San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin's Innocence Commission has exonerated its first person — and the case is extraordinary. The defendant, Joaquin Ciria, has been behind bars for more than 30 years, accused of killing a friend in a gun attack in SoMa. Now, there's a new witness — and fresh questions about what went wrong. Chronicle reporter Joshua Sharpe joins host Demian Bulwa to talk about the case and what it means. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices....
Apr 19, 2022•16 min
After Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin and pledged to bring in more police, critics feared she was criminalizing drug users. Months later, Breed maintains her position. Chronicle reporter Mallory Moench joins host Cecilia Lei to share what she learned from her conversation with Breed, and what changes have actually been made in the Tenderloin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 18, 2022•19 min
The task force tasked with drawing the city's new supervisor districts has missed its deadline, and it's not clear how the process — marked by protests and outbursts at public meetings — will play out. Reporter J.D. Morris joins host Cecilia Lei to sort out the complex and controversial story of drawing a new map. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 15, 2022•21 min
At age 88, the giant of California politics is the oldest sitting U.S. senator. Five members of Congress — including four Democrats — have told The Chronicle that they're concerned that her memory is rapidly deteriorating, and that it appears she can no longer represent the state without her staff doing much of the work. Reporters Tal Kopan and Joe Garofoli join host Demian Bulwa to discuss these concerns and the response from Feinstein and her allies. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.c...
Apr 14, 2022•25 min
Republicans across the country are moving to restrict abortions in their states, including in Oklahoma where a near-total ban on abortion was signed on Tuesday. Senior political writer and host of "It's All Political on Fifth and Mission" Joe Garofoli chats with Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. They discuss what anti-abortion laws mean for California and what the future looks like for reproductive rights organizing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...
Apr 13, 2022•21 min
The California Department of Education released data on Monday that revealed public school enrollment fell below 6 million for the first time in more than a decade. That means school districts are facing more budget cuts and long-term financial instability. Chronicle reporter Jill Tucker joins host Cecilia Lei to explain what's causing the declines and how the state might help. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 12, 2022•16 min
Covid-19 vaccines and boosters have allowed many people to return to their pre-pandemic activities, but they still don't appear to provide long-lasting protection against Covid infections. Chronicle health reporter Catherine Ho joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about what the future of Covid immunizations could look like, how scientists are looking for a 'pan-coronavirus vaccine' and why that is critical for future coronavirus epidemics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...
Apr 11, 2022•15 min
Bay Area residents are being confronted by fentanyl in places you might not expect. A local organization is making fentanyl test kits available in bar bathrooms, just one element of a larger harm reduction strategy that's necessary to fight the Bay Area's growing fentanyl crisis. Reporter Caron Creighton delves into the differing harm reduction strategies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 08, 2022•16 min
In 2012, John Muir Health formed a multimillion dollar partnership with Stanford to boost its pediatric program and operations. The deaths of the hospital's pediatric patients, including 2-year-old Ailee Jong, bring into question John Muir's ability to perform complex procedures. Chronicle reporters Matthias Gafni and Cynthia Dizikes join host Cecilia Lei to discuss their investigation, which revealed that hospital staff members had warned that John Muir shouldn't operate on Ailee. | Unlimited C...
Apr 07, 2022•30 min
After an exchange of gunfire on a crowded Sacramento street killed six people and wounded 12 more, Democratic politicians and others are again calling for gun control. So will there be meaningful change? Chronicle senior political writer Joe Garofoli lays out the obstacles, including opposition from Republicans in Congress who fear alienating their voters and California’s inability to keep guns from streaming in from states with weaker laws. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Lear...
Apr 06, 2022•14 min
Activist Cleve Jones has lived in the Castro for five decades but now he faces eviction after a wealthy new landlord bought his building and more than doubled his rent. Chronicle reporter Tony Bravo joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss the tense dispute and Jones explains what's at stake when people of his generation are displaced from 'gayborhoods' like the Castro. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 05, 2022•20 min
Employees at California fast food restaurants are confronting sometimes volatile situations at work without protection or training, according to a study that reviewed 911 calls at eateries in nine cities. Reporter Shwanika Narayan speaks with host Dominic Fracassa about what fast food workers are asking for to make their jobs easier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 04, 2022•15 min
California lawmakers approved an emergency bill to extend eviction protections that were set to expire on March 31st. 11th hour politics have provided temporary relief for tenants and landlords, but there's no permanent solution in sight. Chronicle reporter Lauren Hepler joins host Cecilia Lei to explain why rent relief is getting more complicated and how that impacts the state's housing crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 01, 2022•16 min
More than 700 patients at the San Francisco facility could be displaced as federal officials have threatened to withhold critical funding from the facility after two patient overdoses. Those non-fatal incidents triggered an investigation that found Laguna Honda, which had a patient abuse scandal in 2019, had fallen out of regulatory compliance. Reporter Rachel Swan tells Dominic Fracassa about the hospital's latest trouble, and what the Department of Public Health is doing to keep it open. | Unl...
Mar 31, 2022•16 min
As California's historic drought persists, Chronicle reporter Kurtis Alexander joins host Cecilia Lei to give an update on water conservation efforts and whether the state is prepared for the upcoming wildfire season. He also shares the status of water restrictions and new research on the health impact of wildfire smoke. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 30, 2022•17 min
Now that many Bay Area residents have been reinfected with COVID-19 — some more than once — what does that mean for the future of the pandemic? The bad news, Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday tells Demian Bulwa, is that the virus isn't going away. The good news is that both vaccinations and infections can build protection for the future, and so-called hybrid immunity might be the strongest of all. Allday also talks about what we learned from omicron reinfections and what that says about the ...
Mar 29, 2022•16 min
Award-winning Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about the Season 3 launch of the Extra Spicy podcast. Ho reflects on what it's like being a critic, how the pandemic has changed the food industry and using food to explore larger social issues, including race, labor and gender. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 28, 2022•20 min
Residents of communities like Richmond, Martinez and Benicia are angry after finding out that a hydrogen stack at the Valero refinery in Benicia was releasing chemicals at levels hundreds of times higher than the legal limit for years. Government regulators knew — but had kept it a secret since 2019. Chronicle reporter Julie Johnson breaks down the story with host Demian Bulwa. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 25, 2022•13 min
California has the highest average gas price in the country. Gov. Gavin Newsom has unveiled a gas tax rebate plan that would put money back into the pockets of car owners and incentivize mass transit services. Reporter Dustin Gardiner joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about the proposal and what negotiations might look like in the Legislature. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 24, 2022•15 min
For decades, the families of people lost to suicide have campaigned for a barrier on the bridge to make it harder to jump. Now, after years of construction delays and opposition, a steel-net suicide prevention system is nearing completion. Chronicle reporter Rachel Swan joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about what the project means to victims’ families and the lessons learned by people on the front lines of bridge rescues. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad c...
Mar 23, 2022•19 min
On any given night, thousands of people sleep unsheltered in San Francisco. Supervisor Rafael Mandelman wants to change that with a proposal that would force the city to offer shelter to all unhoused people. He joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss the legislation, and Chronicle reporter Mallory Moench explains the potential costs and concerns of his plan. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 22, 2022•19 min
For months, a rooster living in a Tenderloin yard has been terrorizing the neighborhood with its all-day crowing. Longtime resident Adriel Lively wanted to do something about it, but she only found dead ends. Chronicle reporter Ryan Kost joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss Lively's ordeal and why a story about an annoying bird -- in a neighborhood riddled with serious problems -- still matters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 21, 2022•15 min
On March 16, 2021, a white gunman killed 8 people in Atlanta spas — including 6 Asian women. One year later, host Cecilia Lei and 4 Asian women in the Bay Area reflect on the tragedy, and how it's changed their ideas around work, personal safety and community. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 18, 2022•19 min
An epidemic of fatal drug overdoses prompted San Francisco Mayor London Breed to declare an emergency in the hard-hit Tenderloin neighborhood. She promised to open a new aid center and increase street intervention by cops and others. But as the 90-day order ends Thursday, have things gotten any better? And what happened with Breed's threat that some drug users may be arrested? Chronicle reporter Susie Neilson joins host Demian Bulwa to break down what's happened. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sf...
Mar 17, 2022•18 min
A moldy apple. A jar of used masks. A small bottle of vodka. Bay Area residents are holding on to artifacts from the pandemic to help them remember how they — and the world — have changed since the first shelter-in-place order came down two years ago. Chronicle reporter Annie Vainshtein joins host Cecilia Lei to share their stories. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 16, 2022•19 min
Monday marked the first time in two years that California students could go maskless inside their schools. Host Cecilia Lei and Chronicle reporter Annie Vainshtein visit a sixth-grade classroom at San Francisco's Hoover Middle School to see what has — or hasn't — changed after months of sometimes furious debates. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 15, 2022•12 min
As lawmakers scramble to reverse a court-ordered enrollment freeze at UC Berkeley despite heavy demand, the debate is igniting the housing wars. The school and its neighbors are sparring over who is responsible for a central problem: just 22% of the school's students are housed by the university. In Berkeley, the failure to build housing goes back decades, but the politics have changed, with YIMBYs instead of NIMBYs ascendant. Chronicle reporters Sarah Ravani and J.K. Dineen join host Demian Bul...
Mar 14, 2022•15 min
A photo of a woman and her two children killed by a Russian mortar captured the world's attention. The woman was 43-year-old Tatiana Perebeinis, a chief accountant at SE Ranking, a Palo Alto tech firm. Chronicle reporter Carolyn Said shares more details of her life with host Cecilia Lei, and SE Ranking's Ksenia Khirvonina shares what preserving Tatiana's memory means for the world. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 11, 2022•27 min
In her first state of the city address to a live audience since the start of the pandemic, the mayor strikes an optimistic tone and pledges to tackle the city's most pressing issues, including homelessness and a battered economy. Host Cecilia Lei talks to City Hall reporter Mallory Moench about the mayor's plans, and to health reporter Erin Allday about whether we really are past COVID-19. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adch...
Mar 10, 2022•24 min
Rep. John Garamendi, who represents a district between San Francisco and Sacramento, tells It's All Political on Fifth & Mission host Joe Garofoli about Saturday's congressional Zoom call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Garamendi talks about Vladimir Putin's similarities to Adolf Hitler, how oil companies are using the crisis as cover to gouge prices, and how Americans should be willing to sacrifice by paying higher gas prices to protect democracy. | Unlimited Chronicle access: s...
Mar 09, 2022•24 min
