Regulators say the black cloud that wafted over the Bay Area during Monday's fire at the Chevron oil refinery had no obvious negative effect on Richmond's air quality, a claim that raises serious questions about why more than 1,700 people ended up in emergency rooms.

Two days after toxic black smoke from the Chevron refinery fire enveloped Richmond, a second phenomenon swept through the city: the rush for money. More than 1,000 residents claiming to have coughs, nausea, scratchy throats and psychological trauma visited a downtown law office Wednesday in hopes of receiving a payout for their suffering.

Vitamin D may provide a clue in determining why Marin County women are afflicted with one of the highest breast cancer rates in the nation, a preliminary study headed by a veteran Point Reyes Station scientist indicates. The new study involving a small sample of Marin women suggests that a genetic trait involving a receptor that activates vitamin D may be a factor.

It was all Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings. Once they got to their third straight final, they were not about to be denied. The Long Beach State grad May-Treanor along with her Stanford partner Walsh-Jennings dominated their USA counterparts Jennifer Kessy and April Ross (who went to school at USC and hail from the Los Angeles area), winning in straight sets 21-16, 21-16. It's their third straight gold medal.

Google will pay $22.5 million to settle charges that it bypassed the privacy settings of customers using Apple's Safari browser, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday. The deal ends an FTC probe into allegations that Google used computer code known as "cookies" to trick Apple's Safari browser on iPhones and iPads, so that Google could monitor users who had blocked such tracking.

Katherine Orr had just started her freshman year at UC Berkeley last August when she was stunned to see five students in military fatigues carrying what looked like rifles and stopping students at Sather Gate... To students who regard Israel as an essential Jewish homeland, this event and others like it that are staged each year on University of California campuses seem hostile... says a new report by a UC fact-finding team seeking to understand Jewish students' experiences... But to students who oppose Israeli policies... some recommendations by the team... have become a new subject for protest. More than 2,200 students, faculty and alumni - many of them Jewish - have signed a petition asking UC President Mark Yudof to set aside the report.

Warren Winkelstein Jr., physician, dies (SF Chronicle)

Warren Winkelstein Jr., a dedicated public health physician whose rigorous research among gay men early in the AIDS epidemic established sexual activity as the direct cause of the disease, died at his home in Point Richmond on July 22. He was 90.

In a move that shows it's ready to expand to its "West Campus" on the other side of Bayfront Expressway in Menlo Park, Facebook has asked the state to approve its plan for cleaning up soil contaminated with PCBs and other toxic chemicals.

Berkeley has slapped a "priority" sticker on saving its downtown post office after the U.S. Postal Service announced plans last month to sell the neoclassical landmark. The City Council, mayor's office and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, have all vowed to fight the sale of the downtown building, where Berkeley residents have been buying stamps and mailing packages since 1914.

Legislators on Wednesday ordered the state auditor to investigate the "culture of deception and entitlement" that enabled the Department of Parks and Recreation to hide $54 million in special funds revenues over a dozen years. The department has been under fire since it was revealed it had stashed $54 million in two special funds -- at the same time private donations were being solicited to keep dozens of parks from closing. The director of the department, Ruth Coleman, resigned and her deputy was fired, though the secret stash began 12 years ago.

The tribe building a Las Vegas-style casino next to Rohnert Park is seeking $800 million in financing, according to Standard & Poor's, which has given the tribe's bonds a higher-risk credit rating. That's the largest sum yet stated for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria project on Wilfred Avenue — one of Sonoma County's largest-ever developments.