The American Museum of Natural History is closing two major halls as museums around the nation respond to updated policies from the Biden administration. By Julia Jacobs and Zachary Small The American Museum of Natural History will close two major halls exhibiting Native American objects, its leaders said on Friday, in a dramatic response to new federal regulations that require museums to obtain consent from tribes before displaying or performing research on cultural items. “The halls we are closing are artifacts of an era when museums such as ours did not respect the values, perspectives and indeed shared humanity of Indigenous peoples,” Sean…
Author: SBE Staff
By St. John Barned-Smith A San Francisco city employee was charged Thursday with helping embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars from a program meant to fund neighborhood improvements, prosecutors said. Stanley Ellicott, a 38-year-old manager in San Francisco’s Department of Human Resources, is charged with eight felonies, including one count of misappropriation of public money, six counts of aiding and abetting a financial conflict of interest in a government contract, and one count of receiving stolen property. The charges lay out a case in which Ellicott helped an associate direct bribes to a grant manager in exchange for city dollars. “The…
By Brianna Taylor After last year’s budget of $300 million in down payment assistance was devoured in 11 days, California has relaunched its program with stricter guidelines to target a niche group of first-time homebuyers. In its second year, the California Housing Finance Agency’s Dream For All Shared Appreciation Loan program will continue to award down payments that don’t have to be repaid until the property is sold, refinanced, transferred or paid off. Whether or not you are chosen for a loan will be based purely on luck — and your parents. Last year, the CalHFA dished out money on…
By Gillian Brassil California’s secretary of state asked a state appeals court to erase the ruling that let Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, run for Congress for a two-year term to succeed retired Rep. Kevin McCarthy. “Petitioner California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley N. Weber urgently requests a peremptory writ of mandate directing respondent Superior Court for the State of California, County of Sacramento, to vacate its ruling in Fong v. Weber,” read the petition filed Monday in California’s Third Appellate District. The secretary of state’s office sent The Bee the petition for a writ of mandate, which is a document…
By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents declined Thursday to move forward on a bold plan to hire immigrant students who lack legal work authorization, crushing the hopes of thousands of young people seeking to escape precarious futures without adequate access to jobs and research opportunities. UC President Michael V. Drake told regents he would not recommend a proposed plan to challenge federal law barring employment of those without legal status because the potential consequences were too risky to UC students, families and staff. UC students could be subject to deportation, employees could risk civil and criminal prosecution if they…
The Ford Foundation announced its latest round of grants for independent documentary film. With a storied history of funding social impact films for nearly 75 years, the foundation houses JustFilms, one of the largest documentary funds in the world and a part of the Creativity and Free Expression (CFE) program. Now in its thirteenth year, JustFilms is one of the few philanthropies making direct grants for independent documentary content. In its most recent round of grants, it provided over $4.2 million to support 59 innovative film projects centered on social justice globally and in the United States. From this allocation, the 59 documentary…
By Andrew Sheeler Could a five-year-old California law soon go national? Not if Republicans have their way. Assembly Republicans and U.S. House Rep. Kevin Kiley gathered on the Capitol steps in Sacramento Tuesday to rail against AB 5, the 2019 law that sought to prevent misclassification of regular employees as independent contractors, thus denying them legally required wages and benefits. AB 5 has been a bugbear on the right ever since California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law, and now the U.S. Department of Labor, which is run by acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, formerly the secretary of the…
By Christi Carras A former employee of World Wrestling Entertainment has sued the company, its embattled founder, Vince McMahon, and its former head of talent relations John Laurinaitis for sexual assault, trafficking and emotional abuse. Janel Grant filed the complaint Thursday in Connecticut, accusing McMahon of coercing her into a “sexual relationship,” sharing sexually explicit photos and videos of her with male colleagues and subjecting her to “increasingly depraved sexual demands” — including forcing her into “sexual encounters” with Laurinaitis and others — while she was employed at the company. The 67-page lawsuit arrived months after McMahon unexpectedly returned as chairman of WWE.…
By Doug Smith One in five women who become homeless in California flee their homes to escape violence and escalating abuse by an intimate partner, a new analysis of a statewide survey has reported. The study by the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UC San Francisco found that a dearth of domestic violence shelters leaves women exposed to more violence in homeless encampments. “That system is completely overwhelmed, and people are winding up in encampments,” said Margot Kushel, director of the research group and co-author of the report. Among those who reported being victims of violence in the six months before losing their…
By Keri Blakinger A Los Angeles attorney filed a petition this week asking the state to “decertify” Undersheriff April Tardy for allegedly committing perjury when she testified in court last year as a witness in a civil lawsuit about a deputy gang known as the Executioners. During sworn testimony to the Civilian Oversight Commission in 2022 — before she became the undersheriff — Tardy said she’d transferred a “shotcaller” in a deputy group after confirming he’d ordered a work slowdown at the Compton station. She walked back those statements during a civil trial a year later, when she testified as…