Makes me feel a whole pile safer, really. No, really.
"US official seeks traffic police subsidies" July 12, 2011|Associated Press
HARTFORD - Distracted-driving violations have fallen dramatically in Hartford and Syracuse, N.Y., as a result of high-visibility police programs, US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said yesterday.
LaHood said cash-strapped police departments around the country could benefit from subsidies to enforce bans against talking and texting while driving, but critics say that money may be hard to come by, with states wrangling with major deficits.
This on the debt-deal cutting table?
Each of the pilot programs in the two Northeastern cities relied on $300,000 - $200,000 in federal money and $100,000 from the state - to pay police departments to enforce the state’s distracted driving laws and advertise about the issue. Citations were issued to almost 10,000 drivers in each city over the past year. The idea was to see whether stepped-up enforcement would lead to fewer violations....
Pilot programs alway$ go on auto, if you know what I mean.
I'd rather have the health care and Social Security check, but....
LaHood, who said distracted driving kills thousands of people every year, wants the federal government to help pay for similar subsidy programs elsewhere.
(Sound of screeching roar followed by crash)
He said the study proved that tough laws, strong enforcement, and public awareness made the difference in reducing violations.
David Teater, a senior director at the nonprofit National Safety Council in Itasea, Ill., said the cost saved from accidents averted far outstrips the expense of such programs.
“I think it’s a no-brainer when it comes to the cost,’’ Teater said.
I just don't want to give government a ride anymore. Please get out of the car.
But funding for expanded enforcement programs might be difficult to find.
Thus the newspaper's promotional pitch."
Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the nonprofit Governors Highway Safety Association in Washington, D.C., said it will be difficult to keep up any such enforcement programs as states make severe cutbacks to close budget deficits.
--more--"
And I didn't mean take a flight.
"FAA faces midnight deadline to avoid its shutdown" July 22, 2011|By Joan Lowy, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - If that happens, airlines would no longer collect federal ticket taxes.
There is ALWAYS a SILVER LINING in the CLOUDS!
About 4,000 FAA workers whose jobs are funded with ticket tax revenues will be furloughed, LaHood told reporters at a press conference....
Long-term authority for the FAA expired in 2007. Unable to agree on long-term funding legislation for the agency, Congress has kept the FAA operating through a series of 20 short-term extension bills.
The previous 20 extensions have been routine. But this time House Republicans added a provision eliminating government subsidies for airline service to 13 rural communities. Senate Democrats say the provision is unacceptable, but House Republicans have been unwilling to remove it.
If there is not an extension, the largest furlough would initially involve nearly 1,000 workers at FAA headquarters in Washington, transportation officials said....
--more--"
"Impasses lead to shutdown of FAA" July 23, 2011
WASHINGTON - Efforts to avert a shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration failed yesterday amid a disagreement over a $16.5 million cut in subsidies to 13 rural communities, ensuring that at midnight nearly 4,000 people will be temporarily out of work and federal airline ticket taxes will be suspended.
Lawmakers were unable to resolve a partisan dispute over an extension of the agency’s operating authority.
The subsidy cut was included by Republicans in a House bill extending operating authority for the FAA, which has a $16 billion budget. Senate Democrats refused to accept the House bill with the cuts, and Republican senators refused to accept a Democratic bill without it. Lawmakers then adjourned for the weekend.
But underlying the dispute on rural air service subsidies was a standoff between the GOP-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate over a provision in long-term funding legislation for the FAA that would make it more difficult for airline and railroad workers to unionize.
And the attacks on unions continues.
Obama administration officials have said the shutdown will not affect air safety. Air traffic controllers will remain on the job. But airlines will lose the authority to collect about $200 million a week in ticket taxes that go into a trust fund that pays for FAA programs.
Another government "trust" fund, 'eh?
FAA employees whose jobs are paid for with trust fund money will be furloughed, including nearly 1,000 workers at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, 647 workers at FAA’s technology and research center in Atlantic City, and 124 workers at the agency’s training center in Oklahoma City.
“These are real people with families who do not deserve to be put out of work during these tough economic times,’’ FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement.
Airline passengers could see a big savings on their airfares, but the situation is complicated....
Somehow it always is when you are getting the break, consumer!
Airport and security fees that will continue to be collected, according to the Air Transport Association....
It's like a PROTECTION RACKET down at the airport!
You gonna pay us da security or sumpin' bad gonna happen to you airplane!
Another unresolved issue involves about $200 million in air services subsidies to rural communities. The program was created when airlines were deregulated in 1978 to ensure continued air service on less profitable routes to isolated communities....
What do you mean the local airport closed?
--more--"
I don't want to drive to Boston to get you on a plane!
"Deal ends partial shutdown of FAA, for now; Senate to vote on plan today; standoff had idled thousands" August 05, 2011|By Edward Wyatt, New York Times
WASHINGTON - The agreement, in the aftermath of a nasty and protracted battle over the debt ceiling, was worked out as both the White House and Congress were beginning to feel pressure from voters who said they have grown tired of political fights that hurt working Americans and the economy.
We've grown tired of so many things from this government.
Fall, will ya? Just fall and dissolve into the dustbin of history like the Soviets.
Official Washington has been peppered in recent days by appeals from labor unions representing furloughed FAA employees and construction workers and letters from trade groups representing airport executives and business groups.
I'm sure the second group had much more sway.
Together, they expressed outrage that Congress left this week on a five-week vacation without resolving the FAA issue, letting $30 million a day in airline ticket and fuel taxes go uncollected because of a dispute over $16.5 million in annual cuts to rural air service.
“This shutdown is putting thousands of critical employees out of work,’’ a coalition of labor unions said in a statement, before the deal was reached. “Every day this impasse continues is another day that major airport projects are delayed and work is stopped’’ on upgrades of airport safety and aviation navigation systems.
President Obama said he was “pleased that leaders in Congress are working together’’ to put tens of thousands of Americans back to work. “We can’t afford to let politics in Washington hamper our recovery, so this is an important step forward,’’ he said.
They were working until... sigh.
So that is what this was all about? So politicians could once again crow they are getting people back to work?
Senate Democrats had previously refused to pass the House bill because it contained cuts in the Essential Air Service, a subsidy program that helps to pay for commercial airline service to rural airports.
The breakthrough came yesterday when Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told congressional leaders that he has the authority to issue waivers for the communities affected by the cuts in rural air service contained in the House bill....
????????
Then what was the problem all along? This could have been passed anytime, and LaHood could have waived the rules. WTF?
In a statement, LaHood said: “This is a tremendous victory for American workers everywhere. From construction workers to our FAA employees, they will have the security of knowing they are going to go back to work and get a paycheck - and that’s what we’ve been fighting for. We have the best aviation system in the world and we intend to keep it that way.’’
Can you hand me that airsick bag?
The agreement does not address differences over labor issues that Senate Democrats said were the real reason Republicans were trying to press for the cuts to rural air service. Democrats had embraced some of those changes in their own long-term FAA reauthorization bill, which was passed earlier this year by the Senate.
I keep wondering how much longer unions buy into the bulls*** that Democrats are the party of labor.
There is no party of labor here in AmeriKa. Corporate cash is king now.
The House also passed a long-term FAA bill that included a measure to repeal a rule of the National Mediation Board, which oversees union and labor issues in the airline and railroad industries. The new rule, which passed after Obama appointed two of the board’s three members, reversed a 76-year-old rule and made it easier for unions to win a representation election. Under the old rule, workers who did not vote were counted as “no’’ votes; under the new rule, only those voting were counted.
This is what the holdup was while "terrorists" could have been flying our skies?
--more--"
That should get you to the door of the airport, dear readers.
Also see: Deal on FAA shutdown is signed into law
And just in time, too!
"Pilot of vintage plane gets modern company during Obama trip to Chicago" Associated Press / August 6, 2011
CHICAGO - Myrtle Rose was just taking a short flight over suburban Chicago when the 75-year-old aviation enthusiast looked out her cockpit window to see two F-16 jets. She assumed the military pilots were slowing down to get a closer look at her antique plane.
It was not until she landed her 1941 Piper J-3 Cub that friends and the police told her the attention was for something much more serious - straying into restricted airspace during a visit by President Obama....
On any other day, the short flight would never have attracted notice. But Obama was in town for a fund-raiser marking his 50th birthday.
“There’s really no excuse for not knowing,’’ said Lieutenant Colonel Mike Humphreys, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which scrambled the two warplanes, a proposition that costs $9,000 an hour for each jet. “Anyone who flies an aircraft should know the restrictions.’’
Where were they on 9/11 after 67 successful intercepts the year before?
What was with the war games and the stand down order?
Rose said she was about 30 miles from O’Hare Airport when her plane was intercepted. As the fighters appeared, she wasn’t alarmed.
“I thought, ‘Oh, well, they’re just looking at how cute the Cub is,’ ’’ she said yesterday. The blue-and-yellow plane had won a best-in-class award at the Oshkosh Air Show, a huge annual gathering in Wisconsin.
Rose, who has been flying since the mid-1960s and even performed as a wing walker until five or six years ago, said the jet pilots could not have been more considerate.
Though she never saw their faces - hard to do, she said, when she’s puttering along at about 60 miles per hour and the jets were doing what she figured was about 300 miles per hour - she was impressed with the way the pilot who pulled in front of her kept his distance to avoid rattling her wood-and-fabric plane.
Rose returned to land on the airstrip at her home in the affluent South Barrington area. After the aircraft was in the hangar, her yard began filling with police cars.
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Well, all I can say is the SEARS TOWER better not have a PLANE PLOW into any time soon!
