A.M. Splash: PG&E Pipe Ruptures; CSU Faculty Plans Brief Walkout; Chinatown Politics

A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. natural gas pipeline ruptured Sunday afternoon during a high-pressure water test that ripped a hole in a Peninsula hillside, sending a deluge of mud and rocks onto Interstate 280 and partially closing the freeway for four hours.

California State University faculty will echo the Occupy movement today and Tuesday as professors and lecturers walk out of class - for a couple of hours, anyway - to vent frustration with the "1 percent" running the university. (Note: The California Faculty Association says different schools will participate in the walk-out on either Tuesday and Wednesday, not today.)

...It appears that the race for mayor has come down to the last couple of days, with traditionally liberal and progressive voters making up their minds at the last minute - or perhaps sitting it out. An analysis by Redistricting Partners, a Sacramento political consulting firm, found that as of last week, 79 percent of expected mail-in voters in Chinatown had turned in their ballots - 32 percentage points above the citywide average return at this time during two earlier election cycles.

...In many ways, the mayor’s race has pulled back the curtain on how Chinese politics is played in San Francisco, revealing the infighting, bitter rivalries — some dating back to China — and a tradition of patronage and guanxi, or strategic relationships.

Spirited election contests for city, school and special district posts end Tuesday as voters weigh in on races ranging from San Rafael mayor and Novato council member to College of Marin and Mill Valley schools trustees.

Four days after its largest organized effort to date, the Occupy Oakland camp was quiet Sunday as the weather turned to a bitter chill. Police said they expect the downtown camp will become less active as the weather gets colder and rainier, potentially driving campers to seek indoor shelter. After warm, sunny weather treated 7,000 protesters at Wednesday's general strike to an energizing day, Bay Area weather quickly turned wintery, with light rain and temperatures dropping to the mid-40s.

For at least eight years, Santana Alvarado worked as a dishwasher and cook at a Chili's Restaurant in Concord, typically showing up for the job each day around 7 a.m. But, based on his sworn testimony in an ongoing legal battle, Alvarado had trouble getting his bosses to even give him a break to eat. And when he and his co-workers did manage time off the clock to grab a meal, he recalled, "we were forced to eat in a storage room." Now, Alvarado is one of five lead plaintiffs in a major legal showdown over employee meal and rest breaks that has reached the California Supreme Court.

The city of San Jose and its employee unions seem headed for a December showdown after months of talks produced no agreement on a pension reform measure that Mayor Chuck Reed wants to put before voters to deflate ballooning retirement costs.

Almost 15 years after a San Jose neighborhood was so afflicted by street gangs that a judge ordered landlords to hire their own private security force, some residents say it's the court-mandated armed guards who are a threat. Five teens, several adults who live in the Santee area and a gang suppression worker told this newspaper that guards from Concord-based Admiral Security have harassed and assaulted them.

...Under new proposed legislation, all bags from all retail operations in The City would cost an extra dime each, and 25 cents by mid-2014. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the legislation’s sponsor, wants all stores to fall in line with the existing ban on noncompostable plastic bags, currently applied only to big grocery stores and chain pharmacies.

Kelly Slater, known to many as the King of Surfing, won his 11th world title Sunday in San Francisco, four days after he was prematurely granted the honor due to a miscalculation of points.