Though Daniel Sperling has emerged as the CARB's central arbiter in regulating auto emissions, he has long had a different relationship with the car and oil industries. For 17 years, he has overseen the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis and has helped the institute raise millions of dollars from companies including Nissan Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Corp., Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. Sperling, appointed to the board by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in February 2007, says he has gone to great lengths to avoid conflicts, including renouncing fundraising from companies doing business in California. LA Times 4/11/08
As the Bay Area and Sacramento regions creep relentlessly toward each other along Interstate 80 – getting uncomfortably crowded along the way – officials from both areas are promoting an idea they call mega-regional planning. They're so excited, they've even come up with a phrase to capture the concept: Sanframento. So many drivers from the Bay Area and Sacramento pass through there and get stuck in the jams, "it's really not (just) a Solano County project or problem anymore." Sacramento Bee 4/11/08
Replacement of the San Francisco approach to the Bay Bridge isn't expected to be completed until January, but the last big traffic shift will take place early Saturday morning when Caltrans opens the new eastbound lanes, department officials said this week. SF Chronicle 4/11/08
Potholes, traffic jams, eroding levees and overcrowded schools have apparently convinced Bay Area residents it's time for major infrastructure improvements, according to a regional poll released Thursday. The poll, by the Bay Area Council, found that 87 percent of residents surveyed thought that Bay Area governments had a serious problem maintaining schools, bridges, roads, parks, levees and hospitals and building new infrastructure. The Bay Area Council, a business-backed public policy group, asked about infrastructure as part of its annual poll concerning the Bay Area's biggest problems. SF Chronicle 4/11/08
As state officials prepare planes to spray the San Francisco Bay Area with pesticides to fight an invasive moth, politicians are starting to worry about the potential impact on local commerce. State environmental health experts announced Thursday that illnesses reported by hundreds of residents after a first round of spraying on the Central Coast couldn't conclusively be tied to the pest eradication efforts. Still, public uncertainty alone could be enough to slow summer tourism, drive residents to leave town and cause real estate agents to initiate conversations with their clients about whether they want to buy property in the proposed spray zone, local government officials say. SJ Mercury 4/11/08
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