Transporation Daily News 2/29

East Bay lawmakers predict a gruesome fight this spring over both the gaping state budget deficit and the rules under which California makes its financial decisions. California's projected $8 billion deficit for the upcoming fiscal year will force some tough choices because less painful options have been exhausted. The Legislature is on a partisan collision course between unpopular cuts and less popular tax increases, including the vehicle license fee. CC Times 2/29/08

 

In something of a butterfly effect from the subprime mortgage crisis, the Bay Area's transportation agency is paying an extra $1 million a month because companies that insured $2.9 billion of its bonds had also underwritten subprime mortgage-linked investments. Despite spending an extra $3 million so far, the Bay Area Toll Authority can handle it without delaying the Bay Bridge project or raising the $4 toll on the area's seven state-owned bridges, said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, whose members govern the authority. CC Times 2/29/08

 

The Port of Oakland offers monthly free harbor tours of its watery turf, terminals and vessels from May to October. It seems an unlikely attraction -- the daily hustle and bustle of the nation's fourth-busiest port -- but a port spokesperson said that demand for the tours has grown so much since they began in 2001 that port officials are considering adding more. CC Times 2/29/08

 

Scientists from the Bodega Marine Lab are helping assess the environmental damage caused when a cargo ship spilled 58,000 gallons of fuel oil in San Francisco Bay. They are tracking the development of Pacific herring, the last commercial fishery in San Francisco Bay. "It's the canary in the coal mine," said Gary Cherr, acting director of the Bodega Marine Lab, which is part of UC Davis. "If we see effects on the herring, we can expect to see other impacts without having to survey all organisms out there." Press Democrat 2/29/08

 

A show of solidarity by Central Valley politicians on Thursday failed to increase the region's share of an unprecedented $1 billion in air quality funding. The Valley will see no more than the California Air Resources Board first proposed last month: $250 million, or one-quarter of the total, the board voted. Valley officials had asked for $370 million. Record Net 2/29/08