A.M. Splash: $11 Million Calif. Campaign Donation Tied to Kochs and Rove; Online Registration Adds Young Voters; Nudist Strips in SF Supes Hearing

After a bitterly partisan legal fight, an Arizona-based nonprofit that contributed $11 million to a California pro-business group fighting for conservative causes in this week's election has been forced to reveal its donors. Americans for Responsible Leadership, which has been pushing a conservative agenda throughout the state during this campaign season, is funded by two secretive nonprofit groups with ties to the politically powerful billionaires David and Charles Koch as well as former Bush administration advisor Karl Rove.

California’s new online voter registration process added more than 614,000 registered voters to today’s state electorate — almost half of them registered as Democrats. But beyond the presidential race, experts say, party officials shouldn’t count on support from such first-time voters. Younger people and first-time voters tend to vote more independently and less along party lines than other voters, noted Corey Cook, an associate professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. New voters also tend to vote for the president and then leave many other items blank on their ballots.

Let's face it, it would've been weird if everyone's clothes stayed on for the entirety of Monday's Board of Supervisors hearing on legislation that would ban public nudity in San Francisco. For two hours, speakers tussled over whether the Castro "naked guys" were a few harmless individuals just expressing themselves, or a growing public nuisance that San Franciscans should no longer have to tolerate. Supervisor Scott Wiener, who represents the Castro, is proposing legislation forbidding genital exposure on city sidewalks, plazas, parklets, streets and public transit while exempting street fairs, festivals and parades.

Giants parade cost San Francisco $225K (SF Examiner)

The celebratory parade for the World Series champion Giants cost San Francisco about $225,000 — a price the Mayor’s Office said was more than offset by the financial benefits of hosting the championship games here. Numbers released by the Mayor’s Office on Monday tallied The City’s unique staffing expenses and other costs, according to mayoral spokeswoman Christine Falvey. The Giants footed the parade’s basic setup costs of roughly $1 million, Falvey said, including the confetti and presentation in Civic Center Plaza.

In a verdict hailed by child-abuse experts, a jury Monday found a principal guilty of the extremely rare charge of failing to report suspected sexual abuse to authorities, despite being told by an 8-year-old girl in vivid and explicit detail about a possible sexual act a teacher performed on her. The conviction of former O.B. Whaley Elementary School principal Lyn Vijayendran was only the second time in two decades that Santa Clara County prosecutors had brought such a misdemeanor charge -- and the first time they'd won.

More than two years after it vanished from its rocky perch in the Mojave Desert, a controversial cross reappeared Monday, wrapped up and zip-tied to a fence post along Highway 92 in San Mateo County. The Mojave Cross was at the center of a Supreme Court case about whether the cross was an appropriate memorial for federal land. Two weeks after the court ruled to allow the 7-foot-tall metal cross to remain on the land, it vanished in May 2010, prompting outrage from veterans groups that vowed to replace it.

The grocery shelves were stocked, the coffee stand was open and shoppers were lined up at the deli counter for sandwiches. On the picket line outside, morale was high and strikers said they were settling in for the long haul. They pumped their fists every time a potential customer left without going inside.

Pandora Media Inc., the biggest Internet radio service, sued the organization representing songwriters and composers to seek lower license fees for playing their songs. Pandora, which is also lobbying the U.S. Congress for lower royalties on recordings, today asked a federal court in New York to set “reasonable” license fees from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers through 2015. Pandora is seeking a blanket licensing fee that would cover all songs represented by the 435,000-member group. The radio service has said the current fees prevent profitability. Ascap and Pandora reached an “experimental” fee agreement in 2005 that lasted until 2010. Terms of their current arrangement weren’t disclosed in the filing.

In a $1.3 billion deal, veteran developer Carl Berg has agreed to sell his Mission West Properties' portfolio of about 100 commercial properties in Santa Clara County and Fremont. A group led by realty developer Divco West is buying the bulk of the portfolio, according to a regulatory filing Monday. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of this year. If the purchase is concluded as anticipated, it would mark the largest property sale in the Bay Area this year.

European Union regulators are to accept an offer by Apple and four publishers to end an antitrust probe into their e-book prices, two sources said, handing Amazon victory in a bid to sell online books cheaper than its rivals, sources said. The case underscores the battle between retailers and publishers over pricing control of e-books, which publishers hope will boost revenue and increase customers.