American Legion Fights For Swords to Plowshares Equal Treatment

S.F. big shots forcing vets out of Veterans Building, suit says 
San Francisco Chronicle
By Matier and Ross
November 1, 2015

“It’s nothing new — we we are used to being treated like second-class citizens,” said Michael Blecker, Swords to Plowshares’ executive director and a Vietnam War veteran.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle The Green Room is seen inside the newly renovated War Memorial Veterans Building in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015.

Swords to Plowshares, the celebrated charity that works with homeless and low-income veterans, is being squeezed out by the upscale landlords of San Francisco’s newly renovated War Memorial Veterans Building.

That’s the thrust of a lawsuit filed by the local American Legion over the War Memorial board’s refusal to provide Swords with free office space at the landmark building across from City Hall — while carving out square footage aplenty for high-society tenants like the San Francisco Opera that have the money to pay.

The American Legion is challenging the way the board — which includes such big names as city protocol chief Charlotte Mailliard Shultz and former Presidio Trust Chair Nancy Bechtle — is interpreting a city attorney’s 2009 decree that only “patriotic organizations” are entitled to free rent at the Veterans Building.

The fight goes all the way back to 2008 when the American Legion offered to make room in the building for Swords to Plowshares — but then came the city attorney’s finding that the charity wasn’t entitled to free rent.
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VietnamVeteran Deserves Standing Ovation

McCrabb: Vietnam veteran deserves standing ovation
Journal News
By Rick McCrabb Staff Writer
July 26, 2015

“I’m proud of my service, like the other vets,” he said. “We were all anti-war like the rest of the country. I just wish people weren’t anti-solider. I never was comfortable talking about the war.”

MIDDLETOWN — There was a time — the day before Army Lt. Dan Sack was scheduled to arrive home in Cincinnati after serving during the Vietnam War — when he was spit on while walking through Haight-Ashbury, a neighborhood district near San Francisco and fertile ground for the hippie generation.

Sack and an Army buddy took a taxi from the Oakland Army base and toured the neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon. As they walked down the street, proudly wearing their uniforms, hundreds of hippies exited the neighborhood stores, and started chanting, “Ticket To Kill. Ticket To Kill. Ticket to Kill.”

He still doesn’t understand the meaning behind the words.

Patriotism, he said, hit “rock bottom” in the late 1960s.

Thankfully, before a riot ensued, Sack and his friend were picked up by a military police unit, put in the back seat of a government vehicle and driven to safety.

“I could have died the day before I got home,” he said.

Now, 47 years later, Sack will receive a much different reception that will include a standing ovation, not spitting. Sack, 70, of Middletown, will be one of the five veterans honored on Aug. 2 during a Dayton Dragons baseball game at Fifth/Third Field. He will appear on the field between innings and a 60-second video highlighting his military career and community service will be shown on the scoreboard.

Sack’s life, and for that matter, some of Middletown’s history, could have been rewritten on a February 1968 morning.

Sack and Jan Doxey, 22, of Florida, were sleeping in a hooch when a 122mm rocket exploded in the early dawn, sending Sack under Doxey’s bunk. Sack’s legs were filled with shrapnel, and he was temporarily deaf.

But Doxey was killed.
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Veteran Takes On Great American Discovery Trail For PTSD

North Myrtle Beach veteran embarks on 5,000-mile journey to spread PTSD awareness 
WMBF News
By Alexandria Savage-Davis and Kaley Lawrimore
Updated: Mar 04, 2015

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – A North Myrtle Beach veteran has embarked on a 5,000 mile journey to raise money and awareness for a condition that effects people overseas, as well as here at home.

Corporal Ryan Weldon, a 34-year-old Marine Corps Veteran, who joined in 1999, and was active until 2003, has embarked on a 5,000 mile walk from the East coast of Delaware to the coast San Francisco, California.

He has chosen to follow the Great American Discovery Trail, which stretches 6,800 miles across the United States of America.

Weldon said the idea to walk was motivated by a combination of factors, and after reading an article in Time magazine entitled “This Bill Could Help Veterans With Mental Health,” he was inspired.

“I had a dream Christmas Eve, and woke up Christmas Day with the urge to walk across the U.S. - PTSD is on the rise," Weldon said. "I thought why not do this? You need to go ahead and get this out there in the open. We need to get rid of the stigma attached to mental disorders and start talking about them.” read more here

San Francisco Suicide by Cop Left Note of Apology to Officers

Man shot by San Francisco officers left suicide notes 
Jan 5th 2015

This Jan. 4, 2015 photo shows police investigators on Valencia Street after an officer-involved shooting at the San Francisco Police Mission Station in San Francisco. Officers shot and killed a man who brandished what appeared to be a handgun but was actually an air gun after they told him to leave a restricted parking lot outside a San Francisco police station on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015.
(AP Photo/San Francisco Chronicle, Carlos Avila Gonzalez)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A man who was shot and killed by San Francisco police officers left behind several suicide notes in his cellphone, including one addressed to police, authorities said Monday. Officers shot Matthew Hoffman, 32, Sunday evening after he entered a restricted parking lot at a police station and brandished what appeared to be a handgun. It was actually an air gun, which fires small projectiles such as pellets or BBs. San Francisco police made public a note titled

"Dear Officer(s)" with the permission of Hoffman's father, authorities said in a statement. In the note, Hoffman, 32, said the officers "ended the life of a man who was too much of a coward to do it himself."

"Please, don't blame yourself. I used you. I took advantage of you," Hoffman added. Hoffman was transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where he later died of his wounds. The officers were not injured.

The air gun did not have a colored tip on it, which is a standard identifier of a toy gun, Officer Gordon Shyy said Monday. He declined to discuss any other details of the case.
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'Horror show’ hotel transformed into home for veterans

'Horror show’ hotel transformed into home for veterans
San Francisco Gate
By John Coté
September 23, 2014

Four years ago it was described as San Francisco’s worst SRO and a “horror show.” Now, after almost $10 million in renovations, the former Stanford Hotel on Kearny Street is about to give 130 veterans something many have lacked for years: a home.

San Francisco is preparing to lease the former single-room-occupancy hotel for about $2 million a year for at least 10 years to provide housing for the city’s most desperate homeless veterans. About 73 percent of the costs are to be covered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The project, known as 250 Kearny, represents a sizable piece of the city’s effort to end homelessness for veterans by the end of 2015, a challenge that President Obama issued to the nation’s mayors in June.

“This project will place San Francisco within reach of meeting that ambitious goal,” said Mayor Ed Lee.

“This is the largest number of homeless veterans housed at a single time ever in San Francisco.”
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Decorated two tour Iraq veteran saved man from train

Decorated Army officer honored for saving fallen man from oncoming train
San Francisco Chronicle (MCT)
By Carl Nolte
Published: September 5, 2014

After two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, the morning commute on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system from Orinda, Calif., to San Francisco must have seemed pretty routine to Maj. Adam Czekanski one day last winter.

He got to the station just in time and could hear a train coming into the station. But then he saw something else. A man standing at the edge of the platform began slowly leaning forward and then toppled onto the tracks, directly in front of the oncoming train.

The commuters on the platform froze in horror, "as if they were paralyzed," Czekanski said later. But he knew exactly what to do. He ran from the top of the escalator to the edge of the platform and jumped onto the tracks to help the fallen man.

"He was lying there flat on his back," Czekanski said. "I pulled him away from the tracks and got him under the lip of the platform. I know it sounds like a cliche," he said, "But I did what I had to do."

It was much more than he had to do. On Thursday, Czekanski, a major in the Army Corps of Engineers, received the Soldier's Medal, the Army's highest award for valor in a noncombat setting.

The incident occurred just after 7 a.m. Jan. 24. The victim, later identified as Adrian Malagon, had what BART police later thought was a seizure.
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VA prescribes opiates to patients not seen

Report: VA prescribes opiates to patients not seen
San Francisco Gate
Aaron Glantz, Center for Investigative Reporting
December 2, 2013

Doctors at the San Francisco VA Medical Center regularly renewed prescriptions for highly addictive narcotic painkillers for veterans they had never seen, according to a new report by the Department of Veterans Affairs' inspector general.

The report also documented seven cases of opiate overdose among patients at the hospital and determined that doctors "did not consistently monitor patients for misuse."

The auditor's review comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of the VA's painkiller prescription practices.

In September, the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that VA prescriptions for four opiates - hydrocodone, oxycodone, methadone and morphine - surged 270 percent from 2001 to 2012. That far outpaced the increase in the number of VA patients and contributed to a fatal overdose rate that the agency's researchers put at nearly double the national average.
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Ex-POW Medal of Honor Vietnam Hero Jon Cavaiani Needs Help

Decorated Vietnam War Vet Faces Toughest Battle
NewsMax
By Geoff Metcalf
Monday, 15 Jul 2013

On June 4, 1971, as Jon Cavaiani was serving in the Vietnam War as a special forces officer, his platoon came under intense enemy attack. Cavaiani organized the unit's defense and, when evacuation by helicopter became necessary, he voluntarily stayed on the ground and directed the aircraft.

He successfully evacuated most of the platoon.

For Cavaiani and a small group that remained behind, the war would take a dark turn. As events took a turn for the worse, and after a major enemy attack the next morning, he ordered the remaining men to escape while he stayed and provided suppressive fire to cover their retreat.

When the position was overrun, although seriously wounded, he escaped and evaded the enemy for 11 days before eventually being captured and spening the next two years as a prisoner of war.

He was still listed as Missing in Action when his Medal of Honor was awarded. He was released on April 27, 1973.

Cavaiani served his country well. Now he needs our help. It is time we returned the favor. Cavaiani has been diagnosed with MSD, a chronic blood disease, and over the past four months, he has received many blood transfusions and chemotherapy treatments. He started his treatments at the VA Medial Center in San Francisco and the care they have provided has reportedly been outstanding.
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Oct 6, 2011
Staff Sergeant Jon Cavaiani organized and led an aggressive defense when his force came under fierce attack near Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, on June 4-5, 1971. He evaded capture for 11 days, but was eventually taken as a POW. When he was released in 1973, he heard that he had been recommended for the Medal of Honor. It was awarded to him on December 12, 1974.

Boeing 777 crashes while landing at San Francisco airport

Boeing 777 crashes while landing at San Francisco airport
NBC News
By Daniel Arkin
Staff Writer
July 6, 2013

A Boeing 777 jetliner crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday after a flight across the Pacific Ocean from South Korea. There was no immediate information about casualties.

The plane, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 from Seoul, came to rest beside the runway — missing its tail, spewing black smoke and with most of the top of the fuselage ripped off.

Video footage showed passengers sliding down the emergency chutes. The airport suspended all flights.

Stefanie Turner, a witness, told MSNBC that she saw the plane come in with the tail in an unusually low position, then saw it cartwheel down the runway.
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A veteran's two-year wait for benefits

Because we didn't make changes before new veterans were created with two wars, veterans are waiting too long for help now. Why? No one paid much attention when Vietnam veterans were waiting even longer in the 80's and 90's. My husband's claim took six years and was finally approved in 1999. Imagine if we had really done something about all of this back then. Would veterans be waiting this long now? Would they be suffering financially and emotionally still?

Read this as what we can expect to hear from OEF and OIF veterans years from now if we do nothing again.

A veteran's two-year wait for benefits
By Janelle Wetzstein
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF
Published: Monday, June 17, 2013

When Gary “Zach” Zacharatos first returned to San Francisco after a four-year deployment during the Vietnam War in 1972, he didn’t sleep well.

“I had dreams — vivid, violent ones that would wake me up repeatedly,” said the 62-year-old man as he sat on his couch in his West Street home — clutching his dog Lacy closely to his chest as he remembered his nightmares. “But it was the ’70s and I was a Marine at heart. I didn’t ask for help because that’s not what we did.”

Instead, Zacharatos suffered in silence for many years, often sleepwalking and waking up with no memory of the conversations he’d had or the combat scenes he’d reenacted while asleep.

It wasn’t until 2004 that Zacharatos finally sought help — after he experienced such severe anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation that he had a complete mental and physical breakdown. By then, Zacharatos’ condition had gotten so bad that he could no longer work, let alone get out of bed. After a local psychiatrist diagnosed him with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Zacharatos and his friend, Linda Pickenheim, began to search for assistance.

Little did they know that their request for veteran’s benefits, which was first filed in February of 2010, would take almost two and a half years to be approved. During that time, Zacharatos lost the home his grandparents had left to him, most of his belongings and was days away from living out of his car before his claim was finally approved in April of last year.
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His claim was approved a year ago but look what he had to go through. The truth was still the truth and the need was still the need. It is also a testament of the simple fact that the majority of VA claims in the backlog are from Vietnam veterans.

Triple amputee Marine walks out, throws first pitch, crowd goes wild!

Triple amputee Marine walks out, throws first pitch
Participant in Zito's Strikeouts for Troops Foundation, Kimmel honored before Game 2
By Alyson Footer
MLB.com
10/25/12

SAN FRANCISCO -- Nick Kimmel has been a baseball fan his entire life, but he never could have imagined four years ago that the game he loves would play such an important role in helping him get through recent events that were both tragic and challenging.

In 2008, Kimmel decided to forego a partial scholarship offer to play baseball at Arizona State University, and instead enlisted in the Marines. Today, he's piecing his life back together after losing both legs and an arm in an explosion while on his second tour of duty last year in Afghanistan.
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Girl gang raped at Richmond High School as 20 just watched

I wonder if they would have wanted others to help if it was happening to them?
I wonder if they would have wanted others to help if it was a sister of their's or their own girlfriend?
They were talking about it after as if they were talking about some kind of TV show while she was left alone and unconscious!

The victim was found unconscious under a bench shortly before midnight Saturday, after police received a call from someone in the area who had overheard people at the assault scene "reminiscing about the incident," Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan said.

Police: As many as 20 present at gang rape outside school dance
October 28, 2009 9:03 a.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
10 people involved in assault, 10 others watched and offered no help, police say
Richmond, California, police say student was gang raped for over two hours
Former student, 19, and 15-year-old arrested
Victim, 15, remains in the hospital in stable condition

Richmond, California (CNN) -- Investigators say as many as 20 people were involved in or stood and watched the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside a California high school homecoming dance Saturday night.

Police posted a $20,000 reward Tuesday for anyone who comes to them with information that helps arrest and convict those involved in what authorities describe as a 2½-hour assault on the Richmond High School campus in suburban San Francisco.

Two teenage suspects have been jailed, but more arrests, as many as 20 total, are expected, according to a police detective.

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As many as 20 present at gang rape outside school dance

Father watched son die

Father watched son die
David Wehrer -- sought for allegedly killing his roommate, Bobby Christopher -- shot and killed himself Aug. 1 in front of his own father and a police officer, an investigator said.


Wehrer was being driven by his father, Thomas, who knew his son was armed, when an officer pulled over the father's car at Baker and McAllister streets, San Francisco police Inspector Dan Everson said.


David Wehrer was sprawled out in the rear of the station wagon and shot himself as the officer approached, police said.



Read more: Father watched son die

44 hurt after light rail cars collide in San Francisco

44 hurt after light rail cars collide in San Francisco
Story Highlights
Conductor miscalculated a turn, police officer says

No life-threatening injuries reported, Muni spokesman says

Collision occurred at West Portal Station, spokesman says

Service disrupted on K/T, L and M lines
SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Two light rail transit cars collided Saturday in San Francisco, causing multiple injuries, but none appeared life-threatening, a rail system spokesman said.

"Apparently the conductor for one of the trains miscalculated a turn. It's still under investigation right now," a police officer told CNN. He would not provide his name.

At least 44 people were injured, a fire official said.

None of the injuries was extremely serious, said Leslie Dubbin, administrator for operations at San Francisco General Hospital.

44 hurt after light rail cars collide in San Francisco

A better plan needed for 4-year-old panhandler

This sure isn't your average homeless family story. No one can explain why some people don't want help but this story also points out there are a lot of people trying to help and that's a good thing

A better plan needed for 4-year-old panhandler
C.W. Nevius

Saturday, July 18, 2009


Little Gavin Mills, the 4-year-old panhandler who evoked so much sympathy and concern from San Franciscans, has been taken from his parents by Child Protective Services.

It is an incredibly difficult decision to take a child away from his mother and father, but in this case it is the right choice.

"Gavin deserves a chance in life," said Mary Long, who began a crusade to improve Gavin's and his mother Toni's life after seeing them at the Embarcadero BART Station. "He wasn't getting one being used as a panhandler tool by his chronically homeless mom."

City officials say the family was repeatedly offered beds, services and child care. But their offers, they say, were rebuffed, and people like Long kept seeing Gavin panhandling.


read more hereA better plan needed for 4-year-old panhandler

Children Abandoned Daily In San Francisco

Children Abandoned Daily In San Francisco
It doesn't just happen in Nebraska. San Francisco youth shelters like get "throwaway kids" every day. The fact is, it is easy for parents to abandon their kids in this country.

C.W. Nevius

SAN FRANCISCO -- The car pulled up to the Larkin Street Youth Services drop-in center on Sutter Street about a year ago. A mother and a daughter got out and walked in.

She was done, the mother said. Her daughter, who was under 18, was using drugs, was sexually active and wouldn't stay at home. She was uncontrollable.

So, she said to the staff, you can have her. And mom left.

In the past few months, Nebraska's controversial "safe haven" law, which allows parents to abandon their children without fear of prosecution, has become a national story. Since July, 17 children, ages 1 to 17, have been dropped off at hospitals and police stations by parents who said they could no longer care for them. The law was amended this week to apply only to parents of newborns.

S.F. man shot - body found in Humboldt County

S.F. man shot - body found in Humboldt County
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, September 23, 2008



(09-22) 15:28 PDT ALDERPOINT, HUMBOLDT COUNTY --

A San Francisco man whose body was discovered in Humboldt County three days after his burned-out car was found had been shot, authorities said Monday.

No arrests have been made in the slaying of Reetpaul Singh Rana, 34. Investigators have searched his home in San Francisco and are interviewing friends and relatives to get a sense of his "habits and patterns," said Humboldt County sheriff's Cpl. Brenda Godsey.

Rana's 1996 Saab was found by sheriff's deputies Sept. 10 along the north side of Big Lagoon, near Patricks Point State Park north of Eureka in Humboldt County. It had been destroyed by fire, Godsey said.

Three days later, passers-by found his body in woods along Dyerville Loop Road north of Alderpoint Road in the unincorporated town of Alderpoint, about 110 miles south, Godsey said.
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Police mobilize for Hells Angels funeral

Police mobilize for Hells Angels funeral
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, September 12, 2008

(09-12) 15:17 PDT DALY CITY -- Police throughout the Bay Area are bracing for the biggest show of motorcycle club members since Marlon Brando hit town in "The Wild One."



No one knows exactly how many two-wheeled mourners in leather jackets are going to attend services Sunday and Monday for the slain president of the Hells Angels' San Francisco chapter, Mark "Papa" Guardado.

Some say there could be 1,000 Hells Angels, some say more.

"However many there are, we're going to be ready," said Officer Shawn Chase, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

Guardado, 46, was shot Sept. 2 outside a bar at 24th Street and Treat Avenue after what police described as a "wrestling match" with the gunman, who fled on a motorcycle. Christopher Ablett, 37, of Modesto, a member of the rival Mongols Motorcycle Club, is wanted on suspicion of murder.
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Care Not Cash faces lawsuit

Care Not Cash Program faces lawsuit

abc7news.com - San Francisco,CA,USA
By Vic Lee
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (KGO) -- A homeless advocacy group has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of San Francisco saying its' "Care Not Cash" homeless program discriminates against people with disabilities.

It may be the first lawsuit of its kind.
"The city of San Francisco's homeless population is at least 50 percent disabled and it has been largely ignored," said lawyer Sid Wolinsky.

Wolinsky is referring to Mayor Gavin Newsom's brainchild, the "Care Not Cash" homeless program.
It's a program that gives teh homeless priority reservations for about 350 shelter beds.
Through Care Not Cash, participants on welfare can make a 45-day reservation for a bed and receive case management services as well.
Wolinski says there is a catch. "If you receive disability benefits such as veteran's disability benefits or social security benefits, you are automatically excluded from Care Not Cash," said Wolinski.
Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition for Homelessness supports the lawsuit. She says Care Not Cash is an inefficent use of 300 beds.
"Oftentimes these beds go empty even as they turn away people who try to seek shelters," said Friedenbach.

19 year old Daniel Bateman hero saves neighbor from fire

Heroic neighbor saves man from burning S.F. apartment
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, May 19, 2008


(05-19) 17:45 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Daniel Bateman came to San Francisco from the San Fernando Valley to study nursing, but after Monday, he is thinking about a career change - to firefighting.

Bateman, a gangly 19-year-old who moved from Woodland Hills four months ago and spends his time skateboarding and flipping burgers at the In-N-Out at Fisherman's Wharf, is being called a hero. Fire officials said it was his quick thinking that saved a neighbor's life after the man's kitchen caught fire around 4 a.m. Monday in their Richmond District apartment building.

The victim, Jim Moyles, 50, was in critical condition late Monday at St. Francis Memorial Hospital with second- and third-degree burns over 20 percent of his body.
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