Putting aside mind-blowing cost overruns, along with delays at a Chinese steel fabrication plant, engineers and scientists are following the equally mind-blowing construction feats in the eastern span of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.

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Tags: earthquake, Environment, Featured, News You Might Have Missed, San Francisco, Science, SF Bay Area, Technology

The blame for Haiti's staggering death toll from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12—the toll is expected to rise to over 200,000— lies at the feet of that country's c0nstruction industry, says a Berkeley, Calif. engineer.

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Tags: earthquake, Eduardo Fierro, Environment, Haiti, Latin America, News You Might Have Missed, SF Bay Area, UC Berkeley, video

An influx of huge krill swarms has drawn an unprecedented number of blue whales to the Monterey, Calif. coast, delighting boatloads of whale watchers.

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Tags: News You Might Have Missed, San Francisco, Science, SF Bay Area, wildlife

The multimedia series Bay Area Toxic Tour: West Oakland was published by the nonprofit online news packager/distributor Newsdesk.org—and crowdfunded by through Spot.us.

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Tags: Bay Area Toxic Tour, Economy, Environment, Environment & Health, SF Bay Area

A Santa Cruz, Calif.-based non-profit organization has announced plans for a three-day mid-April conference on "Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century."

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Tags: News You Might Have Missed, psychedelia, SF Bay Area

The great news in California's High Sierra this January is that its fabled snowpack, for years underfed by an apparently vengeful Skadi, is almost back to normal after a week of roiling storms left some measuring stations over 100 percent of what is normal for an average April. That means come the spring, the waterfalls tumbling into Yosemite Valley ought to be spectacular — awesome perhaps. That might not be so good for the park.

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Tags: Environment, SF Bay Area, Yosemite National Park

With support from the Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation, Newsdesk.org has hired print- and online-news veteran George Shirk as its first paid editor. Shirk will oversee content and network building for the site, and in particular for News You Might Have Missed (NYMHM)—Newsdesk's signature news service covering important but overlooked news and underserved communities.

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Tags: Media, News You Might Have Missed, SF Bay Area

By Kwan Booth Crowdfund this with Spot.Us Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour The long road leading to cleaner air in West Oakland was stretched just a little farther Tuesday night, as Port of Oakland commissioners postponed voting on a controversial new program to control diesel pollution from thousands of trucks serving the port. [...]

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Tags: Bay Area Toxic Tour, Exclusives, Public Press, SF Bay Area

By Kwan Booth Crowdfund this with Spot.Us Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour While much of the debate on reducing emissions from the Port of Oakland has revolved around trucks, diesel pollution from the trucks is estimated to make up only 4 percent of West Oakland’s overall toxic burden. A much larger percentage has [...]

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Tags: Bay Area Toxic Tour, Exclusives, SF Bay Area

By Kwan Booth Crowdfund this with Spot.Us Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour Just about any long-term West Oakland resident can rattle off a list of health issues effecting their community: toxins from cargo ships docking at the nearby Port of Oakland, diesel smoke from Port-bound trucks, pollution from the two freeways that border [...]

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Tags: Bay Area Toxic Tour, Exclusives, SF Bay Area