A.M. Splash: Absent CCSF Trustees Collect Stipends; San Jose Weighs News Taxes

City College of San Francisco trustees regularly collect their monthly stipend whether they show up to board meetings or not - a practice legal experts say violates state law.

(A)as they confront an 11th straight budget deficit, many city leaders say new taxes are needed, and they are weighing a host of possible measures to put before voters in November -- even though revenue from the sales tax they're most keen on raising has been on the rise the past three years. The tax debate continues at Tuesday's meeting. Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilwoman Nancy Pyle want the city in June -- after Reed's pension reform measure goes to voters -- to consider polling to test the appetite for new sales and business taxes and a bond measure to fund road repairs.

Thirty-six years after the California Supreme Court ordered the state to fix its unequal system of funding schools, a gaping disparity remains between haves and have-nots...A scathing report on California's school finances not only repeats the indictment of an inequitable, insufficient and irrational funding scheme, but also details how California spends on average $620 less on a student living in a high-poverty area than one in an affluent neighborhood.

Peter Gleick, a nationally known expert on water and climate issues, on Friday asked for a short-term leave of absence from the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, where he is co-founder and president. Gleick has been embroiled in controversy since admitting this week that he used a false name to obtain confidential documents from the libertarian Heartland Institute, a pro-industry think tank known for minimizing the risks of global warming.

Attorney General Kamala Harris wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to place "a good faith pause on foreclosure sales in California" until the federal government completes "a thorough, transparent analysis" of the possibility of writing down the debt of borrowers who owe more on their homes than they are worth.

George Lucas' Grady Ranch project promises to be a spectacle fit for the movies...The latest outpost in the billionaire filmmaker's entertainment empire would turn 52 acres at the old ranch on Lucas Valley Road into a three-story, mission-style digital technology production center flanked by 85-foot towers...That's simply too big, next-door neighbors in Lucas Valley Estates say, citing concerns including traffic, noise and around-the-clock activity.

With new exploration successes boosting supplies around the country, Pacific Gas & Electric is paying bargain rates for natural gas -- the lowest it's seen in 10 years and about half the cost of three years ago. But what it charges customers in recent years has remained, stubbornly, almost the same.