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City merchants, maintenance crews and Occupy Oakland protesters picked up scrub brushes and dust pans to clean up what became a violent clash between anarchists and police Wednesday morning that led to 80 arrests.

Police from several Bay Area law enforcement agencies lobbed tear gas at the anarchists after they were pelted with rocks, bottles and a homemade shield, interim Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said Thursday. 

More than 10,000 protesters filled the streets of Oakland Wednesday, marching, chanting, and demanding a better deal for ordinary people as part of a general strike called by the Occupy Oakland movement.

After marching through Downtown Oakland in the afternoon, stopping in front of branches of several large banks to protest, thousands moved toward the Port of Oakland, blocking truck traffic into and out of the area and effectively shutting one of the busiest ports on the U.S. West Coast.

Protesters who have taken over Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall are continuing a week-long occupation, settled into their tent city for a ninth day on Wednesday with no sign that they plan to end the demonstration against government, big banks and corporate America.

Three meals a day are served at a makeshift cafeteria, first aid is provided at a medical booth, and a “media center” has sprung up — providing access to the web for protesters. 

President Obama will return to the Bay Area Sunday to headline two pricey fundraisers and host a Monday morning town hall meeting organized by the social networking website LinkedIn, as part of a West Coast swing to raise cash for his reelection campaign.

A peaceful crowd of demonstrators disrupted the evening commute Monday, leading police through Downtown San Francisco and leading to the roving closures of all four underground BART and MUNI Metro Stations at the height of commute hour.

Thousands of transit patrons experienced delays of hours after a planned 5 p.m. protest at the Civic Center BART Station spilled out to other stations on Market Street, causing closures that lasted upwards of 90 minutes.

An international group of hackers carried out an attack against the Bay Area Rapid Transit District’s online infrastructure Sunday, leaking thousand of user names, addresses, phone numbers and log-in passwords belonging to subscribers of the website myBART.org.

Hackers claiming to be affiliated with the organization “Anonymous” infiltrated the website Sunday morning, replacing images with their main calling card — the mask worn by the main character in the film “V for Vendetta.” The hackers also rewrote text on the website, calling attention to their protest against the transit agency’s controversial decision to sever mobile phone access to prevent a planned protest last week.

(8/14) — 1041 PDT UPDATE — An online group of international hackers said Saturday they would hold a protest against the Bay Area Rapid Transit District’s recent decision to temporarily cut underground subway communications to prevent demonstrators from disrupting train service.

An updated posting from the group made public Saturday night threatened to “remove from the internet the web site of BART located at www.bart.gov for exactly six hours” beginning at 12 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday. The international hacking group also said it would flood the agency’s e-mail inboxes and fax machines to express their dissatisfaction with the decision to suspend mobile voice and wireless communications last Thursday to rail passengers in the San Francisco subway.

Bay Area Rapid Transit District officials found themselves defending a decision to temporarily disable underground wireless communications to mobile phone users in the Downtown San Francisco subway Thursday afternoon to heed off potential protests organized by anti-BART Police groups angry over the fatal officer-involved shooting of a transient at the Civic Center Station.

Civil liberties groups, advocates for free speech, and BART riders likened the maneuver to tactics used by Middle Eastern dictators like Hosni Mubarak, who attempted to stifle citizen uprisings earlier this year by cutting off access to voice, text and internet communications. 

Interim Mayor Ed Lee announced Monday morning he would seek a full term as mayor of San Francisco, officially filing paperwork with the city’s Department of Elections to declare his candidacy for the post, and ending speculation about whether he would join a crowded field of candidates seeking to lead the city.

Lee’s announcement was almost immediately met with criticism from mayoral challengers, who accused Lee of going back on a pledge he made when appointed to the vacant mayoral job seven months ago not to run for a full term.

“Jeopardy” show host Alex Trebek was injured Wednesday morning after he chased after a woman who tried to burglarize his Downtown San Francisco hotel room.

Trebek, who was in the Bay Area to host the National Geographic World Championship event at Google’s Mountain View campus, told reporters that he ruptured his Achilles tendon and fell on the hotel room floor while chasing the burglar. Trebek said he injured his other leg during the fall.