Here's what's happening in the Bay Area, as curated by KALW news:
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NASA TV to Provide Live Feed of Sunday’s Supermoon Eclipse//NASA
"For the first time in more than 30 years, people witnessed a supermoon in combination with a lunar eclipse. Late on Sept. 27, 2015, in the U.S. and much of the world, a total lunar eclipse masked the moon’s larger-than-life face. Sunday’s supermoon eclipse lasted 1 hour and 11 minutes. NASA ran a live stream broadcast from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., with a live feed from the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, Calif. Mitzi Adams, a NASA solar physicist discussed the eclipse and answered questions on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.
"The next supermoon eclipse won’t occur until 2033."
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"Carmel mission vandalized after Junipero Serra’s canonization - SF Gate
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Carmel-Mission-vandalized-after-Junipero-6533431.php
Vandals defaced the grounds of Mission San Carlos in Carmel where the newly canonized Franciscan friar, and founding father of modern California, is buried.
"Four days after Pope Francis proclaimed Junipero Serra a saint, one or more vandals scaled the wall surrounding the cemetery next to the mission and defaced the headstones and statues of Serra and other European settlers buried on the grounds, said Sgt. Luke Powell with the Carmel-by-the-Sea Police Department. A statue of Serra was toppled over with green and white paint poured across the face and chest. A chunk of stone had the words “saint of genocide” scrawled on it. Police were investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Many American Indians and other groups see Serra as a Western European imperialist who killed thousands of indigenous people.
With few immunities to European diseases, native people died by the thousands in California’s missions.
Serra died in 1784 at age 70 after 15 years’ work in California."
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Nudists gather for a nude-in Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011 at the popular plaza at 17th and Castro where the controversy first began to protest a possible ban on nudity proposed by Supervisor Scott Wiener. (AP Photo/San Francisco Chronicle, Paul Chinn)
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Nudists Having Another Nude-In Saturday, Contemplating Another Lawsuit - SFist
http://sfist.com/2015/09/25/nudists_having_another_nude-in_satu.php
A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to prohibit SFPD from interfering with a nude-in on Saturday. Though the department refused to issue a parade permit for the gathering, SF’s local coalition of nudist activists held another nude-in at Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro Saturday afternoon to protest the nudity ban which passed two and a half years ago.
The nudists recently claimed a victory when a federal judge awarded them a $20,000 payment for legal fees.
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Bay Area government leaders reap sweetheart housing deals at taxpayers expense - San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_28882375/bay-area-government-leaders-reap-sweetheart-housing-deals
Amid a Bay Area real estate market famous for its mind-boggling home prices, taxpayers are funding a little-known special perk for a very select group of house hunters: low- and sometimes no-interest loans for top local government employees.
The San Jose Mercury News found that at least 33 government agencies in the Bay Area provide some type of housing aid to their top executives -- with sweeteners, enabled by special IRS regulations, that are virtually unheard of in other parts of the country or the private sector. Four cities -- Walnut Creek, San Bruno, Union City and Morgan Hill -- even have provided housing aid to rank-and-file employees.
In addition, when real estate prices go up, so does the generosity of the housing perks.
Tiburon’s town manager ended up paying only 0.26 percent for the past year on $800,000 she borrowed from the town for a house just outside the municipal limits.
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Internal Affairs: SJPD upgrade to allow immediate access to home surveillance systems - San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/internal-affairs/ci_28883582/internal-affairs-still-no-word-actions-protect-spark
As a result of a suggestion by Mayor Sam Liccardo in his campaign last year, the San Jose Police Department has been assembling a registry of people with home surveillance systems that they're willing to share with investigators. So far, the mayor's office says, 229 systems have been registered.
When the cops are equipped with upgraded laptops -- which is expected within the next few weeks -- they'll be able to access the videos quickly. The idea is that a cop responding to a burglary, say, would be able to draw a boundary around a given area and send emails to registrants, asking to check their video equipment.
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Program to deliver green power to S.F. delayed - SF Gate
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Program-to-deliver-green-power-to-S-F-delayed-6533717.php
A program designed to deliver renewable power to residents as early as next spring has stalled.
CleanPowerSF, which seeks to offer services that are greener than PG&E’s, including a 100 percent renewable energy alternative, was scheduled to start next spring. But the contract approval process and an added business plan will push the start date back by six weeks or more.
The city’s Public Utilities Commission has received 52 bids for one part of the project, which will take time to evaluate, said Barbara Hale, assistant general manager for power. The most competitively priced options top the proposed $10 million cap, which will require new approval from the Board of Supervisors and add at least four weeks before a contract is signed.
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Superheros to greet children as they wash San Francisco hospital windows - KRON
http://kron4.com/2015/09/27/superheros-to-greet-children-as-they-wash-san-francisco-hospital-windows/]
Wonder Woman, Spiderman, Batman and ten other superheroes will descend from the top of a San Francisco hospital on Monday to wash windows and bring some joy to children.
The superheroes will start their descent at 12:45 p.m. from the sixth floor of the University of California at San Francisco’s Benioff Children’s Hospital at 1975 Fourth St, and hope to wave at children as they descend.
The event is part of the hospital’s child life services program, which aims to provide a wealth of services to children beyond medical services, she said.
