Audio: Sentencing Reform in the 2011 Colorado General Assembly
On Tuesday, February 8th the Independence Institute’s Justice Policy Initiative, the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, and the Pew Center on the States came together again to hold a panel event at the University Club to discuss the work by the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) and sentencing reform in 2011. Despite […]
High-Speed Train Wreck
Secretary of Immobility Ray LaHood says the administration’s high-speed rail fantasy won’t be derailed. But remember, this is the guy who said “there is no stopping” high-speed rail in Wisconsin a few months before the November election–and then he killed Wisconsin’s project himself when the “wrong party’s” candidate won the governorship. Wikipedia commons photo of […]
Two Local Iowa Teachers Unions Secede from NEA, State Affiliate in One Week’s Time
The Education Intelligence Agency’s Mike Antonucci
High-Speed Pork
President Obama proposes to spend $53 billion on high-speed rail over the next six years, or nearly $9 billion a year. No one knows where this money will come from, especially in view of Obama’s proposed spending freeze. Some speculate that the administration will propose to take it out of gasoline taxes, but the nation’s […]
Are Earmarks Dead?
Congressional leaders have promised a two-year moratorium on earmarks. Some in Congress are even trying to get the money back for orphaned earmarks, i.e., earmarks that have not yet been spent. There are usually lots of orphaned transportation projects because the states are not really interested in doing earmarks that override their own priorities. It […]
Have an Opinion? You’re Violating the Law!
A group of neighbors asked state highway officials to install traffic signals on a road near their Raleigh, North Carolina suburb. They buttressed their request with an eight-page analysis of the highway complete with maps and traffic projections. View Larger Map The state was so impressed that it agreed to install the traffic signals, right? […]
Congestion Coalition Wins in Virginia
The urban mobility discussed here yesterday found that the Washington DC urban area has the fourth-worst congestion in the nation, costing more than $4 billion a year. That congestion will continue to get worse thanks to the efforts of anti-highway groups who appear to have successfully stopped the construction of high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lanes along I-395. […]
Good News: Falcon 49 Moves Forward with Bold Innovation
Plenty of GOOD news in Colorado education reform these days comes from local innovation. Recently it was the 60,000-student Douglas County School District taking a stand for increased parental choice. Now it’s the 15,000-student Falcon School Dis…
Urban Congestion Report
The Texas Transportation Institute recently published its latest urban mobility report, rating the amount of congestion in each of more than 100 urbanized areas. The report also estimates total congestion costs in 439 urbanized areas. The Antiplanner has taken previous reports with a grain of salt because congestion estimates were based on formulas rather than […]
Ending Urban Redevelopment
Despite pressure from cities, Jerry Brown stands firm in his proposal to end redevelopment agencies, a plan he says will immediately save the state $1.7 billion a year, and more than double that after 2012. Meanwhile, the Idaho Freedom Foundation publishes a report proposing to eliminate urban renewal in that state. Urban-renewal agencies in Idaho […]
High-Speed Rail Hearings
You know that Congress is serious about getting the facts about high-speed rail when it holds a hearing on high-speed rail in Grand Central Station. Rail advocates proposed to extend the Northeast Corridor rail system to Springfield. Videotaping is often discouraged at Congressional hearings, but fortunately the Antiplanner was able to obtain the video of […]
Is It Real or Is It Portlandia?
If you buy more than $50 worth of stuff, Office Depot will deliver for free. But they might deliver it in a carbon-spewing truck, so the city of Portland has given a $6 million, five-year contract to a delivery company that promises to deliver office supplies by electric-powered tricycles. B-Line’s slogan is “sustainable urban delivery”–but […]
