Bay area

But for now, these crows won’t be gulled.

The saga began in January 2022, when officials in the South Bay city equipped a public works employee with a handheld $20 green laser to flash at the birds that had been swarming the downtown areas of Plaza del Sol and historic Murphy Avenue, as the Mercury News first reported . Initially, the crows scattered. A little over a month went by, and the program was deemed a success, especially after previous efforts to use reflectors and introduce falcons to the area yielded little to no results.

Then October arrived. So did the crows. City officials brought the lasers back, but they were no use.

“The lasers seem to be less effective than they were last year,” Garnett said. “Crows are very intelligent, so they get used to deterrents or change locations to avoid them.”

The problem is that crows are creatures of habit, and once they’ve established themselves in a favorable roosting area, they’re not going to be inclined to leave, as Glenn Phillips, the executive director of the Golden Gate Audubon Society, previously pointed out .

“The issue is that they’re really smart birds,” he told SFGATE by phone on Thursday. “It’s hard to fool a crow, and they pretty quickly learn what a real threat is and what might be something perceived as a threat. The fact that the lasers didn’t work doesn’t surprise me in the least.”

Their numbers are also rapidly increasing . While the Golden Gate Audubon Society won’t release the compiled data from its most recent Christmas Bird Count until June or July, observations tallied at the end of 2021 revealed an all-time record of 1,710 crows in San Francisco.

“The population throughout the Bay Area has certainly been trending upward for the past five years, and I would expect that trend will continue,” Phillips said.

It’s easier to ward off the crows when they first start to form their communal night roosts, which can happen as soon as late summertime.

The Humane Society recommends methods such as playing recorded crow distress calls, using pyrotechnics or making other loud noises that sound like fireworks, or hanging effigies of crows to keep the birds at bay.

It remains to be seen what the city of Sunnyvale will try next. If the study issue is approved in this year’s budget, staff will begin working on it later this year, Garnett said.

SFGATE tech editor Joshua Bote contributed to this report.

One year later, they are still waiting for needed upgrades from Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

“I thought by now we’d be moving in,” Ernst said. “It just doesn’t end.”

Bay Area residents are under growing pressure to get rid of gas appliances in their homes. Last month, regional pollution regulators passed rules barring new gas-powered residential furnaces or water heaters from being installed, even in existing homes, starting a few years from now. And people will be charging their electric cars at home in growing numbers heading toward 2035 when sales of new gas-powered cars will end in the state.

But homeowners who want to abandon fossil fuels are confronting a major obstacle: getting PG&E to move quickly enough to provide more electricity.

Homes connected to the grid have electric panels, a steel box holding circuit breakers that manage the flow of electricity into the building. Residents adding more electricity-gulping appliances sometimes need a new panel capable of supplying more amperage, or amps, so more electricity can flow into a home.

The process requires a collaboration with PG&E. Property owners may need to make renovations to accommodate new equipment, including not only the panel but also the wiring into a building and other parts connecting the system to neighborhood power lines. PG&E is closely involved in the work to ensure it follows safety codes.

PG&E said the part of the process it works on most directly — reviewing and approving the wiring changes and connecting the home to neighborhood power lines — takes on average four weeks (and the company seeks to reduce that to three). About half of all panel upgrades are simple requests that take less than a month, according to PG&E.

But the other half are more complex and time-consuming, with a process that PG&E says typically runs five to 14 months from start to finish for individual residential panel upgrades. That timeframe includes homeowners’ negotiations with PG&E over issues such as where to locate the panel  — which is the responsibility of the homeowner, but ultimately requires PG&E approval.

In other words, this scenario requires time, patience and money  — and is likely to become increasingly common as more households electrify appliances in older homes.

Ernst knew her house would need far more electricity than the old stucco bungalow’s 125-amp electric panel, especially because they plan to get an electric car. So she called PG&E.

She’d already gone through the process before. The home had a 40-amp service when she and her husband bought it in 2019, and it took PG&E about five weeks to connect the new 125-amp electric panel.

This time, her panel upgrade request was assigned to PG&E’s “express connections” department. She bought the bigger 320-amp panel to replace the smaller old one. Her contractor just needed to know where to install the new panel, which is about four times larger than her current panel. It couldn’t be located in the same place as the old one, Ernst said, because of space constraints and other technical limits.

Ernst has exchanged dozens of emails with a PG&E “express connections” employee based outside the Bay Area, according to a review of these files by The Chronicle. She’s sent diagrams, measurements, detailed descriptions, photographs from various angles and her contractor’s notes.

At one point, a PG&E staffer passed along a photograph to Ernst that was marked up by another utility employee with three location options for the new panel. The first option was actually the neighbors’ house and the other two were areas too narrow. In another exchange, PG&E recommended Ernst use an external door to the first floor garage space to build a utility closet and give the company the keys. Ernst declined because that would cut off access to the first floor through that door and reduce storage space.

Not once in the last 12 months has a technician or any other PG&E staffer visited her property, she said. This is the crux of the problem, according to Ernst, who said PG&E simply cannot do this work remotely by reviewing photos with any efficiency.

PG&E’s Express Connect department, which generally operates remotely, is meant for simpler projects, according to utility spokesperson Lynsey Paulo.

However, PG&E attributed the long time frame to Ernst, saying her original application for a new electric panel was originally filed twice. “Applications were incomplete and (the) customer did not respond to requests for additional required information, so applications were canceled,” according to an emailed statement from Paulo.

Ernst said she’s had to answer the same questions repeatedly and the PG&E representative seemed to be failing to log the information. She said she was shocked to learn her application had been canceled without warning earlier this year, and it has since been reinstated.

Ernst is hopeful they have finally reached a compromise that only requires they demolish old stucco planters built into the front of her home to install the new panel. But there’s no guarantee.

“Who in their right mind is going to say: ‘Sure, I’m ready to electrify,’ ” Ernst said. “If people hear about my story — forget it.”

PG&E has acknowledged that its response times for a variety of services have been slowed because of urgent demands that the utility prioritize wildfire prevention work, such as putting power lines underground. In addition to individual homeowner upgrades, the utility has been slow to connect new housing developments to the grid — prompting complaints from officials in areas like Tracy, and leading state Sen. Scott Wiener to propose a bill to address the problem.

The experience of having a funky, old home is common in the Bay Area, where about 65% of homes were built before 1978 — before many current building codes and when demand for electricity was far less, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

But soon, the upgrade difficulties could become more widespread as swapping out appliances becomes mandatory. In the coming years, anyone with unrepairable water heaters (starting in 2027) and gas furnaces (in 2029) must install electric ones, according to new regulations from the air district, which is seeking to reduce health-harming pollution from nitrogen oxides.

Greg Nudd, deputy air pollution control officer with the air district, said property owners who adopt electric appliances gradually can get by, at least at first, without time-consuming panel upgrades. Nudd said he installed an electric water heater in his home without triggering an upgrade, though he will need a panel upgrade when he replaces his furnace.

Nudd says the air district tried to build in time before the rules kick in to allow for the industry to catch up with more energy-efficient appliances and for PG&E and homeowners to prepare on their ends too.

“We do recognize we’re pushing the envelope on technology,” Nudd said.

But some residents say the challenges are immense.

Sunnyvale resident Mike Kapolnek spoke out during air district meetings to warn board members about potentially troublesome consequences for homeowners who can’t make those upgrades without getting into a monthslong queue for PG&E.

Kapolnek told The Chronicle he’s been waiting since September to have PG&E approve a location for a new electric panel so he can forgo most gas appliances for electric ones. Utility staff at one point directed him to install metal poles in front of the panel for safety reasons — in his narrow driveway.

He lives on a residential street with older homes and huge magnolia trees — both complicating factors, despite the charm. He’s anticipating further delays once the utility grapples with where to install a new electric drop, the line bringing electricity from street power lines to the house because of those magnolia’s sprawling branches.

He’s hoping this will be resolved by summer, “if we’re lucky,“ Kapolnek said.

Reach Julie Johnson: [email protected]; Twitter: @juliejohnson

Latest updates:

Long COVID linked to lower brain oxygen levels

Long COVID is associated with reduced brain oxygen levels, worse performance on cognitive tests and increased psychiatric symptoms, according to a new study. In an analysis of two parallel studies — a laboratory study involving cognitive testing and imaging and a population survey — researchers from the University of Waterloo found that individuals who experienced symptomatic COVID-19 illness showed impaired brain function compared to those who had not been infected. The paper was published Wednesday in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity .

“We are the first to show reduced oxygen uptake in the brain during a cognitive task in the months following a symptomatic COVID-19 infection,” said Dr. Peter Hall , lead author and researcher in the School of Public Health Sciences at Waterloo. “This is important because a lack of sufficient oxygen supply is thought to be one of the mechanisms by which COVID-19 may cause cognitive impairment.”

In the population survey of more than 2,000 Canadians aged 18 to 56, respondents who had COVID reported difficulty concentrating, as well as increased symptoms of anxiety and depression. These effects were more detectable among unvaccinated individuals. Older women, in particular, appeared most impacted by the brain imaging outcomes.

“It appears that, regardless of gender and other demographic factors, COVID-19 infection at baseline is correlated with increased problems with emotion regulation six months later: depression, anxiety and agitation. In some cases, we are talking about symptom levels that are at or above recommended as cut-off scores for psychiatric diagnoses,” Hall said.

Vaccines will hit commercial market with next virus strain

In an update to the potential timeline for commercialization of COVID-19 medical countermeasures , including vaccines, the federal Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) said it expects that to happen once the doses are reformulated for the next coronavirus lineage. “Provided that one is authorized and recommended by FDA and CDC, we expect this transition will align with a possible strain change that accounts for any potential variants,” the agency said. Once the national pandemic emergencies are lifted on May 11, the government will not provide funding for free tests or treatments beyond what is available in the national stockpile, with vaccines likely to remain free for most U.S. residents through government programs and most commercial insurance. But the ASPR noted that there may not be enough to last through the end of 2023, especially if the nation sees more seasonal waves of cases and hospitalizations. “The treatments transition to commercial markets will vary by product and will likely occur for at least one product before the end of the year,” the update said.

Hopes dashed for combo flu and COVID vaccine this year

According to a federal official, vaccines that provide vaccination against both influenza and COVID-19 will not be ready this year. Dr. Peter Marks of the Food and Drug Administration previously said he expected the combination shots to be ready for consumers in 2023. But this week he told a webinar by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases that hitting a target for the fall season was “too heavy a lift,” and they would not be available until 2024. “I think that had to do with the fact that it was not so clear that annual vaccination against COVID-19 was likely to be necessary until the past several months,” Marks said. “But our goal is for the following season to have that available.” Pfizer and Moderna have both been working on developing the combo shots, but Pfizer told investors in January that it did not anticipate hitting the market with its shot until 2025.

State cases and hospitalizations remain stubbornly high

California tallied another 237 confirmed COVID-19 deaths this week, bringing the statewide pandemic toll up to 100,424 as of Thursday, with an average of 18 people still dying each day due to the virus. While the COVID-19 state of emergency ended this week, the prevalence of the coronavirus remains stubbornly high as the state’s overall metrics appear to have stalled for the third consecutive week.

California’s health department reported an average of 2,760 new daily cases — or about 6.9 per 100,000 residents — as of Thursday, compared to 2,859 cases per day, or 7.1 per 100,000 residents in the prior week. The state’s seven-day rolling coronavirus test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of lab test results that are positive for the virus, remains unchanged at 6.5%. The state’s wastewater facilities show levels of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material plateauing in most regions. The daily average of COVID patients in California hospitals now numbers 2,506, compared to 2,607 last week. Nearly 4% of the state’s inpatient beds are now in use for COVID-19 patients, up from 2.61% over the same period.

Biden asks for $1.6 billion to tackle pandemic fraud

President Biden will ask Congress to approve $1.6 billion in funding to clamp down on fraud tied to a variety of COVID-19 pandemic relief programs, the White House said on Thursday. The move comes ahead of anticipated investigations by House Republicans into the trillions of dollars of aid distributed by the president and his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Some $600 million will go toward rooting out criminal syndicates, $600 million will be used for investing in fraud and identity theft prevention, and $400 million will go toward helping victims who had their identities stolen. The White House will also ask that the statute of limitations for pandemic unemployment insurance fraud is increased to 10 years. The money will help triple the size of the Justice Department’s COVID Strike Force.

“We must empower law enforcement to pursue, investigate, prosecute, and recover money from those who were engaged in major or sophisticated fraud — from well-off individuals who took hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars from taxpayers to sophisticated criminal syndicates engaging in systemic identity theft,” the White House said.

Last month, a federal watchdog report estimated that the government distributed about $5.4 billion in COVID aid to people with “questionable” Social Security numbers.

Global cases down 76%, deaths down 66%

There were over 4.8 million new COVID-19 cases and over 39,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths reported globally in the last 28 days, according to the latest epidemiological update from the World Health Organization. The figures mark a decrease of 76% in cases and 66% in deaths compared to the previous 28-day period, the U.N. health agency said. The countries with the highest number of newly reported deaths were the United States, China, Japan, Brazil and the United Kingdom. But all saw declines over the past month.

The WHO cautioned the numbers are likely underestimates of the true number of global infections and reinfections. “This is partly due to the reductions in testing and delays in reporting in many countries,” the update said. “Data presented in this report may be incomplete and should, therefore, be interpreted with caution.”

A separate report from the WHO’s technical advisory group showed that the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 continues to grow in proportion. It was detected in 41.5% of sequenced samples, compared to 18.7% in the first half of January. The emerging sublineage XBF made up an estimated 1.2%.

L.A. County sets end date for emergency declarations

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to end the local COVID-19 emergency declarations at the end of the month. But they warned that does not mean the pandemic is over. “COVID-19 is still with us,” Supervisor Hilda Solis said, according to ABC7 . “No, we don’t want to abandon those tools that got us to this place… but with effective vaccines and testing abundantly available we can move on to the next phase of our response to COVID-19.”

The proclamation of a local emergency and proclamation of a local health emergency will expire on March 31. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said despite the end of the declarations, her agency will review existing health orders and some may stay in place. “A health officer always has authority to mitigate the impact of communicable diseases,” she said.

Newsom officially ends state of emergency, says “extreme peril” no longer exists

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday officially ended California’s COVID-19 state of emergency with a signed proclamation , nearly three years to the day he issued the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order on March 4, 2020. He declared “the conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property … no longer exist.”

The governor’s office said the state will now embrace its endemic SMARTER Plan to deal with the next phase of the pandemic. It added that COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and treatment continue to be available at sites within local communities, at least for now. Newsom’s COVID-19 state of emergency accounted for 74 executive orders that included nearly 600 rules.

California has reported more than 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, but Newsom’s office noted that the state’s per capita death rate was among the lowest in the nation . “If California had Texas’ death rate, 27,000 more people would have died here,” it said in a fact sheet . “If California had Florida’s rate, 56,000 more people would have died here.” It added that the national COVID-19 death rate of 339 per 100,000 persons was far above California’s rate.

“People who lost their life to COVID, people who lost neighbors and loved ones, we lament and are still saddened by that,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s health and human services secretary, said in a statement. “But to get to this point where we feel prepared to lift the state of emergency to move forward, that’s a big deal for Californians across the state.”

U.K. considered exterminating all cats early in the pandemic

A former British health minister said the government considered culling all pet cats in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. James Bethell told Channel 4 News on Wednesday that there was serious concern that domestic cats could spread the novel coronavirus.

“What we shouldn’t forget is how little we understood about this disease. There was a moment we were very unclear about whether domestic pets could transmit the disease,” he said. “In fact, there was an idea at one moment that we might have to ask the public to exterminate all the cats in Britain. Can you imagine what would have happened if we had wanted to do that?” In July 2020, the government warned pet owners not to kiss their cats after a female Siamese became the first known animal in the U.K. to catch the disease, according to the Guardian .

The revelation comes as Bethell’s boss, Matt Hancock, the country’s former health secretary, on Wednesday denied wrongdoing after a newspaper published extracts of more than 100,000 private messages he sent on WhatsApp in the first weeks of the pandemic. The Daily Telegraph said the exchanges show that he ignored scientific advice to test everyone entering nursing homes for COVID-19, leading to excess deaths. Hancock countered that the U.K. did not have the testing capacity. “The messages imply Matt simply overruled clinical advice. That is categorically untrue,” said a statement released by a spokesman. “He went as far as was possible, as fast as possible, to expand testing and save lives.”

Infants gain protection from vaccinated mothers, study finds

Mothers who are vaccinated against COVID-19 during pregnancy pass off some protection to their newborns, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed health records for more than 30,000 babies born to members of Kaiser Permanente Northern California between December 2020 and May 2022, comparing the likelihood of positive COVID-19 tests for babies of mothers who received two or more doses of the vaccine during pregnancy with babies of mothers who were unvaccinated. They found that children of vaccinated mothers were better protected for at least six months after birth.

“Our analysis supports the continued value of vaccination during pregnancy in protecting not only the mother, but the child as well,” said lead author Ousseny Zerbo, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, in a statement . “Because babies under 6 months cannot currently be vaccinated against COVID-19, receiving this protection through their mothers in utero is very important.” During their first two months after they were born, the risk of a positive COVID-19 test was reduced by 84% for infants of vaccinated mothers during the delta period and 21% during omicron. But they found that protection waned over time in both periods. In the delta period, protection dipped to 62% at four months and 46% at six months. During the omicron period, the protection fell to 14% at four months and 13% at six months. The study was published in Nature Communications .

Overall, the risk of hospitalization for COVID-19 was significantly lower for children of vaccinated mothers than those of unvaccinated mothers.

“Even though the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines was less during the omicron period, the vaccines still provided some protection for infants against both infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and hospitalization,” said senior author Nicola Klein, director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center. “Maternal vaccination is the best way to protect infants under 6 months of age who are not yet old enough to be vaccinated.”

Pfizer seeks authorization of booster for children under 5

Pfizer and BioNTech said on Wednesday that they submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking emergency use authorization for their omicron-targeting bivalent COVID-19 vaccine in children 6 months through 4 years of age. The updated booster is currently authorized as the third dose of the three-dose primary series for children in this age group. The authorization of a booster dose would allow families to give their young children a fourth dose to better protect them against more recent sublineages of the virus. Last week, the companies asked the FDA for full approval of the updated shots as a primary course and a booster dose for people 12 years of age and above.

The business-class regional carrier JSX is set to resume intrastate seasonal service on April 6 between Monterey and Santa Ana’s Orange County Airport with small-jet flights on Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays and Mondays. The Points Guy reports that United is planning to drop two more small cities from its network: Springfield, Illinois, on May 31 and Erie, Pennsylvania, on June 1. Both are served from Chicago O’Hare by United Express/SkyWest. It notes that American is due to add Chicago-Springfield service June 1 and that it already has Erie flights from its Charlotte hub.

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network is the latest provider to bring in-flight internet service to the airline industry, and it is rolling out on two U.S. carriers — at no cost to users.

Hawaiian Airlines does not currently offer in-flight Wi-Fi, but passengers should soon be able to access the internet if they’re on one of the airline’s Airbus A321neos. A company spokesperson tells us that Hawaiian will begin to offer free high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi this summer on the A321s, “with additional connectivity capabilities coming this fall across the airline’s wide-body aircraft.” With the high-speed link, passengers will be able to stream content, play live games with friends on the ground, collaborate on work projects in real time, and post those Instagram photos from their island trips. “Connecting to the internet will be seamless when guests walk on board, without registration pages or payment portals,” the spokesperson said.

Hawaiian will be the second U.S. airline to offer free Starlink satellite Wi-Fi. The first is the regional carrier JSX, which recently started offering the service on its 30-passenger jets. A few weeks ago, The Points Guy reporter Zach Graff conducted a series of technical tests of Starlink on a JSX flight and came away quite impressed. He connected four separate devices to the Starlink service and found the connections were “outstanding.” “Each device measured download speeds in excess of 100 Mbps. Upload speeds, which hovered between five and 20 Mbps, were just as impressive,” he wrote. “But the real show-stopper was the ping, a measure that generally indicates how much buffering you’ll experience during data-intensive tasks. The ping clocked in between 28 and 150 milliseconds in the four tests — an incredible feat for inflight Wi-Fi. Just by the measure of these speeds alone, I could quickly tell that this would be my fastest inflight experience ever.”

Air India, suffering from a shortage of Boeing 777 pilots, is trimming its U.S. schedules until it can staff up. The airline’s San Francisco-Delhi service has been reduced from 10 flights a week to seven from now through June 30, while its New York JFK-Mumbai schedule will be trimmed from daily service to four flights a week during the month of May, and Newark-Delhi service has been suspended from now through May 1. “Several Air India flights to North America have been canceled or delayed in the last few months,” Simple Flying said . “And all of it was primarily due to a crew shortage, ranging from an inadequate number of pilots or delays in the U.S. visas for flight attendants. In February, Air India had to cancel some flights to San Francisco and at least one to Vancouver. Many of the flights that were able to operate to North America faced delays of around 10-12 hours.”

In other international route news, Finnair this week resumed summer seasonal service to Helsinki from Chicago O’Hare with four weekly flights and from Seattle with three. Finnair already flies year-round from Los Angeles, New York JFK and Dallas-Fort Worth. Delta has resumed nonstop service from its Minneapolis-St. Paul hub to Tokyo Haneda after a three-year suspension of the route. Last year, American Airlines had to suspend some international service because Boeing was late in delivering the new 787s that the carrier was planning to use for that service, and apparently the problem is still lingering. American is suspending Philadelphia-Madrid flights during May and early June , citing the late delivery of Boeing Dreamliners.

Lufthansa, citing “strong demand” for transatlantic flights this summer, plans to bring its 509-passenger Airbus A380s back to the U.S., operating daily Boston-Munich service beginning June 1 and daily New York JFK-Munich flights starting July 4 . Delta, citing routine seasonal adjustments to its network based on future demand, plans to eliminate six transatlantic routes during the 2023-2024 winter season , which begins in late October. Routes getting the axe include Atlanta to Dusseldorf and Stuttgart, Germany, along with New York JFK to Berlin, Copenhagen, Geneva and Stockholm.

American Airlines and its partner JetSmart, a low-cost Chilean carrier, have filed with the U.S. Transportation Department for approval to begin code-sharing. The partnership would put American’s AA code onto both domestic and international flights operated by JetSmart, according to Routesonline.com . That carrier flies to 23 points within Chile and to eight other countries in South America. American currently flies to JetSmart’s Santiago base from Miami and Dallas-Fort Worth; it recently suspended New York JFK-Santiago service.

Santa Clara-based Archer Aviation has announced the second air taxi route it plans to operate for United Airlines, using Archer’s four-passenger electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL). Expected to launch in 2025, the route would carry passengers between downtown Chicago and United’s hub at Chicago O’Hare, operating from Vertiport Chicago, in the Illinois Medical District near The Loop. “From there, passengers will be able to travel to and from ORD via Archer’s Midnight aircraft in approximately 10 minutes. A similar trip by car can take upwards of an hour or more during rush hour traffic,” Archer and United said . They noted that the initial routes developed as part of their “urban mobility project” will focus on airport-to-city center transportation and will later expand to include service to surrounding communities. Last fall, the two companies said that their first eVTOL route would connect United’s Newark hub to the downtown Manhattan heliport, near Battery Park and convenient to the Wall Street financial district. The Archer eVTOLs operate at speeds of up to 150 mph with a range of up to 100 miles.

Although the number of “disruptive passenger” incidents has dropped off from its COVID-19-era peak — especially after the mask mandate ended — it’s still a lot higher than it was before the pandemic, and a bipartisan bill introduced in Congress this week would authorize the Transportation Security Administration to create its own no-fly list to ban troublesome individuals from commercial flights. Currently, unruly flyers face travel bans from the airline they were flying at the time of an incident, but there are no industrywide bans (except the FBI no-fly list, which targets people with suspected links to terrorists). A similar bill was pushed last year with the backing of airline unions, but it went nowhere. The new bill would let TSA decide how long to ban someone and would provide for an appeal process.

If you’re planning to fly outside the U.S. this summer and you need to apply for or renew a passport, you better start the process now. The State Department warns travelers that the volume of passport applications this year is running 30% ahead of 2022 levels, so as of this week, “Routine processing will take 10-13 weeks and expedited processing, which costs an additional $60, will take 7-9 weeks,” the agency said. “These new processing times only apply to new applications submitted on or after March 24. Processing time begins the day we receive an application and do not include mailing time.” If you already have a passport, the State Department said it continues “to urge U.S. citizens to check their passport expiration date and renew now if they are planning international travel this year.”

A federal judge in Boston has set Oct. 16 for the start of a trial in the Justice Department’s antitrust suit challenging the JetBlue-Spirit Airlines merger. The judge scheduled four weeks for the trial , which will be held without a jury. At issue in the case is whether the combination of the two carriers would heighten competition in the airline industry, as JetBlue’s lawyers contend, or diminish it, as the Justice Department claims. JetBlue is eager to get the trial and any possible appeals underway because it has set July 2024 as the deadline to complete the merger. Meanwhile, the Transportation Department has rejected an exemption request from JetBlue that would have allowed the two airlines to operate under common ownership pending the formal combination of their operating certificates. DOT cited the pending Justice Department suit as the reason for denying the exemption request.