Youthful offenders, often forgotten in the public debate over realignment and prison overcrowding, may have -- in some cases -- the chance to get their sentences reduced.
From the Bee's Andy Furrillo: "The California high court ruling at play in Griffin's case – People v. Caballero – is one of two major breaks the state afforded last year to juvenile offenders who are serving massive prison terms as a result of their convictions in adult court."
"The other was Gov. Jerry Brown's signature on Senate Bill 9 by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, to allow some offenders serving life-without-parole terms for murders they committed before turning 18 to petition the courts for resentencing after they serve 15 years."
"As of 2009, there were 2,623 inmates sentenced as juveniles who were serving life terms in California prisons, according to court papers filed on behalf of Rodrigo Caballero, the petitioner in the state Supreme Court case. A little more than 300 were serving life terms without parole at the time SB 9 was signed, according to the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center."
Ratepayers would face a $1.6 billion tab if the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant is replaced with a new facility.
From the U-T's Morgan Lee: "Utility customers would pay more than $1.6 billion over a 25 year period for a new power plant that some say would help make up for theretirement of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station."
"San Diego Gas & Electric, the investor owned utility serving San Diego and southern Orange counties, is providing electricity customers with a detailed price estimate for the Pio Pico Energy Center in a mailing this month."
"State utility regulators turned away the proposal earlier this year,asserting there was no need for the plant until at least 2018."
From the Bee's Dan Morain: "So imagine my surprise when it turned out that in addition to being paid $174,000 a year byUncle Sam, McClintock has been collecting a California Legislators' Retirement System pension since he arrived in Congress in 2009, courtesy of the taxpayers he says he tries so hard to protect."
"Californians ended legislative pensions when they approved the term limits initiative in 1990. But McClintock, who has spent a career in politics opposing most government, first was elected to the Legislature in 1982."
"By any standard, McClintock's pension is modest, a combined $820 a month or $9,845 this year, including $528 a month or $6,336 annually in a Legislators' Retirement System payment, said Amy Norris, a California Public Employees' Pension System spokeswoman. But that's $9,845 more than he led voters to believe he would be collecting back before he won his congressional seat in 2008."
From the Chronicle's Bob Egelko: "A woman and her 8-year-old son, injured in the July 6 crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, have filed what may be the first lawsuit over the accident, accusing the airline of "wanton and willful disregard for the rights and safety of all passengers."
"Three teenage girls were killed and more than 180 passengers and crew members were injured when the Boeing 777, traveling from South Korea, hit a seawall short of a runway atSan Francisco International Airport, cracking off the tail section. The plane then spun off the runway and caught fire."
"Federal investigators say that the plane was flying too slow and that its trajectory was too low when it clipped the rocky seawall. The pilot was making his first landing of a Boeing 777 at SFO."
Google, which lately seems to own just about everything, now owns a little more of Palo Alto.
From Nathan Donato-Weinstein: "Google Inc. has bought almost 15 acres in Palo Alto, picking up a portfolio of seven older industrial properties and a small parcel of bare land off East Meadow Circle in what could be a redevelopment play."
"Public records show Mountain View-based Google acquired the properties this week from Menlo Park-based California Pacific Commercial Corp., a longtime Valley real estate firm."
"The deal marks a return of sorts for Google, which started in a Menlo Park garage but took its first office at 165 University Ave. in Palo Alto in February 1999, according to its company history. Google started moving out to Mountain View later that year."
And finally from our Beach Party file comes the tale of the Corgi horde -- more than 300 of them -- who took over the sands.
Check it out ... (but watch where you walk)
