News
TVA Avoids Privatization. For many months President Obama has been looking to privatize TVA. Now, after releasing Monday’s budget, it looks like he is softening his stance. WTVC
The growing gap between the wealthy and everybody else – Opinion. Private clubs and restricted lounges come with monthly dues that approximate mortgage payments for some of us. San Francisco and Manhattan are becoming velvet- roped cities. The Daily Advertiser
Tolls impede the American spirit of the open road. Jack Kerouac would weep, were he alive today. The author famous for making road trips a rite of passage would be shocked to find how tolls, tickets and traffic fines are being used as revenue enhancement schemes and an extension of the American surveillance state. Equipment World Magazine
VA: House considers safeguards on public-private transportation deals. A bill to take the public risk out of public-private transportation deals is due before the House of Delegates for a final vote, while a companion bill to overhaul Virginia’s transportation funding formulas is scheduled for debate. Roanoke Times
CA: Controversy Heats Up Over DA Outsourcing Proposal. Controversy continues to swirl around a DA proposal seeking to outsource background investigations, with Orange County’s chief prosecutor irked over questions about a lack of disclosure regarding a longtime work relationship between the vendor and a top DA official recommending the contract. VoiceofOC
OH: NKY group demands Kasich apologize. A group fighting to keep tolls off the Brent Spence Bridge is demanding that Ohio Gov. John Kasich formally apologize after his latest critical comments about Northern Kentucky leaders. Northern Kentucky United launched an online petition Friday morning, hoping to get 2,500 signatures to pressure Kasich to apologize for verbal jabs he took this week at Kentucky state lawmakers who do not support using tolls to fast-track construction of the $2.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge project. . . Kasich isn’t backing down from his aggressive push to get the Brent Spence Bridge project done and has no plans to apologize. Cincinnati.com
MS: LOOM: Single benefactor giving education privatization edge at Capitol. Well-funded privatization forces are gaining ground in their efforts to privatize Mississippi’s public education system, a move that would hand state tax dollars and our children’s futures to unaccountable for-profit, virtual, and private schools. Mississippi Business Journal (blog)
TX: Don’t railroad our neighborhoods. A high-speed rail line linking Houston and Dallas sounds like a good idea. But as they say, the devil is in the details. Texas Central Railroad, a recently-formed private company, is proposing to build such a link with funding obtained largely from Japanese banks, and has applied to the Federal Railroad Administration for permission to do so. The nine candidate routes examined so far have been winnowed down to two. Unfortunately, the last stretches of these routes run directly through Houston residential neighborhoods. Houston Chronicle