A.M. Splash: Mirkarimi Ethics Hearing Today; PG&E Aggressively Fighting San Bruno Lawsuit

The city's slow-moving effort to oust suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi from office moves Monday afternoon to a misconduct hearing before the Ethics Commission, but don't expect any courtroom fireworks. Or even a courtroom. Attorneys for Mirkarimi and the city will be in a City Hall hearing room, hashing out what the commission's agenda calls "the process,

PG&E is aggressively fighting what could be the costliest fallout yet from the deadly pipeline blast in San Bruno -- a lawsuit payout to explosion survivors that could reach billions of dollars. In recent court documents Pacific Gas & Electric unveiled its strategy against the hundreds who have sued since the Sept. 9, 2010, explosion and are seeking punitive damages in addition to millions of dollars in compensation for burned homes and family members who died.

A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. document that the company just disclosed to state regulators indicates the San Bruno pipeline that exploded in 2010 had a history of weld failure that by law should have prompted a test designed to head off such disasters.

A tussle between preservationists and UC Berkeley over a decadelong development project in Albany erupted into a pitchfork protest Sunday, when activists planted a renegade farm on a plot of land known as the Gill Tract in an effort to keep it agriculturally pristine.

he Oikos University campus was subdued Monday morning, as students and faculty resumed classes three weeks after a gunman killed seven and injured three in a shooting rampage...Most Oikos classes will be held in the same Oakland building where police say former nursing student One L. Goh, 43, killed six former classmates and a receptionist.

(A) six-year effort to restore Bair Island in Redwood City to tidal wetlands -- bringing back conditions not seen since the late 1800s, along with a wide range of ducks, herons, egrets, salmon, even harbor seals to the heart of Silicon Valley -- is reaching its apex. Work crews with heavy machinery are hauling in up to 500 dump trucks of dirt a day, reshaping the landscape after decades of political battles.

Netflix Inc. reports first-quarter results Monday that will tell investors whether the company can sustain a rebound in customers. Netflix, which posts earnings on its website after markets close, is expected to report 23.4 million U.S. online subscribers, according to the estimates by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, a gain of 1.73 million from December.

Eager to back up District Attorney George Gascón’s recent public support for medical marijuana, prosecutors from his office plan to meet soon with San Francisco medical marijuana providers to flesh out a set of rules agreeable to both sides.

...(W)ith the backing of business, state officials have formed Create CA, a statewide initiative they hope will restore art in schools, so that paintbrushes and even pirouettes are once again as important as No. 2 pencils.

...Most who saw the SMART Muni app — including Edwin M. Lee and 15 other mayoral candidates in October, and senior leadership from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in February — considered it an improvement over the four-channel radio and old paper clipboards currently used to track problems. But now, 10 months later, the app that the volunteer developers created for Muni is unused. Muni hopes to put the app to good use some day, but the agency is $29 million over budget and cannot afford to buy the iPads required to run the software, a Muni spokesman said. Nor is the city willing to invest $100,000 to run a pilot program.