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The Risks of Privatizing Social Security. . . Privatization does not reform Social Security. Privatization changes the role that Social Security plays in our lives. Privatization would transform Social Security from conceptually old-age insurance to a system of forced savings. These are very different things. FedSmith.com

KS: After privatizing, some Kansas child support performance measures fall. . . Last year a wave of privatization swept across the state’s child support system. Kansas’ child support services, previously a function of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, were handed over to a handful of companies in contracts worth millions. More than a hundred state employee positions were eliminated as officials promised more aggressive collection and greater efficiency. But data obtained by The Topeka Capital-Journal through an open records request shows Kansas now does a worse job collecting current child support than before privatization — and the percentage of current support collected stands at a 14-year low. Topeka Capital Journal

NJ: Privatization of public water, sewer systems could be fast-tracked under NJ bill. Trenton voters were given the opportunity to sell the city’s water system to a private company in 2010. The $80 million sale was defeated in a 4-to-1 landslide. At Tuesday’s polls, hundreds of voters in tiny Sussex Borough overwhelmingly rejected a similar sale of their public system to private hands, while Haddonfield in Camden County solidly approved selling its deteriorating system to New Jersey American Water. But such direct public mandate on water and sewer sales may become a thing of the past, as a bill in the Legislatures allowing public entities to fast-track selling water and sewer systems that serve millions advances this fall. The Star-Ledger

PA: The drama over Philadelphia Gas Works. Last month, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s plan to privatize Philadelphia Gas Works came to a grinding halt. Listen as Radio Times breaks down the controversial plan. WHYY

PA: Business leaders see PGW sale as key to opening Philly as energy hub. Business leaders are calling on the Philadelphia City Council to reconsider spiking a deal to sell its city-owned utility, PGW. Meanwhile, some environmental groups are celebrating it as a small victory in their fight against plans for an energy-centric future for Philadelphia. . . . Business leaders pushing to turn the city into a regional energy hub see privatizing PGW as the best way to develop the utility’s other assets – including two major liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage units on the Delaware River. Newsworks.org

PA: Postal Union Protests Perceived Privatization Push Outside Chestnut Hill Staples. Despite a persistent, chilly rain, more than 20 members and allies of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) marched outside the Germantown Avenue Staples on Thursday afternoon to protest plans to expand a recent retail agreement with the U.S. Postal Service.As part of the agreement, Staples employees will eventually staff USPS service windows at more than 1,500 supply-chain locations nationwide. NBC 10 Philadelphia

NC: North Carolina Tells Charter-School Chain It Can’t Keep Administrator Salaries Secret. The schools’ management company, which receives millions in public funds each year from the schools, says that the salaries paid to school administrators should be considered a trade secret. ProPublica

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Motorists had their say at the ballot box in a number of states Tuesday. . . .In addition to outlawing automated ticketing machines in four jurisdictions, voters responded to a number of state and local initiatives and proposed state constitutional amendments of interest to the driving public. Tolling and tax hikes were rejected, while measures that ensured taxes on motorists were actually used on road projects proved popular. Toll roads were on the ballot in Costa Mesa, California as voters were asked whether they approved of plans to convert freeway lanes on Interstate 405 into toll lanes. The majority — 54 percent — said “no” to the toll lanes in this non-binding advisory measure. In Louisiana, 68 percent of voters said “no” to a constitutional amendment that would have created an infrastructure bank to build toll roads. TheNewspaper.com

NJ: Privatization of public water, sewer systems could be fast-tracked under NJ bill. . . But such direct public mandate on water and sewer sales may become a thing of the past, as a bill in the Legislatures allowing public entities to fast-track selling water and sewer systems that serve millions advances this fall. The sponsors of the “Water Infrastructure Protection Act” say it’s a way to get desperately-needed investment into water systems that have been neglected to the breaking point by government owners. The bill’s opponents warn that it’s an attempt to turn private profits of public infrastructure at the expense of taxpayers – who themselves will end up paying for the purchase prices with each flush of the toilet.  The Star-Ledger

CA: Privatizing the Muni Links? When Santa Barbara’s Municipal Golf Course opened 58 years ago, area historians would later conclude that the event signified the emergence of a middle class big enough to sustain a sport that had hitherto been the exclusive domain of the leisure class. Santa Barbara Independent

IN: Nearly half of Indiana’s charter schools doing poorly or failing.Indiana charter schools are supposed to provide an alternative to failing public schools, but 13 Investigates has found they’re not always living up to the grade. In fact, nearly half of the state’s 76 charter schools are doing poorly or failing. The state’s new accountability ratings show you what’s really going on across Indiana and here in Marion County. WTHR

 

 

 

 

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How Sallie Mae and the Privatization of Student Loans is Eroding America. Originally known as the Student Loan Financing Association – which started four decades ago as a government-sponsored enterprise to support the guaranteed student loan program under the 1965 Higher Education Act – Sallie Mae has today been privatized into a for-profit corporation as a result of bipartisan deregulation of the big banks. Since its privatization, Sallie Mae has earned a stunning record of mistreating its patrons, including cheating military service-members on their student loans. Without admitting or denying guilt, the Justice Department ordered Sallie Mae to pay $97 million in fines, restitution, refunds and penalties in a settlement agreement still awaiting court approval. Nation of Change

CA: “Blood in the Water”: The Privatization of California’s Water Spells Disaster. . . Bechtel is one of the few companies that have the capacity to construct the enormous water tunnel (DTP). When Bechtel’s spokeswoman Michelle Michael was asked about the possibility of Bechtel building the Delta Tunnel Project she explained, “We’ll keep an eye out”. Chevron Oil is holding onto the largest oil reserves in California but is waiting to frack, perhaps needing to acquire water from the DTP first. Chevron declined to respond to emails questioning their potential desire to use DTP’s water for fracking. . . . If the DTP were built, and western water privatization expanded by the company Cal Water, California could possibly see a water crisis similar to the 1999 energy crisis.  Center for Research on Globalization

CA: UC outsourcing is bad for workers and campuses’ bottom line – opinion. When we hear about exploited workers, we often think of people working in other countries for pennies a day, in sweatshop conditions. Closer to home, we often think of private companies such as McDonald’s and Wal-Mart racing to shift as many of their labor costs onto the backs of taxpayers as possible – forcing full-time employees to work three jobs and rely on government assistance just to get by, while blocking an increase to the federal minimum wage in Congress. One place where we would never expect to see such deplorable employer conduct is in the public sector – especially at a world-class institution like the University of California. But it is happening. Over the past several years, many UC facilities have ramped up their use of outside contractors to perform work normally done by career UC employees. Sacramento Bee

PA: Building on Regional Trend, Reading, Pa. Passes Anti-Privatization Measure. Reading residents voted last night to amended the city charter to guard against future attempts to privatize the city’s municipal utilities and infrastructure…. The Reading vote adds to a string of victories in communities throughout Pennsylvania fighting privatization attempts. Food and Water Watch

TX: Anti-toll candidates sweep key races in Texas – commentary. Texas taxpayers have been tormented for more than a decade when it comes to transportation and toll roads, and their torment is finally coming to an end tonight. With the strong win by Greg Abbott, Texans will soon have a new governor who actually campaigned against toll roads. mySanAntonio.com (blog)

TX: Voters supporting more road funds in what could be a landslide. Texans overwhelmingly agreed today to steer billions in existing tax revenues to the state transportation department, which estimated it faced a $5 billion annual shortfall.…The constitutional amendment is expected to give TxDOT an additional $1.7 billion a year. But even Proposition 1 supporters say lawmakers still need to better fund the agency’s needs. Those supporters plan to frame Tuesday’s dramatic victory as a mandate from voters as they lobby legislators for more transportation funds. . . . Proposition 1 dictates that the new funds must be used on highway maintenance and construction and that they can’t be used on projects with tolling components. “These funds will be used for new road construction, road maintenance, safety improvements, and repair of roads in the energy sectors,” said TxDOT spokesman Tony Hartzel. “None of these funds will be used for toll roads.” Dallas Morning News (blog)

NC: 9 Investigates: The real cost of toll lanes. The North Carolina DOT is close to finalizing a financial contract with a Spanish company to build toll roads on Interstate 77 from Mooresville to uptown Charlotte. But not much is known about exactly how much it will cost or how construction will affect traffic, and the public has only seen animations of how it will look when it’s done. To get answers, Channel 9 anchor Scott Wickersham traveled to Dallas, Texas where Cintra is building a similar toll road. Channel 9’s investigation found that Texans are paying a hefty price to drive congestion-free — and one group there says people in Charlotte should be very concerned. WSOC Charlotte

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When Spaceships Explode. Much of the U.S. space program has become privatized in recent years and now instead of a sometimes bumbling bureaucracy doing dumb things like launching the Challenger shuttle in frigid weather when its O-rings holding in its fuel weren’t flexible, there are corporations seeking to make big bucks. The explosions last week of an Antares rocket Tuesday and the Virgin Galactic SpaceShip2 on Friday were disasters and, considering the death of a SpaceShip2 pilot and serious injury to the other pilot, tragedies. How much a part did greed play? CounterPunch

Researchers predict spreading blackouts as cities grow larger. Electricity blackouts will become more common as surging power demand outpaces public and private utilities’ abilities to provide a continuous and reliable flow of power to customers, a new research paper asserts. . . . It also addresses issues around deregulation and privatization of electricity markets and the growth of intermittent energy sources like wind and solar power and how such resources affect reliability. Environment & Energy Publishing

IL: Critics Call Emanuel’s Pre-K Program ‘Privatizing Head Start’. A proposal from Mayor Rahm Emanuel to expand early childhood educational opportunities was approved by the City Council Finance Committee Monday, even as it was revealed the method for funding the expansion could wind up being a financial windfall for investors and drawing comparisons to the much-maligned parking meter privatization deal. Chicagoist

CA: Tiny LA district is approving charter schools beyond borders. A tiny, rural school district in northern Los Angeles County is under growing scrutiny over its approval of more than 20 new charter schools in the last few years, the majority of them serving students outside of its own district boundaries. LA School Report

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Number of U.S. Charter Schools Up 7 Percent, Report Shows. The number of charter schools surpassed 6,000 at the start of the 2012-13 school year, as these schools – publicly financed, but privately run – steadily increased by 7 percent throughout the United States that year. U.S. News & World Report

IL: Emanuel’s early childhood plan compared to parking meter deal. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to use a pay-for-performance financing method known as “Social Impact Bonds” to give 2,618 children access to early childhood education cleared a key legislative hurdle Monday despite comparisons to the widely-despised parking meter deal. The Chicago Teachers Union, SEIU Healthcare Illinois and their City Council allies condemned the arrangement because it will allow Goldman Sachs, Northern Trust and the Pritzker Family Foundation to more than double their $17 million investment over 18 years. . . . “This is basically privatizing Head Start — giving these banking companies a very high rate of return — higher than even what we saw in the Infrastructure Trust,” said Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd), one of a handful of aldermen who voted no. Chicago Sun-Times

WI: Megadonations Follow Randa Ruling in Wisconsin. . . Judge Randa, a member of the Milwaukee Federalist Society’s board of advisors and a regular attendee at Koch- and Bradley-funded judicial junkets, has single-handedly opened Wisconsin elections to out-of-state billionaires like no judge before him. Thanks to a pair of his recent decisions, millions of dollars in disclosed six-and seven-figure checks have flowed into campaign accounts of the gubernatorial and Attorney General candidates in recent weeks, and an unknown amount of secretly-funded expenditures have been coordinated with candidates. . . Michigan billionaires Richard and Helen Devos also gave $200,000, together. The Devos’ are among the top funders of school privatization initiatives nationwide, and their American Federation for Children group spends millions electing pro-privatization candidates. The American Federation for Children is also a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council. PR Watch

KS: Many Disabled Kansans Struggle With KanCare. A new study by the University of Kansas finds many Kansans with disabilities are having difficulty getting services through KanCare, the privatized Medicaid managed care program created by the Brownback Administration. As Kansas Public Radio’s Bryan Thompson reports, the study questions whether the financial savings from privatization are worth the human costs. KMUW

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Water Markets: A False Solution to a Real Crisis. Despite the evidence privatizing water doesn’t work, water privatization and market-based schemes are still being pushed upon the public as a solution. Food and Water Watch

Mitch McConnell Resorts to Lying to Win, Claims ‘Nobody Wants to Privatize Social Security’. . . When asked about that, McConnell bristled and replied “What utter nonsense.” He described it as a typical page from the Democratic Party playbook that tries to scare the seniors. “Nobody wants to privatize Social Security,” said McConnell. “It’s such a phony allegation that it really makes you almost gag.” Well, to be fair, the only reason this is coming up as an issue is because Mitch McConnell just bragged about it last week. So, “nobody wants to privatize Social Security —” except for the times when McConnell did actually push to privatize Social Security. Just last week, in fact, Senator McConnell was bragging to the Louisville Rotary Club about how hard he worked to privatize Social Security in 2005. PoliticusUSA

NJ: Haddonfield voters weigh water privatization. After Haddonfield officials concluded they should sell the water and sewer utilities to a private company, the highest of three bids came from Voorhees-based New Jersey American Water. But whether the borough consummates the $28.5 million deal depends on a referendum in Tuesday’s election. Not everyone in the borough favors letting a private company take over. Courier-Post

MD: ‘One Baltimore’ Rally Unites Groups Against Privatization. On Monday, October 27, the One Baltimore coalition, which is comprised of a number of grassroots, faith-based, and union organizations, rallied in protest of Veolia North America, a water privatizing corporation’s attempts to secure a consultant contract with the city. They believe that this is the beginning of what will result in the privatization of the city’s water services. Earlier this month, a similar rally was held in front of City Hall, where protesters talked about the potentially detrimental impact that privatization could have on workers, whose jobs could be outsourced, and families, whose water bills could go up. The Real News Network

NY: New York City Comptroller to Audit Success Academy Charter Network. The New York City comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, announced plans on Thursday to audit Success Academy, the large charter school network run by Eva S. Moskowitz, as well as three other charter schools, setting the stage for a possible legal fight with he schools and their advocates. . . Critics of charter schools, including the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, have been critical of Success’s high suspension rate of students, teacher turnover, emphasis on test preparation and free use of space in city schools. New York Times

IL: Take The [Public’s] Money And Run. You didn’t think you were going to get that $7.7 million in ill-gotten red-light camera revenue back, now did you? Oh for those of you who did, you are sweet and adorable in your naivete. Did you recently move here from Ann Arbor, or are you just simple? The powers that be in Chicago don’t give money back, even if it is the forbidden fruit of bribery, public deception, or—worst of all—privatization. No, money in the city coffers remains in the city coffers until it can be used to give a large corporate tax break or be spent on a project meant to embiggen our mayor or one of his loyal lieutenants. Chicagoist

CA: UC Davis fires back in strawberry controversy, sues growers’ group. The UC Davis greenhouse holds 1,500 strawberry plants grown from the 1930s through today. For decades, UC Davis has been the center of the strawberry world, home to a world-renowned plant-breeding program that has spun out countless varieties of berries. The university says 87 percent of all strawberries grown in North America come from varieties developed in Davis’ labs. Now the campus is at the heart of a complicated tug of war between the university, its two star plant breeders and the strawberry industry itself. The conflict is being played out in the courts and in the Legislature and raises questions about the relationship between a public university and private industry. Sacramento Bee

FL: Fred Grimm: If you’re gonna torture Florida inmates, at least hire some decent doctors. Really, Florida, you can’t do both. You can’t allow state prison guards to go about willy-nilly gassing and Tasering and scalding prisoners. Or allow them to ignore sick and injured inmates. Not while, at the same time, contracting with a chintzy and notoriously negligent prison healthcare provider. You’ve just got to choose. Otherwise the combination of torture and cut-rate medical treatment creates an unseemly mess for the Florida Department of Corrections, what with the dead and injured and sick prisoners and the lawsuits and embarrassing newspaper exposés. MiamiHerald.com (blog)

KS: KanCare is failing the disabled – letter to editor. The upcoming election is critical for families like ours that include a person with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). We fear that if Gov. Sam Brownback is re-elected, his Medicaid managed-care experiment called KanCare will further imperil the lives of our loved ones. In 2013, Kansas became the first state to implement this untested privatization of I/DD Medicaid services. Families were assured that quality of care would remain unchanged, that savings would be realized through better service coordination and improved health, and this savings would be used to move folks off the I/DD wait list for services. The reality is dramatically different. Families have reported their struggles with KanCare at kancareddwatch.com .Their experiences include abrupt denial of seizure medication, denial of oral medication for a person unable to swallow pills, and denial of tires for a wheelchair in desperate need of repair. Kansas.com

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IN: Indiana’s high court to hear IBM welfare case. The Indiana Supreme Court is weighing legal arguments in a dispute between state officials and IBM over the company’s failed attempt to privatize Indiana’s welfare services. Four of the five justices peppered state and IBM attorneys with questions during Thursday’s oral arguments over Indiana’s cancellation of IBM’s $1.3 billion contract to automate much of the state’s welfare system. . . . IBM and Indiana sued each other after Daniels canceled the contract in 2009 following complaints about long wait times, lost documents and improper rejections. WHAS 11.com

CA: Design project to combat water privatization. This Friday, a nonprofit activist group known as The Beehive Collective will be stopping in Davis to present their “Sucked Dry: Examining Drought and Privatization from Mesoamérica to California” tour. “Sucked Dry” is an educational storytelling tour that uses design displays to promote water restoration efforts and demote monopoly on water resources by big businesses across the country. Beehive Collective has partnered with the organizations Restore the Delta and No on Prop. 1 in order to localize and authenticate their cause in northern California. The Age

MD: ‘One Baltimore’ Rally Unites Groups Against Privatization. On Monday, October 27, the One Baltimore coalition, which is comprised of a number of grassroots, faith-based, and union organizations, rallied in protest of Veolia North America, a water privatizing corporation’s attempts to secure a consultant contract with the city. They believe that this is the beginning of what will result in the privatization of the city’s water services. Earlier this month, a similar rally was held in front of City Hall, where protesters talked about the potentially detrimental impact that privatization could have on workers, whose jobs could be outsourced, and families, whose water bills could go up. The Real News Network

NC: Editorial: Paying more than twice as much, thanks to legislature. . . Legislators, in what they saw as an attempt to save money and help the paving industry flourish, included in their state budget bill a provision requiring the Department of Transportation to start outsourcing certain road work to the private sector, the Journal’s Arika Herron reported. “The mandate resulted in the Department of Transportation district that includes Forsyth County disbanding the crew that has been paving school parking lots, meaning that the school district will have to return to bidding the work out to private contractors,” Herron reported. . . . The average price from the DOT has been about $5.25 per square yard, he said, and he estimates that the private-sector move will cost the district about $12 per square yard. “This may force us to really push some projects back that we had planned on doing earlier,” he said. Winston-Salem Journal

 

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This Is What Happens When You Criticize Teach for America. Last year, Wendy Heller Chovnick, a former Teach For America manager, spoke out against her former organization in The Washington Post, decrying its “inability and unwillingness to honestly address valid criticism.” In recent years, such criticism has centered on Teach For America’s intimate involvement in the education privatization movement and its five-week training, two-year teaching model, which critics claim offers recruits a transformative résumé-boosting experience but burdens schools with disruptive turnover cycles. . . . An internal media strategy memo, obtained by The Nation, confirms Chovnick’s concerns, detailing TFA’s intricate methodology for combating negative media attention, or what it calls “misinformation.” The Nation

Democratic Candidates Are Paying the Price for Meddling With Social Security. Some things in life are self-evident. Fire burns, supply side economics doesn’t work, and no Democrat, ever, under any circumstances, no matter what, should even think about offering to cut one solitary cent from Social Security, through partial privatization or means testing or raising the retirement age. Huffington Post

NC: Group opposing I-77 toll lanes looks into legal challenge. The group who opposes toll lanes on Interstate 77 between Charlotte and Mooresville is beefing up efforts to stop the project. The group said it has hired a lawyer to look into the possibility of a legal challenge that could stop the toll road project. Members said they’ll study possible legal strategies in hopes of getting a judge to issue an injunction against the toll lanes. The state is close to finalizing a contract with the Spanish firm Cintra. WSOC Charlotte

OH: Ohio State might offer lease to manage its utilities. Ohio State University is looking at ways to make money from something that would ordinarily be one of its fastest-growing costs: energy. The idea, disclosed yesterday to faculty leaders, would involve an outside company signing a long-term lease to manage utility and lighting systems. . . . At first glance, the idea might seem similar to OSU’s 2012 agreement to lease parking operations to an outside vendor. The 50-year, $483 million deal has helped pay for academic programs, but it has also led to complaints from students and faculty members about rising parking fees. University officials say the similarities are that both plans involve long-term leases and are designed to provide OSU with a new income source. Columbus Dispatch

NJ: NJ charter schools see smaller percentages of poor and special needs students, study says. Charter schools in many of the state’s most disadvantaged districts do not look much like the communities they serve, according to a study to be released today by public school advocates. According to the report, the schools—concentrated in Camden, Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, Paterson, Plainfield, and Trenton—educate significantly smaller percentages of poor students, those from non-English speaking families, and special education students, than do the public school districts they serve. The Star-Ledger

KS: Former Insurance Exec Sues Medicaid Agent. A former insurance company executive involved in Kansas’ privatized Medicaid program filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit alleging retaliation by management for objecting to potentially unethical or illegal maneuvers to improve company revenue, documents said Tuesday. . . . Centene was among three for-profit, managed-care organizations selected in 2012 by the administration of Gov. Sam Brownback to operate a new $3 billion initiative named KanCare. . . . Leary, who was vice president of contracting and network development at Sunflower State Health Plan, said in the suit Centene managers responded to poor financial performance of the Kansas operation by blocking assignment of Medicare beneficiaries to medical providers that had contracted for reimbursement rates in excess of Kansas’ standard rate. . . .The objective was to avoid expenses related to referrals by KUMC physicians and specialists. Insurance News Net

WV: Ballot issue raises privatization, necessity issues. A constitutional amendment that would allow the Boy Scouts of America to operate for-profit ventures at the Summit Bechtel Reserve is looming on the Nov. 4 ballet, and voters are being asked to make changes to the state constitution for one entity while leaving amendment safeguards in the hands of legislators at a later date. Montgomery Herald

MD: City should reject privatizing water – letter to editor. . . . Baltimore should not enter into a contract that could allow Veolia, a private corporation, to advise the city on its public water system. Many cities from Gladewater, Texas to Indianapolis have ended their contracts with Veolia after experiencing a litany of problems from rate hikes to overbilling to failure to invest in infrastructure — and they’ve actually saved money. Why would we look to a private water company to advise us on efficiency if cities around the globe are saving money and improving infrastructure after rejecting Veolia? This is a pivotal moment for our city when we must decide how to manage our water system well into the future. Baltimore Sun

 

 

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Privatized Food Inspection Raises More Safety Concerns. In response to last week’s discovery that a shipment of imported beef from Canada was contaminated with the pathogen E.coli 0157:H7, Food & Water Watch today urged USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to reassess the agency’s positions on equivalency for privatized inspection systems, stop the implementation of those systems domestically and uphold the U.S.-Canada border inspection program. Food and Water Watch

Unmanned Rocket Explodes at Liftoff in Virginia. An unmanned Orbital Sciences Corp. rocket carrying cargo for the international space station suffered a catastrophic failure seconds after liftoff Tuesday, dealing a potential setback to NASA’s program to privatize such missions. . .. The launch was supposed to be the third cargo resupply mission by Orbital Sciences to the space station. NASA also has contracted with Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX as the company is known, to ferry food, other supplies and scientific experiments to the orbiting laboratory. But Tuesday’s events are bound to ground the Antares rocket for at least several months, while NASA and company experts dissect data, determine what went wrong and put fixes in place. Wall Street Journal

TX: Texas Road Proposition Popular with Voters. An overwhelming majority of Texans seem poised to approve the Proposition 1 constitutional amendment on Nov. 4 that would provide an additional $1.7 billion/year of state oil and gas production tax revenues to road projects. . . . The proposed state constitutional amendment stipulates that the new transportation money cannot be used to build toll roads or acquire right of way for them. Bond Buyer

TX: Unpopular Toll Road Idea We Said Was Dead Might Not Be Dead. North Texas’ regional transportation officials recently announced that they would no longer recommend forcing people out of their homes in the countryside northeast of Dallas to build another toll road, because it turned out that people didn’t like the idea. “We thought we had consensus that we should proceed in this direction, and obviously we were wrong,” said Michael Morris, transportation director of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, when we talked last week. But does a regional transportation official’s recommendation even mean anything anymore? In this fast-paced world of Texas transportation officials and unpopular toll road projects, the state is sending mixed messages about whether the toll road is really dead.  Dallas Observer (blog)

IN: US bankruptcy judge approves reorganization plan for private Indiana Toll Road. A federal bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved a reorganization plan for the Indiana Toll Road that should speed the sale of the 157-mile road forward. Federal Bankruptcy Judge Pamela Hollis confirmed a plan that will put the 75-year lease of the road out to bid after listening to a swift presentation from lawyers for Indiana Toll Road Concession Co., which currently holds the lease and operates the road. nwitimes

MD: Hearing scheduled for concerns on city water system privatization. Concerns about Baltimore selling its water system to a private company will be vetted at a City Council hearing at 5 p.m. Dec. 1. Councilman Carl Stokes said while Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s administration has stressed that there are no plans to sell the water system, he wants agency officials to explain why they are looking for a consultant to study operations. “Why go to an outside vendor rather than rely on [the city’s] own expertise?” Stokes said. It’s unclear when the city’s spending panel will vote on the proposed $500,000 study. The hearing announcement came as hundreds rallied outside City Hall to draw attention to their concerns about keeping the water system public, as well as a call for good jobs, safe streets and high-quality schools. Baltimore Sun

KY: Dems push sleeper issue in Kentucky Senate race: Social Security privatization. The other day, the Dem-aligned Senate Majority PAC made a splash by going up in Kentucky with a very harsh ad hitting Mitch McConnell over his previous support for Social Security privatization. . . .The dust-up shows that Democrats are pushing hard to make Social Security privatization a sleeper issue in the last days of the Kentucky Senate race. And they were handed an unexpected opening in this regard, when McConnell himself made an offhand reference to his own involvement with George W. Bush’s Social Security privatization efforts in 2005. “He wanted us to try to fix Social Security,” McConnell said during a recent speech. “I spent a year trying to get any Democrat in the Senate…to help us. Washington Post (blog)

TN: Charter School Resistance Flares. When leaders of the Yes Prep charter group walked into a hostile meeting at American Way Middle School Monday, Oct. 27, set up by the Achievement School District, they also walked into a “Save Our School” rally organized by opponents of the school’s takeover by the state-run district. The result was a tumultuous show of opposition in which Yes Prep leaders left without getting to make their case for running the school for the ASD. Memphis Daily News

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Bertha and the French Professor: Lessons for Public Private Partnerships. Jean Tirole is an influential, respected, and by all accounts gracious man who won this year’s Nobel Prize in economics. Bertha is a 7,000-ton tunnel boring machine that’s been stuck under Seattle for nine months—but is still tweeting—as state officials and a private contractor battle over who should pay to get her out. . . . Tirole has studied a more subtle problem: contingencies that are “observable but not verifiable” or enforceable in a court of law. That’s Bertha. No one foresaw that she would be stopped when she bumped into an 8-inch pipe after going only 1,000 feet, and now no one can agree on whose fault it was and who must pay. Importantly, in cases like Bertha or the Indiana Toll Road, the private contractor can walk away, but the state cannot. . . . The message from both Prof. Tirole and Bertha is: Contracting is rough business. States and localities need help thinking through all of the challenges, especially in the blinding light of what may look like easy money. Tax Policy Center

Democrats Pound Republicans Over Their Push to Privatize and Cut Social Security. The piper must be paid. The Tea Party extremism of the modern day Republican Party is being used against them in the final push toward the midterm elections this November 4th, with Democrats pounding Republicans over their efforts to privatize and cut Social Security and Medicare. PoliticusUSA

Will This Election Be a Referendum on Privatization? – Donald Cohen. As we approach Election Day, a number of governors in tight races are finding that privatizing public services isn’t good politics. But it may be good for campaign fundraisers seeking donations from corporations that want government contracts. A new report released by the Center for Media and Democracy highlights the intensive efforts of governors seeking re-election to privatize important public services to private firms. Time after time, outsourcing has gone awry, generating worse outcomes for the public, scandals, lawsuits, and scorching headlines that are impacting the campaigns. The report includes examples from Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Wisconsin. Diane Ravitch’s blog

New York Educators Respond to TIME’s Cover. Once again, TIME has chosen to play the teacher bashing blame game with the rotten cover titled “Rotten Apples.” TIME is parroting the assault on public schools and teachers being promoted by hedge-fund and Silicon Valley billionaires seeking to privatize our public schools. This latest TIME cover is a head on attack on the profession of teaching. It ignores the real issues impacting quality of students’ education, resulting from the systemic inequality and severe underfunding of public schools.   TIME

PA: Philadelphia City Council Pulls Plug on PGW Privatization Deal. Philadelphia City Council president Darrell Clarke today notified the Nutter administration that City Council will not be endorsing the sale of the Philadelphia Gas Works to a private owner, effectively killing the deal. The deal needed City Council approval, but the legislation was never introduced, nor hearings scheduled. . . . “The simple reality is that there is no appetite to sell PGW as proposed by that specific, very specific proposal,” Clarke said.   CBS

IN: Indiana will not try to reclaim Toll Road. Elected officials from northern Indiana, most prominently Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, have urged state government to reclaim the Indiana Toll Road after its private operator went bankrupt. Not a chance, Indianapolis replied. Indiana Public Finance Director Kendra York wrote a letter back to Donnelly saying the state has no plans to reclaim the Toll Road just because the Indiana Toll Road Concession Co., a Spanish-Australian consortium, has filed for bankruptcy in a bid to sell off the 157-mile tollway after racking up about $6 billion in debt. The state wants to stick with a private operator so the Indiana Department of Transportation does not assume responsibility for the road’s maintenance.  nwitimes.com

IL: Analysis: Guilty Plea Spells Trouble For Redflex In Corruption Trial. Judge Virgina M. KendallRedflex Traffic Systems, the embattled Australian photo ticketing company, faces an uphill battle maintaining its innocence now that a key party is turning state’s evidence. On Wednesday, Martin O’Malley notified US District Judge Virgina M. Kendall that he would change his plea from not guilty to guilty at a December 10 hearing in the Chicago, Illinois red light camera bribery case. O’Malley, a Redflex contractor, was a friend of John Bills, the Chicago official in charge of the nation’s most profitable photo enforcement program. According to prosecutors, O’Malley leveraged his relationship to transfer $2 million from Redflex to Bills in return for landing and expanding the lucrative contract that ultimately earned the Australian company $126 million. O’Malley worked for Karen Finley, the head of US operations for Redflex. TheNewspaper.com

NY: State reaches for risky private equity investment for pension fund. New York State’s underfunded retirement fund is reaching for a return on investment using private equity that is riskier than its 1.06 million members may feel comfortable with. . . . The state pension plans are now 92 percent funded. That amounts to a $14.6 billion hole. Part of the problem is that the number of retirees is increasing at a faster rate than those paying into the system. DiNapoli’s challenger in the state comptroller’s race warned that private-equity investments look good now, but can turn bad very quickly. “Private-equity investments can be very risky,” says Republican Bob Antonacci. New York Post

OH: Here’s where Cincinnati City Council’s $18M surplus will go. . . And in a last minute addition to the plan, $1 million will go to the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority. That money will cover the cost of winding down the failed plan to privatize city parking. Cincinnati.com