Dolores Park, San Francisco

From the California Beat photography collection, Bay Area Snapshots is an occasional glimpse at daily life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Occupy the Farm protesters have been given a May 12 deadline to vacate the 10-acre property by UC Berkeley officials. (CALIFORNIA BEAT PHOTO)

Occupy protesters who have taken over a vacant plot of land in Albany owned by the University of California have been given a 10 a.m. Saturday deadline to disband their encampment and leave the property, university officials said Friday.

In exchange, the university said it would drop criminal prosecution it had been seeking against some of the protesters and set aside part of the land for urban agriculture.

The university asked protesters to take part in a Saturday morning meeting to discuss the future of Gill Tract, a vacant parcel of land located at Marin and San Pablo Aves. in Albany and used by UC Berkeley’s agricultural researchers who warned the occupation was impeding on their work.

“If they refuse to depart, we will also take the unilateral steps necessary to protect the academic freedom of our faculty to pursue their interests without interference,” read a letter signed by UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellors George Breslauer and John Wilton. “The research work must begin in a very few days and our commitment to act in its support is firm and non-negotiable.”

The university offered protesters two seats at a discussion scheduled for Saturday with UC faculty and students, the City of Albany, and residents of the nearby University Village neighborhood on the future of the tract.

This week, UC Police cut off access to the 10-acre property by erecting barriers and fences at its entrances. Private security guards were also hired to monitor the land.

When asked about whether they would accept the University’s offer Friday afternoon, protesters remained skeptical about the Saturday meeting and vowed to continue the occupation.

The university filed a May 9 lawsuit against 14 of the protesters for trespassing and public nuisance violations in an attempt to remove them from the property.

Protesters began their “Occupy the Farm” demonstration on April 22 when they declared the site their headquarters for a movement against agribusinesses and advocated the land be turned into a community garden.

“We urge the occupiers to take ”yes” for an answer, leave our property, allow the research to commence and have a seat at the table,” the UC letter read. “We are moving on and can only hope they will quickly decide to choose collaboration over confrontation.”

Contact the Beat at news@californiabeat.org. 

Train service will begin at 5 a.m. from most BART stations to bring riders into downtown San Francisco for the race’s new 7 a.m. starting time. San Francisco-bound trains will operate at 20-minute intervals from Richmond, Pittsburg/ Bay Point, Dublin-Pleasanton, Richmond and Peninsula stations. 

BART will operate longer trains in anticipation of tens of thousands of race participants using transit to reach the 101st running of the eclectic San Francisco tradition.

San Francisco MUNI will also offer special post-race shuttle bus service leaving from stops located near the race finish line and in Golden Gate Park to bring riders back downtown later in the day.

The traditional starting line for the race is located at Howard and Spear Sts.

A full schedule of BART trains offering special pre-race service can be found here. (.pdf file)

Contact the Beat at news@californiabeat.org.

President Barack Obama waves as he deplanes Air Force One. (Andrew Leonard / CALIFORNIA BEAT)

(5/9) — 1255 PDT — WASHINGTON — In a television interview with ABC News, President Obama said he believes same-sex couples should be able to get married, becoming the first sitting American President to support gay marriage.

The historic announcement reversed Obama’s long-standing support of civil unions — but not marriage — for same-sex couples.

“I’ve always believed gay and lesbian Americans should be treated equally,” he told ABC News interviewer Robin Roberts. “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

Excerpts of the interview were published online  by the network Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s interesting, some of this is also generational,” Obama said in the interview. “You know when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same sex equality or, you know, sexual orientation that they believe in equality.”

Obama said he believes states should be able to individually decide whether to legalize same-sex marriage. His position places the President firmly against Republican Presidential rival Mitt Romney’s stance on the controversial social issue.

Romney, the presumptive Presidential nominee for the GOP, said he is against extending marriage to same-sex couples and supports a U.S. Constitutional amendment banning the practice.

The California Beat Capitol Hill news service contributed reporting to this story. Contact the Beat at news@californiabeat.org.

The student jumped from a sixth floor balcony of Towle Hall, a high-rise building that is part of the Unit 2 student housing complex at the university, UC Police said.

The Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau identified the man as Henry Treadway, 20, from El Cerrito.

Officers were called to the dormitory at 10 p.m. after they received 911 calls reporting a Treadway’s body lying in the courtyard.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Friends who knew the Treadway said he was a resident of Towle Hall and a Cal sophomore.

Fellow students have planned a 10 p.m. vigil on Friday at Cal’s Sproul Plaza in memory of Treadway.

Contact the Beat at news@californiabeat.org. 

Oakland, Calif.

From the California Beat photography collection, Bay Area Snapshots is an occasional glimpse at daily life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Police said two police officers on patrol on the 1900 block of 90th Avenue when they confronted a group of three suspects. One of them, believed to have been carrying a concealed weapon, ran from officers, police said.

Police chased the man and encountered him near 92nd and Birch St. where the suspect began firing a gun at pursuing officers. Police fired back, striking the suspect. The man was transported to Highland Hospital where he died.

Police have not released the suspect’s identity.

One officer was injured in the confrontation after being shot in the leg and was also taken to Highland Hospital for treatment for non-life threatening injuries. Police said it was unclear whether the suspect shot the unidentified officer, or if the injury was caused by an accidental discharge of the officer’s gun during the chase.

The Alameda County District’s Attorney has opened an investigation into the shooting.

Contact the Beat at news@californiabeat.org. 

A full moon is spotted over the San Francisco Bay Area on May 5. (CALIFORNIA BEAT PHOTO)

The biggest and brightest full moon of 2012 is being spotted over most of the San Francisco Bay Area Saturday night, as it passes 15,300 miles closer to Earth than average.

For earthlings, the sight of the “supermoon” will be 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than typical full moons, astronomers estimate. 

The distance between Saturday’s supermoon and Earth is 221,802 miles. A side-effect of the perigee full moon, its astronomical name, is higher tides caused by gravity when the moon and the sun line up.

Contact the Beat at news@californiabeat.org. 

President Barack Obama waves as he deplanes Air Force One. (Andrew Leonard / CALIFORNIA BEAT)

Want to see the President speak during his latest fundraising swing through the Bay Area? Be prepared to pay up.

President Barack Obama will attend three Silicon Valley events in support of his 2012 re-election bid and the Democratic Party on May 23, including a Redwood City rally expected to draw hundreds of supporters, the Political Beat has learned.

The President will speak at a 6 p.m. rally at Redwood City’s 1,348-seat Fox Theater. Tickets for the event start at $250 per person; seats closer to the stage are priced at $1,000, and for $7,500, guests can be photographed with the President backstage.

Have more money to give? Obama’s campaign has events for you as well.

Obama will speak at a Asian-American/Pacific Islander round-table at the Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto beginning at 4:30 p.m.

The President will then attend a 5:30 p.m. dinner at the Atherton home of Lisa and Doug Goldman. Goldman is the son of Levi Strauss heirs Richard and Rhoda Goldman.

Tickets for both events are priced at $35,800 per person, with $5,000 going toward the President’s re-election campaign and the rest going to the Democratic National Committee.

Combined, the events are expected to raise several million dollars for President Obama and Democratic election campaigns.

The stop is the latest Bay Area fundraising swing for Obama, who enjoys high approval ratings in the heavily Democratic region and can draw on the pocketbooks of the area’s wealthy, progressive-minded donors. His last visit on Feb. 16 included a $35,800 per person dinner at the San Francisco home of novelist Robert Mailer Anderson and a campaign rally at the Masonic Auditorium on Nob Hill.

The Beat News Service contributed reporting. Contact Beat Political Director Steven Luo at sluo@californiabeat.org.

(Courtesy SF Police)

San Francisco Police arrested two people and seized a cache of firearms after a nighttime raid on a Portola District house Thursday night.

A police SWAT team arrested San Francisco residents Guillermo Jimenez, 23, and Robert Nizuk, 56, at a home the 700 block of Dartmouth Avenue at 10:30 p.m. in connection with “a violent gang incident,” authorities said. Both men were taken into custody without incident. 

Robert Nizuk (Courtesy SF Police)

Guillermo Jimenez (Courtesy SF Police)

Jimenez and Nizuk were booked into San Francisco County Jail on felony firearm possession charges. Police seized five guns inside the house, including a shotgun.

Police said the arrests were the result of an on-going investigation by the department’s Gang Task Force in conjunction with the FBI.

Contact the Beat at news@californiabeat.org.