A.M. Splash: Rain Predicted Through Weekend; Santa Clara Council Finalizes 49ers Stadium Deal; SF Gas Prices Soar

More than 4.5 inches have rain have fallen in some parts of the Bay Area in the last 24 hours, and the wet weather is expected to stick around through the weekend, when thunderstorms could roll through the region, forecasters said.

In a move that could allow the bulldozers to start their engines any day, the Santa Clara City Council on Tuesday finalized the lease, budget and overall terms of the massive San Francisco 49ers' stadium project. The council's vote to approve the deal is the last meaningful step in a nearly six-year quest to lure the NFL team to Silicon Valley and build a new 68,500-seat stadium on a parking lot adjacent to Great America theme park.

Pervasive and potentially dangerous gaps persist in Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s record-keeping operation 18 months after the San Bruno disaster, despite company pronouncements that it is working to make its natural-gas system safer, according to the draft findings of an independent audit expected to be completed this month.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee finds himself caught between advocates of civil liberties and his hand-picked police chief now that the Board of Supervisors has narrowly passed controversial legislation increasing civilian scrutiny of police officers who work with the FBI's counterterrorism unit.

Local motorists are continuing to get hammered at the gas pump, with fuel prices rising 52 cents in the past month in San Francisco. A gallon of gas now goes for $4.43 on average, according to the latest reports from AAA. That’s seven cents more than the state average and 62 cents more than the national average.

Promising "improvements" to the state's controversial bullet train plan, the new head of the project told a Senate hearing in Silicon Valley on Tuesday he now believes building high-speed rail would cost less than the alarming estimate of nearly $100 billion...Using existing tracks like Caltrain and speeding up the construction schedule would bring down the costs of the project, Richard said in defending the much-criticized plan that Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed him to revive. He also promised quicker upgrades to Bay Area and Los Angeles commuter lines that would share the track and upgrading the initial leg of track in the Central Valley.

Bowing to pressure from liberal activists, Gov. Jerry Brown is negotiating an eleventh-hour compromise on a November tax initiative, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks. A deal could be announced as early as today. The deal would fuse elements of Brown's current proposal and parts of a "millionaire's tax" backed by a coalition of liberal groups, including the California Federation of Teachers.

After a week of intense eleventh-hour lobbying by drug companies, Alameda County supervisors decided to delay an ordinance that would have made it the first local government to require pharmaceutical companies to take back their products. A 4-0 vote in favor of the ordinance was expected. Instead supervisors decided to postpone a vote until no later than June.