JUDGE PROPOSES $6.7M FINE FOR PG&E PIPELINE: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge is proposing that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. pay $6.7 million in fines for improperly declaring safe two natural-gas pipelines and using misleading records in an attempt to minimize the lapse.
A California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge on Wednesday issued the fine proposal after finding substantial record keeping errors regarding two San Francisco Bay area pipelines.
Both pipelines are in the same system as one that exploded in 2010, killing eight people and destroying dozens of homes in San Bruno.
Two judges found that PG&E was running one pipeline at too high pressure after improper testing, and that the company minimized this and other lapses as data "errata" in pipeline safety filings.
TEEN CONVICTED OF STEALING GUY FIERI'S LAMBORGHINI : SAN RAFAEL (AP) — A jury has found a Northern California teen guilty of stealing celebrity chef Guy Fieri's Lamborghini from a San Francisco dealership.
The Marin County panel on Wednesday found 19-year-old Max Wade guilty of commercial burglary and auto theft, after hearing evidence that Wade had rappelled into British Motors to purloin the $200,000 convertible sports car in 2011.
He was also convicted of attempted murder for an unrelated drive-by shooting of a man dating a girl Wade desired. The man was unharmed.
Wade pleaded not guilty to the charges, and faces a maximum of 30 years in prison.
The teen made news again last year after two people tried to break into juvenile hall with sledgehammers in an unsuccessful attempt to free Wade.
POLICE SEEK MAN WHO MAY HAVE STAIRWELL DEATH INFO: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Police were trying to identify a man who reported seeing someone in a stairwell at San Francisco General Hospital days before a woman's body was discovered, a hospital spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The man was wearing identification and reported what he saw to a senior staff member, who called the Sheriff's Department, spokeswoman Rachael Kagan said. The staff member, however, did not recognize the man.
The body of Lynne Spalding, 57, was discovered in the stairwell a few days later, more than two weeks after she went missing. Spalding was a patient at the hospital when she disappeared on Sept. 21. A cause of death has not been determined, but investigators have ruled out foul play.
Haig Harris, an attorney for Spalding's family, has said hospital officials told him they asked authorities to search the building and grounds for Spalding numerous times.
Her body, however, was not found until Oct. 8.
Kagan said the man, who reported seeing someone in the stairwell on Oct. 4, might not have spotted Spalding. Homeless people have previously taken shelter in the stairwell, she said.
