A.M. Splash: High Rate of Error in SF Foreclosures; PG&E SmartMeter Opt-Outs Underway

More than 80 percent of the residential mortgage loans that have gone into foreclosure in San Francisco contain one or more clear violations of the law, Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting said Wednesday.

Two weeks after state regulators voted to give PG&E customers the right to opt-out of having a SmartMeter and keep their old, analog meters if they paid a monthly fee, PG&E announced Wednesday that it has received 4,400 opt-out requests. PG&E has about 5.4 million residential customers throughout its vast Northern California service territory, so the opt-out rate is about .08 percent so far.

Battle lines solidified Wednesday over the vast development deal between The City and event planners trying to bring the America’s Cup yacht race to San Francisco over the next two years.

A Berkeley journalism nonprofit group won a $1 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation on Wednesday. The Center for Investigative Reporting, a 35-year-old outfit that distributes articles through a variety of media, including The Chronicle, was among the groups that received the foundation's Award for Creative & Effective Institutions.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit agency on Wednesday formally rejected an initiative that sought to bring the commuter train issue back before voters. Last month the RepealSMART campaign fell short in its effort to gather enough signatures on petitions to put a ballot measure before voters aimed at repealing a sales tax that supports the planned San Rafael-to-Santa Rosa train.

A complaint filed by San Jose city employee unions accusing Mayor Chuck Reed and others of exaggerating projected retirement costs is now in the hands of the City Council. Noting that the complaint falls outside its jurisdiction, the San Jose Elections Commission voted 4-0 to refer the issue to the City Council. The commission investigates alleged violations of city campaign ethics and lobbying rules. Commissioner Erica Cosgrove was absent.

Bay Area residents pollute San Francisco Bay every year with enough trash to fill 100,000 kitchen garbage bags, according to the first comprehensive study of the volume of litter flowing into the bay. The tidal wave of fast-food wrappers, plastic bottles, paper bags and cigarette butts rolls across the landscape and into storm drains, where the garbage washes into creeks and the bay in wet weather. Although it may not be surprising that because of their size San Jose and Oakland pollute the most, tiny Colma in San Mateo County and a host of East Bay cities, including Pittsburg, El Cerrito and Richmond, are among the areas that add the most litter per capita, according to an analysis by this newspaper.

In a highly unusual move, state regulators will close the Institute of Medical Education Thursday, after finding that the private vocational school in San Jose violated state education laws.