HEARING TO SET PROCEDURES IN SHERIFF'S ETHICS CASE: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The city ethics commission plans to set the ground rules Monday for the misconduct case against Ross Mirkarimi, the sheriff who was suspended after being charged with domestic violence.
The meeting of the five-member commission comes after months of drama surrounding the former city supervisor and recently elected sheriff.
Mirkarimi last month pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor false imprisonment after being accused of bruising the arm of his wife, Venezuelan actress Eliana Lopez, during a dispute on New Year's Eve.
Prosecutors originally charged him with misdemeanor domestic violence, child endangerment and dissuading a witness after a next-door neighbor turned over a video to police showing a tearful Lopez displaying a bruised arm.
Mirkarimi is fighting Mayor Ed Lee's effort to suspend him without pay and permanently remove him from office. Mirkarimi argues the domestic violence charges were politically motivated.
John St. Croix, the commission's executive director, has recommended the advisory body solicit briefs from Mirkarimi's lawyers and the San Francisco city attorney before scheduling hearings for oral arguments and possible witness testimony.
After hearing evidence, the commission is required to forward its findings to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, which would make the final decision on whether the sheriff should lose his job.
Nine of the 11 supervisors would have to agree for Mirkarimi to be permanently removed.
CHRISTIAN COLLEGE RESUMING CLASSES AFTER ATTACK: OAKLAND . (AP) — With the horrors of a deadly shooting rampage still a fresh memory, some students at a California Christian college returned to class Monday in a building where seven people were killed earlier this month.
Oakland's Oikos University — still draped with a memorial banner, wreaths and flower bouquets — held a single English-as-a-second-language class three weeks after police said a nursing student fatally shot six of his fellow students and a receptionist.
The small school in an industrial area of the city has been busy preparing to resume operations by replacing carpet and removing bloodstains and bullet scars.
One L. Goh, 43, a native of South Korea who had become a U.S. citizen, was charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. He has not yet entered a plea.
Lucas Garcia, who is teaching Monday's class, was in the building at the time of the shootings. He has been spending time getting in touch with students since the attack and believes it's important to come back to campus and move on.
"They feel very scared and are dealing with a lot of emotions about what happened," Garcia said. "They're dealing with symptoms of a very traumatic experience."
In a previous jailhouse interview with KPIX-TV, Goh apologized for the shooting.
"I only remember parts of that day and it is too hard to talk about," Goh told the station, at times weeping.
School dean Jongjin Kim said most students will take classes in the same building where the shootings occurred, with nursing students permitted to attend Unitek College in Fremont.
Goh went to the campus on April 2 after becoming angry over a tuition dispute, Kim has said. The school had refused to reimburse $4,000 to $6,000 in tuition after Goh dropped out last fall.
BAY WETLANDS RESTORATION NEARS COMPLETION: REDWOOD CITY (AP) — A more than 2,600-acre wetlands project near Redwood City will be completed by the end of the year in what environmentalists call a crowning symbol of San Francisco Bay restoration efforts.
Hundreds of dump truck loads of dirt are being moved to inner Bair Island daily to raise the ground level before outer levees are breached and the island is returned to tidal marsh.
Inner Bair Island is part of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
The project, framed on the north by Oracle's world headquarters and on the south by Redwood City's port, will be completed in December.
Restoration brings the tidal wetlands back to conditions not seen since the late 1800s.
\OAKLAND POLICE TO REFORM HOW IT MANAGES PROTESTS: OAKLAND, (AP) — The Oakland Police Department is making changes to the way it manages large crowds and protests.
Police Chief Howard Jordan said Monday that some of the changes are already underway, including requiring all officers to undergo crowd-management training.
Jordan says smaller groups of officers will enter crowds to deal with contentious protesters, and police will ensure demonstrators clearly hear orders to disperse and are given a chance to leave.
The chief says officers will still carry "less-lethal" weapons during protests, and officers will be held accountable if police misconduct has occurred.
The changes come as Occupy Oakland activists plan a demonstration at the Port of Oakland on May 1. Protesters shut down the port twice last year.
An outside investigator is currently reviewing nearly 40 Occupy-related police complaints.
MAN IN WHEELCHAIR DIES AFTER BEING HIT BY SF TRAIN: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Officials say a man in a wheelchair died after he was run over by a San Francisco Municipal Railway train.
Transportation officials say the man fell onto the tracks at the Civic Center Station shortly before 11:30 a.m.
Muni spokesman Paul Rose says the victim died at a hospital after his leg was severed by the train. The unidentified is described as being in his 50s or 60s.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports about 40 passengers remained on the train while rescuers pulled the man from the tracks.
.
5 ARRESTED IN VETERAN'S SLAYING AT N. CALIF. BAR : ANTIOCH (AP) — Five people have been arrested in the shooting death of a 38-year-old Marine veteran whom police say was innocently caught-in-the-crossfire when a group of men who had been thrown out of an Antioch bar returned with baseball bats.
Three men and two 17-year-old boys were taken into custody Monday in connection with last month's slaying of Lizandro "Tony" Bertolazzi, a father of four who served four years in the Marine Corps and worked as an engineer at a health lab.
Antioch Police Sgt. Leonard Orman says the suspects were identified by witnesses or during police interrogations.
Bertolazzi was with a friend at Cruisers Saloon on March 31 when the patrons ejected from the bar came back and attacked some employees. Authorities have said he was shot when he stood up investigate.
