Morning Splash: GOP Puts Onus on Brown, New SJ Chief Says Police Mistreatment 'Very Real'

A day after Gov. Jerry Brown challenged Republicans to put tax measures on the ballot and chided them for not having an alternative plan, GOP leaders said that proposing a balanced budget is the governor's job, not theirs.

Admitting that San Jose police officers have acted unprofessionally to some residents, newly appointed police Chief Chris Moore on Tuesday promised "a new beginning" in which the department will listen far more closely to community concerns and monitor officers' actions to ensure they are not racially profiling.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Tuesday outlined a "monumental" but still incomplete effort to search through 1.25 million pipeline records in 20 field offices to try to verify the safety of its natural gas transmission lines in the wake of the deadly San Bruno explosion. The records search - which the utility expects to take six more weeks - was ordered by state officials at the urging of federal transportation safety investigators probing the Sept. 9 pipeline blast that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. The records search - which the utility expects to take six more weeks - was ordered by state officials at the urging of federal transportation safety investigators probing the Sept. 9 pipeline blast that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.

The Oakland City Council postponed a discussion of whether to license marijuana farms in the city Tuesday night, a move that could reshape the cannabis industry for the entire state. A proposal by Councilwoman Desley Brooks would create a new city farming permit to allow the holder to operate both a medical marijuana dispensary and an off-site pot farm up to 50,000 square feet within city limits. The plan calls for the city to issue five of those permits.

Blue Shield of California backed down Tuesday from its earlier stance and agreed to comply with a request by the state Department of Insurance to delay imposing rate increases on individual policyholders for 60 days.

There was a groundswell of support to save Caltrain at the Friends of Caltrain Summit, an event that brought a standing room only crowd to the auditorium at the SamTrans building in San Carlos on Saturday. Friends of Caltrain is a grassroots effort attempting to stop Caltrain from cutting evening, midday, weekend, and Gilroy service.

Six months after the city began charging admission to out-of-towners who visit the gated Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park, members of the Board of Supervisors moved Tuesday to rescind it. "I do believe the fee creates a chilling effect on people's enjoyment of the park, and eliminating the fee would again assure that people would have no barrier to entering the park," said Supervisor John Avalos, who proposed ending the fee next month.

Labor allies of Gov. Jerry Brown are actively considering backing moderate challengers in next year's Republican legislative primary campaigns with the aim of forcing GOP incumbents to think twice about opposing Brown's plan to push a tax extension measure on the ballot. They are also considering ramping up direct mail efforts or door-to-door canvassing within the next several weeks in the districts of potentially vulnerable Republicans who continue to threaten to block a vote on Brown's tax plan.

The Claremont Hotel Club & Spa, a symbol of Bay Area luxury for nearly a century, was one of five high-end resorts filing for bankruptcy on Tuesday, following an ill-fated acquisition by Morgan Stanley in 2007...The move is the latest shakeup at the Claremont, which once served as a residential hotel, convention hall and concert venue for the likes of Count Basie and Louis Armstrong. Now marketed as a resort and spa, it has suffered in recent years from a slump in tourism and luxury spending. Rooms can go for more than $400, putting it out of reach of budget travelers.

...With a state court trial slated to begin next week in the effort to shutter Club Wet, a prospective buyer of the nightclub has sued separately in federal court in San Jose, maintaining that a city ordinance regulating public entertainment venues is unconstitutional...The lawsuit further tangles the fate of Club Wet, which has been deemed by police as the city's most dangerous nightclub and already had its entertainment license yanked for now.

California on Tuesday began releasing payroll data for an often-overlooked arm of local government — the hundreds of special districts that spend billions of dollars providing services ranging from fire protection to flood control.

Using a law written to prosecute the Mafia, Chevron Corp. on Tuesday filed a racketeering lawsuit against a team of lawyers who have been fighting the company over oil field pollution in Ecuador. Chevron accused the lawyers - as well as their clients and their spokeswoman - of conspiring to extort up to $113 billion from the oil company, based in San Ramon.

...On Tuesday, the Giants brought their precious metal mantelpiece to San Jose to mark their territorial rights in the most public way possible. Standing 24 inches high and 11 inches in diameter, the trophy looked like what you might get if you asked Tiffany to design a gaudy fire hydrant. For three hours, the Giants' local fan base filed by the glittering cylinder at home plate of Municipal Stadium, where the San Jose Giants -- the big club's Class-A farm team -- plays. The San Francisco ballclub has been embroiled in a two-year turf war with the Oakland Athletics over who should control territorial rights to San Jose, where A's owner Lew Wolff has said he wants to move his team. But after 2,375 locals lined up for hours just to touch the hem -- metaphorically,