California’s two U.S. senators introduced a bill Wednesday that would impose strict new pipeline safety standards and add federal inspectors in the wake of the Sept. 9 natural gas explosion in San Bruno that killed seven people and burned 37 houses to the ground. 

The 23-page bill sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, would require manual valves to be replaced by automatic electronic valves, mandate in-line inspection devices and require federal officials to set standards for leak detection devices.

The bill, called the Strengthening Pipeline Safety and Enhancement Act, would also double the number of federal inspectors who examine 217,306 miles of interstate pipelines that cross the country and increase the civil penalties for safety violations. There are 100 inspectors now. 

“The pipeline explosion in San Bruno was a tragedy that must never occur again in any American neighborhood,” Feinstein said in a statement. “The American people must be assured that the pipelines that crisscross the nation and run beneath their streets are safe.”

The pipeline that ruptured was a 30-inch-diameter underground natural gas transmission line that runs for 51.5 miles from Milpitas to San Francisco. The section that exploded, which was not on Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s list of the top 100 highest-risk sections, was installed in 1956.

The utility said it was unable to use in-line inspection devices, called pigs, in the pipeline because the line changes diameter. Pigs are considered the most reliable way to detect internal corrosion and weakening pipeline walls. PG&E inspects a quarter of its lines using pigs.

The fire from the explosion raged for an hour and 46 minutes, according to utility officials, before workers could shut off the manual valves on either side. The intense heat from the gas plume kept firefighters and police from the houses closest to the blast site. The delay has renewed calls for utilities to install automatic valves in densely populated areas.

The bill builds on legislation that U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposed last week.

It would also require pipelines that cannot be inspected with in-line devices to be operated at lower pressures. State utilities regulators have already ordered PG&E to lower the pressure by 20% on the pipeline that ruptured. PG&E, however, has warned that it could have trouble delivering enough gas to the San Francisco Peninsula during very cold weather.

The bill would also prioritize older pipelines in seismic areas for the highest level of safety oversight. PG&E’s pipelines on the peninsula are near the San Andreas Fault.

The senators visited the charred Crestmoor neighborhood in the days after the blaze. Last week, they urged federal regulators to order inspections of interstate natural gas pipelines in California.

-- John Hoeffel

A state appeals court Monday removed one of the few remaining impediments to the resumption of executions in California, helping clear the way for the lethal injection of an inmate later this month.

"We are acting with the assumption that without any stay in place ... that the execution will go forward," said Chief Assistant Atty. Gen. Dane Gillette.

The state is scheduled to execute Albert Greenwood Brown, convicted of raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl in 1980, on Sept. 29. But a federal judge could still delay executions, and another inmate has challenged a new lethal injection protocol.

The state has not executed anyone in nearly five years.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose halted the execution of Michael Morales in 2006 after his lawyers argued that the lethal injection procedures could expose the condemned to excruciating pain before death. Fogel has scheduled a conference on the case for Tuesday.

In 2007, a task force appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger revised the execution procedures. A Marin County judge then blocked them on the grounds they were written without public participation.

After that ruling, the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections redrafted the protocols and submitted them for public examination. A state office approved them in July.

Monday's decision by a court of appeal in San Francisco overturned the Marin County judge's injunction.

-- Maura Dolan in San Francisco

The explosion and massive fire that ripped through San Bruno left six dead, the fire chief said Friday morning, and he expected the toll to rise as more homes are searched.

San Bruno Fire Captain Charlie Barringer stood on Glenview Drive a block above Claremont Drive about 2 a.m. and surveyed the damage as firefighters pointed their hoses at the smoldering remains of a half dozen homes.

The power was still out. Spot fires were still burning in yards near the charred remains of station wagons, the air thick and acrid. Many houses remained eerily untouched, SUVs still parked in the driveways, solar-powered garden lights burning, newspapers wrapped in plastic still lying where they were tossed on the grass Thursday morning.

Barringer has been based at the local station for the past three years, one of three firefighters on Engine 52, the first to respond to the explosion.

“I thought a 747 had landed on us,” he said. “It shook our station right to its foundation.”

Within a minute, he had sounded a four-alarm fire, he said. Soon after, he said firefighters discovered a gas line had exploded, destroying not only homes but the grid of water mains that supplied the local fire hydrants. His crew had no water to fight the fires.

 “We were overwhelmed. We had multiple neighborhoods on fire,” he said.

Barringer said the neighborhood has not had problems with gas leaks in recent years. A PG&E crew of several men with hard hats, shovels, an earth mover and two trucks was out at the corner of Claremont and Sneath Lane as he spoke, digging through the concrete, but they referred questions to a spokesman. Neighbors standing across the street claimed a gas line runs nearby, and a slight scent of gas was in the air Friday morning.

Barringer said that when his engine first responded to the explosion, the crew strung together hoses to pump water from two to three miles away. By 2 a.m., they were still using the hoses. Police and coroner’s investigators roamed the darkness with flashlights, snapping photographs, setting up road blocks with flares and saying the area was considered a crime scene.

Kathy Crouse, 61, sat on a corner in the dark with a police scanner, waiting for news. Her house on Sequoia Avenue was not damaged by the explosion, she said, but a friend who lived on Claremont fled just as her house burned, grabbing her car keys as flames singed the shirt on her back. Crouse bought her a new shirt at Kohl’s and the woman went to stay with her daughter nearby.

“She’s so in shock,” Crouse said.

Crouse works at the CVS in town, which like many businesses offered donated food to those displaced by the explosion. When she stopped by late Thursday, she said a neighbor asked her whether his house had survived. She didn’t know, and was unsure what to tell him.

Her son, a carpenter, helped other neighbors build wooden braces to stabilize the fire hoses snaking across the roads.

“All we can do is rebuild and move on,” Johnson said as he stood on Sneath overlooking Claremont, where billows of smoke rose from burned homes.

While Johnson waited, a woman who said she lived at the corner of Glenview and Earle Avenue—the epicenter of the explosion—walked by looking for her son’s girlfriend. Her son was among those badly burned by the explosion, she said—he had been home at the time, walked outside with his girlfriend and was burned. His girlfriend has been missing since.

She walked off into the darkness in the direction of her home, Johnson said.

A state official said Thursday night that 53 homes had been destroyed.

“It’s horrible,” Barringer said. “It’s real difficult for us. This is like a second neighborhood for me.”

His crew saved about 20 homes on Glenview, he said. They lost five. 

Barringer said he had worked strike teams in the Los Angeles area during past fire seasons, and was grateful to see firefighters from surrounding counties pitching in to handle the aftermath of the explosion. He pointed to a shopping plaza on the opposite hill, where officials had set up a command post.

 “We’ll be out here probably for at least a week,” he said.

As he spoke, Barringer received a radio message to return to the station to get some rest before returning to the neighborhood at about 5 a.m. Friday morning to begin a house to house search for bodies.

“I’m sure there’s going to be a few more,” he said as he left.

 --Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Photo: A firefighting helicopter flies over the massive blaze. Firefighters' efforts were hampered by winds that reportedly reached more than 30 mph. Credit: George Nikitin / Associated Press

Photos: Fire in San Bruno

The president of Pacific Gas and Electric said Thursday night that investigators would look into reports that residents smelled gas in the days preceding the huge explosion and massive fire that is raging across 10 acres in a San Bruno residential neighborhood.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference, Chris Johns said the utility had not received any reports of gas odors but he said that the company was ready to cooperate with state and federal officials who will probe the cause of the blaze that left at least one person dead and destroyed and damaged dozens of homes in the city south of San Francisco.

The utility acknowledged that one of its pipes ruptured in the area of the blaze. Johns said PG&E "would do the right thing for everyone involved" if investigators determine that it was responsible for the devastation. "The right thing is we will be accountable," he said.

Late Thursday, acting Gov. Abel Maldonado declared a state of emergency in San Mateo County, which will free up assistance to the area.

Click on the following link for a Times photo gallery of the San Bruno blaze.

--Lee Romney in San Francisco and Robert J. Lopez in Los Angeles

Photo: Huge wall of flame ravages San Bruno. Credit: Dan Honda/Contra Costa Times.

 
At least 53 homes have been destroyed and 120 damaged in the massive blaze that tore through a San Bruno neighborhood, a state official said Thursday night.

Jay Allen, spokesman for the California Emergency Management Agency, told The Times that the blaze had burned across 10 acres and was 50% contained.

Fire crews continued to battle the blaze, which left at least one person dead and a couple of dozen injured.

Rescue operations were still underway as officials at Bay Area hospitals were treating patients.

Click on the following link for a Times photo gallery of the San Bruno blaze.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Photo: Fire crews battle the huge blaze. Credit: EPA/Peter DaSilva.

The utility company that serves San Bruno confirmed Thursday night that one its gas line ruptured in the neighborhood where a roaring fire left at least one person dead, destroyed a number homes and injured a couple of dozen victims.

Pacific Gas & Electric said that the broken line one was one theirs but added that the cause of the blast had not been determined.

"If it is ultimately determined that we were responsible for the cause of the accident, we will take accountability," the utility said in a statement.

The explosion tore a huge crater in the neighborhood and quickly disintegrated a couple of homes as flames, whipped by powerful winds, raced down streets and sent many residents fleeing on foot and in their vehicles, according to witnesses.

Click on the following link for a Times photo gallery of the San Bruno blaze.

-- Robert J. Lopez

 
A massive explosion believed to have been sparked by a gas-line break produced an inferno that consumed a San Bruno neighborhood Thursday night, leveling numerous homes and forcing residents to run for their lives. There was one confirmed fatality and more than two dozen people were reported injured, some with severe burns.

The blast, which occurred shortly after 6 p.m., ignited a wind-driven fire that quickly destroyed dozens of homes, set tree tops on fire and illuminated the sky for miles around. Hours after the explosion, fire crews from around the state continued to converge on the scene, but their efforts were hampered by winds that reportedly reached more than 20 mph.

As of 9:45 p.m., authorities had confirmed no deaths, although radio reports said at least one body had been found. A complete search of the area proved impossible with the fire still out of control. A news conference was scheduled for 10 p.m.

“My house is gone. I’m trying to keep from just breaking down. Everything’s gone,” said Tina Pellegrini, whose home was near Claremont and Glenview drives. “I was in my bedroom and heard a boom,” she said. “My house is shaking. I thought it was an earthquake. I get the dog to go ride it out. We look out the living room window and it was orange. I had the forethought to put on my shoes and grab my purse and run out of my house. I could feel the fire from five houses away. It was so intense.”

Some witnesses in the residential area, which is not far from San Francisco International Airport, said the explosion sounded like a plane crash, but authorities soon ruled that out. Although Pacific Gas and Electric crews on the scene told television news reporters that a gas-line rupture had sparked the explosion, spokesmen for the power company cautioned that they were still investigating. “Our hearts and thoughts go out to those affected by this terrible, terrible tragedy,” said PG&E spokesman J.B. Guidi.

Neighbors and volunteer groups pitched in to help, with some residents reportedly stepping in to direct traffic away from the area. Scores of evacuees gathered at the Bayhill shopping center, where people clustered around a Starbucks and an Extreme Pizza store a few miles from explosion site. Hifa Salfiti, who lives on Claremont Drive, said she and her husband were stunned by the blast.

“We were sitting in the house and heard a huge explosion,” she said. “We thought first of all it was an earthquake. It was beyond huge. We ran to the deck and saw a huge fire. We ran to the street and they began evacuating us. The fire was like hell.” Salfiti, wearing a pink bathrobe, said she and her husband quickly fled. She did not know if their house was still standing.

Throughout the evening, shaken people arrived at the shopping center, embracing each other and talking about their losses. Bob Marshall, former mayor of San Bruno, a city of about 41,000, said his house was undamaged in the blast.

He came to see if anybody needed help. “We were in our house. It sure sounded like a plane went over,” Marshall said. “The next thing we saw -- the flames, the explosion and the flames.”

-- Maria L. LaGanga and Jessica Guynn in San Bruno; Rong-Gong Lin II and Robert J. Lopez in Los Angeles

Photo: Brant Ward / SFC

With flames continuing to burn in San Bruno, many of the evacuees at the nearby Bayhill shopping center had no idea Thursday night whether their homes would be standing when they finally return to their fire-ravaged neighborhood.

Doug Kunze, who lives on Claremont Drive, said he was watching a football game on television when he heard an explosion and thought it was an earthquake and saw fire. The cable went out and the water went out.
 
“The fire was huge. It was 100 feet in the air,” he said. “Something was continually feeding it. It go so hot you couldn’t get closer than a block.”
 
He said he and his family left on foot and were not allowed to go back and get their car.
 
“I’m sure we can’t get back tonight,” he said. “I’m not sure we have any place to go back to. So many homes were destroyed. The neighborhood will never be the same.”

Marla Shelmadine lives on Fairmont Drive, four houses down from the big explosion. “We just got out in time with the animals and two vehicles after hearing the explosion," she said. "We went outside. It was like an inferno. If we stayed any longer, our skin would have melted.”

 

Shelmadine was talking in the Bayhills Starbucks with other people from the neighborhood, bemoaning the houses that were destroyed and the neighbors who were hospitalized. She has three dogs and a cat.

“I got them by the tail,” she said. “By the time we got to the garage, it was filled with smoke. The house three doors down was in flames.”

She said her house is gone.

Dan Grassis, who lives on Crestmore Street, said he has no idea how his house is. “I’m hoping OK,” he said.
 
He said he heard several booms and opened the garage door and saw flames and smoke. “It was like something you see in a war movie."
 
He said he saw firetrucks and equipment from as far away as San Francisco and San Jose. At nightfall, a sheriff’s truck drove up and down the street, ordering people to leave by loudspeaker. Law enforcement officials canvassed the neighborhood, knocking on every door.

Click on the following link to see a Times photo gallery of the San Bruno Blaze.

 -- Maria L. La Ganga

Firefighters battle house fires after a massive explosion that rocked a neighborhood in San Bruno, Calif. Credti: EPA/Peter DaSilva

A few blocks from the fire-devastated San Bruno neighborhood, the Bayhill shopping center was buzzing with scores of evacuees clustered around a Starbucks and an Extreme Pizza store.
 
Tina Pellegrini, who lives on Claremont Drive at the corner of Glen View Avenue, stood in the parking lot with her English bulldog Gus, her purse and a Starbucks coffee. 

“My house is gone. I’m trying to keep from just breaking down. Everything’s gone,” she said. “I was in my bedroom and heard a boom. My house is shaking. I thought it was an earthquake. I get the dog to go ride it out outside. We look out the living room window and it was orange. I had the forethought to put on my shoes and grab my purse and run out of my house. I could feel the fire from five house away. It was so intense.”

Hifa Salfiti, who lives on Claremont Drive, said she and her husband were stunned by a huge blast that preceded the flames. They were wondering whether their home was still standing.
 
“We were sitting in the house and heard a huge explosion,” she told The Times. “We thought first of all it was an earthquake. It was beyond huge. We ran to the deck and saw a huge fire. We ran to the street and they began evacuating us. The fire was like hell.”
 
Salfiti, who was in her pink bathrobe, said she and her husband quickly fled.
 
Throughout the evening, shaken people continued to flock to the shopping center, embracing one another and taking to one another about their losses.
 
Former Mayor Bob Marshall said his house was fine. He came down to the shopping center to see if anybody needed help.
 
“We were in our house. It sure sounded like a plane went over. The next thing we saw, the flames, the explosion and the flames.”

-- Maria L. La Ganga in San Bruno

Photos: Fire in San Bruno

As flames continued to rage out of control in San Bruno, fire crews from outlying cities and agencies were responding to help fight the massive blaze that has left at least nine people burned and destroyed a number of homes.

Four air-tankers, two smaller attack planes and 25 fire engines from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection were headed to the blaze, the agency said.

Off-duty firefighters, some of them without their protective gear, were battling the blaze alongside overwhelmed crews from the small San Bruno Fire Department, according to news reports.

Huge orange balls of flames were billowing into the nighttime sky. Residents reported a huge shake, as if an earthquake had struck when the blaze broke out.

The radiant heat from the flames could be felt several blocks away, according to residents.

The blaze, which broke out shortly after 6 p.m., may have been caused by a large gas-line explosion, said a spokesman with Pacific Gas and Electric.

The Blood Center of the Pacific declared an emergency and asked for people to donate blood Friday morning.

At San Francis Hospital in San Francisco, a major burn center, two patients were in critical condition, but medical crews were gearing up to treat more patients.

"We do expect more victims," said hospital spokeswoman Theresa Edison.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Photos: Fire in San Bruno

Strong winds were stoking a powerful fire that had leveled a number of homes in a hillside San Bruno neighborhood as fire crews struggled to contain the conflagration, according to a witness near the scene.

"The flames are getting bigger and bigger," said Xabier Berrueta, who was watching the devastation from several blocks away. "Its just a huge fire."

Initial news reports from the area were saying the blaze may have been sparked by a large gas line rupture. There were also reports of people who were badly burned and others who were hurled through the air by a powerful explosion that preceded the blaze.

A spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric had yet to return calls for  comment.

-- Robert J. Lopez

A huge fire left a swath of destroyed and burning homes across a several block area Thursday evening as bright walls of flame and thick smoke shot into the Bay Area city of San Bruno.

The blaze was raging in a neighborhood near Glen View Drive by Skyline Boulevard, which is just south of San Francisco.

The San Bruno Police Department said it was unclear what sparked the blaze. There were no reports on injuries or fatalities.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Fire crews were battling a large fire Thursday evening that was blazing in the hills of San Bruno, south of San Francisco.

It was unclear what sparked the large fire, which was preceded by a large explosion. Firefighters were pouring massive streams of water on homes that were fully engulfed in flames.

A spokeswoman for the San Bruno Police Department said authorities were trying to determine what caused the fire, a few miles northwest of San Francisco International Airport.

Video footage from the scene showed thick clouds of dark smoke billowing across the hills and orange balls of flame.

-- Robert J. Lopez

A state commission Wednesday unanimously approved the nomination of Tani Cantil-Sakauye as the next chief justice of California, a critical step in making the appeals court justice the first nonwhite to head the state high court and California's sprawling court system.

The Commission on Judicial Appointments, headed by Chief Justice Ronald M. George, who is retiring next year, will hear testimony at a public hearing on whether Cantil-Sakauye is suited for the job. A state bar evaluation committee gave her the bar's highest rating.

Cantil-Sakauye, 50, a Filipina American, is a moderate Republican who began her legal career as a Sacramento prosecutor, worked on legal and legislative matters in the George Deukmejian administration and moved by Republican appointment up the judicial ranks to the state Court of Appeals in Sacramento.

She would face voters unopposed in November for a confirmation vote. If approved, as expected, she would replace George in January.

-- Maura Dolan in San Francisco

Photo: Tani Cantil-Sakauye. Credit: Los Angeles Times

The California Nurses Assn. has filed a class-action grievance against Sacramento-based Sutter Health and the company’s California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, alleging that hospital managers refused to hire Filipino nurses.

On Thursday, union officials and Bay Area Filipino activists called on the San Francisco Human Rights Commission to investigate the discrimination claims.

Three former managers at California Pacific Medical Center, which also operates St. Luke’s Hospital, submitted statements to the commission alleging that between 2007 and 2009, supervisors told them not to hire Filipino nurses. The union also submitted records showing the percentage of Filipino nurses at the hospital dropped from 65% to 10% in 2008.

“There can be no excuse for racial or ethnic discrimination,” Zenei Cortez, a registered nurse and union official, said in a statement Thursday.

More than 35 Filipino community groups signed a letter to the hospital calling for officials to investigate the allegations.

“Sutter’s discriminatory practices against Filipino nurses is as much about denying job opportunities as it is about punishing unionized Filipina nurses at St. Luke’s who stood up to Sutter’s plans to cut services to our community,” said Lillian Galedo of Oakland-based Filipino Advocates for Justice.

The union has been locked in a contract dispute with Sutter for three years. Sutter officials dismissed the lawsuit as a negotiating ploy.

“We pride ourselves on our diverse hiring policies and our longstanding commitment to promoting equal opportunity employment,” Dr. Warren Browner, California Pacific Medical Center’s chief executive, said in a statement, calling the allegations “dishonest and without merit.”

Browner said Sutter does not track how many of its nurses are Filipino, but said the percentage of Asian nurses at St. Luke’s has actually risen slightly, from 63% in 2007 to 66% today.

“We stand by our record as an employer that is committed to diversity,” Browner said.

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Officials were preparing Thursday afternoon to release an American Airlines flight that had been grounded at San Francisco International Airport after local police received a call threatening a hijacking, federal authorities said.

Investigators determined that the threat was not credible, a law enforcement source told The Times.

Flight 24 was supposed to depart at 7:30 a.m. for New York City. Authorities with the Transportation Safety Administration were notified of the threat and halted the flight.

"Out of an abundance of caution, TSA requested the plane be moved to a remote location," agency spokeswoman Suzanne Treviño said.

Passengers were removed from the aircraft and interviewed by law enforcement authorities. The plane was checked and no threats to passenger safety were found, Treviño said. "All passengers are safe," she said.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Scores of happy demonstrators gathered at the corner of Market and Castro streets in the heart of gay San Francisco to celebrate and march on City Hall.

The intersection was a welter of rainbow flags, American flags and satellite trucks as the Lesbian/Gay Freedom band assembled. Historic street cars rumbled by as happy demonstrators waved signs declaring “We all deserve the freedom to marry.”

The Gay Men’s Chorus was expected to sing, and volunteers were busy handing out song sheets, which included the words, “We will Repeal Prop. 8,” sung to the tune of Queen's “We will Rock You” as well as “What the World Needs Now is Love” by Burt Bacharach.

Mary Roth, 52, and Lori Castles, 53, of Alameda carried a sign showing a photo of them on their wedding day at City Hall in July 2008. They are among the 18,000 same-sex couples whose marriages are still recognized in the state, and they were “thrilled” about Wednesday’s decision.

They had celebrated a civil union in Vermont and were married in Massachussets and San Francisco.

Said Castles: “To me, it’s just a basic human right, that we deserve the right to marry. The opposing argument were just flawed -- that marriage is for people to procreate and rear children. “

Said Roth, her partner of 25 years: “A 50% divorce rate? What are they trying to protect?”

Sister Moralee D’Klined of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence -- an activist drag troupe -- planned to march on City Hall in her 4-inch heels, “to celebrate the fact that we’re taking a step closer to a result we’ve been fighting for for a very longtime.” D’Klined is an insurance salesman in his day job.

Sympathizers poured out of the BART station carrying signs, while commuters honked their horns.

-- Maria L. La Ganga in San Francisco

A 40-year old San Francisco man remained in serious condition Sunday after being jumped, stabbed and robbed early Saturday morning by a group of seven young people in San Francisco’s Dolores Park, police officials said.

Three suspects, ages 17, 18 and 20, were arrested and booked on suspicion of attempted murder and robbery, said San Francisco Police Officer Samson Chan.

“It was not gang-related,” Chan said. “Their motive was robbery.”

The victim, whom police did not identify, sustained life-threatening injuries, including several stab wounds to his abdomen.

He was taken to General Hospital and remains hospitalized. Police are still looking for several young people who they believe have knowledge of the incident, Chan said.

--Jason Felch

A man killed in an officer-involved shooting near an Oakland Bay Area Rapid Transit station was identified Sunday as Fred Collins, 48, of Oakland.

The shooting occurred Saturday morning after Oakland police received reports of a man armed with two knives walking near the Fruitvale BART station. Both Oakland and BART officers chased the man for several blocks, unsuccessfully attempting to Taser him after he allegedly charged at an officer. The group then opened fire, killing him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Pursuing officers said Collins, who was black, shouted, “Shoot me, shoot me,” according to Oakland police spokesman  Jeff Thomason.

The shooting occurred about a week after a Los Angeles jury convicted former BART Officer Johannes Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, Oscar J. Grant III, on the Fruitvale BART station platform on New Year's Day last year. The verdict in that shooting sparked protests and looting. 

Oakland police homicide and internal affairs investigators, BART police internal affairs investigators and the Alameda County district attorney’s office are investigating Saturday’s shooting. There were no reports of unrest, Thomason said.

-- Carla Rivera

A coalition of education activists filed a lawsuit Monday to seek a vast increase, by billions of dollars annually, in California's funding of education. This litigation follows a similar legal claim filed in May by other groups.

In both cases, the defendants are California and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor's office has said it will vigorously oppose the other suit, while also asserting that it supports efforts to improve and pay for education.

Similar suits brought in other states have yielded new revenues for schools. But there's an ongoing debate about how directly more money translates to improved schools.

The latest suit says "the State of California ... is failing to provide all children with an equal opportunity to obtain a meaningful education. It is failing to appropriately and adequately fund the public school system. And it is failing to prepare children to meaningfully participate in our democracy, succeed economically, or live in our diverse society."

Scores of people were arrested in Oakland on Thursday night as police tried to wrest control of downtown from looters angry about the BART verdict earlier in the day.

By 11 p.m., the heart of downtown Oakland was a mess. A Foot Locker was smashed when looters took off with shoes and bags of athletic gear. People shoved trash cans into the street and set rubbish on fire.

Men sprayed graffiti on walls and windows on Broadway; one outside Tully’s Coffee read: “You can’t shoot us all.” Large fires billowed out of dumpsters on 20th Street and Telegraph Avenue. Windows were smashed at a Subway sandwich store, a Sears store and the empty former office of Far East National Bank.

At 20th Street and Broadway, a crowd was overrunning police and throwing bottles at officers, so authorities released smoke to disperse them, said Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts.

At least 50 people had been arrested, and more arrests were expected, Batts told reporters at a news conference.

Just before 11 p.m., Batts said there were still disturbances along the 1700 blocks of Broadway and Franklin Street and the corner of Grand Avenue and Broadway.

  
A group of people angry with the BART verdict clashed with police in riot gear in downtown Oakland late Thursday, throwing rocks and bottles at officers, starting small fires in the street and breaking into downtown businesses. Police were making numerous arrests.

Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts said at a news conference that about 8 p.m., a group of people dressed completely in black and wearing black face masks moved south on Broadway, taking an aggressive posture. Batts described the group as “anarchists.”

“It was clear that they were taking an aggressive posture.... We started taking a number of rocks and bottles,” Batts said. “We then made a dispersal order” about 8:30 p.m.

Most protesters left, but those dressed in black did not.

A group of protesters shattered windows along Broadway, breaking into a Foot Locker and taking bags of athletic gear and shoes and throwing some into the street. Fresh graffiti was spray-painted on walls along Broadway; one outside Telly's Coffee read: “You can’t shoot us all.”

People broke windows at a Rite-Aid drugstore and entered Far East National Bank. Small fires were started in trash cans.

A California Highway Patrol car window was smashed.

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums urged the crowd to “end it on a note that is dignified and respectful.”

[Updated, 9:53 p.m.: At 9:40 pm, residents could be heard yelling at younger protesters in the street to “go home. This is our city. Don’t destroy it.”]

-- Maria L. La Ganga reporting from downtown Oakland, and Rong-Gong Lin II and Louis Sahagun reporting from Los Angeles.

Photo: People loot a Foot Locker in Oakland following an involuntary manslaughter verdict in Johannes Mehserle's trial on Thursday. Credit: Noah Berger / Associated Press

The Oakland Police Department has declared an unlawful assembly in downtown Oakland, telling the remaining protesters upset by Thursday’s BART verdict to disperse.

Protesters have begun to break windows at a bank and at a Rite-Aid store at 16th Street and Broadway, and people are breaking windows at Foot Locker, according to the Oakland Tribune.

KRON-TV reported that graffiti was being painted on the walls.

A window of a Subway shop has also been shattered, the Daily Californian reported. 

According to eyewitnesses tweeting from the scene, Oakland police are warning the crowd that if they refuse to move, chemical agents may be used. Police had donned their gas masks, according to broadcast reports.

KRON-TV reported that people were looting the Foot Locker and fires were being started in the street.

-- Maria L. LaGanga reporting from Oakland and Rong-Gong Lin II reporting from Los Angeles

A court onlooker disrupted the testimony Friday morning of a former transit police officer who fatally shot an unarmed passenger at an Oakland BART station. The incident led a Los Angeles County Superior court judge to clear the courtroom and temporarily halt the trial.

The officer, 28-year-old Johannes Mehserle, is accused of shooting Oscar J. Grant III in the back on New Year's Day 2009. The case drew extensive media coverage in the Bay Area and was moved to Los Angeles. Many have drawn comparisons to the 1992 trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating Rodney G. King. Mehserle is white; Grant was black.

On Friday morning, Mehserle continued his testimony and tearfully recalled the night's events.

"I thought it was my Taser," Mehserle said, crying. "I didn't think I had my gun."

[Updated at 10:30 a.m.: In further testimony, Mehserle said, "I remember the pop wasn't very loud."

He said he thought his Taser had malfunctioned.

"I remember looking at my right hand and seeing my gun in my hand," he said. "I didn’t know what to think. It shouldn't have been there."

He said he then looked down at Grant, whom he was standing over.

"Mr. Grant said, 'You shot me,'" Mehserle said.

Mehserle then began sobbing, and Grant's mother walked out of the courtroom.]

Mehserle's emotions prompted a man in the courtroom to shout at him: "You should save those ... tears, dude."

Same-sex marriage supporters waved signs and sound bites flew outside the San Francisco federal courthouse Wednesday as U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker prepared to hear closing arguments in the landmark Proposition 8 case.

Two years ago, the California Supreme Court ruled the state’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the state Constitution. Proposition 8 amended the state Constitution and reinstated the ban.

The state high court later ruled, 6-1, that the measure was valid but upheld the marriages of thousands of same-sex couples who wed before the controversial measure was passed by voters.

A female couple and a male couple filed the federal suit in San Francisco, contending Proposition 8 violated federal constitutional guarantees.

On Wednesday morning, two of the plaintiffs in Perry vs. Schwarzenegger underscored what brought them to court in the first place.

“For Kris and I, this case for us is about how we, as Americans, just want to be treated equally by our government,” said Sandy Stier, referring to her partner of more than a decade, Kris Perry.