A.M. Splash: Proposed Free Muni Youth Pass Could Be Derailed by MTC; Artist Thomas Kinkade's Tumultuous Final Years

The seven directors for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, have indicated they are prepared to approve free passes for at least low-income youths, but only if $5 million in one-time funding is provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area’s lead transit planning agency. However, several members of the MTC say they are skeptical about using regional funds to pay for a 22-month pilot project that would just benefit San Francisco.

The Golden State Warriors have shunned an offer from the San Francisco Giants to build an arena on land next to AT&T Park. Instead, the basketball team is quietly exploring plans to go it alone with a spectacular waterfront arena at Piers 30-32.

Los Gatos painter Thomas Kinkade grew famous and wealthy for his comforting, bucolic and often spiritual paintings -- a snowy rural church on Christmas Eve bursting with light from within, a sailing ship at sea emerging from a cloud-flecked sunrise. But the final years of his life were more tumultuous than his art would suggest.

Those clumps of students hunkered down in a San Jose State cafeteria this weekend, staring at laptop screens from behind rows of coffee and soda cups, weren't just cramming for finals. Many of them were writing code and testing programs, hoping to create the next Facebook or some other killer app, during a three-day "hackathon" organized by students and sponsored by a local tech startup, SendHub.

When Californians vote in the June 5 primary, they will see an entirely new kind of ballot that some hope will lead to changes in the types of candidates who are elected to public office. For this first year, many voter advocates and elections officials say, they are just hoping to avoid mass confusion.

...Tests on the bullfrog by Raul Figueroa, a researcher at San Francisco State University, confirmed that it was infected with an invisible but virulent fungus. The chytrid skin fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or B.d., is harmless to humans but may have wiped out hundreds of amphibian species. Two other bullfrogs that The Bay Citizen bought from other Chinatown markets also tested positive.