The discovery of a pair of nesting peregrines on a bridge undergoing a $46 million retrofit caused quite a stir back in April.

Not wanting to take any chances on disturbing the once-endangered birds, Caltrans set up a camera to monitor the nest and put up a blanket to shield it from dust and noise.

They even brought in state biologists to keep an eye on things.

But over the June 4-5 weekend, the Bay Area was hit by unseasonable rains.

“The chicks were only 2 weeks old, and they didn’t have … any resiliency to the cold and wet,” said Caltrans spokeswoman Effie Milionis.

Milionis says the biologists and others keeping an eye on the chicks never had a chance to save them.

“There wasn’t any indication they were in trouble – it happened in the wee hours of a Saturday morning,” Milionis said.

Heat is on: The June 30 deadline is just around the corner for San Francisco candidates for mayor, district attorney and sheriff to go public with their latest haul of campaign cash – and donors are feeling the heat like never before.

“I know people who go on vacation the last week just to avoid harassing campaign calls,” said one money bundler who asked not to be named, not wanting to offend his many political friends.

The problem is, between the large number of candidates and ranked-choice voting, no one knows whom to bet on.

Plus, there isn’t much reason to give, what with the lack of big real estate developments needing a vote and most of the candidates running from the middle.

Another problem for the city’s perennial donors – developers, land-use attorneys, lobbyists and the like – is this year’s $1,500 total limit on campaign contributions. They just can’t spread the money around like they used to.

“You have to get on the phone and call family members and friends to encourage them to give,” says veteran PR consultant Sam Singer, who has been feeling the financial squeeze from candidates. “Then you have to let the candidate know you got your aunt, uncle and father to contribute $500 because you asked them to.”

Plus, as one frazzled lobbyist told us, “Everyone’s got in the back of their mind, ‘What if Ed Lee jumps in?’ ”

One thing for sure, says campaign consultant Jim Ross: “This upcoming filing is going to shake the actual contenders from those who aren’t.”

Mexican connection: A new congressional study, co-written by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, says 70 percent of the nearly 30,000 firearms that have fueled Mexico’s spiraling violence in the past couple of years were traced to the United States – with California, we’re told, very much in the mix.

Take the case of Claudio Penunuri, an illegal immigrant living in Southern California, who pleaded guilty to a scheme to buy more than $100,000 worth of high-powered rifles from licensed dealers. Then he shipped the weapons across the border, prosecutors say.

According to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, 14 of those assault and sniper rifles turned up on Oct. 14, 2008, during a shootout with four men at a Tijuana home that killed a Mexican police officer. Afterward, the cops found the body of a tortured kidnapping victim in a freezer.

Feinstein is pushing for a law to require multiple rifle or shotgun sales to be reported to the ATF – the same way it’s required for handguns.

Clubbed: No sooner did state Sen. Leland Yee win the Sierra Club’s prized endorsement in the San Francisco mayor’s race than he voted against a bill backed by the group to block a giant landfill in San Diego County.

“We didn’t really quite understand why he would have voted ‘no,’ ” said Richard Miller, spokesman for the club’s San Diego chapter.

Yee’s mayoral rivals cite a $2,500 contribution the senator got last year from landfill manager Waste Management, whose parent company, Taconic Resources, is supporting the project.

Records also show he received $8,200 from 2003 through 2009 from the Associated General Contractors of California political action committee, whose members could benefit from the construction.

Yee spokesman Adam Keigwin, however, said his boss opposed the bill because it was the right thing to do.

Keigwin said the bill was really about protecting Indian gambling interests. “The local tribe doesn’t want a landfill near their casino,” he said.

The bill blocking the landfill passed the Senate, 32-3 – Yee being one of the three. It now goes to the Assembly.

EXTRA! Catch our blog at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.

Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or e-mail matierandross@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/19/BAQM1JVEDN.DTL&tsp=1