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ByCandiceChoi The Associated Press Subwaybenefitedhugely from Jared Fogle's weight loss story. Now the sand- wich chain needs to fig- ure out how to prevent him from overshadowing its fu- ture. It's not clear how cus- tomers will react to Fogle's plans to plead guilty to al- legations that he paid for sex acts with minors and received child pornogra- phy, since it doesn't have anything to do with Sub- way's food. But the associa- tion of the company's name with crimes that evoke such universal disgust come at a rough juncture for Subway. Subway is facing intense competition and concerns that it's overgrown. The company's founder and CEO is fighting cancer. And at a time when attitudes about the definition of healthy are changing, Subway is trying to convince people about the quality of its food by removing artificial ingre- dients from its menu. Companies like having famous representatives be- cause it's a way to make people feel like that they could somehow be more like those individuals — which in the case of Fogle meant losing weight and be- ing able to keep it off. But such relationships also can backfire when celebrities run into trouble. The charges against Fo- gle also are tough because he wasn't just a one-time endorser; he is famous solely for dropping more than 200 pounds with his "Subway diet." Subway leaned on Fo- gle's story for more than 15 years as it more than doubled its locations in the U.S. The pitchman ap- peared in Subway TV ads as recently as last month, on the day his home was raided by state and fed- eral investigators, accord- ing to iSpot.tv, which mea- sures national TV ads. That ad recapped how Fogle lost weight, and the latest chap- ter in his life as a family man with two children. It was one of three Sub- way ads featuring Fogle up to that point in the year, out of a total of 40 differ- ent Subway ads, according to iSpot.tv. CHILD SEX CHARGES MICHAELCONROY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle leaves the Federal Courthouse in Indianapolis, Wednesday following a hearing on child-pornography charges. Subway's latest challenge: Getting out from Jared's shadow By Juliet Williams The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Gov. Jerry Brown urged lawmakers Wednesday to reach an agreement on how to pay for billions of dollars in needed road and highway repairs in California, with- out committing support for any current proposals. Brown's administration says California faces a $59 billion backlog in infra- structure repairs over the next decade. He called a special session of the state Legislature to address it, but lawmakers have been slow to act. Democrats are float- ing several possible tax in- creases to repair potholes and bridges, but Republi- can lawmakers whose votes would be needed have re- jected the ideas. They are instead urging the state to shift money from other programs to pay for infra- structure. Brown joked that as governor in 1982 it was Republicans who wanted him to raise the gas tax, but he talked them down to a lower figure before he agreed. "I can understand where the Republicans are com- ing from but the potholes don't wait, the congestion doesn't wait," he said at a news conference Wednes- day in Oakland, where he met with local leaders and Assembly Speaker Toni At- kins, D-San Diego. "I'm not going to try to say where the revenue's go- ing to come from, how we're going to get it," he said. Lawmakers from both parties agree the state's transportation tax struc- ture is out of date and heav- ily reliant on a gas tax that has not increased in 20 years. Today's cars are more fuel efficient and electric car drivers pay little to main- tain the roads they drive on. Transportation advo- cates and lawmakers have proposed a variety of fixes, including hiking fees on gas, vehicle registration and licenses; re-directing money used to pay off state debt back to road projects; and converting carpool lanes into paid tollways. Brown's administration is studying how to eventually tax drivers for miles trav- eled instead of gas guzzled. On Wednesday, the Bay Area Council, which rep- resents San Francisco Bay Area businesses, proposed a permanent extension of sales taxes included in tem- porary Proposition 30 taxes approved by voters, urging the state to dedicate the es- timated $1.5 billion in an- nual revenue to transporta- tion projects. "We need more money for transportation, we need to be more creative about what projects and programs we fund, and we need to be a lot more effi- cient at turning the money into the projects," said president Jim Wunderman. Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff, R-San Dimas, and other GOP leaders say they want to fund needed transportation projects by redirecting money from cap-and-trade and truck weight fees or eliminating what they see as excess Cal- trans jobs. BILLIONS OF DOLLARS Gov. Brown urges lawmakers to address transportation funding By Janie Har The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Sales of California homes remained robust in July, with the number of houses and con- dos sold hitting a nine-year high for the second month in a row, a research firm re- ported Wednesday. CoreLogic Inc. reported an estimated 46,065 new and existing single-family homes sold in California in July. That's up 14.4 percent from last July, and main- tains strong sales recorded in June, indicating that the state may well be climbing out of last decade's fiscal downturn. The statewide median sale price increased 6.4 percent from last July to $415,000, the same as in June, and the highest for any month since Novem- ber 2007, when the median price was also $415,000. Andrew LePage, a re- search analyst with Core- Logic, said the three key factors for strong sales are job growth, consumer con- fidence and low interest rates, factors echoed by other analysts. "So we don't know what holes there are in the future, but this is evidence that the recovery is continuing and ongoing," said Christopher Palmer, assistant professor of real estate at the Haas School of Business. Home sales in June and July nearly reached a sales peak reached in September 2006, before the national housing bubble burst, when 46,464 homes were sold. Supplies, however, re- mained thin in July. The California Association of Realtors on Tuesday re- ported a 3.3-month supply of single-family homes for sale, below a normal sup- ply of five to seven months. There was only a two- month supply in the San Francisco Bay Area, where sales in the notoriously lim- ited San Francisco and San Mateo markets actually de- creased from the previous July. The median price in those counties, popular with Silicon Valley workers, hovers around $1 million. Overall, however, home sales in the Bay Area hit a 10-year high for the month of July, increasing 10 per- cent from the previous year for a total of 9,245 con- dos and houses sold in the nine-county area. Growth was strong in in- land counties where homes are considered more afford- able. For example, Contra Costa County, east of San Francisco, saw a 19 percent increase in home sales; the median sale price is just under $500,000. Jennifer Branchini, an agent with Better Homes and Gardens Tri-Valley Re- alty, says demand is high among clients moving into Contra Costa County for jobs that are a tech shuttle ride away in Silicon Valley. "And you see that in the open houses with the traf- fic coming in, 90 percent don't live within the com- munity," she said. "They're coming from outside." The median sale price in the Bay Area increased 7.5 percent from last July to $661,000, near the peak reached in summer 2007 of $665,000. REAL ESTATE California home sales remain robust Sendyour"HiddenGem"entryviaemailtoeditor@redbluffdailynews.comorbymail c/o Hidden Gems, P.O Box 220, Red Bluff CA 96080 Your recommended must-see or must-do does not have to be in Tehama County, just within a 2- hour drive of Downtown Red Bluff. Remember, Tehama the Magazine's mission is to develop "pride in place" on the part of local residents, as well as good reading for Tehama County visitors -- and potential visitors. It's the only regional magazine with guaranteed home delivery to 6,000 local homes as a supplement to The Daily News,plus3000copiesforlocaldistributionthroughMayof2016inrestaurants, Chambers of Commerce, hotels and visitor information centers, and publication as a special digital edition on www.redbluffdailynews for a full year, Tehama County's most visited local website with over 70,000 unique visitors monthly! Roger Brooks, from the Branding Project, recommended the marketing of Red Bluff as an ideal visitors' Base Camp. You can be a part of this project. What's your favorite "hidden gem" that a visitor might not see driving on Main Street, I-5, Hwy 36 or 99E? • Museum? • Winery? • Fishing hole? • Park? • Mountain trail less traveled? October's Tehama the Magazine will be an AdventureGuide for local residents and visitors like none before it. We'll highlight places to visit, things to do and see allwithinabout2hoursofRedBluff. We'll award $50 Visa Gift Cards to the TEN best "hidden gem" recommendations from the public, written in 50 words or fewer, and received by AUG. 31, 2015. What's your favorite "hidden gem" in the great North State? | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 4 B