Hopes Dim for a Haight Street Lift

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When Whole Foods Market Inc. opened a store in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury early this year, many locals and community leaders hoped it would help improve a grungy corner of their famous neighborhood. Nearly a year later, they’re still waiting.

Since the upscale market opened in February across from a section of Golden Gate Park known as Alvord Lake, known for attracting drug dealers and homeless people, crime within a 500-foot radius of the store has shot up, according to the San Francisco Police Department. At the same time, Whole Foods hasn’t lifted the overall neighborhood’s business prospects, sales-tax receipts data from the San Francisco Comptroller’s Office show.

Apple Sees a Ripe Corporate Market

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Apple Inc. will unveil Wednesday a new version of its computer operating software, a development that comes as the consumer-electronics giant makes a more aggressive move to expand in a market that has historically eluded it: corporate customers.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company will hold an event dubbed “Back to the Mac,” a reference to its line of laptop and desktop computers. The event, which comes just two days after Apple’s planned fourth-quarter earnings release, will feature new bells and whistles in the software that powers Macs and possibly new computer models.

California High Court Upholds Furlough Plan

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SAN FRANCISCO—California’s top court ruled Monday the state has the authority to furlough state workers, potentially clearing one more hurdle to the eventual passage of California’s budget.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of California ruled the state’s 2010 budget, passed in 2009, gave Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger authority to furlough state workers being paid under that budget. The ruling doesn’t directly address furloughs recently enacted by the governor. California is currently operating without a budget.

Spending on U.S. rail seen stuck at the station

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CHICAGO (Reuters) – ANALYSIS – Major U.S. freight railroads and their advocates have argued for years that government investment is needed in the country’s rail system to take freight off congested highways and keep the economy moving.

But supporters say rail investments have been largely ignored by Congress, suggesting political support is lacking, despite warnings action must be taken sooner rather than later.

Hartmarx sale price rises-CEO

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CHICAGO, July 31 (Reuters) – The sale price for bankrupt Hartmarx, the men’s clothing company from which President Obama gets his suits, has risen to about $130 million, Chief Executive Homi Patel said in an interview, adding that he would step down as CEO on Friday.

Patel declined to say why the price had risen from $119 million, the price listed in court documents filed last month.

Contact Elation: Voices from Inauguration Week

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For Tim McBride, this is bigger than Woodstock.

It is 12 hours until the inauguration, and McBride is looking at the White House from across the street in Lafayette Park. He‘s standing with his son, Eamonn, and his son‘s friend, Kacey, who grew up so poor that he‘d never had a chance to visit a big city.

McBride has been here before, and so has his son. But this time is different for both of them. This time, it‘s like a pilgrimage.

“It‘s a thing from my generation, but have you ever heard of a contact high?“ McBride asks. “It‘s like contact elation.“

Bright and Love in dead heat for votes

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MONTGOMERY, AL – Since Bobby Bright was asking for his vote, Roger Gaither thought this would be the perfect opportunity to ask the Democratic congressional candidate what might be the most important question of the campaign.

“People around here talk about how when you were asked if you support Obama, you raised your hand and said ‘yes.‘ Is that true?“

The Road to Beijing

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The Beijing Olympic Torch made its only appearance in North America on Wednesday. After protests disrupted the torch relay in Europe, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom changed the planned route without an announcement to the public.

Count the delegates, if you can

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Just when I thought I had figured out why the Democratic Party has superdelegates, Nancy Pelosi comes along and says I have got it all backward.

“The superdelegates were established to give many more people at the grassroots level the opportunity to go to the convention and be really the overwhelming majority of who will decide this convention,” the House Speaker told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer last Thursday.

With a straight face.

That was after Super Tuesday, which was supposed to decide the next Democratic nominee. Instead, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have battled themselves to a delegate draw that party elders may have to settle.

I don’t know what’s worse – Pelosi pretending that rank-and-file Democrats will get to decide anything this year, or the convoluted system created to ensure they would not. It was adopted in 1976, to reformulate the reforms of 1972, which came in response to the chaos of 1968, when the Democrats tore themselves apart in the streets of Chicago after convention delegates chose Hubert Humphrey, who had never won a primary that year.

San Francisco Supervisors Approve Immigrant IDs

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BERKELEY — Maria is an engineering student at the University of California, Berkeley. She’s smart, she’s witty, and she’s driven. But when her sister disappeared in early September, she feared doing anything.

“I can’t report things to the police,” she said. “I’m afraid to. I’m afraid they would deport me.”