Burger King is now the second national fast-food chain to announce that it will comply with San Francisco's ban on toy giveaways with kids' meals that are high in fat, sugar and salt by not offering the trinkets for free any more.

Instead, just like McDonald's decided, customers who want the toys in San Francisco will have to pay.

"Toys will be available for purchase for 10 cents more," Kristen Hauser, a spokeswoman for Burger King, said Wednesday.

McDonald's said that money from the toy sales will be used to help build a Ronald McDonald House for families of young patients being treated at the new UCSF hospital at Mission Bay.

Burger King has not decided what to do with the toy proceeds, Hauser said.

San Francisco's new law goes into effect today. It bars chain restaurants from giving out free toys in Happy Meals and other menu items intended for children that don't meet strict nutritional standards. The law also requires servings of fruits and vegetables.

- Rachel Gordon

Moving forward: A proposal to give San Francisco businesses a one-time tax break of up to $10,125 for hiring a felon cleared the Board of Supervisors' budget committee Wednesday on a 2-1 vote.

"This piece of legislation is crime prevention and public safety oriented," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the plan's chief sponsor and the city's sheriff-elect. "It is aimed at reducing the repeat-offender rate - recidivism - which is in the range of 65 to 70 percent in San Francisco."

He said that studies have shown a dramatic drop in offenders being re-incarcerated if they get a job within a year of their release from jail.

Philadelphia enacted a similar tax credit in 2007 but has had very limited success in persuading employers to participate.

The legislation has been endorsed by the city's public defender, sheriff, and adult and juvenile probation departments and the Small Business Commission.

A vast majority of public testimony at the City Hall hearing was in favor of the legislation. However, Lynn Jefferson brought up the recent case of Gary Scott Holland, a Fresno County parolee released in San Francisco who last month pleaded guilty to first degree murder for the bludgeoning death of 46-year-old Kathleen "Kate" Horan in her Russian Hill apartment last year.

Jefferson, who was friends with Horan, said in an interview that she fears San Francisco's proposed tax break will lure offenders to San Francisco.

Voting in favor of the proposal at the budget committee were Mirkarimi and Supervisor Jane Kim. Opposed was Supervisor Carmen Chu, who said she felt uncomfortable giving priority to this one population of job hunters as opposed to others. The vote at the full board is scheduled for Tuesday.

- Rachel Gordon

A green honor: San Francisco's plan to replace and revitalize the aging, dilapidated Sunnydale public housing development has become the first neighborhood design project in the country to get conditional approval at the LEED Gold Level for its environment-friendly effort.

The effort, which won't begin until 2015 at the earliest, calls for razing the circa 1941 buildings now on the 50-acre site. Replacing them will be 1,700 units providing both replacement for the current public housing and affordable and market-rate rental apartments and condominiums.

The project is being developed by Mercy Housing California and Related California in a public-private partnership as part of the city's Hope SF program, which is designed to transform troubled public housing projects into vibrant new communities.

The LEED Gold certification recognizes projects built with principles of environmentally sound growth and green design. The new plan, for example, will provide more than 6 acres of parkland in the redesigned community.

- John Wildermuth