Morning Splash: Potrero Power Plant Closing, OPD Kills Suspect, GGNRA Dog-Leash Law Debated

San Francisco's last fossil fuel power plant will start the new year by shutting down. The Potrero Hill plant, one of the dirtiest in California, will cease operations on Jan. 1, state officials are expected to announce today. The plant, operated by Houston-based GenOn Energy Inc., formerly Mirant Corp., could be fired up in the event of a dramatic power emergency before being decommissioned permanently on Feb. 28, officials said.

Police shot and killed a man who showed a gun after fleeing in a car that crashed while it was being chased by police Monday afternoon, officials said. No officers were hurt. Police said they recovered a handgun from where the man fell after he was shot and an assault rifle from inside the red Lincoln. It was not immediately clear whether the man had pointed the gun or fired at officers.

...Facing a self-imposed Dec. 31 deadline to inform competitors about the location of the next regatta, race organizers say they are pursuing efforts to return the Cup to Newport, R.I., home to sailing's most prestigious event for decades.

"We are very serious in our intent to move forward with Rhode Island," Stephen Barclay, an official for BMW Oracle Racing and the Golden Gate Yacht Club, said in a letter to Rhode Island's economic development chief that was released Monday. "There is much to do to meet the timeframes we have set."

Still stinging from its last battle with San Francisco over proposed road tolls, San Mateo County supervisors today will consider urging that city's mayor to veto a law that would restrict job opportunities for Peninsula construction workers. A draft resolution authored by supervisors Carole Groom and Adrienne Tissier asks Gavin Newsom to send a "strong veto message reflecting concerns about the serious impacts to the region's workforce as well as the environment." The so-called "local hire" ordinance that San Francisco supervisors approved last week on an 8-3 vote will eventually mandate that San Franciscans make up at least half the work force of all city-funded construction projects in the city and within 70 miles of it.

A rancorous dispute over plans by the National Park Service to put the choke chain on Rover is heating up again as officials consider a new pet policy for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The park service plans to release an environmental impact statement in mid-January analyzing six alternatives for dog walking in 21 areas of the 75,000-acre park, which encompasses parts of San Mateo, San Francisco and Marin counties.

California's high-speed rail system will use a new allotment of federal money to reach into Bakersfield, the High-Speed Rail Authority Board decided Monday. The board voted unanimously to use the $616 million in federal funds, plus an equal amount in state bond money, to extend the initial stretch of tracks as far south as possible, perhaps inside Bakersfield's city limits.

Contra Costa County judge will decide Tuesday which of the seven defendants in the Richmond High gang rape case will go to trial and on what charges. In anticipation of attorneys making their final arguments today, Judge Gregory Caskey said Monday that he has two concerns: whether there is sufficient evidence to bring 16-year-old Cody Ray Smith, of San Pablo, to trial, and the state of evidence of Elvis Torrentes, 23, of Richmond.

After nine years of legal sparring and a trial that spanned most of this year, the U.S. Justice Department has failed in its long and costly bid to get a rare federal death sentence against a reputed gang leader whose violence stretched across the Bay Area, California and Nevada.

In a verdict reached last week, a federal jury in San Jose refused to recommend the death penalty for 35-year-old Anh The Duong, who was implicated in eight murders and found guilty in September of 29 racketeering charges related to a crime spree that unfolded more than a decade ago.

Wells Fargo Bank has agreed to make $2 billion in loan modifications for California homeowners with risky pay-option, adjustable-rate mortgages that Wells purchased from other banks, and to pay $32 million to 15,000 borrowers who had similar loans and lost their homes to foreclosure, according to an agreement with the California attorney general's office

Federal regulators are investigating Mark Hurd's departure from Hewlett-Packard Co., in a broad inquiry that includes an examination of a claim the former chief executive shared inside information, people familiar with the matter said. As part of the probe, the Securities and Exchange Commission is checking whether Mr. Hurd passed information about H-P's $13.9 billion acquisition of technology-consulting company Electronic Data Systems Corp. to a former H-P event hostess in 2008, before the deal was announced, the people said.

The Chevrolet Volt has arrived in the Bay Area, the latest milestone in the birth, death and rebirth of plug-in cars. A Berkeley man on Monday drove home the area's first Volt, bought at a Chevrolet dealership in Concord. Several other local residents who placed orders for the long-awaited car will receive theirs this week. The Volt from General Motors arrives just behind its closest competitor, the Nissan Leaf, which began delivery earlier this month.