- Towering America's Cup boat recovered (SF Chronicle)
The massive, state-of-the art Oracle Team USA catamaran racing sailboat that flipped and was dragged out the Golden Gate was brought ashore early Wednesday morning, officials said. The boat was towed to the team's base at Pier 80 around 12:43 a.m., according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Oracle Team USA utility boats towed the boat to shore under the watchful eyes of the Coast Guard.
- Leipheimer opens up about doping revelations (Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
- Underage Foxconn interns working in China plant return to school (LA Times)
Underage interns working at a plant operated by electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group returned to their vocational schools in the eastern Chinese city of Yantai on Wednesday, the official New China News Agency reported. Foxconn on Tuesday admitted to employing interns as young as 14 at a factory in the city. China's minimum working age is 16. It's unclear how many workers were underage.
- Slain Libya ambassador honored in S.F. (SF Chronicle)
Slain Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, once a mischievous and charming East Bay boy, grew into a respected diplomat who devoted his life to bringing freedom and democracy to the people of Libya. Hundreds of mourners who gathered for a memorial service Tuesday in the San Francisco City Hall rotunda celebrated a man who never lost that youthful knack for charm and persuasion as he served his country and helped Libyans as they overthrew their dictator.
- Oakland port spending: More muck ahead (SF Chronicle)
The $4,500 that Oakland port Maritime Director James Kwon allegedly shelled out to entertain shipping executives at a Houston strip club may be only the most embarrassing example of the port's misspent public dollars. According to a well-placed source, port Executive Director Omar Benjamin and the commissioners who oversee the operation were told in closed session that the port is looking at "hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable expenditures" by higher-ups going back several years.
- Oakland pension board to appeal ruling (SF Chronicle)
A board governing an Oakland police officers' pension plan said Tuesday it will appeal part of a judge's order that called for the board to reduce benefits and pay back $11.5 million in benefits that the court deemed were wrongfully paid out. The appeal will focus on whether the City Council, which sued the board to force it to reduce pension benefits, was required to file a petition to the pension board before filing a lawsuit.
- Inflation rises at faster pace in the Bay Area, up 2.8 percent in one year (SJ Mercury News)
Inflation has begun to intensify in the Bay Area, according to a report released Tuesday of consumer prices in the San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco regions. During the 12 months that ended in August, consumer prices jumped 2.8 percent in the Bay Area, the study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics disclosed.
- Warriors development deal, financing taking shape (SF Examiner)
A development across the street from the proposed waterfront basketball arena could house a 200-room hotel, 125 residential units and 34,000 square feet of retail space, according to information the Warriors provided to The City. The team wants to build a privately financed 17,500-seat arena and 105,000-square-foot retail complex on city-owned Piers 30-32, a waterfront site just south of the Bay Bridge on The Embarcadero. But the deal includes the team’s use of a triangular plot of land across the street from the piers, Seawall Lot 330, where the hotel and other developments would be located.
- ‘Evil Elmo’ brings his show from New York to San Francisco (SF Examiner)
The man who has become infamous from coast to coast for dressing up as the iconic “Sesame Street” character and launching into very public anti-Semitic rants declared Tuesday that children have nothing to worry about while he’s in The City. But on Saturday morning, concerned residents had a much different take.
- Invasive species known as 'marine vomit' found at Drakes Estero (Marin Independent Journal)
A newly discovered invasive species capable of blanketing shallow bay bottoms has turned up in Drakes Estero in the Point Reyes National Seashore, prompting calls for immediate action to curb the biological threat and entering the debate over the future of the commercial oyster farm there. A fast-growing sea squirt, Didemnum vexillum, is actually thousands of tiny animals that cluster under a common membrane. It is called "marine vomit" for its unappealing gelatinous mass and has been likened to "the Blob" for its capacity to smother other organisms, possibly including the estero's $1.5 million-a-year oyster crop and its abundant eelgrass beds.
Santa Rosa cycling icon Levi Leipheimer on Tuesday recounted his steep slide into the hidden world of doping, the emotional pain wrought by his choices, and how his relationship with Lance Armstrong deteriorated to the point where he is fearful of retribution from the man. It was Leipheimer's first media interview since the disclosures a week ago by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that Leipheimer and several other elite U.S. riders had admitted participating in complex doping strategies that in most cases were an indictment of Armstrong, the seven-time winner of the Tour de France.