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Bay Area News Project Meets the Students from the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Elements of our Bay Area News Project, that grand alliance of old money and young blood, recently headed across the Bay Bridge to meet up with the kids from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. 

This meet-and-greet happened a couple of weeks back but the BANP is crowing about it today, so head over and check it out, why don’t you?

Look, it’s brand-new BANP EIC Jonathan Weber and CEO Lisa Frazier at North Gate Hall sharing a few brewskis with the J students:

TwitPic via jrue, aka Jeremy Rue, multimedia training instructor for the Knight Digital Media Center and a lecturer for the Carnegie-Knight program News21

Do you fret over* these students becoming “slaves” or something? You may be richer and older than they, but they’re smarter than you - try to keep that in mind when pondering such matters. These 20-somethings will do fine - they’ll manage to get by, with or without the BANP.

Bon courage, BANP et etudiants.

*Absence of pay-wall duly noted. Isn’t it ironic, dont’cha think?

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New UCSF Meta Study Proves Cigarette Smoking is a Risk Factor for Alzheimer’s Disease

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

All right, a new UCSF Medical Center study shows that smoking cigarettes won’t help you avoid Alzheimer’s disease.

This might come as news to some people, especially to those who rely on tobacco-industry funding to show that tobacco helps people avoid Alzheimers.

Deets below.

UCSF, back in the day, along with the ur N Judah:

Study Shows Cigarette Smoking a Risk Factor for Alzheimer’s Disease

February 02, 2010

A UCSF analysis of published studies on the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and smoking indicates that smoking cigarettes is a significant risk factor for the disease. After controlling for study design, quality of the journals, time of publication and tobacco industry affiliation of the authors, the UCSF research team also found an association between tobacco industry affiliation and the conclusions of individual studies. Industry-affiliated studies indicated that smoking protects against the development of AD, while independent studies showed that smoking increased the risk of developing the disease. 

Study findings were published online in the Jan. 29, 2010 issue (19:2) of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. An abstract of the paper is available online. 

Ever more deets, after the jump

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The Bay Area News Project Finally Makes Its Deal with the New York Times

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

The Bay Area News Project, that grand alliance of old money and young blood, will soon make its debut.

Savor two bits of news released just now:

1. “The Bay Area News Project appoints Lisa Frazier as C.E.O and Jonathan Weber as Editor-In-Chief“ (but maybe you already knew about that, of course), und;

2.“The Bay Area News Project to supply news content for Bay Area sections of The New York Times“

O.K. then. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?

[UPDATE: The SFWeekly's young Joe Eskenazi just grilled the principals of the BANP  just now - his report.]

So the new CEO will be Lisa Frazier, the very same woman who was in charge of the hunt for a CEO? Yes, Lisa. Is the water warm enough? We’ll soon find out.

That’s today’s news. Expect good things…

The Bay Area News Project to Supply News Content for Bay Area Sections of the New York Times

The Bay Area News Project, a new non-profit media organization, and The New York Times announced today that the two organizations are moving forward with a content collaboration. Under the agreement, Bay Area News Project journalists will provide branded news to The New York Times for its San Francisco Bay Area editions on Friday and Sunday.

The New York Times’s Bay Area section was launched in October 2009 and currently features editorial coverage written by The Times’s San Francisco news bureau and other contributors.

“This agreement with the Bay Area News Project is another big step for The Times toward two goals: helping meet the demand for the highest quality local reporting in places around the country where it is getting harder to come by, and finding ways to collaborate with trusted providers to get that job done,” said Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times.

“Our aim is to roll out expanded local reports in several key markets around the country, working with local journalists and news organizations in a collaborative way,” said Scott Heekin-Canedy, president and general manager of The New York Times. The Times has a similar arrangement in Chicago with the nonprofit Chicago News Cooperative. “This approach is designed to enhance the print experience for readers and strengthen our subscriber retention,” Mr. Heekin-Canedy said.

In related news, The Bay Area News Project also announced its new C.E.O. Lisa Frazier and Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Weber. The News Project’s publicly-supported and stand-alone newsroom will consist of at least 15 journalists during the new media outlet’s first year.  In addition to providing content to The New York Times, the News Project is developing a Web site and other platforms that will provide original reporting on a wide range of Bay Area civic and community issues.

“We believe that Jonathan Weber, a talented journalist with a world of rich experience, will build a team that can provide a superior local report for readers of The Times in the Bay Area,” Mr. Keller said. “And our agreement with the Bay Area News Project assures that his newsroom will be strictly independent, apolitical and uninfluenced by the generous donors who are making this effort possible.”

Mr. Weber, former co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Industry Standard and former reporter and editor for the LA Times, said: “We’re looking forward to working with one of the world’s leading editorial brands to deliver hard-hitting news and in-depth editorial coverage focused on the San Francisco Bay Area – one of the most intellectually curious, innovative and industrious areas of the country.”

“We are excited to start producing content about the Bay Area for the Bay Area, published in The New York Times,” said Bay Area News Project C.E.O. Lisa Frazier.  “Our print collaboration with The Times assists our sustainability model, and extends the reach of our content in the Bay Area. I am appreciative of Tom Carley, Bill Keller and the rest of their teams for all of their support over the last few months as we got the News Project up and running. We are looking forward to a successful collaboration.”

The Hellman Family Foundation has provided initial seed funding for the Bay Area News Project; other support has come from the Knight Foundation and community members interested in funding quality journalism for the Bay Area.  Investment banking firm Greenhill & Co., law firm Jones Day, and philanthropic advisory firm Hirsch & Associates, LLC have advised Warren Hellman and his working group on the formation of the entity.

About the Bay Area News Project

The Bay Area News Project is a publicly supported news organization focused on providing high-quality, original coverage of Bay Area civic and community news. The locally produced, professional news organization plans to leverage broad collaborations and new digital technologies to provide Bay Area news that reflects the region’s dynamic social and cultural diversity. Coverage will include government and public policy, education, the arts and cultural affairs, the environment, and neighborhood news.  The News Project is currently a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives, a 501(c)(3) organization that enables individuals and groups, working together, to create and invest in projects that benefit the public.

 For more information, please visit www.bayareanewsproject.org.

The other shoe drop after the jump.

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Know Your Bay Area Media Overlords – Meet Lisa Frazier, CEO of the Bay Area News Project

Monday, January 18th, 2010

The Bay Area News Project, that grand alliance of old money and young blood, is showing signs of life in 2010. Today’s news from Neil Henry, Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley:

“The Bay Area News Project is alive and well and ready to start business. The first board meeting will be conducted next week. We have secured an outstanding CEO and an extraordinary editor in chief whose names will be announced later this month.”

[Huggy Bear Mode: On] Word on the street is that the CEO with the half-million-dollar(!)-per-year pay package will be Lisa Frazier, [formerly?] a partner at McKinsey & Company, you know, that consulting firm famous for giving bad advice to the consequently dead SwissAir.

[Huggy Bear Mode: Off] So let’s see here, the BANP’s initial endowment from belov’d billionaire F. Warren Hellman is just $5 million, right? So they’re going to spend 10% of that on one person’s salary for one year? Is this, in the parlance of the day, a sustainable journey?

Oh, what’s that, BANP? You all are going to get more millions from more billionaires soon?  

“And once it gets up and running, the backers plan to appeal to other philanthropists to get it past phase two.” 

O.K. fine.

(Let me tell you about phase two. Back in ‘44, Hitler ordered his Sixth Panzer Army to fight from Germany to Antwerp, despite the fact that it only had enough fuel to make it a third of the way. Once phase one was up and running,  phase two was to simply capture heavily-guarded Allied fuel depots(!) along the way in order gas up to move on to phase three. The Battle of the Bulge didn’t exactly work out that way, needless to say.) 

There’s no question Lisa the chemical engineer / MBA is a smart cookie, but the question is exactly what is she going to do for all that dough? Make deals and raise a ton money? All right, BANP, it certainly looks like you’re striving to be a big player. You all are swinging for the bleachers, huh?

In other news, Jonathan Weber will become Editor-in-Chief and KQED will not become a “founding partner” in this enterprise.

Bon Courage, BANP.

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Frank H. Wu Set to Take Over U.C. Hastings Law School Next Year

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

California’s fifth or sixth-best law school will be getting a new leader as of July 1, 2010, when Howard University’s Frank H. Wu will become the dean at U.C. Hastings in San Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin. 

Frank’s no stranger to the bay area, having taught at Stanfoo and also having worked for Mofo (that’s the nickname for San Francisco’s historic white-shoe law firm Morrison and Foerster, srsly) representing tenants against landlords pro bono back in the 1990’s.

Meet Frank Wu:

Click to expand

Per SFGate:

 
The man has a Plan for Hastings – a three-point plan, actually: 
 
“First, he said the curriculum should be structured to ensure graduates have real-world legal skills when they leave, such as taking depositions, negotiating deals, and reading balance sheets.
 
Second, students should be prepared to work in a global economy that is driven by Pacific Rim nations. “The global economy is not the future. It’s here and now,” he said. “I see us recruiting students and placing them in Seoul and Saigon.”

Additionally, Wu said the school is too reliant on state funding and he intends to launch its first capital campaign.”

Bon courage, Frank Wu.

All the deets after the jump.

*How about partially racially-motivated instead? If you kill somebody with a baseball bat in San Francisco these days and then admit it to the cops, you’re going to do some hard time, no doubt. But back in the day if you and your stepson killed somebody with a baseball bat in Detroit, Michigan, well, you might have been able to walk with probation and a $30/week restitution plan. It all had to do with a runaway judge and some county prosecutors who made a plea bargain deal and then no-showed the sentencing hearing, and later on, some feds who got caught committing prosecutorial misconduct. Why do voters support mandatory minimum sentencing and three-strikes type laws in the aughts? Because of cases like that of Vincent Chin in the 1980’s. Just saying.

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The U.S. Supreme Court Puts UC Hastings Law School on the Map – CLS vs. Hastings

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

The thing about college administrators is that they love attention. So yesterday’s news of the somewhat ridiculous lawsuit fighting the non-discrimination policies for student clubs at the University of California, Hastings College of Law is nothing but a good thing for the oldest and largest law school west of the Mississippi.

If I were running the Christian Law Society (CLS), I wouldn’t ask my fellow students and/or the taxpayers to fund my little $250/year transportation fund, but that’s me. In any event, let’s expect the Supremes to smack down the CLS with finality next year, and thereby make this matter crystal clear for All. (I mean, they’re looking at this case for a reason, right?)  

This was the scene last night, with the news vans parked betwixt the 200 McAllister Building and McAllister Tower (aka The Towers).

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See you next year, when this all gets sorted out.

Fiat Justitia!

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Jerry Brown Throws Down: UCLA Prof’s Phony Bologna L.B. Research and Education Foundation

Friday, December 4th, 2009

California Attorney General Jerry Brown can’t abide charity-related monkeyshines. So if use your charity as a personal bank account to finance your research and business ventures, maybe like UCLA Professor Gerald D. Buckberg, M.D. and others, well look out, Jack.

Deets below.

El Protector De La Gente, Mr. Brown:

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Here’s the beef and here’s the settlement.

“Brown Halts UCLA Professor’s Use of Charitable Funds for Personal Business Ventures

Los Angeles -Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today reached a settlement with UCLA Professor Gerald D. Buckberg, M.D., and five officers of the nonprofit L.B. Research and Education Foundation (“L.B.”) that forces them to stop using the charity as a “personal bank account” to finance their business ventures.

“Professor Buckberg and his associates used the charity as a personal bank account to finance their research and business ventures,” Brown said. “This self-dealing is a clear breach of their fiduciary duties and under today’s settlement, Buckberg must return $140,000 in diverted funds to the charity.”

Buckberg founded L.B. in 1997 and has served as the charity’s director, chief executive officer, and manager. The purpose of the charity, as stated in the articles of incorporation, is to “provide help to persons with physical and psychological problems, provide funding for research activities related to physical or psychological problems and to provide funding for scholarships and other programs that improve education.”

Under California law, “no part of a charitable organization’s income or assets may inure to the benefit of any director, officer, member or private person.” However, an investigation launched by Brown’s office in 2007 revealed that Buckberg and L.B.’s officers used the charity’s assets to finance their own medical research, the research activities of companies in which they had a financial interest and the development of medical devices that they sold.

On September 9, 2009, Brown sued the charity and its officers to stop these illegal practices. Today’s settlement agreement forces Buckberg to return $140,000 in diverted funds to L.B., and:

- Prohibits L.B. from using grants or other funding to directly or indirectly support research by L.B.’s officers and directors or any entity in which they have a financial interest;
- Requires L.B. to report future grant awards to Brown’s office;
- Prohibits Buckberg from serving as an officer of L.B.;
- Requires the transfer of control of L.B.’s corporate checkbook and bank accounts from Buckberg to the Chief Financial Officer;
- Requires L.B. to hire experts to educate officers and board members about charitable trust law and their fiduciary duties, to develop a conflict of interest policy and to develop a grant-making review process to ensure that future grants comply with state and federal law;
- Mandates that new board members be elected by a majority of the board and that two independent board members be added; and
- Requires L.B. to keep financial books and records that clearly set forth expenditures.

Under the settlement, Brown’s office will also be reimbursed for its legal fees.

L.B. has been primarily funded by Buckberg, although it has received some funding from several other individuals and businesses.

To report charity fraud, contact the Attorney General’s Office at 1-800-952-5225 or file a complaint online at: http://ag.ca.gov/charities/forms/charitable/ct9.pdf.

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Tomorrow’s Big Game Might be the Best Ever, If You Can Find It On TV

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Tomorrow’s Big Game between the Stanfurd Cardinals (or Trees or whatevur) and the University of California Golden Bears might prove to be the best one yet, what with both sides being in the Top 25 for the first time ever. You ought to tune in and see if the coaches are all, “What’s your deal man? No, what’s your deal, man?” 

Uh oh, which channel? Versus? (I don’t know, back in the days of analog TV everything was simple, remember?)

Now they can’t play at the Haight Street Grounds (good name for a coffee shop, non?) anymore cause The Man tore it down and put up houses,  so Palo Alto’s Stanford Stadium will have to suffice. Log on or tune in at 4:30 PM, even if you don’t like college football.

Here’s the lineup. First Cal…

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via liyu01

..and now here’s the Cardinal:

photo165 copy

Click to expand

Hurray!

NB: Cal will lose.

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Winter Carnival and Lighting Ceremony is This Friday at Embarcadero Center

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Remember back in the day, back in the 90’s, when you could attend a University of California law school and pay for the three years’ tuition by working part-time as a law clerk for a couple semesters in the Financial? Well, part of that job entailed moving your yuppie supervisor’s yuppie Saab convertible out of and then right back into the garages at Embarcadero Center once or twice  a day. Why? Cause of the sweet validation deal EC had where buying one cup of coffee for 25 cents (remember, it was the 90’s) at the 2 Embarcadero McDonalds (no longer there) would let you park for free for three hours. And sometimes, she’d even give you a quarter to pay for her coffee. Those were the days.

Well, they’re back baby. Sort of. Starting November 20th, 2009, you can park for free after 5:00 PM at the EC for four hours with validation and for free on the weekends. Of course you can park on the street during some of those hours but sometimes those free spaces can be hard to find, especially during the holidays.

Anyway, the validation program starts the same day as the Winter Carnival and Lighting Ceremony – and on that day only, the free garage parking starts at 4:00 PM. Deets below.

The lighted buildings of the EC in the back, 505 Monty up front – from a few years back. Click to expand:

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The scariest “craigslist etc” job imaginable – replacing light bulbs high atop the former Equinox revolving restaurantat 5 Embarcadero Center, aka Hyatt Regency Embarcadero. Click to expand:

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One down, 17,000 to go…

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All the deets:

“We ain’t got snow, but we got lights…17,000 of them!

The ceremony takes place at the Holiday Ice Rink in Embarcadero Center, beginning at 6PM. This year’s theme is “Disney on Ice Presents Worlds of Fantasy”. The event will include performances by local musicians and a spectacular fireworks finale over the skyline.

A Winter Carnival precedes the Ice Show and Building Lighting, featuring fun activities for the kids – carnival games, interactive arts and crafts making booths, face painters, balloon twisters, musical performances and more – from 4 to 6PM.

Needless to say, the highlight of the evening is the initial lighting of Embarcadero Center’s dramatic office towers which illuminate San Francisco’s skyline with 17,000 lights throughout the holiday season.

There will be four hours of free parking at Embarcadero Center from 4PM.

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Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy Kicks off the Holidays with Embarcadero Center!

Experience four magical worlds in one ice spectacular when Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy comes to the Bay Area! Enter the wondrous world of Pixie Hollow to meet Tinker Bell and her fairy friends, speed through Radiator Springs with Lightning McQueen, Mater and the crew, and relive classic Disney favorites The Lion King and The Little Mermaid.From wheels to waves, Pride Lands to pixie dust, Worlds of Fantasy offers excitement for everyone!  Stop by Embarcadero Center’s 2009 Building Lighting Ceremony to get a sneak preview of this one-of-a-kind production prior to its stint in the Bay Area, February 24-March 7.

As San Francisco’s “Official Kick Off to the Holiday Season”, as declared by Mayoral Proclamation in 2002, Embarcadero Center is brightening the holidays this year on Friday, November 20th, with the Building Lighting Ceremony that we are so famous for.  The Ceremony takes place at the Holiday Ice Rink in Embarcadero Center Presented by Hawaiian Airlines and will begin at 6:00 P.M.  In addition to the ultimate mega mix of skating, dancing and the songs you love from Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy, the event will include performances by local musicians brought to you by KDFC and a spectacular pyrotechnic show finale which will dazzle the City’s skyline.  All this exhilarating entertainment has been designed to complement the highlight of the evening, the initial lighting of Embarcadero Center’s dramatic office towers which illuminate San Francisco’s skyline with 17,000 lights throughout the holiday season.

Preceding the Ice Show and Building Lighting is the Winter Carnival; a perfect event to share with the family. It will feature a host of fun activities for the kids such as carnival games, interactive arts and crafts booths, card making, balloon twisters, musical performances and more!  Come and visit with Santa to give him your holiday wish list!

For those wanting to get a jump start on their holiday shopping, Embarcadero Center retailers will offer holiday gift ideas and special discounts you will not want to miss, with four (4) hours of free parking from 4:00 PM.

Make it a date!  Meet family and friends at Embarcadero Center for an evening of fun, entertainment, shopping and great food!

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Delighting families, couples and ice skating enthusiasts for over twenty years, the Holiday Ice Rink at Embarcadero Center presented by Hawaiian Airlines, the largest outdoor rink, will open to the public for nine magical fun-filled weeks beginning November 11 through January 3, 2010

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Boston Properties has made it easier to shop at Embarcadero Center this holiday season …  Starting November 20th, shop and dine at any Embarcadero Center store or restaurant and we will give you free parking!

Share the excitement of the holiday season and explore the shops, skate at the Ice Rink and top off the day with free parking – all at Embarcadero Center!  Our merchants will have stickers on hand to distribute to customers who shop at the Center.

Remember, holiday parking starts November 20th and continues through the end of day December 24 for all those last minute shoppers.  Hours of validation are 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and four hours free on weekends.  On Friday, November 20, validation will begin at 4:00 p.m. for those who attend the Winter Carnival and Building Lighting Ceremony.

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An Analog Facebook Comes to UCSF’s Main Campus on Parnassus

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Well this is how some massive support columns are now decorated at the University of California, San Francisco medical school these days.

As seen from Parnassus Avenue:

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It  looks to be a collection of  shots of students from over the past hundred years – could it be the Student Photo Project? Maybe, but the S.P.P. goes on about “the three primary colors*, red, yellow and blue” that they were going to use and this installation is just black and white.

Anyway, it looks great. Keep up the good work, students of UCSF.

Old school! The way it looked back in 1908:

UCSF_1908

*Yes, I remember first grade as well, but it was all a lie – red, yellow and blue are not “the” primary colors, they are just one group of primaries, and they aren’t so hot in that role, anyway. Or, as Wiki so diplomatically opines, the RYB color model “predates modern scientific theory.” Harsh. Harsh but fair.

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