Top of the morning’s news
- Bay Area families of the men still missing from the tragic fishing boat accident in the Sea of Cortez off Mexico’s Baja Peninsula continued to wait, and hope, while the search continued for their loved ones. Chronicle
- A book deal signed by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange just six months ago appears to have fallen through although Canongate, his publisher in Britain, says it still expects to publish the book. Media Decoder
- The Chronicle raises the age question about Dianne Feinstein’s bid for a fourth Senate term, noting that if re-elected the 78-year-old Feinstein would be 85 by the time her term ended.
- Public defender Jeff Adachi says he will go forward with his alternative pension overhaul proposal unless the city is willing to accept a compromise that he announced at a press conference. The Bay Citizen
- Surveillance video from Lefty O’Doul’s restaurant appears to show the suspect in that Weinstein Gallery art heist walking up Geary Street with a stolen Picasso drawing tucked under his arm. Chronicle
- Vallejo police are claiming success against prostitution at certain street corners where it once proliferated, saying newly-installed police video cameras have turned the intersections into ghost towns. Vallejo Times-Herald
- Is Google’s desire to build a couple of bridges over Stevens Creek to connect its headquarters with a new 42-acre campus at Moffett Field a bridge (or two) too far? Some Mountain View city council members think so. Palo Alto Daily News
- Negotiations have ramped up for a new 555-bed hospital on Cathedral Hill after California Pacific Medical Center made an offer to the mayor’s office to pay $1.1 billion in community benefits over 10 years to mitigate the loss of beds at St. Luke’s Hospital in the Mission District, the Examiner says.
- A federal appeals court ordered a halt to the military’s enforcement of its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy towards gays in the armed services. Chronicle
- Oakland police Chief Anthony Batts announced a reshuffling of his resource-thin force, including putting bike and motorcycle cops as well as 15 sergeants into patrol and realigning how the department deploys its personnel geographically. Oakland Tribune
- The Bay Citizen reports that a witness says the knife-wielding man shot and killed by a BART police officer at the Civic Center Station Saturday was “definitely” not “running or lunging” at officers when he was shot.
- Prosecutors charged a Richmond man with numerous felonies after police say he wriggled from restraints and spat on a deputy, causing him to crash his patrol car. Contra Costa Times
- Bechtel said it isn’t moving its headquarters from San Francisco, a day after a story in the San Francisco Business Times offered speculation that a move might be in the works. SF Business Times
- Accused serial murderer Joseph Naso changed his mind about representing himself and told a Marin judge he now wants a public defender at his trial on four murder charges. Marin IJ
