Morning Splash: Guv Outlines Pension Reform; SF Police Chief Pushes Back; So Long SF Fast Pass

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday rolled out a sweeping and sometimes vague list of public employee retirement changes that he wants lawmakers to enact. The 12-point list – five of which were described as "proposals under development" – immediately drew a mix of criticism, confusion and faint praise. A pension reform group thought the list was unambitious. A union executive wondered why Brown didn't make his proposals at the bargaining table.
Republicans in the Legislature liked that the Democratic governor is taking up one of their core issues, although they want more details and are demanding that any changes be put to a statewide vote.

San Francisco's interim police chief on Thursday rejected charges by the public defender that videotape of a Richmond District drug bust showed that undercover officers had lied about their search.. .At a news conference Thursday, interim Police Chief Jeff Godown accused Adachi of making "the sky is falling" attacks on police. "I'm not going to allow people to badmouth this department unless the allegations are true," Godown said. "There isn't anything I've seen based on the videotape or the police report that leads me to believe that we have any issues."

The city's struggle to make up a $46 million budget deficit is just the tip of a desperately serious financial situation detailed in a budget memo Mayor Jean Quan released this week. The deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is in the city's general fund, used to pay for about 42 percent of Oakland's total $1 billion budget, with the rest being untouchable money for specific purposes. General fund revenue pays for basic programs and services including police, fire protection, libraries, senior and recreation centers, as well as funding the operations of elected offices and municipal business functions.
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The world, as Muni riders know it, changes forever today with the death of an old friend and loyal travel companion: the paper Fast Pass. After almost 37 years of accompanying tens of thousands of Muni riders on their daily adventures aboard the city's buses, streetcars and cable cars, the colorful Fast Pass is disappearing. Officially, the paper Fast Pass expired at the end of service on Thursday, but Muni's grace period will allow it to cling to life through Sunday.

Runners and their friends pumped more than $3 million into city stores, restaurants, transit agencies and entertainment venues during the Oakland Running Festival last weekend,¿ according to a report from the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University in Maryland. The $3 million figure is based on money spent by the 7,300 runners and the friends and family they brought with them to the races, according to the report, commissioned and paid for by race organizers Corrigan Sports Enterprises.

A gay sailor at Lemoore Naval Air Station says a Navy panel apparently agreed with his lawyer's argument that "don't ask, don't tell" is dead. Petty Officer 2nd Class Derek Morado, 26, formerly of Sacramento, said he was "ecstatic" after the administrative panel's unanimous vote Thursday not to recommend his discharge from the Navy.

San Francisco is expecting 200,000 visitors a day for the 34th America’s Cup, which could present a logistical nightmare when it comes to transporting all those yacht racing fans. Add in a Giants game at AT&T Park and those numbers could swell even more. A preliminary “people plan” released by city officials Thursday includes several proposals of how to manage the wave of people expected to watch the regatta.

Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies would replace city police officers at Mineta San Jose International Airport, and a private security company would protect it from fires under a controversial plan to trim airport costs. Aviation Director Bill Sherry said this week that a committee of city and airline officials has picked the sheriff's office over eight other contenders to replace police at the airport. The panel also recommended Wackenhut Services over one other contender to replace city firefighters.

Novella Carpenter took over a vacant lot on a hardscrabble corner of West Oakland eight years ago and turned it into a working farm of vegetables, goats, rabbits and, sometimes, pigs. Carpenter milked goats, made cheese and ate much of the produce. She also wrote a popular book, "Farm City," about the experience and became an icon of the Bay Area's urban farming movement. But the future of her Ghost Town Farm is in question. This week, Oakland officials suggested it may need to close. The reason: She sells excess produce and needs a costly permit to do so.

Berkeley High School, a high-achieving institution that embodies the city’s liberal politics, is seeing those values tested at gunpoint. Since January, seven students have been arrested in gun-related incidents in and around Berkeley High — there have been four incidents involving guns in the past week and a half — which have led to heated debates over metal detectors, ID badges, a ban on gang colors and beefed-up security at a school that features a Green Academy and an international baccalaureate program.

A murder convict who appears to be rehabilitated after decades behind bars can't be denied parole merely because he continues to declare his innocence, a state appeals court has ruled. California law prohibits the parole board from requiring an inmate to admit guilt to be found suitable for release, the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles said Wednesday.

For months, Sharks coach Todd McLellan has been saying that the only goal he set for his team was "making the tournament" -- not a division title or a conference championship. If that's the case, mission accomplished. San Jose clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the seventh consecutive season Thursday night with a 6-0 rout of the Dallas Stars that also leapfrogged the Sharks ahead of the Detroit Red Wings into the second spot in the Western Conference.

...The San Francisco Giants' first-ever regular-season game as defending World Series winners was going the way it was supposed to, a fantastic display of pitching. Then the champs started to throw away the ball, the principal story in a 2-1 loss to the Dodgers that gave Don Mattingly a win in his managerial debut.