Headlines
1. States scrambling to find funds to fix roads, bridges
2. 6 groups want to purchase Midway Airport
3. Ga. bill giving tax breaks for private school scholarships ok’d
4. IL: State House to hold hearing Wednesday on why school received grant for church
5. Regulation takes back seat in Bush’s privatized world – opinion
6. Privatizing our security, wasting our money
7. Bailing out the Reaganites – Harold Meyerson
8. NO’s historian Arnold Hirsch on public housing


News Summaries
1. States scrambling to find funds to fix roads, bridges
States are desperate to tap every possible source of funding – tolls on
leased roads, sharp increases in taxes on motor fuels, and partnering
with the private sector – to finance the building and repairing of
roads and bridges. Experts see sharp increases in states partnering
with the private sector for funding. Some analysts say highway funding
may be the next "sweet spot" for institutional investors as the burst
housing bubble leaves firms looking for ways to put their money to work.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
2. 6 groups want to purchase Midway Airport
Six teams — one including some of the same players who paid $1.82
billion to lease the Chicago Skyway — will vie for the right to make
Midway Airport the nation’s first privately-run commercial airport.
Chicago Sun Times
3. Ga. bill giving tax breaks for private school scholarships ok’d
The Georgia General Assembly on Tuesday gave final approval to a
ground-breaking school choice bill that would eventually provide
scholarships for children to leave public schools for private
institutions. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4. IL: State House to hold hearing Wednesday on why school received grant for church
As Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration was steering $1 million to a
private, family-run school, state and federal authorities were trying
to collect thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes from the school, the
Tribune has found. Chicago Tribune
5. Regulation takes back seat in Bush’s privatized world – opinion
Who will guard the guardians? What is the future of all this
privatization? Will we insist on the accountability — the checking and
the balancing — which has been the hallmark of our constitutional
system? Or will we continue the administration’s weapon of choice: a
blanket policy of legal immunization, such as is enjoyed by Blackwater?
– Stanley Kutler is a retired history professor at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. The Capital Times
6. Privatizing our security, wasting our money
When it comes to public investment, it’s never just about the price
tag. It’s about whether we invest our public dollars wisely and
effectively. Are we picking the right priorities, allocating a
sufficient amount, and investing in what works? That’s not what
happened on Bush’s watch. BlogForOurFuture
7. Bailing out the Reaganites – Harold Meyerson
American conservatism was in trouble before Wall Street’s convulsions.
The Bush administration’s failure to get a Republican Congress to join
its efforts to privatize Social Security during the 2005-06
congressional session revealed the limits of conservatism’s push to
dismantle government protections. At the very moment employer-provided
benefits and pensions were being ratcheted down, the last thing the
American people clamored for was an assault on Social Security, too.
The Washington Post
8. NO’s historian Arnold Hirsch on public housing
As part of a series on post-Katrina housing in New Orleans, PBS’s
NewsHour correspondent Betty Ann Bowser interviewed University of New
Orleans history professor Arnold Hirsch about the history of public
housing in New Orleans and the rest of the United States. BETTY ANN
BOWSER: [What do you think of the federal government’s] vision of the
future of public housing…. Is this essentially privatizing public
housing? ARNOLD HIRSCH: It is essentially privatizing public housing
and what we find out is that as with so many other things that we
tended to privatize that are inherently unprivatizable, the ends may be
stated to be social reform and social uplift and assistance to the
poor, but we don’t confront that problem head on. And as long as we do
that, what we will get is economic development and subsidized growth
but thousands are left out of that program because they are not able to
be helped at a profit. NewsHour