Morning Splash: Bay Area Loses, Asians, Latinos Gain in Census; More SFPD Cases Dropped

U.S. Census figures released Tuesday gave Asian Americans and Latinos plenty of reason to bask in their growing population clout in California - but for the Bay Area, the numbers foreshadowed what will surely be a lessening of political power. The first detailed release of statewide numbers from the 2010 census showed that the Asian American population grew 31.5 percent from 2000, faster than any other ethnic group. The Latino population grew by 27.8 percent, the second-fastest.

Eight more cases were dropped Tuesday in the widening scandal surrounding plainclothes police officers, as San Francisco's public defender sought years of arrest reports involving members of the implicated unit. Seven officers and a sergeant are being investigated in the scandal, involving what Public Defender Jeff Adachi calls "police, lies and videotape."

The two city police officers who killed an East Oakland barber after a foot chase last year were justified in believing the man had a gun and that their lives were in danger, a report by the Alameda County District Attorney's Office concluded. Police Officers Eriberto Perez-Angeles and Omar Daza-Quiroz followed their training and reacted reasonably when they shot an unarmed Derrick Jones, 37, nine times after he ignored their orders to show his hands as he was standing against a fence near the corner of Seminary Avenue and Trask Street, the report states. As a result, neither officer will be charged with a crime.

California regulators are threatening to levy fines against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and impose other sanctions if the utility misses next week's deadline to produce records proving its gas-transmission lines are safe, officials said Tuesday. The company said last month that it was missing information on certain critical tests for 30 percent of its pipeline in urban areas of Northern and Central California. It has recruited employees to look through hundreds of thousands of documents in warehouses on the Cow Palace grounds in Daly City.

The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office said Tuesday that it is looking at seismic upgrade work performed by PG&E in the 1990s as part of an investigation into the company's pipeline operations. The investigation could lead to criminal or civil charges of negligence in the Sept. 9 San Bruno gas explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes, according to District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe. The company upgraded pipelines in San Bruno in a 1993-94 project that stopped a few blocks short of replacing the section of pipeline that exploded last fall. Wagstaffe on Tuesday called PG&E's decision not to replace that section of pipe "another significant fact in thinking, did they engage in some act that was negligent?"

In a resounding defeat, voters in North San Jose rejected a measure that would have taxed homes to pay for new schools. Measure A needed a two-thirds majority to pass but won only 41 percent of the vote, according to preliminary returns posted shortly after the voting ended at 8 p.m. As expected, the turnout was low; only 1,008 voters, or barely 33 percent of those registered, cast ballots in the mail-only election. Ballots were due at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters by 8 p.m.

Unofficial results for the Measure A parcel tax election are showing the proposal passing, with 68.43 percent in favor and 31.57 percent against. The parcel tax requires approval from two-thirds of voters.

The San Jose City Council on Tuesday unanimously rejected a labor union's eleventh-hour challenge to the planned relocation of the storied Garden City Casino to a site near the airport. There was no opposition in May, when the council unanimously approved zoning changes to allow Garden City to move to a six-acre site on Airport Parkway, across the freeway and North First Street from San Jose's other card room, Bay 101...After the planning director approved the development permit for the cardroom's relocation in December, Unite Here Local 19, which represents hotel workers as well as employees of rival Bay 101, appealed. The union argued that the project requires more thorough analysis of traffic and other environmental impacts...But some city officials suggested that the real reason behind the appeal wasn't environmental concerns -- but whether employees at any future hotel on the site would be union.

Muni operators have sued the city to block implementation of key portions of Proposition G, the ballot measure approved by San Francisco voters last fall aimed at giving Municipal Transportation Agency managers more leverage during contract negotiations...The unions are taking aim at a portion of Prop. G that says should the operators and management reach impasse at the bargaining table, resolution of the dispute will fall to an independent arbitrator who must take into account a proposed contract's impact on fares and service.

The number of defendants accused of playing a role in the alleged gang rape of a girl at a De Anza College baseball players' house party continued to dwindle Tuesday, with a third defendant dropped this week from the controversial civil trial. With the dismissal of the negligence lawsuit against Stefano Rebagliati, six of the original nine men remained on trial -- though perhaps not for long. There were indications Tuesday that more defendants will be released Wednesday from any culpability or monetary damages stemming from the woman's claim that she was sexually assaulted on March 3, 2007, when she was 17 years old and nearly comatose from drinking three beers and 10 to 11 vodka shots served by one of the former baseball players.

Completing the new east span of the Bay Bridge early will cost about $106 million - an expense that's expected to be approved by a bridge oversight group this morning. The Bay Area Toll Authority's oversight committee will consider approving a pair of cost increases - one on the Oakland touchdown of the bridge, the other on the connection to the Yerba Buena Island tunnels - that will allow both directions of the $6.3 billion span to open to traffic at the same time in 2013.

Nearly every year for close to two decades, Kate Raphael has marched in one and only one political parade, held the last Saturday in June, with thousands of fellow lesbians. But unless organizers of the 19th annual San Francisco Dyke March pull together nearly $30,000, the 51-year-old Oakland resident may be left without a parade.

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday denounced California's current high-speed rail plans, further clouding the political future of an ambitious project running through his own Central Valley hometown. The fourth-generation Bakersfield native said California and the federal government would both be wise to avoid spending billions of dollars on a train he predicted would become a money sink.

(A) 16-point list of recommendations made by the Vallejo Prostitution Task Force...ranges from targeting customers to advertising the identity of convicted offenders. The report was completed immediately prior to Tuesday's council meeting. Councilors agreed to bring it back for a detailed review later this month.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 6-5 to oppose the city’s eviction of a Haight-Ashbury neighborhood recycling center, but city staffers said they were unswayed by the symbolic gesture. The vote coincided with the filing of legal documents by the Recreation and Park Department in an effort to remove the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council Recycling Center (HANC) from the land that it occupies in Golden Gate Park.