SF News

Coast Guard Continues Search for Capsized Boat Survivors

The U.S. Coast Guard will continue to search today for signs of a charter fishing boat that capsized a week ago near Baja, Mexico, officials said. A U.S. Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircrew completed their sixth day of searching Sunday in a 990 square-mile area in the Sea of Cortez near Isla San Luis, Mexico. No sign of the seven people still missing from the boat were found. The boat, operated by the fishing excursion company Baja Sportfishing Inc., sank at 2:30 a.m. on July 3, according to the Coast Guard. More than 40 people were on board including crew members and a group of fishermen from various Bay Area cities who were on a fishing trip together.

Nude Fairfield Woman Armed with Handgun Arrested in Vacaville Motel

A nude Fairfield woman armed with a handgun at a Super 8 motel in Vacaville was arrested by police after a desk clerk convinced her to surrender early Sunday morning, a Vacaville police sergeant said. Patricia Wright, 32, allegedly entered the lobby of the motel, located at 101 Allison Court, naked and armed with a handgun around 2:40 a.m., Sgt. Mark Donaldson said. Wright apparently waved the firearm at the desk clerk, who called 911. She told the clerk that she was afraid and mentioned a male companion staying at the motel with her, Donaldson said. But Wright was not making threats to hurt herself or the clerk, he said. As about seven officers surrounded the motel, the clerk talked to Wright and tried to calm her down. Within about 20 minutes, she convinced Wright to put the handgun down and the clerk was able secure the weapon, Donaldson said. Wright surrendered to Vacaville police at about 3 a.m. Officers also detained Wright's male companion, but after questioning him they determined he had not committed any crime, Donaldson said. Wright allegedly admitted to police that she had ingested both marijuana and ecstasy, which Donaldson said likely played a role in her behavior. She was booked into Solano County Jail in Fairfield on suspicion of brandishing a firearm, possession of a loaded firearm in public, and possession of a firearm that had its serial number removed. The incident was contained to the lobby, and the motel was not evacuated. No one suffered any injuries during the standoff.

Drunk Driver Crashes into Fire Engine, Arrested by San Jose Police

San Jose police arrested a man on suspicion of driving under the influence after he plowed his car into a fire engine that was leaving the scene of a one-alarm house fire Sunday morning, a San Jose fire captain said. Two firefighters were reversing a small brush control engine, primarily used for battling wildfires, onto Mabury Road from High Glen Drive when a man driving at a high rate of speed crashed a sport coupe into the back of the engine, launching the car about 15 to 20 feet, San Jose fire Capt. Rob Brown said. The driver, a man in his early 20s who appeared intoxicated, navigated around two cars that were stopped while a fire captain was directing traffic on the closed road around 12:30 a.m., Brown said. The firefighters and the driver did not suffer any injuries, but both vehicles sustained damage, he said. Twenty-three firefighters and two battalion chiefs were at the scene, where minutes earlier they controlled a fire that started in a wall of an upstairs bedroom in a two-story house, Brown said. The fire was reported just before midnight, and it caused about $5,000 to $10,000 in damage to the house, he said. No occupants were in the home when the fire started and no one was injured while battling the blaze. Its cause is under investigation.

Suisun City Man Hospitalized After Graduation Party Fight

A Suisun City man suffered a serious head injury in a fight that erupted at a graduation party in Solano County early Sunday morning, according to the sheriff's office. The fight took place in front of a home in the 4500 block of Green Valley Road near Fairfield at about 1:25 a.m., according to a Solano County sheriff's lieutenant. Arriving deputies found a paramedic team administering emergency aid to 48-year-old Roy Hellickson, who had suffered a head injury. An investigation revealed that Hellickson got into a fight with 20-year-old Carson Bruce, of Fairfield, after Bruce allegedly acted inappropriately toward another guest at the party, according to the sheriff's office. During the altercation, Hellickson fell and hit his head on the ground, causing serious injury. Hellickson was first taken to Northbay Medical Center and then flown by helicopter to U.C. Davis Medical Center where he was listed in serious condition. Bruce was arrested and booked at Solano County Jail for assault with a deadly weapon. His bail was set at $25,000.

Firefighter Injured by Falling Debris During Healdsburg Fire

A firefighter was injured by falling debris while fighting a two-alarm fire at a Healdsburg home early Sunday morning, fire officials said. The fire, which began on the deck of 243 Albert Court, was reported just before 2 a.m., Fire Chief Steven Adams said. Flames had already spread through the first and second stories of the home when firefighters arrived and were threatening homes on three sides. Firefighters struggled to extinguish the fire, in part due to the large number of personal items in the house and concealed spaces in the structure, Adams said. All occupants of the home were able to escape uninjured, but one firefighters received an injury to his neck due to falling debris. He was treated at Healdsburg District Hospital and released. While the neighboring homes escaped damage, all the belongings in the affected house were destroyed, Adams said. Damage is estimated at around $400,000, and an investigation into the fire's cause is underway.

San Jose Shooting Victim Gives Few Details to San Jose Police  

San Jose police have learned few details about a shooting victim that showed up at a hospital early Sunday morning. Police were contacted by Regional Medical Center staff at about 2:45 a.m. when the victim of a shooting limped into the emergency room, San Jose police Sgt. Jason Dwyer said. The victim, a man in his early 20s, told police he had been at a party in South San Jose where he was involved in a scuffle and shot in the lower leg. His injury was not life threatening. The victim has been uncooperative and did not tell police how he arrived at the hospital or any details about the cause of his injury, including a motive or who might have been involved. The shooting has not been determined to be gang related, though Dwyer said the area has seen incidents of gang activity in the past. The shooting remains under investigation.

Mills College Shooting Injures One

A shooting near Mills College in Oakland injured one person Saturday evening, police said. Officers responded to the 6200 block of Seminary Avenue at about 7:45 p.m. and found one victim suffering from a gunshot wound, Oakland police Officer Kevin McDonald said. The victim was taken to the hospital in stable condition and there are no suspects in custody, McDonald said.

San Jose Police Find Man with Multiple Stab Wounds on Lawn, 3 Suspects Arrested

San Jose police found a man with multiple stab wounds on the front lawn of a San Jose residence early Sunday morning, a sergeant said. Officers responded to a 911 call from a resident reporting a wounded person in a front yard at about 1:30 a.m., San Jose police Sgt. Jason Dwyer said. Arriving officers found a male victim suffering multiple stab wounds who said he had been chased and attacked by several people who might still be in the area. Officers established a search perimeter and found three suspects -- two females and a male - who were arrested in connection with the stabbing. The victim was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive. It has not been determined it the attack was gang related, but the gang activity in the neighborhood has been confirmed in the past, Dwyer said. The incident remains under investigation.

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No Justice, No BART Demands BART PD  Shut Down, Firing of Officers who Shot Charless Hill

A group protesting the death of a man killed during a confrontation with BART police officers last week plans to take over the BART platform of the Civic Center station where the shooting occurred Monday afternoon. The group No Justice, No BART said it will demand that the BART police department be permanently shut down, and that both officers involved in the July 3 shooting of Charles Hill be fired. In addition, the group wants to see an independent public investigation of the death and charges filed and prosecuted against the officers involved. A BART spokesman did not return a call requesting comment on the planned protest. Hill, 45, was allegedly wielding a knife and a broken alcohol bottle before BART police shot him at about 9:45 p.m. on the train platform, according to BART spokesman Linton Johnson. Hill, who has no fixed address, was shot in the front torso area and later taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:45 p.m. Two BART police officers had responded to the station after receiving reports of a white man wearing a tie-dye shirt and green military fatigue pants who was carrying an open container of alcohol. He was described as drunk and "wobbly" to BART dispatch. The officers approached the man, who was aggressive and combative and did not comply with orders, according to BART police. One of the officers was armed with a Taser. One suffered minor cuts during the confrontation, BART officials said. Some witnesses to the incident have stated in the media that the man was not running or lunging at the two officers, but Johnson has said those accounts are "not the only perspective" on the shooting. San Francisco and BART police are interviewing 35 to 40 witnesses in the incident. Johnson said BART will release a video of the shooting after the investigations are complete unless the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, which is conducting its own probe, objects. No Justice, No BART formed in response to the New Year's Day 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant III, which sparked multiple protests. The 22-year-old Hayward resident was shot and killed while unarmed by BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served around a year in jail. Mehserle admitted to the shooting but said he intended to use his Taser on Grant. Monday's protest is expected to begin at 4:30 p.m.

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The Bay Area is expected to be mostly cloudy this morning, before becoming partly cloudy later today. Highs in the upper 50s to mid 60s are anticipated. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph are also predicted, before becoming west around 20 mph in the afternoon.

Clear skies are expected this evening before becoming mostly cloudy tonight. Lows in the lower 50s and west winds around 20 mph are anticipated.

Forecasters predict mostly cloudy weather on Monday, with highs in the upper 50s and west winds around 20 mph.

Federal Parole Agents Failed to Adequately Supervice Philip Garrido

A detailed report released Thursday recognizes that federal parole agents failed to adequately supervise Phillip Garrido leading up to and during the time he kidnapped Jaycee Dugard and held her captive in a backyard compound at his house outside Antioch. The report was from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. James Ware, chief judge of the United States District Court, Northern District of California, said he received the confidential report in February. "As Chief Judge, I believe that the strength of our public institutions is tied directly to their openness to public scrutiny," Ware wrote as his reason for making the full report public. "We are using its candid criticism and the public scrutiny that comes from it as tools to improve the administration of justice in our district." According to the report, Garrido, now 60, kidnapped a 25-year-old woman in South Lake Tahoe in 1976, took her to a storage shed in Reno, Nev., and repeatedly raped her. He was sentenced in 1977 to 50 years in federal prison for the kidnapping and five years to life in state prison for the rape. After serving 11 years in federal prison, the United States Parole Commission granted Garrido parole and he was sent to Nevada to begin serving his state sentence.

In 1988, he was released on lifetime parole. He was classified as "high risk" and placed under the supervision of federal parole agents. He went to live with his wife and mother at a house on Walnut Avenue in an unincorporated Contra Costa County just outside Antioch. According to the report, Garrido was described as a "time bomb" in a conversation between his parole agent and a counselor in 1988. Also in 1988, his psychiatrist said he was "like a pot boiling with no outlet valve." In 1989, Garrido's therapist said that she believed Garrido "is close to going off," but his parole agent didn't have any personal contact with Garrido for four months after the statement was made. On June 10, 1991, Garrido and his wife Nancy Garrido, now 55, kidnapped 11-year-old Dugard from a school bus stop in front of her home in South Lake Tahoe. They took her to their home and held her captive for the next 18 years, where they kept her hidden in a series of makeshift tents and sheds in the backyard. During Dugard's captivity, Garrido repeatedly raped her and she gave birth to two daughters fathered by him. The daughters never went to school or saw a doctor, police said. Her presence was not discovered until Aug. 26, 2009, after a University of California, Berkeley police officer saw Garrido on campus with two young girls and thought their behavior was suspicious.

Picasso Thief Charged

A 30-year-old New Jersey man has been charged with stealing a Pablo Picasso drawing from a San Francisco gallery, according to the district attorney's office. Mark Lugo, of Hoboken, N.J., was charged Friday with one felony count of grand theft and one felony count of second-degree burglary. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday at 1:30 p.m. Lugo remains in custody. His bail has been set at $5 million. Lugo was arrested Wednesday in Napa after police used surveillance footage and eyewitness accounts to track him to a hotel in San Francisco, and then to an apartment in Napa. At about 11:40 a.m. Tuesday, Lugo allegedly walked into the Weinstein Gallery at 383 Geary St. and took a pencil-on-paper drawing titled "Tete de Femme," valued at about $275,000, and fled in a waiting taxicab, police said. Officers were able to track down the cab and learned that its driver took Lugo to the Hotel Palomar at Market and Fourth streets where he was staying, police Lt. Ed Santos said. Lugo had flown in from New Jersey on Monday, and was found Wednesday night at the Napa apartment, where he was with two friends he knew from the East Coast, Santos said. The painting was in good condition but had been taken out of the frame, and it looked like Lugo was preparing to have it shipped somewhere, according to Santos. The friends did not appear to know that Lugo had stolen the drawing and were not arrested, he said. Lefty O'Doul's, a restaurant and bar located just down the street from the art gallery, captured video footage of the alleged thief on a surveillance camera outside the building, and police acknowledged Friday that the footage helped identify Lugo.

SF Lawyer Indicted

A former San Francisco lawyer who became a self-proclaimed investment manager has been indicted in federal court in the city on charges of defrauding friends and relatives of $7 million. Robert G. Tunnell, 72, of San Francisco, was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on seven counts of mail fraud, 13 counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Tunnell, a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, practiced law in California from 1971 to 2001. He resigned from the State Bar in 2001 amid charges that he had stolen $300,000 from his law firm, according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges that Tunnell "subsequently held himself out as a high successful investor" and persuaded friends and family members to let him manage their investments. Instead, the indictment alleges, Tunnell operated a Ponzi scheme in which he lost $7 million entrusted to him between 2006 and his arrest June 23, 2011.

The indictment alleges Tunnell obtained a total of $10 million from investors during that time and used about $3 million to repay some of the investors, leaving his clients with a total loss of $7 million. The document alleges he defrauded clients by failing to tell them he resigned from the State Bar amid charges of theft; falsely telling them he was putting their money in conservative, safe investments; falsely reporting phony gains; and failing to tell them he was using their money to repay other investors. "During that time period," the indictment alleges, "Tunnell consistently represented to his investors, among other things, that he was achieving steady gains in his investors' accounts based on his conservative, low-risk investments. "In fact, however, Tunnell used his investors' money to engage in commodity trading and other risky trading, through which he lost approximately $7 million of his investors' money," the indictment said. Thursday's indictment replaces a criminal complaint filed under seal against Tunnell on June 22. Following his June 23 arrest, he was released June 24 by U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte on $10 million bail, secured by a $2 million property bond posted by his son. Tunnell was arraigned on the indictment before U.S. Magistrate Maria-Elena James on Friday and ordered to appear before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Aug. 10, according to U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag.

The mail and wire fraud counts each carry a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison if Tunnell is convicted. The wire fraud count has a maximum 10-year sentence. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of funds and property derived from any of the alleged crimes of which Tunnell is convicted.

Pittsburg Man in Critical Condition After Being Shot in the Head

A 20-year-old Pittsburg man remains in critical condition after being shot in the head Wednesday night on the Delta de Anza Trail in Pittsburg, a police lieutenant said. A passerby heard what sounded like a gunshot at about 8:30 p.m. on the trail near Atlantic Avenue and Harbor Street and saw a man lying on the ground, police Lt. Ron Raman said. The witness ran to a nearby MacDonald's restaurant and called police, Raman said. Officers arrived within minutes and found the victim lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the back of his head, Raman said.

Officers performed CPR until paramedics arrived and transported him to Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch. He was then transferred to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, where he remained on life support Friday, Raman said. Investigators believe that the victim may have been involved in a feud in Antioch and was shot at several days earlier. He had reportedly been taking refuge in Pittsburg, Raman said. Investigators are working with Antioch police to determine the nature of the alleged feud and who was involved in it. They were also trying to find out what brought the victim to the trail Wednesday night, but no suspects have been identified.

Two Men Charged for Sebastopol Man's Death

Two men charged in connection with the stabbing death of a Sebastopol man in Guerneville on Wednesday were arraigned Friday afternoon in Sonoma County Superior Court. Kevin Anthony Payne Jr., 22, a Los Angeles resident, and James Larry Lewis, 35, of Guerneville, delayed entering pleas and will return to court July 15. Payne is charged with killing 31-year-old Elijah Lockhart and Lewis is charged with being an accessory. Payne is being held without bail in the Sonoma County jail. He has a misdemeanor battery case involving another alleged victim pending in Sonoma County Superior Court, and there were two misdemeanor warrants for his arrest at the time of the slaying, Deputy District Attorney Brian Staebell said. Judge Ken Gnoss raised Lewis' bail to $100,000 after Staebell said Lewis provided the knife and concealed it from law enforcement after the stabbing. The knife was recovered at the scene. Lewis also has two prior prison commitments, Staebell said.

Lockhart was stabbed in the chest after an altercation with Payne and Lewis on the Guerneville pedestrian bridge, Sonoma County sheriff's Lt. Tim Duke said. He staggered to the First Street plaza and collapsed. Staebell said the nature of the dispute is under investigation. A sheriff's deputy from the Russian River sub-station arrived within a minute of the call about the stabbing and gave Lockhart CPR, sheriff's Lt. Tim Duke said.

The Monte Rio Fire Protection District and ambulance crews arrived and prepared to take Lockhart to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, but he died in the ambulance, Duke said. Outside court, Lockhart's mother, Sheila Lockhart, of Sebastopol, questioned whether life-saving measures were quick or adequate enough, and she said wants to file a wrongful death suit against the sheriff's office and other responders. Monte Rio Fire Protection District Chief Steve Baxman said a sheriff's deputy started chest compressions on Lockhart immediately.

"It couldn't have been quicker," Baxman said. Baxman said he took over chest compressions while paramedics gave Lockhart fluids. Baxman said he was driving the ambulance while four paramedics worked on Lockhart, but Lockhart died about halfway to the hospital. "I'm sorry she lost her son, but don't take it out on the people who tried to save you son's life," Baxman said. I stand by everything we did. We've got nothing to be ashamed of," Baxman said.

Sheila Lockhart said her son was going swimming in the Russian River and she and her daughter were in Guerneville to pick him up. She said they were delayed about 20 minutes because they stopped to fix their tires, and when they arrived, her son was laying in a pool of blood in the plaza. "If we hadn't done that, we would have been there for him," she said. "The last thing he did was he held out his hand to me and said, 'Help mom'," she said. "He was my first and only son."

Golden Gate Ferry Discontinues Daily Ticket Office Staffing

Golden Gate Ferry is discontinuing daily staffing of their ticket offices in Larkspur and San Francisco, according to Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District officials. The change will eliminate seven full-time ticket agent positions, though five employees have already been placed in new jobs within the organization. District officials hope to place the remaining two employees in new jobs, as well, according to Mary Currie, Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District spokeswoman.

Tickets will be available from automated ticket vending machines that have been operational for several months at ferry terminals. "For us this is a cost saving and an efficiency change," Currie said. Some ferry tickets will not be available from the automated machine, such as tickets to AT&T Park. The Larkspur ticket office will be open on San Francisco Giants game days, and tickets will also be available at the Giants Dugout store, or on the Internet. The new ticket machines will also offer Clipper cards, though not discounted youth and senior cards. Those will be available at several other Bay Area locations. More information is available at www.goldengate.org.

Oakland City Employees' New Contracts Approved

All five of Oakland's major city employee unions have approved new contracts with concessions that contribute $23 million toward closing the city's $58 million budget gap, Mayor Jean Quan said. "I want to thank every city employee and bargaining unit for their cooperation and sacrifice during this difficult transition as we implement the new budget," Quan said in a statement Friday.

The last union to announce that it has approved a new contract is Service Employees Union Local 1021, which represents about 1,400 public works, parks and recreation and City Hall workers. Local 1021 spokesman Carlos Rivera said many of the union's members were reluctant to contribute more to their pension costs and have more furlough days but in the end the union approved the contract by a narrow margin of 53 percent to 27 percent. Earlier Friday, Oakland Firefighters Local 55 President Chuck Garcia, said firefighters voted by a margin of more than two-to-one, by 242 to 104 to approve concessions that include taking an 8.85 percent pay cut for each of the next three years and giving up two vacation days annually. In addition, newly hired firefighters will have to work until age 55 to get their full retirement benefits, instead of the current age of 50.

Firefighters will continue to contribute 13 percent of their retirement costs, Garcia said, in return for a provision that they won't be laid off. Garcia said he had been nervous about whether his union's members would approve the concessions because "they are not happy about what they are giving up." But he said, "Our members understand the city is in serious financial difficulty and had to help out." The agreement extends the firefighters current agreement, which was to expire next year, until 2014. Firefighters agreed to reopen their contract so it could be modified, Garcia said. On Thursday, the union that represents Oakland's 636 police officers approved making concessions by what its leaders said was an overwhelming margin, although the exact numbers were released. Earlier, concessions were approved by members of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21 and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245.

Quan said, "Both Police and Firefighters came to the table even though their contracts were not open yet. The significant contributions from all of our employees allow us to preserve city services, help us prepare Oakland for better days and move forward as a city." Quan said that now that the contracts have been ratified, the city is implementing its budget, which calls for 214 positions to be cut.

Tenants of SF's Parkmerced Apartments Deliver Referendum

Tenants of San Francisco's Parkmerced apartments delivered a referendum to the city's Department of Elections on Friday afternoon on a plan to add thousands of apartments and demolish others at the complex. The San Francisco Tenants Union and other supporters are trying to stop the plan by developers to add about 5,700 apartments and replace about 1,800 others during the next two to three decades at the large complex at 19th and Holloway avenues. The tenants say the plan would displace them and get rid of rent-controlled housing. The board of supervisors approved the plan last month by a 6-5 vote after adding some tenant protections into the agreement. The petition being delivered by a small group of tenants to the Department of Elections at City Hall would put a referendum on the November ballot to let city voters decide whether they support or oppose the plan as approved by the board, said Ted Gullicksen, director of the tenants union. The referendum would suspend work on the project until the vote in November, Gullicksen said. He said the petition has about 19,000 signatures, more than the roughly 14,300 needed to place the measure on the ballot. "The key issue here is we need to preserve as much rent-controlled housing as we possibly can," Gullicksen said. "They're basically demolishing an entire neighborhood.

Fairfield Man Arrested for Drug Violation

A Fairfield man who was arrested for a drug violation near where a double homicide occurred in unincorporated Vallejo in May was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murders Friday, according to the Solano County Sheriff's Office. Patrick Eugene Alley, 44, was arrested on suspicion of murdering Ramone Hatfield, 30, of Los Angeles, and 29-year-old Sean Pierre Riley of Santa Rosa, sheriff's Lt. Faulkner said. Both men were shot. He will be booked in the Solano County jail on two counts of murder and held without bail, Faulkner said. Sheriff's deputies responded around 10:50 p.m. on May 10 to a report of shots fired in the area of Woodrow and Reis avenues.

They found one of the two murder victims in the driver's seat of a white Ford Taurus in the middle of the street near 20 Reis Ave., Faulkner said. The body of the second victim was found around midnight in the driveway of a nearby home on Reis Avenue. At 9 a.m. May 11, a woman told deputies processing the crime scene that she found a man in her garage on Reis Avenue, Faulkner said. Deputies found Alley and arrested him for possession of illegal drugs. He was booked into the Solano County jail. At the tine, Faulkner said there was no evidence linking Alley to the homicides, but Alley's presence in the neighborhood "would be closely examined" by detectives.

San Francisco Rec and Parks Dept. Unveils Improvements to Golden Gate Park

The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department unveiled improvements to Golden Gate Park's Carrousel Plaza on Friday. The renovations were funded with $960,000 from Proposition 40 grants and $300,000 in Open Space funds. The construction on Carrousel Plaza replaced the asphalt plaza with colored concrete, stonewalls and stairs, a trash and recycling storage area, and landscaping work.

The Recreation and Park Department has received nearly $50 million from the state of California for improvements to Golden Gate Park from Proposition 40, a 2002 statewide ballot initiative for improvements to parks and environmental protection. On the west end of the plaza a new staircase was added, which included tile work provided by staff and patrons from the adjacent Sharon Art Studio, which provides art classes for children, adults and seniors. The handmade tiles include abstract designs, memorials for lost pets, tributes to the San Francisco Giants, and pictures of cupcakes and ice cream. The improvements to the Carrousel Plaza follow major renovations to the nearby children's playground in 2007. The Proposition 40 grants have largely gone to the playground renovations, as well as new restrooms and a nearby lawn bowling area. A third phase of planned renovations will turn the existing barn space into a birthday party and picnic area that could be rented for private parties.

Sen. Leno Honors Cal-Con Pumping LLC as Small Business of the Year

State Sen. Mark Leno honored Cal-Con Pumping LLC on Friday as Small Business of the Year in District 3, which encompasses Marin County, parts of Sonoma County and San Francisco. The Presidio-based company provides concrete pouring services for construction projects. They have participated in projects like San Francisco General Hospital and the San Francisco Public Utilities Building. Cal-Con Pumping was recently awarded $2.95 million in contracts for the Doyle Street Replacement Project, improving the southern approach to the Golden Gate Bridge, according to Leno's office. "The Doyle Street project has been a blessing.

We've been able to buy new equipment and hire new staff," said Cal-Con Pumping CEO Julie Berry. "In the recession, this has just been a successful story," she said. Cal-Con Pumping uses heavy machinery requiring precise operating engineers to disperse large amounts of concrete. When the company was founded in 2007, they had only one truck but now they have six trucks and employ 10 full-time employees. Leno said he chose Cal-Con Pumping because of its record of success, ability to handle large important contracts, and because of the strides that a woman-owned business has made in the male-dominated construction industry.

"There are certainly a lot of great local small businesses to make such a selection, but Julie Berry and Cal-Con Pumping stand out as a local success story. Certainly the fact that she has drive in what is traditionally a male-dominated industry makes her success all the more notable," Leno said. "Also uncommon is the ability in which she has been able to win large contracts that often elude small businesses. When public projects are issuing contracts, we want more of those contracts to locally owned small businesses," Leno added. Berry said she is excited by the honor. "The recognition means a lot to me, means a lot to my staff, and means a lot to my family. It's been tough during these economic times but we've been very successful, I'm very glad to be honored and recognized by Sen. Leno," Berry said.

Campbell-based Coulomb Technologies Helps Electric Vehicle Drivers

Campbell-based Coulomb Technologies is helping electric vehicle drivers find charging stations more efficiently and spreading the use of electric vehicles worldwide. The company launched a new smartphone app Friday that would assist drivers in finding charging stations and informing them what stations are vacant. According to Coulomb Technologies officials, their infrastructure provides power to more than 20,000 charging sessions a month. Drivers charge their vehicles for an average of eight hours a session, so knowing which stations are occupied is potentially extremely valuable to electric vehicle owners. The ChargePoint Network, started by Coulomb in 2009, provides electric charging stations in 14 countries.

Bay Area Weather

The Bay Area is expected to be mostly cloudy with patchy fog this morning, becoming partly cloudy, with highs near 60.

It is expected to be mostly cloudy this evening, with patchy fog and drizzle expected after midnight, with lows in the lower 50s. Sunday is expected to be mostly cloudy with patchy fog and drizzle in the morning, becoming partly cloudy, with highs in the upper 50s to mid 60s.

A man who was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a woman's infant son in San Francisco's Marina District early this morning likely will not face criminal charges in the case after the woman confirmed that he is the child's father, a police spokesman said today.

The 10-month-old boy was reportedly taken at about 4 a.m. near the intersection of Lombard and Pierce streets after the 38-year-old man and 24-year-old woman got into an argument, police said.

The man took the boy, and was subsequently taken into custody, according to police. The child was found safe.

Although the man was booked into county jail in connection with the incident, the case is being handled as a domestic dispute and not a kidnapping, Lt. Troy Dangerfield said.

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Early this Friday morning, bad things came in threes.