A.M. Splash: Judge's Ruling Could Stall Calif. Death Penalty; SF Planning Commission OKs America's Cup Impact Report

Prison officials failed to properly adopt the state's new lethal injection execution procedures, a Marin judge said in a ruling Thursday that, if upheld, would throw California's stalled capital punishment system into further doubt. The tentative ruling from Marin Superior Court Judge Faye D'Opal found prison officials failed to properly consider a one-drug alternative to the three-drug lethal injection cocktail used to execute inmates.

The America's Cup is set to descend on San Francisco beginning next summer - but a crew of opponents is threatening to knock it off course. In the year since the city was chosen to host the world-famous regatta in 2012 and 2013, organizers have raced to finalize plans. The culmination of those efforts, an analysis of the regatta's impacts on the city, was approved by the Planning Commission 5-0 Thursday night.

A man in a East San Jose was shot and killed by police Thursday night after he "displayed threatening behavior" while being approached by officers, the San Jose Police Department said early Friday morning. It marks the eighth time this year that San Jose police have fired their weapons at a suspect; seven of them since mid-September. Four suspects have died.

Monday's protest that shut down much of the Port of Oakland will be the last of its kind if several City Council members get their wish. The council's four-member Rules and Legislation Committee voted unanimously Thursday to press ahead with an urgent resolution directing city leaders "to use whatever lawful tools we have" to prevent future shutdowns or disruptions of port operations.

Rogelio Espino expects to be fired from Pacific Steel and Casting this month after 17 years working at the Berkeley plant. The foundry is firing 200 workers -- a third of its workforce -- as a result of a federal immigration audit that began earlier this year and found dozens of workers suspected of being in the country illegally.

With California's futuristic high-speed rail plans at a crossroad, the House Transportation Committee hauled in deeply divided California officials Thursday for a passionate debate over whether an 800-mile system of bullet trains costing $100 billion is, as one foe put it, "a mule on roller skates," or a vital investment in the state's future.

For two years, the prolific HYSU graffiti crew spray-painted its way around the South Bay, leaving its acronym, which stands for "Have You Seen Us?" This week, San Jose police emphatically answered that yes, they had. Employing their own nickname for the five-month operation, "FNF" -- for the graffiti penal code 594 -- police arrested four tagging suspects. Investigators say the four, including the apparent leader, nicknamed "Romanse," make up the heart of the brazen taggers' gang.

Armed with $150,000, a Santa Clara County children's advocacy group on Thursday announced a campaign to persuade parents not to sleep in bed with their infant children. According to advocates of the campaign, sleeping with babies is a dangerous, even lethal practice. But the issue is the subject of a controversy nationwide; supporters and critics cite science and research to prove that the behavior is either safe or not.