A festering battle over legislation to crack down on Internet piracy promises to escalate sharply on Wednesday when Wikipedia and other websites have vowed to go dark in protest.

Temperatures this morning dropped to record lows in some parts of the Bay Area - and to a cringe-inducing 13 degrees in Napa County's Pope Valley, according to the National Weather Service. Oaklanders woke up to 34-degree air this morning, two degrees colder than any other Jan. 17 on record, said Austin Cross, a weather service forecaster. The previous record was set in 1976.

The first splash of wet winter weather in more than a month is bearing down on the Bay Area, threatening a cold rain for the NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park on Sunday and promising relief for snow-starved Sierra skiers. The rain is expected to begin Wednesday in the North Bay and move steadily south, ending one of the driest early winter spells since San Francisco researchers first began recording rainfall during the Gold Rush.

Santa Clara police Monday continued their investigation into the city's first fatal officer-involved shooting since 2009, but they released few new details. Saturday night, a Santa Clara officer shot and killed a 42-year-old man who was allegedly reaching for a gun during a traffic stop, police said. Police recovered a loaded handgun.

Those banners flying along Market Street to promote reproductive rights - sporting slogans including "U.S. Out of My Uterus" - sure are eye-catching. They've even caught the eye of an antiabortion group called Life Legal Defense Foundation that is demanding their removal.

More than 15 years after California voters approved a ban on affirmative action based on race or gender preferences, a new challenge to Proposition 209 has reached a federal appeals court - and the challengers this time include Gov. Jerry Brown.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said today there are no imminent plans to suspend Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who will be arraigned Thursday on three misdemeanor charges in connection with an alleged domestic violence incident on New Year's Eve.

The wife of Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi used Twitter to denounce domestic violence just days before the incident in which she was allegedly abused by her husband at the couple’s San Francisco home.

Traveling on Muni’s light-rail lines is never exactly smooth, but it’s particularly bumpy on the N-Judah. The line, which carries passengers from Ocean Beach to the Caltrain station on Fourth and King streets, was involved in 84 collisions between 2008 and 2011, making it far more accident-prone than the five other Muni train lines.