By Phred Dvorak
Wall Street Journal

An innovative San Francisco health-care law is prompting some businesses to raise prices and curtail hiring. But it also is showing early signs of doing what it was intended to do: push employers to defray medical costs for more workers. San Francisco's law aims to provide affordable health care to the city's estimated 73,000 uninsured residents, roughly half of whom work. It requires businesses with 20 or more employees to spend a minimum amount toward their health care, either by providing insurance, reimbursing medical expenses or contributing to a municipal health-services program. The first payments by big companies to the city's program were due last week. Read more »

By Steve Rubenstein
San Francisco Chronicle

Mayor Gavin Newsom said the U.S. census has somehow overlooked 100,000 San Francisco residents and the city is failing to collect millions of dollars in federal funding as a result. The city will officially contest the Census Bureau's 2007 population estimate of 764,000, the mayor said. A formal announcement of the challenge is expected today.

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By Mary Engel
Los Angeles Times

When Jackie Goldberg and Sharon Stricker headed to San Francisco to get married four years ago, they saw their wedding as a political statement. It surprised them both when, halfway through the ceremony on the steps of the City Hall rotunda, the usually stalwart Goldberg burst into tears. They had joined the rush to San Francisco after Mayor Gavin Newsom, arguing that to prohibit same-sex marriage violated the equal protection clause of the state Constitution, ordered gender-neutral licenses to be issued. More than 4,000 gay and lesbian couples married in February and March 2004 before the high court invalidated the licenses and the wedding train stopped as abruptly as it had begun. Read more »

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KTVU News

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco is the second greenest city in the country, according to Popular Science Magazine.

The magazine this month released its list of "America's 50 Greenest Cities," ranking them on such programs as renewable energy, transportation habits and air quality, green buildings and public spaces, and recycling programs. The list was compiled with data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Geographic Society for cities with more than 100,000 residents. Read more »

By Bob Egelko
San Francisco Chronicle

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed San Francisco on Thursday to continue requiring employers to pay part of the cost of providing health care to uninsured residents while a group of restaurant owners tries to overturn the program.

Justice Anthony Kennedy denied a request by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association to suspend the employer contributions while the case awaits an April 17 hearing before an appellate panel.

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By Matthew S. Bajko
Bay Area Reporter

Mayor Gavin Newsom began his second term in office Tuesday, January 8 with a stinging rebuke for those who complain about "San Francisco values" during his inaugural speech. Standing on the staircase underneath City Hall's Rotunda, Newsom recalled how nearly four years ago same-sex couples exchanged marriage vows on those very steps. With his ordering city officials to wed gay and lesbian couples, Newsom said, We saw how San Francisco can be a beacon for the world when we led the fight for marriage equality." And when the city extended protections to transgender residents "it became better," said Newsom. To those who continue to attack him and the city for standing up for LGBT rights, the mayor had a response.  "They deride what they call 'San Francisco values.' But we know that those values inspire many more than they frighten," said Newsom, later adding, "when others were fearful, San Franciscans did not falter. ... We will not stop making this city an inspiration and an example for others." Read more »

By Cecilia Vega, Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writers
San Francisco Chronicle

Mayor Gavin Newsom was sworn in for a second term Tuesday, promising to make San Francisco a greener city and a national leader in health care reform while praising "San Francisco values" like support for same-sex marriage and protections for undocumented immigrants. Newsom's father, retired Judge William Newsom, administered the oath of office using a family Bible under City Hall's palatial dome in a ceremony that organizers billed as low-key. The mayor was sworn in alongside his sister Hillary Newsom Callan, her two young daughters and his new fiancee, Jennifer Siebel, to whom Newsom referred in his inaugural speech as "the love of my life."

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By David Smith
San Francisco Examiner

Headed into his second term as mayor, Gavin Newsom said he would renew efforts to combat homelessness, specifically street behavior, conceding that efforts during his first term “haven’t had the impact on street behavior that I would have liked.”  Newsom, first elected in 2003 on a platform built upon the issue of homelessness, has started various efforts in The City to try and remove homeless people from the streets, including Care Not Cash, a program that reduces cash amounts given to homeless people on welfare in exchange for housing or shelter, and Project Homeless Connect, a program that brings health and human services for the homeless under one roof during day-long events every other month. Read more »

The Governor and Assembly Speaker have emerged from negotiations with a healthcare plan that needs to be sent back for major reconstructive surgery. The plan has some very good elements – such as preventing insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, a long-overdue expansion of children’s healthcare coverage and, potentially, the creation of the largest purchasing pool in the health insurance market outside of the federal government. But the proposal has major flaws that must be fixed before it has a chance of final approval by California voters. Read the full story on Daily Kos. Read more »