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Counties launch social services hot line
Beginning today, anyone in the Bay Area who needs help with food, housing, employment or health care can simply dial 211. The three-digit hot line began operating in San Francisco nearly two years ago. Since then, six other Bay Area counties -- Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara and Solano -- have been in various stages of operation. As of this morning, the service is officially up and running throughout the seven-county region. In Contra Costa County, 211 has operated in test mode until today. Still, operators at the Contra Costa Crisis Center have been fielding hundreds of calls a month. "Near Concord? OK, let's see, hmm," specialist Minerva Blaine told a caller Friday, scrolling through a computer database to find affordable housing units for the homeless mother of a new baby.
TOP WORLD NEWS PHOTOS
Archbishop of the southwestern cities of Lourdes and Tarbes, Jacques Perrier, right, puts his hand on a sick young girl's forehead, in front of the Lourdes shrine, southwestern France, during a ceremony. Feb. 11: Palestinians in a taxi drive past a section of Israel's separation barrier at the Kalandiya checkpoint, between the outskirts of Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah. Israel says the barrier is necessary for security, while Palestinians call it a land grab. Feb. 11: Iraqi police graduate stands at attention as national flags flutter above him, during a graduation ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq. Some 900 policemen graduated after a six week training course. Feb. 11: Pakistan election worker carries transparent ballot boxes in preparation for upcoming general election at an election commission office in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Gwen Knapp Archive
Andrew Walter made a lot of mistakes, many of them understandable, in his first NFL start Sunday, but his biggest error came after the game, when he defended Randy Moss' weak afternoon. "I think Jerry Rice dropped a couple of balls,'' he said. "We can't get on a guy for that. He's going to make more plays than not.'' Where do we start? First, dropped passes weren't the problem. Moss halfway gave up on one ball, and didn't fight a defensive back on two more. He sauntered to the huddle several times, with all the enthusiasm of a shift worker punching a clock. He did drop a pass once, when he had to wait for a late throw from Walter and, as a result, absorbed a big hit from Browns free safety Brian Russell. It would be terribly unfair to blame that drop entirely on Moss ...
Healthy looking Winehouse off to jailhouse
Off to visit her imprisoned husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, at Pentonville, it's fair to say that the recent problems facing Amy Winehouse have not all disappeared. However, her last week in rehab, forced upon her by her father Mitch after recent images of her openly smoking crack cocaine, seems to have brought a little more colour into her cheeks. Swapping her usual scowl for a hearty smile for the lenses, Amy was snapped leaving her new rehab home looking healthier and less skeletal than in recent weeks. But Winehouse may be banned from the Grammys after she was questioned by police in London about crack cocaine. The singer was interviewed under caution at a clinic in connection with video footage which allegedly showed her smoking the drug.
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