Sunday Notes: 8/28/11

Another log on the pile of BART management woes: Director James Fang took $7,000 in campaign contributions this year from a contractor with business pending before the agency in violation of BART conflict of interest regulations, California Watch says.

• Here’s the preliminary list of whistle stops on GOP frontrunner Rick Perry’s whirlwind fundraising tour in California next month: San Diego, Newport Beach, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, East Palo Alto and Fresno.
• No one can accuse Berkeleyside of not being all over the 40th anniversary of Alice Waters' Chez Panisse. Five of nine items in its “Berkeley Wire” news roundup were devoted to the restaurateur on Thursday alone, plus several more blog posts leading into the weekend.
• San Jose is so broke it’s no longer supplying doggie poop bags in parks.
• President Obama’s job approval rating didn’t get a bounce after NATO’s apparent successes in Libya, a CNN poll shows.
• Cringe-worthy quote from newly-minted CBS News chief White House correspondent Norah O’Donnell: “The people who have been chief White House correspondents are legendary and the very best journalists in American history.”
• The Sacramento Bee began running medical marijuana ads in its print edition.
• The Rev. Al Sharpton, on the defensive after getting an MSNBC talk show despite being a non-journalist celebrity and ex-lobbyist for MSNBC’s parent Comcast, says that if he hadn’t gotten the show, MSNBC still wouldn’t have given it to a journalist.
• James Frey, who gave autobiography a bad name after fabricating big chunks of his life story in A Million Little Pieces, says he’s through with writing books, which is odd, since publishers pretty much wrote him off two years ago.
• The Lakers’ Ron Artest will have to wait until Sept. 16 for a court hearing on whether he can change his name to Metta World Peace. He’s got traffic tickets to clear up first.