News

LA: Traffic Camera Company Sues Client Over Cash

The sheriff of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana petitioned a federal judge last week for more time to answer the charges leveled by a red light camera company. Redflex Traffic Systems in August had filed suit demanding Sheriff Newell Normand hand the Australian firm a check for $8 million. Redflex is irate that its photo ticketing contract was swept up in a parish government corruption scandal two years ago. A new set of government leaders intent on cleaning up the parish decided on January 27, 2010 to suspend the red light camera program.  TheNewspaper.com

NC: Asheville residents get say on water

City voters will get their say this election on the question of whether the city should sell or lease its water system. But the question of whether the results of the referendum matter may be harder to answer than that of what they will be. Defeat of the referendum would be construed as a sign that city residents do not approve of the idea of transferring the water system to the Metropolitan Sewerage District, an independent government agency. But City Councilman Jan Davis is one of many people who wonder whether the referendum’s outcome will impact the General Assembly’s consideration of whether to give control of the water system to MSD. Republicans may move ahead with the idea regardless of what city voters say if they continue to control both houses of the legislature next year, he said.  Citizen Times

CA: Rocklin Charter School Shuts Its Doors Amid Controversy

Six weeks into the school year a charter school in Rocklin is closing its doors. Four hundred kids were told Friday that their school would close, and Tuesday was their last day. But many parents say the Horizon CEO is making up false excuses for why he’s closing the doors at Horizon’s Accelerated Learning Academy campus. Fired-up families were fuming even more Tuesday over what many consider a lame excuse for the shutdown. “They get between $5,000 and $7,000 in funding (per student),” parent Shauna Borchers said. “That’s $2.4 million in funding, and he’s going to tell me we can’t stay here and can’t find a building and safety issues? Get a new building. Get some police. Stop it. That’s not the truth.”  CBS Sacramento

Burden for rebuilding infrastructure may fall to states

Washington’s failure to come up with a long-term funding plan to repair the nation’s faltering transportation system is shifting the cost of critical infrastructure repairs to state and local taxpayers, according to Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. “The burden to finance infrastructure projects will fall more heavily on local government entities or users in the form of higher rates or tolls,” the financial analysts said this past week, “and some important construction could simply be deferred.” Washington Post

Sandy and Politics

On the other side of the ledger, we do have Romney on record as saying privatize FEMA. He did not quite say that FEMA was “immoral,” as some are writing. He said the debt to future generations caused by government spending on projects such as FEMA is immoral. The Daily Beast