Elana Schor
Recent Posts
Barbour Breaks With AASHTO Chief on Stimulus’ Transportation Benefits
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Viewers of yesterday’s Fox News Sunday were treated to an interesting sight: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), whose name is increasingly in the mix for his party’s 2012 presidential nomination, distancing himself from the president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), Washington’s voice for state DOTs. Butch Brown, Mississippi’s DOT […]
U.S. DOT Offers Sample Distracted Driving Bill — With a Potential Loophole
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The Obama administration today offered a one-page sample proposal to crack down on texting behind the wheel, aimed at helping guide states through the process of crafting their own distracted driving legislation. (Photo: brainlink.org) The sample bill text [PDF] was prepared by the U.S. DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which invited road safety groups […]
The Upside of GOP ‘Hypocrisy’ on Transportation Stimulus Grants
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To call Rep. Pete Sessions (TX), chairman of the House Republican campaign committee, a critic of the Obama administration’s stimulus law would be putting it mildly. Sessions marked the one-year anniversary of the law’s passage last week by labeling the stimulus a "massive spending binge" that only "allegedly" created jobs in his district. Is his […]
Today’s Headlines
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Washington D.C.’s Metrorail: The nation’s second-most popular subway, driven into disarray by underfunding and poor management (WashPost) New York’s state Senate president urges fellow leaders to get on the high-speed rail bandwagon (Times-Union) A second hole appears in Tulsa’s I-44 bridge, rated "structurally deficient" by the feds (T. World) The latest trend in electric cars: […]
Connecticut Lawmakers Livid at the State’s Transport Stimulus Shutout
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Connecticut was not alone in its failure to win any funding from the Obama administration’s competition for $1.5 billion in TIGER stimulus grants, but its Democratic members of Congress are not nursing their wounds quietly. Outlined in purple are improvements to Stamford’s Harbor Point neighborhood that would have been funded by TIGER grants. (Image: ConnDOT) […]
New Analysis: Major Cities Still Shortchanged by Transportation Stimulus
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The Obama administration’s awarding of $1.5 billion in competitive transportation stimulus grants on Wednesday sparked elation in cities such as Kansas City and New Orleans. But those celebrations were more than just anecdotal evidence of the so-called TIGER program‘s urban impact, according to a new analysis from the Brookings Institution’s Rob Puentes. (Chart: The Avenue) […]
Today’s Headlines
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New poll finds 83 percent of respondents supporting more federal funding for high-speed rail and transit (HNTB Press via @beyondDC) Investor Carl Icahn is forming a consortium to go after a share of the high-speed rail pie (AP) Federal transportation safety regulators call for national crash-resistance standards for transit cars (Bloomberg) How blue is your […]
17 Democrats Urge Reid: Don’t Forget Infrastructure in Your Jobs Push
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to call up a job creation bill on Monday that includes a stopgap rescue of the highway trust fund but none of the new infrastructure spending okayed by the House. Even that pared-down measure faces a GOP filibuster threat, but many Democrats remain undaunted in their push for […]
A Day After Their TIGER Win, Freight Railroads Carve Out More Turf
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The freight rail industry yesterday claimed the top three awards in the Obama administration’s competition for $1.5 billion in TIGER stimulus grants, with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood singling out train shippers for an online shout-out: (Chart: AAR) You know, although passengers and commuters have human faces, we need to remember that trade depends upon the […]
Rail Expert Reutter: White House Misfired on High-Speed Rail Stimulus
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Mark Reutter, author of the industrial tome Making Steel and a veteran editor of Railroad History, can safely be called an expert on the train industry. And in a new memo for the Progressive Policy Institute, he is issuing a warning to the Obama administration on its high-profile push for high-speed rail. California’s high-speed rail […]
Today’s Headlines
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More local takes on the White House’s TIGER transportation grant program (Sun-Times, Oregonian, KC Star, WaPo, Tribune, Morn News, Star-Trib) How D.C. is dealing with the road repair demands caused by its recent Snowpocalypse (WaPo) Is transit scary for women? (Grist) Houston isn’t about to let San Francisco command the spotlight as the nation’s "electric […]
Road and Transit Groups Join Boxer to Push for Senate Jobs Bill
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Representatives from Washington’s road and transit lobbies joined Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today to call for swift passage of job-creation legislation that is slated for a vote in the upper chamber of Congress on Monday. Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) (Photo: AP) Faced with the prospects of a GOP filibuster, […]