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San Francisco Airport adds first cat to roster of therapy animals

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San Francisco Airport adds first cat to roster of therapy animals


A once-stray cat rescued by a shelter and adopted by a loving family is now helping humans at a California airport.

Duke Ellington Morris, a 14-year-old black-and-white cat, became the first feline to join the San Francisco International Airport’s (SFO) team of therapy animals known as the “Wag Brigade” at the end of May.

In 2010, Duke was rescued from the streets of San Francisco where he was found starving among other feral cats and brought to the San Francisco Animal Care and Control. There, a 5-year-old girl spotted the tuxedo cat and her family quickly took him home.

“I hear my daughter shrieking with joy, ‘I love the black and white kitty.’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Duke’s owner Jen Morris told SF Gate. “We met Duke, and he was focused on my daughter. And I figured, well, if a cat wants a 5-year-old for his next guardian, he couldn’t be that bad.”

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Duke Ellington Morris joined the California airport's Wag Brigade as the first feline to join the San Francisco International Airport's team of therapy animals.
Duke Ellington Morris joined the California airport’s Wag Brigade as the first feline to join the San Francisco International Airport’s team of therapy animals.
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Duke’s humans were quickly impressed by his calm and warm demeanor and got him certified as a therapy animal through the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ animal assisted therapy program.

The special kitty — named after the jazz great — has been working as an animal therapist for the past decade by visiting patients in hospitals all over the city to comfort them in trying times.

Now, he’ll also be helping airport visitors relieve travel-related stress as he joins the motley crew of SFO’s therapy animals which includes several dogs as well as a rabbit named Alex the Great and a pig named LiLou — who are each certified and tested therapy animals.

The non-human therapists walk around the airport’s terminals wearing “Pet Me” vests as a way to comfort anxious travelers. The program launched in 2013 and returned in 2021 after a 20-month hiatus due to the COVID pandemic.



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San Francisco, CA

San Francisco park renamed after grandmother who was fatally beaten: 'Hope and resilience'

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San Francisco park renamed after grandmother who was fatally beaten: 'Hope and resilience'


SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — There was a celebration of triumph over tragedy in San Francisco where a city park officially got a new name Saturday.

The Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park is named after the grandmother who was beaten there in 2019. She later died from her injuries. Relatives and community advocates want the new name to promote community healing.

It’s a new name and a new beginning for this city park in San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley.

Sasanna Yee talked about her grandmother, Yik Oi Huang, for whom this park is named. The official dedication taking place on Saturday.

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“It’s been a very hard journey, very painful but also very beautiful,” Yee said.

88-year old woman brutally beaten in San Francisco park, granddaughters seek change

Yee said her 88-year-old grandmother came to this park, formally Visitacion Valley Playground, almost every day but in January of 2019, she was found badly beaten here and died months later from her injuries. The crime rocked the Asian Community. A 24-year-old suspect was arrested and is awaiting trial.

“She is survived by great-grandchildren and grandchildren, so having everyone come together as a family is really important,” Yee said.

Many hope the Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park will be a place of healing.

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“I know it wasn’t easy. You turned a devastating loss into a win,” said Hermione Colthirst.

Relatives say renaming the park was originally the idea of community advocate Ronald Colthirst, who died last year.

89-year-old grandma, who was brutally attacked on San Francisco playground, dies 1 year later

“He would bring the African Americans and the Asians together as one. One of his legacies was to make sure we renamed this park,” said sister Brejea Colthirst.

“This is a true story of turning tragedy into triumph and making people understand we are better together,” said San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton.

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San Francisco Mayor London Breed hopes generations to come will know Grandma Huang’s name.

“It’s symbol of hope, resilience for communities come together in times of challenge,” said Mayor London Breed.

Grandma Huang’s family hopes all will know peace and friendship when visiting here.

Copyright © 2024 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.



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Shooting in San Francisco Mission District alley leaves 1 dead

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Shooting in San Francisco Mission District alley leaves 1 dead


PIX Now evening edition 6-15-24

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PIX Now evening edition 6-15-24

12:56

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A shooting in an alley in San Francisco’s Mission District left one person dead Saturday, San Francisco police said.

Officers responded to a report of a shooting about 4 a.m. on Wiese Street, an alley between 15th Street and 16th Street. The location is near Mission Street and BART’s 16th Street station.

The victim was taken to a hospital where they were pronounced dead, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department’s tip line at 415-575-4444 or send a text to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.

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The EndUp Turns 50 and They're Taking Over Union Square With a Dance Party Saturday

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The EndUp Turns 50 and They're Taking Over Union Square With a Dance Party Saturday


That venerable, inimitable, sloppy palace of bad decisions The EndUp was born 50 (and a half) years ago, and they’re now getting around to celebrating — appropriately kinda late — with a Union Square takeover dance party.

Once upon a time in an era of SoMa dominated by leather and country-and-western bars (The Stud, after all, began as a country-and-western themed bar, hence the double-entendre name), The EndUp was born. It was actually born in mid-November 1973, as a sibling establishment to The RoundUp, a western bar one block up 6th Street, owned by Al Hanken and Greg Loughner.

The bar was primarily gay from the 70s into the 90s, becoming known starting in 1974 for its Jockey Shorts Dance Contest — which was featured in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City column in the Chronicle and subsequently featured in the PBS mini-series based on the first book of those columns.

It was always known as a big dance bar with indoor and outdoor spaces, and as an after-hours club — and the latter has made it legendary in an IYKYK kind of way.

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In the 90s, it was home to the legendary Club Uranus, which birthed such stars as Justin Vivian Bond, Heklina, Kitty Litter, and Trauma Flintstone. And Fag Fridays launched in 1996 and ran through 2008, featuring an array of LGTBQ club DJs from the Bay Area including Ellen Ferrato and resident DJ David Harness.

After a series of ownership changes and the demise of those weekly LGBTQ events, the club became more mixed and attracted various crowds to events like Sunrise Sunday. And some bad vibes arrived in 2016 with two separate fatal shooting incidents that could have threatened the club’s existence — one in June 2016 that took place inside the club, and one that took place outside in October 2016.

But The EndUp has endured, it was granted Legacy Business status by the city in 2019, and Saturday, June 15 will be a big 50th birthday bash in Union Square — potentially drawing a pretty huge crowd.

Given that the actual birthday was seven months ago, the Facebook invite just calls this party a “fashionably late” one.

“Known as San Francisco’s most legendary after-hours nightclub and premier day-club, @endupsf celebrates dance culture fifty years strong since 1973,” the club says.

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DJs include Oscar G, Paul Goodyear, Dean Samaras, Brian Salazar, and Hawthorne. (See the DJ bios here.)

The free party in Union Square runs from 1 pm to 9 pm, Saturday — and, of course, the party continues at The EndUp after that, with DJ Oscar G doing an encore set, joined by DJs Hawthorne, Steve Fabus, and more.



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