In brief: San Francisco transit dispute shuts down famed cable cars

San Francisco – San Francisco’s famed cable cars stopped running Monday and the rest of the city transit system experienced delays when drivers called in sick a few days after overwhelmingly rejecting a new labor contract, officials said.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency operated without two-thirds of the vehicles that would normally be used to provide service, spokesman Paul Rose said.

The agency known as MUNI runs buses, light rail and street cars in addition to the cable cars, and serves about 700,000 passengers each day. Its 2,200 operators represented by Transport Workers Union Local 250-A rejected the contract by a 1,198 to 42 vote Friday, according to totals on the union’s website.

The contract that MUNI workers rejected Friday would have given them a raise of more than 11 percent over two years. However, it also would have required them to cover a 7.5 percent pension payment currently paid by the transit agency, Rose said.

The contract would have increased operator pay to $32 an hour, making them the second highest-paid transit workers in the country, Rose said.

Two girls, 12, charged as adults in stabbing of young friend

Waukesha, Wis. – Prosecutors say two 12-year-old southeastern Wisconsin girls stabbed their 12-year-old friend nearly to death in the woods to please a mythological creature they learned about online.

Both girls were charged as adults with first-degree attempted homicide Monday in Waukesha County Circuit Court; they each face up to 60 years in prison if convicted. A court commissioner set bail at $500,000 cash per child.

According to a criminal complaint, the girls had been planning to kill their friend for months and finally made the attempt in a park on Saturday morning, after a slumber party.

One of the girls told a detective they were trying to become “proxies” of Slender Man, a mythological demon-like character they learned about on a website about horror stories and legends. They planned to run away to the demon’s forest mansion after the slaying, the complaint said.

Theft of 13,000 diapers prompts investigation in North Carolina

Charlotte, N.C. – Authorities in North Carolina are searching for whoever made a massive, unauthorized withdrawal from a diaper bank.

The Diaper Bank of North Carolina says 13,000 diapers were stolen last weekend. The Durham-based nonprofit provides diapers to struggling families.