Despite criticism from animal welfare activists, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution Tuesday that would allow certain government departments to seek donations from private organizations to help fund Mayor London Breed’s $25 million effort to house panda bears at the San Francisco Zoo. The vote was 9-2 in favor of the proposal, with board president Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Hillary Ronen voting against the resolution. Supervisors Myrna Melgar and Joel Engardio sponsored the resolution with Breed. It will grant Breed a behested payments waiver that was needed in order a ..read more

First Lady Jill Biden is set to arrive Thursday evening in the Bay Area to attend a campaign fundraiser, according to the White House. Biden is expected to fly in from a political event in Minnesota and will arrive at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View. On Friday at 12:45 p.m., she will visit and talk at a political finance event in Los Gatos before going to Reno, Nevada, for another event later in the day, according to the White House. It is the second time that the first lady has been in the Bay Area in as many months after she came to the region last month also for fundraisers. Her ..read more

Santa Clara County is moving forward with a series of actions to support family caregivers in response to a recent county survey that found caregivers need more resources.  The county Board of Supervisors accepted staff recommendations and instructed them to create ways to address caregivers’ two main areas of concern, which were a need for more information on caregiving and respite care options for caregivers.  County staff were tasked with establishing a workgroup to coordinate existing resources and compile a reliable caregiver information and referral list that will focus on the ..read more

JULIÁN CASTRO WAS a student at Stanford University when California voters passed Proposition 187 — a ballot initiative to deny undocumented immigrants social and health services — in 1994. “I remember the ads they ran with the grainy footage that said ‘They keep coming,’” recalled the newly-named CEO of the Latino Community Foundation and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development at a CalMatters Ideas Festival panel in Sacramento this past Thursday.  “It felt like a real affront to the Latino community.” Widely seen as a turning point in California politics, the measure — en ..read more

It’s been 23 years to the day since Maria Hsiao was shot and killed outside a Palo Alto nightclub, but her family and investigators hold out hope that someone somewhere will come forward with information needed to finally close the case. On the night of June 10, 2001, Hsiao was out celebrating her 21st birthday with family and friends. She was shot in the head while standing in a crowd outside the Q Cafe, a former pool hall on Alma Street that is now Patagonia Palo Alto. Palo Alto Police Capt. Zachary Perron was one of the responding officers on scene. He recalled performing CPR on Hsiao unti ..read more

Freebie of the week: Redwood City’s Courthouse Square hosts events and gatherings throughout the year, but in summer, it’s really busy. Through late August, the city hosts a variety of free events and performances, some weekly. On Thursday nights, it’s Movies on the Square. Most weeks, there’s a double feature with either a kid-friendly screening at 6 p.m. or a short indie film presented by BraveMaker Independent Film Festival at 8 p.m., followed by a mainstream feature at 8:30 p.m. This weekend, Bay Area filmmaker Jesse Kuba’s “The Moon is in Aquarius” is part of the city’s Juneteenth c ..read more

Nurses in Alameda picketed outside a hospital this week to protest cuts being made to surgical services that they say could impact health care for lower income and marginalized Alameda residents.   The nurses rallied at Alameda Hospital on Clinton Avenue after public health care system Alameda Health System announced the decision to cut elective surgery at Alameda Hospital and relocate these services to Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus in Oakland and San Leandro Hospital.  The decision was met with broad disapproval by registered nurses at Alameda Hospital, represented by th ..read more

San Francisco will solicit feedback on plans to improve the Powell Street pedestrian and cable car experience at an open house Wednesday afternoon.  The city is working with the Union Square Alliance — the area’s business improvement district — on a $4 million project that hopes to spur economic development and honor the history of the cable cars that run up and down Powell Street.  A number of businesses have fled the Powell Street area near Union Square in recent years, including Westfield mall, the city’s largest shopping center. Most have cited a lack of customer foot traffic si ..read more

A kite surfer who somehow became stranded on a remote Santa Cruz County beach over the weekend kept his wits and turned to his natural surroundings to alert rescuers to his predicament. The surfer used rocks on the beach to spell out “HELP,” Cal Fire officials said in a social media post on X. A private helicopter flying over the beach, south of Davenport Landing, spotted the message and called authorities, Cal Fire said. In an image from video, emergency crews prepare to airlift a stranded kite surfer from a Santa Cruz County beach just yards away from the “HELP” message he created from rock ..read more

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price on Tuesday addressed criticism and perceived criticism leveled at her in recent weeks by supporters of an effort to remove her from office, as well as from Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez. At a news conference in her Oakland office, Price talked about a May 30 social media post from the Sheriff’s Office detailing the alleged crimes of Robert Barroca, 59, who is accused of a January knife attack at a Hayward park that left a victim with serious wounds, including protruding intestines. The post mentions that Barroca is a convicted felon and was on probation ..read more