A.M. Splash: SF Wants to Mandate Seismic Upgrades; Silicon Valley Growth Back to Dot-Com Levels; City College Turnaround Plan Contested

Thousands of San Francisco property owners would be required to retrofit their older, collapse-prone buildings at an estimated cost of $60,000 to $130,000 each to improve their chances of surviving a major earthquake under legislation Mayor Ed Lee introduced Tuesday. After more than a decade of work, the city is trying to ensure that housing for about 58,000 residents and businesses employing 7,000 workers could withstand a major temblor by forcing property owners to make seismic upgrades.

Silicon Valley's job growth has returned to dot-com boom levels and San Francisco has emerged as a major new tech hub. But good times have not returned for all area residents and ethnic groups. Those are among the findings released Tuesday from the 2013 Silicon Valley Index, a closely watched annual study produced by San Jose-based Joint Venture Silicon Valley and the Mountain View-based Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

State parks employees told investigators last year it was common to hide money in their budget because they were afraid the state Department of Finance would otherwise cut their funding. In 2009, when an internal auditor questioned the hidden nature of a Department of Forestry and Fire Protection account, a department lawyer warned that tipping off Finance officials would result in fire budget cuts elsewhere. The department kept quiet.

The closer City College of San Francisco gets to the March 15 deadline for determining its fate, the more an alliance of critics disagrees with how administrators are transforming the school to try to keep it open and accredited. The Save City College Coalition of faculty, staff and students is organizing teach-ins, planning marches and wooing elected officials, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, to oppose downsizing the school and denounce pay cuts.

The Boy Scouts of America, which reconfirmed last summer its policy banning openly gay people from participation, then said last week it was reconsidering the ban, said on Wednesday that it would postpone until May their decision, as talk of gays in the ranks has roiled a storied organization that carries deep emotional connection and nostalgia for millions of Americans.

A 19-year-old Oakland man accused of being in a gunbattle that resulted in one death and serious injury to several revelers leaving a popular Uptown street festival last week will not be charged with murder, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday. Donald Everett Parks Jr., however, still faces a lengthy prison term for allegedly unloading a semi-automatic handgun into a crowd resulting in the injuries of several people. The gunbattle also resulted in the death of 18-year-old Kiante Tay Campbell just after last week's First Friday street festival.

An Alameda County Superior Court judge has ruled that the University of California must disclose how its investments in two of Silicon Valley's top venture capital firms have performed. A lawsuit filed last year by Reuters alleges that UC -- by allowing Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers to provide only partial information on their financial returns -- is flouting a state law requiring disclosure of how public investments fare.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry slams California's business climate in a new radio ad airing this week across the state. He says in the ad that building a business in California is "next to impossible." And the solution he has for California businesses is clear: "come check out Texas." UPDATE: Gov. Brown, at a business event in Sacramento Tuesday (see video above), said that Gov. Perry's ad is "barely a fart." "It's not a serious story, guys," he said, the Sacramento Bee reports. "It's not a burp. It's barely a fart." Scroll down to see the rest of Brown's response.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson still wasn't ready Tuesday to reveal the identities of the deep-pocketed investors he's recruited to make a pitch to buy the Kings. But despite going past his self-imposed time frame for that announcement, Johnson said he remained confident he would deliver a competitive bid to keep the team here.