BAY AREA MAN DIES CLIMBING VOLCANO IN ECUADOR: QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Authorities in Ecuador say an American expert on teen sexual health has died while climbing a volcano in the South American nation.
A Wednesday statement from Ecuador's Environment Ministry says Douglas Kirby apparently suffered a heart attack and died while climbing the Cotopaxi volcano.
The volcano, with an elevation of nearly 19,400 feet (5,900 meters), is popular with climbers who visit from around the world.
Kirby was a senior research scientist at ETR Associates, a Scotts Valley, California-based non-profit organization focusing on health education. ETR's website says Kirby spent four decades conducting social science research and was a global expert on adolescent sexual health.
MADISON, PALO ALTO MAYORS MAKE ROSE BOWL WAGER: PALO ALTO. (AP) — Mayors in Wisconsin and California are making a friendly wager on the Rose Bowl.
Stanford Cardinal, which call Palo Alto home, and the Wisconsin Badgers will compete in the Rose Bowl Jan. 1.
The wager is between Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and Palo Alto Mayor Yiaway Yeh.
The losing mayor will wear the opposing team's hat during a Common Council meeting, and will display the flag of the winning team for a day in January. The losing city will also organize a tree planting in honor of the winning team.
OAKLAND HIRES FORMER LA POLICE CHIEF AS CONSULTANT: OAKLAND (AP) — Oakland city officials have hired former New York City police commissioner and Los Angeles police chief Bill Bratton as a consultant.
City Council President Larry Reid confirmed Bratton's hiring to The Associated Press on Thursday. A formal announcement was expected at a 3 p.m. news conference.
Bratton was New York's police commissioner from 1994 to 1996 and police chief in Los Angeles from 2002 to 2009 and is widely credited with significantly reducing crime in both cities.
In Los Angeles, he focused on community policing and worked to resolve tensions between officers and minority communities.
Bratton is currently a senior advisor of Kroll, an international consulting company.
His hiring in Oakland comes after a federal judge earlier this month agreed to have a court-appointed director oversee the police department instead of it being taken over by the federal government.
CALIF. MAN CONVICTED OF GROPING DRIVERS SENTENCED: SANTA ROSA (AP) — A Northern California man convicted of pulling female drivers over and molesting them by the side of the road has been sentenced to nearly 15 years in prison.
Forty-seven-year-old Thomas Darin Boccaleoni of Cotati pleaded no contest to molesting three women on dark, Sonoma County roads after flashing his high-beam lights and getting them to pull over. The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa reports that the former Marin County chef was sentenced earlier this month.
District Attorney Jill Ravitch said he will have to serve 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.
The case began with multiple reports of roadside attacks on women from November 2008 to April 2009.
Authorities say DNA evidence from one of the attacks matched Boccaleoni's DNA.
WALNUT CREEK POLICE SHOOT, KILL MAN: WALNUT CREEK (AP) — Walnut Creek police say they shot and killed a man inside an apartment after responding to a 911 call during which a woman could be heard screaming.
Police have so far released few details about the shooting early Thursday morning except to say the man was armed and officers were forced to shoot.
They have not identified the man or said what he was armed with or what provoked the shooting.
