Richmond approves first of its kind mortgage help using eminent domain, at last hoteliers say they’re seeing an uptick in America’s Cup bookings, Mark Zuckerberg says feds botched NSA explanation, more.
Top of the news
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lashed out at the Obama administration, saying the government had done a poor job of explaining NSA intelligence gathering efforts and that it had been hurtful to Silicon Valley interests. Mercury News
After a marathon 7-hour public hearing, the city of Richmond approved a controversial plan—the first of its kind in the nation—to use eminent domain to help residents exit commercial real estate loans that they have little chance of repaying. Reuters
Politics and government
Oakland assistant administrator Scott Johnson is leaving to take the same post with the city of Concord. Oakland Tribune
Gov. Jerry Brown said he favors raising the state minimum wage to $10 an hour and urged lawmakers to approve a bill that would do so from the present $8, incrementally, by 2016. Capital Alert
Other news and items of interest
Grocer Trader Joe’s will drop health coverage for workers who put in fewer than 30 hours a week. Huffington Post
Now that the America’s Cup finals are in full swing, San Francisco hotels are finally beginning to see an uptick in tourism that some had begun to think might never happen. SF Business Times
With the Mount Diablo fire largely contained, investigators are boring in on identifying the cause of the blaze and, assuming it was of human origin, trying to find out who was responsible. Chronicle
San Jose will shell out nearly $5 million to a man shot and wounded by police after they mistook a gold-colored toy gun as a real one when encountering him passed out drunk at a hotel. Mercury News
On the heels of overseeing Newsweek’s ill-fated merger with The Daily Beast, editor Tina Brown is leaving the company. AP
Residents rallied behind a Walnut Creek firefighter and his wife who were victims of a house burglar—who stole even their wedding bands—as he helped fight the Mount Diablo fire. Contra Costa Times
The parents of the man who died at the 49ers-Packers game Sunday after falling from an elevated walkway at Candlestick Park pushed back against reports that he was severely intoxicated. AP
