August 21, 2003

DAVIS VETOES LAND DEAL MEASURE

PAUL ROGERS Blocking reforms that environmentalists and taxpayer groups supported after overpayment concerns in the $100 million Cargill salt ponds deal, Gov. Gray Davis has vetoed a bill that would have required more public disclosure of appraisals, purchase contracts and environmental studies when the state buys land for parks and wildlife refuges.

July 30, 2003

NEW RADAR AT S.F. AIRPORT EXPECTED TO CUT FOG, RAIN DELAYS

MARILEE ENGE A high-tech radar system due to be tested at San Francisco International Airport this fall promises to allow more flights to land in bad weather, reducing the delay problem that gave the airport the nation's worst record for on-time arrivals several years ago.The system, which is operating in only one other U.S. airport, would allow at least 20 percent more arrivals in foggy or rainy conditions -- without building new runways in the bay.

June 26, 2003

SCIENTISTS BACK STUDIES SHOWING PROJECT WOULD NOT HARM BAY

MARILEE ENGE In a victory for San Francisco International Airport, an independent panel of 19 scientists on Wednesday said that the airport-funded studies showing a proposed runway project would not cause baywide harm were scientifically sound.

June 26, 2003

STATE PROBES SALE OF SALT PONDS

PAUL ROGERS The state agency that regulates real estate appraisers in California has opened an investigation into the $100 million Cargill Salt ponds deal, after questions about whether outdated information and inflatedland values led the public to overpay by millions of dollars for the Bay Area lands.

June 21, 2003

STUDY DOWNPLAYS EFFECTS ON BAY FROM S.F. RUNWAY PLAN

PAUL ROGERS A four-year study of San Francisco International Airport's proposal to build new runways into San Francisco Bay has concluded that the project would have minimal effects on fish and wildlife, and almost no impact outside construction areas on erosion, water quality or other measures of the bay's health.

May 29, 2003

BUSINESS LEADERS PUSH FOR RUNWAYS

MARILEE ENGE Arguing that expansion of San Francisco International Airport is critical to the region's economic future, a coalition of influential BayArea business leaders on Wednesday urged the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to finish environmental studies connected to building runways in the bay.

May 29, 2003

BUSINESS LEADERS BACK AIRPORT RUNWAY STUDIES

MERCURY NEWS STAFF REPORTS Arguing that expansion of San Francisco International Airport is critical to the region's economic future, a coalition of influential Silicon Valley business leaders Wednesday urged the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to finish environmental studies connected to building runways in the bay.

May 29, 2003

SILICON VALLEY BUSINESS COALITION URGES CONTINUED STUDIES OF S.F. AIRPORT EXPANSION

From Mercury News staff reports Arguing that expansion of San Francisco International Airport is critical to the region's economic future, a coalition of influential Silicon Valley business leaders Wednesday urged the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to finish environmental studies connected to building runways in the bay.

May 22, 2003

AUDIT CRITICIZES S.F. RUNWAY PLAN

MARILEE ENGE San Francisco International Airport's $75 million effort to expand its runways focused too heavily on marketing the idea, spent too lavishly on consultants and failed to give equal weight to alternatives to paving San Francisco Bay, according to a highly critical audit of the project released Wednesday.

May 21, 2003

SAN JOSE PAYS $13.5 MILLION FOR CARGILL SALT POND

PAUL ROGERS The San Jose City Council on Tuesday voted to pay Cargill Salt $13.5 million for an industrial salt pond near Alviso, capping one of the city's more expensive recent land purchases and leaving San Jose paying more per acre than the state did for similar real estate.

May 20, 2003

WETLANDS DEAL CAME AT INFLATED PRICE, FILES SHOW

PAUL ROGERS The historic $100 million deal to turn thousands of acres of San Francisco Bay salt ponds back into natural wetlands relied on outdated economic assumptions and may have left the public paying millions of dollars too much for the land, a Mercury News review of more than 400 pages of recently released documents shows.

May 15, 2003

RUNWAY TALK DWINDLES

MARILEE ENGE Acknowledging the obvious -- that the U.S. travel slump makes runway expansion at San Francisco International Airport impractical -- officials say they have begun winding down a project that consumed $75 million over four years.

May 3, 2003

ANALYSIS FAVORS CUT IN AIRPORT STUDY FUNDS

From Mercury News staff reports San Francisco International Airport's request for more money to further study its runway expansion should be cut from $3.77 million to $2.95 million, according to a budget analysis released Friday.

April 29, 2003

$5 MILLION SOUGHT FOR PLAN

MARILEE ENGE A committee of San Francisco supervisors in the next week could kill or at least deeply wound a runway expansion at San Francisco International Airport, already struggling with a slump brought on by war, disease, recession and terrorism.

April 9, 2003

AIRPORTS HURTING

AARON DAVIS The airline industry's massive problems are rippling out to airports.Last week, San Francisco International Airport was forced to lay off 85 employees -- a striking departure from just two years ago when the airport wasflush with money and spending millions on plans for extending runways into San Francisco Bay.

March 27, 2003

S.F. AIRPORT FINED OVER SEWAGE SPILLS FROM THE 1990S

MARILEE ENGE San Francisco International Airport will pay $227,000 in fines for spilling partially treated sewage into San Francisco Bay in the late 1990s, state water regulators and airport officials said Wednesday.

March 21, 2003

AVIATION FACING ANOTHER BLOW

RODNEY FOO With dire predictions that the nation's airlines will lose billions of dollars from war in Iraq, the nation's airports will suffer a corresponding financial blow that could delay building programs, force hiring freezes and even layoffs, aviation experts warn.