Pearl Street elevator opens

A gleaming stainless steel elevator was scheduled to go into operation today at the Pearl Street garage next to Mervyn’s and Napa Town Center.

The city of Napa paid $400,000 to replace a 20-year-old elevator damaged by corrosive rain and vandals. Money from downtown parking tickets and $100,000 from the city’s redevelopment agency paid for it.

The elevator will operate 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, he said.

Andrews and Thornley Construction Inc. of Napa was the general contractor.

Elevators in the city’s two other garages also need replacement, said Jed Christensen, the city’s finance director. Developers of the new hotel, Inn at Town Center, will put in a new elevator at the Clay Street garage as part of the project, with the city credited hotel revenues to pay for it, he said.

The city has no money to replace the elevator in the Second Street garage, he said. Potentially that elevator will be rebuilt if the county someday moves its offices out of the adjacent Carithers Building, creating a new private development opportunity, he said./Register

Magnitude-3.7 quake rattles Bay Area

BERKELEY — A small earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay area Wednesday evening, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage.

The quake, which struck at 7:12 p.m., had a preliminary magnitude of 3.7 and was centered about 2 miles east of Berkeley, just across the bay from San Francisco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

No one reported any damage or injuries, according to a Berkeley police dispatcher.

The temblor occurred on the Hayward Fault, which geologists believe is due for a large quake in the potentially lethal 6.7 to 7.0 range.

“It’s a pretty small earthquake, but just another reminder we’re eventually going to have the biggie here in the Bay Area,” said David P. Schwartz, who has studied the Hayward Fault extensively as chief of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bay Area Earthquake Hazards Project.

The Great Quake of 1868 struck on the Hayward Fault, a magnitude 6.9 rumbler that killed five people. Severe quakes have happened on the Hayward Fault every 151 years, give or take 23 years, meaning it is now into the danger zone./AP

Foster mother used starvation as discipline with toddler who died

PITTSBURG — A woman whose severely malnourished foster daughter died last week routinely withheld food and water from the toddler to discipline her, a coroner’s report has found.

Khareasha Pugh, 22, of Pittsburg, regularly denied food to 2-year-old Deonna Green when she misbehaved, according to the report released Tuesday by the Contra Costa County coroner.

Deonna, who died on Dec. 13, weighed about 17 pounds when she was admitted to Children’s Hospital Oakland after ingesting baking soda. The coroner’s report confirmed that she died from lethal levels of sodium bicarbonate.

“When (Deonna), while hungry, attempted to sneak food and then got caught by the foster parent, (she) would again not receive any type of food or liquid,” the report said. “This was an ongoing form of discipline by the foster mother.”

Investigators plan to forward their findings to prosecutors by week’s end. Officials declined to comment on possible charges against Pugh, who has been out on bail after she was arrested Dec. 7 on suspicion of child endangerment. /AP

Baby sent through airport X-ray machine

LOS ANGELES — A woman mistakenly put her 1-month-old grandson through an X-ray machine at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities said.

A startled security worker noticed the shape of a child on the carry-on baggage screening monitor and immediately pulled him out, the Los Angeles Times reported for a story in Wednesday’s editions.

The infant was taken to a local hospital, where doctors determined he did not receive a dangerous dose of radiation.

“This was an innocent mistake by an obviously inexperienced traveler,” said Paul Haney, deputy executive director of airports and security for the city’s airport agency.

The incident happened early Saturday, airport officials said.

Haney said in 1988, an infant in a car seat went through an X-ray machine at LAX./AP