Morning Splash: United Passengers Stranded; Missing Nursing Student; Stow Suspect Hearing

An almost five-hour computer failure at United Airlines was enough to force Kim Prudhomme to give up on air travel Saturday. Prudhomme was one of hundreds of passengers stranded at San Francisco International Airport after United's systemwide computer failure essentially shut down one of the world's largest air carriers for hours starting Friday evening. Passengers across the country were forced to spend the night at airports, hoping desperately for a flight.

More than 450 volunteers canvassed the area in and around Niles Canyon in Fremont this weekend during a three-day search for missing nursing student Michelle Le. More than 100 volunteers turned out Friday and Sunday and the number was double that on Saturday, said Krystine Dinh, Le's cousin. A command center for the search parties was set up at a Buddhist church at 25350 Cypress Ave. in Hayward.

The main suspect in the brutal beating of a San Francisco Giants fan outside Dodger Stadium in March faces a court hearing to determine whether he should remain in jail for violating terms of his parole. Giovanni Ramirez, 31, has not been charged in the attack on Bryan Stow and police have been in no hurry to present a case to prosecutors, while Ramirez, a convicted felon, has been kept in jail for parole violations.

Police made at least 10 arrests Friday afternoon as a band of more than 50 demonstrators protesting library cuts gathered downtown at 12th and Broadway and began blocking the street. The demonstration opposed Oakland library cuts and other austerity measures and began around 4 p.m. It was uneventful at first, but when the protesters moved to the street, blocking traffic, and refused police orders to disperse, at least 10 were arrested on suspicion of offenses ranging from failure to disperse to battery on a police officer.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association demanded Friday that Controller John Chiang withhold pay from lawmakers and threatened to sue if he does not. The group's president, Jon Coupal, contends that lawmakers must pass a balanced budget to receive pay under voter-approved Proposition 25. He referred to a veto letter in which Gov. Jerry Brown said the Democrats' majority-vote budget was "not a balanced solution" and "not financeable."

The sighting of a great white shark off Stinson Beach on Sunday has prompted the National Park Service to limit water access through Thursday. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter spotted the shark just before 2 p.m. Sunday between 200 and 300 yards offshore near Seadrift Beach along the northern part of Stinson Beach....Stinson Beach will remain open, and people will be allowed to wade in water, but lifeguards will stop people from going into deeper water through Thursday.

Local independent pharmacists and patient advocates are voicing concerns about the shift of most of Marin County's Medi-Cal beneficiaries to Partnership HealthPlan of California, a managed care organization. The changeover, effective July 1, will affect about 16,000 of Marin County's 23,000 Medi-Cal beneficiaries. A majority of the Medi-Cal eligibles who won't be enrolled in Partnership HealthPlan are pregnant, undocumented women. The switch to managed care in Marin was initiated by the Marin County Board of Supervisors in an effort to better control costs while improving patient care.

Parishioners of a liberal Catholic Church demonstrated outside the facility Sunday, protesting what they say is a more conservative direction the parish has taken the past two years. About 100 members of St. Joseph the Worker Church took part in the demonstration, timed to coincide with a visit by the Most Rev. Salvatore Cordileone, bishop of the Diocese of Oakland, which includes both Alameda and Contra Costa counties. They were requesting the removal of the Rev. John Direen, the church's pastor, and objected to the ouster of the Rev. George Crespin, St. Joseph's pastor emeritus. Direen was appointed to the parish two years ago.

The San Francisco Examiner broke down the voting history of the mayoral hopefuls, plus interim Mayor Ed Lee, and found that venture capitalist Joanna Rees missed the most city elections and several public officials failed to make it to the polls every election. Rees, registered with no political party, missed 24 elections out of 37 since 1992, according to the data. Between 1992 and 2009, she failed to vote in at least one election every year.

...The July 1 deadline for single-family homeowners to install carbon monoxide detectors in their houses is fast approaching. A California law, passed in May 2010, requires single-family homes with an attached garage or appliances that burn fuels like gas, coal or wood to have the devices. Other multifamily dwellings, such as apartment buildings or condominiums, have until Jan. 1, 2013, to comply with the law. Failure to install carbon monoxide detectors could result in a $200 fine, although residents would get 30 days to install the devices before having to pay.

A first-of-its-kind survey of the kinds of trash that end up in San Francisco Bay points the finger at specific sources: retailers such as McDonald's and 7-Eleven that feed our disposable lifestyle, and their littering consumers. Clean Water Action, a national group, identified fast food restaurants and convenience stores as the top contributors of the types of trash they could identify in the streets of San Jose, South San Francisco, Richmond and Oakland. Street trash often ends up in the bay.

They came to celebrate emancipation; they stayed to sample the jerk chicken, dance the two-step and enjoy the perfect sunshine and good company at Cesar Chavez Plaza on Sunday. San Jose's 2011 Juneteenth Festival drew several hundred people by mid-afternoon, with even more the day before, organizers said. Juneteenth celebrates the day federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the emancipation of slaves. Even though President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation nearly three years earlier, it took until June 19, 1865, for the order to be carried out in Texas.

Mitt Romney is getting some good news as he arrives to spend three days fundraising in California this week: He holds a solid lead over his 2012 GOP presidential rivals among the state's Republican voters, a new Field Poll shows. Romney is preferred by 25 percent of registered GOP voters, giving the former Massachusetts governor a double-digit lead over each of his challengers. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, viewed as Romney's leading competitor for the nomination, barely registered in the poll, earning just 3 percent support.

Virginia is the number one team in the country this year, and they finally broke down the California Golden Bears in the final stages of the game, scoring two runs in the seventh and two runs in the eighth to break a scoreless tie. Cal added a late run in the ninth to cap the scoring. Left handed Cavalier ace Danny Hultzen didn't have an outstanding appearance, walking three and allowing three hits, but he didn't give up a run in 6 and a third innings of pitching and struck out six. Tyler Wilson earned the win after pitching 2 and 1/3 innings of relief.

On June 9, Bob Geren was fired. On June 10, Freddy Sanchez dislocated his shoulder. A week and a half later, the first-place Giants and last-place A's have new identities and are heading in directions not indicative of their places in the standings. While the Giants remained useless at the plate on Sunday whenever someone reached scoring position, the A's sent their backup catcher to bat in the eighth inning and watched him hit a game-deciding home run in a 2-1 victory at the Coliseum.