A.M. Splash: Fired Parks Official Has Criminal Record; Richmond Residents Learn to Live With Chevron; Petaluma in Little League World Series

The former deputy director of California state parks at the vortex of a financial scandal has a string of criminal convictions, including a felony DUI, and spent 12 of his 23 years in state government on court-ordered probation, according to court records.

The Petaluma National Little League team assured a place in Sonoma County lore Saturday with a wild 7-5 win over Hawaii in the West Regional championship game.
The victory by the 13 Petaluma 12- and 13-year-olds in front of 5,100 spectators makes them the first Sonoma County team in history to reach the pinnacle of youth baseball — the Little League Baseball World Series in South Williamsport, Pa.

The Better Market Street planning effort extends from the Embarcadero to Octavia Boulevard and is intended to produce a corridor "that attracts more people on foot, bicycle and public transit to local shops, neighborhoods and area attractions."

Northern California environmentalists are teaming up to ask the state and federal government to step up protections for great white sharks, seeking to have them declared an endangered species deserving of the highest level of regulatory safeguards.

San Francisco taxpayers, open your wallets: The races for district supervisor are starting to ramp up, and several candidates already have signed up for public financing, with more requests expected.

Federal investigators say last week's massive blaze at Chevron's Richmond refinery was a "near disaster" that could have killed more than a dozen workers trying to fix an old, leaky pipe, but a review of air pollution violations, accidents and fires at Contra Costa's four refineries show the San Ramon-based oil giant is not the worst offender.

Richmond's Atchison Village was a dream come true for Elizabeth Claman. The retired teacher was able to buy a one-bedroom unit in the cooperative development for less than a conventional home would have cost. She liked the frontyard gardens, the community park, the palpable neighborhood feel.

Two California Maritime Academy students were in custody Sunday afternoon after being arrested on guns and explosives charges Saturday night, a Vallejo Police Department spokesman said. Esteban Ugarte, 29, and Nicholas Salazar, 32, who police believe to be CMA students, were arrested after police received reports just before 7 p.m. of shots fired in the 200 block of Florida Street.

A rash of resignations driven by recent pay and benefit cuts has left San Jose's massive wastewater treatment plant severely short-handed, raising the risk of a catastrophic sewage spill and forcing the city to pay top dollar for contract workers and overtime staff to keep it running, according to an audit Friday and a department report.

The state Department of Public Health warned consumers Friday not to eat oysters from West Marin's Drakes Bay Oyster Co., the largest oyster producer in the state. Three illnesses have been linked to raw oysters from the Inverness-area grower, which shut down its operations after being notified by the health department Wednesday morning that its raw oysters may be contaminated with a bacterium that can cause serious illness, according to manager Ginny Cummings.

A man hit by a BART train Saturday after at the Glen Park station has died, BART officials said. The man – who has not yet been identified – was reportedly on the tracks for trains headed toward the East Bay when he was struck by a train around 2:30 p.m.