Top of the morning’s news
- After months of opposing it, state Republicans say they’re now willing to allow voters to weigh in on taxes, but oppose a tax to bridge the gap until such an election that Gov. Brown says is essential to a deal. Contra Costa Times
- Stinson Beach reopens today after that great white shark sighting earlier in the week. Marin IJ
- Turns out self-declared illegal immigrant journalist Jose Antonio Vargas wrote at least four stories on illegal immigration while at the Chronicle in the early 2000s, not one as he told editor at large Phil Bronstein. Poynter
- Move over journalists. Geraldo Rivera is back from a week-long yacht race and in Orlando to cover the Casey Anthony trial. TV Newser
- Apparently bending to fans who thought it was tacky, Keith Olbermann announced he’ll cut back his Current TV show from 63 to 60 minutes so as not to overlap with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. HuffPo
- Former Fresno mayor Jim Patterson bought a radio station with a local pastor and another partner and will convert it to a Christian talk format. Radio Ink
- Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed on to head the committee trying to bring the 2022 Olympic Winter Games to California, the group announced Thursday. Capitol Alert
- Gov. Jerry Brown hinted that if budget talks with Republicans break down, the initiative battle to follow might be broadened to examine possible changes to Proposition 13. PolitiCal
- Mitt Romney gets endorsements from a boatload of California GOP lawmakers during his private fundraising tour. Political Blotter
- DA George Gascon announced he will re-file felony hate crime charges against two suspects accused of assaulting a transgender woman. The Bay Citizen
- With 30,000 inmates to be released from state prisons due to overcrowding during the next two years, state Assemblyman Sandre Swanson (D-Oakland) says it’s time to lift the ban preventing former drug offenders from receiving food stamps. The Bay Citizen
- A judge in Los Angeles tells Lindsay Lohan no more rooftop parties while she’s on house arrest. AP
- San Francisco Film Society signed a lease with New People Cinema in Japantown, ending a years-long search for a permanent home. SF Business Times
- Signs of restlessness at Yahoo’s turnaround progress at the company’s annual meeting in Santa Clara yesterday, with CEO Carol Bartz catching an earful. Bloomberg News
- Cal’s Cinderella baseball season ended with an 8-1 elimination loss to Virginia in the College World Series. Daily Cal
- A federal judge granted prosecutors’ request to delay a decision on whether to retry home run king Barry Bonds for perjury until at least late August. Bay City News Service
- Crime boss Whitey Bulger had managed to live undetected in a rent-controlled Santa Monica apartment for 14 years when he was arrested—with $800,000 in cash stashed there. SF Business Times
- The man who forcibly took a woman’s dog from her arms on a South San Francisco street won’t be prosecuted because the dog had actually belonged to him at one point. Bay City News Service
- The Lakers’ Ron Artest filed a court petition to change his name to Metta World Peace. AP
