Economy & Business
Voters cranky as economy sours -- As California voters go to the polls today in a low-turnout primary, those who bother to show up aren't likely to be happy. With a teetering economy and an unpopular war, only 17 percent of voters in a new state Field Poll believe the country is headed in the right direction, the most dour view in 16 years. Sacramento Bee 6/3/08
*S.F. immune so far from struggling economy -- The housing market is crumbling across the country - but not in San Francisco. Travel and tourism is down in many places but not here, where visitor spending, fueled by foreign tourists, reached an all-time high last year. And despite a huge city deficit, Newsom still managed to sound upbeat Monday when he announced spending increases for the police force and a health care program that covers uninsured residents. SF Chronicle 6/3/08
Fed Chairman Bernanke signals more rate cuts unlikely -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled today that further interest rate cuts are unlikely because of concerns about inflation. High oil prices are a double-edged sword that can both put a damper on already weak growth and spread inflation, he said. CC Times 6/3/08
Energy & Environment
Analysts split on chances of $5-a-gallon gas -- Analysts are divided over whether regular gas, which already has passed the $4 a gallon milestone in California, is destined to touch $5 a gallon in the near future. It all depends on whether oil prices continue to inch higher, as they have for the past few years. A prediction last month by a Goldman Sachs analyst that oil may touch $200 a barrel within two years (oil futures closed at $127.76 Monday) raises the possibility of $5-a-gallon gasoline. But Sam Van Vactor, president of Economic Insight, a Portland, Ore., research firm, gave a contrarian opinion in an interview, saying that gas prices have peaked and will soon start declining. SF Chronicle 6/3/08
*Skyrocketing gasoline prices force changes -- A record number of Americans are leaving their car keys at home, the American Public Transportation Assn. said Monday. Mass transit use was up nationally by 3.3% in the first quarter of 2008, building on 2007, when mass transit use nationwide reached a 50-year high, the Washington-based group said. Some experts attributed the increases in California to refinery problems. In addition, the state's refiners are making more diesel and aviation fuel -- reducing gasoline production -- to cash in on those more lucrative products. LA Times 6/3/08
Daniel Weintraub: Building a better power plant -- with no emissions -- A Rancho Cordova company founded by a group of retired aerospace engineers has just received funding to build a small power plant that won't emit any of the gases that cause smog or are believed to lead to global warming. the idea of using pure oxygen rather than air in the power plant is at the center of the CES project. Air is 80 percent nitrogen. When you combine it with a fuel source during combustion, you get nitrogen oxide, or NOx. That's a primary ingredient in the smog that clouds the sky in every major city. To avoid that outcome, the CES plant chills the air until the oxygen and nitrogen gases become liquids and can be separated before the combustion begins. Sacramento Bee 6/3/08
PG&E pays to offset Democrats' carbon emissions -- California Democrats have recruited Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to offset carbon emissions related to the national party convention this summer. The state's largest utility will buy $8,440 worth of carbon credits that will come from a Northern California redwood forest. California's is the first Democratic delegation to announce such an arrangement as part of a national push by the Democratic Party to reduce or offset carbon output at its convention. SF Chronicle 6/3/08
Media & Entertainment
Finance, Budget & Tax
*Scores of layoffs in $6.5 billion S.F. budget -- Mayor Gavin Newsom unveiled a record $6.5 billion budget Monday that seeks to erase San Francisco's huge budget deficit by laying off scores of city workers, allowing hundreds of prisoners to complete their jail sentences at home and shuttering a homeless drop-in center in the gritty Tenderloin. Newsom's proposed budget eliminates 1,085 positions - including layoffs of about 450 actual workers - and imposes what he called "old-fashioned belt tightening," like cutting employees' cell phone use and restricting travel, in order to dig the city out of a $338 million deficit. SF Gate 6/3/08
Schwarzenegger talks budget reform in Oakland – Perhaps the only forward motion to come out of the town-hall-style meeting at Oakland City Hall was the governor's promise, exacted by Mayor Ron Dellums, to extend the deployment of California Highway Patrol officers, which began in August to quell Oakland's street crime. Inside Bay Area 6/3/08
Venture Capital, Technology, & Silicon Valley
40GB for $55 per month: Time Warner bandwidth caps arrive -- Time Warner Cable will launch a trial program on Thursday which will impose monthly Internet consumption caps on new subscribers in Beaumont, Texas. Following a two-month grace period, cable users will pay $1 for each additional gigabyte consumed beyond the cap. Ars Technica 6/3/08
*Yahoo opposed Google deal before Microsoft bid -- Yahoo Inc executives dismissed a search-advertising deal with Google due to antitrust concerns, one day before Microsoft Corp made its takeover offer earlier this year, according to court documents made public on Monday. Reuters 6/3/08
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