A.M. Splash: SF Officials Vow Stricter Enforcement of Bike Laws; SJ Expands Outdoor Smoking Ban

The week after a 71-year-old pedestrian died after being struck by a bicyclist in a Castro district crosswalk, city officials vowed Tuesday to hold errant cyclists accountable and to redouble efforts to get everyone - pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers - to travel more safely.

Video surveillance footage taken when a bicyclist ran into a 71-year-old pedestrian crossing San Francisco's Castro Street, killing the man, is raising questions about the biker's account of the crash.

San Jose smokers can wave goodbye to some of the last bastions of outdoor smoking after the City Council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to ban smoking from a number of regular haunts around the city. Outdoor dining areas, outdoor common areas of apartments and condos, service lines such as bus stops and ATMs, all are off limits to smoking. The ordinance, which passed by an 11-0 vote, is expected to take effect at the end of May.

After five decades of welcoming any local student who meets the minimum Cal State University requirements, the school is limiting admissions. The bar must be raised starting with fall 2013 because there isn't enough money to take every applicant who meets Cal State criteria, the university system announced at a Tuesday news conference. Now it sends the proposal to the statewide administration for final approval.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to amend San Francisco’s public financing law to make it more difficult for candidates to qualify for taxpayer funds.

Construction on the biggest public works project ever in Silicon Valley is about to take off. Groundbreaking for the BART to San Jose extension within Santa Clara County is Thursday, rain or shine, and work that began in Fremont in 2009 is steaming ahead. Combined, the two segments will cost $3.2 billion and run nearly 16 miles from Fremont to East San Jose. Key streets carrying thousands of drivers a day -- Mission Boulevard, Warren Avenue, Kato Road, Dixon Landing Road, Sierra Road -- will be torn up and replaced to run over or under BART. Three train stations will be built.

Drawing on the specter of a massive earthquake that could leave the sick and injured in the streets, Mayor Ed Lee cautioned the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday not to hold up a proposed deal between The City and California Pacific Medical Center for two major hospital projects. “I wouldn’t want any of the supervisors to feel the sting that if they didn’t move early on this, that we would fail before the next earthquake to have had two major hospitals in The City rebuilt, to the best interest of our citizens,” Lee told reporters prior to introducing the proposal to the board.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to push forward toward formation of a countywide public power agency. The 4-0 vote marked the most significant move yet on the proposal, which has been under review since last year. At least an additional 18 months of work is envisioned before a final decision to launch the effort.

About 30 people, many of them Richmond residents, braved the drizzly conditions to protest in front of the home of CEO John Watson, whom they criticized as an example of what they called the "corporate welfare" and undue influence of the richest Californians on the state's tax code.