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White House opens door to tolls on interstate highways, removing long-standing prohibition. With pressure mounting to avert a transportation funding crisis this summer, the Obama administration Tuesday opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to raise revenue for roadway repairs. The proposal, contained in a four-year, $302 billion White House transportation bill, would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition on most interstate tolling. Though some older segments of the network — notably the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes and Interstate 95 in Maryland and Interstate 495 in Virginia — are toll roads, most of the 46,876-mile system has been toll-free. Washington Post

The Privatization of the National Mall: America’s Front Yard for Sale. . . Cunningham claimed that the National Park Service, in undertaking a multimillion-dollar renovation plan, was striving for “a more sustainable and visitor-friendly urban park.” A review of National Park Service documents reveals a tangle of onerous restrictions that will have a chilling effect on who will be able to pursue hosting an event on the National Mall. The effort, imposes draconian rules and permit requirements that, if not overturned, will leave the National Mall little more than a virtually fenced off playground for those wealthy enough to sponsor events there. Under the latest requirements of the Park Service, intended to protect newly installed “high-tech turf,” most of the memorable events of recent history on the Mall would not be possible. Huffington Post