[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Bay Area commuters along the newly repaired MacArthur Maze should know who to thank for its speedy recovery: C.C. Meyers, a construction company whose apparent commitment to quality has earned the undying gratitude of Californians, including Governor Schwarzenegger (and the similarly undying love of New Yorkers). The Maze reopened for business yesterday morning, a mere 25 days after an explosion from a gasoline tanker reduced the freeway interchange into a smoking heap of twisted steel and concrete.

by atdleft [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

Brian Joseph has a frightening tale for us in today's "Capitol Watchdog" column in The OC Register. He was just trying to figure out how much the County of Orange was spending on lobbying expenses. He ended up diving into a maze of total confusion.

I had downloaded lobbying expenditures from the Secretary of State's Web site and found that over a little more than six and half years the County of Orange had spent $5.1 million on lobbying - more than the Irvine Co., Pacific Life Insurance and the Walt Disney Co. combined.
According to the state's official numbers, Orange County ranked 32nd out of 4,321 lobbying interests, just seven spots behind British Petroleum ($5.9 million) and 10 behind Verizon ($6 million).

Wow. Doesn't that sound crazy? Well, what if I told you that Orange County ACTUALLY DIDN'T spend $5.1 million on lobbying? Follow me after the flip for more on this story of disclosure gone wild...

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Emily Rusch
Consumer Advocate
California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG)

With the freeway collapse in "the Maze" in the East Bay two weeks ago, even more Bay Area residents than usual will be relying on public transit in the coming months. Even before the freeway accident 51 percent of commuters from Alameda to San Francisco and 48 percent of commuters from Contra Costa to San Francisco used public transit. But with one of the busiest freeway intersections in the country closed for the next several months, our buses, subways, and ferries will allow tens of thousands of commuters to avoid the ensuing gridlock.

Recent outspoken criticism of Muni has cast a negative light on our public transit systems, but unexpected emergencies such as the freeway collapse remind us of the need for alternatives to driving.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Open up any Bay Area paper today, and you'll learn that the driver of the gas truck that caused the collapse of the Oakland Maze served time for heroin use -- in 1996. The San Francisco Chronicle is happy to tell us that "[t]he driver of the gasoline tanker truck that overturned and ignited a fire that brought down part of the MacArthur Maze has a criminal record, including a conviction for possession of heroin in 1996 that earned him a 32-month state prison sentence," while the Oakland Tribune notes that "James Mosqueda Sr. accumulated a criminal record stretching from 1974-1996 that includes a misdemeanor hit-and-run; a felony drug possession that garnered him two years in state prison; and a second degree burglary, according to court records for Sacramento and Yolo counties. Yet the 51-year-old Woodland resident was able to obtain a license to haul hazardous materials and pass a Transportation Security Administration background check."

What an outrage! A man last convicted of a minor crime in 1996 -- for heroin use of all things -- managed to acquire a security clearance to drive a truck. Stop the presses. But wait, there's more. Again the Chronicle: