1 million sign petitions to boot Stanford sex-assault judge

Here is the latest Local News from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Sean Whent is out as Oakland police chief
“I am so proud to have served Oakland over the course of my two decade-long career,” Whent was quoted as saying in a news release from Schaaf’s office. An officer named Cullen Faeth faced misdemeanor charges of battery, public intoxication and trespassing after he allegedly tried to break into a home in Oakland’s Redwood Heights neighborhood in December and attacked a woman who lived there. In May, four officers were placed on leave and two resigned as a result of an ongoing sexual misconduct case. With pressure mounting from Schaaf’s office and angry Oakland residents, Whent asked the city’s auditor and the Police Department’s inspector general to analyze each case and look for patterns. When I took this job three years ago as interim chief, I vowed to help move the department forward and make Oakland safer by forging a stronger relationship with members of this diverse community.

1 million sign petitions to boot Stanford sex-assault judge
Activists angered by the six-month sentence handed down by a South Bay judge in the Stanford sexual assault case intend to submit petitions Friday signed by 1 million people calling for his removal. Advocates said they hope the petitions will lead to impeachment proceedings in the state Legislature against Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky. The judge handed down the county-jail sentence last week to Brock Allen Turner, the 20-year-old former Stanford student convicted of three felony counts of sexual assault in the January 2015 attack on an unconscious woman outside a fraternity party. The group will hand-deliver signatures from all the online petitions — in a thumb drive — on Friday to the state Commission on Judicial Performance in San Francisco. UltraViolet will also file a formal complaint about Persky with the commission, alleging he was biased and made inappropriate comments on the bench. The move comes a week after the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office released the woman’s victim-impact statement, in which she described in excruciating detail what happened the night she was sexually assaulted and the aftermath she’s faced.

Street near UC Berkeley closed following gas leak
Emergency personnel closed a street on the south side of the UC Berkeley campus Thursday afternoon after a construction crew hit a gas line while digging in the area, officials said. Officers from Berkeley Police Department closed the 2500 block of Durant Avenue, between Telegraph Avenue and Bowditch Street, to all vehicles and pedestrians, as workers from Pacific Gas and Electric, the East Bay Municipal Utility District and the Berkeley Fire Department worked to fix the leak throughout the afternoon. PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian said a construction crew hit the utility company’s line while digging.

Brass disc marking SF’s geographic center is stolen
A brass surveyor’s disc, recently installed on an Upper Market area sidewalk to mark the precise geographic center of San Francisco, has been stolen. On Wednesday, city surveyors and Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru visited the spot in the 700 block of Corbett Avenue to call attention to the disc and to the work of the surveyors that had established the spot as the precise center of town. […] surveyor Michael McGee predicted that the small brass disc — attached to the concrete with heavy-duty glue — would suffer the fate of similar markers and be stolen by vandals. A circular patch marked the spot where the disc had been, briefly.

BART to go to voters in November with $3.5 billion request
With its middle-aged transit system in need of a major overhaul, the BART Board of Directors decided Thursday to ask voters in Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties to approve a $3.5 billion bond measure. The measure, which would boost property tax bills an average of $35 to $55 a year for 30 years, will appear on the November general election ballot in only the three counties in the BART District, though all BART riders would benefit. Tracks and the system’s control system would be replaced, repairs would be made to the power supply infrastructure and various mechanical systems, stations would be modernized. The remaining10 percent of the bond money would be steered toward improving access to stations for riders who bike, drive, walk or take transit to and from BART, and to projects such as platform-edge doors, storage tracks and additional crossover tracks to increase capacity. A parade of political, business and community leaders urged BART directors to place the measure, which has been planned and studied for the past two years, up for a vote.

VP Biden praises Stanford sex assault victim as a ‘warrior’
In an open letter released Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden told the Stanford University sexual assault victim — who remains anonymous but whose impact statement has gone viral — that she was “failed” by many people and institutions. Biden did not directly address the six-month county jail sentence handed down by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky to Brock Allen Turner, which victims rights advocates called a slap on the wrist. The judge has reportedly received anonymous death threats and potential jurors have refused to serve on trials assigned to him. In her statement addressed to the defendant, she wrote in graphic detail about what happened the night of Jan. 17, 2015 and the emotional toll of the sexual assault she’s faced ever since. Turner’s sentence followed a unanimous jury verdict, which found the former champion swimmer guilty of three felony charges: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated or unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person and penetration of an unconscious person. In addition to the sentence, a letter written by Turner’s father defending his son sparked further outrage across the country, as nearly one million people, as of Thursday, signed an online petition to remove the judge, who won re-election unopposed Tuesday night. Though Biden didn’t make his opinion known on Persky or the outcome of the trial, he wrote to the victim, “You will never be defined by what the defendant’s father callously termed ‘20 minutes of action.’”

‘Hope you die’: Callers reportedly threaten judge in Turner case

Anonymous callers have been threatening the judge whose sentence of former Stanford student and convicted rapist Brock Turner has caused an uproar, according to an NBC News source.

Did that Cavs fan elbow Steve Kerr’s daughter on purpose?
Reports that Steve Kerr’s daughter — Maddy Kerr — was bonked in the head by a Cavaliers fan during Wednesday night’s pulverizing Warriors loss in Cleveland raised serious questions around the Internet on Thursday morning. Did the Cavs fan elbow the star Cal volleyball player on purpose? According to Maddy’s mom, oh yeah he did. Maddy Kerr seemed to agree with with her mom’s analysis of the motive, responding, And for pretending it didn’t happen. Game Four of the NBA Finals is set to be played in Cleveland on Friday at 6 p.m. Pacific Time.

Pedestrian hit and killed by vehicle in San Francisco
A Paratransit bus struck and killed a female pedestrian at Geary Boulevard and Franklin Street in San Francisco around 11 a.m. Thursday, after the bus driver dropped her off, authorities said. San Francisco Police Department officials have closed down part of the streets surrounding the area and are currently investigating. The victim, who is in her 50s, died at the scene after being struck and dragged by the bus.

Homeless encampment soaked by sprinklers outside San Francisco business

A San Francisco business is being accused of turning on their rooftop sprinkler system to deter homeless encampments from staying outside their building.

A look at Yosemite National Park (about) 100 years ago

Sometimes the story comes through the find. On a recent flea market visit, I found a brochure about Yosemite National Park, with beautiful images. Although undated, you can tell that it was published in the 1920’s. I also found three photos that were dated December 24, 1914, and someone’s personal photo album from a trip to Yosemite in the 1940’s.

Human-trafficking suspect nabbed after Ukiah courthouse escape

An inmate on trial for human trafficking charges involving a 14-year-old girl escaped police custody in Ukiah, sneaking through yards in a historic residential neighborhood of the Mendocino County city and hiding from authorities overnight before getting capture Wednesday morning. Love was at the courthouse for the fifth day of a jury trial on charges of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Because of his court appearance, Love was dressed in civilian clothes and not wearing handcuffs at the time, in keeping with protocol for transporting inmates from jail to court for trial proceedings, Van Patten said. Love was supposed to be wearing a restrictive knee brace to prevent him from fleeing, which is typically concealed by clothing, but officials said he was able to sever a leather strap and secretly remove the brace while in his holding cell. Police notified residents in the area of Love’s escape and posted his photo to social media.

Picture imperfect: Alamo Square construction blocks famed view

Alamo Square construction blocks famed view A few weeks ago, chain-link fences went up around Alamo Square, one of San Francisco’s most popular and iconic parks, for a seven-month renovation. Last month, people began sneaking into the construction area through a hole cut in the fence — the goal, as always at Alamo Square, was to snap that perfect picture of the Painted Ladies row of Victorians along Steiner Street. The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department patched up the fence, but that just drove the crowds of tourists onto the sidewalk and into the street bordering the park. […] after complaints from neighbors and visitors about people on the streets, park officials decided to open a 4,900-square-foot viewing area at Hayes and Steiner streets overlooking the Painted Ladies to give the crowds a place to congregate and pose for those pictures. “The renovation is important, but I did not want it to completely close off the park to neighbors and visitors, or force tourists into the street while taking pictures,” said Supervisor London Breed, who asked that allowances be made. The rest of the park remains closed while it undergoes its first major upgrade since a playground was added in 2004. Bright orange cones and signs marred their photos, and the mechanical roar of dump trucks pierced the quiet. “The viewing platform will be much nicer for people,” she said, snapping a picture on her camera.

SF marks the very middle of town, more or less
“This is the spot,” Mohammed Nuru, director of Public Works, said Wednesday as he eyed the bit of sidewalk where his surveyors had just installed a brass marker after taking a series of complex measurements with a $35,000 geopositioning gizmo mounted on a tripod. The brass marker says “Geographic Center” in tiny letters. Next to it, on the concrete, the surveyors wrote, “Geographic Center of City,” in big blue letters and drew a large orange arrow directing all eyes to the disc so no one would mistake the geographic center of San Francisco, located on a quiet residential street near an elementary school playground, for the center of anything else. Figuring out where to put the brass disc, said head surveyor Bruce Storrs, was plenty complicated. “One way you could do it is to cut out a map of San Francisco on a piece of paper and see exactly where it balances on the point of a pencil,” Storrs said. Storrs said he had trained his doo-hickey on no fewer than 11 navigational satellites — five of them Russian — and used the information in conjunction with the official coordinates of the city’s boundaries. The trouble with that method, Storrs said in a low voice, is that the city’s boundaries are something of a matter of opinion. If you count the Farallon Islands as part of San Francisco, which they are, then the brass disc might have to be installed in the Pacific Ocean. […] a close examination of the location of the brass disc revealed a more troubling problem. When a reporter suggested it seemed a happy coincidence that the center of San Francisco was conveniently located in the middle of a sidewalk instead of on private property or an otherwise inaccessible place, Storrs lowered his voice even more and pointed to a clump of bushes on a hillside 30 feet due west. Storrs said the surveyors, following the earnest suggestion of their boss Nuru, had elected to install the disc on the Corbett Avenue sidewalk instead of in the bushes. Storrs said that could be because brass surveyor’s markers, which are essentially attached to the ground with glue, have a way of being stolen.

SF’s soda advertising law on hold as industry appeals in court

San Francisco’s first-in-the-nation law requiring display ads for sugary drinks to carry warnings of health hazards was put on hold Wednesday by a federal judge while the beverage industry appeals his ruling that the compelled messages do not violate freedom of speech. The American Beverage Association, the California Retailers Association and the California State Outdoor Advertising Association argued in a lawsuit that the ordinance would chill freedom of expression and force some beverage companies to stop advertising in the city. The ordinance, Chen said, did not prevent beverage companies from speaking as long as they included the disclosure of truthful information about their products. San Francisco’s ordinance “violates the constitutional rights of a select group,” the association said. Andrea Guzman, spokeswoman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, said Chen “recognizes that this is the first in the nation, and out of an abundance of caution wants to give the appellate court a chance to weigh in.”

Goats loose on Hwy. 24 turn CHP officers into wranglers
Goats loose on Hwy. 24 turn CHP officers into wranglers Around 50 bleating and jumping goats broke free from their enclosure and made their way onto all four lanes of Highway 24, just west of the Caldecott Tunnel about 1 a.m., said Officer Sean Wilkenfeld, a spokesman for the Oakland office of the California Highway Patrol. Officers were called to the scene to wrangle the goats up and move them off the highway. The goats made their escape from a nearby enclosure, where they were being used by CalTrans to eat grass and other plants as part of an ongoing vegetation-control program, Wilkenfeld said. Officers were able to coax the goats off the roadway using a system of trial and error, Wilkenfeld said. The owner of the goats was also called to the scene to help oversee the herding process and to help get the goats back into their enclosure, Wilkenfeld said. No major traffic backups or accidents occurred due to the goats, Wilkenfeld said, though one did experience minor injuries.

SF voters pass public safety bond, affordable housing measure
Voters passed a $350 million bond Tuesday to pay for seismic retrofitting and other improvements at San Francisco General Hospital, rehabilitating homeless shelters and shortening ambulance response times. Placed on the ballot by Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors, Proposition A will allocate $222 million to the hospital, $58 million to the San Francisco Fire Department and $30 million to the Southeast Health Center in the Bayview, with an additional $20 million going to other neighborhood clinics and $20 million going to modernize homeless shelters. Supervisor Mark Farrell, who introduced the measure, and other proponents said it would provide the Recreation and Park Department with much-needed stability. Opponents said the city should not mandate budget guarantees for 30 years without a defined revenue source. D will require the civilian agency that looks into complaints of police misconduct to investigate every officer-involved shooting, instead of just shootings when a complaint is made. Proposition E, written to bridge some differences between city and state policies on paid sick leave, won with 78 percent voter support.

SF Bay restoration: Measure AA passing in early returns
The Bay Area’s first-ever nine-county ballot measure — a 20-year parcel tax intended to raise $500 million for marsh restoration and improved public access along the bay’s shoreline — was slightly ahead in early returns on Tuesday evening. Among other benefits, they argue that the widespread restoration of marshes along the northern and southern edges of the bay would help to buffer inland areas from sea level rise in coming decades, and the combination of high tides and severe storms. The other half would go to proposed projects that “benefit future generations,” using such measuring rods as improved water quality, wetland and habitat restoration, flood protection and recreation opportunities. The authority’s governing board consists of nine elected officials appointed by the Association of Bay Area Governments and drawn from around the region. The list of 1,600 endorsements included Gov. Jerry Brown and both the state’s U.S. senators, as well as mayors from across the Bay Area and such organizations as the Sierra Club, the San Francisco Labor Council and the Bay Area Council, a business advocacy group. According to proponents, there are 30,000 acres of potential marshes and shoreline waiting to be restored.

2 people burned in Oakland fire
Two people were burned in a two-alarm fire in East Oakland on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Heavy smoke could be seen billowing from the structure at 76th Avenue and Hillside Street. The fire department tweeted that multiple explosions were heard coming from the blaze. The fire was reported at 3:23 p.m., a fire dispatcher said. No further details were immediately available. Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: kveklerov

San Mateo County elections officials rush to fix 140 machines

A spate of technical issues Tuesday morning at polling sites throughout San Mateo County prompted election officials to resort to handing out traditional paper ballots to California primary voters as workers rushed to fix about 140 devices throughout the county. When poll workers began booting up the “eSlate” machines Tuesday about 7 a.m., they realized that about 10 percent of the 1,400 machines were not functioning properly. Within an hour, though, all were back up and running, according to Jim Irizarry, the county’s assistant chief elections officer. Voters had to use traditional paper ballots — cast everywhere else in California, except Orange County, which also offers the electronic machines — as workers went poll to poll fixing the issues. “They are offering paper ballots or wait for someone from the county to come and fix it,” the reddit user posted on the online message board before the problem was resolved.

‘Butt crack bandit’ plunders plants in Turlock

A man with larceny in his heart and loose pants around his hips struck a Turlock restaurant last week, escaping with plants that had been adorning the exterior of the business.

Cool but clear Bay Area weather for election day
Voters showing up to polls across the Bay Area Tuesday can expect clear and windy weather, after early fog and scattered drizzles along the coast dissipate by mid-morning. The morning fog that rolled in from the Pacific, bringing scattered, misty showers to some coastal areas, is expected to clear up by 10 a.m., Peterson said. Besides that, conditions will be relatively clear for the remainder of the day. Airport officials said low ceilings due to lingering low-level clouds led to the delay.

The best hidden gems and secret spots in San Francisco

San Francisco is a city that can excite you forever — it’s one of those wonderfully dynamic places that’s always ready to surprise. It’s why, despite the rising costs and million other little complaints, the city sticks with you.

Man in Chinatown standoff charged with assault, burglary
The burglary suspect behind Friday’s five-hour standoff in San Francisco’s Chinatown that left him, six officers and several civilians injured inside a hair salon was charged with several felony and misdemeanor counts, officials said. Jesse Eckardt, 27, was charged with three counts of assault on an officer, two counts of residential burglary, and one count of commercial burglary, as well as similar charges, the district attorney’s office announced Monday. The events started about 9:20 a.m. when an emergency dispatcher received a hang-up call, then another 911 call from a resident in the 900 block of Pacific Avenue reporting that a prowler had just broken into his apartment, probably through the roof. Eckardt barricaded himself in a room and fired one shot when officers arrived, said Grace Gatpandan, a San Francisco police spokeswoman. Police hostage negotiators tried to talk Eckardt into surrendering while a police tactical unit surrounded the building and cut off all escape routes. Eckardt ran into a salon next, covered in broken glass and bleeding, where he started fighting with police and tried to slash officers and civilians with shards of glass, Gatpandan said.

Proposal to let noncitizens vote for SF school board resurrected

Supervisor Eric Mar has an idea that stands in stark contrast to the national discussion about deporting immigrants who don’t have legal status — he wants to let noncitizens vote in local school board elections. On Tuesday, Mar will propose a charter amendment for the November ballot that would allow the noncitizen parents, legal guardians or caregivers of students 18 and younger who are enrolled in San Francisco public schools to vote in local school board elections, whether they have a green card or a visa or are living in the country without documentation. The political context now is different, Mar said, pointing to a backlash to Republican presidential nominee’s Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Trump has called for a ban on Muslims entering the country and, more recently, claimed that a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University couldn’t be impartial because of his Mexican heritage. While voting rights have traditionally only been extended to citizens, Chemersinky said, “if the government wants to give voting to a larger group of people like noncitizens it can do so if it wants to” — at least under the U.S. Constitution. […] the Legislature (which controls voter qualifications for statewide elections) has by statute limited voting to citizens. Seven jurisdictions have extended voting rights to noncitizens, said Ron Hayduk, a political science professor at Queens College of the City University of New York. In 2013, a majority of New York City Council members voted to extend voting rights in local elections to noncitizens, but were stopped by then-City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “The idea of early voting is it builds civic education, expands political participation and helps incorporate immigrants,” Hayduk said.

Two men killed in San Francisco street violence

The first killing happened at 2:06 a.m. in the South of Market neighborhood. The victim, whose name and age were not immediately available, was found shot near the intersection of Sixth and Harrison streets. The victim died from stab wounds while being taken to a hospital, police said. The suspects ran from the scene in SoMa, leaving the victim bleeding on the street.

Corrections, June 7
Raising the stakes in Stanley Cup side bet, A caption misidentified the location of the museum a photograph would be loaned to if the Penguins win the Stanley Cup. New law gives life-ending options to terminally ill, A story that started on the front page about California’s right-to-die law misrepresented Dr. Lonny Shavelson’s plan to assist patients. Shavelson will charge $200 for an initial consultation to discuss end-of-life options and $1,800 if a patient opts to proceed with the drug option. A story that started on the Datebook cover about a switch in radio programming mistakenly traced the name of iHeartMedia.

Angered by Stanford assault, SF school leader reveals own rape
Angered by Stanford assault, SF school leader reveals own rape The San Francisco school board member didn’t tell her friends when it happened. […] late Sunday night, she decided to tell the world. Norton had been reading about the six-month county jail sentence given to a former Stanford student, Brock Allen, after his conviction on three felony counts of sexual assaulting a drunken and unconscious woman he met at a party on campus last year. “I think my anger in this case is related to the fact that, like many women, I was raped by an acquaintance in college after a night of drinking,” she wrote on her SF Board of Education blog late Sunday night. With more awareness on college campuses about the importance of affirmative consent — yes, and only yes, means yes — Norton believed times had changed. […] the school board member decided to tell her own story, to say out loud that alcohol isn’t an excuse. “It’s never fun to talk about something painful that happened to you,” she said. Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.