Top of the morning’s news
- A former insider with the Marin agency at the heart of an illicit pay scheme involving officials of San Francisco Unified School District suggests problems are more widespread in a resignation letter obtained by The Bay Citizen.
- With a BART protest scheduled today by the group Anonymous, an LGBT group says it plans to counter-protest the leak of an unflattering photo of BART spokesman Linton Johnson, who is gay, accusing Anonymous of gay-baiting. KQED News Fix
- Alison Stewart has decided to bow out as anchor of PBS’ Friday night news magazine “Need to Know” when it goes to a half hour Sept. 16 and begins focusing on the 2012 presidential election. Media Decoder
- Worth reading in case you missed it: Mary Elizabeth Williams’ piece at Salon on how celebrity gossip coverage is undermining legitimate journalism’s credibility.
- Moneyball, the Brad Pitt film based on Michael Lewis’ book, will open Sept. 19 at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre although Sony Pictures hasn’t confirmed yet whether Pitt will be on hand. Oakland Tribune
- The Chronicle’s Heather Knight reports on the flap in San Francisco’s Asian community over the Democratic County Central Committee’s spurning all of the Asian American mayoral candidates in its endorsements.
“If they weren’t so violent, they would be silly.”-- Author and folklorist Stetson Kennedy, who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s and famously wrote about it, and who died Saturday in Florida at age 94.
Other news
- The Bay Bridge east span should be finished in time for the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco, the Bay Area Toll Authority says. Chronicle
- At least 70 flights were canceled at SFO Sunday before Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm. Chronicle
- The LA Times examines the missteps and declining fortunes of Silicon Valley giant Hewlett-Packard over the past decade or so.
- The so-called Motor Fire, which spread from a motor home blaze Thursday, was 35 percent contained late Sunday outside Yosemite after burning 4,700 acres and forcing the closure of Highway 140. Chronicle
- Convicted murderer and porn impresario James Mitchell lost a dispute with his fired former attorney, Terence Hallinan, whom a Marin arbitration panel said was due $125,000 in fees before Mitchell let him go. Chronicle
- Two people were injured, neither of them seriously, when a small plane skidded off a runway at Napa County Airport and collided with a car Sunday afternoon. AP
- A Fort Bragg councilman who stumbled onto a remote Mendocino County marijuana growing operation was shot and killed Saturday and the suspect was still at large. Chronicle
- The University of Southern California is set to launch a campaign to raise $5 billion in donations by 2018—the largest fundraising goal in the history of American academia. LA Times
- California’s chief justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has backed off a push to make greater use of cameras in courtrooms after opposition from trial judges. Chronicle
- Amid beefed up security the 49ers game with Houston Saturday at Candlestick saw none of the violence that marred the 49ers-Raiders game a week before [Chronicle] and the Raiders’ game Sunday at the Coliseum with New Orleans was similarly uneventful. Oakland Tribune
- Reporter Thomas Peele says even with its “long and dismal” reputation for lack of transparency, the Mount Diablo Unified School District has managed to outdo itself in attempts to keep secret details of how its money is spent. Contra Costa Times
