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By John Geluardi

East Bay newspaper employees who have been alarmed at the declining quality of journalism took responsibility for their own futures on Friday by asking to be formally recognized as a union.

Union organizers launched their campaign in October and after seven months of after-work meetings, thousands of e-mails and a lot of beer drinking, they were able to get a strong majority of the 250 eligible employees to sign guild cards. If the union is finalized by ballot, the organizers will have succeeded in unionizing the largest newspaper chain in the Bay Area, which includes the Contra Costa Times, the Oakland Tribune and The Argus.

Organizers Sara Steffens and Karl Fischer, both award winning Contra Costa Times reporters, went to the Oakland office of the National Labor Relations Board to petition for formal recognition as a union. The petition will trigger an official workplace ballot, which is expected to take place some time in June.

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Fresh off the Bay City News wire (via CBS 5). Here's the latest for those of you still obsessed with the never ending Marjorie Knoller saga:

"The possible retrial of Marjorie Knoller, whose second-degree murder conviction for the dog mauling death of Diane Whipple in 2001 was later reduced to involuntary manslaughter, moved forward today with a decision not to allow the original trial judge to hear the matter.

San Francisco Superior Court Presiding Judge David Ballati this morning denied a motion by Knoller's attorney Dennis Riordan to have Judge James Warren, the original trial judge, come out of retirement to rule on the case.

Superior Court Judge Charlotte Woolard is now the judge appointed to rule on whether a retrial will be granted. A further status conference in the case is scheduled for Monday at 9 a.m."

Read the rest here. --Janine Kahn

You saw this coming (heck the mayor's people said the route wasn't fixed from the start) - Brittney Gilbert at CBS 5's Eye on Blogs reports that Mayor Gavin Newsom is changing the Olympic Torch route, and this time it won't be published.

More on this as it comes...

(Hat Tip to SFist)

Update 1: Video with Newsom's comments is up.

Update 2: The Chronicle reports that the route "could change up to and even during the relay. Police said security plans would include having officers run alongside torchbearers to protect them and the flame from any protesters who might try to disrupt the run."