Air Travel:
Airlines find many tiny ways to squeeze fliers -- Fresh indignities roll in on a weekly basis: You pay to check your bag, eat a soggy sandwich, get more legroom, pick your seat, fly your pet, talk to a real person. So, as you get ready to jet off somewhere for this long Fourth of July weekend, beware of these ways the airlines are reaching into your wallet. SF Chronicle 7/2/08
Business jets not hurt by fuel prices -- Despite the fuel cost surge, sales of business jets are booming. One study shows the number of business jets expected to be built in the next 10 years will double from the previous decade. SJ Mercury 7/6/08
U.S. travelers face deep flight cuts by summer's end -- With summer barely under way, it may seem too early for travelers to start thinking about Labor Day. But that is when significant cuts in the airlines' fleets and schedules will begin taking effect, making for a particularly jarring end to summer. Across the United States, airports from La Guardia in New York to Oakland in California will be affected by flight cuts, bringing the industry down to a size last seen in 2002, when travel fell sharply after the 9/11 attacks. International Herald Tribune 7/1/08
Transit and infrastructure:
Bullet train takes Senate's medicine -- The project to build high-speed rail connecting Northern and Southern California survived a showdown in a State Senate committee Tuesday, beating back a Republican effort to remove a $10 billion bond measure from the Nov. 4 ballot. The Senate Transportation and Housing Committee voted 8-4 to approve AB3034, which re-crafts the ballot measure in part to win more official and voter support for the $42 billion to $45 billion system. At the same time, the panel approved a controversial civil service work rule that some feared could tie the project up in court and erode the bond measure's support. Contra Costa Times 7/1/08
Rising gas prices hit taxi drivers -- To help with the hurt, drivers around Walnut Creek have joined to petition the city to raise the meter rates. Many cities across the county and state set taxi meter rates Other cities, such as Antioch, don't set cab fare rates. Some cities that do don't heavily enforce them. CC Times 7/4/08
Berkeley rapid bus plan faces uphill battle -- Opponents of AC Transit's plan for dedicated bus lanes on busy Telegraph Avenue south of the UC campus have gathered enough signatures to qualify the issue for the Nov. 4 ballot. The initiative, if approved by voters, would require voter approval to create any high-occupancy-vehicle lanes in the city, except on Interstate 80. Merchants and residents along the famed avenue say dedicated bus lanes would force traffic onto side streets and make parking even more scarce. SF Chronicle 7/7/08
Water:
Boaters, beware: Hunt is on for mussel invaders -- Boaters heading for area lakes this Fourth of July should expect to give an accounting of where they've been and what they may have picked up along the way. Authorities are on the lookout for quagga and zebra mussels, invasive species known to hitchhike from one body of water to another by attaching themselves to boat trailers, hulls, engines and steering components. Sacremento Bee 7/3/08
Tourism:
To tourists, California looks as golden as ever despite fires, economy -- The AAA of Northern California is predicting only a minuscule drop-off of 0.8 percent from last year's Fourth of July weekend travel. AAA spokesman Michael Geeser says things around the state could look more bleak by the end of the year. He notes that while the decline in projected July 4 travel is small, it's also worrisome, because it's the first decline since 2000. SJ Mercury 7/3/08
Budget:
Dan Walters: This budget crisis isn't like earlier ones -- California Forward, in fact, has published a lengthy, largely accurate critique of the budget process that includes this central passage: "The current budget process is largely a relic of the mid-20th century, with the focus on how much to increase spending (or how much to cut), rather than the value that public services bring to Californians over time. These annual budget decisions often either push California's fiscal systems toward long-term solvency or away from it…” Sacramento Bee 7/6/08
No one tracks state's fuel bill -- As the price of gasoline moves toward $5 a gallon, few entities are being squeezed as hard at the pump as the deficit-ridden state of California and its 50,000-vehicle fleet. Just how much, no one knows. State vehicles are dispersed over 100 agencies, and there's no central database to track their fuel use. The lack of a reliable cost-tracking system runs counter to practices in other large states, such as Texas, and prevents California from devising a cost-containment plan. Sacramento Bee 6/5/08
Emissions:
Greenhouse gases called threat to Pacific life -- Ocean waters welling up from the depths along the Pacific Coast from Canada to Mexico are threatening a wide variety of marine organisms as carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, saturates the water and increases its corrosive acidity, government scientists report. In separate recent reports in the journal Science and in congressional testimony, the scientists warn that the rate of "ocean acidification" is increasing, and say damage to some of the most important living organisms in the sea's food web is becoming more apparent. SF Chronicle 7/4/08
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