9 Stories You Should Know About Today

A Staten Island grand jury voted on Wednesday not to bring criminal charges in the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died after being placed in a chokehold by a white police officer. The decision was reached after months of testimony, including from the officer who used the chokehold, Daniel Pantaleo. The grand jury reached its decision less than two weeks after a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., declined to bring charges against a white officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown. Full story

Zillow has built up a $4.5 billion valuation by amassing an immense real estate database. But a lawsuit filed in a California court accuses the company of cultivating an "adult frat house" culture in which female employees are constantly solicited for sex by co-workers, ranked on their breast size, and fired if they refuse to play along. Full story

California is in one of the worst droughts in its history, yet the state's residents are going backward when it comes to water conservation. Troubling new numbers out Tuesday show that in October the state reduced urban water use by just 6.7 percent compared with the same month the year before. That's down from a 10.3 percent reduction in September and an 11.6 percent cut in August. Full story

BART says it will formally study the decades-old ideas of building a second Transbay tube and extending service to SF’s western neighborhoods. Ellen Smith, BART’s acting manager for strategic and policy planning, recently told a SF County Transportation Authority Board committee (comprised of SF supervisors) that regional transportation agencies plan to fund a study of a subway connecting the South of Market area to Alameda, with a possible extension west underneath the Market Street subway, towards the Richmond and Sunset Districts. Full story

If you are willing to look into the future where billions of dollars are available to upgrade transit infrastructure and multiple municipalities and governmental agencies are able to work together seamlessly, you might just see a second transbay BART tube. The plan to expand BART service — with a second tube possibly running from Oakland, through Alameda, to San Francisco and another expansion into the western half of the city — depends on a lot of moving parts, a lot of unallocated funding and patience, as any major developments are likely many years away, said Ellen Smith, acting manager for the transit agency. Full story

A new study on teacher pay puts this city's public schools close to the bottom of the 125 largest school districts nationwide when you consider each city's cost of living. The study released Wednesday by the Washington, D.C.- based National Council on Teacher Quality ranks Oakland's school district 121st out of 125 when comparing starting salary, the salary at the end of a teacher's career and lifetime earnings over 30 years. Full story

A year after being told he couldn’t use federal homeland security money to buy drones, Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern said Tuesday that he has used money from his own department to buy two such devices. ... In an interview Tuesday, Ahern said he decided to spend $97,000 from the county’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to buy two small unmanned aerial surveillance devices. The sheriff’s office plans to discuss the purchase and provide a demonstration to the media Wednesday. Full story

California wildlife officials on Wednesday banned coyote hunting contests that have sparked a culture clash by offering cash and other prizes to marksmen who killed the most animals. It was the first ban of its kind in the nation, according to Camilla Fox, executive director of Project Coyote, which petitioned the state to end the popular contests that occur almost every month in California or nearby states. Full story

With eight seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Warriors down by two points, there was never any doubt about whose hands the ball would be in to end the game against the Magic. There was never any doubt about what would happen, either. Full story