A.M. Splash: Apple's Request to Ban Samsung Phones Denied; Lockyer Calls for Partial State Divestment in Gunmakers; Cold Weather Comes

A federal judge late Monday rejected Apple's demands that its chief rival in the more than $100 billion global smartphone market cease selling models a jury recently found illegally used Apple technology. The immediate impact of the ruling means that Samsung can continue to sell three of the older-generation smartphones still on U.S. shelves that a San Jose jury in August found ripped off technology Apple used to create its iPhone.

Treasurer Bill Lockyer has asked the state's two largest public pension funds to purge their portfolios of gun manufacturers that make firearms that are illegal in California. Lockyer, a board member of both the public employees' and teachers' retirement systems, made the request Monday afternoon following revelations that CalSTRS has a stake in the company that makes rifles like the one used in last week's Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

Two Oakland City Council members want to slash by half the fees the city charges for taxi medallions, which they say are too costly for cabdrivers dealing with rising costs. Larry Reid and Ignacio De La Fuente are proposing to reduce the medallion fee from $1,019 a year to $510. The councilmen, whose proposal will be heard by the council Tuesday night, say the economic climate warrants the 50 percent reduction.

Swirling with lunacy and paranoia, the theories warn of mayhem and cataclysm. They fill books and websites, inspiring hand-wringing among gullible people. The claim: The world is ending on Friday, the final chapter in an ancient Mayan prophecy carved into stone calendars thousands of years ago. The stories are a jumble, based on everything from New Age mysticism to biblical "end times." In some accounts, a giant secret planet is about to slam into Earth, or a solar storm will wipe out the human race. None has any basis in fact, scientists say, but a poll this summer found 12 percent of Americans are worried. Some teenagers have even talked of suicide.

There are several massive North Pacific swells slated to hit the Bay Area coastline later this week, but the Mavericks Invitational won't be contested until at least January. The window to hold the contest, which hasn't been held the last two seasons, opened Nov. 9 and extends through March 31. But staging the one-day event at the surf break off Pillar Point Harbor requires a number of blackout days due to the unavailability of local agencies involved.

In a new labor rift at Raley's a month after its strike ended, the union representing the grocer's workers said Monday it won't count the members' contract-ratification votes until it gets serious grievances resolved. Jacques Loveall, president of Local 8 of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Roseville, cited Raley's "flagrant violation of the strike settlement" in his refusal to release the results of the voting. The votes were supposed to be counted Monday.

On campuses throughout the Bay Area, it was math and phonics as usual Monday -- although in the back of teachers' minds, the tape of the horrific shootings in Newtown, Conn., ran, over and over. School leaders assured parents that their campuses have in place security devices and protocols -- ranging from visitor sign-in requirements to lockdown practices for students. But even as they expressed confidence in those measures, school officials also were reflecting on how they could improve them.