News Pix: Judge Visits Martins Beach, Oakland Hires Police Chief, Fires Rage

The courtroom battle over whether Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla can legally bar the public from a coastal property he owns moved to the beach in question on Thursday, May 15. Superior Court Judge Barbara Mallach stands on the right while touring Martins Beach. (Peter Jon Shuler/KQED) After a year as interim chief, Sean Whent has been named Oakland's police chief. Whent has spent his entire 18-year law enforcement career with the Oakland Police Department, serving for a time overseeing the Internal Affairs Division, which scored him some points with police critics but may have ruffled feathers with the rank-and-file on the force. (Alex Emslie/KQED) Thousands of cat lovers attended Oakland's first-ever Internet Cat Video Festival on Saturday, May 10, crowding into four blocked-off streets in the Uptown area. The all-day event celebrated everything feline, with cat adoptions, cat art, a cat photo booth, aerial acrobatics and live music. Organizers said more than 6,000 people attended. (Kathryn Hunts/KQED) One of the nine fires burning in San Diego County suddenly flared Thursday afternoon, May 15, and burned very near homes, triggering thousands of new evacuation orders. County Sheriff Bill Gore said new evacuation notices were transmitted to 12,952 phone numbers. They were in addition to more than 20,000 evacuation notices issued Wednesday. (David McNew/Getty Images) A Berkeley teenager named Zane used Elmwood Rialto Cinema’s marquee to ask his gal to the prom. Katie said yes. (Nick Kukkurovaca/Berkeleyside) Low-income residents of Palo Alto's only mobile home park rallied on May 12 with some of their better-off neighbors to keep open this rare source of affordable housing in the city. The owners of the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park want to sell the 4.5-acre parcel to developers who plan to build luxury housing. (Francesca Segrè/KQED)