Morning Splash: Storm, Bey Trial, Market St Whole Foods, DMV Harasser Resigns, NOW v. Hooters

The FBI will be watching as local investigations into a recent fatal police shooting develop, but federal officials would neither confirm nor deny whether the bureau would conduct its own investigation into the killing of an unarmed man. Oakland police Chief Anthony Batts announced Tuesday that he'd asked the FBI to look into the Nov. 8 shooting of East Oakland barber Derrick Jones, 37.

Throughout the Bay Area, local counties are urging residents to be prepared for a prolonged series of storms. Several sandbag pickup stations have been setup around the Bay Area to protect homes from potential flooding. Officials are also worried about those who don't have a home this weekend.

A judge agreed Thursday that a prosecutor can use evidence of financial fraud from other cases as well as "other bad acts" against Yusuf Bey IV in his upcoming triple murder trial. That evidence will show Bey IV motivated followers of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery with promises he would "hook them up" with bogus identities and credit scores, the prosecutor said. Bey IV, who headed the bakery, told associates Devaughndre Broussard and Antonie Mackey they would reap monetary rewards if in August 2007 they killed journalist Chauncey Bailey, who was writing about the bakery's bankruptcy case, Deputy District Attorney Melissa Krum said.

The San Francisco Department of Motor Vehicles worker who was being investigated for mailing a letter to a transgender customer claiming she will go to hell has resigned from his job. Thomas Demartini handed over a typed resignation letter late Wednesday night. However, DMV officials would not say whether the letter referenced the October incident.

A Whole Foods is coming to Market Street in a development that will include residential units in the eight-story building. A triangular lot that is bounded by Market, 14th and Dolores streets will be transformed from a vacant S&C Ford dealership building and two residential units to 82 new studios, one- to three-bedroom apartments and the 31,000-square-foot grocery store...A unanimous decision by the Planning Commission to move forward with construction came after three years of renderings and more than 60 outreach meetings to help appease some of The City’s most engaged neighbors.

Marin officials fired another salvo in an escalating $105 million legal war with international computer consultants, filing a new lawsuit Thursday accusing them and a former county official of violating racketeering law in a bid to rip off taxpayers. The new suit was filed against Deloitte Consultant LLP, software developer SAP and former assistant auditor-controller Ernest Culver, who served as project director of the county's troubled computer installation before quitting to join SAP.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, a fixture in Congress for the past 18 years, said Thursday she is considering retirement after completing her 10th term in 2012.

An East Palo Alto council member who has been censured twice by colleagues says he has never been appointed mayor in his six years on the council because the city's mayoral selection policy is "racist and evil."

A San Francisco man imprisoned 21 years ago for a drug-related murder he said he did not commit won a chance at freedom Thursday when a judge ordered his conviction set aside.

A new report from the controller's office shows the city has an unfunded health care liability of $4.36 billion. That means it'll cost that much to pay the promised health care benefits for every current employee and retiree - and that number will keep growing as health care costs rise. By 2033, the tab will be a whopping $9.7 billion.

The National Organization for Women filed complaints against local Hooters restaurants Thursday, but not for exploiting its scantily clad waitresses by subjecting them to leering and groping customers. The subject this time was Hooters' catering to children.
The restaurants in San Francisco, San Bruno, Sacramento and Orange County are classified as "adult entertainment" establishments but also serve minors, NOW's California chapter said in papers filed with police and prosecutors.

The California Air Resources Board has approved the creation of the nation's first broad-based program to put a cap on greenhouse gas emissions and to begin charging large emitters for the excess carbon dioxide they put in the air.

State regulators ordered Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Thursday to cut pressure on large, urban natural gas transmission pipelines with the type of weld being looked at closely in the investigation into the disastrous San Bruno explosion...PG&E said it had identified at least two transmission lines where it will need to cut pressure to comply - one running from Oakland to Fremont, the other from Fremont to Milpitas. The utility said it will "begin taking steps to reduce pressure immediately" on those lines and said it had already cut pressure on the Oakland-to-Fremont pipe by 10 percent last week.

In a federal insider-trading investigation with widening ties to Silicon Valley, prosecutors on Thursday unveiled criminal charges against five people linked to a local expert-networking firm suspected of passing secrets about Apple's iPhone, Advanced Micro Devices, Seagate Technology and other companies. Four of the men were accused of earning tens of thousands of dollars funneling tips to hedge fund investors and others through Mountain View-based Primary Global Research.

California regulators awarded the state's utilities $68.2 million Thursday for curbing their customers' energy use, despite criticism that the companies didn't save as much as they claimed and hadn't earned the money.

Enraging the liberal wing of his party, President Obama won the biggest bipartisan victory of his presidency Thursday as the House passed his $858 billion, two-year compromise with Republicans that temporarily extends all the Bush-era tax cuts and unemployment insurance.