News
Here Is Your Bible of Privatization Horror Stories. A just-released draft report by In the Public Interest, a nonprofit contracting watchdog, offers nationwide look into just how the push for privatization is screwing up everything, from sick nuns to broken roads to beaten foster children. Gawker
US toll road industry improving, Moody’s report says. The outlook for the U.S. toll road industry is improving, thanks to a stronger economy and a slow but steady increase in toll traffic this year that’s expected to continue in 2014, a Moody’s Investors Service report said. San Antonio Express
Wall Street is designing the future of public education as a money-making machine…. The few power brokers mentioned so far are a handful of the many venture capitalists, hedge fund managers, CEOs, and politicians who are connected through a tangled and overlapping web of affiliations with nonprofits, businesses, and PACs (committees organized to raise and spend money in order to influence elections) dedicated to education privatization. TFA and LEE are two organizations that are part of the connective tissue. Salon
Meet Jeffry Sterba, America’s Highest Paid “Water Worker”…. American Water has been a major force behind the privatization of water services and has come under fire from communities across the country for charging high rates and providing poor services. In 2012, American Water generated $2.9 billion in total operating revenue. CMD estimates that approximately 89 percent of this revenue comes from taxpayers. PR Watch
NC: N.C. Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker is leading the privatization effort. This 10-year strategic plan is expected to be a blueprint for the new, nonprofit Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina Inc. that was incorporated in September. The partnership, created at the behest of the General Assembly this year, will be a privately run entity with its own CEO and board of directors that will work in collaboration with the Commerce Department to “assist, promote and enhance economic opportunities” in the state. Triangle Business Journal
FL: Jacksonville considers privatizing medical examiner office. The report criticized how she’s run the office. It noted things like excessive spending on items like autopsy saws. The office gets 2.5 million taxpayer dollars and this report said it can go a long way with the right person in charge. The goal is to find the most effective way to run the office,” said city of Jacksonville spokesman David DeCamp. ActionNewsJax.com
WA: Inmates, Whitman debaters argue privatization. The debate over privatizing U.S. prisons probably never had participants as involved as these. Two teams composed of Washington State Penitentiary inmates mixed with Whitman College students took on the issue Tuesday in a first debate of its kind at the prison. Walla Union-Bulletin