1 million sign petitions to boot Stanford sex-assault judge

Berkeley Physician Opens Practice Focusing on Aid-in-Dying

Then last fall came the surprising passage of California’s End of Life Option Act, giving terminally ill adults with six months to live the right to request lethal medication to end their lives. The law takes effect June 9. Shavelson decided he had to act, although he feels “quite guilty” about having been away from the issue while others pushed it forward.

Gays in the Woods

The orgy on the floor before dinner failed to shock me as much as when, a couple hours earlier, I’d found myself in the middle of the forest cutting down a mighty tree. Hacking away at the three-story redwood in the Mendocino wilderness, I had felt a kind of trepidation I hadn’t experienced since high school PE. My life as a gay man in San Francisco had always felt relatively safe; I had never considered living anywhere else. But now, there I was channeling an inner lumberjack that I’d never known was inside of me. I felt much more natural sitting courtside at the orgy, trying to spot the most well-endowed guy through the flickering candlelight.

Fire at house where suspect in Fremont cop shooting is cornered
The chaotic scene unfolded shortly after 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, when a patrol officer stopped a white pickup truck with no front license plate in a shopping center parking lot near Fremont and Washington boulevards. The driver of the pickup backed into the patrol vehicle, pulled a gun and opened fire, hitting the officer once during an exchange of gunfire, said Geneva Bosques, a Fremont police spokeswoman. The assailant, described as a bald man, about 6 feet tall, wearing a San Francisco Giants T-shirt, gray shorts and black shoes, fled on foot through neighborhoods in the Irvington area of Fremont, where police conducted a door-to-door search before tracking the suspect to the house. Video footage from near the scene of the crime, and witness accounts, confirmed that the man was still carrying the gun after he shot the two officers, investigators said. Besides the shooter, police were looking for as many as two other people who may have been in the the pickup truck with the gunman at the time of the first shooting. Hundreds of officers and police dogs from law enforcement agencies around the East Bay and the FBI fanned out across the neighborhood. The searchers, led by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department tactical squad, scoured backyards, homes, bushes and under parked cars in an area bounded by Fremont Boulevard, Washington Boulevard, Carol Avenue and Roberts Avenue.

New FAA flight paths bombard Pacifica with noise

Nights of sleep deprivation have become the new normal for parts of Pacifica, say residents who are slammed daily by aircraft noise.

With California reservoirs full again, let the draining begin

After our non-super El Niño winter, the surface water supply has mostly recovered. The biggest reservoirs, Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville, are better than 90 percent full and over 100 percent of their normal storage for this time of year. Folsom Lake, at the very edge of the foothills on the American River east of Sacramento, is about 85 percent full and more than 100 percent of average.

Muni app to allow you to rate your fellow rider’s bad behavior

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is planning to expand MuniMobile, its ticketing app, so you can rate your trip.

State Senate passes bill to slow Oakland coal shipping plan
The state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill to require environmental reviews for a controversial plan to ship coal by rail through Oakland, which has pit legislators in Sacramento against a developer who is closely connected to Gov. Jerry Brown. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, could be the first major hurdle for the $250 million Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, a giant export depot that developer Phil Tagami is building near the east end of the Bay Bridge. Coal wasn’t part of the plan until 2014, when Tagami’s shipping operator, Terminal Logistics Solutions, began courting investment from four coal-mining counties in Utah — on the promise that Utah coal would be shipped through Oakland. Hancock noted that 11 East Bay mayors — from Berkeley, Dublin, Fremont, Livermore, Hayward, Richmond, San Leandro, Union City, Emeryville, Albany, and El Cerrito — signed a joint letter denouncing the coal-shipping plan, because rail lines that serve the Port of Oakland also run through some of those cities. City officials are walking a fine line between honoring their agreement with Tagami and catering to residents who believe his project will cause lung-damaging coal dust to waft through Oakland. In May, representatives of Terminal Logistics Solutions, along with several churches and labor groups, held a news conference to tout the planned shipping terminal and surrounding 366-acre development, which would bring a rail line, warehouses, and maritime businesses to the long-defunct Oakland Army Base.

Bernie Sanders links ‘rise of Trumpism’ to racism
Sen. Bernie Sanders kept up his seemingly nonstop tour of the state Wednesday, drawing distinctions with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, but saving his toughest attacks for presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. “Because of the rise of Trumpism, suddenly a lot of the racism that has been kind of pushed down has popped up again,” Sanders said at a town hall forum dubbed “Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders for Bernie” at a community center in Palo Alto. In the wake of Trump calling for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, Sanders said, Muslim parents have told him their children are afraid to walk the streets. “This cannot and must not be allowed to go on in the United States of America,” Sanders said. […] together we will fight back against this bigotry, this attempt to divide this country up. […] although they both oppose the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowing unlimited contributions to independently run political campaigns, Sanders said he has discouraged super PACs from supporting his campaign. In the heart of Silicon Valley — where the price of housing is among the highest in the country — Sanders called for “creative” approaches to tackling gentrification, in addition to building “millions of units” of affordable housing nationwide. “If you’re a developer and you have the money to build fancy condos, you should not be able to drive people out of the neighborhoods where they have grown up and they have lived,” Sanders said.

PG&E recommended for huge fine for poor record keeping
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. faced another financial hit for shoddy record-keeping Wednesday as a state hearing officer recommended a $24.3 million penalty for lapses in natural gas records leading to a March 2014 explosion that destroyed an unoccupied cottage in Carmel. A CPUC administrative law judge recommended the additional penalty Wednesday for the company’s failure to keep accurate records of gas line locations, resulting in digging that damaged pipelines, interrupted gas service, and ultimately caused the explosion. “The wrongdoing implicates the safe operation of a natural gas system, which is by its very nature dangerous,” said the administrative law judge, Maribeth Bushey. A July 2013 natural gas leak in Mountain View, causing an evacuation but no injuries, was a result of the penetration of a one-inch plastic pipe insert that wasn’t listed on any PG&E maps or records, Bushey said — the same thing that happened eight months later in the Carmel explosion. While PG&E violated the law and its duties to its customers, she said, a mitigating factor was that the actions caused no deaths or injuries, just “environmental degradation from gas releases and customer inconvenience.” In 2014, the state commission fined the company $1.6 billion for a 2010 natural gas explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. Later this month, PG&E faces a federal court trial on criminal charges, brought by the U.S. Justice Department, of violating pipeline safety laws and obstructing the San Bruno investigation. In 2013, the commission hit PG&E with a $14.4 million penalty for misleading regulators about the extent of flaws in its records of a transmission pipeline in San Carlos.

SF, Oakland step up efforts to fight climate change
The mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and four other West Coast cities unveiled an agreement Wednesday to work together to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. Under the deal, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and their counterparts in Los Angeles; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and Vancouver, B.C., will encourage widespread reporting of energy usage in large buildings in their cities and the use of zero-emission vehicles. “I’m honored and excited to be in the company of really great leaders who are coming together … on this moment of historic collaboration on climate change,” Lee said at the Clean Energy Ministerial in San Francisco, a forum attended by global energy ministers. The states agreed to work with the six West Coast mayors on a “path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050” in the region.

Could a chain-store ban on Polk Street kill Whole Foods’ bid to move into this charming enclave?

Some are arguing for easy access to major retailers while others feel chains could put mom-and-pop stores out of business and destroy the neighborhood’s charm.

Tweets and images from reported shooting on UCLA campus

The UCLA campus in Los Angeles was reportedly on lockdown Wednesday morning after reports of an active shooter at the campus’ engineering building. Here are tweets and photos from UCLA:

Caltrain tracks reopened after pedestrian death in Redwood City
A pedestrian was struck and killed by a Caltrain early Wednesday morning in Redwood City, causing major delays as the agency responded. At about 8 a.m., Caltrain officials reported that both tracks had been reopened in the area, allowing the system to recover. The incident, involving an adult female trespasser on the tracks, occurred at 6:15 a.m. on the northbound 305 train at Whipple Avenue in Redwood City and prompted delays up to 90 minutes, Caltrain said.

Small earthquake stories bring out the best Bay Area comments on SFGATE

Bay Area, we love you so. And you’re at your peak Bay Area whenever SFGATE posts a story about a small earthquake. Whenever we post a small one, we incur the hilarious wrath of a quake-experienced populace.

Ghost signs of San Francisco: Forgotten treasures hiding in plain sight

SF teems with old, sometimes-elaborate, hand-painted signs and ads, some for businesses that no longer exist. The painters who made them were part of the Gig Economy long before Uber. These corporate murals have a name: ghost signs, and one local artist took it upon herself to track all 300-plus of them.

All lanes of NB I-5 in San Joaquin Co. shut down due to sink hole

All lanes of northbound Interstate 5 in San Joaquin County are shut down Tuesday due to a sink hole in the road, according to California Highway Patrol.

SF budget increase aimed at homeless, safety, quality of life

San Francisco’s budget will grow to $9.6 billion in fiscal year 2016-17, a $700 million increase from this year that will pay for more transportation funding, street cleaning and police officers. Under the budget proposal submitted by Mayor Ed Lee on Tuesday, there are no cuts to city services, and departments large and small, from the Police Department to the Ethics Commission, would see a fiscal boost. […] the budget allocates money for one-time investments in deferred projects like road paving and new equipment for the Fire Department. Of the $700 million increase, 25 percent will go to the Municipal Transportation Agency, 31 percent to housing, public health and social services, 14 percent to the airport, port and Public Utilities Commission, and 13 percent to public safety departments like police and fire. Lee also proposed a $221 million budget for his newly formed Department on Homelessness and Supportive Housing. Should the tax muster the 50 percent support it needs to pass, one-third of the money would be allocated to homeless services and two-thirds would be allocated for transportation and transit services, including street repaving. The increase would partially be offset by a reduction in the state sales tax later this year. In new spending, the Fire Department would see a $14 million one-time boost over the span of the two-year budget, $7 million each year, to purchase new equipment. Lee also proposed an additional $20 million in funding over the next two years for violence prevention programs and police reform efforts. Alluding to the fatal police shootings of suspects who weren’t carrying guns, he said the city should not pay for more classes until the police department shows that it has implemented reforms that emphasize de-escalation tactics and less reliance on lethal force. Avalos also suggested that the Board of Supervisors put $200 million in funding for the police department in reserves and allocate it only when the department shows progress in carrying out the reforms. A long-standing practice is for longtime Budget & Legislative Analyst Harvey Rose to scour the mayor’s proposal to recommend cuts that add up to roughly $10 million to $15 million, which the board then reallocates to specific projects. “I agree with the mayor’s priorities in terms of public safety, neighborhood quality of life and homelessness,” Farrell said.

Social media captures incredible line to see Bernie Sanders’ Oakland speech

Local supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders were hella feeling the Bern. On Monday, they were also feeling the pain of standing on their feet: an epic line preceded the presidential candidate’s speech at Frank Ogawa Plaza and traversed six city blocks.

Who was the girl in the coffin? Scientist seeks to unlock mystery
A few strands of golden blond hair heading to a laboratory in Davis could unlock the secret of a 3-year-old girl from the 19th century whose remains were found three weeks ago in a coffin beneath a San Francisco home. Did doctors give her medicine in a futile attempt to cure her of whatever took her life? Eerkens is the lead scientist looking for answers to the mystery of the girl who has been dubbed “Miranda Eve” and whose reburial is scheduled for Saturday in Colma. People were buried at the Odd Fellows from 1860 to 1890, and speculation is that Miranda Eve died 145 years ago or so. After the strands of hair arrive at his lab, perhaps as early as this week, Eerkens said he plans to snip it into smaller pieces, to analyze the content of its protein and its other chemicals, and to identify its isotope signature. A chemical analysis could tell if there was the presence of nicotine or other drugs in her body. From the isotope analysis of the water content of the hair, it would be possible to determine roughly where she lived. Through two windows in the well-sealed metal casket, observers could see that the embalmed body was still largely intact, as was the long white embroidered dress she was wearing. The expensive preparations for her burial, in a high-end coffin made of bronze and lead, indicate that the girl came from a family of means, said Elissa Davey, who has taken over arrangements for a reburial. The charity is storing the girl’s body in a mortuary refrigerator in Fresno while preparations proceed for a funeral Saturday at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Colma. Davey said the Odd Fellows and Greenlawn Memorial Park are donating the $7,000 cost for the reburial at Greenlawn at 1100 El Camino Real in Colma, where services are scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. Many of the 30,000 people at the Odd Fellows Cemetery whose remains were removed were reburied at the Colma graveyard. Greenlawn undertaker Paula Meyses said Miranda Eve’s grave will be in the infants and baby section of the cemetery, about a quarter-mile east of the mass grave where the remains of the other Odd Fellows occupants lie and which is closed to additional burials.

Worker hospitalized in chemical accident in Palo Alto
An employee of a Palo Alto company was hospitalized and more than a dozen co-workers were evaluated for chemical exposure after an “unexpected” chemical reaction, authorities said. Two employees of Stangenes Industries were mixing epoxy at about 9 a.m., said Catherine Capriles, Palo Alto’s deputy fire chief. Hazardous materials crews from the Palo Alto and neighboring Mountain View fire departments were dealing with the incident into the afternoon, waiting for a cleaning company to finish its work so they could go inside the building.

Bay Area heat wave to last all week, bringing inland temps near 100

Climbing spring temperatures are here to stay through the week, with some inland areas like Livermore, Concord and Morgan Hill expected to see near-100-degree weather by Friday or Saturday, forecasters said. The National Weather Service also issued a beach hazards statement for the coastline from Sonoma County to Monterey County warning of rip currents and large shore break until Thursday evening. Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

Who was that crazed Warriors fan photographed celebrating with Curry?

Cue often sits courtside at Oracle Arena, where on Monday night — red-faced, pointing and howling — he had the vivid rendezvous with the MVP. In the photo, shot by Chronicle photographer Scott Strazzante, Curry is seen roaring at the sidelines after knocking down a decisive three-pointer in the final minute of Game 7 as the Warriors edged the Oklahoma City Thunder, 96-88. Cue, Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, reports directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook and has worked for the company for nearly three decades.

4 apartments gutted in Martinez fire
An intense fire tore through a Martinez apartment complex, gutting four units early Tuesday, firefighters said. The blaze broke out around 5:15 a.m. on the 1200 block of Arnold Drive and quickly consumed four apartments, officials with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District said. The fire was under control around 5:45 a.m. No injuries were reported. Firefighters closed Arnold Road east of Morello Avenue while crews mopped up the fire damage. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: EvanSernoffsky

Gov. Jerry Brown endorses Clinton ahead of California primary
California Gov. Jerry Brown said on Tuesday he will vote for Hillary Clinton in the state’s upcoming primary, explaining she has the best chance of thwarting the “dangerous candidacy” of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. “I have decided to cast my vote for Hillary Clinton because I believe this is the only path forward to win the presidency and stop the dangerous candidacy of Donald Trump,” Brown wrote in an open letter posted on his website. In the letter, Brown praised Sanders, saying he was “deeply impressed” by the Vermont senator’s performance and message focused on income inequality. Sanders continues to stump around the Bay Area following a surprise visit to Oracle Arena on Monday night for Game 7 of the NBA’s Western Conference Finals, in which the Warriors finished off the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Baby abandoned at SF State now one of its grads
On Nov. 5, 1984, in a dorm at San Francisco State University, a student gave birth to a daughter, dropped the placenta down a garbage chute, and stowed the infant in a box in the laundry room before slipping away. In her cardboard cradle, the baby lay wrapped in towels wet and fouled from birth. […] she stirred, and the moving bundle drew the attention of a student putting his clothes in the dryer just before 11 a.m. A baby! “I believe it to be a story of hope, joy, optimism, family and San Francisco State University,” said the former foundling, who today stands 5 feet 10 and, as on her first day of life, turns heads — now because of a glowing smile and a happy, outgoing disposition. Yet despite her university birth, the idea of graduating from college felt beyond her abilities for much of her life. “I know I’m a capable person, but I had difficulties in high school,” she said. […] Sobol’s journey to the graduation stage began the moment student Patrick Coughlan lay eyes on the baby who had entered the world in such peril. The only other student in the laundry room was Esther Wannenmacher, a studious, 21-year-old nursing student taking a course in newborn care. The nursing student had just aced her neonatal ABCs: airways, breathing and circulation. Other students arrived offering dry towels. Campus police eventually tracked down a 19-year-old sophomore who acknowledged that she had concealed her pregnancy, even from the baby’s father, a 20-year-old sophomore she had met at a party. Because she had left her baby in a place where the infant could be found, the mother was not prosecuted for child endangerment. […] the city’s social services department accelerated the adoption process for Baby Jane Doe. “I was shivering — I was in tears,” Helene Sobol said, remembering that phone call. […] the Sobols lived in one of the elegant brick officers’ homes in the city’s Presidio, still an active military base in 1984. On the day after the Sobols got their happy call, the baby’s mother signed papers relinquishing her rights. The father, still a student, signed similar papers on Feb. 7, 1985, but retained the right to change his mind over the next 30 days. “She would crawl, going after things, ferocious on her hands and knees,” Sam Sobol said. When she read, letters appeared flipped around, evidence of a learning disability. In all, Jillian attended four high schools, the last a boarding school in Costa Rica for underachieving students. “Puberty was tough,” Sobol said, sitting for an interview across the San Francisco State campus from the tennis courts now on the site where she was born. In 2001, when Jillian was 16, her mother told her the story of the student at San Francisco State “and how she must have been very young and scared,” Jillian Sobol said. […] came the shock: “That couldn’t be me!” She and her father visited the library and read the old newspaper articles together. […] this army of people trying to help me and find (the parents). In 2007, Sobol was 22 and working at a clothing store South of Market when she showed a friend a scrapbook commemorating the story of her birth. Raiger responded: “What a wonderful gift to receive a letter from you!” She had three children, she said, including an 8-year-old named Jillian. After the meeting, Sobol prepared to move to Norway, where her adoptive mother was born and where she had many cousins. Before leaving, she requested documents that had been available to her since she’d turned 18: the identities of her biological parents. When she returned from Norway for Thanksgiving, she learned the names of those long-ago students and more. […] she wouldn’t reach out to her biological mother until 2013. […] 18 months later, a friend request from her mother appeared on her Facebook page. […] Sobol was thriving at the College of Business, studying hospitality and tourism management. Last month, Sobol learned that some Facebook messages can be hidden from view, so she poked around to see if she had any. “I have something to tell you,” her biological mother had written. The stunning message capped off the years Sobol had spent considering her mother’s predicament. On Friday, the Sobols hosted a pre-graduation lunch across from AT&T Park, where Jillian, once abandoned at San Francisco State, was about to receive its highest recognition, a degree.

Bernie Sanders on the important Bay Area sports questions of the week

Right before Senator Bernie Sanders’ rally in Oakland Monday, The Chronicle asked him one easy sports question and one hard one.

Crowd fills Presidio for somber Memorial Day ceremony
More than 1,000 veterans and visitors, including Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, crowded onto the green lawn of the San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio on Monday morning to mark the city’s 148th Memorial Day observance. “The memorial service is dedicated to our heroes, the ones who didn’t make it back,” said Nestor Tom, a Vietnam War veteran and member of the ceremony’s planning committee. The event started at 10:30 a.m. with the 191st Army Band leading a parade the short distance from the Presidio Officers’ Club to the cemetery, where smiling, hugging and sometimes teary-eyed veterans and community members were seated among rows of white tombstones marking the graves of those who had fought for their country. Wallace Levin, a county veterans service official, led the ceremony and recognized the new Korean War Memorial that will open in the Presidio in August to honor the service and sacrifice of the members of the armed forces who served in the war. More than 2,000 service members from the Korean War alone were buried in the cemetery, along with roughly 450 members of the Buffalo Soldiers, Levin said. The event’s featured speaker, retired judge and Korean War veteran Quentin Kopp, saluted the new Korean War Memorial, which is expected to be dedicated this summer at the Presidio. Kopp, a former San Francisco supervisor and state senator, commended the large crowd present for the ceremony, calling it a direct refutation to the idea that the public has a short memory. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and several supervisors were at the ceremony to pay their respects and talk about the services the city has offered veterans in the past year, including housing in the Presidio and other neighborhoods. Fifty scouts from San Francisco Boy Scout Troop 15 were at the cemetery, handing out flowers to passersby wishing to honor the fallen soldiers buried in the surrounding cemetery.