Morning Splash: Mehserle Release; Prop 8 Hearing; Harold Camping Suffers Stroke

Former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was released from jail early Monday morning after serving just over 11 months of a two-year-prison term given to the 29-year-old after he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for killing Oscar Grant III. Mehserle's release at 12:01 a.m. was confirmed by a Los Angeles County Men's Jail automated notification system which sent out alerts as soon as the former Napa resident was allowed to walk free.

A few hundred protesters marched peacefully through Oakland on Sunday on the eve of the release from jail of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed unarmed train rider Oscar Grant on New Year's Day 2009. The rally began at BART's Fruitvale Station, the site of the shooting, before protesters walked to Broadway and 14th Street near City Hall, where they blocked the intersection.

A weekend mailing campaign by a powerful San Jose city employee union is calling at least five council members "hypocrites" for supporting Mayor Chuck Reed's efforts to balance the budget by cutting their pay and benefits. The mailer from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees incorrectly alleges the council members have not reduced their own compensation packages. It also tells residents to contact the mayor and their council member to urge them to restore "vital and essential neighborhood programs."

For years, former San Francisco Chief Judge Vaughn Walker has maintained a same-sex relationship with a doctor, attending court functions with him and hardly treating it as a secret within the Bay Area legal community... (N)ow Walker's personal life and relationship are front and center at another pivotal stage in the Proposition 8 legal saga. In a hearing Monday morning, new Chief Judge James Ware will consider a bid by Proposition 8's sponsors to set aside Walker's August 2010 ruling striking down the state's gay marriage ban. The measure's lawyers argue that Walker was presumed biased at the time he invalidated the law because of his long-term same-sex relationship, and that he should have stepped aside when he was randomly assigned the case.

Senate Republicans blocked a tax solution to the deficit Friday, prompting Democrats to respond with a countermeasure expanding local taxation powers. Thus began Round 2 of the state budget battle, complete with readings of letters from sheriffs and taxpayers, parliamentary gamesmanship and failed amendments on abortion funding.

How easily might Raymond Zack have been saved from his own shallow-water suicide? A staged re-enactment of his deadly walk into the waters off Crown Beach sought to answer the question Sunday, with almost a dozen demonstrators wading into the water while a retired Oakland firefighter demonstrated how he thinks the lifesaving effort should have been led.

...The new California Citizens Redistricting Commission's once-a-decade effort to remake the state's political maps is now under way, and preliminary drafts were released Friday. To no one's surprise, the early maps show San Francisco losing a state Senate seat because new rules say seats should follow natural geographic boundaries. That meant the current split of the city north to south with the eastern side stretching over the bay and far up into Marin and Sonoma and the western side stretching down the Peninsula wasn't likely to last.

Harold Camping, the Doomsday radio preacher who sparked international media attention by predicting the end of the world last month, has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke at his Alameda home Thursday night. The 89-year-old radio evangelist and president of the Oakland nonprofit Family Radio was taken by ambulance from his house Thursday night, a neighbor said, but his well-known, gravelly voice that led many believers to donate millions of dollars to his cause may never be the same.

For many in the Bay Area's rapidly growing Asian Indian population, Diwali is as important as Christmas is to Christians. Now there is a budding movement to have the Hindu holy day declared a school holiday in Fremont, Sunnyvale and San Jose, cities where Asian Indians comprise a significant portion of the overall enrollment... (B)ut adding a new holiday to the school calendar can be a major headache.

A longtime supporter and personal friend of BART Director James Fang has been awarded the exclusive right to negotiate a prime real estate deal next to the Millbrae BART Station. In a surprise 6-2 vote, BART directors chose the hotel plan brought forth by San Francisco businessman Lawrence Lui over a competing plan for an office and retail center on the five-acre site.

America’s Cup organizers have netted only a fraction of the funds The City needs this year to plan the massive 2013 yacht race, but officials said as soon as they receive their tax-exempt status, the money will start flowing. If it doesn’t, San Francisco taxpayers will be on the hook.

The improbable dream season for the Cal baseball team will continue. The Golden Bears are headed to the College World Series for the first time since 1992 after completing a two-game sweep of Dallas Baptist with a 6-2 win Sunday in their NCAA Super Regional at Stephen Schott Stadium in Santa Clara.

(Jamie) Rivers won her second Dipsea Race championship Sunday, finishing with a clock time of 47 minutes, 34 seconds (1:07:34 actual time) to take home the trophy in the 101st running of the race. Rivers became just the fourth woman in Dipsea history to
win the race more than once.