>> senator blount, as we talked about, columbia is to be congratulated to being able to get themselves off the essential air service program and how do we ensure they stay there. sat down with their staff to see what we knew about columbia and encouraged them to meet with the leadership at the columbia airport, what i talked about with them is that one thing we will certainly need to do is in recognition of the fact that the airport's master program is quite old, we probably need an update there, and the faa is certainly willing to be working with them on that. well, that would be helpful and i think, you know, as the airports move to where they are not getting the essential air service support, things that we can do to help them stay there is beneficial and make money as long as we have a air service program and we can help people stay off of it, it's hard to imagine that it's not a better investment than the esa support that we would normally give those same airports. so thank you for looking at that. >> thank you. >> thank you, chairman. >> thank you, what i need to do now is becaus

governor blount backing down from his controversial proposal to protect the bullet train project fromnctions requested by environmental groups. brown's staff indicated he would scrap exceptions for the high speed rail project. the governor is asking legislature for six billion dollars to start construction as early as december. lawmakers will decide early next week. it appear the stand was jeopardizing support for the project from environmentalists as well as labor unions and big engineering firms. >>> a judge has decided not to overturn suspend shuns of dozen of -- suspensions of dozens of students the judge rule the right to due process for the 67 seniors was not violated but call the punishment by the district harsh. the judge says he could review the case again if the high school doesn't allow students to make up missed final if they are denied college admission for loses scholarships. they were not allowed to attend graduation because they were suspended for spraying the school with graffiti. >>> bay area lawmaker stopped his efforts to regulate how personal information collected

we are particularly thankful to senator blount for his engagement. on april 10th, without the notice and comment predicated under the administrator's procedures act, a dramatic policy shift. henceforth, reporters would be required to use only government software, government hardware, government lines, government notebooks and government pens. the use of modern news producing software with the greater accuracy and context it provides would be prohibited. all transmission would be via the internet, not secure lines. the department of labor to operate the lines control internet access and control internet connections creating a single point of failure, because all news organizations would share the same infrastructure. although the policy change was unprecedented, it was presented as non-negotiable, a fait accompli. news organizations were required to remove their software, hardware and dedicated lines from the department by june 15. this proposal threatens the first amendment. the government would literally own the reporters' notebook, unlike any other

. >> senator blount? >> thank you for the good job you are doing, as you and i talked about -- as i said when we visited the other day, you know, there are probably hard to find a group of 535 people that fly more or think they are more experts in air traffic air traffic than members of congress, so it makes your job harder than a lot of the other regulatory jobs. but i've been impressed by the way you have been doing it and hope that we can maybe, moving permanently into the position allows you to finalize things in a better way. i have two or three things i want to ask about. on the pilot flight rule, at one point it looked like to me that the faa was moving toward having the same flight rules for passenger pilots as cargo pilots which i did not think was necessary and eventually you decided that wasn't necessary either, is that what you'll continue to stand on, that you are moving the passenger pilots to other rules? is that the status? >> when we finalized the rule at the end of last year, we exempted

. >>> governor blount backing down from his controversial -- governor brown backing down from his controversial the bullet train project. he would no longer include modifications to the state environmental quality act and package of legislation regarding the high speed rail project the governor wants six billion dollars to start construction as early as december. lawmakers will decide on the matter early next week. >>> san francisco cab drivers are working with the transportation agency to try to get more taxis on streets during city events. there are more than 1500 active permits. city officials approved 100 temporary permits to accommodate crowds at the u.s. open last weekend. extra cabs were also deployed when bart's transbay service was disrupted by fire a week ago. officials are considering more cabs for major weekend events such as the upcoming pride celebration. the america's couple -- the america's cup and the music festival. >>> richmond exploring new ways to cut costs that may include fewer city sponsored festivals. richmond is facing a 2.6 million deficit in the next fiscal year city