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But now that most interesting of lives is over. Over the years, Ace owned more than 200, up to 44 at any one time: Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, Jaguars, Austin-Healeys, Lincolns. “When I was in Europe, shot up and injured, I decided that anything that I want that I can afford, I’m going to have,” said Ace, who received four Purple Hearts and three Bronze Stars for valor.

Cars became an obsession, not surprising for someone who learned to drive at age 8, sitting on his father’s lap in the family’s Packard Twin Six. The man I called my favorite one-armed, race-car-driving ex-CIA officer died Sunday at the age of 94.

Adolph Charles “Ace” Rosner Jr. As an officer in the 3rd Division, 30th Infantry, 1st Battalion, Ace participated in four invasions: Morocco, Sicily, Salerno and Anzio.

It was at Anzio in 1944 that a German mortar shell tore his right arm to ribbons. Then he joined the Army. His father was a serial entrepreneur, and the family lived all over the country.

For a while after high school, Ace was a photo stringer in Baltimore for the New York Times. was born in 1917 in Birmingham, Ala., the seventh of eight children. Last year he let me drive his brand-new $200,000 Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing .

The transportation projects would be funded through Measure B3, a countywide sales tax measure. Currently, hearings are being held to determine which projects would be on the list to receive money.

The Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC) is faced with whittling down $30 billion worth of proposed projects to $7.7 billion. It would fund the $7.7 billion of projects that will be selected to be placed on the ballot early enough next year to meet the November deadline.

A coalition of groups based mainly in Oakland signed a letter by Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, who represents Berkeley and parts of Oakland, supporting a four-page "Community Vision Platform."

The Platform calls for money for AC Transit service restoration, repairs on the BART tunnel, bicycle/pedestrian project and program funding, money for local roads, and an eco-pass. The election would be held in November 2012.

If voters respond with the necessary two-thirds approval, the current one-half percent sales tax that goes to pay for transportation projects all over Alameda County would be raised to 1 percent.

Instead of sunsetting in 2022, as had been the case with the current one-half cent sales tax, the one-cent sales tax would continue in perpetuity. The transit pass would be free to all middle school and high school students in the county.