A.M. Splash: Area Nears Record Heat; 12,000 Lose Power in Berkeley; Agency Mulls Beach Fees

The Bay Area's Indian Summer warm-up on Monday nearly sizzled the record book. But aside from Kentfield in Marin County, which hit a record 97 degrees for Oct. 1, it was hot -- but not record hot -- in cities across the region, according to the National Weather Service. San Jose hit 94 degrees, three degrees under a record, and Santa Cruz's 100 degrees was a perfect reason to hit the beach, but fell short of the town's 102-degree record. Gilroy also hit 100 degrees, not a record for that date on the calendar.

Thousands of PG&E customers in Berkeley lost power Monday night, a PG&E spokeswoman said. The outage began at around 8 p.m. when 12,425 customers lost their power, PG&E spokeswoman Jana Morris said. PG&E crews responded to a substation in Berkeley believed to be where the outage began to try and determine the cause of the outage.

While businesses deride California's new restrictions on greenhouse-gas emissions as a giant tax, lawmakers have taken steps to carve up the money. Gov. Jerry Brown over the weekend signed two bills establishing general guidelines on how the expected $1 billion-plus in annual revenue will be spent.

California State Parks... is still seeking the authority to expand the number of beaches along the Sonoma and Mendocino County coasts, including at Goat Rock, where visitors must pay for parking. State officials say the new day-use fees, which would amount to $8 a vehicle, are necessary to keep the beaches open and to reopen others as the park system grapples with budget cuts and a deferred maintenance backlog of more than $1 billion.

Developers and business leaders have exhorted Chevron to expand operations in the city's Marina Bay district, and now elected officials are set to join the chorus. The City Council is expected on Tuesday to pass a resolution urging its largest taxpayer to invest in new research and office space in the shoreline district, which many think is brimming with the potential to become the next hot high-tech hub in the Bay Area.

San Rafael officials approved the county's toughest anti-tobacco ordinance to date on Monday, banning smoking from all apartments and condominiums, in addition to parks, bus stops, restaurant patios and many other outdoor spaces. The measure is aimed at protecting people from secondhand smoke, officials said.

President Barack Obama is designating the California home of labor leader Cesar Chavez as a national monument, a move likely to shore up support from Hispanic and progressive voters just five weeks before the election. The White House said Monday that Obama will establish the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in Keene, Calif., during a campaign swing through California next week. The property is known as La Paz, short for Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz, or Our Lady Queen of Peace.

A recall of peanut butter and other nut products has some of the country's largest grocery stores pulling store-brand products off their shelves. New Mexico-based Sunland Inc. has expanded its recall of peanut butter and almond butter to include cashew butters, tahini and blanched and roasted peanut products. The company, which sells its nuts and nut butters to large groceries and other food distributors around the country, recalled products under multiple brand names last month after salmonella illnesses were linked to Trader Joe's Creamy Salted Valencia Peanut Butter, one of the brands it manufactures.

As much as some may want to, it may not be that simple for a supervisor to duck the upcoming vote on whether suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi should be removed from office. The issue has been swirling for months, particularly after Supervisor Christina Olague said she may have to recuse herself when reporters questioned her in June about whether she had spoken to Mayor Ed Lee about seeking Mirkarimi's ouster.

Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who has faced questions over her direct role in operating a city teen center, intercepted a check the city issued to a vendor on the project and held it for more than three months while demanding more work from the retailer, records show. The city issued the $18,140 check in May 2010 to the Guitar Center for recording studio equipment for the center, which Brooks ran as a pet project until her council colleagues stripped her of control earlier this year.