Beginning in 2010, BART will offer free $50 tickets to active duty  military personnel who are in the Bay Area on leave from the wars in Iraq or  Afghanistan. BART is the first major transportation agency in the nation to  offer free tickets to members of the military on leave from fighting in  Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq or Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan,  according to agency officials.

A San Francisco defense attorney's private investigator has been arrested for witness intimidation for allegedly telling a shooting  victim and a lead prosecution witness in his attacker's case last month that  he would be arrested if he showed up to court to testify.

Fees for University of California students will be rising over the next two years.  The U.C. Board of Regents voted to approve a finance committee report calling for the fee increases despite loud protests from thousands of U.C. students across the state. The vote to approve the fee increase came after regents defeated a proposal to eliminate the hikes for graduate students.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is asking the heads of all city  departments to trim their budgets by 20 percent, and prepare to cut an  additional 10 percent, after his office projected a $522.2 million general  fund deficit for the coming fiscal year. The news from the mayor's budget office means potentially severe  cutbacks to services, as well as layoffs, though Newsom today pledged to  protect public safety.

Caltrain will operate on a Sunday schedule on Thanksgiving and run  a modified Saturday schedule the day after, traditionally one of the busiest  shopping days of the year. On Thanksgiving, Caltrain will run 28 trains between San Francisco  and San Jose, with shuttle service to the Tamien station in San Jose, agency  spokeswoman Christine Dunn said. Caltrains will not operate south of San Jose on Thanksgiving, she  said.

Talk about a freak - Tim Lincecum needed just 15 wins to bag another NL Cy Young Award. Yup, throw out those old baseball cards. Wins and losses don't mean much anymore when it comes time for voters to pick baseball's best pitchers. It's all about WHIP, FIP, BABIP and other lines of alphabet soup.

Students, faculty and staff at City College of San Francisco  participated in a lunchtime rally Wednesday, protesting ongoing cuts to classes,  including major reductions in summer school classes. Administrators and organizers estimated about 200 people turned  out for the noon rally at Conlan Hall at the Ocean Beach campus.

State inspectors say an oil spill that sent hundreds of gallons of bunker oil into San Francisco Bay was caused by a fuel tank that overflowed during a morning refueling stop. In investigating the Oct. 30 spill from the Dubai Star, officials with the California Office of Spill Prevention also determined that crew members didn't notice the tank was overflowing until the oil had already leaked into the bay.

A federal lawyer who was prevented from enrolling his same-sex spouse in his government-sponsored health plan must be reimbursed the cost of outside insurance and other medical expenses, a California judge ruled Tuesday. Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt said Brad Levenson, a public defender in Los Angeles, is entitled to the money because the Office of Personnel Management refused to authorize health coverage for Levenson's husband of 16 months.

The entrances to U.C. Santa Cruz are back open after hundreds of students and staff members blocked the roadways leading to the campus as part of a series of  protests against proposed tuition and fee hikes. KRON 4's Rob Fladeboe says about 300 picketers blocked both primary entrances to the campuses. Police monitored the protests but no arrests were made. .