Morning Splash: Suhr Walks Out of Chaotic Bayview Meeting; New SF Transit Head

...More than 300 people packed into the Bayview Opera House to weigh in on the shooting Saturday, when Kenneth Wade Harding, a 19-year-old Washington state parolee, was shot and killed after he allegedly fired at two officers. But Wednesday, people in the opera house booed Suhr and repeatedly interrupted his address. Things didn't improve when the chief gave up and opened up the floor to questions: Those trying to question the officials could barely be heard above the crowd's cries of outrage.

Ed Reiskin will be named today as the new executive director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, The Chronicle has learned. Reiskin, the city's public works director since 2008, starts one of the most demanding jobs on the city payroll without experience at a transportation agency but with the reputation as a top-notch manager with a passion for city living.

A total of 43 people were arrested Tuesday night during a raucous protest against police conduct in San Francisco, two of them for assault, authorities said today. The protest was a response to Saturday's fatal shooting of a Washington state parolee by officers who chased him in the Bayview neighborhood after stopping him to see if he was riding Muni without a ticket.

Mayors from around the East Bay said Wednesday that Gov. Jerry Brown's elimination of redevelopment agencies amounts to theft by the state that strips cities of millions of dollars that would have improved neighborhoods and produced tens of thousands of jobs. Standing near a 100-unit housing complex in East Oakland that is being built with redevelopment money, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and other East Bay leaders expressed their support for a lawsuit filed Monday by the League of California Cities to challenge the state's new budget, which allows cities to keep their redevelopment agencies only if they give up millions to the state.

In a shift that could dramatically recast the race to replace him, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee refused Wednesday - for the first time - to rule out running for a full term. Lee, who was appointed by the Board of Supervisors in January to serve the final year of former Mayor Gavin Newsom's term, acknowledged he had been in "interesting discussions about the future of the city" and what role he should play, but he declined to provide specifics.

Bay Area labor unions demanded Wednesday that the Obama administration stop its increased practice of auditing business payrolls to check for illegal immigrant workers. Using Berkeley-based Pacific Steel and Casting as an example, leaders from several unions said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement is wreaking havoc with immigrant families and local economies by demanding that employers provide it information about its employees.

After years of planning and waiting, the 49ers appear likely to get money they need to build their new Santa Clara stadium as part of the imminent agreement to end the NFL's labor strife. The proposed multibillion-dollar agreement between the NFL players and owners, which could be signed this week, not only returns players to practice facilities, but also will provide league financing for a reported three new stadiums, including the hub the 49ers say they are committed to build in Santa Clara starting in 18 months, a league source said.

Police have begrudgingly agreed to terms on a two-year contract that will cut salaries for current officers and reduce pension benefits and retiree medical benefits for future ones. Additionally, the city's fire union has agreed to a tentative deal that includes similar concessions, although terms of that agreement aren't being released until after union leaders brief the rank and file. The agreement with police, which the City Council approved Tuesday, is expected to save Fremont nearly $1.6 million this year.

Lousy bookkeeping in California's prison system put millions of taxpayers' dollars at risk of fraud and abuse, according to an audit released Wednesday by state Controller John Chiang. Chiang said the sloppiness was due to "a lack of focus. What we've heard in prior instances is that it (bookkeeping) is not their core function, but they have to understand they're not going to be able to perform those core functions unless they have financial controls." The audit comes amid increasing pressure to find savings in the prison system...

A California state assembly bill aimed at San Francisco’s circumcision ban on the November ballot seeks to make it clear that no local law can restrict the practice. San Francisco resident Lloyd Schofield gathered more than 12,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot, which would make circumcision of a minor in The City a misdemeanor with a $1,000 fine and up to a year behind bars.

Bay Area apartment rents are on the rise, fed by the contrasting economic forces of a booming tech recovery and the steady flow of foreclosures that is turning former homeowners into renters. The San Jose metro area, which includes Silicon Valley, weighed in with the highest average rent -- $1,759 a month -- among 43 metro regions monitored by RealFacts, a Novato apartment rental research company that released a report on second-quarter rental prices Thursday. The region also saw the biggest year-over-year increase, up 12.6 percent. The San Francisco metro area -- encompassing the Peninsula, East Bay and Marin County -- had the second-highest rents in the survey, at $1,644, and the third-highest year-over-year increase, at 7.6 percent.

...While attempts by some neighborhood groups to further delay the project via a mandatory environmental impact report was turned down by the board, the rollout is likely to be subject to fits and starts. A minimum two-year time frame is envisaged by AT&T. That's because the company agreed to a number of constraints, including neighborhood input before permits are issued, the utility boxes installed and the service switched on

California's legislative term limits have failed to create a class of "citizen legislators" who serve briefly and then return home to resume private careers, a new study says. Most lawmakers who left the Assembly and Senate in 2008 kept working in the public sector, mirroring results from 1990, when term limits were imposed, the Center for Governmental Studies found.

The Discovery Channel announced today that it will produce a reality series about Oakland's Harborside Health Center, the nation's largest medical cannabis dispensary. "Weed Wars," scheduled to premiere this fall, "fearlessly pulls back the curtain on a once illegal and still controversial world," according to a press release issued by Discovery.

Balboa Theatre operator Gary Meyer said Wednesday that this summer will be his last at the Richmond District movie house, leaving the future of the scrappy independent theater in doubt. The news comes as the Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco is in its last week of screenings, one of several locally owned theaters in the Bay Area that have closed in recent years.