Top of the morning’s news
- Home prices nationally hit an ominous new low. LAT; Bay Area is no exception. The Bay Citizen
- The family of vanished nursing student Michelle Hoang Thi Le, 26, offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to her return. Oakland Tribune
- KTVU 2 vice president and general manager Tim McVay is shoving off to take the same position at WSB in Atlanta, Cox Broadcasting’s flagship station. Cox news release
- AOL’s Patch, which is burning through $40 million a quarter, has doubled its traffic so far this year. Forbes
- Keith Olbermann’s new “Countdown” show for San Francisco-based Current TV will be helmed by David Sarosi, the producer responsible for his “Worst Person in the World” segment on his old Countdown show. TV Newser
- Former GOP chairman and MSNBC’s new token Republican Michael Steele says he doesn’t expect to be treated like a “conservative punching bag.” TV Newser
- Gov. Jerry Brown trims 400 jobs from the state prison system’s management staff. Political Blotter
- The Assembly approved a bill to tax Amazon and other online retailers. It now goes to the Senate. AP
- Lots of soul-searching among green donors now that climate legislation and a new international global warming treaty are on the scrap pile. Politico
- Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) makes a trip to Afghanistan over the Memorial Day weekend and renews his call for rapid troop withdrawal. Contra Costa Times
- Alameda fire officials say they’ll make policy changes after fire and police personnel watched an apparently suicidal man drown in the bay. Examiner
- Muni management announced a tentative labor agreement with transit operators. Chronicle
- The battle rages over whether to poison mice on the Farallon Islands. Bay Nature
- The city’s cable cars are out of service for maintenance for five days starting today. Examiner
- Scott Dyleski, the Lafayette teenager serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of the wife of criminal defense lawyer Daniel Horowitz, is filing new papers proclaiming his innocence. Contra Costa Times
- SFPD is warning people about buying items on Craigslist after a rash of gunpoint robberies in used car transactions. ABC 7
- That missing baby girl whose mother left her in the backseat with the keys in the ignition at a church parking lot was found unharmed in Salinas—car theft. Chronicle
- A new survey shows many UC Berkeley students have forsaken the area near campus, particularly Telegraph Avenue, because it’s too scruffy and they don’t feel safe. Berkeleyside
- An international panel of experts says that cell phones are possible carcinogens on a par with DDT and engine exhaust. AP
- Fifty-three guns were found in the Fresno home where a 2-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his sister. AP
- Bay Area News Group Cal beat writer Jonathan Okanes moderates a live chat with athletics director Sandy Barbour Thursday, 2 to 3 p.m.
