Rodney King was haunted by memories, daunted by pain (L.A. Times)
Right now, nobody knows what killed him. I do know that he hadn't stopped drinking. Of course, I couldn't know the full truth of his life in this regard. That was something only he had a handle on. But he told me he still smoked pot — for medical reasons. What I witnessed was a man still struggling against alcohol. He wasn't buying the notion that addicts cannot imbibe. "All addicts are different," he said. "And I'm different. I've learned that I'm one of those who can manage it."
UC Berkeley's libraries next chapter may be cuts (SF Gate)
...faculty objected to being told they had just two choices for the wondrous athenaeums: horrible or terrible.
"There are no first-rate universities in the world without a first-rate library," 110 faculty members declared in a petition asking the university for an extra year to find other ways of keeping Cal libraries not just afloat, but great.
"We are in a crisis, and we have to kind of breathe a bit more deeply," said engineering Professor Panos Papadopoulos, who signed the petition. "We need to think more strategically."
Facebook to pay $10 million to settle suit over 'likes' (San Jose Mercury News)
Facebook has agreed to pay $10 million to charity to settle a lawsuit that accused the site of violating users' rights to control the use of their own names, photographs and likenesses, according to court documents made public over the weekend.
The lawsuit, brought by five Facebook members, alleged the social networking site violated California law by publicizing users' "likes" of certain advertisers on its "Sponsored Stories" feature without paying them or giving them a way to opt out, the documents said.
Video: Parents camp at school in Oakland to keep it open (KGO)
Parents at Lakeview Elementary School in Oakland remain camped-out on campus determined to get the school re-opened.
The parents have been there since Friday. Lakeview is one of five schools the district says it needs to close because of budget issues and declining enrollment.
Many Bay Area cities don't use anti-prostitution tool to regulate massage industry (Contra Costa Times)
James Rockafellow's simmering suspicions about prostitution at massage parlors near his Lafayette home exploded into action when a massage worker "propositioned" a teen neighbor as he walked home from high school.
"We knew something illicit was going on," said Rockafellow, 63. "It was obviously inappropriate."
So Rockafellow and his neighbors screamed for action and the city in May passed an ordinance requiring all massage therapists and practitioners be certified through California's first statewide effort at regulating the industry: the Massage Therapy Council.
BART, community college districts' salaries added to public employee database (Oakland Tribune)
Bay Area News Group has just added BART to the 2011 Bay Area salary database as the 272nd greater Bay Area agency, bringing the total to more than 189,000 people paid more than $14 billion in salary and benefits.
SF To Split $5.6 Million "Workforce Innovation Fund" Grant With San Mateo (SF Appeal/Bay City News)
San Francisco and San Mateo counties will receive a combined $5.6 million in federal grants to help local residents get back to work, the United States Labor Department announced this week.
The two counties are among 26 state and local workforce agencies across the country chosen to receive a "Workforce Innovation Fund" grant.
The grants are meant to help improve workforce development by promoting evidence-based programs that yield better outcomes and lower costs, according to labor department officials.
Is The Coconut Water Craze All It's Cracked Up To Be? (NPR's The Salt)
...nationwide, boxes and even cans of the newly touted "natural" sports drink are now proliferating on supermarket shelves, in specialty food stores and yoga studios. U.S. coconut water sales doubledin 2011, and will reach an estimated $110 million in sales this year. And, according to market research, the demand is likely to continue.
But is it really any better for you than plain old water?