For the 200,000 people or so who depend on BART to get to work -- and to get home -- Monday was shaping up as The Day from Hell: The strike has begun.
From the Chronicle's Michael Cabanatuan and John King: "The first BART strike since 1997 is now under way."
"The final trains of the Sunday shift will finish up their runs. But there will be no service Monday, with the transit system's workers and management agreeing only on the fact that the two sides remain far apart in contract negotiations. Instead of reporting to work, BART union employees will carry picket signs and distribute leaflets at most stations."
"Regretfully, we have to let the riding public know that we will not be operating" Monday said Antonette Bryant, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, which represents 945 train operators and station agents. "Our members aren't interested in disrupting the Bay Area, but management has put us in a position where we have no choice."
They're called "behested payments," money that somebody gives to a politician's favorite causes in order to curry favor with the politician. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is a major player in this and one of the big funders is Wal-Mart.
From the Bee's Ryan Lillis: "Over the past 18 months, retail giant Wal-Mart and a charity funded by the company's founding family have poured contributions into nonprofit organizations affiliated with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and Councilman Jay Schenirer at unprecedented levels."
"The Sacramento City Council has at the same time been weighing whether to relax restrictions on big-box stores, a move that would greatly benefit retail chains such as Wal-Mart. Schenirer solicited the contributions even as he backed the big-box changes, which are expected to be adopted by the council next month. Johnson has stayed silent but is considered pro-business and a likely yes vote."
"The Wal-Mart donations are part of a wave of charitable contributions, known as "behests," made to causes championed by members of the City Council. Not long ago, these donations were relatively modest, but they have jumped since Johnson's election in 2008. Since the start of 2011, the mayor and City Council have reported more behest contributions than all members of the state Senate and Assembly combined, according to a Bee analysis of data compiled by both the city and the state's Fair Political Practices Commission."
Even in San Diego, that old Navy town-turned-tourist-trap, attitudes on same-sex marriage have experienced a major change.
From the LAT's Tony Perry: "In 2008, when California counties were told to issue same-sex marriage licenses, 24 employees of the San Diego County clerk's office raised objections to being involved, citing their religious and moral views."
"That will not be an issue Monday when the office begins taking marriage appointments, said Val Wood, the No. 2 official in the clerk's office. When employees were polled, none raised objections, Wood said."
"Turnover in the clerk's office since 2008, plus changing societal attitudes toward same-sex marriage, are cited."
Further north, in Lake Tahoe, the billionaires are pushing out the millionaires as high-end property values are biooming.
From the Bee's Hudson Sangree: "Just under $20 million will buy you a piece of Lake Tahoe paradise with history to spare. A century-old log home once owned by reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes is on the market inCrystal Bay, Nev., for $19.5 million. The Summertide estate was built by a silver-mining mogul and later owned by an English earl."
"Too rustic? How about a $43 million, four-home compound in Incline Village, Nev., a short walk down the beach from where Oracle Corp. billionaire Larry Ellison is building a mega-estate. The lakefront in Nevada, a state with no personal income tax, has become a favorite retreat for California's high-tech titans."
"Lake Tahoe, where the billionaires are pushing out the millionaires," quipped Chase International real estate agent Karen Bruno, who has the listing for the former Hughes estate, now owned by a wealthy retired couple. She said a developer might tear down the historic cabin and build a trophy home for a modern-day magnate."
The courts may be against them and public opinion is swinging that way, too, but the foes of gay marriage are taking their fight to all 50 states.
From Politico's Emily Schultheis: "Attorney David Boies, who argued the Proposition 8 case Hollingsworth v. Perry in front of the Supreme Court, said Sunday supporters of same-sex marriage are taking the fight to all 50 states."
"Asked by CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union" if there were specific states next on the target list, Boies said there "isn't any state we're giving up on."
"I think there are lots of states," he said. "I don’t want to get in today with what are the states we’re going to target first or anything like that, because there isn’t any state we’re giving up on."
And from our "From Russia With Love" file comes word that surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden is living in the transit terminal at a Moscow airport. The only thing worse than this would be the Greyhound terminal in Cleveland.
"Edward Snowden seems to be stranded."
"Three weeks after Snowden revealed himself as the source of leaked top-secret documents on U.S. intelligence gathering, the former intelligence contractor is stuck in legal limbo in Russia. Although he has not been seen publicly in days, he is thought to be inside a transit area of a Moscow airport."
"On Sunday, two of his strongest supporters — Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and President Rafael Correa of Ecuador — said it was unlikely that Snowden would leave there anytime soon.
“The United States, by canceling his passport, has left him for the moment marooned in Russia,” said Assange, whose anti-secrecy organization has aided Snowden in his flight."
Your papers, please....