- SFJazz Center opens with a joyful noise (SF Chronicle)
Before the public could test the acoustics inside the country's first stand-alone jazz concert hall, it got to test the acoustics out on Fell Street, where a raucous New Orleans-style street parade was held to puff up the opening of the SFJazz Center on Monday. The long and low building, three stories of sleek glass wrapping onto Franklin Street, proved a perfect sound baffle for the San Francisco Bourbon Kings as they snaked along the closed-off street, wailing away at "When the Saints Go Marching In" to hundreds waiting to go marching in and inspect the new $64 million facility.
- CCSF would still help students if closed (SF Chronicle)
If City College of San Francisco has to shut down next fall, its leaders would help students transfer to other colleges, store their transcripts in a safe place, and grant name-brand degrees and certificates to students who have completed 75 percent of their program. That's according to a draft version of the "closure report" that City College is required to prepare in case it loses accreditation in June.
- Bidding war for Oscar Grant movie at Sundance Film Festival (SJ Mercury News)
One of the hottest films at the Sundance Film Festival is one likely to pick at barely-healed scabs in the Bay Area. "Fruitvale," directed and written by newcomer Ryan Coogler, is based on the shooting of Oscar Grant by BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle on New Year's Day 2009. Grant's death, which took place at the Fruitvale BART station and was captured on video, triggered riots throughout Oakland as hundreds took to the streets demanding justice.
- Bay Area rents are flattening out, new study says (SJ Mercury News)
The torrid pace of rent increases in the Bay Area is slowing, according to a survey of apartment complexes released Monday. Average rents in the East Bay, Peninsula and San Francisco were nearly unchanged in the fourth quarter of last year and declined slightly in the South Bay, according to RealFacts, a Novato consulting group that tracks rents in apartment complexes with 50 or more units. That compares with the first half of the year, when some areas saw quarterly increases of 4 percent.
- SF, state move forward on gun control (SF Chronicle)
As President Obama prepares for a battle in Congress over proposed gun control legislation, California and San Francisco are moving forward with even more far-reaching proposals. The Golden State already has some of the toughest firearms laws in the nation, including a sophisticated background check database that has resulted in the confiscation of more than 10,000 guns since 2006.
- San Jose: All-Nippon Airways cancels more 787 Dreamliner flights from San Jose amid US safety study (SJ Mercury News)
- Oakland council to vote on police consultants, but will their proposals carry weight? (Oakland Tribune)
Opponents of bringing in former LAPD Chief William Bratton to help turn around Oakland's police force can take solace from one fact if they lose the vote at Tuesday's City Council meeting -- when members of Bratton's proposed consulting team last produced a major report for the city, many of their recommendations never were put in place. One of Bratton's selling points has been that his team would include longtime associates William Andrews and Patrick Harnett, former police chief of Hartford, Conn. In 2007, they produced a $50,000 plan for Oakland to restructure its police department after a crime spike the previous year.
- Trader Joe's famous 'Two Buck Chuck' now goes for $2.49 a bottle (SJ Mercury News)
The price of gas goes up, taxes go up, but "Two Buck Chuck" stayed the same price for more than a decade. No longer. After an 11-year run, the $1.99 price of a bottle of "Two Buck Chuck" wine has disappeared from Trader Joe's in California. Now it's $2.49 a bottle, but "Two-and-a-Half-Buck Chuck" doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same way.
- Mavericks surf contest goes off without trouble seen in 2010 (Bay Area News Group)
Despite wicked traffic and a couple of alcohol-related arrests, officials said the Mavericks big wave surf contest went off Sunday without the trouble seen in 2010. Highway 1 near Half Moon Bay experienced gridlock for most of the day as about 30,000 people flooded in to watch the competition at the fabled surf break. Police, however, recorded only one arrest for drunken driving and one for public drunkenness. Emergency crews also dealt with a handful of medical help calls.
All-Nippon Airways has cancelled flights to Tokyo via Mineta San Jose International Airport through early next week to comply with an FAA order grounding Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in the United States, an airport spokeswoman said. The Japanese airline has been rebooking its San Jose flights to its larger Boeing 777 planes that take off for Tokyo from San Francisco International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport, said airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes.