Anxiety builds over possible BART strike, state’s gasoline tax is about to go up, heat watch for the weekend, more.
Top of the news
BART’s unions last night gave the obligatory 72-hour strike notice for midnight Sunday, and scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. today to provide more details about the decision. Chronicle; Mercury News
Columnist Tom Barnidge says that if BART workers do strike, they shouldn’t expect much public sympathy. Mercury News
Politics and government
California’s tax on gasoline will rise by 3.5 cents, or about 10 percent, starting July 1. SF Business Times
Contra Costa County supervisor John Gioia was sworn in as the newest member of the California Air Resources Board. Contra Costa Times
Other news and items of interest
In case you wondered, it’s supposed to be really hot in the Bay Area over the weekend. Mercury News
A 3.9-magnitude quake centered 7 miles southwest of Hollister at 8:52 last night was widely felt across the Bay Area. Mercury News
East Bay Regional Parks workers are threatening a two-day strike over stalled contract negotiations. Contra Costa Times
One prominent San Franciscan not elated about the Supreme Court’s Prop 8 decision: Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, one of the anti-same-sex marriage law’s chief supporters, who says he’s worried about the direction of the country. Chronicle
The Warriors bought into last night’s NBA draft, taking 6-4 combo guard Nemanja Nedovic of Serbia as the 26th overall pick—that’s a day after Carl Landry opted out of the last year on his contract to become a free agent. Mercury News
Walnut Creek city council members haven’t decided whether a report involving alleged child sex abuse by a city employee at the Lesher Center for the Arts, completed two weeks ago, should be made public. Contra Costa Times
BART plans to build a $2 million transparent canopy over the 19th Street Station escalators in a pilot program to see whether more such structures should be built to protect escalators exposed to the elements. SF Business Times
Golden Gate Ferry’s venerable M. V. San Francisco will undergo a $20 million overhaul over the next year. Marin IJ
