Morning Splash: 45 Arrested in BART Protest; 49ers Want to Stop Pre-Season Games Vs. Raiders; Andronico's Files for Bankruptcy

Authorities repeatedly closed two San Francisco BART stations during the Monday evening commute and arrested 45 people in connection with an anti-BART protest that roamed both above ground along Market Street and inside the transit system. Commuters were frustrated and confused, as BART officials closed and reopened the Powell Station four times and Civic Center Station three times - sometimes within minutes - fearing that roaming protesters would disrupt transit service. The shifting protest also snarled traffic along Market Street.

The San Francisco 49ers said Monday that they want a halt to the team's annual preseason matchup against the Oakland Raiders after a violence-marred exhibition game at Candlestick Park in which two fans were shot, one was beaten into unconsciousness, 12 were arrested and dozens more ejected. The team reacted to Saturday night's alcohol-fueled mayhem by cutting the hours the stadium parking lot will be open before games, eliminating tailgating altogether after the kickoff and promising to punish season-ticket holders who sell their seats to troublemakers.

California is witnessing a slow and steady decline of its prized systems of higher education specifically because legislative Republicans have blocked efforts to raise taxes to pay for them, the community college and state university chancellors said Monday in a blunt and sobering back-to-school message...(C)ommunity colleges are offering 5 percent fewer courses across all 112 campuses this year, with an unprecedented 670,000 students turned away for lack of space, Chancellor Jack Scott said.

Reflecting a change in deportation policy, the Obama administration has dropped its attempt to remove a member of a same-sex California couple who overstayed his visa. The announcement in a case pending before an immigration judge in San Francisco represents the administration's decision to put a greater focus on deporting criminals and less emphasis on removing illegal immigrants who are otherwise law-abiding and have family ties in the United States.

The Muni driver who struck and killed a 23-year-old woman in a Castro district crosswalk Friday was driving his bus to a new assignment along a route he picked on his own after dispatchers at central control allegedly failed to give him specific directions - an apparent violation of Muni policy, the transit agency's spokesman told City Insider on Monday.

Even as Facebook starts moving its workforce to Menlo Park, the social networking company is unveiling plans for the second campus it expects to construct across from the 57-acre former Sun Microsystems site. The recently filed plans provide a view of Facebook's ambitious road map for the near-term future, as it expands its local workforce from slightly more than 1,500 people currently shoehorned into two buildings in the Stanford Research Park, to what in five years could be a signature Silicon Valley corporate complex occupied by more than 9,000 employees.

William Ayres, a former child psychiatrist suspected of molesting more than 30 young male patients, has escaped a prison sentence. The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office conceded Monday that Ayres suffers from dementia and is incompetent to stand trial on sex-abuse charges. Ayres will be sent to a locked psychiatric hospital for at least six months, and he will likely spend the rest of his days in a treatment facility.

The former head of a Contra Costa drug task force pleaded not guilty in federal court Monday morning to an array of corruption charges, and he is expected to be released on bond -- if he can convince prosecutors he isn't a suicide risk. Norman Wielsch, 50, of Antioch, appeared in an Oakland courthouse Monday, handcuffed and dressed in the red jail uniform that, former peace officers wear for their own safety to separate them from the general population at Alameda County Jail.

The new second-in-command in the San Jose Police Department is a seasoned homicide detective with a passion for community policing and a penchant for cooking when she's not solving crimes. The department announced Monday that Rikki Goede, a 15-year veteran on the force who had been a captain, is the new assistant police chief, taking the place of Diane Urban, who left to be Hayward's police chief.

Hobbled by a cash crunch triggered by an aggressive store expansion, Andronico's Markets filed for bankruptcy on Monday and said it is in talks to sell itself to private investors. Andronico's said its seven stores will remain open and its 400 workers will stay on the job while the grocer attempts to work out its financial problems. The company has four stores in Berkeley, as well as single stores in San Francisco, Los Altos and San Anselmo, and specializes in gourmet and other specialty foods, along with wine, kitchen gadgets and tableware.

California's contentious effort to legalize and regulate online poker has been pronounced dead for this year by state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. State Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, had said his SB 40 would bring the state 1,300 jobs and $1.4 billion in revenue in the next decade. A coalition of card rooms and Indian tribes backed his bill, but some gaming tribes argued a $50 million "buy-in" for online poker licenses would create an unfair advantage for certain interests. The bill was never acted upon in committee.

The state fire board approved a maximum $90 annual fee on rural homeowners Monday, well below the $150 charge envisioned by lawmakers in their June budget. The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection had to act by September under a Democratic budget plan to raise $50 million. But the board's emergency regulation falls well short of that target, especially when higher administrative and inspection costs are considered. The fee structure is far from final.

...(Amazon) has now spent $5.25 million to try to put a measure on the June 2012 ballot that would repeal a law requiring online retailers to collect sales tax. According to newly released campaign filings, Amazon made a $2.25 million campaign contribution on Aug. 10. That's on top of $3 million the online retailer contributed to the initiative in July.

America's last space shuttle astronauts visited NASA Ames on Monday, with gratitude and goodbyes, to a place that helped make the historic trip possible....The visit by the four-member team -- Walheim, Commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialist Sandra Magnus -- was one of several stops along their poignant post-flight tour to NASA centers. Their 13-day flight in July brought the illustrious space shuttle program to a close.