The man born Leib Lejzon was the youngest of the Jewish Holocaust survivors employed by Oskar Schindler during World War II, a story later immortalized in the film "Schindler’s List." Leyson began working in Schindler’s enamelware factory in 1943 at just 13 years of age. Though his two older brothers died during the Holocaust, Leyson’s parents, sister and another brother survived because of Schindler’s efforts. Read More

The United Way of the Bay Area’s 211 program, a call-center program that links local residents with health and human service agencies, will expand its coverage from three Bay Area counties to seven, according to the organization’s officials. Already present in San Francisco, Santa Clara and Alameda counties, the call service will now include coverage in Marin, Napa, Contra Costa and Solano counties, United Way spokeswoman Maria Stokes said. The formal expansion will start Monday — or 2/11. Read More

Safety measures and practices at the San Francisco Zoo will be put under the microscope by a newly formed seven-person panel.Members of the peer-review team assigned by the Mayor’s Office were announced during Thursday’s Recreation and Park Commission meeting. Read More

For more than 20 years, the San Francisco native has been crafting visual works of art using the unlikely medium of toothpicks. Read More

San Francisco voted against transforming Alcatraz Island and its iconic former prison complex into a "Global Peace Center." Proposition C called for Alcatraz to be transferred from the federal government to the authority ofSan Francisco in order to create a peace center. The measure’s backers gathered 18,000 signatures, but the idea did not gain the needed approval from San Francisco voters to move it forward.wreisman@examiner.com Read More

The vast majority of officers from the San Francisco division of the U.S. Park Police — one of five departments that oversee homeland security on Golden Gate Bridge — did not receive proper weapons training for more than a year because of management gaffes on the federal level, according to a new government report.Ninety-three percent of Park Police officers did not meet minimum qualifications to operate pistols due in large part to a lack of ammunition needed for training sessions, a study by the Department of the Interior revealed. Read More

Fire engines blaring sirens and air horns down lower Polk Street have drawn the ire of residents who believe emergency situations could be handled with a more dialed-down approach.The root of the controversy is Station 3 at 1067 Post St. — the busiest fire station in the nation with 7,439 engine runs counted in 2007, according to San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Lt. Mindy Talmadge. The overwhelming majority of runs dispatched are medical emergencies, due in large part to the station’s proximity to the Tenderloin, where drug abuse is common, Talmadge said. Read More