A.M. Splash: Giants Win NLCS Game 2; Yahoo Chief Hire Google Exec; George Mitchell in San Bruno Fire Talks; Monitor Slams OPD Again

Ryan Vogelsong notched his first career postseason win Monday providing exactly what the Giants needed: a quality start. Vogelsong (1-0) threw seven strong innings, allowing four hits and a run en route to a 7-1 Giants win over the St. Louis Cardinals at AT&T Park, tying the best-of-seven NL Championship Series at one game a piece.

On her first day back from a two-week maternity leave, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced Monday that she's recruited senior Google advertising executive Henrique de Castro to serve as Yahoo's chief operating officer. De Castro will become one of Mayer's top lieutenants, serving as the executive responsible for sales, operations, media and business development at Yahoo, which has been struggling to reverse a steady decline in its advertising business. The announcement marks Mayer's most high-profile hire since she took over the top job in July, although she has filled other key posts with executives from outside Yahoo.

The same lawmaker who helped broker peace in Northern Ireland and tried the same in the Middle East has been tapped to lead talks over the fine PG&E should pay for the deadly San Bruno blast, officials announced Monday. Former Sen. George Mitchell is to oversee the negotiations between Pacific Gas & Electric and the California Public Utilities Commission that officials hope will draw to a close the regulatory proceedings that began after the Sept. 9, 2010, explosion.

Hundreds of people and a handful of dignitaries are expected to cram into San Francisco's City Hall on Tuesday for a public memorial in honor of slain Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Stevens, 52, and three other Americans were killed Sept. 11 when gunmen attacked the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya. He grew up in Piedmont and graduated from UC Berkeley and UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco before joining the Foreign Service.

Less than two months before a federal judge considers taking control of the Oakland Police Department, the court-appointed monitor overseeing a decade-long reform effort has found that the department is regressing and still far from fully implementing reforms. In a report released Monday, the monitor, Robert Warshaw, blamed police brass for the department's continued struggles, saying they have failed to provide oversight on a range of key issues, including the investigation of misconduct claims and the documentation of the use of force by officers.

Yellow Pages ruling endangers SF ban (SF Chronicle)

San Francisco's pioneering legislation to launch a pilot program banning the unwanted distribution of phone books appears headed back to the drawing board after a federal court struck down a similar ordinance Monday in Seattle. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that many view hefty phone books as historical relics in the age of Internet search engines, but said the Yellow Pages still deserve First Amendment protections.

Feathers are flying over fried chicken purveyor Chick-fil-A's plans to open up shop in Mountain View. The city council is scheduled to weigh in on the matter tonight when it hears two appeals of Zoning Administrator Peter Gilli's decision earlier this year to allow the Atlanta-based company to build a 4,433-square-foot drive-thru restaurant at 1962 W. El Camino Real. A disagreement over land use, not Chick-fil-A's involvement with anti-gay groups, is spurring opposition to the project. Filed separately, the appeals specifically take issue with the drive-thru element.

Well, that didn't take long. Six days after voting to remove suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi from office for bruising his wife (but failing to get enough supervisors to join them), Supervisors Eric Mar and Malia Cohen announced plans to push a long-stalled workplace policy for domestic violence. The policy, likely to be modeled after a program used in Los Angeles, would apply to all 26,000 city and county employees and their workplaces. Including, you guessed it, the Sheriff's Department.

The Earthquakes' first-round home game in the MLS Cup playoffs next month is sold out, the team announced Monday. San Jose will face the Western Conference wild-card winner in a home-and-home series during the first week of November. Also, individual tickets for a potential Western Conference championship game at Buck Shaw Stadium on Nov. 17 or Nov. 18 are scheduled to go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday. For information: www.sjearthquakes.com or 1-800-225-2277.

One person suffered major injuries this morning following a collision involving at least four vehicles on northbound 101 in Sunnyvale just north of the Lawrence Expressway onramp, according to the California Highway Patrol. At least four vehicles were involved in the collision, which was reported at 5:02 a.m., according to CHP Officer Scott Cakebread.