Week in review

Caltrain’s board of directors Thursday delayed voting on a set of proposed service cuts and fare hikes intended to save the agency from financial disaster.

After hearing more than an hour of public comment from Bay Area residents opposed to the proposed service reductions, the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board of Directors delighted the standing-room-only crowd by voting unanimously to put off adopting the service changes for two weeks.

During that time, the board hopes to come up with the necessary funds to keep Caltrain running at its current service level through the coming fiscal year.

The board had been prepared to adopt a resolution reducing daily weekday service from 86 to 76 trains, temporarily suspending service at the Capitol, Hayward Park and Bayshore stations, increasing the base fare by 25 cents, increasing parking fees in Caltrain lots from $3 to $4, and eliminating weekend train service at 11 stations.

San Mateo Mayor Jack Matthews and other concerned speakers, including developer Alan Talansky, specifically expressed opposition to the proposed closure of the Hayward Park Station in San Mateo.

New SFO terminal unveiled

Bay Area public servants along with a British multi-billion dollar tycoon Wednesday unveiled San Francisco International Airport’s Terminal 2, which recently underwent a massive renovation.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said at Wednesday’s event that Terminal 2, which will open to the public on April 14, looked like it provided top-notch amenities for anyone traveling the friendly skies and using one of T2’s 14 new gates.

Lee felt like he "walked into a five-star hotel lobby,” he said.

Lee was joined by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sir Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin Group, which started the airline Virgin America. The terminal is about 640,000 square feet with several art installations, and it is the new home for flights with Virgin America and American Airlines.

Governor signs San Bruno tax relief bill

Victims of the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion got a bit of tax relief Thursday after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill authored by Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo.

Assembly Bill 50 exempts from state taxes the disaster relief payments that victims received from Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the American Red Cross and the city of San Bruno after the Sept. 9 disaster.

Also under the bill, owners who sold their homes to PG&E following the disaster will not have to pay capital gains taxes on the sale of their home if the money is used to buy another home within five years.

The explosion, which killed eight people, destroyed or damaged dozens of homes and caused more than $55 million in property damage.

Fatal beating defendant incompetent for murder trial

The transient accused of beating an 88-year-old Belmont man so severely during a home invasion robbery he later died will be hospitalized rather than tried for capital murder after being found mentally incompetent.

If Tyler James Hutchinson, 23, is ever deemed restored after hospital treatment, he will return to San Mateo County and stand trial on murder and robbery charges and special allegations that could send him to prison for life without parole or death row for the killing of Albert Korn.

Korn died two weeks after allegedly encountering Hutchinson, 22, on the afternoon of June 2, 2009. The death was Belmont’s sole homicide that year. The transient had allegedly entered a back window of a home on the 2500 block of Hallmark Drive in Belmont and authorities believe he beat Korn before fleeing with his wallet and jewelry in the man’s car.