Bay Area Briefs

BART spokesman Linton Johnson said management will consider imposing terms and conditions of employment for its 2,800-plus union workers if an agreement with labor negotiators isn't reached by midnight last night.

However, Johnson said management is still negotiating with union leaders and hopes to reach an agreement by midnight, which he said is management's "internal" deadline for reaching a settlement.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference outside the negotiation site in downtown Oakland, Larry Gerber, chief negotiator for Service Employees International Union Local 1021, said that if management imposed a contract, it would be "like slapping our face and throwing down the gauntlet" and that unions would consider all options, including giving a 72-hour notice of a strike.

However, Gerber said the unions are still at the bargaining table and that "gradual" progress is being made.

Joining Gerber at the news conference, Jesse Hunt, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 3993, said "we remain hopeful we can reach an agreement that is fair to our members and fair to the public."

Gerber said the negotiations will probably continue until late last night, saying "We'll know at midnight if this is done."

SEIU 1021, BART's largest union, represents about 1,400 mechanics, custodians, safety inspectors and clerical employees. ATU 1555, is the transit agency's second-largest union and represents about 900 train operators, station agents and power workers.

Study: Bay Area has

highest wages in nation

The San Francisco Bay Area has the highest wages in the country for the sixth consecutive year, according to a pay comparison report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The National Compensation Survey has studied pay in 77 metropolitan areas since 2004, and with wages 19 percent higher than the national average, the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland area continues to top the list, just as it has every year the data has been released.

The report studies more than 800 detailed occupations and nine general industries, including professional, sales and production.

Although the Bay Area doesn't lead every category, it has particularly high marks in the service and construction industries: 26 and 23 percent above average, respectively.

"San Francisco has an unusually high minimum wage, which probably explains why in particular the service industry is 26 percent higher than the average," said Tony Nunes, an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "That field tends to have a lot of minimum wage jobs."

At $9.79, San Francisco does not have the highest minimum wage in the country -- Santa Fe's is $9.85.

But Nunes said San Francisco's high wages and high cost of living act is in a reciprocal nature, slowly driving each other up.

Couple accused of

submitting phony rebate requests

A Palo Alto husband and wife have been charged in federal court in San Jose with defrauding a computer networking company by submitting more than $80,000 worth of false claims for rebates, federal prosecutors announced yesterday.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello said Sheng Qiang, also known as Becky Qiang, was arrested at her Palo Alto home on July 24.

She was arraigned before a federal magistrate that day and pleaded not guilty to 25 fraud and money laundering counts in a previously sealed grand jury indictment issued on July 15. The indictment was unsealed after her arrest.

Qiang's husband, Yezhou Zhao, also known as Jack Zhao or Jake Chao, is a fugitive and is being sought by federal authorities, Russoniello said.

Qiang and Zhao are accused of submitting 11 false claims totaling more than $80,000 to 3Com Corp., a computer networking equipment maker, between 2003 and 2008 under the company's Trade-Up program.

The program gave customers a 15 percent rebate when they replaced old equipment with new 3Com computer parts.

Pot busts continue in SF's Sunset

San Francisco police on Wednesday continued a series of busts targeting large marijuana-growing operations in the Sunset District, raiding two homes, arresting three people and seizing 1,000 plants, handguns and an assault rifle, a police captain said today.

At about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, officers from the Taraval station raided a home in the 100 block of St. Charles Avenue, located in the Merced Extension Triangle neighborhood, police Capt. Paul Chignell said. Police had obtained a search warrant based on complaints from neighbors and other evidence of a marijuana-growing operation.

Chignell said about 1,000 plants were confiscated along with other items inside the home, as well as evidence electricity had been stolen to power the operation.

The find then led officers to another home in the 2400 block of 17th Avenue, where a fully automatic assault rifle, three handguns, ammunition and ammunition clips were discovered, Chignell said.

Two men and a woman were arrested on marijuana cultivation and weapons charges, as well as for theft of utility services.

One suspect lived in both homes, another lived on Lakeview Avenue and the third is a Concord resident, Chignell said.

The raids came after a man was arrested on marijuana cultivation and sales charges Tuesday for another alleged growing operation in which 346 pot plants were seized.

Chignell said the operation was the 23rd such one in the last six months in the Sunset and Ingleside neighborhoods.

"By those numbers, it's very widespread," Chignell said. "Because there's a lot more operating that we don't know about."