Morning Splash: It's Cold!; Jean Quan's Car Booted For $1000 in Unpaid Parking Tickets

The Bay Area experienced a hard freeze Tuesday night with temperatures dipping into the 20s and 30s…

Because of the cold, Santa Clara County is asking all homeless shelters to do whatever it takes to serve the county’s 7,000 homeless. The last time this alert went out was Dec. 2009. Full article

Oakland Mayor-elect Jean Quan got her car booted outside City Hall on Tuesday for failing to pay more than $1,000 in parking tickets.

Quan, who remains the District Four councilwoman until her January swearing-in ceremony, had parked the 2009 Toyota Prius in her official City Hall spot. Around 9:30 a.m., a police technician ran a check on the car and discovered it had more than 10 outstanding tickets, according to police. The tech ordered the car, which is registered to Quan’s husband, Floyd Huen, immobilized with the boot. Full article

Oakland will soon be following in San Francisco’s footsteps by offering a new municipal identification card to homeless people, immigrants and other residents who might have trouble obtaining a state identification card.

But Oakland’s ID card will double as an ATM debit card, the first of its kind in the country. The ATM debit card can be used to buy groceries or goods and services wherever ATM cards are welcome, allowing people without bank accounts to avoid high check-cashing fees or walking around with large amounts of cash. Full article

Four new gas pipeline safety inspectors will be hired “without delay” by the California Public Utilities Commission, according to a letter released Tuesday from the commission’s executive director…

The state currently has nine inspectors to keep tabs on 110,000 miles of gas pipelines, mobile home park systems and propane distributors. Records show that from 2003 through 2009, California failed each year to meet the federal government’s minimum inspection levels. Full article

As expected, the Board of Supervisors bucked Mayor Gavin Newsom Tuesday, and overrode his veto of legislation to bar fast-food restaurants from giving away toys in kids’ meals sold in San Francisco unless they have reduced calories, salt, fat and sugar and also include fruit and vegetables.

The restrictions, vigorously opposed by McDonald’s, the California Restaurant Association and other representatives of the fast-food industry, are set to take effect in December 2011. Full article

Santa Clara County supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved the final piece in a package of tobacco laws aimed at snuffing out teenage smoking.

The board approved an ordinance requiring tobacco retailers in unincorporated areas of the county to pay $425 for a year for a permit. They also must abide by restrictions on advertising tobacco products and not allow underaged employees to sell them. Full article

The largest agricultural water district in the country has yanked its support for a plan to manage the future of California’s deteriorating Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, casting doubt on the fate of a process many hoped would solve the water supply and environmental crises in the estuary. Full article

Julie Hanchak would rather not have an airport security screener run probing hands all over her. Or have one staring intently at a nearly naked representation of her on a scanner screen.

But she’ll do it if she has to, she said Tuesday at San Francisco International Airport, for the same reason millions of other people are willing to be peered at, probed and poked more than ever while flying this Thanksgiving holiday. Full article

The Bay Guardian won its antitrust case against the SF Weekly on Tuesday when the state Supreme Court refused to review lower-court rulings ordering the Weekly to pay $21 million in damages for trying to drive its rival out of business by selling ads below cost.

The court turned aside an appeal by the Weekly and its parent, Village Voice Media Holdings, which argued that the newspaper’s low-priced advertising was legitimate competition that benefited local businesses. Only Justice Joyce Kennard voted to grant a hearing, three short of the majority needed on the seven-member court. Full article

California voters may get a chance to weigh in on a proposal similar to Arizona’s controversial immigration law, after the secretary of state gave the go-ahead to a Belmont man to collect signatures for a proposed ballot initiative.

The proposal would require state law enforcement officials to investigate a person’s immigration status if they are “reasonably suspicious” the person is in the country illegally, and would make it a state crime for undocumented immigrants to “seek work while concealing their immigration status.” It would also make it a crime, under state law, for employers to hire an illegal immigrant either intentionally or unknowingly. Full article

A federal jury in Oakland handed software giant Oracle Corp. one of the largest awards ever for a copyright-infringement case on Tuesday, determining that rival SAP AG should pay $1.3 billion for a defunct division’s unauthorized use of the Redwood City company’s products.

The eye-popping figure should strongly dissuade blatant misappropriation of technology in the software industry and beyond, but could also force innocent companies to consider more carefully whether their products are too similar to those of rivals, some legal observers said. Full article

Politicians and political strategists looking ahead to the next election cycle are taking notice of an increasingly potent political force on the state and national scene – one that’s overwhelmingly female and dressed in scrubs.

The Oakland-based California Nurses Association has made its mark by delivering some powerful political punches with a combination of entertaining theater and savvy strategizing. Full article

–YouTube: California Nurses Union’s Queen Meg

Apple says people snapped up more than 450,000 copies of Beatles albums plus two million individual songs during the Fab Four’s first week on sale through iTunes. Full article

Facebook’s soaring valuation is spurring shareholders to slice and dice their stock, giving investors everywhere from Silicon Valley to Wall Street a chance to bet on the company.

EB Exchange Funds, based in San Francisco, as well as New York firms Felix Investments and GreenCrest Capital, have opened Facebook funds for investors looking to get a piece of the social-networking company and its half-billion users. Full article