Calif. to Let San Francisco Bridge Bid to Expire
521407
California transportation officials said on Thursday they have decided to allow a $1.4 billion bid to rebuild part of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to expire and to solicit less expensive designs for the over-budget project
342297
Plagued by delays and cost overruns, a $5.1 billion renovation of San Francisco&#39;s Bay Bridge has run into added problems as the state refuses to pay for
370757
ATWATER, Calif. - You can ask city officials how many years their mayor can serve, just don't ask for it in writing.
516469
The eastern span of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, currently under construction and over budget, will be re-bid, according to Sunne Wright McPeak, secretary of California&#39;s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, which oversees Caltrans, the
637178
By Therese Poletti, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Feb.
136923
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26  Â The business software maker BEA Systems signaled its intent to let Oracleâs $6.7 billion takeover bid expire Sunday, setting the stage for a showdown with its largest shareholder, the billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn.
730586
By Kevin Howe, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.  Feb. 24--A second meeting to discuss a long-term water source for the Monterey Bay area will be held Wednesday in Marina by the state Public Utilities Commission's Division of Ratepayer Advocates.   The meeting will open at 9 a.m.
103488
Officials took the first step on   Friday to stop would-be suicides from using a world-famous   landmark -- San Francisco's graceful Golden Gate Bridge.
33555
The chance to save a buck to cross the Bay Area&#39;s state-owned bridges persuaded tens of thousands of motorists to sign up for FasTrak, Caltrans&#39; electronic toll collection system, in the last four months.
276959
BEA Sunday let a 5 p.m. Pacific Time deadline expire on Oracle's $6.7 million bid for the company
682827
By Bruce Gerstman, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.  Sep.
361563
By Stephen Wall, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.  Sep. 14--GRAND TERRACE -- Plans for the city's first senior-housing  complex and new senior center will be delayed at least six months because of a  successful legal challenge to the project.
15353
By Nicole C. Wong, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Feb.
134935
(InfoWorld) - A group of state plaintiffs in the U.S. Microsoft antitrust case will ask for a five-year extension of a large portion of the 2002 judgment against the company, the group's lawyer said Tuesday. California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia -- known as the "California group" -- want an extension of most of the middleware portions of the judgment, said Stephen Houck, a lawyer for the group. Microsoft still retains a huge lead in the operating system and Web browser markets, he said. "Microsoft continues to have a stranglehold over the two products ... that nearly all consumers use," Houck said during an antitrust compliance hearing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. "Very little has happened in five years ... in those markets." The California group of states -- the larger of two groups of states that sued Microsoft for antitrust violations -- will ask for an extension of all the middleware portions of the antitrust judgement, except for a section that governs the royalties Microsoft can charge PC manufacturers for the Windows operating system. Most of the antitrust judgment was scheduled to expire in November. Microsoft lawyer Rick Rule said the company would need time to respond to Houck's proposal. Microsoft first heard of the plan to ask for an extension on Friday, he said, and the California group plans to file a formal extension request with the court in mid-October. Rule seemed to suggest Microsoft would fight the five-year extension. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly declined to impose a 10-year judgment in 2002, he said. "We think the picture of the computer industry is much rosier," Rule added. "We think it's clear that the decree has done its job." Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said the company will respond in more detail after it has seen the extension request. "We're a bit surprised that a few states are now requestingÂ an extension of the consent decree because they indicated just last month that they're not too fond of it," Evans said. In August 2006, Microsoft already agreed to an extension of the section of the judgment requiring it to make its communications protocols available to other software vendors. Microsoft's efforts to fix technical documentation for the protocols have run into several delays. Houck on Tuesday asked Kollar-Kotelly to extend the communications protocol section of the judgment until 2012. The California group does not "have any confidence" Microsoft will continue to improve the communications protocol program without oversight, Houck said. An independent auditor's report just issued questions whether Microsoft has released all the protocols mandated in the judgment, he added. The California group's extension proposal comes afterÂ the U.S. Department of Justice and the New York group of states filed briefs last month saying the antitrust judgment has done its job. "There have been a number of developments in the competitive landscape ... that suggest that the Final Judgments are accomplishing their stated goal of fostering competitive conditions among middleware products, unimpeded by anticompetitive exclusionary obstacles erected by Microsoft," said the report from the DOJ and New York group, which includes five states. But Houck disputed that assessment on Tuesday. At the time of the judgment, a handful of PC vendors were preinstalling a competing Web browser on PCs, he said. Today, no major ones are, he said. In addition, the communications protocol program was supposed to be finished early in the judgment's life, and its delays have kept software vendors from fully using the program, Houck said. "The whole thing ... doesn't have an opportunity to work as the court intended," he said. "It's very clear that the product markets at issue in this case have not moved rapidly at all." Kollar-Kotelly said she would delay final reports on the judgment while she considers the California group's request. Microsoft and the plaintiffs were scheduled to meet with her Nov. 6 to discuss the final reports, but she will now consider the extension request on that date. Before Houck made his request, the judge said she was opposed to extending the judgment without a good reason. It was hard to predict the impact the judgment would have, she added. "The final chapter of the final judgment has not been written," Kollar-Kotelly said. The California group wants Kollar-Kotelly to extend all of section 3 of the judgment except for section 3B, dealing with manufacturer royalties. The extended provision would include: *Â A prohibition against Microsoft retaliating against PC vendors for including competing software on PCs; *Â A prohibition against Microsoft restricting PC vendors from putting competing middleware in the start menu or making them defaults; *Â A requirement that Microsoft give APIs for its middleware to PC vendors and independent software vendors.
502346
BEA let the bid's deadline expire, as it promised it would, and Oracle won't rule out another try.
644196
A deadline on private bids for Northern Rock, the bank almost ruined by the squeeze on global credit, was to expire on Monday amid speculation that three proposals will be made to the board.
609738
By Kevin Howe, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.  Sep.