✊🏾 Maya Angelou tribute

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Today's newsletter is 906 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Accidental fatal drug overdoses in San Francisco are trending downward, despite a slight uptick from July to August, according to the latest data from the city medical examiner's office.

Why it matters: 2023 was San Francisco's deadliest year on record for accidental overdoses with 810.

• Yes, but: The latest numbers show about a 50% year-over-year decline.

By the numbers: In August, 45 people died from fatal overdoses compared to 88 people in August 2023.

What they're saying: "These numbers are encouraging but we still have so much work to do," Grant Colfax, the city's public health department director, said at a press conference last week. "We are certainly hopeful that this downward trend in overdose deaths continues but death rates remain far too high."

Threat level: Despite the year-to-year decline, there was still a slight uptick from July, when 41 people died.

• So far this year, 462 people in San Francisco have died from overdosing and the city is on pace to hit 693 by the end of 2024, according to an analysis by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The big picture: Fatal drug overdoses, which fell in the U.S. last year for the first time since before the pandemic, are continuing to decline, according to preliminary CDC data.

• Nationwide, overdoses kill more than 100,000 people a year.
• In the 12 months ending in April, there was a 10% decline nationwide and a 5% decline in deaths in California from the same period a year before.

The intrigue: Public health experts are stunned by how dramatically deaths are falling, NPR reports.

• "Everyone is going to come out and claim that what they did is what caused the decline," Daniel Ciccarone, a physician at the University of California, San Francisco, told NPR, but "what makes it fascinating is the speed at which it's happening."

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The Harris campaign is boosting its pitch to Asian American voters with a new battleground state ad that spotlights the vice president's personal story, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Advocates on both sides of the political spectrum say the demographic could play a key role come November.

• Asian Americans recorded the largest registration increase of any racial group from January to June compared with the same period in 2020.

The big picture: Engagement with Asian Americans, the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc, has often been an afterthought for major political parties — which had never had an Asian American presidential nominee before Kamala Harris.

• The group has historically voted Democrat, but a 2021 analysis found that the GOP made gains with AAPI voters in battleground states in both 2016 and 2020.

Driving the news: The TV and digital ad "My Mother" pays tribute to Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a breast cancer researcher who immigrated from India at 19 and raised Kamala and her sister as a single mom.

• Positioning Harris as "one of us," it pulls from her remarks at the Democratic National Convention: "My mother was a brilliant 5-foot-tall brown woman with an accent. … She taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it."

Between the lines: The ad is a reflection of how Harris, who grew up attending a Hindu temple and a Black Baptist church, is seeking to walk a tightrope between acknowledging the impact of her dual heritage while not letting it dominate her campaign.

The other side: Trump senior adviser Steven Cheung declined to discuss the campaign's outreach strategy but said via email that Trump "created an environment where diversity, equal opportunity, and prosperity were afforded to everybody."

Where the ad is airing

Uber unveiled new features designed to help make the driver and courier experience safer, fairer and easier.

• An example: The national expansion of enhanced rider verification lets drivers know more about who's getting into their car.

The result: An experience drivers only find with Uber.

Learn more.

🗳️ ICYMI last week's mayoral debate, here's a handy recap and analysis. (SF Examiner)

IBM is laying off 58 people in its SF office and another 54 at its Silicon Valley Lab in San Jose. (SF Chronicle)

🎙️ Comedian John Mulaney roasted Dreamforce attendees and the city at large at his set last week, saying "You're hosting a 'future of AI' event in a city that has failed humanity so miserably?" (SF Standard)

The city's arts commission unveiled a monument honoring the prolific writer and poet Maya Angelou last week at the main public library.

Why it matters: Created by artist Lava Thomas, the work is the first public monument in San Francisco depicting a Black woman.

Between the lines: Angelou attended San Francisco's George Washington High School and is perhaps the city's most famous streetcar conductor.

Flashback: San Francisco passed an ordinance in 2018 requiring at least 30% of public art projects to depict real women.

• In 2020, the representation of real women depicted in public art pieces in San Francisco was just 19%, according to the San Francisco's Department on the Status of Women.

Yes, but: Prior to the completion of the Maya Angelou monument, there were just two publicly owned statues depicting real women, one of former mayor and current U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and the other of Florence Nightingale, according to the Department on the Status of Women's 2020 report.

• Meanwhile, the city owns 62 statues or monuments depicting real men.

Of note: The city has other statues depicting women, but they are of fictional women, like the ones in "Comfort Women's" Column of Strength and Pioneer Mother.

Zoom in: The Maya Angelou monument, styled like a book, features a portrait of Angelou drawn by Thomas.

• The structure features the quote "Still I Rise," a reference to one of Angelou's most famous poems.

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Flexible work just got better for over 7 million people.

Here's why: Uber's new features are designed to help make the driver and courier experience safer, fairer and easier.

• One feature, Record My Ride, allows drivers to record trips with their smartphone instead of investing in a dashcam.

👋🏾 Megan is in the final days of her time here at Axios. More to come...

🐾 Shawna is hanging with Mopsie a.k.a. Mop Top, as Megan likes to call her.

😎 Claire is looking forward to spending time with her Axios Local colleagues from across the country this week!

This newsletter was edited by Ross Terrell.