Morning Splash: SCOTUS Lets Illegal Immigrant Tuition Stand; SF Firefighters' Memorial; iCloud

The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to review a California policy that allows illegal immigrants to pay the same in-state tuition to public universities as other state residents. Without comment, the high court let stand a California Supreme Court ruling in November that unanimously rejected a challenge to the policy. The state Supreme Court concluded that a 2001 law that allows in-state tuition aid to undocumented students does not run afoul of federal immigration laws restricting public education benefits to illegal immigrants.

Firefighters from around the Bay Area and beyond are expected to gather in San Francisco on Friday to honor two of their own - a pair of firefighters from the same engine company who died last week battling a blaze in the Diamond Heights neighborhood.

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs emerges briefly from medical leave Monday morning, he will take the stage at the company's developers conference in San Francisco not with a shimmering new gizmo, but with a six-letter word that could fundamentally change the way Apple fans listen to music, watch TV shows and download movies: iCloud.

Muni management and union leaders for the city's transit operators both have offered low-key claims of victory with their proposed contract agreement. In a press release meant for the public, Muni officials pointed out that the plan freezes wages for the next three years. But on the other side, union leaders were telling their members that they had successfully blocked any wage cuts.

...As previously reported, in late April, the rules committees governing the Assembly and Senate denied a request by the Bay Area News Group, the Associated Press and the First Amendment Coalition to reveal the appointment calendars of lawmakers and their key staffers. Citing the Legislative Open Records Act, the denial covered all lawmakers, including those who told reporters they were perfectly willing to reveal their meetings. Since the denial, the Bay Area News Group has surveyed government watchdog groups, and gathered numerous examples at the local, state and federal level of elected officials who release their daily schedules...(P)ublic agencies that prohibit disclosure, as the California Legislature does, are virtually unheard of.

Four years in the making, Stanford University's ambitious plan to expand its medical facilities is nearly a done deal. The Palo Alto City Council is expected Monday to approve a slew of ordinances, permits and resolutions that will allow the university to undertake the biggest development project in the city's history. Nearly 100 public meetings have been held on the $3.5 billion proposal, which would expand the university's hospital, office and clinic space by 1.3 million square feet over the next two decades.

The attorney for the man suspected in the beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow went on the offensive Friday, saying he will file a court motion Monday seeking a hotel video recording that he claims could help exonerate his client. The move marks the most concrete step so far by the defense in its effort to prove that the Los Angeles Police Department arrested the wrong man in connection with the violent incident on opening day at Dodger Stadium. Although Giovanni Ramirez, 31, was arrested nearly two weeks ago, Los Angeles County prosecutors have yet to charge him in connection with the beating. Prosecutors asked police to gather more evidence in the case, and LAPD officials said they hope to present the case again soon.

Records broke as raindrops fell Saturday, with some long-standing rainfall measurements blown away before noon as a deep low-pressure weather system swept in from the Gulf of Alaska. The resulting precipitation came at a time when outdoor festivals, graduations and pool parties were a part of many people's weekend plans. By 11 a.m., rainfall levels in downtown Oakland and San Francisco, which are measured each hour, had shattered records. More than 1 inch of rain fell in Oakland, beating the previous high of 0.10 inches, according to Bob Benjamin, a National Weather Service forecaster.

Mountains of broken TV sets, obsolete computer monitors and outdated laptops that once piled up in California's garages, attics and basements have achieved a milestone. The state's electronic-waste recycling program has reached its 1 billionth pound of unwanted electronics. That's more than any other state has recycled -- and amounts to roughly 20 million TVs and computers kept out of landfills.

With its plunge into icy bay waters, roller-coaster bike ride and half-mile slog up the punishing "sand ladder" near Baker Beach, San Francisco's annual Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon is no easy feat...Almost 2,000 competitors (participated) Sunday morning (in) the 31st running of the triathlon, which features a 1 1/2-mile swim in San Francisco Bay, an 18-mile bike ride through the Presidio and Golden Gate Park, and an 8-mile run that ended at the Marina Green.

On the "John & Ken Show" -- the top-rated talk radio program in Southern California, with a reach extending deep into the state Legislature -- John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou issue fundamentalist fiscal fatwas and call for Republican "heads on a stick" when a GOP lawmaker goes rogue on the talkers' tax orthodoxy. Those heads were spinning on their sticks Thursday, when a turning point may have been reached in this year's budget battle, right there in the studio of a 50,000-watt station in beautiful downtown Burbank. For months, John and Ken have held hostage a compromise between Gov. Jerry Brown and Republicans with their threats to exact retribution on any Republican who supported Brown's call to let the voters have a say on his tax plan. On Thursday, Kobylt turned to his partner and said, in effect, "Never mind."

John McGill III has been in the tire business a long time, but he never has seen the rash of pothole damage he has this year. The toll includes burst tires, dented rims and bent suspensions, said McGill, who owns Valley Tire & Brake on Piner Road. One driver recently blew out both right tires on his Mustang, resulting in $4,000 in repairs and replacements. “Every few years it seems like you get a bad year, and this year topped them all,” McGill said.

A large, unusual concentration of big sturgeon in San Pablo Bay has scientists baffled and local fishermen thrilled. Thousands of the lumbering bottom-feeding fish seem to be gathered in the waters between the Carquinez Straits and the Tiburon Peninsula. Sport anglers, who are generally accustomed to long and tedious hours of fishing to catch just one sturgeon, are deeming 2011 one of the best fishing years in history.

Giants manager Brian Sabean and Scott Cousins apparently made peace over the weekend. The Chronicle has learned that Sabean and the Marlins' outfielder spoke by phone Saturday and had what one person familiar with the conversation described as a "heartfelt and apologetic" talk.