LAO Urges Lawmakers to Reject University Tuition Freeze; Zuckerberg Holds Chris Christie Fundraiser; Java Still a Major Worry; More News

For many university students in California, Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal that state lawmakers freeze tuition at current levels for four more years would be a dream come true. But Tuesday, the state's independent legislative analyst urged lawmakers to reject the idea and said it could have nightmarish consequences.

It's going to get more expensive to ride BART -- but at least fares and parking fees aren't going up at the same rate as gas prices. BART officials this week unveiled a proposal to raise fares 5.2 percent next year, increasing the average fare from about $3.44 to $3.62. Exact fares depend on the distance traveled. The transit system's staff says the fare increase is based on the rate of inflation from 2010 to 2012 and would generate about $17 million in new revenue in the first year. They say it's needed to help BART -- already one of the most efficient transit systems in the country -- stay on track financially.

Mayor Ed Lee carefully weighed in Tuesday on the hotly debated condo conversion bypass proposal by encouraging a compromise to bring relief to thousands of tenancy-in-common owners amid worries about the loss of rent-controlled units. The politics are in full effect around the legislation, which was introduced by Supervisor Mark Farrell and is backed by the Plan C homeowner advocacy group. It would allow owners of tenancy-in-common units to bypass the annual lottery that caps such conversions at 200 a year by paying up to $20,000 per unit. It would be a one-time offer for those who participated in the lottery this year and last year.

In a region where big names, big ideas and big money are no big deal anymore, Silicon Valley is atwitter over an event pairing high-tech royalty with political brawn - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's fundraiser Wednesday for Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. The evening bash at the Palo Alto home of Zuckerberg, 28, and his wife, Priscilla Chan - where donors can give up to $3,800 to benefit Christie's 2014 re-election campaign - is a major political step for the low-key, hoodied wunderkind who founded the world's largest Internet social network.

Despite a flurry of recent updates to patch security holes in Oracle's (ORCL) Java software, many experts fear it's only a matter of time before the bug-prone product again exposes millions of computer users to possible cyberattacks."The state we're in now is pretty much a state of chaos,"said Andrew Storms of nCircle, an information security company based in San Francisco. "Nobody really seems to know are they vulnerable or not, and what should they do to make themselves not vulnerable."

Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern on Thursday will make another pitch for spending $31,646 on an unmanned aircraft ¿capable of monitoring vast areas of hard-to-reach land. Draft policy guidelines released last week in a directive by the sheriff would allow the agency to use the drone for missions involving crime scene documentation; explosives; hazardous spills; search and rescue; hostage situations; fleeing suspects; high-risk warrants; disasters; and, at the request of fire authorities, fire response and prevention.

And on the ninth day, Rick Perry declared victory. The Texas governor, whose highly publicized foray into California began with a radio ad last week and will end when he leaves the state today, was on the phone Tuesday afternoon from Laguna Beach – promoting his business recruitment trip and suggesting California could go bankrupt.