- Investigators: Pier 29 fire started at electrical outlets (KGO)
Fire officials say they know where Wednesday's massive waterfront fire started and they're now working on how... fire investigators studied the spot where the fire started, a bank of electrical outlets. "It's the area with the heaviest charring, and as you can see, the fire, the way it acted, it went up this way and went across the ceiling," SFFD spokesperson Mindy Talmadge said. Investigators don't know yet if workers using the electric power played a role. "We do know that there were some workers that were doing some work in this area. However, there is electrical supply here too, so there could have been a couple different reasons," Talmadge said.
- Alameda County judge accused of financial elder abuse remains on bench (Oakland Tribune)
The Alameda County Superior Court judge charged last week with a dozen felonies and accused of stealing from his elderly widowed neighbor continues to preside over a court at the county's smallest courthouse.
- SEIU violated rights of dues-paying nonmembers, U.S. Supreme Court says (Sacramento Bee)
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that California's largest state employee union violated the free speech rights of 28,000 so-called "fair-share" nonmembers by coercing them to finance political campaigns in 2005 and 2006.
- Ly Tong: Vietnamese 'freedom fighter' guilty of all but most serious offense
Putting aside their deep-felt sympathy and high regard for Vietnamese "freedom fighter" Ly Tong, jurors Thursday convicted him of all but assault with a deadly weapon for spraying a singer from Vietnam with a form of tear gas to protest communism.
- Netflix may have to provide closed captions online (SF Chronicle)
A federal judge has taken a step toward requiring Netflix to provide closed-captioning for the deaf on its video-streaming website, ruling that federal disability laws cover businesses that serve their customers online.
- Calif boy could face battery charge for spitting (Sacramento Bee)
A 12-year-old Chula Vista boy who spit out of a school bus window faces a misdemeanor battery charge because the spit went through the sun roof of a sport utility vehicle and landed on a man and his daughter.
- UCSF links key dementia protein, brain traumas (SF Chronicle)
- Mirkarimi's text messages released (SF Chronicle)
Text messages that Ross Mirkarimi exchanged with his wife and campaign manager in the weeks before he was sworn in as sheriff on Jan. 8, and his arrest on misdemeanor domestic violence charges on Jan. 13 were released Thursday as part of the case in the official misconduct proceedings
- Final outcome of 2nd District congressional race still a mystery; final vote count due by Monday (Marin Independent Journal)
The gap between the second- and third-place finishers in the 2nd District congressional race remains paper thin with just one county left now to complete its vote count.
The mysterious proteins called prions, which build up in the human brain to cause Alzheimer's and other dementias, are also linked to post-traumatic stress disorder in combat veterans and in the brain damage of athletes like football players who have suffered repeated concussions, UCSF researchers report.