Features

Pacifica police, CHP respond to stinky traffic situation 

PACIFICA — A California Highway Patrol spokesman said the roadway near Oceana Boulevard and Monterey Road in Pacifica was closed after human feces spilled out from a dump truck at around 2 p.m. Tuesday. 

The spokesman said a motorcyclist called CHP after he was drenched in the waste, said to be coming from a truck that empties out sewage. 

“They had to close the roadway since vehicles were sliding in it and kicking the debris up,” said the CHP spokesman, adding that the spill that extended about 20 feet across the roadway. 

Pacifica police were on scene as Public Works cleaned the roadway, according to Jim Tasa, Pacifica police public information officer. 

Lack of startups hurts firms 

SAN JOSE — Silicon Valley law firms are struggling given the drop in lucrative fees for taking startups public. 

The technology startup business at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati led the market with more than 100 initial-public-offering clients in 1999 — two years later, the firm had only six. 

By year’s end, Wilson expects to have 620 partners, down from a peak of 810 in February 2001, said Chairman and Chief Executive Larry Sonsini. About half of those 190 cuts will be from layoffs, the rest from normal attrition. 

Not that all is bad — the firm has hired attorneys for intellectual-property and securities litigation, as well as corporate governance, Sonsini said. 

It no longer needed the high-end waterfront space, having shrunk to 70 lawyers from a peak of 110. 

Trains for Tots to begin 

SAN MATEO — The Trains for Tots Special is scheduled to start collecting new toys for children in the San Francisco Bay area on Nov. 30. 

For the second year, Caltrain and the Golden Gate Railroad Museum are sponsoring the special train to generate toy donations for the Marine Corps Reserves’ Toys for Tots Program. 

The train will stop at nine San Francisco and Peninsula train stations over the weekend. Last year, the project received more than 4,400 toys.