STATE NIXES DEAL TO DIVERT 49ERS STADIUM FUND: SANTA CLARA (AP) — The state of California has vetoed a $30 million deal between the San Francisco 49ers and Santa Clara County officials that would have allowed some of the money voters earmarked for a new stadium to be diverted to local schools.
The San Jose Mercury News reports that the California Department of Finance this month rejected a settlement under which about $30 million in redevelopment funds would have been split between the football stadium and the Santa Clara Unified School District.
The finance department says the agreement is invalid because it was struck long after the state Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown approved a law dismantling the community agencies that oversaw property tax revenues for redevelopment projects.
The decision isn't expected to slow construction of the new $1.2 billion stadium.
MAN CONVICTED FOR SHOOTING DEATH NEAR TACO TRUCK: OAKLAND (AP) — An Alameda County jury has found an Oakland man who shot and killed a customer during an argument near a taco truck guilty of voluntary manslaughter.
Deputy District Attorney Teresa Drenick said Tuesday that 36-year-old Theodore Walter Jones faces up to 11 years in prison following his conviction last week.
The sentence could be doubled if jurors who convicted him on Monday decide Jones had a prior violent crime conviction as a juvenile. That phase of trial began on Tuesday.
Prosecutors say Jones was drunk when he bumped into 23-year-old Dmario Anderson while their respective groups were placing food orders at a taco truck in East Oakland in 2010.
There was a scuffle between the two men and Anderson was fatally shot by Jones who had pried away Anderson's gun.
JUDGE ISSUES RULING IN PG&E PIPELINE BLAST CASES: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Northern California judge says a jury can decide if Pacific Gas & Electric Co. should pay victims of the deadly San Bruno pipeline blast punitive damages in civil court.
Mike Danko, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, says San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Steven Dylina issued his final decision Tuesday.
More than 350 people have filed civil suits against PG&E over the 2010 blast, which killed eight and destroyed 38 homes. Relatives who lost family members and property are seeking punitive damages as well as millions of dollars in compensation.
The trial is set to begin in January, and the jury will be able to determine the amount of punitive damages.
PG&E wants to avoid paying survivors extra damages, and has claimed in court filings that the explosion was an accident, not due to mismanagement.
MAN WHO TORCHED BURNING MAN DIES IN TRAIN ACCIDENT: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A San Francisco man who was once convicted for illegally torching the Burning Man effigy has died after jumping in front of a Bay Area Rapid Transit train.
The Medical Examiner's office said Tuesday that 42-year-old Paul Addis was found underneath a Daly-City bound train at the Embarcadero station Saturday night.
BART officials said train service was disrupted for nearly four hours.
Addis was known as a performance artist who spent two years in a Nevada prison for illegally torching the 40-foot signature effigy at the counterculture Burning Man festival in 2007.
The next year Addis pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts related to an alleged arson attempt at San Francisco's historic Grace Cathedral in 2007.
He was sentenced to three years of probation in that incident.
DA: COUPLE ROBBED KMART BEFORE KILLING TEACHER: HERCULES (AP) — Prosecutors say a couple arrested on suspicion of slaying of a retired San Francisco Bay area schoolteacher robbed a Kmart just before the killing.
The Contra Costa Times (http://bit.ly/SaErYi) reports that 24-year-0ld Darnell Washington was arraigned Monday on a nine-count felony indictment; his 25-year-old wife Tanya is also charged but awaiting extradition from Washington state.
The couple has been charged with murder during the commission of a robbery for the killing of 55-year-old Susie Ko on Oct. 5 in Hercules, a Contra Costa County suburb.
Prior to Ko's slaying, prosecutors said the couple fought off Kmart employees in Pinole during a robbery.
Prosecutors said Darrell Washington fatally stabbed Ko, and that he has prior felony convictions in Los Angeles County, where he is also wanted for a sheriff's deputy's shooting.
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