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GOP Fundraising Scandal in New Jersey (in National News) Bayview's Not-So-Affordable Housing (in Bay Area News) APIs in B2B E-commerce (in Business) A Shower in Beijing (in A&E) Emil Amok: Our Brother on Big Brother (in Opinion) Third Street Light Rail Funding Gets Approval By Associated Press This year’s state budget, approved June 30, included $140 million transportation venture that will fund the San Francisco Muni Third Street Light Rail extention to Chinatown. The transportation line with underground subway stations at Moscone Convention Center, Market Street, Union Square and Chinatown will connect high-density residential neighborhoods with compact retail cores in the Bayview Hunter’s Point district and employment and retail land uses in downtown San Francisco and Chinatown. As a member of the Joint Assembly and Senate Budget Conference Committee, Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, has been pushing for the project’s funding, which at total cost nears $500million. “The Third Street Corridor is presently a very transit dependent strip in San Francisco,” Migden said. “This project makes [the city’s] unique neighborhoods more accessible to visitors and residents alike, and has the potential to provide stronger economic balance throughout the city.” Total transit ridership in the corridor for 1997 was 66,000 and is projected to reach 140,000 daily passengers by 2015.