A.M. Splash: SF to Replace Lost Federal AIDS Funding; Richmond Area Law Enforcement on Alert After Killings

Mayor Ed Lee announced Thursday morning that he will use city money to backfill $6.6 million in federal cuts to AIDS and HIV care in the city for the new fiscal year that starts July 1.

Responding to growing political pressure over an increase in crime and trash from homeless encampments, San Jose city officials on Thursday agreed homeless camp cleanups will resume -- at least temporarily. The city and crews from the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the San Jose Conservation Corps will clean up three of the city's estimated 60 camps over the next five weeks. Based on how much money each cleanup costs, the city and its partners in the effort will develop a longer-term collaborative strategy that includes housing more homeless to discourage them from moving right back to their former camps after cleanups.

A 55-second video showing Eliana Lopez, the wife of suspended San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, crying over her rocky marriage and displaying a bruise Mirkarimi allegedly inflicted during an argument continues to drive a vigorous legal battle the couple have waged to keep it from public release.

A flare-up in deadly shootings in Richmond and unincorporated North Richmond has police and anti-violence workers mobilized in an effort to quell further violence. On Monday morning, 22-year-old Orlando Yancy was killed in a drive-by in unincorporated North Richmond, the second homicide in that area this year. Two days later, 27-year-old Donald Washington became Richmond's eighth homicide victim of 2012 when he was shot at least five times as he sat in his car in the 500 block of Eighth Street, in that city's Iron Triangle neighborhood.

Eight candidates are vying to replace disgraced ex-Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer including three veteran city politicians and Lockyer's predecessor Gail Steele. The major names in addition to Steele are Union City Mayor Mark Green, who also is running for State Assembly; former Union City Councilman Richard Valle, who also is running to be that city's mayor; and Newark Councilwoman Ana Apodaca, who lost a mayoral bid last year.

The effort to keep China Camp State Park open just got $30,000 stronger. The nonprofit California State Parks Foundation announced Thursday it will award 13 grants totaling $328,586 to organizations that are fighting to keep state parks off a closure list. The Marin State Parks Association and its subgroup, Friends of China Camp, received a chunk of the cash as it works to keep the state park's gates open.

Donations of time and money have given Hendy Woods State Park in Mendocino County a reprieve from closure...Hendy Woods is a key draw for tourists. It also provides half of the valley's overnight accommodations, said Deborah Cahn, owner of Navarro Vineyards & Winery.

The city is spending $20,000 to review its police department's media policies after the chief was widely criticized for sending a sergeant to a reporter's home in the middle of the night to ask for changes to an online story. Cornerstone Communications in Irvine will spend the next six months auditing the department's policies and procedures on releasing public information and making certain the department is following state requirements for disclosure, said company founder Bill Rams. The contract also allows the city to reimburse Cornerstone for up to $4,000 in expenses.

...Just about a month after Young stepped between a customer fighting with his pregnant girlfriend in the Safeway store in the town of Del Rey Oaks, where Young is a meat clerk, Safeway is still investigating the incident. And while Young waits for Safeway to wrap up the investigation, he's been suspended without pay — a particularly acute hardship because he and his wife are expecting a baby.