Morning Splash: Chevron Loses Another Round in Ecuador Case; Body Confirmed as Michelle Le; Brad Pitt in Oakland For "Moneyball" Premiere

Ecuadorans suing Chevron Corp. over pollution in the Amazon rain forest are one step closer to collecting a $9.5 billion judgment against the San Ramon company. A U.S. appeals court on Monday lifted a lower court's order that had blocked the Ecuadorans from collecting money in the long-running lawsuit.

Authorities say human remains found in a Bay Area canyon are those of Michelle Le, the missing nursing student who disappeared May 27 while taking a school break. Hayward police late Monday said tests by the Alameda County coroner on the badly decomposed remains confirmed they were Le. Police declined to release any further information.

For a day at least, the East Bay felt just like Hollywood. Brad Pitt worked his way down the red carpet at the Paramount Theatre while the hundreds of fans who had gathered for the "Moneyball" premiere shouted, "Let's go, Oakland!" -- just as they do at A's games. "It's very cool," Pitt said, looking around at the scene. "This is a special screening for us. The people of Oakland gave us such a great response. They stayed up with us for hours on end to tape the baseball scenes (for the movie) and never lost energy."

BART would get authority to ban those who repeatedly break the law -- fare cheats, vandals or possibly protesters disrupting train service -- from entering its stations under a bill passed by state lawmakers and sent to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk. Assembly Bill 716 would empower BART to bar someone who commits infractions on three separate occasions over 90 days at a train station, on a train or on other BART property.

A San Francisco real estate company's purchase of the Great America amusement park in Santa Clara could make it easier for the 49ers to open an oft-discussed new stadium there, supporters of the proposed stadium say

The Bay Area's job market will continue to thrive even though the national and California economies have slowed to a halt, a prominent group of economic forecasters said in a report released Tuesday. "The Bay Area has been adding jobs at a faster rate than the state and the nation," said Jerry Nickelsburg, a senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Forecast. "The Bay Area should be able to avoid the contraction that seems to be going on elsewhere."

San Jose has seen a sharp spike in graffiti, up 38 percent from a year ago to the highest number of documented tags since 1999. The surge comes at a time when budget cuts have forced the city to outsource its cleanup work.

Thousands of nurses at more than 30 Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Northern California will walk off the job Thursday in what union officials say will be the nation's largest-ever nurses' strike. More than 23,000 nurses represented by the powerful California Nurses Association – including 17,000 from Kaiser hospitals – are expected to honor the walkout, primarily in the Bay Area but also at Kaiser's Sacramento-area hospitals.

Professional baseball will come to Albert Park next year after the San Rafael City Council Monday night unanimously approved a proposal to let a minor league team use the field. The council's decision, made at the end of the sixth public meeting on Centerfield Partners' plan to bring a new North American League team to San Rafael, means city officials will now nail down details of the agreement. That process will begin Tuesday during a council sub-committee meeting at 6 p.m. at the San Rafael Corporate Center.

A Brooklyn artist who has sparked outrage for killing a dog for a film received two other commissions from The City in addition to the $750,000 Central Subway contract he was awarded in June. In 2010, Tom Otterness won a $700,000 art contract for his proposed Mother with Children sculpture, planned for prominent placement in the rebuilt San Francisco General Hospital when it opens in 2015. Hospital visitors coming from Potrero Avenue would be greeted by a large bronze sculpture that “celebrates the joy of a new baby and the role that hospitals play in providing health services in the community,” according to an Arts Commission description.

ostal workers will rally in Santa Rosa next week against a plan for deep cuts to jobs and facilities, including two regional mail distribution centers in Petaluma. The cuts would hurt mail service, predicted Valerie Schropp, local leader of the American Postal Workers Union.