San Francisco, CA
This airport just hired a cat to help calm anxious travellers
Duke Ellington Morris is the newest member of SFO’s “Wag Brigade”. Image / San Francisco International Airport
If you spot a black and white cat running around San Francisco International Airport, don’t be alarmed, it’s just Duke Ellington Morris, one of the airport’s newest staff members.
“Duke” as he’s more casually called is a 14-year-old feline and the newest member of a team named the “Wag Brigade”.
“Purrlease welcome our newest Wag Brigade member, Duke Ellington Morris!” the airport announced on Twitter on June 9.
Launched in 2013, the Wag Brigade programme is designed to use specially trained animals to help calm travellers in the SFO airport terminal.
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Originally, the team was “canines only” but other animals have slowly joined the ranks including Alex the rabbit and LilLou the pig, who became famous as ‘the world’s first therapy pig’.
However, not just any animal off the street can don the “Pet Me” vest and roam around the terminals. All animals must be certified by San Francisco’s SPCA and complete its Animal Assisted Therapy (ATT) Program.
Animals are specially chosen based on their temperament and behaviour, the airport said. Given Duke’s CV, he was a shoo-in for the role as he has already worked as a support animal.
Life was hard in the beginning for the black-and-white feline, who was found starving and sick in a feral cat colony in 2010, according to the airport. After being discovered, the kitten spent a short time at SPCA, where he caught the attention of a 5-year-old girl and her mother, who were looking for a pet.
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The new owners gladly took him home, where they soon realised Duke was a special cat and had him certified as an animal therapist. Since then, he has helped humans deal with hardship, illness and stress. In SFO, he’ll play a similar role and bring comfort to travellers in the airport who need it.
Duke is even marginally Instagram famous, with a profile run by his owners. After making it onto the Wag Brigade, the profile showed a post of Duke in a fake pilot uniform with the caption: “Happy is not the word…elated!”
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Mission Bay coffee shop deals with break-ins as it seeks to open
A coffee shop in San Francisco’s Mission Bay hasn’t even opened yet, but has dealt with at least two break-ins over a 24-hour span.
The owners though say it’s not going to deter them from opening their business and hopes their plan will help drive some of the crime away.
Owners of Silicon Valley Coffee got a taste of how businesses are struggling with crime in San Francisco. On Sunday, Matt Baker and Vance Bjorn came in to work on their new store but ended up finding two people on their property with needles scattered everywhere.
The owners called police, officers talked to the suspects, but didn’t make any arrests.
“Little disappointed, little shaken up,” Baker told CBS News Bay Area. “We went home and came back the next morning just to find that we were robbed and everything we had back there was gone. Including our, ironically enough, our brand new security system.”
The incident might have scared off other business owners but not these two.
“We want to work with the community, with the local representation and work with them to find solutions so that other businesses don’t have to go through this,” he said. “We’re putting a lot on the line out here to redo this space and that was a big setback for us.”
When Baker and Bjorn say they’re putting a lot on the line, they mean it. They are pouring in their money to open up this location on 4th Street, knowing that they will have to close when developers decide to break ground on a towering complex with about a thousand rental units. This maybe a temporary site for Silicon Valley Coffee but it’s a project the owners couldn’t say no to.
“This is an incredible opportunity,” said Baker. “It’s not every day an entire coffee shop, a restaurant, a giant patio in a prime location just lands in your feet and they ask you, can you help to make it better.”
So not only are they committed to seeing their business grow, they’re hoping their business will revitalize the area.
“We really think that the best way to solve these issues is by making this corner vibrant again,” Bjorn said to CBS News Bay Area.
The old site of the Creamery is not the only part getting a facelift. These signs of stores closing will come down, the area will be cleaned up and lights will be put up to make this corner of 4th and Townsend more inviting. Baker and Bjorn are determined to make a difference, one cup at a time.
“Coffee is about community,” said Bjorn. “Historically coffee shops have brought people together and this neighborhood needs to be brought together.”
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco coffee shop broken into before opening doors
A new coffee show in San Francisco has yet to open its doors, but it is already dealing with crime concerns.
The owners of Silicon Valley Company said someone broke into the property twice in a matter of days.
“The property has been neglected for the last five years, so we knew we were going to have challenges renovating it,” said Matt Baker, co-founder of Silicon Valley Coffee. “On Sunday, we got here and realized that our back gate had been smashed open and that there were people possibly on-site in one of the back condos.’
Baker and co-founder Vance Bjorn said they knew they would take on a big project revitalizing the space but didn’t expect the business to be broken into twice.
Christie Smith has the full report in the video above.
San Francisco, CA
Suspect Arrested For San Francisco Homicide
HAYWARD, CA — A Hayward man was arrested by police in San Francisco on suspicion of a fatal shooting in the Tenderloin in October, the department said.
On Oct. 30 just after 6 p.m., a man was shot in the area of Ellis and Jones streets and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Investigators identified 22-year-old Michael Javius as the suspect and arrested him on Dec. 12. Search warrants were issued for residences in San Francisco, Hayward and Antioch, police said, and evidence related to the shooting was seized.
Find out what’s happening in San Franciscowith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Javius was booked into jail on suspicion of homicide, conspiracy and being an accessory after the fact.
Although an arrest has been made, this is an open and active investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at (415) 575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.
Find out what’s happening in San Franciscowith free, real-time updates from Patch.
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