A.M. Splash: Solyndra Backers May Get Tax Benefits; Hanta Virus Kills 2nd Yosemite Visitor; Petaluma Little Leaguers Get Heroes' Welcome

Two investment firms could walk away from the bankruptcy of Fremont solar panel maker Solyndra with hundreds of millions of dollars in future tax breaks, the U.S. government said in court papers seeking more information on the arrangement. Units of Argonaut Ventures and Madrone Partners could end up with "significantly more" than $500 million in tax benefits as part of Solyndra's bankruptcy, the Department of Energy and the Internal Revenue Service said in a bankruptcy court filing on Friday.

Another visitor to Yosemite National Park this summer who contracted the hantavirus while staying in the popular Curry Village has died, park officials said Monday. That makes three confirmed cases, including two deaths. A fourth case, also reported Monday, is being investigated.

He's 2,861 miles away in sunny Sacramento, but California Gov. Jerry Brown held center stage among hundreds of Republicans here on Monday as the object of an enthusiastic bash fest where state and national political figures excoriated him as a "retread" vestige of Democratic tax-raising and union-influenced leadership.

A bill approved Monday by the state Assembly would allow judges to declare more than two legal parents for some California children. Lawmakers approved SB1476 by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, on a party line vote, with Democrats supporting it. The legislation would allow judges to legally recognize multiple parents when it is in a child's best interest to have more than two parental relationships.

California lawmakers are pushing this week to pass four bills that would make life easier for immigrants living and working here illegally, but all require the support of a governor who chooses his immigration causes carefully. Gov. Jerry Brown won praise last fall from Latinos and immigrant communities when he signed a law giving illegal immigrant college students access to state financial aid, but this season he must sift through a more complicated set of measures that opponents view as defying federal prerogatives.

The agencies investigating the fire at the Chevron refinery in Richmond sought to assure residents Monday that they would hold the company accountable and use lessons from the Aug. 6 blaze to prevent future accidents. "We want to take the lessons here to all of the 150 refineries," Dan Tillema, the lead investigator from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, said at a public meeting in Richmond's City Council chambers. The investigators, though, faced a skeptical and at times angry crowd of about 50 people - and they were able to provide few concrete answers. Some in the audience said they were still feeling ill from the plume of smoke put out by the fire in the refinery's crude-oil processing unit.

A San Rafael priest pleaded innocent Monday to two misdemeanor charges in connection with allegations he exposed himself to an undercover investigator during a crackdown on lewd behavior at China Camp State Park. The Rev. Feliciano Torres Mofan, 58, appeared in Marin Superior Court on charges of lewd conduct in public and being nude in a state park, according to the Marin district attorney's office. If convicted, Mofan faces up to six months in Marin County Jail.

San Francisco cleared out considerably over the weekend as tens of thousands of artists, dreamers, hippies, techies, corporate professionals, newcomers and veteran Burners made a mass exodus to Nevada for the annual Burning Man festival in the Black Rock desert... Participants spend months before the event designing intricate campsites, organizing performances, building ornate sculptures, constructing the famous "art cars" that will navigate the festival grounds and holding flashy fundraisers to pay for their creations.

Motorists looking to cross the Bay this weekend will have to find an option other than the Dumbarton Bridge, as the span will be shuttered for three days for much-needed seismic rehabilitation work. Starting at 10 p.m. Friday, the bridge, which is part of state Highway 84, will be closed to all automobile traffic while crews replace a joint on the eastern segment, a move that will improve the seismic integrity of the structure.

About a dozen members of an anti-circumcision group demonstrated in San Rafael on Monday outside the Bay Area chapter office of the American Academy of Pediatrics, after the academy adopted a new policy on male circumcision.