BART riders should expect 15-minute delays this morning for trains on the Pittsburg-Bay Point line heading into San Francisco, a BART employee said.
The delays began after an ill passenger had to get off a train at the Rockridge station sometime before 10:45 a.m., the employee said.
The passenger's medical needs have been taken care of, she said.
A man was hit in the head with a baseball bat and had his wristwatch stolen in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood on Wednesday night, police said.
The robbery was reported at about 10:40 p.m. near the intersection of Fourth and Bryant streets.
The 32-year-old victim was approached by a man who hit him in the head with a baseball bat, knocking him to the ground, according to police.
While he was on the ground, the attacker took the man's wristwatch and fled.
He had not been found as of this morning, police said.
The victim was taken to San Francisco General Hospital to be treated for his injuries, which are not considered life-threatening.
Anyone with information about the attack is encouraged to call the Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or send a tip by text message to TIP411.
A constitutional challenge to San Francisco's so-called Yellow Pages law claims the ordinance "harms the neediest city residents most of all."
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco late Tuesday, alleges the law will hurt San Francisco's "poorest, oldest and least English-proficient" residents.
It was filed by the New Jersey-based Local Search Association, formerly known as the Yellow Pages Association, a trade group of publishers of print and electronic commercial search directories.
The suit is slated for a case management hearing before U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte on Sept. 20.
The law, passed by the Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Ed Lee last month, will restrict the distribution of Yellow Pages phone books in the city.
Under a three-year pilot program scheduled to go into effect next year, distributors of printed commercial telephone directories will be prohibited from leaving the books on doorsteps unless residents agree in advance or in person to accept them.
The lawsuit charges that the measure will hurt vulnerable low-income and elderly people who may not have access to the Internet and who depend on the Yellow Pages when they urgently need services such as medical aid, emergency repairs, a lawyer or a funeral home.
The suit also claims the ordinance violates two federal and state constitutional rights of the publishers: the First Amendment right of free speech and the 14th Amendment right of equal treatment under the law.
It charges that Yellow Pages publishers are unfairly singled out for the ban while publishers of advertising circulars are not prohibited from distributing their materials.
The law, proposed by Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, is intended to cut down on blight and the costs of recycling unwanted phone books. Chiu said, "I am confident San Francisco's new law will stand up to court scrutiny."
"We carefully crafted the legislation to address the significant environmental harm and blight caused by mass over-distribution of yellow pages while still allowing for them to get into the hands of all who want them," the supervisor said.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said today he is disappointed that a tentative agreement reached by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and its transit operators' union was rejected Wednesday by the union's members.
Members of Transport Workers Union Local 250-A voted overwhelmingly against ratifying the agreement, which had been signed last week by SFMTA management and union representatives. The vote was 944 to 488.
"Obviously we feel disappointed because there has been a genuine effort to have our transit workers understand the needs of the agency," Lee said.
The agreement came after three months of bargaining between the SFMTA and the union and would have saved the agency a minimum of $21 million over the course of the three-year contract, SFMTA spokesman Charlie Goodyear said.
In accordance with Proposition G -- passed by the city's voters last November -- an arbitrator is now responsible for the contract and will have to decide between each side's final offers on outstanding issues.
The decision of the arbitrator, who began meeting with the two sides this afternoon, is final and binding.
The SFMTA said it expects a decision before the Tuesday deadline. Lee said he would not get involved in the proceedings unless necessary after the arbitration process, but said he hopes the union comes around in the negotiations.
"The ultimate thing I need to keep impressing on the drivers is ... our bosses are the residents of the city of San Francisco," he said. "We need to respect that and understand our jobs are there to serve the public."
The union leadership put out a statement Wednesday following the announcement that operators had voted down the agreement, blaming the SFMTA and its spokesman Goodyear for "a public -- and inaccurate -- release of alleged terms and conditions in the agreement."
TWU Local 250-A President Rafael Cabrera said in the statement, "The actions by management's spokesman created a sense of mistrust and confusion that was hard to overcome.
We specifically agreed that neither side would make public statements about the tentative agreement until we had a chance to present it to our members."
Goodyear said today, "It was certainly not our intention to prevent in any way the ability of union leadership to go out and talk to their members," and said the union had five or six days to do so before any statements were released to the press.
"We disagree with the premise that our statement is responsible for yesterday's vote," he said.
The union has voted to authorize a strike in case negotiations break down, and is also seeking to overturn Proposition G.
The proposition changed parts of the city charter that ensured that Muni drivers would have the second-highest operator salaries in the country, and it requires that contracts be negotiated through collective bargaining and binding arbitration, similarly to other city employees.
A constitutional challenge to San Francisco's so-called Yellow Pages law claims the ordinance "harms the neediest city residents most of all."
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco late Tuesday, alleges the law will hurt San Francisco's "poorest, oldest and least English-proficient" residents.
It was filed by the New Jersey-based Local Search Association, formerly known as the Yellow Pages Association, a trade group of publishers of print and electronic commercial search directories. The suit is slated for a case management hearing before U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte on Sept. 20.
The law, passed by the Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Ed Lee last month, will restrict the distribution of Yellow Pages phone books in the city.
Under a three-year pilot program scheduled to go into effect next year, distributors of printed commercial telephone directories will be prohibited from leaving the books on doorsteps unless residents agree in advance or in person to accept them.
The lawsuit charges that the measure will hurt vulnerable low-income and elderly people who may not have access to the Internet and who depend on the Yellow Pages when they urgently need services such as medical aid, emergency repairs, a lawyer or a funeral home.
The suit also claims the ordinance violates two federal and state constitutional rights of the publishers: the First Amendment right of free speech and the 14th Amendment right of equal treatment under the law.
It charges that Yellow Pages publishers are unfairly singled out for the ban while publishers of advertising circulars are not prohibited from distributing their materials.
The law, proposed by Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, is intended to cut down on blight and the costs of recycling unwanted phone books.
Chiu said, "I am confident San Francisco's new law will stand up to court scrutiny."
"We carefully crafted the legislation to address the significant environmental harm and blight caused by mass over-distribution of yellow pages while still allowing for them to get into the hands of all who want them," the supervisor said.
CONTACT: Chiu spokesman Judson True (415) 554-7451, Local Search Association spokeswoman Sophia Hitti (212) 453-2159
A tentative agreement between the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and its transit operators' union was voted down by union members, according to voting results released by the SFMTA Wednesday night.
Union members rejected the agreement, which had been signed by union representatives and SFMTA management, by a 944-488 vote. Union leadership had made a yes-vote recommendation.
The agreement comes after three months of bargaining between the SFMTA and Transport Workers Union Local 250-A, and would have saved the agency a minimum of $38 million in labor costs over the course of the three-year contract, according to the SFMTA.
"From the beginning, SFMTA focused on negotiating a contract that would permit management to run a safe, efficient and reliable transit operation," SFMTA Board of Directors Chair Tom Nolan said in a statement Wednesday night.
In accordance with Proposition G -- passed by city voters last November -- an arbitrator is now responsible for the contract and will have to decide between each side's final offers on outstanding issues.
The arbitrator's decision is final and binding, and the SFMTA said that it expects a decision before Tuesday, the latest date the proposed contract could be submitted in compliance with sunshine laws.
The new contract will take effect on July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year.
Among the provisions in the rejected proposal were a pay freeze for operators, the ability for the agency to hire about 200 part-time workers, and several changes to work rules, including overtime and discipline procedures, according to the SFMTA.
The union represents the roughly 2,200 operators of Muni's buses and light-rail vehicles.
Debra Johnson, SFMTA's lead negotiator and director of administration, said that the agency aims to achieve a contract that will make Muni more efficient in years to come. "Ultimately, we believe an arbitrator will preserve most of what we negotiated at the bargaining table," Johnson said.
PG&E has informed federal investigators that repairs were made in 1988 on the same gas transmission pipeline that exploded in San Bruno in September.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said Wednesday that PG&E recently admitted to repairing a leak on the pipeline about 9 miles south of San Bruno 23 years ago.
Hersman said that the information was provided to the NTSB in the last month and that she did not know why PG&E did not disclose it earlier.
"We certainly would have expected to receive that information sooner," Hersman said.
A spokesman for PG&E said Wednesday afternoon that utility employees have been poring over millions of historical records and documents to provide to NTSB investigators, and that information about the leak on Line 132 was handed over as soon as it was uncovered on May 20.
"We've acknowledged several times since the tragedy that our operations and recordkeeping practices aren't where they should be," PG&E spokesman Brian Swanson said. Swanson said the information about the leak was found in a document uncovered at a local office. "
We know it was a small leak," he said. "It was discovered in 1988 as part of our annual routine gas survey."
A 12-foot section of Line 132 was cut out and replaced to repair the leak, which only released trace amounts of gas, Swanson said.
Hersman spoke at a news conference Wednesday morning in the Crestmoor Canyon neighborhood where Line 132 ruptured, causing an explosion that killed eight people and destroyed dozens of homes.
She was joined by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo. Hersman met privately with survivors before touring the disaster site and called her first visit to the area "sobering."
The chairwoman, who was accompanied by NTSB member Mark Rosekind, said the agency has placed the San Bruno investigation on the fast track before all other pipeline incident investigations.
"The goal for our agency is to complete this report as soon as possible," Hersman said.
San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting announced Wednesday that his office generated an additional $50 million in property tax revenue above expectations, helping the city close a large budget deficit for the coming fiscal year.
Ting's office is expected to generate about $97 million in supplemental and escape property taxes by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, far above the $47 million that was initially forecasted.
The taxes are in addition to a regular tax bill and reflect the difference between the prior assessed value of a property and a new assessment, according to Ting's office.
The additional revenues were included as part of the proposed budget Mayor Ed Lee presented to the Board of Supervisors last week to close a $306 million budget deficit for the next fiscal year.
"San Franciscans and our City Hall leadership is dealing with an extremely difficult budget, so I am very pleased our office is helping locate every dollar of revenue the city can use to pay for essential services and programs," Ting said in a statement.
Ting, a candidate in San Francisco's mayoral race this November, made Wednesday's announcement at a news conference outside City Hall, where he was joined by education, labor and community leaders who he said will be helped by the additional revenue for the city.
By the end of July, Lee's proposed $6.83 billion budget has to be approved by the Board of Supervisors, which can also make changes to it.
Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong reacted enthusiastically Wednesday to Apple CEO Steve Jobs' announcement on Tuesday night of his plans to build a 3.1-million-square-foot campus in the city.
"This is a huge shot in the arm for us," Wong told reporters at a news conference Wednesday morning. "While other cities are struggling, we can grow."
Wearing his trademark black turtleneck and blue jeans, Jobs presented his proposal for a new Apple campus in a surprise appearance at Tuesday night's city council meeting.
"We've come up with a design that puts 12,000 people in one building," Jobs told the city council. "It's a pretty amazing building. It's a little like a spaceship landed."
The new facility would be built on nearly 150 acres of land Apple purchased from Hewlett Packard.
The space is currently mostly asphalt with some landscaping, which Jobs said he wanted to increase by doubling the trees on the property.
Jobs envisioned curved four-story building with a parking garage underneath and a courtyard in the middle.
Amenities would include an on-site energy center, auditorium, cafeteria, and fitness center.
Groundbreaking for the new campus would take place next year with a scheduled opening in 2015.
Apple is the largest employer in Cupertino.
Roughly 2,800 people work in the main campus while the remaining 12,000 work in rented buildings throughout the city.
Jobs originally announced the plan to build a new campus in April 2006. "Apple's grown like a weed," Jobs said. "We need the building we've got, but we need another one to augment it."
The Alameda Police Department Wednesday released 911 calls and a timeline of events surrounding the death of a man who intentionally drowned at Crown Beach on Memorial Day while rescuers watched from the shore for almost an hour, prompting outrage from the public.
"He's trying to drown himself," 53-year-old Raymond Zack's elderly mother told a 911 dispatcher in the calls released Wednesday. "Hurry up, he's way out there. He doesn't swim. Please hurry."
Zack had waded about 150 yards into the water near the 2100 block of Shoreline Drive.
He had tried to commit suicide before, his mother, Dolores Berry, told the dispatcher at 11:33 a.m.
Emergency responders arrived on scene just minutes later, but they watched from the beach as Zack eventually lost consciousness and was brought to shore by a good Samaritan, according to the police transcript.
Zack later died at a local hospital.
Fire department protocol prohibited rescuers from going into the water because their water-rescue certification had lapsed, the fire department's acting deputy chief of operations, Daren Olson, said the day after the drowning.
According to the transcript, police contacted the U.S. Coast Guard at 11:32 a.m., two minutes after the first call was made to 911, to request a rescue boat and helicopter for Zack.
The Coast Guard said its crews were about 40 minutes out, so the Alameda Police Department contacted the sheriff's office, Oakland Police Department, and Alameda County Fire Department in search of a closer boat.
None of the agencies could offer faster assistance, according to the transcript.
The day after the drowning, the fire department changed its policy so rescue swimmers could be sent into the water at the discretion of the incident commander on scene, acting city manager Lisa Goldman said at Tuesday's City Council meeting.
The department has 30 volunteers scheduled for rescue swimmer training, including 16 who will begin the certification process next week, she said.
The city will also conduct an independent review and is compiling documents relevant to the incident, Mayor Marie Gilmore said at the meeting.
The materials will include transcripts, timelines and department memos regarding water-rescue training.
Burglars who stole a safe from the principal's office at an East Oakland elementary school over the weekend messed with the wrong students, according to a group of parents preparing to fight back.
The safe at Grass Valley Elementary School, one of two schools targeted over the weekend, contained about $800 when it was pulled from its foundation on either Saturday night or Sunday, Oakland Unified School District spokesman Troy Flint said.
A cache of electronics was also taken from Redwoods Heights Elementary School, at 4401 39th Ave., which is missing computers, projection systems and other devices, Flint said.
No suspects have been arrested in either case, and it was not yet clear if the burglaries were related.
Some of the money taken from Grass Valley had been raised by parent volunteers, who are handing out flyers and holding a community meeting to prevent any future thefts at the school, Oakland Unified employee and Grass Valley parent Robin Moore said.
"We are appalled that someone came in to our school and stole from our children," said Moore, whose son is in the first grade. "The school doesn't have any money whatsoever, the district doesn't have any money. So we fundraise."
The parents have spent countless hours organizing concession stands, raffles, dinners, yard sales and other fundraisers, she said.
They cook for school events such as PTA meetings and Black History Month, and try to make sure the roughly 285 students at Grass Valley get to participate in field trips and other social events.
"We value each other, and teach our kids to value and respect themselves and others," Moore said. "We're pissed."
Flint said break-ins are a recurring problem for Oakland Unified, although not necessarily at Redwood Heights or Grass Valley.
The weekend theft was the first Moore knows of at Grass Valley, she said, but parents are acting now to "nip it in the bud."
The San Mateo County coroner's office has identified the body of a man who was found stabbed to death at a San Mateo storage facility Tuesday as that of 33-year-old Pacifica resident Justin Lockwood.
Lockwood's body was found at about 1:30 p.m. on the property of All American Self Storage at 2000 E. Third Ave., at Detroit Drive.
Police established a crime scene perimeter and spent Tuesday afternoon and night combing the storage facility for evidence, interviewing potential witnesses, and launching a search for information to reconstruct the events that led to the homicide.
As of Wednesday night, detectives had not yet identified a suspect in the homicide.
The body of a 25-year-old man was found Wednesday morning near the University of California at Santa Cruz campus, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The man was found by a passing bicyclist around 8 a.m. on Empire Grade Road south of Heller Drive, according to the CHP.
It appears the man was hit by a vehicle as he was riding his bicycle and that the vehicle's driver fled afterward, the CHP said.
The man is a resident of Santa Cruz, but his name is being withheld pending notification of his family.
The vehicle that struck him was either a maroon or metallic burgundy-colored Nissan or Infinity that has sustained some damage, according to the CHP.
The CHP is investigating the hit-and-run collision and asks any witnesses or anyone with information to call (831) 662-0511.
Two fires that broke out simultaneously at homes a block away from each other in the Berkeley hills early Wednesday morning may have been caused by arson but there is no definitive proof at this time, Berkeley Fire Chief Debra Pryor said.
Pryor said fire crews first responded to a report of a fire at a home at 548 Cragmont Ave. at 12:43 a.m.
A firefighter on his way to that house noticed a second blaze at 494 Cragmont Ave. and diverted to that house, she said.
At 548 Cragmont Ave., a vehicle that was parked in the driveway apparently ignited and the blaze then transferred to an outside building -- a combination of a garage and storage area -- but did not transfer to the house, Pryor said.
The fire was soon brought under control and no one was injured, she said.
Pryor said the cause of the blaze has not been determined and "arson hasn't been ruled out."
However, she said there is no firm evidence of arson, as no ignition sources have been found.
Pryor said the fire at 494 Cragmont Ave. was small and was confined to an area outside the house and that the firefighter who diverted to that blaze was able to put it out quickly with a fire extinguisher.
She said at this time fire officials "are considering that it was a coincidence" that the two fires occurred at the same time a block away from each other but they are concerned just the same.
The residents of the two homes were evacuated temporarily while the fires were being extinguished, but they were allowed to go back into their homes after a short time because there was no fire or smoke damage to the homes, Pryor said.
She said damage estimates for either fire were not yet available.
A man who was struck and killed on southbound U.S. Highway 101 in Palo Alto early Wednesday morning has been identified by the Santa Clara County medical examiner's office as 63-year-old Sidney Brown.
Brown, a resident of South San Francisco, was either standing or attempting to cross the freeway near Oregon Expressway when at about 2:50 a.m. a Honda Civic struck him in the No. 2 lane, according to California Highway Patrol Sgt. Paul McCarthy. McCarthy said the impact caused Brown to fly over the hood of the car, through the windshield and land in the passenger seat of the Civic.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the Civic, a 71-year-old San Jose man, suffered minor lacerations on his hand. He was not cited or arrested. Alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the collision, McCarthy said.
Several parking spots along San Francisco's Golden Gate Park will be inaccessible for the next few weeks because of a water leak that caused a sinkhole about 10 feet in diameter on the north side of Lincoln Way, a public utilities spokeswoman said.
The leak, which occurred near Funston Avenue and Lincoln Way, probably started on Tuesday, but the city's dispatch center was not informed of it until about noon Wednesday, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spokeswoman Suzanne Gautier said.
The leak damaged the parking lane on Lincoln Way near the intersection as well as the curb and a nearby light pole, she said.
Crews will probably need a few weeks to repair the damage, and the parking lane on the westbound side of Lincoln Way will be blocked off during that time, Gautier said. One lane of eastbound traffic was also blocked off for a couple of hours Wednesday while crews investigated the leak.
A man suspected of robbing the Subway sandwich shop in San Rafael last month was arrested in Pittsburg Wednesday, police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher said.
The robbery suspect ordered two sandwiches at the eatery in the Marin Square Shopping Center on Bellam Boulevard around 4:45 p.m. on May 27, Rohrbacher said.
When the cashier rang up the sale, the robber pulled out a black semi-automatic handgun and demanded cash, Rohrbacher said.
The robber fled with two sandwiches, two soft drinks and cash.
The robbery was filmed on the store's surveillance camera and widely viewed on TV and the web, leading to valuable investigative leads, Rohrbacher said.
Police identified 43-year-old Arthur Luis Martinez as the suspect, Rohrbacher said.
The robbery victim identified him from a photo and an arrest warrant was issued, Rohrbacher said.
Detectives learned he was possibly in the East Bay and he was spotted eating lunch around 1 p.m. outside Carnitas Tijuana on Railroad Avenue in Pittsburg, Rohrbacher said.
San Rafael and Pittsburg police took Martinez into custody without incident and he was booked into Marin County Jail for armed robbery, Rohrbacher said.
Police and other law enforcement agencies are investigating whether Martinez was involved in other unsolved Bay Area robberies, Rohrbacher said.
Major league baseball legend Tommy Lasorda will be joining several San Francisco Giants players for a grilling competition today as part of a campaign to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer research.
Giants team members past and present, including Aaron Rowand, Jeremy Affeldt, J.T. Snow and Shawon Dunston, will be competing to see who can grill the tastiest meal this afternoon as part of the Safeway Homerun Grill Off.
Lasorda will help to judge the competition, which organizers hope will raise awareness for a cancer that affects 1 in 6 men.
Representatives from Safeway, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and the University of California at San Francisco will also attend the event to promote awareness as well as emphasize the importance of early detection.
Today's event will be held at the Safeway at 2300 16th St. at noon.
The Bay Area is expected to be cloudy this morning with patchy fog, becoming partly cloudy with highs in the lower 60s to mid 70s.
It is expected to be partly cloudy this evening, becoming cloudy with patchy fog after midnight. Lows are expected to be in the upper 40s to mid 50s.
Friday is expected to be cloudy with patchy fog in the morning, becoming sunny, with highs in the lower 60s to mid 70s.
A community that came together to solve the problem of persistent graffiti at a neighborhood park celebrated the unveiling of a mural painted in the hope of staving off vandalism.
Potrero del Sol Park, which is a favorite among skaters and schoolchildren, is bordered by Buena Vista Elementary School and a building maintained by San Francisco General Hospital.
Taggers constantly targeted a wall of the hospital building, according to the city's Recreation and Park Department.
After hospital painters' efforts to efface the wall were thwarted time and time again, the community rallied.
The school's PTA found the artist Victor Reyes to compose a mural, and the students competed in a naming contest.
The parks department waived the permit fee, the hospital donated paint and scaffolding and navigated the plan through the San Francisco Arts Commission.
The "Familia" mural, whose bright blocks of colors pop against the otherwise neutral surroundings, was unveiled at 10 a.m.
Wednesday at the park located at 25th and Utah streets.
According to the parks department, the mural is the story of "a shared problem and a creative solution."
San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting announced today that his office generated an additional $50 million in property tax revenue above expectations, helping the city close a large budget deficit for the coming fiscal year.
Ting's office is expected to generate about $97 million in supplemental and escape property taxes by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, far above the $47 million that was initially forecasted.
The taxes are in addition to a regular tax bill and reflect the difference between the prior assessed value of a property and a new assessment, according to Ting's office.
The additional revenues were included as part of the proposed budget Mayor Ed Lee presented to the Board of Supervisors last week to close a $306 million budget deficit for the next fiscal year.
"San Franciscans and our City Hall leadership is dealing with an extremely difficult budget, so I am very pleased our office is helping locate every dollar of revenue the city can use to pay for essential services and programs," Ting said in a statement.
Ting, a candidate in San Francisco's mayoral race this November, made today's announcement at a news conference outside City Hall, where he was joined by education, labor and community leaders who he said will be helped by the additional revenue for the city.
By the end of July, Lee's proposed $6.83 billion budget has to be approved by the Board of Supervisors, which can also make changes to it.
A tentative agreement between the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and its transit operators' union was voted down by union members, according to voting results released by the SFMTA tonight.
Union members rejected the agreement, which had been signed by union representatives and SFMTA management, by a vote of 1,057 to 488.
Union leadership had made a yes-vote recommendation.
The agreement comes after three months of bargaining between the SFMTA and Transport Workers Union Local 250-A, and would have saved the agency a minimum of $38 million in labor costs over the course of the three-year contract, according to the SFMTA.
"From the beginning, SFMTA focused on negotiating a contract that would permit management to run a safe, efficient and reliable transit operation," SFMTA Board of Directors Chair Tom Nolan said in a statement tonight.
In accordance with Proposition G -- passed by city voters last November -- an arbitrator is now responsible for the contract and will have to decide between each side's final offers on outstanding issues.
The arbitrator's decision is final and binding, and the SFMTA said that it expects a decision before Tuesday, the latest date the proposed contract could be submitted in compliance with sunshine laws.
The new contract will take effect on July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year.
Among the provisions in the rejected proposal were a pay freeze for operators, the ability for the agency to hire about 200 part-time workers, and several changes to work rules, including overtime and discipline procedures, according to the SFMTA.
The union represents the roughly 2,200 operators of Muni's buses and light-rail vehicles.
Debra Johnson, SFMTA's lead negotiator and director of administration, said that the agency aims to achieve a contract that will make Muni more efficient in years to come. "Ultimately, we believe an arbitrator will preserve most of what we negotiated at the bargaining table," Johnson said.
Several parking spots along San Francisco's Golden Gate Park will be inaccessible for the next few weeks because of a water leak that caused a sinkhole about 10 feet in diameter on the north side of Lincoln Way, a public utilities spokeswoman said.
The leak, which occurred near Funston Avenue and Lincoln Way, probably started on Tuesday, but the city's dispatch center was not informed of it until about noon today,
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spokeswoman Suzanne Gautier said.
The leak damaged the parking lane on Lincoln Way near the intersection as well as the curb and a nearby light pole, she said.
Crews will probably need a few weeks to repair the damage, and the parking lane on the westbound side of Lincoln Way will be blocked off during that time, Gautier said.
One lane of eastbound traffic was also blocked off for a couple of hours today while crews investigated the leak.
A man fatally shot by San Francisco police after he allegedly tried to run them over near Buena Vista Park on Tuesday evening is believed to be the "Gen X Bandit" suspected of two bank robberies in Southern California last month, an FBI spokeswoman said today.
Joshua Smith, 25, was identified by the San Francisco medical examiner's office today as the man who was shot and killed by police at about 5:40 p.m. Tuesday in the first block of Buena Vista Avenue East, between Haight Street and Duboce Avenue.
Officers had gone to the area after being notified by the FBI that a stolen vehicle that was allegedly involved in two bank robberies in Irvine was tracked via GPS to San Francisco.
When the officers tried to pull over the vehicle and arrest the man, he allegedly attempted to run them over with the car.
The officers, fearing for their safety, opened fire on the man, striking him, police said.
The man, later identified as Smith, was taken to San Francisco General Hospital and died sometime before 7:45 p.m., police said.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller confirmed today that Smith is believed to be the "Gen X Bandit," who got the name after wearing a beanie and a flannel shirt while allegedly robbing the two banks in Irvine on May 17.
The robberies occurred about 30 minutes apart at a Chase bank and a Comerica bank.
No weapon was seen and no injuries were reported in either robbery, Irvine police Lt. Julia Engen said.
Shortly after the robberies, Orange County sheriff's deputies spotted a car at a gas station that matched the description of the one used in the robberies -- a gray two-door BMW 3 Series with dealer plates, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.
When the deputies tried to detain the driver, he took off at speeds as high as 110 mph, and the pursuit was dropped for safety reasons, Amormino said.
San Francisco police Sgt. Mike Andraychak said today that the vehicle involved in Tuesday night's confrontation with police matched that description.
The officers who were involved in the shooting have been put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into the shooting, which is standard department procedure.
A bicyclist was injured when he ran a red light and was hit by a car at Sixth and Mission streets in San Francisco this afternoon, a police spokesman said.
The cyclist, a San Francisco resident who is about 45 years old, was riding south on Sixth Street when the collision occurred at about 1:50 p.m., police Sgt. Michael Andraychak said.
"He was described as traveling at a high rate of speed, swerving in and out of lanes," Andraychak said.
As he crossed Mission Street, allegedly running the red light, he was hit by an eastbound four-door gray Lexus driven by another San Francisco man in his 40s, Andraychak said.
The cyclist was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. He was not cited.
Although the driver does not appear to have been at fault for the collision, he was cited because he was driving on a suspended license, had false registration and did not have proof of insurance, Andraychak said.
A suspected Southern California bank robber who was fatally shot by San Francisco police after he allegedly tried to run them over near the city's Buena Vista Park on Tuesday evening has been identified by the medical examiner's office as 25-year-old Joshua Smith.
Police were notified by the FBI that a stolen vehicle that was involved in an Irvine bank robbery and was being tracked through a GPS device was in San Francisco.
Officers went to the first block of Buena Vista Avenue East, located between Haight Street and Duboce Avenue, at about 5:40 p.m. to try to apprehend the suspect, police spokesman Lt. Troy Dangerfield said.
When the officers tried to pull over the vehicle and arrest the man, he allegedly attempted to run them over with the car.
The officers, fearing for their safety, opened fire on the man, striking him, police said.
The man, later identified as Smith, was taken to San Francisco General Hospital and died sometime before 7:45 p.m., police said.
Investigators believe Smith may be the "Gen X Bandit," suspected by the FBI of robbing two banks in Irvine on May 17.
Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, said that after the bank robberies, sheriff's deputies had spotted a car at a gas station matching the description of the one used in the bank robberies -- a gray two-door BMW 3 Series with dealer plates.
When the deputies tried to detain the driver, he took off at speeds as high as 110 mph, and the pursuit was dropped for safety reasons, Amormino said.
San Francisco police Sgt. Mike Andraychak said that the car involved in Tuesday night's confrontation near Buena Vista Park matched that description.
An FBI spokesperson was not immediately available this morning to confirm whether Smith was indeed the "Gen X Bandit."
CONTACT: San Francisco police (415) 553-1651 San Francisco medical examiner's office (415) 553-1694 FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller (310) 996-3343 Jim Amormino, Orange County Sheriff's Department (714) 904-7042
A man in his 20s was arrested in connection with a carjacking in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood early this morning, police said.
The carjacking was reported at about 2:30 a.m. near the intersection of First and Howard streets.
The suspect entered the victim's car, an Acura TL, and told the 26-year-old driver and his male passenger that he had a gun, according to police.
The victims drove the suspect around until he took out the gun and demanded money.
The victims then exited the car and flagged down officers as the suspect fled in the vehicle, police said.
The suspect was later arrested.
Police have not released his name. The victims were uninjured during the carjacking.
CONTACT: San Francisco police (415) 553-1651
@MLNow: Good Morning Mission! Wed. June 8. Sell things, Boogaloos in the summer, and squished on BART. … More @MLNow: Did you ever wonder what happened to Day old Pastries at Tartine BAkery? ht… More @MLNow: SFPD Recap: Robbed on 16th and Mission http://ow.ly/5dlEY … More @MLNow: Cries of San Francisco http://ow.ly/5du2M … More @MLNow:...
Como Batman, el propietario de la librería adobe deambula de noche por las calles. A diferencia de Batman, él reparte quiche.
Today, a new mural was unveiled at Potrero del Sol Park. Sort of. “I thought Reyes’ work was so well done I had no idea it still wasn’t finished yet,” said Connie Chan, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department’s deputy director of public affairs. “I know the mural isn’t 100 percent finished,” said Cathy Manshel,...
Paid for by Phil Ting for Assembly 2012. FPPC ID# 1343137
Connect
