A.M. Splash: U.S. Monitor Blasts Oakland Police; Feds Close SF Pot Clinics; Woody Allen Films in Marin; 49er Stadium Beams Rise in Santa Clara

With Oakland's control of its own police department potentially hanging in the balance, the federal monitor overseeing the force questioned its willingness to reform itself and raised concerns over photos posted at police headquarters of a federal judge and elected official doctored "in a manner ... found to be racist."

HopeNet, on Ninth Street in South of Market, and the Vapor Room, on Haight Street in the Lower Haight, will be the seventh and eighth San Francisco dispensaries to close under federal pressure since a coordinated statewide
crackdown began last fall.

Wiggle room on BART may be a little harder to come by during Friday’s commute, when the transit agency will start experimenting with allowing bikes on trains at all times. BART currently bans bikes on certain lines during the busy weekday commute hours. However, the agency is embarking upon an ambitious policy to increase cyclists’ access, and during August bikes will be allowed onboard all day Fridays.

Apple and Samsung on Monday picked an eclectic federal court jury to consider their epic patent showdown in the smartphone wars, for the most part steering clear of a slew of engineer and tech types in the Silicon Valley jury pool.

Olympic spoiler: Bay Area fans fight social media temptation to preserve prime-time pleasure (SJ Mercury News)

Eight time zones away from London, some frustrated Olympics fans in the tech-obsessed Bay Area are living in their own private hell, trying to boycott social media to watch the Games the old-fashioned way: tape-delayed in prime time. To cope, some are -- gasp -- turning off Twitter. Unfriending Facebook. Disabling news alerts.

The San Francisco 49ers began propping up the skeleton of their new stadium on Monday, the most visible sign of progress yet. Crews working on the $1.2 billion Santa Clara stadium have been drilling 3,000 holes five stories deep and filling them with concrete as a base to support 14,000 massive steel beams. It's been pivotal work, but not exactly visible.

A New York firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against Zynga, claiming the company's executives and early investors knew the company was struggling when they sold millions of shares before announcing a substantial drop in projected earnings. Newman Ferrara filed the lawsuit Monday afternoon in federal court in the Northern District of California, home of the San Francisco-based online gaming company, according to Roy Shimon, a lawyer with the firm. The complaint lists only one original plaintiff, shareholder Mark DeStefano, but Shimon said his firm expects "dozens and dozens" more to join.

Party buses and underage drinking do not mix, said a state lawmaker who intends to close a loophole in existing law to make operators responsible for underage drinking in their vehicles. Assembly Bill 45, the Brett Studebaker Law, will require party bus operators to check identifications and to require passengers under 21 to sign an agreement not to drink just like limousine drivers currently are required to do

One day after a Six Flags Discovery Kingdom roller coaster stalled 150 feet above the ground, stranding a dozen passengers for nearly 90 minutes, park officials and state investigators were stumped as to what caused the park's newest ride to stop mid-thrill.