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Crosscurrents

Connecting the Dots: Top news stories for Thursday, November 17

Police in riot gear dismantled the Occupy Cal tents on the UC Berkeley campus early this morning. Two protesters were arrested, but it was otherwise calm and orderly....

When Occupy Oakland campers were evicted, again, on Sunday night, mayor Jean Quan was torn over her decision to clear the encampment. Her deputy mayor, Sharon Cornu, and legal adviser, Dan Siegel, both resigned following the action, but pressure from other officials and the murder near Occupy Oakland on November 10 urged her to press on with the eviction...

Meanwhile, San Francisco mayor Ed Lee says he seeks dramatic changes at the Occupy San Francisco encampment, but hasn’t yet ordered police to shut it down. So far, the city has issued 11 demands, including a limit of 100 tents (there are currently about 200) and no alcoholic beverages. San Francisco Fire chief Joanne Hayes-White says the camp presents a huge health and safety concern....

Some are concerned that the pressure to evict Occupy Oakland came largely from the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and other local business associations dominated by representatives from large corporations, including telecommunications companies, big banks, and investment firms...

But the coverage of Occupy Oakland through social media and the blogosphere was hardly dominated by big companies. The Oakland Tribune will host a panel discussion this Saturday on the splash caused by non-journalists reporting on the movement, featuring citizen celebrity Spencer Mills, known on Twitter as OakFoSho...

In other protest news, faculty from Cal State University East Bay and CSU Dominguez Hills are going on strike today to demand the pay raises that were promised and go undelivered. They expect support from other CSU campuses...

But there aren’t any stalls in the plan for a new hospital in San Francisco, which garnered support from voters in the recent election, although debate around this $2 billion investment has been going on for years. When completed, it will be the largest nonprofit medical center in San Francisco’s history...

Another large construction project has come into question, however, as a panel of Bay Area transportation commissioners criticizes Caltrans for failing to alert anyone that the technician who fabricated test data for other structures also tested the new Bay Bridge. The biggest problem? This information comes after completing assembly of the bridge’s tower foundation, making retesting impossible...

And what seems impossible, but one hundred years from now could be a reality, is the disappearance of Bay Area marshes. If climate scientists’ predictions of a 5.4 foot? sea level rise are correct, 93% of the bay's tidal wetlands will vanish, and along with them tens of thousands of species of birds and other wildlife that call those wetlands home...

Thousands of foreclosed homes that pose a safety or health concern are now being handled more frequently by receiverships, a legal process in which control of the property is temporarily transferred to a court-appointed officer. This is a way for city officials to take hold of empty homes that could lead to blight, which is a step beyond the fines that homeowners usually incur for leaving their homes in disrepair...

Homes in San Francisco are still considered a hot commodity, so much so that a mere 25 percent of San Francisco police officers and 33 percent of firefighters actually live in the city. A 2007 pilot program called Police in the Community Loan offers $20,000 to police officers who buy a home in San Francisco -- forgiving that loan after five years of good conduct -- but it's still underutilized.

Connecting the Dots brings together the day's best news.

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