On track

Jul 5, 2013

BART will begin resuming regular service today, ending a crippling, five-day strike that snarled the Bay Area.

 

From the AP's Terry Collins: "Commuter rail service will resume Friday in the San Francisco Bay area after unions called off a strike, agreeing with the transit agency to extend a labor contract for a month while they continue bargaining."

 

"Though trains were not in service on Friday morning, commuters appeared to get a reprieve from crowded buses and clogged roadways because of the July 4 holiday. Traffic at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll plaza was moving smoothly, and charter buses available at certain BART stations seemed to have ample room."

 

"Bay Area Rapid Transit will begin operating trains by 3 p.m. PDT Friday, ending a four-day strike that crippled commutes across the Bay Area, Marty Morgenstern, the state's secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, announced late Thursday."

 

The federal judges who told Gov. Brown to ease prison overcrowding aren't messing around: They refused to delay their order while the governor appeals to higher authority.

 

From the LAT's Paige St. John: "The panel of three federal judges who last month ordered California to release 9,600 inmates or find another cure to overcrowding refused Wednesday to delay that edict while Gov. Jerry Brownappeals to the U.S. Supreme Court."

 

"Their June 20 order, still in effect, requires California to reduce prison crowding to 137.5% of what the state's 33 prisons were built to hold by the end of the year. In California's most recent report, those prisons were hovering at 150%."

 

"Brown and his lawyers had asked the federal panel — U.S. District Judges Lawrence Karlton and Thelton Henderson and 9th Circuit Appeals Justice Stephen Reinhardt — to delay the order while the state takes its appeal before the Supreme Court. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Sacramento native, already has agreed to delay the deadline for initial briefs in that appeal to late August, putting the appeal on a track to not be decided until next spring."

 

California elections often have poor turnout, but the worst of the worst are special elections, which not only draw few voters but also cost a lot of money.

 

From Sharon McNary at KPCC: "Voters will cast primary votes in the 45th Assembly District in the San Fernando Valley and the 26th Senate District race in Culver City and Ladera Heights. If a runoff is needed, the top two candidates will face off Nov. 19."

 

"As state legislators leave office mid-term after winning seats in Congress, L-A City Council or other elective office, their spots are filled by primary and, if necessary, runoff elections..."

 

"San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties together spent $2.4 million putting on primary and general special elections to fill the 32nd Senate District  covering Pomona and western San Bernardino County.  Just 9 percent of voters cast ballots in the March primary,  only 10 percent voted in the general election two months later. That breaks down to about $35 a vote. Add in the $16 per vote candidates spent, and you're looking at more than $50 per vote."

 

A rare piece of good news for university graduate students: Planned tuition increases actually are getting scuttled, as UC administrators reverse their position.

 

From the LAT's Larry Gordon: "After previously proposing widespread and hefty tuition increases for graduate and professional degree programs, UC's top administrators have retreated and will seek fee hikes affecting only a small group of graduate students, mainly in nursing, and at much reduced levels."

 

"Only about 800 students in eight programs will be affected by a proposal expected to be approved by the UC regents later this month, officials said. Under a previous and now abandoned plan, about 14,000 graduate and professional school students in more than 50 programs such as law, medicine, social work and business faced tuition increases that met strong opposition from the governor and other officials in Sacramento."

 

"In one of the most important changes, nursing students will probably face annual tuition hikes of $619, less than a quarter of the $2,700 they faced under the previous proposal. Nursing programs have lost some federal funding and must backfill with tuition, officials said."

 

A little known fact: Getting air at gas stations to inflate your tires is supposed to be free -- if you buy gas.

 

From the Press-Democrat's Matt Brown: "We breathe it every second of every day. It is available free all around us in the atmosphere."

 

"Yet many gas stations in California still charge customers up to $1.50 to inflate their tires with air, despite a little-known 1999 law that requires them to provide free air and water to customers who have purchased gasoline.."

 

"I do think it is a widespread rip-off by an industry that is already ripping us off at the pump,” said Jamie Court, president of Los Angeles-based Consumer Watchdog. “I’m shocked that this hasn’t been litigated. It’s a deceptive practice that is costing consumers money.”

 

And from our "Dog Days" file comes the story of Nano, the allergy-busting wonder pooch who has a nose for nuts

 

"A dog named Nano has become the first in Europe to be trained to sniff out nuts and snuff out allergies. The four-year-old poodle can pick up nut odours in both food and the environment, following his training by a medical dog charity in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire."

 

"The pup has been paired with severe nut allergy sufferer Yasmine Tornblad, 30, and his nose for nuts has dramatically transformed her life."

 

"Ms Tornblad, from Malvern, Worcestershire, can go into anaphylactic shock from just the smell of nuts and has been rushed to hospital 15 times within the last eight years."

 

Okay, but can he catch a Frisbee...?


 
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