department of transportation, the federal transit administration. as you know, in that letter which was sent by the -- by leslie rogers who is a regional administrator of the federal transportation administration, that letter points out a number of things that quite frankly raise concerns about the mta's ability to manage this project and specifically, the letter says on page three, and i quote, the central subway project is a high risk project located in a densely populated urban center, it is the largest most complex project ever undertaken by the sfmta, thus sfmta will need to practice risk in a diligent and comprehensive manner. there's also another section of the letter that talks about -- and this is a direct quote from the letter, the mta is concerned about the ability of the sfmta to maintain its equipment and system in a state of good repair and the letter goes on to say based on the fta review of the bus and rail plans and the 20-year financial plan, fta cannot at this time determine sfmta's ability to do this. this is from the letter. so a

they were also celebrating report from the federal highway administration, the transit administrationey came out with an independent review. they do this every three years. it was an independent audit. they look at 24 criteria within the public transportation realm in terms of operation, maintenance, security, capital planning, and the like. they had a 90% score for muni. that is very significant. anything more than 80% is abnormal of sorts. that means not all of the agencies score as well as that. i want to acknowledge the mta for a job well done. there were three deficiencies of the 24 targets. two of those by the time the report was done have been completed. here is the one we still need to address. i want to promote this. this is one of the things they highlighted the we are now promoting. if you are on medicare, you are eligible for discounts on fares. we are supposed to be doing and will be doing this, we are supposed to put that on all of the bus stops and the bus shelters. we're doing all of these new shelters in the city. they are finally coming out. a lot of them have solar

the new transit center. this agreement, signed during the brown administration and campaign at the state level by former senate president john burton -- [applause] that agreement provides one of the largest funding contributions to this project and allows for the creation of new neighborhoods with hundreds of affordable housing units. today, during the tenure of our mayor, gavin newsom, he has been an enthusiastic and effective advocate of the project since he was a supervisor representing district two. we finally break ground today. this project would not have been possible without the numerous contributions of individuals, and in particular, our transportation partners. the city and county of san francisco, the san francisco municipal transportation agency, the san detail transportation authority, the transit district, the metropolitan transportation commission, the state of california, our state legislative delegation, the california high speed rail authority, and the united states department of transportation, the federal transportation administration, the federal highway administration, and the federal ra

he was a key negotiator in the drafting of the transitional administrative law, which was the first post-saddam hussein constitution in iraq. with that i will take very little of your time. he has appeared on many different television news shows. he has been a commentator and has provided incredibly up-to- date and informed opinions on what is going on in iraq. we look forward to hearing his insights this evening. thank you again. we will have a question and answer time afterwards. we hope that you will stay and ask your questions at that time. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, kim. i love hearing the crowd has evaluation sheets, something to make a person nervous. please give me good marks. [laughter] it is a pleasure to be here. i want to start by thanking the iie for bringing me here and the world affairs council of denver for bringing me to denver. i smiled when one of my staff suggested i fly here early to try to acclimate to the mountains. we do live in a mountainous area and we are used to it. [laughter] it is important for people to know the mountains are the backbone of our soul and

we would not be here today if it was not for the folks in the trenches with ft thec s andfmta and federal transit administration -- those are the folks that really brought this to fruition. they have a lot more hard work to do, as when you bring on any complicated technology like this. it does have its growing pains, and we will experience those, but you have a commitment from the mtc and mta that we will try to make this is painless as possible. i think it is a great day to have these new fare gauges, just another indication of how the mta is reinventing capital dollars to make sure the system is reliable and efficient and on time. we're going to have the project manager of m from theta -- from the mta take us over to the ticket machine. they will give us a demonstration of how the machines work, and they will give us cards from the new gates. we will come back and use the clipper cards on the new fare gates. >> good morning. today is wednesday, august 18, 2010. this is the regular meeting of the building commission. i would like to remind everyone to turn off their electric devices. the first agenda -- item o

my show twice a week without interruption from the time i began under the old public access tv administration through the transition and now for almost a year. there is certainly a loss of personnel with the new budget and the new structure and that sometimes causes some disappointment i think in terms of the ability to respond quickly to all the people who are involved. but overall i think it's been very helpful to see the public access station continue and to see it develop. we have the larger studio than before. they are trying to integrate the public access station into different kinds of web services. i feel that it offers me a great opportunity to learn more about entering the broadcast field and presenting programming to a wider audience. programming that wouldn't be available on any kind of commercial or regular cable channel. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> steve. i would like to use the internet if i could. is that possible? >> i don't believe you can access the internet from here. >> ok. well, i'll refer to it, then. supervisors, the project has had a program o

my show twice a week without interruption from the time i began under the old public access tv administration through the transition and now for almost a year. there is certainly a loss of personnel with the new budget and the new structure and that sometimes causes some disappointment i think in terms of the ability to respond quickly to all the people who are involved. but overall i think it's been very helpful to see the public access station continue and to see it develop. we have the larger studio than before.

coalition provisional authority in iraq, and was a key negotiator in the drafting of the transitional administrative law, which was the first post- saddam constitution in iraq. with that, i will take very little of your time and say he has appeared on many different television news shows. he has been a commentator and has provided incredibly up today and informed opinions on what is going on in iraq. we look forward to hearing his insights this evening. thank you again, and we will have a question and answerperiod afterward, and we hope you will stay and ask your questions at that time. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, kim. nothing makes the speaker more nervous than hearing that the crowd all has evaluation sheets on their chair. [laughter] please, give me good marks. it is a pleasure to be here. i want to start off by thanking the iie for bringing me here and for the world affairs council of denver, for bringing the outer to denver. i had to smile when one of my staff suggested i fly out here a day early to try to acclimate to the high elevation of your mountains. i quickly reminded that person

the president wants to show that he is keeping a campaign promise. whit johnson shows us the administration hopes to mark a transitiont necessarily a moment of triumph. >> reporter: president obama left the white house this morning heading to fort bliss, texas, home to the army's first armored division. that unit saw some of the heaviest fighting during the 7 years of war. tonight, the commander-in-chief will speak from the oval office. he is expected to tell the nation he kept his pledge to end america's combat role in iraq but what he won't say is mission accomplished. >> the president tonight will talk about the change in the combat mission as we focus on rebuilding our nation here at home. >> reporter: vice president joe biden is in baghdad to preside over the official end to combat operation. he met with the leaders and told the iraqis the u.s. is not abandoning them. the white house has also sented bien to push iraqi politicians to break the stalemate that lasted for months and get a new government in place. extremists have used that political uncertainty to launch attacks against iraqi forces who are now respo

people driving cars in the city so one of our goals in the mayor newsom administrative is to make nonautocars more accessible and convenient. the transit effectiveness project your mostly aware of. vigorous approach to improving muni but not only about that to expand options to ride buses and rail but bikes and walking in san francisco. we believe the safer that the pedestrian environment is in san francisco the more attractive it will be for local residents and hopefully the more attractive for people to get out of their cars and use city streets. on behalf of mayor newsom i appreciate you all being here today and hope to learn from various panels such as walk san francisco and others in partnership with mta to improve pedestrian safety. thank you very much. >> thank you, wade. it's now my pleasure toin troe dues the executive director of the san francisco municipal agency nathaniel ford. he over sees to planning and develop meant of virtually every mode of transportation in san francisco. pedestrian, bikes, transit, parking the safety and comfort and convenience of the network in san francisco is a top priority for the san francisco

. >> the obama administration says it will not allow the bombing to derail the transition to semsy. >he world bank agreed to redirect $900 million in aid and put it into flood relief instead. 20 people milin people have been devastated by three weeks of flooding. charities and international agencies are trying to rush food, water and medical help to pakistan. and there is a key river again. >> and a study recruits the claim most of the oil from the gulf spill is gone. researchers say they up to 80% of the oil is still in the gulf. they say plumes are praped and cold, deep water, researchers warn it's still threatens marine life. >> it's not black or brown. looks like sea water but that doesn't mean there is not oil in there. >> we spoke to a local seafood wholesaler today receiving a shipment last night. >> i believe that seafood is save and i believe consumers can eat it can confidence. >> and some asking shrimpers to sign a waiver saying they will not be paid until further testing saying the shrimp not tainted. >> why hearing loss is on the rise. part of the reason will come as no s

the pilot equipment at civic center will be in service on tuesday, august 18. as it relates to our federal transit administration and our funding, we recently received some good news. we received some national recognition. of the $71 million of the m.t.a. received in our funding we have logged nearly $800,000 total job hours under that fund -- 800,000 total job hours under that funding. this ranks sixth among all the transit agencies that received our funding. so out of the largest systems in the country we were ranked number six. and beyond that the m.t.a. ranked number fourth for jobs created or retained in the first quarter of 2010 using these federal funds. the transit capital assistance program, a grant of $85 million, is funding 14 of our transit-related capital projects. and as a result of these funds, 568 jobs were created and/or sustained including laborors, coordinators, electricians, engineers and expectors, quality control specialists as well as machinists and installers. so we remain committed to working with the federal government to retain and create more jobs and continue our efforts in seeking a