The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to block gay marriages from beginning in Alabama, though some county court officials are not heeding the ruling, citing an order from the state’s chief justice telling them not to issue licenses. In the capital of Montgomery and in Birmingham, probate judges began to issue same-sex marriage licenses Monday morning. Officials from both cities did not provide estimates for how many marriage licenses they expected to hand out during the day. Full story

The sniping and backbiting between dockworkers and shipping officials intensified this weekend at the Port of Oakland as the long-running contract dispute at 29 ports on the West Coast dragged on, causing crippling delays and devastating economic losses. Work delays and stoppages over the past three months have caused mounting problems for Bay Area importers and small-business owners, who say they are losing money as trucks line up daily outside the Port of Oakland waiting for container ships anchored in San Francisco Bay to unload. Full story

Kensington police Sgt. Keith T. Barrow lost more than his moral compass last year during an encounter with a prostitute in a Reno hotel room. When he fell asleep and woke up a short time later, according to court records and interviews, the hooker -- and Barrow's badge, handcuffs, .40-caliber service pistol and two clips of ammunition -- were all gone. The one thing the 47-year-old detective hasn't lost is his job. Full story

Highway 1 near Jenner reopened at about 4 a.m. Monday after having been closed about 20 hours due to a gasoline tanker crash. The CHP Monday said drivers now can get through but that they’ll faced one-way, controlled traffic while crews removed contaminated soil from the area. Full story

Adnan Syed, the incarcerated subject of the popular podcast "Serial," will get another shot at overturning his murder conviction and life sentence after a court granted his request to reopen his appeal. The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Friday agreed to hear his case after two unsuccessful attempts to appeal his conviction over the past 12 years. Full story

Mark Jeffrey Andrus, a suspect arrested and later released in connection with a dismembered body that was found last month in San Francisco, died at a city hospital, police said Sunday. San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr confirmed that Andrus, 54, died after admitting himself to the hospital on Saturday, but Suhr would not reveal the cause of death. A source close to the investigation told The Chronicle that Andrus died after going into septic shock from “drug-related reasons.” Full story

Even seated, Mary Haynes' body is perpetually in motion. Her torso lurches side to side when she speaks, while Mike Tossy's body is noticeably still. His eyes dart around, but his head rarely turns. Both Haynes and Tossy suffer from Parkinson's disease -- a neurodegenerative disorder affecting nearly a million Americans. They are also two of 11,000 customers of 23andMe with Parkinson's participating in the DNA testing company's research program. Full story

Rapper Olondis “O-Zone” Walker sat at his studio console, eyes closed, listening to the voice of his dead mentor pour out of the speakers. It was a rap they’d cut a few weeks before that mentor, the hip-hop star called the Jacka, fell to a flurry of bullets a few miles southwest of where O-Zone sat in Oakland. Full story

Guess what, California -- it ain't Google or Apple. Full story

“Many Americans spend a minimum of eight hours per day sitting in an office, but we observed significant physical and mental health benefits in subjects after just one instance of standing up, walking out the door, and never coming back to their place of work again,” says Mayo Clinic researcher Claudine Sparks. Full story