A.M. Splash: Poll - Slim Majority For Brown Tax Plan; Lawmakers Order SJ Pension Audit; Oakland Sues Occupy Protester Over Smashed Windows

Gov. Jerry Brown appears to face an uphill battle persuading Californians to approve his temporary tax hikes after a poll released Wednesday found that only a slight majority of likely voters back the Democrat's ballot measure.

The state will audit San Jose's finances amid employee unions' accusations that city officials overstated the cost of the pension system to build support for a June ballot measure reducing retirement benefits. The Joint Legislative Audit Committee on Wednesday approved the state audit, requested by seven Democratic lawmakers, on a bipartisan 10-3 vote. The committee also directed the auditor to give it priority status on a 12-1 vote. Committee member Chris Norby, R-Fullerton, did not vote.

The city of Oakland is suing an Occupy protester to recover damages after he allegedly threw a chair and smashed the windows of a police building near City Hall, officials said Wednesday.

...Xavier De La Torre, 48, was confirmed Wednesday afternoon as the county's top educator. He will be paid $299,500 annually, plus receive a $12,000 annual auto allowance and, with at least a satisfactory performance in the first year, $20,000 more toward purchase of pension credits. His salary will rise automatically every July by the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for the Bay Area.

The Oakland school board on Wednesday night voted unanimously to allow two elementary schools, ASCEND and Learning Without Limits, to operate as independently-run charters. The decision marked the end of a months-long drama over the fate of the East Oakland schools, whose joint effort to leave the district created a stir -- and was just recently rejected by the school board.

[M]ayor of Corte Madera Bob Ravasio...says he is worried Marin could lose its charm because of state and regional pressure to build more housing. Ravasio and other Marin officials have directed much of their frustration toward the Association of Bay Area Governments, an agency that oversees regional land use planning and represents the Bay Area's nine counties and 101 cities and towns. The Corte Madera Town Council voted 4-1 on Tuesday to end its membership in the agency known as ABAG.

Tens of thousands of low-level felons sentenced to county custody or supervision under Gov. Jerry Brown's "realignment" of California's penal system should keep their voting rights, advocates argued Wednesday in a suit against the state's top elections official.

Suddenly June 5 doesn't seem so far away. With a muddled outcome from the 10 Super Tuesday states, there's no sign the GOP presidential primary process will be resolved before California Republicans hold a vote that pundits once said was too late to matter.