Civic

In these highlights from a recent reporter roundtable discussion, journalists share their experiences with local government agencies reducing access to records, data and interviews during emergency health orders. Hear from Lydia Chávez, executive editor at Mission Local, Trisha Thadani, a city hall reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle, Scott Morris, an investigative reporter, and independent journalist Nuala Bishari.

After a mob of pro-Trump agitators stormed the Capitol last week, forcing a delay in the certification of the electoral vote for president, Twitter was the first social media platform to block Donald Trump from posting, with others soon following suit. Ali Alkhatib, a research fellow at the University of San Francisco’s Center for Applied Data Ethics, examines how platforms moderate content and enforce rules with an eye on the social impacts of those choices.

As of December, when the school district and teachers unions couldn’t come to an agreement about safety measures for reopening, there is no set date for when schools will resume in person in San Francisco. Hayin Kimner, interim director of Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco, a parent advocacy group, shares how families are coping with distance learning and what their most urgent questions are in this time of uncertainty.

Months ago, legislators approved several layers of protections to keep renters from being kicked out and potentially made homeless during a pandemic. Now several of these protections are expiring, though there are efforts underway to extend them. Scott Weaver, supervising attorney at the Eviction Defense Collaborative and a volunteer with the San Francisco Tenants Union, lays out which protections are still in place and which are going away — and offers some guidance about how tenants and landlords should handle the impacts of the pandemic on tenants' ability to pay rent.

If you have been in close contact with someone who is diagnosed with COVID-19, you may get a call from a contact tracer, who will want to offer you some guidance about quarantining — including, potentially, connecting you to food or cleaning supply delivery. Paula Heaney, a San Francisco librarian who along with other city employees transitioned to working as a contact tracer, offers a glimpse into how the program works.

Newsrooms across the country have been in overdrive most of this year, covering a global pandemic, a primary and a presidential election, and protests against systemic racism and police brutality. Contributors with YR Media, a national network of young journalists and artists, have been covering it all with reporting and perspectives that don’t usually get the same space and attention in national or corporate outlets. CEO Kyra Kyles and contributing writer Erianna Jiles, a creative writing student at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota, look back on 2020, what’s happened, and what still needs to happen.

In the Bay Area, hospitals still have some ICU capacity left, but health care practitioners are working hard to care for the influx of COVID-19 patients. The surge is leaving workers stretched thin and patients isolated. At the same time, coronavirus vaccines are being distributed to frontline health workers. Dr. Monica Bhargava, a pulmonary critical care physician working at a county hospital in Oakland, offers a glimpse at a day inside the ICU and what her experience with the vaccine has been like so far.

The FBI arrest of former San Francisco Department of Public Works head Mohammed Nuru on fraud charges in January kicked off a cascade of raids, charges and investigations that have spurred the departure of several other city department heads. We spoke with Retired FBI agent James Wedick, who spent years investigating corruption, explains how the FBI gets involved and how these investigations work.