BART trains will not be running between the South Hayward, Union City and Fremont stations during the three-day Fourth of July weekend. Instead there will be a free bus shuttle to move passengers between these stations. BART advises passengers to expect delays in both directions between these three stations. More information is available on Twitter @sfbartalert. Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]
Jazz fans head to Fillmore festival for taste of black history
The lively beat of jazz reverberated to a crowd of people and down most of the 12 blocks of Fillmore Street, which was lined with venders selling fried foods, art and clothes, as a part of the two-day 32nd Annual Fillmore Jazz Festival. Nearly 100,000 people were expected to make their way to the festival over the weekend for what event organizers called the largest free jazz festival on the West Coast. […] the festival is part of an annual tradition that extends back to when the Fillmore District was known as the “Harlem of the West” and the heart of San Francisco’s black community. In the years following World War II, top-tier African America jazz performers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington would make regular stops in the Fillmore. […] in the 1960s, much of the neighborhood was razed to make way for city redevelopment and low-income housing projects — a move blamed for displacing much of the city’s black population, along with its bustling culture. […] the annual jazz festival has lingered on as a means of reviving and remembering that lost time. Other musicians took it upon themselves to take over areas of sidewalks near shops, playing keyboards, singing and blasting notes on trumpets. Each of the festival’s jazz performers played either a full set or song dedicated to their favorite of those artists, including Prince, Ernestine Anderson, David Bowie, Gato Barbieri, Mic Gillette and Paul Kantner.
Indian officials: Cal student among dead in Bangladesh attack
Indian officials said Tarishi Jain was killed after armed militants took dozens of people hostage at Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Government forces later stormed the restaurant and killed six of the attackers and rescued the surviving captives. “I am extremely pained to share that the terrorist have killed [Tarishi], an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka,” India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter.
Insider things to do with certain San Francisco visitors
San Mateo County sheriff says heart condition forces retirement
San Mateo County sheriff says heart condition forces retirement San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks said Friday a longtime heart condition has prompted him to step down from the position — an unexpected announcement as deputies said his health condition had not been known to most in the department. A heart procedure scheduled for July 11 is the third time I have attempted to correct a condition that, while not life-threatening, does affect my quality of life and my ability to maintain a full-time work schedule. Bolanos, who was chief of the Redwood City Police Department for 12 years, had previously announced plans to run for sheriff in 2018 and has been endorsed by Munks. The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office is an outstanding organization and we will continue to provide them with professional law enforcement service. The department credited Munks with responding to prison overcrowding and Gov. Jerry Brown’s prison realignment plan with changes to the county’s correctional system.
2 women make history for Sonoma pro baseball team
The first pitch of Friday night’s Sonoma Stompers baseball game was a breaking ball that went over the plate and into professional baseball history. The bright idea to recruit women was first floated by film director Francis Ford Coppola, who said in a news release that he always wondered why there weren’t co-ed teams in professional baseball given that the game doesn’t rely as much on size and strength as other sports. “My family would play co-ed baseball games and inevitably the star player would always be an aunt,” said Coppola, whose Virginia Dare Winery, in Geyserville, has been a primary sponsor of the team over the past three years. […] when my Sonoma winery became involved with the Stompers, I had the opportunity to turn this thought into a reality and recruit these amazing women capable of playing alongside men. Team officials scouted Piagno and Whitmore at the tryouts for Team USA, which is scheduled to play in the Women’s Baseball World Cup in South Korea this fall. The most famous mixing of the sexes occurred in the mid-1990s when famous knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro recruited the best female ballplayers in the country to play for the Colorado Silver Bullets. Later, they competed against lower level men’s teams and had a winning record in 1997, their last year before the Coors Brewing Company chose not to renew their sponsorship. Two women, Ila Borders and Eri Yoshida, have pitched in professional baseball in the United States in recent years, but the Stompers are believed to be the first team with more than one woman playing in the U.S. since three women played in the Negro Leagues in the 1950s.
SF’s Bohemian Club to pay workers $7 million in settlement
Members of the San Francisco-based Bohemian Club will pay $7 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleges workers at the club’s private, ultra-elite Bohemian Grove campground were victims of wage theft, officials said Friday. San Francisco resident Jacob Horvat and Oakland resident Gabriel Martin were among more than 600 plaintiffs in the suit, which covered those who worked at the club’s 2,700-acre seasonal retreats in Monte Rio from May 28, 2011 through the end of 2014. […] workers were labeled “independent contractors” and reportedly not paid overtime, the suit says. The valet’s tasks varied from serving cocktails to elite guests to delivering newspapers, making coffee, scrubbing floors, moving beer kegs and performing a variety of other “labor intensive” work, the suit states. The valets were on-call on a 24-hour basis, expected to adhere to a strict dress code, and told to refrain from certain conversations with guests. A valet who was a part of the class action suit said after Ullman began investigating labor law violations, workers were offered cash payments with hundreds of dollars in envelopes at the end of summer 2014 to quickly fix the issue. Valets worked in several camps at Bohemian Grove, clusters of fraternity-like houses with names like “Friends of the Forest,” “Valley of the Moon,” “Ye Merrie Yowls,” and “Hill Billies,” which former President George H.W. Bush is said to be a member of. Valets were providing service at the club’s annual events called Spring Jinks and Encampment, described by one official as “Burning Man for really powerful Republicans.”
PG&E records show pipeline that blew up had 33 previous leaks
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. records in 2009 listed 33 past leaks with unknown causes on the same aging gas pipeline that exploded in San Bruno in 2010, a PG&E engineer told a federal court jury Friday. Called as a prosecution witness in PG&E’s trial on charges of criminal violations of pipeline-safety laws, David Aguiar testified that his job was to examine pipelines for external evidence of corrosion — a method that could not have detected internal welding defects that caused many leaks. A flawed seam weld, on a line that company records had listed as seamless, ruptured in September 2010 in San Bruno, causing an explosion and fire that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. A subsequent federal investigation led to 12 felony charges that PG&E had failed to inspect and test its lines and keep accurate records, and a 13th charge that it had obstructed investigators by trying to conceal an alleged policy of exceeding legal limits on gas pressure in its pipelines. Prosecutors contend PG&E sacrificed safety for profits by shunning high-pressure water testing of problematic gas lines in favor of cheaper detection methods, like the method used by Aguiar and his co-workers known as external corrosion direct assessment, or ECDA. Experts told The Chronicle that those records, which were not turned over to federal regulators before the explosion, should have required PG&E to conduct high-pressure water testing that might have prevented the disaster.
Trailhead fire in Sierra foothills grows to 2,151 acres
A wildland fire in the Sierra foothills grew to 2,151 acres Friday, forcing the evacuations of 1,650 people as it threatened scores of structures, officials said. The Trailhead fire started Tuesday afternoon along the Middle Fork of the American River, in steep and hard-to-reach terrain near Todd Valley in El Dorado and Placer counties, roughly 130 miles northeast of San Francisco. Despite the rough terrain firefighters managed to make progress surrounding the fire with large containment lines on several sides. In Placer County, crews were able to complete and bolster containment lines Thursday night to prevent fire spread to Peachstone Gulch and the community of Todd Valley. While the fire remained a good distance from any homes or businesses in both Placer and El Dorado counties, Villemaire said mandatory evacuations were ordered for nearby communities as a precautionary measure and to make room for all of the fire suppression equipment needed. “The fire is moving into more favorable terrain, moving to ridges, flatter terrain and roads, where they can have a more advantageous angle to fight the fire,” she said.
Forecast for SF fireworks show still cloudy
The annual guessing game of whether fireworks will be fully visible in San Francisco has started with forecasters saying Friday that low clouds and patchy fog are expected to roll over the Bay just when the pyrotechnic extravaganza is set to go off Monday night. While it’s still unclear what kind of view the skies will offer thousands of spectators for America’s 240th birthday bash, Bob Benjamin of the National Weather Service predicted that the fireworks would likely end up just below the cloud cover. The conditions in San Francisco could be similar to last year when The Chronicle reported the sky “was shattered by colorful explosions of light, often shrouded by low-hanging clouds.” Holiday revelers in the North Bay at fireworks shows like the one planned at Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa shouldn’t fret: clear conditions are predicted for Monday night.
6-year-old boy struck and killed by car at San Jose mall
A 6-year-old boy was killed Thursday night when a car struck him and his mother as they held hands while walking through the parking lot of a shopping mall in San Jose, police said. The fatal incident at the Oakridge mall at 925 Blossom Hill Road happened at 9:34 p.m. as the mother walked through the parking lot with her two children, said Sgt. Enrique Garcia, a spokesman for the San Jose Police Department. A preliminary investigation revealed that a gray 2015 Mercedes, driving at a low speed, struck the mother and her son, but the daughter apparently escaped harm, Garcia said. Officials ask anyone with information on the incident to contact Detective Verissa Sadsad of the San Jose Police Department’s Traffic Investigation Unit at 408-277-4654.
November ballot crowded with weighty measures
California voters will face a long and weighty list of statewide ballot measures this November — 17 measures in all made Thursday’s fall election deadline and they include big decisions on the death penalty, marijuana use and taxes on the wealthy. Among the issues voters will decide are whether Death Row inmates should be executed faster or not at all in two competing measures. Other initiatives would legalize the recreational use of marijuana, require background checks for ammunition sales, overturn a 1998 initiative that banned bilingual instruction in public schools and overhaul the state’s prison parole rules to allow inmates to be released earlier. Inmates would face life without parole and could, if ordered to, pay 60 percent of wages earned while incarcerated to victim restitution. Opponents say shortening appeals increases the likelihood of executing innocent inmates. The tax, which primarily funds K-12 schools and community colleges, is paid by individuals earning more than $250,000 and couples making more than $500,000. Proponents argue the extension is needed to prevent billions in cuts to schools and vital services, while opponents say Prop. 30 was temporary and should remain that way. The Legislature placed this initiative on the ballot to repeal most of Proposition 227, the 1998 measure that barred bilingual education programs in public schools. Should money charged for paper bags be sent to a special fund for environmental projects? If the plastic bag ban becomes effective, this initiative would require bag fees charged by grocery and retail stores for paper bags to be sent to a fund administered by the Wildlife Conservation Board. Sponsored by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the measure would also ban possession of large-capacity rifle magazines, require gun owners to notify police when their weapons are lost or stolen and create new procedures for confiscating guns from persons prohibited from possessing them. The initiative would let inmates with nonviolent offenses seek parole after serving time on their primary offense, while erasing secondary offenses or enhancements with good behavior. Should voters authorize $9 billion in general obligation bonds for new school construction and modernization, with $2 billion for community colleges and the rest divided among K-12 districts, charter schools and vocational education? Should the state be barred from issuing more than $2 billion in public infrastructure bonds without voter approval if repaying those bonds would require an increase in taxes or fees? Supporters say the initiative ensures the state doesn’t have a blank check while opponents, like the governor, say it would result in costly delays in repairing roads, buildings and water systems. The proposition would make producers, distributors, talent agents and in some cases performers liable for violations. Should lawmakers wait 72 hours after a bill is made public before voting on it except in cases of a public emergency? Should the amount state agencies pay for a prescription drug be capped to match what the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs pays? Supporters say the measure would lower drug prices on lifesaving treatments, while opponents say the measure would reduce the availability of some drugs and impact research on new drugs. The controversial 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling opened the door for unlimited spending by corporations and unions in federal candidate campaigns. Should lawmakers be required to meet a two-thirds majority vote — instead of a simple majority vote — when they divert Medi-Cal fees meant to fund health care for the state’s poor?
Girl flown to safety after horse throws her in Mount Diablo park
A girl riding a horse Thursday afternoon in Mount Diablo State Park completed her journey in a much different form of transportation: a helicopter. The 16-year-old was thrown from her horse around noon on the Stage Road Trail in the rugged southwest corner of the vast park at the center of Contra Costa County. Park officers and a San Ramon Valley Fire crew that responded to the need for assistance then called the California Highway Patrol’s air operations unit to help hoist her to safety.
Judge holds up Uber settlement with drivers
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco did not definitively reject the agreement, negotiated by a lawyer for plaintiffs in a class-action suit against the ride-hailing company, and said he might ultimately find it to be fair and reasonable based on further information or changes in some of its terms. […] he said the parties to the settlement had failed to address arguments by objectors — groups of dissident drivers and their lawyers — who said they were being short-changed. Chen said one claim — that Uber had violated California labor laws by classifying drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, denying them overtime, work expenses and other benefits — could be worth $1 billion or more if the drivers went to trial and won employee status. “The parties should provide more substantial legal authority for why a 99.9 percent discount (in the labor penalties) is warranted,” Chen said. Mark Geragos, a lawyer for a group of drivers challenging the settlement, praised the decision and said Chen rightly “wants to know why (the plaintiffs) think they can hijack claims” in his suit and others. The company would also agree to provide funding for a “driver association” that would discuss drivers’ concerns with managers but would not have the powers of a labor union.
Libertarian candidate brings presidential campaign to SF
Libertarian candidate brings presidential campaign to SF The Libertarian Party’s nominee for president visited San Francisco on Thursday, extolling the virtues of small government and saying 2016 might be the year his minor party plays a major role in the national campaign. […] Johnson, 63, has faced larger audiences of late — he and his vice-presidential running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, have appeared on a CNN “town hall” and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In terms of issues, Johnson emphasized libertarian positions likely to resonate with the crowd at the event organized by the Lincoln Initiative, which bills itself as working to bridge “the generational gap between the conservative political community and the technology community.” “I think we really need to be open to a debate and a discussion about how we keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, and of terrorists,” he said before criticizing measures proposed by Democrats that would ban gun sales to people on no-fly lists, or restrict certain types of ammunition. In his conversation on-stage with Politico’s Carla Marinucci, Johnson was most comfortable applying Libertarian critiques to a domestic scene where, he suggested, governments at all scales are too eager to intervene. The burden of college debts on young adults? “The main reason for high tuition is guaranteed government loans,” Johnson said. If San Francisco were serious about this issue, it would take a six-acre site and build 30,000 units on that site,” Johnson said afterwards, hearkening back to a scenario he laid out during his talk: “Without rules, regulations, zoning, what they come up with — there wouldn’t be a need for rent control because housing would be so incredibly affordable.
Scotty Moore, influential guitarist for Elvis Presley, dies at 84
Scotty Moore, a guitarist whose terse, bluesy licks on Elvis Presley’s early hits virtually created the rockabilly guitar style and established the guitar as a lead instrument in rock ’n’ roll, died on Tuesday at his home outside Nashville. In 1954, Mr. Moore was performing with a country group, Doug Poindexter and the Starlite Wranglers, and recording at Sun Records in Memphis when Sam Phillips, the label’s owner, asked him to audition a young singer that his secretary kept mentioning. Bill Black, the bass player for the Starlite Wranglers, arrived soon after, and the three men began running through a random selection of songs. The next evening, at Sun Studio, the trio recorded an up-tempo version of “That’s All Right,” a blues song by Arthur Crudup, known as Big Boy, that Sun released with a rockabilly version of “Blue Moon of Kentucky” on the flip side. The record caught fire locally, and Presley was on his way, electrifying audiences with a new sound defined in large part by Mr. Moore, whose slashing chords, inserted like musical punctuation, and hard-driving solos inspired future rock guitarists around the world, including Keith Richards, George Harrison, Jeff Beck, Mark Knopfler and Chris Isaak. Mr. Moore and Black, joined by the drummer D.J. Fontana in 1955, recorded more than 300 songs with Presley for Sun and RCA, including “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Hound Dog.” “Moore’s concise, aggressive runs mixed country picking and blues phrasing into a new instrumental language,” Rolling Stone wrote in 2011, ranking Mr. Moore as No. 29 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. “All I can tell you is I just stole from every guitar player I heard over the years,” Mr. Moore told the makers of the television documentary “Elvis Presley” in 2001. When Presley went into the Army in 1958, Mr. Moore became a partner in Fernwood Records, which released a Top 10 hit in 1959, the teen tearjerker “Tragedy,” by Thomas Wayne. For a time, he supervised operations at Sam Phillips’ studios in Memphis and Nashville, but he was fired by Phillips in 1964 after he recorded “The Guitar That Changed the World,” an album on the Epic label made up of instrumental versions of Presley hits. All told, Mr. Moore earned a little over $30,000 from his partnership with Presley, which came to an end after the 1968 special on NBC that reintroduced Presley to a new generation of listeners and revived his career.
BART welcomes a new kind of train
The biggest thing to hit Antioch in some time was the arrival on Thursday of a spiffy new BART train that, like many BART trains, wasn’t running. […] BART was in a celebratory mood anyway, because the new test train for its perpetually under-construction Antioch line had arrived from the Swiss factory on time, and on-time arrivals for BART are not a sure thing. BART directors and their invited guests — a congressman and a handful of mayors and county supervisors — were plenty excited just to walk through the new test train, listen to the whistle blow, and marvel at such features as windows and seats that have not yet been vandalized. McNerney took a turn sitting in the operator’s seat, fingering the controls but taking care not to operate any levers than would propel the train westward through his district ahead of schedule, as there was a red railroad signal just ahead. All along the Highway 4 median, where the extension will operate, workers continue to ready the track and the new stations at Antioch and Pittsburg Center. When the $525 million extension finally opens, regular BART trains will make two stops at the Pittsburg/Bay Point Station — one stop at the existing platform and another stop at “platform 3” — some 100 yards to the east — where passengers will change to and from the Antioch extension trains. Riders must push a button to enter or exit the cars, and some seats are accessible only by climbing steps at either end of the cars. BART directors, once bitten and twice shy with the problems of their fleet of 44-year-old, once-revolutionary cars, elected to buy off-the-shelf transit cars from the Stadler company of Switzerland that have been used in many European and U.S. systems and have a proven track record. Seven more trains — each consisting of two passenger cars and a shorter car in the middle that contains the diesel engine — are due to arrive by the end of the year. Crunican did predict that the long-delayed Warm Springs extension — BART’s other big project, whose opening is 2½ years behind schedule — will open before the Antioch extension, whose opening is but two years behind schedule.
Caltrans sorry for big Bay Bridge tie-up after Giants-A’s game
Caltrans apologized Thursday to scores of angry drivers after a contractor shut down a San Francisco on-ramp to the Bay Bridge before Tuesday night’s Giants-A’s game ended, causing the biggest traffic jam that officials and motorists said they had seen in years. Baseball fans heading back to the East Bay after the second game of the Bay Bridge Series were met with hours of gridlock after leaving AT&T Park. The contractor, Sacramento’s Myers & Son Construction company, broke a major procedural rule requiring it to wait at least 30 minutes after a game, concert or similar event before closing an on-ramp and lanes. Jim McGill, a Giants season-ticket holder since 2000, said it took him more than two hours to reach his home in Moraga — usually a 25-minute drive from AT&T Park. Workers were replacing expansion joint seals on the Bay Bridge — a project expected to be completed by Sept. 1, Haus said. The seals operate like cartilage and keep the concrete deck section of the bridge from absorbing too much shock and cracking, he said. Matt Shupe, 31, left a conference in the city around 11:45 p.m. Wednesday but didn’t reach Danville until 3:20 a.m. He called the ramp closure “the physical manifestation of Satan.”
Pacifica residents put on alert after mountain lion spotted
Pacifica residents are being warned that a mountain lion, measuring at least 6 feet long, was seen prowling a residential neighborhood in the oceanside community Wednesday night and leaping over a backyard fence. Police were called to the 700 block of Big Bend Drive at 8:30 p.m. after the big cat was spotted in the backyard of a home. Most mountain lions will try to avoid confrontation. Avoiding hiking or jogging through wooded areas at dawn, dusk or at night when mountain lions are most active. Keeping a close watch on small children when hiking or traveling in or around wooded areas.
Smoking box on tracks sparks BART delay near Glen Park station
A BART train ran over a smoldering cardboard box during Wednesday morning commute, causing delays as personnel worked to dissipate smoke rising under the train, officials said. The incident occurred just before 9 a.m. near the Glen Park BART Station, said Taylor Huckaby, a spokesman for the transit agency. Officials turned on the ventilation system to remove the smoke, said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost.
BART to close tracks between South Hayward, Fremont this weekend
The South Hayward, Union City and Fremont BART stations will be closed two weekends in July, including this holiday weekend, so that transit workers can lay down tracks to connect the line with a Hayward maintenance complex that’s being built in preparation for the “fleet of the future” cars. The same section of the line will also be closed July 16 and 17 for continued maintenance work. Workers will be doing general repairs, including fixes to the power transmission infrastructure, as well as installing crossover tracks at the Hayward maintenance center, said Taylor Huckaby, a BART spokesman.
10-bedroom SF mansion offers nightmarish hug-based communal living
People who use the word “mindfulness” unironically may find their perfect accommodation in Chateau Ubuntu, a 10-bedroom, 38-person mansion by Alamo Square that’s looking for tenants.
Cops talk down homeless man from Santa Rosa electrical tower
Cops talk down homeless man from Santa Rosa electrical tower A homeless man perched on an electrical tower in Santa Rosa Wednesday evening in an apparent act of protest, prompted the Pacific, Gas and Electric Co. to cut off power to 22,000 residents in the area while police talked the man down. PG&E shut down power in the area for thirty minutes as the police force’s hostage negotiation team talked to the man.
Girl, 16, badly injured in Hayward house fire
A 16-year-old girl was in critical condition Wednesday night after firefighters rescued her from a burning home in Hayward while her two brothers escaped with minor injuries, officials said. Two boys, 17 and 8, came out of a bedroom at the home and saw a fire had started in the living room, Pappas said. Alameda County firefighters rescued her from the house with life-threatening injuries. Officials have yet to determine the cause of the fire, but isolated its origin to one wall in the living room, Pappas said.
Hitch a ride on the ‘Ghostbusters’ Ecto-1 this weekend in San Francisco
The latest publicity stunt from rideshare company, Lyft, will send San Francisco residents into movie nostalgia overload — Ghostbusters Ecto-1 cars will be picking up riders in the city this weekend.
Congress members join 300 at antigun sit-in
Above: Mattie Scott (left), who lost her son to gun violence, is embraced by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, at a “family sit-in to disarm hate” at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Wednesday. Right: Ingera Barr cradles a picture of her granddaughter Reggina Jefferies, gunned down in Oakland June 14. Three other members of Congress joined the demonstration.
Alvin Toffler, author of ‘Future Shock,’ dies at 87
Alvin Toffler, the celebrated author of “Future Shock,” the first in a trilogy of best-selling books that presciently forecast how people and institutions of the late 20th century would contend with the immense strains and soaring opportunities of accelerating change, died Monday at his home in Los Angeles. Mr. Toffler was a self-trained social science scholar and successful freelance magazine writer in the mid-1960s when he decided to spend five years studying the underlying causes of a cultural upheaval that he saw overtaking the United States and other developed countries. The fruit of his research, 1970’s “Future Shock,” was published in more than 100 countries, selling millions of copies, and catapulted Mr. Toffler to international fame. In the book, in which he synthesized disparate facts from every corner of the globe, he concluded that the convergence of science, capital and communications was producing such swift change that it was creating an entirely new kind of society. “The roaring current of change,” he said, was producing visible and measurable effects in individuals that fractured marriages, overwhelmed families and caused “confusional breakdowns” manifested in rising crime, drug use and social alienation. Critics were not sure what to make of Mr. Toffler’s literary style or scholarship. The mechanical engineering scholar and systems theorist Richard W. Longman wrote in the New York Times that Mr. Toffler “sends flocks of facts and speculation whirling past like birds in a tornado.” In Time magazine, reviewer R.Z. Sheppard wrote, “Toffler’s redundant delivery and overheated prose turned kernels of truth into puffed generalities.” Mr. Toffler’s work nevertheless found an eager readership among the general public, on college campuses, in corporate suites and in national governments. Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House, met the Tofflers in the 1970s and became close to them. Only the speeches of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping sold more copies. Mr. Toffler enrolled in New York University in 1946 and, by his account, spent the next four years only mildly interested in his academic work. Mr. Toffler learned to weld and repair machinery and came to understand in the most personal way the toll that physical labor can have on industrial workers. In 1954, soon after the birth of the couple’s only child, Karen, he persuaded the editor of Industry and Welding, a national trade magazine published in Cleveland, to hire him as a reporter. Two years later, he sent Fortune magazine a proposal to write an article about the economics of the growing mainstream interest in the arts. Besides his wife, Mr. Toffler is survived by a sister, Caroline Sitter. Mr. Toffler published 13 books and won numerous honors, including a career achievement award in 2005 from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Shel Israel, an author and commentator who writes about social media for Forbes, took issue with Mr. Toffler in 2012 for painting “a picture of people who were isolated and depressed, cut off from human intimacy by a relentless fire hose of messages and data barraging us.”
Corrections, June 30
Landlords in Oakland to sue over trash rates, June 29, Bay Area, D3 The Matier & Ross column that began on Page D1 incorrectly reported Oakland city staff’s 2014 recommendation regarding the city’s garbage-collection contract. Staffers recommended giving the deal to Waste Management.
PG&E kept faulty pipeline records, witness says
A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. engineer testified Wednesday that the company relied on records that it knew were faulty when it spiked pressure on its gas pipelines, including the line that later exploded in San Bruno. “It was commonly known amongst the organization that it wasn’t a perfect database,” Todd Arnett told a federal court jury in San Francisco that is considering 13 criminal charges against PG&E — 12 counts of failing to identify risks to pipelines, failing to conduct needed inspections and knowingly keeping inaccurate records, and one count of obstructing a federal investigation of the deadly September 2010 San Bruno explosion. A March 2009 email from another PG&E engineer to Arnett and other managers, displayed to the jury, said there were “a ton of errors” in PG&E’s record-keeping system for three Peninsula pipelines, including the line that ran through San Bruno. Investigators found that a ruptured pipe seam at an incomplete weld caused the explosion and fire that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. PG&E, California’s largest utility company, has been fined $1.6 billion by the state Public Utilities Commission for the explosion and could be fined as much as $562 million if convicted of the criminal charges. Much of the evidence centers on PG&E’s longtime practice of raising pressure levels in its older gas pipelines once every five years so that it could maintain high volumes without having to conduct expensive safety tests.
Livermore school hit with 2nd lawsuit stemming from molestations
A second lawsuit has been filed against a Livermore school that employed a security guard who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two students and is now serving a six-year prison term. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a student at Livermore Valley Charter School when she was molested and sexually abused by Jason Quero, according to the victim’s attorney, Mary Alexander. “The school gave Jason Quero unfettered access to vulnerable young girls when it should have been asking itself, was it suspicious that a male employee is spending so much time with female students, sexting with them on social media, and giving them candy?” Alexander said Wednesday. The attorney is also representing another victim of Quero in legal action against Tri-Velley Learning Corporation, owner of the kindergarten through eighth-grade school.
3 Oakland property owners sue over garbage costs
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