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California Today

California Today: Would You Pay $195 to Take a Helicopter to Work?

The dreaded commute across the Bay Bridge.Credit...Ben Margot/Associated Press

Good morning.

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Commuters in San Francisco lost on average 116 hours — almost five full days — to traffic congestion last year, according to the research firm Inrix. In Los Angeles it was 128 hours. On some days, of course, a single commute can feel like five days.

Blade, a start-up based in New York, saw the commuting nightmare as a business opportunity. Earlier this year the company started daily helicopter flights across the Bay. For $195 you can hop from Oakland to Palo Alto.

While the idea of spending that much on an eight-minute flight will be absurd to many people, it says something about traffic congestion in and around San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Oakland to Palo Alto is the company’s most popular route in the Bay Area, according to Will Heyburn, the head of corporate development at Blade. At around 15 miles, it’s also the shortest of the company’s regular routes in the United States.

In other words, some people are willing to pay almost $200 to avoid a single bridge.

“These people are buying an extra two and a half hours at home,” said Mr. Heyburn, who declined to say how many people have used the service since it began in March. The helicopter seats six passengers.

Helicopters will not solve California’s traffic woes, though. Most of us will continue to sit in cars while our knuckles get sore from clenching the steering wheel.

What passes for good news in this domain is that traffic congestion seems to have plateaued in the Bay Area, according to John Goodwin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Traffic through the Bay Bridge toll plaza was down less than 1 percent during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, Mr. Goodwin said.

As someone who’s been in the job nearly two decades, Mr. Goodwin says he is confident he knows what might ease congestion in the short term: a recession.

“Bad time to be looking for work, good time to be driving to work,” he said.

(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)

Jessica Biel, who became famous on the television series “7th Heaven,” faced intense criticism for lobbying against a bill in Sacramento that would toughen immunization requirements in California. [New York Times]

Margaret Hunter, wife and former campaign manager for Representative Duncan Hunter, pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to misuse campaign funds.” [San Diego Tribune]

• Lawmakers in Sacramento passed a $215 billion budget bill on Thursday, though some details are still subject to negotiation. [Sacramento Bee]

• Gov. Gavin Newsom has outlined a sharply progressive vision for California. His first budget came with both wins and losses for him. [San Francisco Chronicle]

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Gov. Gavin Newsom. Lawmakers passed his first budget this week.Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times

• A federal judge has approved a $215 million settlement between the University of Southern California and patients of former campus gynecologist George Tyndall. [Los Angeles Times]

• A U.C. Berkeley-Los Angeles Times poll of the California Democratic primary election showed home state Senator Kamala Harris in fourth place, behind Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. [Los Angeles Times]

• An animated discussion: Mia Birdsong, an activist and beekeeper in Oakland, talks to The Times’s Wendy MacNaughton about what bee hives can teach us. [New York Times]

• Book Review: Mark Arax wrote an exhaustive history of California agriculture, “half environmental nightmare, half remarkable success story.” [New York Times]

• The Toronto Raptors claimed the N.B.A. championship Thursday night against the Golden State Warriors. [New York Times]

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Sandy Gibson, the chief executive of Better Place Forests, in the start-up’s Santa Cruz location.Credit...Christie Hemm Klok for The New York Times

You’re going to reread this sentence once or twice: Silicon Valley is trying to disrupt death.

A new start-up, Better Place Forests, is reimagining how we may be laid to rest. With $12 million in venture capital funding, it is buying forests and selling the right for the deceased to have their cremated remains mixed with fertilizer and fed to trees. It’s not fiction: A forest graveyard will open this month at Point Arena, south of Mendocino.

“Cemeteries are really expensive and really terrible, and basically I just knew there had to be something better,” said Sandy Gibson, the chief executive of Better Place. “We’re trying to redesign the entire end-of-life experience.”

Costs run between $3,000 and $30,000, depending on the desirability of the tree species you choose. You can even have your pet’s ashes mixed with yours, writes Nellie Bowles, who covers technology and culture for The New York Times.

“You’re part of this forest, but you’re also part of creating this forest,” Mr. Gibson said. “People love that.”

Read more of Nellie’s story here.

California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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