A.M. Splash: Ed Lee Declares Victory; Jean Quan Chats w/ Protesters; Albany Won't Allow Marijuana Dispensary

Ed Lee claimed victory Wednesday as San Francisco's first elected Chinese American mayor, finishing ahead of Supervisor John Avalos, the progressive standard bearer, and City Attorney Dennis Herrera when the ranked-choice votes were tallied.

While Occupy Oakland protesters hijacked a news conference at Lake Merritt calling for the ouster of their tent city, Mayor Jean Quan chatted with some of the camp denizens in front of City Hall and put out her own statement asking the camp to leave.

The Oakland Police Department may have an ongoing legal battle with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California regarding public documents from its raid of the Occupy Oakland encampment and its response to protests that evening.

The Pacific Gas and Electric Co. gas pipeline that sprang a leak during a pressure test last week in Palo Alto had corrosion on its outer wall, the company said Wednesday.

The city has backed away from its ordinance approving a single marijuana dispensary in town as a cautionary response to an appellate court ruling in Southern California that cities cannot require conditional use permits for dispensaries. "There's been a recent appellate court decision that it is not permissible for cities to have regulatory/permitting ordinances," City Attorney Robert Zweben said. "We require a conditional use permit. The appellate court in (the case) said you can't do that. If that's the case, a marijuana club could come into the city and just open up."

From San Francisco to Modesto, California voters Tuesday sent a strong message that they want to cut generous public employee pensions, whose soaring costs are devouring funds for cops, libraries and other services. The results cheered local officials such as San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who's seeking a March special election on his own controversial pension reform proposal, as well as advocates for a statewide measure aimed at slashing the costs of public retirement packages.

For the third time in five days, a vehicle struck and killed a bicyclist or a pedestrian in San Jose on Wednesday while a pair of other crashes left two men fighting for their lives, triggering police warnings to motorists driving home during what is now a moonlit rush hour.