Kaiser Permanente workers go on strike

OAKLAND (AP) — Workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities throughout California have gone on strike over contract disputes involving Kaiser's mental health and optical employees.

The National Union of Healthcare Workers says its 4,000 Kaiser employees are staging a 24-hour strike Tuesday over proposed cuts to health care and retirement benefits. The union represents Kaiser mental health and optical employees.

It's their fourth walkout since contract negotiations started in 2010. Kaiser officials say the union hasn't responded to their wage and benefit proposals.

The California Nurses Association said nurses would stage a strike in solidarity. Kaiser says about two-thirds of its nurses showed up for work as scheduled.

Kaiser hospitals and medical offices remained open during the strike, though some appointments and elective procedures were rescheduled.

Judge rules against cops in Occupy Oakland case

OAKLAND  (AP) — A federal judge in California has ruled that an Oakland police officer who covered his nameplate during a November Occupy protest seriously violated court-approved conduct standards for the city's police department.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson issued the ruling against officer John Hargraves and Oakland police Lt. Clifford Wong. Wong was accused of failing to report Hargraves' actions to the department's internal affairs unit.

Henderson has not decided whether to hold contempt proceedings against the officers.

Hargraves has said he concealed his nameplate to protect himself and his family after an Occupy protester posted the name and address of another officer and called for burning down his home.

Oakland teen charged in adoptive parents' murders

OAKLAND  (AP) — A 15-year-old boy was charged as an adult Tuesday with two counts of murder in the strangling of his adoptive parents — a jail psychologist and a clinic physician's assistant whose bodies were found stuffed in the trunk of the family car.

Moses Kamin appeared in Superior Court for an arraignment that was continued to Wednesday, when he's expected to be assigned a lawyer. He did not enter a plea.

The teenager was arrested over the weekend after police performed a welfare check of his Oakland home prompted when co-workers said Robert Kamin didn't show up for work Friday.

SF's Mexican Museum joins Smithsonian network

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Mexican Museum in San Francisco is joining the nation's largest museum network.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports the museum of Latino art and culture on Tuesday becomes the city's first museum to join the Smithsonian Institution's Affiliations Program.

The partnership allows the Mexican Museum to borrow and lend pieces long-term within the 160-member network.

The museum's CEO Jonathan Yorba was previously a fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Founded in 1975 in San Francisco's Mission District, the Mexican Museum and its 14,000-item collection is now located at the Fort Mason Center.