Every San Jose branch library shuttered. All city community center programs shut down. No more school crossing guards or park rangers. Even fewer cops. That will likely be the reality for San Jose residents next summer if city officials don't raise taxes or trim employee pensions and perks, city administrators told San Jose's elected leaders Tuesday.

Oakland police are often too quick to draw their guns, especially when confronting African American suspects, according to a report by a federal court monitor...Although the analysis found that officers had acted appropriately in a majority of the cases, court monitor Robert Warshaw and his team said they were "troubled by the high number of instances" - 28 percent - in which police didn't have to draw their guns.

Bay Area air officials have declared a third consecutive Spare the Air Day for Wednesday, as smog continues to reach unhealthy levels in the East Bay beyond the hills.

...About 50 residents, officials and city workers gathered at 11 a.m. for a ceremony to close the 72-foot-long by 26-foot-wide pit from which so much fire and destruction poured into their community. The blast and resulting fireball on Sept. 9, 2010, killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. After the ceremony was complete, Pacific Gas & Electric moved in to finish filling in the hole. No one from the utility attended the ceremony.

A new study casts doubt on many law enforcement agencies' assertion that medical marijuana dispensaries contribute to local street crime. In fact, minor crime rises markedly in surrounding neighborhoods when dispensaries close, at least over the short term, according to a study released Tuesday by the nonpartisan RAND Corp. "Overall crime increased almost 60 percent in the blocks surrounding closed clinics in the 10 days following their closing," the study said.

A growing number of city leaders want to make riding Muni free for those 18 and younger, but doing so would cost $6 million to $13 million annually.

Investigators seized 7,375 mature marijuana plants in West Marin on Tuesday after receiving a tip from deer hunters who found the grow site, a sheriff's official said. Sheriff's Lt. Doug Pittman estimated the street value at $18 million or more... The crop was found on private property on Point Reyes-Petaluma Road in the Hicks Mountain area.

New thematic trails in Muir Woods, rustic cabins at Kirby Cove in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge and improved picnic areas in the Tennessee Valley are some of the projects the Golden Gate National Recreation Area is looking at over the next 20 years. The park has developed its preliminary general management plan, which shows how the GGNRA could look over the next two decades, and has begun soliciting public comments. The final plan is expected to receive approval late next year.

An East Bay prosecutor and city councilman is announcing today that he’ll challenge Rep. Pete Stark in next June’s primary for the newly drawn 15th Congressional District. Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Eric Swalwell, 30, was elected last year to the Dublin City Council with a term expiring in Nov. 2014; earlier, he’d served on the city’s planning commission since 2008.

A majority of California voters think online retailers should collect sales taxes just as brick-and-mortar stores do, but they are split on their support for a new law that will force retailers to collect the tax, according to a Field Poll released today.