Nadia Lockyer announced Tuesday that she enrolled in a recovery center to treat her “chemical dependency” and injuries from the Feb. 3 assault.

The 40-year-old Lockyer told police that she met an ex-boyfriend at a Newark motel, where she was staying after having an argument with her husband. She didn’t discuss details of the motel incident in Tuesday’s statement.

Prosecutors are deciding whether to charge the ex-boyfriend.

Lockyer has been married since 2003 to Democrat Bill Lockyer, one of California’s longest-serving elected officials.

Bill Lockyer’s spokesman, Tom Dresslar that the treasurer declined comment and is concerned only with protecting his wife and their 8-year-old son.

KCBS and Chronicle Insider Phil Matier said that she plans on staying on the job and continuing her work.

“She said that she’s continuing to serve for Alameda County. But this is not a very pretty picture no matter how you look at it,” said Matier. “She is an elected official but trying to sort this out isn’t going to be very easy.”

KCBS and Chronicle Insider Phil Matier:

You can hear Phil Matier’s comments Monday through Friday at 7:50am and 5:50pm on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM.

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Although California still faces a $9.2 billion deficit, the credit rating agency said the state has corrected a significant portion of its budget imbalance.

“We are revising the outlook because, barring any other credit deterioration, (we) think the state is poised for credit improvement—and potentially a higher rating—pending its ability to better align its cash performance and budget assumptions,” S&P analyst Gabriel Petek said in a statement.

The agency’s report says a higher rating is contingent on sufficiently credible solutions to the state’s $9.2 billion deficit. That would include automatic spending cuts that are not subject to changes after the November election, if voters reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax hikes.

Brown has proposed a mix of cuts and temporary tax hikes but Democrats who control the Legislature are opposed to more cuts.

If the state can reach a balanced budget by the summer, California’s low credit rating might be turning a corner.

The last time the rating agency gave California a positive outlook was June 2007, when it had an A-plus rating. It now has a rating of A-minus. California’s outlook improved from negative to stable last July after the last budget was passed.

Revenues, however, remain a concern. Last week, the state controller’s office released its latest monthly report showing tax collections came in $528 million below the January projections in the governor’s proposed budget.

“Our rating is still near the bottom when compared to other states,” Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, said in a statement. “While this is movement in the right direction, Californians should delay celebration until we’re closer to the top than the bottom.”

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The lawsuit, filed by City Attorney Dennis Herrera, claims the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration failed to enforce the guidelines for more than a decade prior to the San Bruno explosion in September of 2010, which claimed the lives of eight people and destroyed dozens of homes.

KCBS’ Barbara Taylor Reports:

A National Transportation Safety Board investigation found that Pacific Gas and Electric did not adequately test gas lines and government agencies failed in their duty to investigate and enforce safety regulations.

Herrera said the agency has not addressed the concerns the city has laid out.

“The agency unfortunately is still asleep at the switch. It has ignored concerns San Francisco expressed last year,” said Herrera. “It insists it administers a strong public safety program even though it doesn’t. And it continues to flout the recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board.”

The suit follows a complaint filed by Herrera last year.

Noticeably absent from the suit, which was filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court, is the California Public Utilities Commission, which was among the targets of Herrera’s initial complaint last year.

PG&E operates three major gas transmission pipelines that run beneath densely populated residential areas and business districts in San Francisco.

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The Valley Transportation Authority announced on Monday that the first $100 million installment will be disbursed as soon as an agreement with the Federal Transit Administration is signed on March 12.

The remainder of the money is contained in President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

KCBS’ Matt Bigler Reports:

Groundbreaking on the 10-mile, $2.1 billion line from Fremont to the Berryessa area of San Jose is set for April.

The project is also being supported by $352 million in state funds and $848 million in local sales tax revenues.

Mr. Obama’s budget for last year had cut the full amount by $20 million, but it was restored this year.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The visits to the county clerk’s office are an annual event during National Freedom to Marry Week, which was created in 1999 by Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy law firm.

But this year’s event comes just a week after a historic decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found California’s ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional.

About 30 people organized by Marriage Equality USA gathered on the Polk Street steps of City Hall, with some holding signs reading, “We all deserve the freedom to marry.” One message was written on a red heart-shaped sign decorated as a valentine.

Moving inside the building, about a dozen of those people, including a guitarist, made a slow procession to the clerk’s office, as the Oakland East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus accompanied them with song.

The lead couple in the procession presented two heart-shaped boxes of chocolates to the clerk’s office, and the group sat in a circle on the office’s floor, singing a modified version of “Chapel of Love,” replacing “chapel” with “courthouse.”

Edward Mendoza, 50, who has participated in Marriage Equality’s “Marriage License Counter Action” in previous years, said that the court’s decision has cast a different tone over the event.

“This year definitely feels like a year of victory,” he said outside the clerk’s office.

Mendoza, who is bisexual, said he supports marriage equality for everyone. He and his wife married in 1991.

Sheriff’s deputies arrived to clear out the cramped office at about 9:50 a.m. Those who failed to follow their orders to disperse were detained.

Sheriff’s department spokeswoman Susan Fahey confirmed that eight people were detained for failure to disperse and were later released.

Fewer than 10 minutes later, business as usual resumed at the clerk’s office, with heterosexual couples queuing up outside the office to obtain their marriage licenses.

The blushing brides holding fresh bouquets were unaware of the demonstration immediately prior to their arrival.

Marriage Equality USA organized Valentine’s Day gatherings at local clerks’ offices around the Bay Area and throughout the country, according to the organization.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

The good news comes in a six month budget report from Controller Ben Rosenfield. He said that $122 million more revenue is expected to flow into the city’s coffers than was forecast just three months ago.

“The vast majority of that is being driven by property transfer tax, property tax, and payroll tax,” said Rosenfield.

San Francisco is now expected to end the fiscal year with $129 million surplus that can be used to balance the new city budget, which for the first time will be a two year budget.

KCBS’ Barbara Taylor Reports:

“It’s the first time since 2008 that we can really see positive continued trends in almost all of our major tax revenues in San Francisco,” said Rosenfield.

However, San Francisco isn’t out of the woods yet. Mayor Ed Lee said that the city’s budget still has a structural imbalance that must be fixed. There is a $593 million deficit projected over the next two years.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The signature drive was launched by pot club owners over what they considered draconian measures, which included a prohibition against on-site cultivation. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said that their only recourse now is to repeal the measure, because putting it on the ballot would be too costly.

”I think that’s the best thing for the council to do,” said Reed. “We passed an ordinance, but there was a signature gathering effort for a referendum and they got enough signatures. The choice now is to either put it on the ballot in June, or to repeal the work we’ve done, and I think the best course of action is to repeal it and wait for the California Supreme Court to tell us what the rules are so that we can do something else.”

KCBS’ Mike Colgan Reports:

Pot club owners are applauding the action.

”I think it’s a great step in the right direction, and now they need to replace it with something that’s workable,” said Dave Hodges, founder of A2C2 The All American Cannabis Club.

In the meantime, a seven percent tax on marijuana sales remains in effect.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

“We’re asking that you give the students in this case their day in court,” attorney Shanta Driver told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. circuit Court of Appeals.

The students and the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action want the appeals court to overturn a lower court ruling dismissing their 2010 lawsuit and to allow a trial on their challenge to Proposition 209.

KCBS’ Holly Quan Reports:

The proposition, a 1996 voter initiative, prohibited government preferences for minority groups and women in public education, employment and contracting.

The students’ lawsuit contests only the part of the measure than bans affirmative action for minority students applying to UC campuses.

George B. Washington, another attorney for the students, argued, “It is a special law, directed only at blacks and Latinos.”

In an earlier case, the federal appeals court upheld Proposition 209 in its entirety in 1997.

But the students contend that circumstances have changed because a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed the University of Michigan to consider race as a one of a number of admissions factors.

The students also say that courts have never looked at the actual effect of Proposition 209, which they say has resulted in a sharp drop in the numbers of blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans at the flagship university campuses.

Ralph Kasarda, a lawyer for Proposition 209 sponsor Ward Connerly, argued that the 1997 appeals court ruling definitively foreclosed the new lawsuit.

He told the court that the initiative does not prevent students from seeking preferences to overcome other factors, such as economic disadvantages, that might hinder their admission to the university.

Proposition 209 “is no barrier to the plaintiffs to petition the University of California to adopt any admissions policy that does not discriminate on the basis of race,” Kasarda told the court.

The panel took the case under submission after hearing 45 minutes of arguments and will issue a written ruling at a later date.

Gov. Jerry Brown has weighed in on the case, asking the court to reopen the challenge to Proposition 209.

Deputy California Attorney General Antonette Cordero, representing Brown, told the court, “We believe Proposition 209 does not level the playing field.”

Instead, Cordero argued, the measure creates “an unequal political structure” for minority groups.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The president’s $8 billion plan would link community college students with local businesses, a plan that was based in part on research done by a working group that included Foothill College President Judy Miner.

KCBS’ Doug Sovern Reports:

“I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am,” Miner said. “Particularly since Foothill has launched the Science Learning Institute.”

President Obama wants to spend federal dollars to help train two million students at junior colleges. The institute could benefit from an infusion of those funds.

Laurel Jones is president of Mission College in Santa Clara, which just started a similar program connecting students with local business mentors.

“It’s vital that we actually provide business as part of our educational pathway because what we’re also trying to do…is keep our trained workers here in Silicon Valley,” said Jones.

Major Silicon Valley corporations are also excited to be taking part. Miner said that if Congress approves the Community College to Career Fund, it could mean replicating curricula and partnerships that are already starting to produce the trained workers the Valley needs.

“This kind of infusion of dollars could scale up in ways that have been unprecedented,” Miner said.

U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, said the health care sector and Silicon Valley are natural fits for the plan.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

There are even more benefits to electrifying Caltrain, according to supporters.

“It would be cleaner, faster, and better for the Bay Area if Caltrain had these improvements,” said High-Sped Rail chairman Dan Richard. “It lays the groundwork for High Speed Rail to come in to San Francisco.”

The so-called “blended” rail system – combing “regular” rails with electrified rails – would cost an estimated $1 billion, paid for by both High-Speed Rail bond monies and local transportation dollars.
KCBS’ Matt Bigler Reports:

It’s believed that a funding agreement could be reached over the next several months, but it’s by no means a done deal. The Bay Area still has to convince the High-Speed Rail Authority board to include this proposal in its business plan, and the State Legislature would have to agree to pay for the first phase of High-Speed Rail in the Central Valley.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Attorney Paula Canny said her client is worried that prosecutors may level child endangerment charges against her – because Lopez and Mirkarimi’s toddler son was present when the couple is said to have had the loud, physical fight that sparked the New Year’s holiday charges against Mirkarimi.

“Otherwise, she says she just might wind up standing there and taking the fifth,” explained KCBS and Chronicle Insider Phil Matier.

KCBS, CBS 5 and SF Chronicle Insider Phil Matier:

According to Matier, Canny also claims that Lopez is concerned that federal authorities may deport her back to her native Venezuela.

Lopez has repeatedly and publicly denounced the misdemeanor domestic violence charges against Mirkarimi. Prosecutors claim he inflicted a bruise on his wife’s arm during an argument last month. They say Lopez showed the mark to a neighbor, who allegedly videotaped it.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Navid Shaghaghi, a senior who is majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, said protesters returned to Sproul Plaza on Thursday to mark the three-month anniversary of a large demonstration on Nov. 9 that resulted in about 40 people being arrested.

“We’re here to re-establish the occupation of our space and to display to the campus community that we haven’t gone away,” Shaghaghi said.

UC Berkeley spokeswoman Claire Holmes said campus police have issued repeated warnings to the protesters that it is a violation of university policy to have tents on campus.

Holmes said police “are continuing to monitor the situation” but haven’t made any arrests or confiscated any tents so far.

In addition to marking the anniversary of the Nov. 9 arrests, Shaghaghi said protesters are back at Sproul Plaza because “not much has changed since last time.”

He said although the UC Board of Regents has postponed tuition increases, students are still worried that tuition will be increased in the near future.

“There’s still a lot of stuff to be worked through,” Shaghaghi said.

He said protesters are in the process of deciding whether to continue their encampment at Sproul Plaza over the weekend or to disband and then return on Monday.

Shaghaghi said about 30 people slept at Sproul Plaza Thursday night.

He said they’ve participated in a variety of activities, including dancing and playing Frisbee, soccer and chess.

“It’s been very exciting and a great community-building event,” Shaghaghi said.

He said Occupy Cal protesters and activists at other campuses across the state will stage large protests the first week of March to ask for more funding for education.

Holmes said university officials understand the protesters’ concerns about tuition costs and are trying to communicate with protesters that they’re working hard to keep tuition costs affordable and point out that about 65 percent of students receive at least some financial aid.

About 40 percent of students have all of their costs paid by financial aid, Holmes said.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

It was first announced in May 2011 that upwards of 70 state parks would be closed in July 2012 because there simply wasn’t enough money to continue funding all 279 parks.

Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, hopes his legislation would put the brakes on that plan.

“Parks really have a fantastic constituency,” he reasoned. “That is going to be a big part of how we succeed here.”

KCBS’ Barbara Taylor Reports:

Huffman wants to create a state park enterprise fund that would attract large philanthropic donors. He also wants to raise revenue by putting in reliable fee collection equipment at park facilities, as well as instituting the sale of state park vanity license plates.

Huffman’s bill does allow for the closure of up to 25 parks – and without legislative approval. Still, Huffman maintains that his goal is to keep all parks open.

“Whether we can achieve that for all 70 remains to be seen, but we’re certainly going to try,” he said. “I think our parks deserve no less.”

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The party swept every statewide office in 2010, has continued to widen its voter registration edge over Republicans and has a chance to gain a two-thirds majority in the state Senate.

Yet this year also will give voters a chance to have a referendum of sorts on the Democratic approach to state government, as Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratically aligned interest groups seek to ask voters for tax increases. The success of those campaigns is anything but certain, with polls showing support for taxing the wealthy but no one else.

How Democrats will position themselves for November will be a big part of the San Diego convention.

KCBS and Chronicle Insider Phil Matier:

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

“The steps we have already taken, combined with the steps we will take before the end of June, will allow us to reduce the cost of retirement benefits, halt the decline in jobs and begin to restore services at long last,” Reed said in his speech at the San Jose Civic Auditorium on Thursday night.

As part of the fiscal reform plan, passed by the city council last year, all city employees including the city council, have had to take a 10 percent pay cut, which Reed said was “crucial” to saving jobs and services.

Reed said the plan is helping to rein in increasing retirement costs and restore services to January 2011 levels.

Related: Unions Accuse San Jose Mayor Of Exaggerating Pension Costs

Retirement benefits consume more than 20 percent of San Jose’s general fund, Reed said. The city’s annual retirement costs have increased from $73 million a decade ago to $245 million this year.

“Writing ever-larger checks for retirement benefits has had a dramatic impact on our work force,” the mayor said. “We’ve cut more than 2,000 positions over the last 10 years in order to balance our budgets. Every city job eliminated reduces the services we can deliver to our residents.”

KCBS’ Mike Colgan Reports:

Reed said his pension reform ballot measure in June would also bring costs under control. The proposal requires current employees to pay a larger share of the cost of their retirement benefits and new employees to pay half of the cost of their retirement benefits.

The ballot measure would not cut accrued benefits that employees have earned for the past five years of service.

“All together, the ballot measure will save the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 10 years, and much more after that as the percentage of employees in the new plan grows,” Reed said.

Emphasizing a message of “hope, optimism, and recovery,” Reed reported that progress has been made in addressing chronic homelessness and closing the student achievement gap.

He said the economy is on the upswing, as evidenced by San Jose tying for the highest rate of job growth of all U.S. metro areas in 2011 and the addition of 25,000 jobs in the course of a year.

Mo Qayoumi, president of San Jose State University, commended Reed on his plan and efforts.

“The mayor had great comments about plans that he has put together to see how the city can move from some of the challenges that were caused due to the economic downturn,” Qayoumi said.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The complaint, filed with the city’s elections commission, alleges that Mayor Chuck Reed, the city’s retirement services director Russell Crosby, and former retirement services employee Michael Moehle misled the public about the five-year projections for employee contributions to retirement plans.

The three are accused of propagating to the city council and the public “knowingly false, misleading and deceptive fiscal year 2015-2016 city pension contribution cost of $650 million,” according to the complaint.

It was an estimate that Crosby conjured off-handedly at a Feb. 14, 2011 budget meeting and one that Reed ran with despite being informed that the figure was not actuarially accurate, alleges the complaint.

Last year, the council considered declaring a fiscal emergency and in December, voted to place a pension reform measure on the June ballot on the premise that skyrocketing retirement costs are resulting in service reductions and layoffs of hundreds of workers, including police officers and firefighters.

The three unions—the San Jose Police Officers’ Association, San Jose Firefighters Local 230, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21 — held a news conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the complaint.

Firefighters union president Robert Sapien and Jim Unland, president of the police union, said they want an independent investigation into the complaint.

“We have members who have lost homes, got laid off… to think that any of this was driven by misinformation is frightening,” Sapien said.

Sam Liccardo, one of six council members who voted in favor of the controversial ballot measure, denied that the city has relied on the $650 million dollar estimate and dismissed the claim as a “straw man” argument.

“The $650 million figure was never a basis of decision-making by anybody on this council, and to my knowledge never formed the basis of any offer at the negotiating table with the unions,” Liccardo said.

San Jose has billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities for retirement benefits. The city’s annual retirement costs have increased from $63 million in 2000 to $250 million this year.

Reed’s proposal calls for setting limits on retirement benefits for new employees and retirees, but the ballot measure would not reduce payments to current retirees or cut accrued benefits that employees have earned for the past five years of service.

The latest version of the ballot measure includes reforms such as placing new employees into a lower-cost, hybrid retirement plan and giving current employees the option to either keep their current retirement plan by paying a larger share of the cost or switching to a lower-cost plan.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Cisneros said the request for proposals would require banks to detail how many mortgages they re-wrote and how many homeowners went into foreclosure.

“We want to ensure that this procurement and this RFP reflect the values and the goals of the city and county of San Francisco,” he said.

KCBS’ Barbara Taylor Reports:

“We want to ensure that this procurement and this RFP reflect the values and the goals of the city and county of San Francisco,” he said.

The city currently has 130 checking accounts at Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Union Bank that see a combined $12 billion in activity every year.

Some have suggested the city bypass commercial banks entirely and form its own municipal bank because those banks have foreclosed on San Francisco homeowners.

Instead Cisneros’ proposal calls for guarantees of social responsibility. The treasurer said banks would have to explain how they serve the community and invest in it.

A Board of Supervisors committee approved a resolution incorporating those goals on Wednesday, and sent it to the full board for final approval.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

It’s a white-hot political issue right now, but the Obama administration is looking for a way to cool things down.

San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer has written what he calls a “letter to the faithful,” which will be given out at all Masses this weekend. In it, he calls the new federal policy “radical” and “insidious.”

KCBS’ Doug Sovern Reports:

Niederauer told KCBS it’s not fair for the government to rule that religiously affiliated hospitals and schools, but not churches themselves, must include contraception coverage in their employees’ health insurance plans.

“Because we hire non-Catholics as well as Catholics, because we serve non-Catholics as well as Catholics, we’re being told that we’re really not a religious institution that can follow the teachings of its faith,” said Niederauer. “For us, it’s not about birth control, it’s about religious freedom.”

California Senator Barbara Boxer points out that church-affiliated hospitals and schools get federal funding and tax benefits.

“We want to make sure that the religious freedom of all Americans is protected, and that means for women who work for institutions which serve the general public,” said Boxer.

There’s talk in Washington of finding a middle path, to end the political controversy.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Quan didn’t mention the Occupy Oakland protests that have brought national and even international attention to her city except to obliquely say that the city has experienced “lots of turns” and “challenges.”

Quan also didn’t mention the two recall efforts against her or talk about Oakland’s crime problem, which includes five homicides in the past week, until the end of her 50-minute speech, which was 20 minutes longer than the 30-minute goal she set in a briefing with reporters earlier in the day.

When she addressed public safety, which she said was one of the top priorities residents talked to her about in the many community meetings she has held since becoming mayor a year ago, Quan said, “We have to reduce homicides and violence in the city.”

She also said Oakland’s Police Department must comply with reform measures that were mandated in the settlement of a misconduct case nine years ago.

Quan reiterated the goal she first expressed in her inaugural address a year ago of concentrating on reducing crime in the 100 most dangerous blocks in Oakland, where she said 92 percent of the city’s shootings and homicides occur.

Quan called on Oakland residents to volunteer in schools and libraries in those areas to mentor youths who could be prone to lives of crime. She said she had asked for 2,000 volunteers last year and about 1,000 people stepped forward so she is now seeking at least another 1,000 volunteers.

She said reducing crime in those 100 blocks may seem impossible to some people but she said, “It’s noble, it’s doable and it’s something we must do.”

Quan said, “If we do it we’ll change the cycle of violence in this city forever.”

The mayor said she thinks Oakland is on the rise “because the economic numbers look better,” as 5,000 new jobs were generated in the past year, the unemployment rate has dropped by 2 percent, building permits have increased, sales tax revenue increased by 12.4 percent and hotel tax revenues increased by 11.5 percent.

Quan also said, “Oakland has some of the best weather in the world” and she’s excited that the New York Times named it the fifth best place in the world to visit and Newsweek named it the second most “can-do” city in the nation in terms of business development, sustainability, livability, transportation and infrastructure.

Quan added that her city has a thriving restaurant industry and mentioned that the New York Times said it has “the hottest restaurants in the Bay Area.”

“We’re trying to change the face of Oakland,” Quan said. “Oakland is one of the most tolerant and diverse cities in the world and that’s not our reputation.”

Quan said when she became mayor Oakland had a $58 million deficit and few reserves but it has now balanced its budget and has its largest reserve in a decade.

She thanked city employees for taking a 10 percent pay cut, saying, “We balanced the budget with the sacrifices of city workers.”

Quan said that in balancing the budget she and other city leaders reorganized the city’s structure, merged departments and eliminated 350 positions.

Quan said that in addition to reducing crime, her goals for the next year include creating more affordable housing, strengthening mortgage and foreclosure laws, bringing in more retailers and keeping all three of Oakland’s professional sports franchises.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial agreed to the settlement—for an estimated $37 billion as of Wednesday for lowering homeowners’ mortgage principal, refinancing, a reserve account, and checks to homeowners. However, they were seeking releases from further legal liability, which have been one subject of negotiations for the past several days with state attorneys general who wanted to pursue investigations.

Phil Matier: State AG Decides To Negotiate On Foreclosure Settlement

The settlement grants immunity from civil lawsuits brought by the attorneys general against the lenders over narrowly defined “robo-signing” cases.

The source, who was not authorized to disclose the agreement before an announcement expected Thursday or Friday, said other holdout states—Delaware, Massachusetts and Nevada—all have or are imminently expected to also agree.

The source said the agreement will enable authorities to pursue all claims over mortgage-backed securities that collapsed. It lets them use facts from robo-signing claims in securities, insurance and tax fraud cases.

It also preserves the lawsuit filed last week by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that accused some banks of deceit and fraud in using an electronic mortgage registry that allegedly put homeowners at a disadvantage in foreclosures.

Schneiderman’s office declined to comment Wednesday night. New York has some 118,000 “underwater” borrowers whose homes are worth less than their mortgages and would expect to get $136 million as a guaranteed cash payment from the settlement.

California, with more than 2 million underwater borrowers, would get $430 million. Florida would get $350 million and Texas $141 million.

Most states had already backed the nationwide settlement stemming from abuses that occurred after the housing bubble burst. Many companies that process foreclosures failed to verify documents. Some employees signed papers they hadn’t read or used fake signatures to speed foreclosures—an action known as robo-signing.

The deal would be the biggest involving a single industry since a 1998 multistate tobacco deal. It would force the five largest mortgage lenders to reduce loans for about 1 million households. The reduced loans would benefit homeowners who are behind on their payments and owe more than their homes are worth.

The deal includes $2.7 billion in guaranteed cash payments altogether, and estimates of $1.5 billion for payments to victims of wrongful foreclosure, $3 billion from a refinance program and $32.3 billion in homeowner benefits from loan modifications.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Ted Costa, chief executive officer of the anti-tax group People’s Advocate in Sacramento, said the initiative would also drop legislators pay from $7,940 a month to $1,500 and force lawmakers to adopt a balanced, two-year budget by June 15th each year or forfeit their pay.

Costa said he knows the Republican and Democratic parties along with chambers of commerce and labor unions will oppose the measure, but his group forsees a future where the state’s business is conducted by teachers, realtors and farmers — as opposed to career politicians.

“This is to shake them up. And we hope that other people, professional people will take 3 months out of their job and go represent us for a few years,” he explained.

While it may seem like a new idea to Californians, only 10 states actually have full-time legislatures; 23 have a hybrid model and 17 others are considered part-time. Most of those part-time states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, have the smallest populations and are more rural.

Costa maintains most of California is actually small cities and counties, pointing out that the state only has 2 or 3 big population centers.

But Sacramento-based political consultant Steve Maviglio of Forza Communications contends a part-time legislature won’t work the way People’s Advocate thinks it will.

“If you think things are bad now – it will only get worse,” he explained. “The people will have no policy skills, be here only a couple days a month.”

He cited New Hampshire’s part-time legislature as an example: the average lawmaker is age 62 and they don’t have much power.

Under such a model, Maviglio said special interest groups would become an even more powerful force at the state capitol.

“Lobbyists and special interests will really run the place, because they are the only ones who have the knowledge about how things get done,” he concluded.

(Copyright 2012 CBS San Francisco. All rights reserved.)

Two ‘Parental Notification’ initiatives have begun to be circulated across the state. Proponents of the initiatives need a little more than 800,000 signatures per-initiative to qualify them for the November 2012 ballot.

Backers of such initiatives have said that it only makes sense that parents of girls under the age of 18 be told that their child is having an abortion.

“She can get her ears pierced under the age of 18 without parental approval but not body piercings. (She) can’t go to a tanning booth if she is under 18, even with family approval. (She) can’t get a tooth filled without family approval”, said Dr. Raymond Dennehy of the University of San Francisco. “Suddenly she can get an abortion, which is a huge event.”

Opponents of such legal measures have countered that, when it comes to the youngest of girls, a vast majority do tell their parents about their pregnancies. USF Law Professor Maya Manian and other opponents have said they believe that forcing a young woman to tell a parent often results in lack of prenatal care and other health issues.

“Parents understandably want to know if their daughter is pregnant. I am a mother of a daughter and I would want to know if she was in that situation,” said Manian. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world. Not every teenager has an ideal family. Not every teenager can safely talk about this with their parent or even has a parent in their lives to talk to.”

Nearly three dozen states have enacted some form of ‘Parental Consent.’ The deadline for gathering signatures is June 11.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Perez was expected to introduce his plan in Sacramento Wednesday.

It looks to reduce tuition and fees at the state’s colleges and universities for middle class families with incomes less than $150,000. By eliminating a corporate tax break, the state would have enough to offer a $4,000 break to CSU students, and $8,100 in savings for UC students.

KCBS’ Holly Quan Reports:

This comes as other lawmakers are pushing plans to give students relief on fees and textbooks. Amy Laitenen is a policy analyst with the DC think tank Education Sector, and a Cal grad.

“Higher education is supposed to be a public good, at least in part, and it’s increasingly becoming a private good. States need to figure out whether they want to maintain it as a public good or not,” said Laitenen.

The plan requires a two thirds vote of the legislature, and Republicans are unlikely to approve any tax changes.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The 2012 Silicon Valley Index shows a major crisis brewing in the public sector, asserting that the present tax system is outmoded.

“Our tax system is pegged to an earlier kind of economy,” said Russell Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. “It’s heavy on property tax and sales tax and it doesn’t capture internet transactions or the services.”

KCBS’ Mike Colgan Reports:

Emmet Carson, CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, said that Prop. 13, which was enacted in 1978 and limited property taxes to one percent of assessed value, no longer works today.

“Because of the great recession, our current method for how we assess property values and raise tax revenue to support public services is broken,” said Carson.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Mirkarimi is facing allegations of domestic violence against his wife, Eliana Lopez, and has been under a court order to stay away from Lopez and the couple’s 2-year-old son Theo.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ronald Albers Wednesday approved an agreement between Mirkarimi and Lopez in which Mirkarimi can see his son for two hours each weekday and up to six hours each weekend.

Near tears, Mirkarimi said, “I get to see my son. I can’t tell you how excited and grateful I am.”

KCBS’ Bob Melrose Reports:

A stay-away order preventing Mirkarimi from contacting Lopez is still in effect. The order stems from domestic violence charges related to a Dec. 31 argument in which Mirkarimi is accused of grabbing Lopez and bruising her arm. It will remain in effect until the end of the trial, which is set to start Feb. 24.

Mirkarimi was arrested Jan. 13 and charged with misdemeanor domestic violence battery, child endangerment and dissuading a witness.

He was sworn in as sheriff on Jan. 8 after serving on the Board of Supervisors for seven years.

Tuesday, prosecutors indicated they will use the testimony of Mirkarimi’s former girlfriend at the upcoming trial.

The District Attorney’s Office filed a motion on Tuesday seeking to admit Christina Flores’s testimony.

Flores filed a police report last month alleging Mirkarimi was prone to tirades and bruised her arm when he pushed her up against a wall once during a fight.

Prosecutors say Flores’s testimony will show Mirkarimi engaged in a pattern of domestic violence.

Lidia Stiglich, Mirkarimi’s attorney, said Flores’s claims are false, and she planned to file a response preventing the use of her testimony.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)