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Man throws aluminum water bottle at UC Berkeley student’s face A man threw an aluminum water bottle at a UC Berkeley student Thursday evening on campus, causing minor injuries to the victim’s face. At about 5:09 p.m., the female student was approached by a man at “the northeast exterior of the Haas Pavilion,” according to a UCPD crime alert. The man asked the student if she was going to the protest on Sproul Plaza, and when the victim answered “no,” the suspect yelled at her. “People like you are the reason that California is in debt,” he said, according to...

Last year, a medical-technology firm called Numira Biosciences, founded in 2005 in Irvine, California, packed its bags and moved to Salt Lake City. The relocation, CEO Michael Beeuwsaert told the Orange County Register, was partly about the Utah destination’s pleasant quality of life and talented workforce. But there was a big “push factor,” too: California’s steepening taxes and ever-thickening snarl of government regulations. “The tipping point was when someone from the Orange County tax [assessor] wanted to see our facility to tax every piece of equipment I had,” Beeuwsaert said. “In Salt Lake City at my first networking event...

Los Angeles faces tens of million of dollars in additional borrowing costs after the City Council told anti-Wall Street protesters the city intends to cut ties with banks involved in financial wrongdoing, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said. The city may have to pay $27.8 million in termination fees and replacement costs in just one program if it's prohibited from doing business with banks providing letters of credit for an infrastructure program, Santana said today in a memo to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and city leaders. Additional debt service would cost $14.9 million a year if it has to refinance commercial...

I want to welcome this groundbreaking scientific expedition to the savage lands of the Left Coast. You are here in California to answer an important theoretical question and now you have your answer. Yes, this is what Barack Obama’s second term would look like. Study it. Fear it. And then go home and make sure that it never happens to the rest of the country. Of course, in spite of all of its problems, California is still one of the best places in the country to build a successful small business. All you have to do is start with a...

The Debt Panel’s Profligate Pork Patty Murray Problem By Michelle Malkin • August 12, 2011 10:34 AM House minority leader Nancy Pelosi rounds out the Super Debt Panel of Stupid today with her three hack picks. My column today focuses on the panel’s Democratic co-chair, my old Senator from Washington state: Profligate Pork Patty Murray. *** The Debt Panel’s Patty Murray Problem by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2011 Everything that’s wrong with the so-called debt “super-committee” can be summed up in the person, partisan hackery and policy ignorance of Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader...

California taxpayers pay record amount in benefits to children of illegal aliens Los Angeles Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has just released data from the Department of Public Social Services which shows that in November 2010, $53 million in welfare benefits ($22 million CalWORKs and $31 million in Food Stamps) were given issued to illegal aliens for their U.S.-born children in Los Angeles County. The record amount is an increase of almost $3 million from November 2009, and represents 22 percent of all CalWORKs and Food Stamp issuances in L.A. county. In 2009, CalWORKs and Food Stamp benefits given to illegal...

CALEXICO, Calif. (AP) -- A government agency on the front lines of the immigration debate has begun installing lifesaving buoys in a fast-moving canal along the U.S.-Mexico border where migrants drown each year as they sneak into the country illegally. The debate over the lifelines has long presented authorities with a moral dilemma: Is it acceptable to do nothing when so many immigrants are dying in the water?

Schwarzenegger, who counts legislation combating global warming as one of his signature achievements in office, suggested he might be interested in a post dealing with energy or the environment. "I'm a big believer in environmental issues," Schwarzenegger said, who added that he wanted a post where he could use his "celebrity power … knowledge and experience" to impact public policy. "I've traveled the world. … I'm very familiar with the world."

California has approved an extensive carbon-trading plan aimed at cutting greenhouse emissions. State regulators passed a "cap-and-trade" framework to let companies buy and sell permits, giving them an incentive to emit fewer gases.

While the rest of the nation went red in Tuesday's midterm elections, California emerged even bluer. What's going on? The standard answer is that registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans, and that many decline-to-state voters lean Democratic. But there's a more telling reason, one that promises to keep California blue for years. The state's rising numbers of new voters - newly minted immigrant voters, minorities and voters between the ages of 18 and 29 - are overwhelmingly Democratic in their preferences.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might be a radioactive figure in many parts of the country, but one day after Democrats lost the House in a landslide, Bay Area business and political leaders are already regretting the region's loss of clout. "Just look around," the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce's Jim Lazarus told The San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday. "The $400 million for the Transbay Terminal project, the [$46 million] Doyle Drive rebuild, the [$86 million] Hunters Point Shipyard cleanup — if she wasn't there, I'm not sure we would have gotten the funding, and we certainly wouldn't have gotten it as...

California voters have spoken -- and for the most part, they decided to stop the wave of anti-Democratic voting that swept the nation at the Sierras. Now California will have a Democratic governor, Democratic Legislature and with the passage of Prop. 25, Democratic budgeting process. For years now, the Dems have been blaming the Republican minority for the state's budget woes. That's over for the next two years. Whatever happens next with California -- it will be on Jerry Brown and his party. I sure hope Brown will prove to be the maverick he hinted he would be. Talk to...

As early as the end of this year, you might be able to hop into your plug-in electric car and drive to Portland, Ore., or Vancouver, B.C., without worrying about finding a charging station. The state has received federal economic stimulus funds to build four or five charging stations along the I-5 corridor from Canada to Oregon. The $1.32 million would ultimately pay for seven to 10 stations on I-5 and I-90. If all goes as planned, Washington will be the first state to have a series of coordinated electric charging stations spanning its borders, said Tonia Buell, a spokeswoman...

It seems the gang over at San Francisco's Planning Department has been looking at more than zoning codes on their computers - namely, porn.According to City Hall sources, Planning Director John Rahaim has recommended the firing of four high-ups - including veteran Zoning Administrator Larry Badiner - for allegedly receiving and in some cases circulating X-rated photos and videos for years.The material wasn't criminal - we're talking "Debbie Does Dallas" stuff, not child porn - but it was "incredibly inappropriate for the workplace," said one source, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of...

The battle over the venture -- dozens of public hearings and nine years long -- has split members of American Indian tribes and pitted some of the nation's wealthiest people against each other. Liberals have squared off against fellow liberals. The most notable opponent was the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose family compound would have a view of the wind farm. The late Walter Cronkite also raised objec

WASHINGTON – Californians have an overwhelmingly negative view of Congress, with two of every three voters disapproving of its performance, according to the latest Field Poll. Only 23 percent said they approve of the way Congress is conducting itself. It's the highest disapproval rate since 1996. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco doesn't fare much better, with more Californians rating her negatively than positively. About one in three – or 34 percent – gave her good marks, while nearly half – 44 percent – said they disapprove of her performance. That's a sharp turnaround from March, when 48...

Last Wednesday, conservatives held coast-t0-coast "TEA parties" designed to send the message to Washington and state governments that the partiers feel "taxed enough already." The exercise struck me as more than a little out of touch with the political realities of President Obama's America. The next day, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar held a public hearing in San Francisco on a Bush administration proposal to sell federal leases to drill for oil and gas off the California coast. The hearing became the Left Coast equivalent of the right-wing TEA party. The only difference is that the overwhelmingly anti-drilling crowd was in...

Many of nation's green leaders from Bay Area Sunday, February 1, 2009 A Bay Area jeansmaker clothed miners in the dusty Sierra Nevada gold fields, creating what would become a fashion staple around the globe. Nearly a century later, two Stanford graduates birthed the high-tech age in a Palo Alto garage. Today, Bay Area entrepreneurs, scientists and policymakers hope to join the vanguard of another revolution - one that aims to reinvent the way people use water, power their cars, build their houses and live their lives. President Obama has promised sweeping changes to the nation's energy grid, auto emission...

Letters in Response to Capt. Lund and Code Pink • Editors, Daily Planet: Thank you for printing the letter by Captain Richard Lund. I work in a building on University Avenue. I am a woman, I am a mother, I am the wife of a veteran, I am a liberal, I am a democrat, I am a staunch opponent to this war, and I am an enemy of President Bush. And I am ashamed. Wars aren’t created by the military, they are created by politicians and their self- serving constituents. The Code Pink protest is an insult to the sacrifices...

A veteran San Francisco police officer is under departmental investigation - and could be suspended - for writing a letter to The Chronicle criticizing the way Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Police Department are handling the homeless problem in Golden Gate Park. According to police sources, Sgt. John Lewis of Park Station is being investigated for authoring a letter that "undermines the efficiency of the department." Lewis' letter, published on The Chronicle's editorial page Aug. 15, questioned the Newsom administration's tactic of sending cops and outreach workers into the park before dawn to steer campers into social programs or, if...