• $48K RAISED TO SAVE SF’S ‘DOGGIE DINER’ HEADS: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The restaurant chain that they advertised is long gone, but San Francisco’s Doggie Diner heads are still beloved by city residents.
Supporters have raised 48-thousand dollars via an online campaign to restore the giant figurines.
The three cartoonish canines known as “Manny, Moe and Jack” were fixtures at the former Doggie Diner chain, which closed in the 1980s.
Since then the Doggie Diner heads have popped up periodically at art gallery exhibits.
The new funds will be used to restore and store the figurines. Owner John Law says he also hopes to display them at city events.
• NAPA VALLEY FESTIVAL BOTTLEROCK RETURNS FOR 2014: NAPA (AP) — Despite financial difficulties, the organizers of a Northern California music festival say the show will go on in 2014 with new producers.
The San Jose Mercury News reports the second annual BottleRock is set for May 30 through June 1, once again at the 26-acre Napa Valley Expo center.
The artist lineup has yet to be announced.
Last year’s inaugural BottleRock was a hit with fans and featured acts such as Kings of Leon, The Black Keys and Jane’s Addiction.
Following the festival some vendors and stagehands sued, claiming that they’d never been paid. The Napa Valley Register reports BottleRock recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
This year’s BottleRock is being produced by a new company, Latitude 38 Entertainment, which has hired Steve Macfadyen, a music industry veteran, to serve as festival director.
• TRANSGENDER STUDENT MUST COMPLETE CONFLICT PROGRAM: MARTINEZ (AP) — A transgender teen who was charged with battery following a fight at her San Francisco Bay Area high school says she is hopeful the charge will be dismissed after she completes a conflict resolution program.
The Contra Costa Times reports that a juvenile court judge on Thursday ordered 16-year-old Jewlyes Gutierrez to participate in the program.
Gutierrez’s case attracted the attention of advocacy groups, who questioned why she was the only student to face criminal penalties from the November brawl at Hercules High School in Contra Costa County.
Gutierrez said the girls she fought with had been taunting her.
Her attorney, Kaylie Simon, says the National Council on Crime & Delinquency will facilitate discussions between the students involved in the fight as part of the conflict resolution program.
• ELDERLY WOMAN KILLED DURING HOME ROBBERY: OAKLAND (AP) — An elderly woman was killed Friday during an apparent home-invasion robbery in Oakland.
Police said the victim, whose name was not immediately released, was found unresponsive at about 2:40 p.m. Friday in a home on the 1800 block of 34th Avenue in Oakland.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that officials said the killing happened during a residential robbery.
• STATE APPEALS COURT REJECTS PG&E POWER PLANT APPROVAL: OAKLEY (AP) — A state appeals court has rejected approval of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s planned new natural gas power plant in Contra Costa County.
The 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said the California Public Utilities Commission approved the plant in Oakley without hearing firsthand from anyone that it was needed.
The court issued its 3-0 ruling on Wednesday. The Contra Costa Times reports that the court has previously also turned back the commission’s approval of the plant.
PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian told the newspaper the utility was carefully reviewing the court’s ruling.
Supporters say California needs more energy production, and the 586-megawatt plant would help.
Opponents say the state should be moving away from fossil fuels to other, cleaner energy sources.
• 2 SAN FRANCISCO WORKERS KILLED BY ROCK SLABS: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two workers were killed Friday morning at a San Francisco warehouse after large slabs of rock fell and crushed them, authorities said.
Emergency responders received a call about 10:15 a.m. reporting that 10 slabs of rock had fallen on two employees as the slabs were being unloaded from a truck at Galaxy Granite Inc., a stone fabricator in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood, said Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge.
The slabs were in a container attached to the back of the truck, Talmadge said, and the incident occurred while the workers were inside the container.
Rescue crews and company employees freed the workers shortly after arriving, she said.
One was pronounced dead at the scene, and the other at San Francisco General Hospital.
Peter Melton, a spokesman for the California Division of Occupational Health and Safety, said his agency was investigating and that Galaxy Granite had never received a safety citation.
It was not immediately clear how heavy or how large the slabs were or what they were composed of; Talmadge reported that they were granite, while Melton said they were marble.
