Many thanks to the AAA of Northern California for sending me a concise roundup of all the driving-related state laws kicking in in 2008.
First and foremost is the one that has probably led to more confusion than the last 100 California ballot measures. I confess that just prior to July 1 of this year, I thought we were supposed to go hands-free with the mobile phone or face the consequences (Those would be $20 for the first offense, $50 thereafter, which I suspect for many will considered the cost of doing business).
But, as AAA’s Sean Comey notes, that particular law, along with its no-cell-no-text-no-anything-while-driving-under-18 counterpart passed this year, don’t actually kick in until July 1, 2008. So Californians, gab away, but try to practice with the earpiece occasionally so it won’t be such a shock this summer.
I hate making commitments. Never mind that I’ve been married for 19 years and four months, I just don’t like to say yes to something and then find out that something else is more pressing and disappoint someone.
Still, I found myself exiting the Montgomery St. BART/Muni station this afternoon, doing the “talk to the hand” gesture to someone who was trying to hand me a leaflet of some sort. I felt slightly guilty, having once handed out leaflets myself back when I was a starving student.
I had committed to sit on a panel discussing transportation in California. That I would be invited to share my opinion about something I know very little about was sure to be an ego boost, so I jumped at the chance. Accepting the $175 stipend (to cover one’s expenses… BART fare, $5, parking, $6, lost speaking engagement fees, $164… hmm… that works out perfectly) was regrettably Read the rest of this entry »
As if all my histrionics over the MacArthur Maze collapse weren’t enough, someone is making a movie about the April 29 gasoline tanker truck mishap.
I know this because they interviewed me today for the movie, and it was so cool.
The short movie, with the working title of “Amazing,” is being done by the same people who brought us the Emmy Award-winning “The Bridge So Far,” which featured my predecessor, Sean Holstege, as one of two journalist talking heads for the comedic documentary.
Behind every successful public service, there was an idea. That idea led to a proposal and that proposal led to a big bureaucracy that, whatever its faults, got the job accomplished.
Such is the case with the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, which was born by an act of the California legislature and governor on June 4, 1957.
It was 5:50 p.m. when I got the call from my source, whom I’ll identify only as General “I shall return” MacArthur.
“Unofficially — not for publication — I recommend that you be at the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza no later than 7:45.”
With a new sense of urgency, something not engendered by mere deadlines and editors hoping beyond hope to spend time with their families, I finished my story about how, after a gasoline tanker conflagration April 29 claimed
When the MacArthur Maze opens up again on Friday, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised, it will be one of those grin-and-grab ribbon-cutting events that political strategists live for.
But as a news story, the Great Maze Disaster has turned into the Medium Traffic Concern.
That says a lot about the response to the gasoline tanker fire that make such great video footage as it worked steel girders holding up the I-580 ramp like a glassblowing demonstration gone wrong.
It seemed sad to see that of all of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget crisis solutions, the biggest was siphoning money from public transit to other programs that involved wheels and moving people around. I mean, that’s the only raidable fund we have left?
I wasn’t that excited about it, however, because it was more of the same story that broke with the first incarnation of the budget in January. There’s a big pot of gasoline sales tax money that, thanks to then-governor Ronald Reagan, is perpetually Read the rest of this entry »
This week I ran into two bothersome aspects of journalism that I’m not sure people outside of the business can truly appreciate.
One is the staged press event calling attention to something everyone already knows about and could very rarely meet the commonly accepted definition of “news.”
Such was Tuesday morning’s “launch,” a word that evokes a space shot or maybe a missile exchange, of Caltrans‘ “aggressive statewide effort against litter.”
It was 5:50 p.m. when I got the call from my source, whom I’ll identify only as General “I shall return” MacArthur.
Perhaps demonstrating how fast the melted MacArthur Maze — opening 
It seemed sad to see that of all of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget crisis 
This week I ran into two bothersome aspects of journalism that I’m not sure people outside of the business can truly appreciate.