This here publication last week took home two more awards from the Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists for in-depth coverage and analysis of the sort you expect — and demand — of us.
Senior editor Joe Rivano Barros and former data reporter Will Jarrett were honored in the “Explanatory Journalism” category for the mammoth effort of tracing and documenting the Russian dolls-like series of interconnected organizations funneling billionaires’ dollars into San Francisco politics.
The series, titled “BigMoneySF,” included Rivano Barros’ profile of Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, the largest donor over the last several election cycles, and Jarrett’s interactive chart, a stunning accomplishment requiring months of work unearthing reams of financial data structured in a manner so as to render it challenging to unearth. Jarrett’s signature achievement preceded a lucrative and successful March election for the BigMoneySF groups — and this month’s much more lucrative and much less successful election.
“Money in politics is an ancient story but the amounts here in San Francisco are truly eye-watering,” said Rivano Barros. “Will’s graphics in particular made it effortless for readers to see the connections between big donors, and I do think other outlets have paid more attention to campaign finance since.”
Mission Local was also awarded top honors in the “Technology Reporting” category.
Individual articles included Yujie Zhou’s reporting on the days and nights of our city’s aspirational AI pioneers; Jarrett and Joe Eskenazi’s discovery and graphic presentation of the then-55 fire department reports of autonomous vehicles interfering in emergency scenes; and Eskenazi’s reporting on the aftermath of a Cruise autonomous vehicle pinning and dragging a pedestrian.
“I can’t say enough about how rare it is to find a news site as good as Mission Local, and I love that we’re always trying to figure out how to make it even better,” said Lydia Chávez, the site’s executive editor. “It is definitely a site worthy of our readers’ support.”
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Mission artist animates green utility boxes with a flock of birds
Read Mission Local often?Help grow our newsroom during end-of-year fundraising, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by donating below. Chestnut-backed chickadees, yellow warblers and other feathered birds have landed this winter on the unassuming green utility boxes along South Van Ness Avenue and Bryant Street in the Mission.The 20 feathered friends are the creation of Claudio Talavera-Ballón, a Mission-based Peruvian painter sponsored by the nonprofit Paint the Void sponsored to paint 10 Mission utility boxes, part of a project to remake 250 utility boxes across San Francisco.It’s an effort to color the utility boxes that store infrastructure for nearby traffic lights across the city. Elsewhere, dozens of artists have covered the “municipal green” boxes with pandas, a girl on the swing, and a naughty astronaut. Talavera-Ballón’s flock, all Bay Area species, can be seen at almost every intersection […]
Undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia hit by outage, prompting investigation
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A power cable linking Finland and Estonia under the Baltic Sea suffered an outage, prompting an investigation, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said Wednesday.Writing on X, Orpo said that power transmission through the Estlink-2 cable stopped Wednesday and that authorities were “investigating the matter.” He said the interruption would not affect electricity supplies in Finland.Estonian network operator Elering said there was enough spare capacity to meet power needs on the Estonian side, public broadcaster ERR said on its website.Trusted news and daily delights, right in your inboxSee for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.Authorities have been on edge about undersea infrastructure in the Baltic. Two data cables, one running between Finland and Germany, the other between Lithuania and Sweden, were severed in November.Germany's defense minister said officials […]
Santa has arrived!!!
Santa has arrived!!! Source: missionlocal.org
The ‘Godfather of EVs’ explains why China is winning the race to go electric — and why hybrids are a ‘fool’s errand’
Former Nissan and Aston Martin executive Andy Palmer is known as the "godfather of EVs" thanks to his work on the Nissan Leaf.Courtesy of Andy Palmer Andy Palmer, the "Godfather of EVs," explains how China took the lead in the electric car race. Ex-Nissan COO Palmer got the moniker after developing the Leaf, the world's first mass-market EV. He says Chinese EVs offer "remarkable" value for money and have better battery tech than their Western rivals. The man often known as the "Godfather of EVs" has a warning for automakers thinking of ditching electric vehicles for hybrids. Former Aston Martin CEO and Nissan exec Andy Palmer told Business Insider that delaying transitioning to EVs in favor of selling hybrids was a "fool's errand" and warned automakers doing so risk falling even further behind Chinese EV companies. Palmer's moniker comes from his […]
S.F. police shooting victim idolized cops, law enforcement
The Central Valley man who police killed last week — purportedly attempting to arrest him for an alleged hit-and-run in San Francisco — thought very highly of law enforcement, his social media presence shows. Hodge, whose identity has been reported widely in the media but remains unconfirmed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, ran his own private security firm called Covert Guardian Solutions based in Lodi, in San Joaquin County. Hodge and his company are licensed with the state Bureau of Security and Investigative Services. His company website advertises protection for high-profile individuals as well as security and surveillance for businesses. On his social media page, Hodge posted photos of a vehicle, labeled with Covert Guardian Solutions branding, outside both the Dior store and the nearby Louis Vuitton store. Police believe that Hodge was working as a security guard outside the […]
Scientists Destroy 99% of Cancer Cells in Lab Using Vibrating Molecules
Scientists have discovered a remarkable way to destroy cancer cells. A study published last year found stimulating aminocyanine molecules with near-infrared light caused them to vibrate in sync, enough to break apart the membranes of cancer cells.Aminocyanine molecules are already used in bioimaging as synthetic dyes. Commonly used in low doses to detect cancer, they stay stable in water and are very good at attaching themselves to the outside of cells.The research team from Rice University, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas, said their approach is a marked improvement over another kind of cancer-killing molecular machine previously developed, called Feringa-type motors, which could also break the structures of problematic cells."It is a whole new generation of molecular machines that we call molecular jackhammers," said chemist James Tour from Rice University, when the results were published in December 2023."They […]
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Mission artist animates green utility boxes with a flock of birds
Read Mission Local often?Help grow our newsroom during end-of-year fundraising, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by donating below. Chestnut-backed chickadees, yellow warblers and other feathered birds have landed this winter on the unassuming green utility boxes along South Van Ness Avenue and Bryant Street in the Mission.The 20 feathered friends are the creation of Claudio Talavera-Ballón, a Mission-based Peruvian painter sponsored by the nonprofit Paint the Void sponsored to paint 10 Mission utility boxes, part of a project to remake 250 utility boxes across San Francisco.It’s an effort to color the utility boxes that store infrastructure for nearby traffic lights across the city. Elsewhere, dozens of artists have covered the “municipal green” boxes with pandas, a girl on the swing, and a naughty astronaut. Talavera-Ballón’s flock, all Bay Area species, can be seen at almost every intersection […]
Santa has arrived!!!
Santa has arrived!!! Source: missionlocal.org
S.F. police shooting victim idolized cops, law enforcement
The Central Valley man who police killed last week — purportedly attempting to arrest him for an alleged hit-and-run in San Francisco — thought very highly of law enforcement, his social media presence shows. Hodge, whose identity has been reported widely in the media but remains unconfirmed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, ran his own private security firm called Covert Guardian Solutions based in Lodi, in San Joaquin County. Hodge and his company are licensed with the state Bureau of Security and Investigative Services. His company website advertises protection for high-profile individuals as well as security and surveillance for businesses. On his social media page, Hodge posted photos of a vehicle, labeled with Covert Guardian Solutions branding, outside both the Dior store and the nearby Louis Vuitton store. Police believe that Hodge was working as a security guard outside the […]
Clancy’s 41-year-old Christmas tree lot is a tradition on a clock
The undeveloped lot at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Lawton Street is quiet and lifeless most of the year. But, at year’s end, pumpkins and Christmas trees line a dirt path, giant candy canes stand illuminated by strings of lights, and the whir of saws fills the air. Opened in 1949, Clancy’s Pumpkins and Christmas Trees has been at this corner of the Inner Sunset for 41 years. But perhaps not for much longer. Earlier this year, the Board of Education approved using the undeveloped land at 1620 Seventh Ave., owned by the SFUSD, as a potential site for teacher housing, which would move the school district closer to its goal of developing 550 educator housing units across San Francisco by 2030. It is unclear how long it will take for the project to break ground. But for Clancy’s, the clock […]
Seeing a show – Mission Local
Mission Local produces enterprise reporting on San Francisco's most critical issues: police reform, corruption, public health, housing and homelessness. Learn more about us, and donate below keep us reporting.Subscribe to Mission Local's daily newsletter Source: missionlocal.org
Waymo rolls toward San Francisco Airport — showdown brewing
On Friday morning, a driverless Waymo vehicle, for reasons unknown, rolled into a patch of wet cement on the grounds of Laguna Honda Hospital — and sank in. It was, for onlookers, a source of much mirth and cellphone picture-taking. A witness tells your humble narrator that the wet cement ought to have been better demarcated with barricades — but, also, that a human driver would never, ever have made this mistake. Two weeks prior, an official with San Francisco International Airport wrote to the Planning Department. “The City and County of San Francisco, by and through the San Francisco Airport Commission proposes to approve a permit allowing autonomous vehicle companies to map the roads at San Francisco International Airport, ” it read.“Under the Proposed Project, autonomous vehicle companies would be allowed to deploy up to two autonomous vehicles operated by human drivers to […]
