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Crosscurrents

Daily news roundup for Wednesday, December 2, 2015

CC Flickr User ForestEthics, Cropped.
Anti-coal canvasseers in Oakland in 2014

Here's what's happening in the Bay Area, as curated by KALW news:

 

Mark Zuckerberg giving away 99% of Facebook stock to celebrate daughter's birth // Inside Bay Area

“Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and wife Dr. Priscilla Chan publicly celebrated the birth of their daughter Max by announcing Tuesday that they plan to donate 99 percent of their $45 billion in Facebook stock to philanthropic efforts, one of the largest donations in the nation's history.

“The couple launched the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to ‘advance human potential and promote equality for all children,’ focusing on personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities, they wrote in a letter to their daughter.”

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Oakland making its move in dustup over coal trains // SF Chronicle

“Before jetting off to Paris for this week’s star-studded global warming conference, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and her staff finally hit upon a plan to solve her first local environmental crisis — how to stop coal from being shipped through the Port of Oakland.

“At issue is a proposal to ship Utah coal through the $250 million bulk cargo terminal being built — in part with public funds — by politically connected developer Phil Tagami at the old Oakland Army Base…

The answer: Declare coal a health hazard.”

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Google, Facebook in race to build high-altitude aircraft // Inside Bay Area

“Its visionary founder is in prison. Its most heralded invention crash-landed in the New Mexico desert this spring.

“Titan Aerospace, bought by Google last year, is experiencing some turbulence on its way to the stratosphere.

“In its quest to build a solar-powered drone that can beam the Internet down to Earth from 12 miles above, Titan is racing to beat a sleek rival, Facebook's boomerang-shaped Aquila plane, which is complete and awaiting testing over the United States.”

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S.F. Mayor Lee calls for higher affordable housing requirements for market-rate projects // San Francisco Business Times

“San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is pushing for a ballot measure that would increase the affordable housing requirements for market-rate projects, as the city grapples with soaring rents and more financial burden on lower-income residents.

“Lee, who was reelected to a second term last month, said Tuesday that he supports stronger concessions from market-rate projects and an increase in the city's current policy of requiring projects to build 12 percent of their units as affordable units. Projects can alternatively build 20 percent of their units off-site, pay a fee for affordable housing or dedicate land for affordable units.”

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The Feds Lose Hundreds of Guns a Year, and They Keep Turning Up in Bay Area Homicides // SF Weekly

“A sick sense of déjà vu accompanied the announcement last week that the gun used to kill Oakland muralist Antonio Ramos in September was the same weapon stolen from a federal agent’s car in San Francisco weeks earlier. A federal agent’s gun was also the murder weapon in the shooting death of Kathryn Steinle in July, and again in that case the weapon was snatched during a car break-in.

“In neither case is it clear how a government-issued sidearm got into the hands of the killer. Alleged Steinle shooter Francisco Sanchez says he found the Bureau of Land Management ranger’s gun stashed under a bench on Pier 14, a head-scratching claim that is probably impossible to disprove no matter how unlikely it sounds. The burglary of the ICE-issued gun that killed Ramos was solved, but without securing the missing weapon.”

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'Blood was everywhere': Uber bike deliveryman saves newborn baby // SF Chronicle

“Esau Marquez, a bicycle food deliveryman for a new app called Uber Eats, was wheeling down Market Street in San Francisco last Monday when he came upon a chaotic scene.

“People were yelling and screaming around a pool of blood at the 5 and 21 Muni stop. One woman stood frozen in a terrified daze.

“Marquez, who had recently been threatened by a man with a knife in the Mission District, assumed someone had been stabbed. He jumped off his bike to offer assistance.”

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Crosscurrents Housing & Homelessness