by the El Reportero’s staff
Dianne Feinstein
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and members of the Small Business Commission, announced the opening of the Small Business Assistance Center.
The center will be lead by Director Brajah Norris and dedicated to serving the needs of small businesses in San Francisco with fewer than 100 employees.
This comes as response to sometimes tedious steps needed to open or expand a business in San Francisco and the myriad of agencies that must often be contacted when locating here, the Small Business Assistance Center will serve as the City’s central point of information and assistance for all city-related small business needs.
Teachers’ jobs saved
Rainy day fund allows district to rescind all certificated layoffs.
Superintendent cautions that this is only short-term fix.
District officials announced that they are rescinding all certificated staff layoffs effective immediately.
The Board of Supervisors passed a resolution yesterday afternoon that declared their intention to approve rainy day funds for the school district. “Our dedicated teachers and certifi cated administrators in good standing can rest assured that they will have a job with SFUSD next year,” said Superintendent Carlos García.
“The budget crisis is still very real. Even with the rainy day fund and other funding that we have been able to divert to next year’s school site budgets, the district is likely to face a $13 million dollar shortfall, almost entirely in categorical funds.”
Board President Mark Sánchez talked about the need for local and state revenues that will adequately fund education.
Concerns raised about latest video showing downed animals at stockyard auctions
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today urged the Department of Agriculture to conduct an industry-wide investigation, following the release of a video which documented cases of animal cruelty at livestock auctions and stockyard facilities in Maryland, New Mexico, Texas and Pennsylvania. The video, released today by the Humane Society of the United States, comes several months after another Humane Society video documented animal cruelty and illegal activity at the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company’s meat packing plant in Chino, California. In February, the USDA ordered a record recall of 143 million pounds of beef and shut down the plant.
