Just two weeks after disclosures that a Caltrans technician had falsified inspection data on agency construction projects, a federal report says that the worker and his boss stole goverment construction materials for a project at the supervisor’s personal property. The new report, disclosed by the Sacramento Bee, is fueling an East Bay lawmaker’s suspicions that there is a problem in the culture of a Caltrans section that does tests to assure the structural integrity of foundations of new bridges, walls and other projects. Read the rest of this entry »

A state Senate transportation committee on Tuesday offered an unusual forum to question whether Caltrans did enough quickly enough when it discovered one of its technicians had falsified inspection data on construction projects. State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, asked whether the Caltrans culture built around hard data and orderly procedures was prepared to deal with a case when a renegade worker acted outside the norm. Read the rest of this entry »

Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter for killing Oscar Grant in 2009, is back in the news as a federal civil trial begins Monday in San Francisco into allegations that he and four other BART police officers used excessive force in roughing up a train rider. The confrontation occurred at the BART Coliseum station in November 2008, seven weeks before Mehserle’s shooting of an unarmed Grant was caught on video and sent around the world via the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »

The workhorse of Bay Area bridges  – the Bay Bridge - turns 75 years old on Saturday without any big fuss.  A modest invitation-only celebration will be held Thursday morning on Treasure Island, but it is not open to the general public. Read the rest of this entry »