Talks About New Port Worker Pact Continue Despite Alleged Lockout Threat

Shipping companies and dockworkers are stepping up their rhetoric as contract talks for workers at 30 West Coast ports, including those in the Bay Area, have dragged into a ninth month.

Robert McElrath, the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents port workers, issued a statement Thursday in which he alleged that the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies, is threatening to shut down West Coast ports, bargaining in the news media and “distorting the facts.”

The PMA said in a statement that it has made a new five-year contract offer to port workers that is “designed to bring contract negotiations to a close after nearly nine months.”

The employer group said its offer “follows three months of severe ILWU slowdowns that have crippled productivity at major West Coast ports.”

PMA President Jim McKenna said in a videotaped statement that “The slowdowns must stop because we’re truly close to gridlock.”

McElrath said, “Intensifying the rhetoric at this stage of bargaining, when we are just a few issues from reaching an agreement, is totally unnecessary and counterproductive.”

McElrath also said that although the PMA claims that ships can’t be unloaded at West Coast sports because docks are too congested due to a lack of dock space, the ILWU has taken photographs that show that “there are acres of asphalt just waiting for the containers on those ships and hundreds of longshore workers ready to unload them.”

The 30 West Coast ports affected by the contract talks handle 25 percent of the value of all the cargo that comes through U.S. ports and cargo from West Coast ports generates revenue equivalent to 12.5 percent of the nation’s annual gross domestic product, McKenna said.

McKenna said full-time ILWU workers already earn an average of $147,000 a year and under the PMA’s contract offer they would see their wages rise about 3 percent per year along with fully-paid health care benefits that would cost employers $35,000 per worker annually.

In addition, the maximum pension for port employees would rise to nearly $89,000 a year, he said.

The workers’ previous contract expired on July 1.

Despite the strong language on both sides, ILWU spokesman Craig Merrilees said contract talks are continuing.

The Port of Oakland, which isn’t involved in the negotiations, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that, “The West Coast waterfront labor impasse needs to be settled quickly.”

Deputy Public Defender Arrested Last Week Says Police Chief Apologized

A San Francisco Public Defender’s Office attorney who was arrested in the city’s Hall of Justice last week while trying to advise a client said Thursday that she received an apology from the police chief and was told the department will not be pursuing charges.

But Deputy Public Defender Jami Tillotson said police Chief Greg Suhr has continued to support the police sergeant who handcuffed and arrested her at about 2 p.m. on Jan. 27 as she tried to advise a client the sergeant was questioning.

“While I appreciate Chief Suhr’s apology, I am concerned that he continues to support Sgt. Brian Stansbury’s actions,” Tillotson said in a statement. “My client, a young African American man, was left without the benefit of counsel. The right to counsel is not a formality. It is a shield that protects ordinary people against intimidation, bullying and overreach by law enforcement.”

She filed a complaint Thursday with the city’s Office of Citizen Complaints, which investigates complaints against San Francisco police officers, according to the public defender’s office.

Public Defender Jeff Adachi expressed outrage after Tillotson’s arrest, releasing video of the incident and calling on the department to drop the charges.

Videos of the incident shot by other attorneys in the Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant St. show Tillotson attempting to offer counsel to a man as a plainclothes police officer, identified as Stansbury, tried to question him and another man in the courthouse hallway.

Tillotson repeatedly told Stansbury, “I am representing my client here” and Stansbury told her if she did not step aside as he tried to take the men’s photographs, she would be arrested for resisting arrest.

She said, “Please do” and was immediately handcuffed. She said last week she was held in the Police Department’s Southern Station for about an hour after her arrest.

Tillotson is not the first city official to accuse Stansbury of misconduct. Stansbury is among the San Francisco police officers named in a pending lawsuit filed by a fellow city police officer who claims he was racially profiled during a traffic stop and then choked and tackled to the ground in May 2013.

Yee Pleads Not Guilty To Revised Indictment With New Charges

Former state Sen. Leland Yee pleaded not guilty in federal court in San Francisco Thursday to a revised indictment that adds two money-laundering conspiracy counts to existing charges of corruption and plotting to smuggle weapons from the Philippines.

Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, is due to go on trial along with three other men in the court of U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in June.

Jury selection will begin on June 1 and the trial itself on June 22.

He entered his not-guilty plea to the revised charges during a brief arraignment Thursday morning before U.S. Magistrate Joseph Spero.

The new 95-page indictment was returned by a federal grand jury on Jan. 29 and is the third issued in the case since last spring.

It levels a total of 230 charges against Yee and 27 other defendants, including Chinatown association leader Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.

Chow and a number of the other defendants face organized crime charges, in which Yee is not named. Because of the number of defendants and complexity of the case, Breyer is planning to hold at least two separate trials.

Yee, 66, now faces a total of 13 counts, including the two new money-laundering conspiracy charges.

In one alleged conspiracy, Yee and political consultant Keith Jackson are accused of plotting to launder alleged political bribery proceeds through Yee’s campaign fund.

The campaign fund was for Yee’s bid to become secretary of state. He withdrew his candidacy after being arrested on corruption charges in March. Yee was also suspended from the state Senate and his term in office has since ended.

The indictment alleges that in July 2013, three campaign contribution checks totaling $12,600 were deposited into Yee’s campaign account and that Jackson repaid the three check writers in cash.

The cash was allegedly tied in part to $11,000 in cash allegedly given to Yee and Jackson in June 2013 by an undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman who wanted political favors, according to the indictment.

In the second alleged scheme, Yee and Jackson are accused of conspiring to use the campaign fund in March 2014 to launder money received for an alleged plot to sell weapons from the Philippines to another undercover agent who was posing as a Mafia member.

The 11 previous counts against Yee, which are carried over in the new indictment, include conspiring to racketeer, conspiring to obtain bribes, conspiring to deprive citizens of his honest services, using telephone and text messages in the alleged honest-services fraud, and conspiring to traffic in firearms.

Jackson, a former San Francisco school board president, is accused in those same counts.

Arrest Made In Dollar Store Sexual Assault On 8-Year-Old

A suspect arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl at a dollar store in unincorporated Alameda County on Sunday is a high-risk sex offender who had recently been released from prison after serving time for a similar offense, sheriff’s officials said Thursday.

Carlyle Villazon, 33, was arrested in Union City at 3:11 p.m. on Wednesday in connection with the incident at the 99 Cents Only store at 2088 Mission Boulevard in Cherryland, an unincorporated community between San Leandro and Hayward.

Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said authorities were able to track down Villazon and link him to the alleged sexual assault because he was wearing a monitoring device on his ankle due to his status as a high-risk sex offender.

Kelly said Villazon was recently released from state prison after serving time for his conviction for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl Walmart store at 1919 Davis St. in San Leandro on Dec. 10, 2010.

Authorities said that in the incident at the 99 Cents Only store in Cherryland on Sunday the girl was in the toy aisle around 1:45 p.m. when the suspect grabbed her and put his hand in her pants. The suspect then ran from the store, they said.

Kelly said sheriff’s investigators will present the case to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for charging on Friday morning and Villazon may be arraigned later in the day.

“We will be asking for a maximum sentence,” Kelly said.

San Leandro police said that in the 2010 incident the 8-year-old victim was shopping with her family when she told her mother that her younger brother had disappeared and that she would go find him.

A short time later, the girl walked back to her mother in tears and told her that a man had touched her inappropriately. The girl stuck her hand down her pants to demonstrate what the man had done to her, police said.

Police said Villazon ultimately was chased down by two good Samaritans at the store who pinned him down to the ground until officers arrived and arrested him.

San Leandro police said at that time that Villazon wasn’t a registered sex offender but he had a prior arrest history for traffic violations and making terrorist threats.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Meets With Community Members In Hunters Point

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spent the afternoon at the Willie Mays Boys & Girls Club in San Francisco’s Hunters Point neighborhood Thursday meeting with students, police academy recruits, police officers and city officials to discuss ways to build trust between law enforcement and the public.

Holder’s arrival in San Francisco this afternoon followed a community roundtable discussion on improving police-community relations in Oakland Thursday morning with city officials, activists and community and business leaders.

Upon arriving at the Boys & Girls Club in Hunters Point, Holder sat down with roughly two-dozen community members to talk about issues in their community and possible solutions.

Holder said he hoped all those attending the discussion at the clubhouse, which included a diverse group of students and police cadets as well as San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Melinda Haag, and San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr, among others, would take this opportunity to speak their minds.

Holder said he decided to come to the clubhouse because it is a place where police cadets and youngsters in the community are already building a sense of trust by working and playing together. He said he hopes San Francisco, and the country, will be able to expand on those efforts.

“We’ve seen a lot of instances in our country over the last few months that have given us great concern about police involved shootings,” Holder said today.

After visiting five other major cities in the United States, Holder held a final discussion in Oakland on improving police-community relations in an effort to share best policing practices and find ways to build trust between communities and law enforcement and increase the integrity of the justice system.

The meetings were part of the Obama Administration’s response to nationwide protests over police killings of unarmed black men, most notably in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York. Holder said it is the first time a president has taken on reforms in local law enforcement since the Johnson Administration.

The reforms the Obama Administration is working on include re-examining the distribution of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies and making sure it’s appropriate to their needs, encouraging the use of body-worn cameras on officers and making racial profiling reforms to federal law enforcement agencies and hoping local agencies follow suit, Holder said.

President Obama Planning Trip To Bay Area Next Week

President Barack Obama is planning a trip to the Bay Area next week as he prepares to push for changes in cybersecurity policy, Democratic National Committee officials said.

The president is scheduled to attend a fundraiser at a San Francisco residence on Feb. 13.

The White House has also convened a Cybersecurity Summit at Stanford University that day with top policymakers, industry leaders and academics.

The summit will address topics such as increasing public-private partnerships and cybersecurity information sharing, creating and promoting improved cybersecurity practices and technologies and improving adoption and use of more secure payment technologies, according to the White House.

The president has made cybersecurity a top issue following a massive hacking breach at Sony late last year. Federal investigators have implicated the government of North Korea in the attack, raising concerns about international hacking threats.

Emaciated Sea Lion Pups Found In Increasing Numbers

More than 100 sea lion pups have turned up emaciated on a 600-mile stretch of California beaches this birthing season and marine mammal researchers don’t know why.

Researchers at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito said the nonprofit has responded to 120 pups in the first five or six weeks of 2015. Last year the center didn’t treat 100 pups until April.

“This is very alarming,” said the center’s spokeswoman Yvette Koth.

The birthing season started about seven months ago, and the pups are usually still nursing with their mothers on the Channel Islands until they’re 11 months old, said the director of the center’s veterinary science department Dr. Shawn Johnson.

The mothers may be abandoning their pups as they search for food, according to the researchers. The fish the seals eat may be feeding farther from the islands than in the past, causing mother seals may be going after the fish but not returning to their pups on the islands Koth said.

The other possibility is that the pups are suffering from an unidentified disease, Koth said.

Perhaps more alarming is that this is the third year the center has seen a larger than normal number pups needing help and the number seems to be growing each year, according to Johnson.

Last year 711 pups needed treatment. In 2013, 304 needed help.

The pups are turning up on beaches at about half the weight they should be. Johnson said the pups coming to the center are about 15 or 16 pounds when they should weigh 35 or 40 pounds or more.

Johnson called the pups “extremely emaciated and thin.”

The Marine Mammal Center is the world’s largest marine mammal hospital in the world. It serves 600 miles of the California coastline from Ft. Bragg in Mendocino County south to Santa Barbara.

Residents can help the center save the pups in two ways. Donations to the center will help it feed the pups, which are released into the wild once they are at a healthy weight. Reporting an emaciated pup to the center is the second way.

City To Install $2 Million Wireless System Near Levi’s Stadium In Time For Super Bowl 50

The city of Santa Clara’s electrical utility announced Thursday it would partner with a tech company to install a $2 million wireless system near Levi’s Stadium to alleviate phone and data congestion before the stadium hosts the 2016 Super Bowl.

Silicon Valley Power and Walnut Creek-based DAS Group Professionals plan to mount 40 antennas inside power poles in the area of the stadium, California’s Great America theme park and the Santa Clara Convention Center, utility spokesman Larry Owens said.

The antennas, when activated, would permit customers of cellular phone carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint to latch onto the system to complete calls and download data from their cellular phones, Owens said.

“It’s like adding new lanes to a cellphone highway out there,” Owens said. “It takes some of the traffic off of the cellphone providers.”

The carriers would pay fees to Silicon Valley Power to offer the service to their customers in crowded places in Santa Clara where some have experienced incomplete or dropped calls and limited Internet data connections due to high demand, he said.

“This eliminates the need for all (carriers) to have their own equipment there,” Owens said. “It helps them improve service to their customers.”

From the fees, the city-run utility expects to pay off the system’s $2 million cost and start turning a profit within two to three years, he said.

The utility and the company, known as DGP, will begin placing radios and antennas for the wireless system inside power poles in the area of Tasman Drive and Great America Parkway by the middle of the year, Owens said

A building needed to house servers, connected by fiber optic cables, would be completed by the end of the year and in time to handle the neighborhood’s cell traffic when Levi’s Stadium hosts the NFL national championship Super Bowl 50 on Feb. 7, 2016, he said.

“The Super Bowl is a clear goal but the area needs this enhancement regardless,” Owens said.

Alleged Sexual Battery Reported At SFSU

A female victim reported a sexual battery early Thursday morning on the campus of San Francisco State University, university officials said.

The victim called police at 12:42 a.m. to report that a male suspect grabbed her on a campus walkway between Burk Hall and the Student Health Center and pulled her into the bushes.

The suspect then pressed a sharp object into the victim’s side, lifted her skirt, and grabbed her breast and groin for more than a minute. When the victim began to cry, the suspect told her to “shut up,” then fled in an unknown direction, according to university officials.

The victim said she saw the suspect at the metal tables by the exterior restaurants at the Cesar Chavez Student Center before the incident, according to university officials. He allegedly followed her from the student center before the alleged attack.

University officials are describing the suspect as a man in his late 20s who is 5 feet 7 inches tall with a medium build. He was wearing a gray hoodie-style sweatshirt and blue jeans.

Data from the university’s 2014 campus security and fire safety report show that one sexual battery took place on campus in 2011 and another in 2013. According to the same report, two rapes occurred on campus in 2011 and four occurred in 2013.

The prevalence of sexual offenses on university campuses has become a nationwide issue. SFSU vice president of student affairs and enrollment management Luoluo Hong said the university has ramped up its efforts to educate students, staff and faculty about sexual offenses and prevent them.

The university will be conducting a survey of current students during the spring 2015 term about the incidence and prevalence of sexual violence. Hong said she expects the university to have the survey results by the end of the academic year.

Residents Of Troubled Hacienda Housing Complex To Be Given Vouchers To Move Out

Residents living in Richmond’s Hacienda public housing complex will soon be receiving Section 8 vouchers and will be able to move out, city officials said Thursday.

The public housing complex, operated by the Richmond Housing Authority, came under fire last year after a series of stories produced by the Center for Investigative Reporting, in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED, detailed allegations ranging from squalid living conditions to financial mismanagement.

The Richmond City Council in March approved a motion to relocate all of the tenants from the building with Section 8 housing vouchers provided by the federal government. The vouchers allow residents to rent on the private market.

Since then, Richmond Mayor Tom Butt said the city has worked with U.S. Housing and Urban Development staff to expedite its “Inventory Removal Application” — basically, an application to remove residents from a housing development either for renovations or demolition.

After Butt was elected mayor in November, he said he made it one of his “highest priorities” to ensure that residents secured the housing vouchers.

Butt said the issue had become a “political football” in Richmond and an object of criticism by “people who are prone to look for ways to criticize the city.”

“It was a festering sore,” Butt said, adding he thought it “would be good to move on to something more important.”

Butt has long contested the allegations in the CIR series and wrote a lengthy rebuttal of the news articles.

However, public officials have recognized the need for improvement. Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, who represents Richmond in the House of Representatives, said residents of Hacienda were in “dire need of safe and improved living conditions.”

The RHA will be helping residents with costs associated with packing, moving, and security deposits and is opening a relocation office within the housing complex to help tenants relocate.

Jury Finds San Francisco Man Guilty Of Sexually Assaulting 5 Undocumented Male Immigrants

A San Francisco Superior court jury found a San Francisco man guilty Wednesday of targeting five undocumented male immigrants and sexually assaulting them while pretending to be a law enforcement officer between 2008 and 2014, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.

Jeffrey Bugai, 37, is now facing life in prison after being found guilty by the 12-person jury of 17 felony charges, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.

Evidence presented during the course of the trial showed that Bugai, who was a licensed security guard, lured male victims to his home to sexually assault them, according to the district attorney’s Office.

The members of the jury found Bugai guilty of multiple counts of sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, sodomy, assault, sexual battery, forcible oral copulation, attempted forcible oral copulation, false imprisonment, extortion, and unlawfully administering a drug.

Some of the crimes Bugai carried out against his victims were committed with the use of a handgun, while in other instances Bugai drugged his victims in order to make them comply with his demands, according to the district attorney’s office.

Bugai was also found guilty of extorting money from one of his victims.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said the victims in this case were initially afraid to come forward and to cooperate with authorities because of their immigration status.

“The facts of this case highlight why we desperately need immigration reform,” Gascon said in a statement released today.

“Had some of the undocumented victims come forward earlier, authorities could have intervened and prevented others from being victimized by this predator,” he said.

Deputy Public Defender Phoenix Streets, who defended Bugai, said he will file an appeal in the case. Streets said that among other issues with the case the stories the victims told to police and to the jury were different.

Streets said experts for both the defense and prosecution agreed that the testimony of the drugged victims was false.

“We had a lot to work with, but apparently not enough,” Streets said.

Bugai faces possible life imprisonment and will be sentenced on March 6.

Little League President Arrested On Suspicion Of Embezzling $20,000

Police arrested the former president of the Pleasanton American Little League today on suspicion of embezzling more than $20,000 during his presidency.

Jeremy Cardera, a 35-year-old Pleasanton resident, was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and passing a “non-sufficient funds” check. In total, he’s believed to have taken $20,708.

Sgt. Kurt Schlehuber, the investigating officer, said that money probably came from the families of little league players.

“It comes from fundraisers and fees that it takes to have your child play little league,” Schlehuber said.

Proceeds from snack sales during the games may have also been part of that sum, according to Schlehuber.

When Cardera was approached in December regarding a number of suspicious transactions involving the Little League account, he quickly resigned his position as president, police said.

Soon afterward he allegedly attempted to repay the Little League by writing a personal check. That check bounced, however, according to police.

Police said that in most cases the amount of money withdrawn from Little League accounts matched the amount of money deposited to Cardera’s accounts, and those transactions took place on the same days.

Cardera allegedly used some of that money to pay for a family vacation to Southern California, which was documented by a lengthy paper trail including bank statements, hotel reservations and social media posts, according to police.

New Program Offers Rewards To Turn In Anyone Who Dumps Illegally

This City of Oakland on Thursday announced the launch of a new rewards program for witnesses who report illegal dumping, offering $100 or more if the report leads to a successful citation.

If the city collects civil penalties from the responsible party, witnesses will be eligible for half of that money or $100, whichever is greater. In the most egregious cases, penalties can be as much as $1,000 for each day the illegally dumped materials remain in place.

Oakland officials said in a 1 p.m. news conference that illegal dumping costs the city $5.5 million per year while adversely impacting property values and creating an environment of “blight and lawlessness” that can contribute to more serious violent crime, officials said.

“Illegal dumping detracts from the beauty of our city and negatively impacts the quality of life for residents whose neighborhoods are being turned into nasty dumping grounds,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said in a statement.

Officials said that reports should include the type and amount of debris being dumped, as well as the location. The most important information is typically the license plate numbers of any vehicles used in the act.
Photos and videos are also helpful, but only when they can be obtained safely.

Anonymous tips will not qualify for a reward, and witnesses must provide a signed statement about the incident. If the report leads to hearings or judicial processes, witnesses will have to testify.

For more information about the program and eligibility requirements for a reward, go to www.oaklandpw.com.

City Officials Call For Help To House Recent Fire Victims

Following three recent major fires in San Francisco that claimed the life of one man, injured others and left roughly 100 people homeless, residents and city officials gathered Thursday to request the public’s help in housing those displaced and to introduce legislation aimed at helping victims and preventing future fires.

The three separate fires, which occurred on Jan. 28 in the Mission District, on Jan. 29 in the Tenderloin and on Saturday in Alamo Square, are not considered suspicious in nature but caused more than $11.5 million in estimated damage, according to San Francisco fire spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge.

San Francisco Supervisors Jane Kim and David Campos stood on the steps outside City Hall Thursday with dozens of residents, many with young children, who lost everything they owned in the fires and who are now living out of shelters.

“Anyone who has properties that can be made available to these families so that they can have permanent housing, we need your help,” Campos said Thursday.

He said the city is looking for six studios, two one-bedroom apartments, seven two-bedroom apartments and four three-bedroom apartments to house displaced people, mostly victims of the Mission District fire who are now living out of a shelter at 1156 Valencia St.

Campos said these individuals and families have the added stress of trying to find permanent housing amid a housing crisis in the city.

Charley Goss, government and community affairs manager at the San Francisco Apartment Association, said that thanks to the Good Samaritan Ordinance in San Francisco that went into effect in 2011, a Good Samaritan landlord has the opportunity to come forward and help these families.

Goss said the Good Samaritan Ordinance is an exemption from the city’s rental ordinance that allows landlords to enter into a written agreement to house a displaced tenant following an emergency. The landlord must agree to charge the displaced persons a below-market rent, comparable to the rent at their former home, for up to two years.

Legislation Introduced To Create National Monument In Seven Northern California Counties

Three California members of the U.S. Congress have introduced legislation to protect more than 350,000 acres in seven counties as the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.

The legislation by U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Congressman Mike Thompson would include land in Napa, Solano, Mendocino, Lake, Glenn, Colusa and Yolo counties and promote tourism and outdoor recreation across the region.

The new national monument would encompass more than 100 miles of land from in Putah Creek below Lake Berryessa to the peak of Snow Mountain, the southernmost peak in the North Coast Range and the highest peak on the border of Lake and Colusa counties.

The legislation would unite all the publicly-owned land within the area under one management plan and help federal agencies protect wildlife, restore habitat, improve water quality, expand recreational opportunities and prevent wildfires.

“The Berryessa Snow Mountain region is one of California’s greatest natural treasures,” Boxer said. “This bill will expand opportunities for outdoor recreation and help preserve this region’s magnificent vistas and diverse wildlife for current and future generations.”

Feinstein said the monument will preserve the environment and support local communities.

“By providing permanent protections and coordinated federal management, this legislation will help ensure one of California’s most beautiful and biologically diverse regions continues to thrive,” Feinstein said.

Thompson said the new monument will boost tourism and protect important species.

“By designating the region as a national monument, we can unite all federal lands under one management plan and preserve this national treasure for generations to come,” Thompson said.

The bill also would create a public advisory committee so local residents, outdoor enthusiasts and business owners can preserve and promote the area’s wildlife, rivers, ridges, canyons, creeks and forests.

The area is home to bald and golden eagles, black bear and tule elk. It offers hiking, rafting, camping, rafting and horseback riding.

Boxer urged President Obama in December to use his executive authority to designate the area a national monument. Boxer and Thomas introduced the bill in both the 112th and 113th Congress.

Man Struck By Vehicle While Chasing Dog Dies In Hospital

A 54-year-old man struck by a vehicle while he tried to retrieve his dog Saturday in the Alviso area of North San Jose died Wednesday at a hospital, according to police.

Jesus Mora, of San Jose, was walking his dog in the area of North First and Liberty streets at 8:14 a.m. Saturday when the animal darted into the street, San Jose police spokeswoman Sgt. Heather Randol said.

When Mora entered the street, an oncoming vehicle crashed into him. He was taken to a hospital and succumbed to his injuries there at 3:21 p.m. Wednesday.

The driver remained at the scene of the crash and cooperated with officers of the department’s traffic investigations unit. Police determined that the driver had been traveling at a low rate of speed when Mora was struck.

Police said they did not find any evidence that alcohol or drug use contributed to the crash and the driver was not arrested.

Mora’s death was the fifth involving a pedestrian and vehicle so far this year in San Jose, according to police.

Saratoga Girl Wins National Geographic International Photo Contest

A Saratoga girl has won the grand prize in a National Geographic Society international photography contest for kids for her close-up shot of a gecko, officials announced this week.

Grace Chung, 13, has won a five-day, four-night trip to Washington, D.C., a tour of National Geographic headquarters, and a National Geographic Costa Rica Family Adventure.

Every national edition of National Geographic held its own contest and then submitted its first-place images in four categories for the international photo contest.

Chun’s photo of a gecko licking its own eyeball also took first place in the United States competition, as well as first place in the category “Amazing Animals.” The other categories were “Dare to Explore,” “Weird but True,” and “Wild Vacation.”

A total of 16,752 photos were submitted to the competition from countries around the world.

Data For 80 Million Anthem Customers, Employees Stolen; State Agencies Investigating

State agencies are investigating a data breach affecting the personal information of as many as 80 million Anthem customers and employees and offering assistance for those affected.

In a letter to the health insurance company’s customers, Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish said a sophisticated cyber attack allowed hackers to gain access to personal information including names, birthdays, medical ID numbers, social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses, employment information and income data.

The data did not include credit card or medical information, Swedish said. It also included information from Anthem employees, including Swedish’s own personal information, he said.

The company contacted the FBI to investigate the breach and hired cybersecurity firm Mandiant to evaluate its systems, Swedish said.

It is contacting anyone affected by the breach as staff combs through records and has offered to provide credit monitoring and identity protection services free of charge for anyone whose data was stolen, Swedish said.

In addition, California Attorney General Kamala Harris recommended consumers take steps to protect themselves, such as contacting credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on social security numbers and prevent new credit accounts being opened, reviewing credit reports for irregularities, considering a security freeze on credit files, and being wary of phone calls from people claiming to be Anthem employees.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Insurance has opened its own investigation. The state agency said Anthem notified insurance Commissioner Dave Jones of the breach Wednesday night.

“Health insurers have not only consumers’ financial information but also sensitive medical information,” Jones said in statement. “Although early reports from Anthem indicate that medical information was not breached, the information reportedly taken does open the door to identity theft and fraud against tens of millions of consumers.”

Weather Forecast For The San Francisco Bay Area

It will be windy today with highs in the lower 60s. There is a chance of rain. Winds will be from the south and could reach 30 to 45 mph. A wind advisory went into effect at 4 a.m. and will remain in effect until 4 a.m. Saturday.

There is a chance of rain and a slight chance of thunderstorms tonight. Lows could dip into the upper 50s. Winds out of the south could reach 20 to 30 mph with gusts around 45 mph.

Saturday will be cloudy, with a chance of showers expected. Highs will be in the lower to mid-60s and south winds could reach 10 to 20 mph.