A.M. Splash: Free Muni for Kids Could Hit Bumps; Limited Success For Oakland's 100-Blocks Plan

San Francisco's Muni could be the first major transit system in the nation to offer free and unrestricted rides to youths. The controversial pilot program will be voted on Tuesday by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's Board of Directors. Although approval is expected, the sticking point is whether the perk should be limited to low-income youths or be extended to everyone ages 5 to 17. Children under 5 already ride free.

...In a policing district that includes both 100-Block areas in West Oakland, shootings dropped 20 percent and murders were halved (from six to three) between two four-week periods, the first starting in January and the second ending in early March... Most residents interviewed in one West Oakland hot spot said the streets felt safer. "There used to be a whole lot of people hanging out and now it's quiet," said Lynn Jackson, who lives in a high-rise apartment building near the intersection of 8th and Filbert streets and across from the Acorn housing projects.

Oakland City Council members will soon decide whether to give voters the opportunity to limit their terms in office and end ranked-choice voting for at least two top citywide posts. Council members Jane Brunner and Ignacio De La Fuente next week plan to ask the council to put an initiative on the November ballot limiting council members and the city attorney to three consecutive four-year terms in office.

Two of Silicon Valley's most popular companies in the eyes of both investors and consumers, Apple and Google, continued to fall Monday on Wall Street as the tech giants dealt with separate federal accusations of impropriety. Apple was declining for the fifth consecutive day on Monday, after beginning to fall last week when the federal government and 15 states announced an antitrust lawsuit against the Cupertino maker of iPads and iPhones. The suit claims Apple struck a deal with book publishers meant to raise the price of e-books.

...Since the end of March, more than 600,000 Macs have been infected by a virus known as Flashback. The attack, disclosed on April 4 by a little-known Russian antivirus company called Doctor Web, has mainly affected computers in the United States.

A hulking research vessel would haul air guns, echo sounders and other instruments along the California coast day and night for several months as part of a proposed $64 million effort to map seismic fault lines near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The surveys, proposed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company, could produce a precise three-dimensional map of the fault lines, helping the utility estimate the location and magnitude of potential earthquakes. But the maps would do little to reveal the likelihood of a rupture, experts said, because the proposed surveys will not measure the speeds at which underlying tectonic plates are slipping past each other.

Petaluma City Council members will be asked Monday whether the city should urge North Bay legislators to reject the governor's gaming agreement with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, who plan a huge casino near Rohnert Park.