"This is a holiday a lot of people celebrate with alcohol," she said. "They should be sticking with the corned beef and cabbage."

Cities planning DUI and driver's license checkpoints tonight include Santa Rosa, Union City, Fremont and Sunnyvale. San Francisco, Sonoma County and San Jose are among the jurisdictions deploying extra patrols.

Ford said San Francisco police will be deploying a squad of motorcycle officers from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.

According the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 134 crash fatalities nationwide on St. Patrick's Day in 2008. Thirty-seven percent of those accidents involved drivers with a blood-alcohol level of .08 or above.

St. Patrick's Day revelers looking for alternative means of transportation this evening have a number of options.

An Alameda-based law firm, Berg Injury Lawyers, is sponsoring free cab rides with Veterans Cab company for people in the cities of Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley at (800) 281-4488, and with Luxor Cab company for people in San Francisco at (415) 282-4141.

In addition, AAA is offering a "Tipsy Tow" service for both members and non-members. Drivers who have been drinking can call (800) 222-4357 after 6 p.m. for a free tow and ride of up to five miles.

Police suggest that drunken drivers consider taking public transit or pre-arranging rides with sober friends. They urge anyone who sees a drunken driver on the road to call 911.

Elsewhere: Two SF Motorcycle Officers Injured in Crash KCBS, Two S.F. motorcycle officers hurt in crash Chron, SFPD officers injured during training excercise (sic) ABC7

2:09 PM:Two San Francisco Police Department motorcycle officers who were hospitalized after crashing during a training exercise downtown this afternoon are expected to survive their injuries, police said.

The crash was reported at 12:54 p.m. at California and Grant streets, near Chinatown.
Fire Lt. Mindy Talmadge said the officers were going in the same direction up California Street, just west of Grant Avenue, when their motorcycles made contact with each other and they both went down.

Police spokeswoman Lt. Lyn Tomioka said the officers had been doing an escort training exercise when one of them hit an orange pylon in the street, which caused the accident.

Both were taken to San Francisco General Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, Tomioka said.

1:44 PM: Two San Francisco Police Department motorcycle officers have been hospitalized this afternoon after crashing near Chinatown, a fire department spokeswoman said.

The crash was reported at 12:54 p.m. at California and Grant streets.

Fire Lt. Mindy Talmadge said the officers were going in the same direction up California Street, just west of Grant Avenue, when their motorcycles made contact with each other and they both went down.

Both have been transported to San Francisco General Hospital.

The shooting occurred at about 8:45 a.m. near the intersection of Oakdale Avenue and Baldwin Court, police Sgt. Wilfred Williams said. (A dispatcher initially said the shooting occurred at Keith Street and Palou Avenue, but police Sgt. Wilfred Williams said it happened at Oakdale Avenue and Baldwin Court.)

Williams said the victim was shot by someone in a passing vehicle as he sat in a parked car.

He was hit in the leg and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening, he said.

No arrests have been made, Williams said.

An employee at Communities of Opportunity, a community center located nearby at 1030 Oakdale Ave., said she heard gunshots this morning, and that police had the intersection taped off.

10:08 AM: A shooting in San Francisco's Bayview District hospitalized one person this morning, a fire dispatcher said.

The shooting was reported at about 8:45 a.m. near the intersection of Keith Street and Palou Avenue, the dispatcher said.

The victim was transported to San Francisco General Hospital. The dispatcher did not know the victim's condition.

1:32 PM:Power was restored to the Bay Bridge early this afternoon following an early morning outage that knocked out power to part of the bridge and more than 1,300 PG&E customers in San Francisco's South of Market District.

The outage began at 5:45 a.m. when a section of underground cable failed near the intersection of Second and Harrison streets, PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said.

Lights went out on the western portion of the Bay Bridge, including in the Treasure Island tunnel, and power was knocked out to about 1,360 PG&E customers in SOMA, Molica said.

All but 35 customers had their power restored at about 7:20 a.m.

Molica said crews had trouble accessing some manholes because of cars parked above them.

Power was restored at 12:07 p.m., he said.

The outage was the second in the past month related to a problem with a cable near Second and Harrison streets. Lights went out on the bridge for more than two hours the evening of Feb. 21.

No crashes were reported on the bridge in connection with either outage.

12:53 PM:Part of the Bay Bridge and dozens of PG&E customers in San Francisco's South of Market District remained without power early this afternoon after an early morning outage, a PG&E spokesman said.

The outage began at 5:45 a.m. when a section of underground cable failed near the intersection of Second and Harrison streets, PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said.

Lights went out on the western portion of the Bay Bridge, including in the Treasure Island tunnel, and power was knocked out to about 1,360 PG&E customers in SOMA, Molica said.

All but 35 customers had their power restored at about 7:20 a.m., and Molica estimated at noon that all power would be restored by 1 p.m.

Molica said crews have had trouble accessing some manholes because of cars parked above them.

The outage was the second in the past month related to a problem with a cable near Second and Harrison streets. Lights went out on the bridge for more than two hours the evening of Feb. 21.

No crashes were reported on the bridge in connection with either outage.

9:04 AM:A power outage left a portion of the Bay Bridge and a swath of San Francisco's South of Market District in the dark early this morning.

The outage began at 5:45 a.m. when a section of underground cable failed near the intersection of Second and Harrison streets, PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said.

Lights went out on the western portion of the Bay Bridge, including in the Treasure Island tunnel, and power was knocked out to about 1,360 PG&E customers in SOMA, Molica said.

"We were able to restore power to all but 35 of those customers at about 7:20 a.m.," he said. PG&E is working to link up the remaining customers to a generator.

The Bay Bridge, however, requires a "tremendous amount of energy," too much to use a generator--and is still without power, Molica said.

Crews are at Second and Harrison streets, working to pull out the failed cable and replace it, Molica said.

6:42 AM: Caltrans, PG&E and the California Highway Patrol are working to restore power to lights on the Bay Bridge this morning, a CHP officer said.

The outage was first reported just after 6 a.m., CHP Peter Van Eckhardt said. The lights on the structure of the Bay Bridge are currently out, though power at the toll plaza is still on.

Crews are on the scene trying to determine the cause of the outage, Van Eckhardt said.

Maria Virginia Reyes, 60, is accused of underreporting more than $683,800 between 2003 and 2007, and she faces five counts of felony tax evasion.

Her daughter Christine Reyes, 36, is accused of omitting almost $345,000 on her IRS forms between 2003 and 2006. She faces four counts.

The two women lived in Menlo Park during the time of their alleged fraud.

They were indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco and are scheduled to appear in court on March 25 for trial setting.

If convicted, they face maximum penalties of five years in prison and $250,000 for each count of tax evasion, but the actual sentence will be determined after consideration of federal sentencing guidelines..

Bennie Moses, 61, was convicted in Alameda County Superior Court of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Willie Rhodes, whose brother had killed Moses's father five years earlier, in Oakland on 1979. He was sentenced to 17 years to life in prison.

Ernesto Juarez, 50, was found guilty in San Mateo County Superior Court of second-degree murder in killing Bruce Farley in a vehicle collision in South San Francisco in 1982.

Juarez was 22 and was under the influence of PCP as he sped away from police on El Camino Real, crossed the center lines and struck Farley's car in oncoming traffic. He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

In two separate decisions, a three-judge Court of Appeal panel overturned Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's denial of parole to Moses and the state Board of Parole Hearings' rejection of parole for Juarez.

The panel said that in both cases, there was no evidence that the two men were a danger to society. The justices said both men had excellent records in prison, had taken responsibility for their crimes and had shown remorse.

In Moses's case, the state parole board had granted parole three times, in 2003, 2005 and 2007, but Schwarzenegger overruled the board each time, saying that Moses was a danger to public safety.

Schwarzenegger acted under power given to him in a 1988 voter-approved amendment to the California Constitution that allows the governor to overrule parole board decisions in murder cases.

The state Supreme Court said in 2002 that courts must uphold the governor's parole denials so long as there is "some evidence" for the action.

But in Moses's case, the appeals panel said Schwarzenegger's reasoning was "seriously flawed" and there was no evidence to back up the governor's finding that he posed a danger to the public.

Justice James Lambden wrote, "We conclude that there is no evidence in the record to support the governor's repeated reversals of the board's grant of parole."

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Rachel Arrezola said, "We're reviewing the ruling and reviewing whether to appeal to the California Supreme Court."

In Juarez's case, the parole board granted parole in 2004, but was reversed by Schwarzenegger. In a later parole hearing in 2008, the board itself denied parole.

Lambden wrote in the court ruling, "There is no evidence in the record to support the board's denial, or that Juarez continues to pose an unreasonable risk of danger to society."

The panel said Juarez, a former high school dropout, was a model prisoner, participating in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and becoming a licensed optician while in prison.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was not immediately available for comment on whether the parole board will appeal the Juarez decision.

BART trains were delayed this morning as the system recovered from an incident in the Transbay Tube in which a train came apart.

The nine-car train split into two pieces, a five-car train and four-car train, shortly after 6:20 a.m.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson said that the cause of the break is still under investigation.

"We know that there was some sort of metal fracture that caused a portion of the coupler that joins the two cars together to fail," he said.

The solid-metal part of the coupler that failed was "bigger than a body-builder's arm" and "designed to last a lifetime," according to Johnson. It was just installed in January 2009.

The five-car section of the train was removed first with the operator on board and another operator then boarded the second, four-car portion, and moved it out of the way as well.

"We're in contact with the manufacturers to find out how this could have happened," Johnson said. He did not know if BART has a warranty for the part.

The manufacturer, a Pennsylvania-based company called Wabtec, was unavailable for comment.

Starting at 7 p.m., Friday, March 19 and continuing around the clock until Monday morning, weekend work on the J Church light rail line will be required at the intersections of Church and 18th streets and San Jose Avenue and 30th Street. The work will continue at San Jose Avenue and 30th Street only over two additional weekends that have yet to be determined.

Throughout all three construction weekends, the work will require the use of Muni bus shuttles on the J Church Line from Church Street Station to Balboa Park. Traffic diversions off of Church Street, 18th Street, 30th Street and San Jose Avenue will be required during construction hours.

Worn pavement and rails in these heavily traveled intersections require the replacement of rail and repaving of the intersections to keep the tracks in good operating condition. In addition to replacing and repairing aging Muni tracks and components, the project includes collaboration with other City departments to provide long-overdue enhancements to the surrounding area such as street repaving and re-striping, sidewalk improvements and upgraded water lines.

Muni Service Impacts
· Over all three construction weekends, beginning March 19, regular J Church light rail service will end at Church Street Station.
· From there, Muni bus shuttles will substitute for rail service to serve Muni customers to the end of the line at Balboa Park Station.
· Outbound J Church trains traveling in the subway will not exit at Duboce but instead will continue in the tunnel to Church Station for customers to transfer to bus shuttles on Church Street south of Market.
· The J trains will then continue to Castro Station.
· Inbound J shuttles will stop on Church Street just south of Market for transfers to the subway.
· Customers can get on and off the J shuttle bus at all regular J Line stops except stops near the construction sites as well as Randall Street and Glen Park Station.
· Alternate J shuttle service for Randall Street and Glen Park customers can be accessed on 30th Street (via 36 Teresita) and at San Jose and Santa Rosa avenues.
· BART service to Glen Park Station will not be affected.

Traffic Impacts
· Over the weekend of March 19 only, Church Street will be closed to through traffic in both directions between 17th Street and Hancock Street.
· 18th Street will be closed to through traffic in both directions between Church and Dolores streets.
· During all three construction weekends, San Jose Avenue will be closed to through traffic in the southbound direction between Day Street and Dolores Street.
· One lane of northbound San Jose Avenue will remain open; the rest will be closed during construction.
· During construction hours, 30th Street between San Jose Avenue and Dolores Street will be closed to through traffic in both directions.
· Local access to businesses and residences will be provided for all closures. Detour signs will guide drivers to alternate routes. Police officers will detour traffic onto parallel streets.
· Some street parking will not be available in or near the construction sites.
· Slow traffic is expected in the area. Motorists are advised to use alternate routes when possible.

Traffic Detour/Construction Schedule (weather permitting)
Church and 18th streets and San Jose Avenue and 30th Street
· 7 p.m., Friday, March 19 - 5 a.m., Monday, March 22

Muni Bus Shuttle Schedule
· 8 p.m., Friday - 1 a.m., Saturday
· 6 a.m., Saturday - 1 a.m., Sunday
· 8 a.m., Sunday - 1 a.m., Monday

Additional Muni routes affected
· 24 Divisadero
· 24 Owl
· 33 Stanyan
· 36 Teresita

The ordinance, introduced by Supervisor Eric Mar, will ban smoking in outdoor restaurant dining areas and several other locations, and was unanimously approved after a second and final vote by the board this afternoon. A lengthy campaign pushing for the new regulations required several amendments that were concessions to business owners.

Mar and anti-tobacco groups have touted the new law as a means to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke.

Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign it, according to his office. His spokesman Tony Winnicker noted "a collaborative process" in forging the legislation between board members, the mayor and the business community.

In addition to outdoor restaurant dining areas, the law will ban smoking in enclosed common areas of multi-unit housing, and at farmers markets, homeless shelters and charity bingo games.

It also prohibits smoking in service waiting areas, such as lines for ATMs, concerts, movie theaters, sporting events, taxis and bus stop shelters, and within 15 feet of business doorways.

Current city law already prohibits smoking in city buildings, businesses, schools, hospitals and public transit. Smoking is still allowed in private homes and on city streets and in existing bars that have semi-enclosed outdoor smoking areas.

State law already prohibits smoking inside bars, but there is an exception for owner-operated bars.

Once signed into law, smoking in owner-operated San Francisco bars that have residential units upstairs will no longer be allowed.

According to Mar's office, those bars will have two years to move to a commercial building if they want to continue to allow smoking inside.

The outdoor dining area prohibition goes into effect in six months. Every other provision becomes law in 30 days.

According to police, an unknown caller phoned the center, located at 3200 California St., Monday evening and threatened to shoot Jewish people. No arrests were made and an investigation is ongoing.

JCC spokesman Nathaniel Bergson-Michelson this morning confirmed a threatening call was received, but said it was not believed to have been serious.

"The nature of the call really suggests that it was a prank call," Bergson-Michelson said. "At this time we do not believe that there is a likely security risk, however we are taking heightened security measures, as a precautionary measure."

According to police spokeswoman Lt. Lyn Tomioka, a female JCC employee answered the phone at about 6:30 p.m. and was asked by a male caller about purchasing a gym membership.

"He told her that his ancestry was German, and asked if he would be welcome there because of that," Tomioka said.

The woman responded that all were welcome at the community center, and the caller said he had a brother who was also interested, Tomioka said.

A second male caller got on the phone, asked the same question and received the same answer.

"And then he made an inappropriate sexual comment" to the woman, who did not know how to respond, Tomioka said. "He went on and made threatening comments about coming in with guns and shooting Jewish people, and then hung up the phone," she said.

"We get people calling in and saying strange things every now and then," Bergson-Michelson said.

The JCC of San Francisco has about 4,500 visitors each day, according to Bergson-Michelson.

"We take it seriously, because threats were made," said Tomioka. "You can't threaten people's lives and assume that we're not going to do anything."

Trains headed to San Francisco and the Peninsula were on time as of 8:30 a.m., BART spokesman Jim Allison said.

A nine-car train was headed through the tube when it separated into two pieces shortly after 6:20 a.m.

A five-car section of the train was removed first with the operator on board, Allison said. Another operator then boarded the second, four-car portion, and moved it out of the way as well.

The tracks were inspected and determined to be safe, and normal service through the tube resumed at about 7:25 a.m.

The three 253-foot-tall cranes arrived from Shanghai, China, and had to be folded over to pass cleanly under the bridges. The maneuvers had to be coordinated with local transportation agencies and were based upon tides and other safety factors.

Port spokeswoman Marilyn Sandifur said there was more room than expected at both bridges.

"We actually thought it could be as tight as 4 feet, so it went very smoothly," Sandifur said. "We're very pleased about that."

The vessel carrying the cranes, the Zhen Hua 15, passed under the Golden Gate Bridge at 8:30 a.m. with about 14 feet of clearance and the Bay Bridge at about 9:15 a.m. with about 9 feet of space.

The California Highway Patrol ran traffic breaks on the Bay Bridge for about 15 to 20 minutes as the cranes approached that bridge.

With the three new cranes, the Port of Oakland will have a total of 22 Super-Post Panamax cranes, according to port officials. Evergreen Marine Corporation, one of the port's tenants, purchased the new cranes, Sandifur said.

The cranes weigh 1,500 tons each and are large enough to accommodate container ships that are too wide to pass through the Panama Canal.

They are anchored to the docks and have booms large enough to reach across a 24-container vessel, Sandifur said. Containers are about 8 feet wide, she said.

The cranes will likely translate to new jobs because they increase the amount of cargo the port can move, Sandifur said.

Cargo is unloaded by longshore workers before being transported by truck or rail. It might go through a distribution warehouse or be taken out of its container and repacked for local distribution.

The cranes, which can cost up to $10 million each, were ordered about a year ago.

The Oakland seaport is the fifth busiest in the United States, according to port officials. Sandifur said it moves the equivalent of 2 million 20-foot containers each year.

8:45 AM: A ship carrying three new container cranes is passing under the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge this morning on its way to the Port of Oakland.

The 253-foot-tall cranes are arriving from Shanghai, China. The ship went under the Golden Gate Bridge at about 8:30 a.m. It was set to pass under the Bay Bridge at about 9:15 a.m.

Crews had to fold the cranes so they could fit under the bridges, and their arrival time was determined by the tide and other safety considerations.

The CHP responded to southbound Highway 280 near Alemany Boulevard at around 5 a.m., where a Muni coach 8X-Bayshore Express was seen on the highway with smoke coming out of its engine, Muni spokesman Judson True said.

The malfunction was later determined to be an exhaust leak in the engine, True said, not a fire.

The coach was not in service at the time, and the bus was towed from the highway without injury.

Jacob Schildgen, 42, is alleged to have targeted five shops since Feb. 22, including the same Mission District coffee shop three separate times, police said.

That shop was robbed on Feb. 22 at about 6 p.m., on March 8 at about 8 a.m., and most recently on Sunday at about 4 p.m.

A suspect vehicle description led police to Schildgen's home in a residential hotel in the 2000 block of Mission Street, where he was arrested, police said.

According to police, Schildgen is also a suspect in the robberies of a coffee shop on Divisadero Street at noon on Thursday and coffee shops in the Castro and Mission districts on Friday afternoon.

He is also believed to have tried to rob a juice bar on upper Market Street just minutes after the Friday coffee shop robberies, but left after an employee told him he didn't have the key to the register, police said.

In all the incidents, Schildgen reportedly claimed he had a gun but did not show it, according to police.

A police spokeswoman said investigators did not want to disclose the exact shops that were robbed in order not to taint the ongoing investigation.

Schildgen was charged with multiple counts of robbery and remains in custody, according to police.

Joshua Bey, 21, said he participated in the incident at the direction of Yusuf Bey IV, who told him that the Oakland-based bakery, which was founded in 1968, was in serious trouble and was in danger of being shut down if it didn't come up with some money.

Dressed in a red and white jail jumpsuit, wearing glasses and sporting short hair, Joshua Bey was on the witness stand for a second day in the trial of Richard Lewis, a 25-year-old former football star at Mission High School in San Francisco who's accused of being one of several Your Black Muslim Bakery members who allegedly kidnapped and tortured two women in Oakland on May 17, 2007.

Lewis is the first bakery member to stand trial in the case.

Yusuf Bey IV and Tamon Halfin, another member, are slated to be prosecuted together at a later date.

Lewis, Bey IV and Halfin are charged with kidnapping and torture and face life in prison if they're convicted.

Joshua Bey and another half-brother, Yusuf Bey V, were also charged in connection with the alleged kidnapping and torture case, but they both pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for their testimony against Lewis, Halfin and Bey IV.

One of the alleged victims testified last week that that the men who abducted her and her mother after they left a bingo parlor in East Oakland about 10:30 p.m. on May 17, 2007, brutally beat her and threatened her, and she thought they would kill her.

But Joshua Bey said today, "I didn't think they were going to kill her. I still don't feel she was going to die."

Asked by prosecutor Chris Lamiero how he felt about participating in the crime, Bey said, "It happened so fast I just did it. I wasn't really thinking about it."

Bey said he didn't want to say no to Yusuf Bey IV because, "I didn't want it to be my fault if it didn't go the right way."

When Lamiero asked what he meant, Bey paused for a long time and said, "If it went wrong as in not getting the money."

Bey said Lewis, Yusuf Bey IV, Yusuf Bey V and Halfin all joined him in participating in the crime, which involved using a decommissioned police cruiser to stop the two women on the freeway and then taking them to an East Oakland home, where one of the women was beaten while being asked where a drug dealer acquaintance kept his money.

Joshua Bey said Yusuf Bey IV told him before the incident that the decommissioned police cruiser, which had been bought at an auction in Antioch, "looked like an undercover police car."

Bey said Yusuf Bey IV said, "We could take advantage of it to benefit the bakery."

Bey said his half-brother told him, "We could run up on people on the street and act like the police and take their money."

Before Bey IV stands trial in the kidnapping and torture trial, he is first scheduled to stand trial in May on three counts of murder for allegedly ordering the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men in Oakland in July and August of 2007.
The bakery went bankrupt and closed its doors in late 2007.