Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. The Oakland A’s planned move to South Bay got a boost when 75 Silicon Valley executives sent a letter yesterday to Major League Baseball, calling for the team to relocate to San Jose, the Mercury News reports. Some of the biggest names in high-tech signed onto the letter, including the heads of eBay, Yahoo, and Cisco Systems. The letter shows that the A’s appear to have strong corporate backing for a new San Jose ballpark. Recently, thirty East Bay companies raised $500,000 for corporate sponsorships should the A’s remain in Oakland.
2. BART’s controversial Oakland Airport connector moved closer to breaking ground yesterday when the Metropolitan Transportation Commission allocated $20 million in state funds for the project, the CoCo Times reports. The new funding will help replace $70 million in stimulus funds that federal officials took away because of BART’s civil rights violations. Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, who sits on the MTC board and believes the $500 million elevated tram to the airport is a boondoggle, voted against the new funding.
