Morning Splash: BART Says Protest May Again Close Stations; FCC Looking at KUSF Sale; Fort Bragg Official Slain; Hurricane Irene

BART officials are again warning commuters that they may close stations in downtown San Francisco or alter service in response to a demonstration planned for 5 p.m. tonight at Civic Center Station. This is the third consecutive Monday that activists plan to rally against BART over the fatal police shooting of a knife-wielding transient on July 3, and over the agency's decision on Aug. 11 to shut down underground wireless service to thwart a protest.

...(M)ore than six months after KUSF went off the air, ...easy [FCC] approval is not such a sure bet. In late June, the commission sent an unusual “letter of inquiry” to U.S.F. and to the Classical Public Radio Network, the nonprofit largely owned by U.S.C. that was set up to manage the now-public KDFC. Media observers speculate that the move may signal that the F.C.C. will use the KUSF situation as an occasion to sharpen regulation of national noncommercial radio.

By the time the final tab comes in, the cost of designing and installing a [wheelchair] ramp to the president's chair at the Board of Supervisors - a project now under way - is expected to top out at $699,413.

Muni riders already can board through the back doors of trains on the six light-rail Metro lines if they want to use their Clipper fare card or can show proof they've already paid. Now city transit officials are looking at whether to expand all-door boarding to the bus fleet. The reason? To speed the travel time that it takes to get from one end of the route to the other.

The news reverberated rapidly through Fort Bragg on Sunday: Community leader and timber man Jere Melo had been shot to death in the forestland where he had worked most of his life, an apparent victim of the illicit backwoods drug trade. A man identified only as Aaron Bassler of Fort Bragg is being sought as a suspect in the case.

On Saturday, roughly 600 people gathered on the sprawling carnival grounds of the Napa Valley Expo for the so-called “super rally” that would kick off the Tea Party Express’ “Reclaiming America” bus tour. The turnout was a far cry from the 4,000 to 5,000 people that representatives from Tea Party Express’ Sacramento office said they were expecting only days before the Napa rally.

A pioneering Marin County breast cancer study has entered a new phase as experts study a wealth of information they hope will provide keys to combat the disease. Researchers have a trove of information collected in the Marin Women's Study, which established a unique database focusing on health and risk factor data, genetic variables, hormone levels and mammographic breast density measurements of 14,000 Marin women.

The criminal charges against three Marines announced last week appear to be as rare as they are extraordinary. As the three service members face punishment for painfully hazing a Santa Clara corporal who killed himself in Afghanistan, and the family of Lance Cpl. Harry Lew prepares for a round of unusual court hearings, experts say hazing charges can be tough to prove and don't often result in stiff sentences. But they say that the accused Marines appear to have stepped over the line.

Residents along the Eastern seaboard faced a massive cleanup effort Monday after Hurricane Irene pounded tens of millions of Americans with wind, rain and floods. The huge size and slow journey of the storm along 1,100 miles of U.S. coastline left an extraordinarily broad impact. At least 26 deaths were attributed to Irene as devastation ranged from North Carolina to Vermont. Toppled trees, fallen debris and flooding caused hundreds of roads to be closed over the weekend. Up and down the coast, some 2.4 million people evacuated.

A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments Monday on whether he should unseal video recordings of last year's landmark trial on the constitutionality of the voter-approved measure, known as Proposition 8. Lawyers representing two same-sex couples, the city of San Francisco and a coalition of media groups want the recordings made public. Attorneys for the ban's backers are trying to keep them under wraps. They argue disseminating the footage would violate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned cameras from covering the high-profile case so it could be broadcast to other courthouses or posted on YouTube.

Month after month this spring, California officials cheered as personal income and sales taxes flowed into state coffers at a robust clip. But one area repeatedly underperformed: taxes on corporate profits. That occurred despite the fact that corporations have reported strong profits this year.

Valley residents and businesses will have more time to digest and comment on thousands of pages of environmental reports on how high-speed trains will affect the region. The official 45-day review period for the California High-Speed Rail Authority's reports on its Merced-to-Fresno and Fresno-to-Bakersfield sections is now 60 days, wrapping up on Oct. 13 instead of the original deadline of Sept. 28.

When a judge last week closed a deportation case against Filipino immigrant Raul Sinense, he and his husband, Peter Gee, celebrated by having coffee together on Berkeley's Solano Avenue...The Oakland pair is one of just three gay couples nationwide to benefit from a new Obama administration policy that orders immigration officials to reconsider deporting illegal immigrants who have strong community and family ties.

For years, environmentalists have raised alarms about the slaughter of red-tailed hawks, golden eagles and other raptors that have fallen victim to the whirling blades of thousands of wind turbines along the Altamont Pass in eastern Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Now the most iconic wind farm in California is getting a major upgrade that promises to drastically reduce the number of bird deaths.

Some Bay Area chambers of commerce are getting an edible economic boost from the mafia. A family of gourmet food trucks, known as the Food Truck Mafia, rolled into Fremont, Newark, Pleasanton and Union City this summer, giving East Bay foodies an eclectic weekly fix of cuisines and providing much-needed cash for the local chambers of commerce.