ActRight

“I don’t think there will be a recession.

People around the world who watch the Super Bowl on television Sunday will surely see plenty of beauty shots of San Francisco, but football fans who visit and venture beyond the city’s spruced-up core will find some views that aren’t so beautiful. Visitors may wonder why one of the wealthiest cities in the world can’t cough up enough money to alleviate homelessness, but, in fact, San Francisco spends tremendous amounts of money on the problem. The city is allocating a record $241 million this fiscal year on homeless services, $84 million more than when Mayor Ed Lee took office in January 2011. Eight city departments oversee at least 400 contracts to 76 private organizations, most of them nonprofits, that deal with homelessness. No single system tracks street people as they bounce among that galaxy of agencies looking for help. Fourteen years ago — a lifetime in politics — the city controller called for a single information network to ensure better tracking of homeless people as they seek services and better tracking of money spent to help them. Last month, Supervisor Aaron Peskin called 911 because a homeless man, naked from the waist down and his legs smeared in feces, was standing on the Filbert Steps on Telegraph Hill, screaming obscenities and blocking the path of passersby. Currently, there’s no way for the police officer who responded or a doctor at San Francisco General Hospital to easily learn much about the man’s service profile, such as stints in rehab, which city-funded nonprofits might have tried to help him, if he receives food and shelter, or if he gets government benefits. The city recently counted 140 tents filling sidewalks, along with lawn chairs, old carpets, clotheslines and even wooden structures. City officials, including Sam Dodge, the mayor’s point man on homelessness, say violence and drug addiction have been growing concerns about the campers on Division, and many campers also worry. On a recent night, in a two-hour period, one man was beaten and robbed, three fights broke out, and two men smoking methamphetamine stormed up and down the traffic median, screaming at each other and traffic for more than an hour. Asked whether she thinks her taxpayer money is being spent well when it comes to homelessness, she said, “Obviously not! I just see the results, right?” The $241 million is about equivalent to the annual budget for the Public Works Department, which cleans all the city’s streets, repairs its sidewalks, cleans up illegal dumping, maintains its trees, removes graffiti and more. Lee is pushing a June ballot measure that would dedicate $20 million to modernize homeless shelters and build more sites like the Navigation Center in the Mission District, which temporarily houses entire camps of homeless people and tries to steer them into services. Supervisor Mark Farrell — a venture capitalist who is among the more moderate members of the board — is considering a November ballot measure to bring in even more revenue for homeless services. Nationally, permanent supportive housing that includes social workers and other care is considered the best way to end homelessness. The last in-depth accounting of city spending on homelessness was conducted by Harvey Rose, the Board of Supervisors budget analyst, for the 2012-13 fiscal year. Since January 2004, the city has moved 21,742 people off the streets. Lee pledged in December to concentrate intensely on homelessness during his second term — to finally bring all the players together in one department and to move 8,000 more people off the streets. The directors of the two city departments that would be most affected, Public Health and Human Services — with combined budgets of about $2.5 billion — are enthusiastic about the plan because they think it will lead to better coordination. The health department has a Coordinated Case Management System, which tracks homeless people through health services as they are helped by Homeless Outreach Team street counselors. The Human Services Agency has its own Homeless Management Information System, which follows people through housing and welfare programs. Trent Rhorer, director of the Human Services Agency, has advocated for a single computerized tracking system for years, and several city studies dating back more than a decade have supported that point of view. Lloyd Pendleton, who oversaw Utah’s homeless programs and virtually ended chronic homelessness in Salt Lake City, said it’s essential to have a single tracking system. “I’ve never seen the tent situation get so extreme,” he said, adding there are camps in the Castro, and one was even spotted with a propane tank inside. In his letter, Wiener asked how many tents are on the streets, how many people live in them, how many shelter beds are vacant every night, and what the plan is to get tent dwellers indoors.

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I can't remember a time I have been as angry over politics as I have been watching what has unfolded the past two weeks.

China is waging an unprecedented campaign to influence American public opinion a...

Alex Jones tells the crowd at the Capitol Hill, "We're not Antifa, We're not BLM. Let's march around to the other side." | OpIndia News

We mastodons who still receive our daily dose of New York Times when the dead-tree version lands on our doorsteps with a dull thud got a special treat Tuesday, a textbook case of the way the newspaper of record goes about its business these days. The front page headline read: Comey Role Recalls Hoover's F.B.I., Fairly or Not. In one respect, the headline seemed almost banal. Why not compare James Comey with J. Edgar Hoover on the front page of the Times? After all, they've both worked as director of the FBI—Comey currently, of course, and Hoover for nearly half a century, from 1924 to 1972, though it seemed longer. Yet there the similarities surely end. Comey, just for starters, is more than six and a half feet tall. Hoover would have had to wear lifts to qualify for the Lollipop Guild. Hoover, moreover, was a petty, paranoid bureaucrat who abused his self-bestowed power in shadowy secrecy. Comey is a law enforcement officer who has unintentionally created a commotion by trying to make his actions as transparent as possible.

Some 562,000 factory jobs were displaced in the Golden State since 2001, the equivalent to a 3.34% share of California’s total employment of 16.8 million jobs in 2017, the Economic Policy Institute concluded.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling late Friday, kept in place through the Nov. 6 election the voter registration forms used by election officials in the past several elections following the enactment of a controversial law tightening voter identification requirements.

29 votes and 24 comments so far on Reddit

President-elect Donald Trump 's pick for chief of staff, Reince Priebus, has vowed that White House counsel will ensure Trump avoids all conflicts of interest with his business ventures during his administration.

New reports from the Wall …

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These two men are registered to vote in Nevada's 15th District . . .

Event included 'Wheel of Whiteness' and other displays.

The prevailing opinion on President-elect Donald Trump is that he’s unpredictable, a man of no fixed views who transcends traditional notions of right and left.

…portrays a transgender prostitute…

Fresh off her election as GOP conference chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said she looks forward to combating the message of presumptive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

President Obama went on The Daily Show on Monday to lecture racist Americans on Jim Crow and colonialism. He also ...

SUBCRIBE - https://goo.gl/Jz74Dk Born on May 16, 1969 in San Francisco, California, Tucker Carlson is a news anchor, political pundit, commentator as well as...

Steve McMahon, a Democratic Party member described as a media consultant, apparently either hasn't followed the news sufficiently since the presidential election, or is determined to rewrite history. My vote is with the latter. McMahon appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday. Before criticizing President-Elect Donald Trump's victory rallies as "incendiary, he outrageously claimed that Hillary Clinton has "been very gracious since the election," and that she "didn’t contest the election results" or "ask for recounts."

Friedman is Obama's and Kerry's chump

The move adds a traditional Republican who served under George W. Bush to Trump’s team.

Fiat Chrysler said Sunday it would spend $1 billion on U.S. manufacturing, including modernizing plants in Michigan and Ohio, in a move that’s set to add 2,000 new jobs, Reuters reported.

Classical High School in Providence, RI, pushed midterms from Friday to Monday.