A first grade class at Lincoln Elementary received new supplies Thursday morning thanks to Chevron and an online education charity.

With California strapped for cash, public schools are struggling with gutted budgets. Where the state can't help, one major corporation is stepping-up. "Everyone can participate by going to a local Chevron or Texaco station and for every eight gallons or more that they fill up we will donate $1 to a local school," Chevron spokesperson Andrea Bailey said.

Despite the negative attention directed at him, public relations executive Sam Singer said he believes Johnson could still return as the face of the agency. “He made some mistakes, but there has been no fatal flaw,” said Singer, president of Singer Associates. “And I think there are plenty of people in the Bay Area sympathetic to what he’s been through.”

"San Carlos is known as 'the city of good living,'" San Carlos Mayor Andy Klein said Tuesday. "Now it's also the 'city of good trash.'"

A long-standing plan to build 85 residences at a former nursery site in downtown Larkspur will move forward after a developer purchased the 16.8-acre property last week. The New Home Co. — which has offices in Aliso Viejo and Roseville — has closed escrow on the Niven Nursery property off Doherty Drive and plans to finalize project maps and break ground in the next few months.

"Since LinkedIn has really positioned themselves as the professional social and business networking place on the Web, this is a coup of enormous value to the company and its brand," said veteran San Francisco public relations consultant Sam Singer. "It sets them apart from Facebook and from Google+. From LinkedIn's perspective, you just don't get a better day than today."

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today issued an order denying the Ecuadorian plaintiffs’ attempt to recuse Judge Lewis Kaplan, vacating Judge Kaplan’s preliminary injunction against enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron, and staying Chevron’s claim for a declaratory judgment that the Ecuadorian judgment is unenforceable.

Chevron plans to give back to Richmond community with event that will provide fun and school supplies to 1,000 disadvantaged local youth.

Chevron lets community members get better acquainted with the refinery that is such a familiar part of the Richmond landscape. Tour guides fielded questions and explained the processes that go on in the plant.

The Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District has agreed to pay $10.5 million to a woman who was severely injured when she was struck by one of the agency's buses. Sam Singer, a public relations consultant hired by the bus system, says the settlement recognizes that the bus driver was at fault in the crash. The driver has been fired.