial Arizona immigration law that inspired San ... More >>

What the City's Furloughs Mean for Health Care: Don't Get Sick

As in, 'Dr. No, He's Not In; He's Furloughed.'​Mayor Gavin Newsom's pending deal with unions to give workers 12 yearly unpaid days off could mean reduced staffing for everything from guarding swimming pools to issuing marriage certificates. But the effect might be most obvious at city-run clinics, ... More >>

Healthy San Francisco's Long Lines Slim Down

Yours, sooner...​No sooner did SF Weekly report that the city's universal health care program Healthy San Francisco had contributed to long lines at public clinics, than a new city report came out this week showing that waits had been reduced during recent months.According to the the San Francisco ... More >>

Matt Smith: S.F.'s universal health care program creates long lines

Will Hipsters Drag Down U.S. Health Care System?

Will Yo Mama Care cover my tatoos?​Except for the hipster provision, extending to 26 the age brakeless track bike-riders get to stay on their parents' health insurance, most of the effects of the federal health-care legislation on its way to final passage won't be seen for several years.So for a v ... More >>

East Bay Congressman Jerry McNerney Still Waffling on Health Care Vote -- But Not For Reasons You'd Expect

Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, might soon have some explaining to do​With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco promising to deliver enough votes to pass landmark federal health care legislation by the end of the week, one of her Democratic colleagues to the east continues to keep observ ... More >>

Chronic City: It's Obvious -- State Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is 'Failed Public Health Policy'

The November CoalitionDrug War protester at Huntington Beach, Calif.​In a laudable nod to the obvious, members of the California Medical Association's (CMA) House of Delegates have endorsed a resolution stating that the criminal prohibition of marijuana is a "failed public health policy."As enacte ... More >>

Sanctuary Sellout

Before: S.F. coddled undocumented teen criminals. After: S.F. punishes undocumented teens who commit crimes (and some who don't, too).

Aide: Congressmen Stark, Miller 'Very, Very, Very Strongly Support' Strong Public Option In Health Care Bill

Yesterday we wrote about a "Whip List" leaked to the media of Congressional Progressive Caucus members who had confidentially promised party leadership to only vote for a health care proposal that included "a robust public option." Scanning the names on the list, most of the Bay Area representatives ... More >>

Ammiano: Gavin Newsom has 'Tainted' Healthy San Francisco

Assemblyman Tom AmmianoAssemblyman Tom Ammiano knows you're angry -- he's angry too! But as many members of the progressive community, his natural base, begin to gripe about the city's plan to plow ahead full-bore with Healthy San Francisco -- the city's universal health care plan -- while slashing ... More >>

Nurses, Public Health Advocates: What Good Is Universal Health Care if You Have to Sit All Day in the Waiting Room?

The doctor will be seeing you ... sometimeTo many, the city's aggressive adoption of the Healthy San Francisco universal health care plan while simultaneously applying draconian cuts to the Department of Public Health's workforce and budget feels a bit like giving everyone a free pass to the amuseme ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Double Payer

SF is out of the health-care business if the governor's new plan goes through.

Unhealthy Union

Could there be a secret deal with Arnold on health care that will inflate union rolls?

Warrants? We don't need no stinking warrants!

The Identity Makers

In the age of terror, are the people who make fake identification documents for the Hispanic community noble public servants -- or national security risks?

Big Doctor Is Watching

As of April 14, the national security police can monitor your medical records without your knowledge. So can the local police.

Intended Consequences

Our supervisors tilt at a lot of silly windmills. But the city's recognition of Mexican consular IDs may help change national immigration policy for the better.

South to the Future

Live/Workfare: A Public Housing Resident Fights for the Right to Start a Home Business

The Illusion of Roe V. Wade

While feminists loudly celebrate the 25th anniversary of legalized abortion, quiet changes in the medical landscape make the procedure less and less available

Labor Games

San Francisco is spending $5 million on a flag-waving, candy-bar-giving, feel-good course called Express to Success, hoping it will move welfare recipients into jobs. But no one is measuring the success -- or failure -- of the program itself.

Unspun

Desperately Seeking Citizenship

With the advent of new federal welfare rules for elderly immigrants, S.F.'s oldest and poorest are running out of time

The Grid

Mulch

Conscientious Injectors

The enforcement of drug laws should be less hurtful than the dangers inherent indrug use itself, say the "harm reductionists" at Prevention Point, who practice what they preach by distributing 1.5 million needles to the city's drug users