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Local state parks lose $1M, close weekdays Due to California's fiscal turmoil, about $1 million will be cut from Marin state parks' $5 million-plus budget. Elimination of educational programs, weekday and campground closures will result, beginning as soon as Halloween weekend. Angel Island State Park is canceling environmental programs and limiting others; China Camp State Park is closing Back Ranch Meadows Campground on weekdays through the winter, and closing day-use areas on weekdays through June 30, 2010; Mount Tamalpais State Park is closing access to the upper mountain on weekdays through spring, implementing new fees in certain parking lots and closing Alice Eastwood Group Camp and Frank Valley Horse Camp on Sundays for the next few months; Olompali State Historic Park is closing weekdays through June 30, 2010; Samuel P. Taylor State Park is closing Madrone Group Camp and Irving Group Picnic day-use areas on Sundays through March 25, 2010; Tomales Bay State Park is eliminating environmental programs for 2009-2010, and closing the main park entrance, as well as Shell Beach and Millerton Point parking lots on weekdays through June 30, 2010.

Architect Lawrence Halprin dies Nationally recognized Bay Area architect Lawrence Halprin died Oct. 25 of natural causes at the age of 93. Among his best-known works are the 52-acre base of Yosemite Falls; the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.; Freeway Park in Seattle; Marin General Hospital; Sea Ranch in Sonoma; Ghirardelli Square, Stern Grove, Embarcadero Plaza, the U.N. Plaza on Market Street and Levi's Plaza on Battery Street in San Francisco. Mr. Halprin also served on the National Council on the Arts and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. He received a gold medal from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1978 and a Presidential Design Award for the FDR Memorial in 2000. He wrote several books and filmed an award-winning documentary on Salvador Dali. Mr. Halprin was a resident of Kentfield for 50 years and is survived by his wife, Anna, two daughters, Daria and Rana of Mill Valley, and four grandchildren.

Veolia invests in Novato Sanitary campaign The Novato Sanitary District board incumbent candidates received a significant fiscal boost Oct. 22 from a controversial private interest group. Veolia Water, the French company designated to operate the district's new $90 million wastewater treatment plant, is allotting $25,000 to support pro-privatization candidates Mike Di Giorgio, Bill Long and Art Knutson. Opponents of the decision to privatize the plant—and whose candidates have received less than $7,000 in financial backing from Sacramento unions and North Bay developers—have submitted a petition for a future ballot measure to end the privatization and return control to the district.

Shorts... The Bay Bridge closed on the night of Oct. 27 for sudden repairs. Transportation officials haven't yet determined a date to re-open the bridge...County supervisors approved an environmental impact report Oct. 27, submitted by the Dutra Group to continue operations at the San Rafael Rock Quarry...Supes also rejected a proposal to reduce the county's living wage ordinance for in-home service providers for the elderly and disabled.—Samantha Campos