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Texas Department of Transportation that claims it has no money for roads uses $20 million in gas tax funds to build a park. Woodall Rodgers ParkThe Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation announced yesterday that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) would hand over $20 million in gas tax funds to help build a 5.2 acre park near downtown Dallas. The $67 million park is intended to serve as a model public-private partnership with a restaurant, a children's playground and a dog park. It will have no roads. "The park... will connect Uptown, Downtown and the Arts District, and is expected to...

HARRISBURG -- With a section of a Pittsburgh bridge dropping 8 inches and an Interstate 95 support pillar cracking in Philadelphia, Gov. Ed Rendell is turning up the heat under the Legislature to provide infrastructure repair funds more quickly. Mr. Rendell sent a letter to all 253 legislators yesterday urging quick passage of a $240 million "supplemental debt authorization." His program of borrowing would enable state officials to fast-track repairs on some of the state's 6,000 bridges classified as structurally deficient, along with fixing ailing highways, repairing "state-owned, high-hazard dams" and beginning flood mitigation projects. Also yesterday, Mr. Rendell called...

Deficit may top $1.8 billion by fiscal 2012 with current slate of road projects AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Transportation, working to fend off a funding shortfall, intends to cut hundreds of millions of dollars budgeted for everything from consulting engineers to right-of-way purchases. The plan wouldn't affect existing road projects, and it's "difficult to say" what future projects would be delayed as a result, agency spokesman Randall Dillard said Friday. Projections show that if existing plans on awarding contracts and expenditures were to go forward, the department would have at least a $1.8 billion deficit by fiscal year...

TexDOT: No Money to Build New Hghways Agency blames diversion of state gas tax money, curbs on privately funded toll roads By Jim Forsyth Friday, September 28, 2007 At a time the Texas Department of Transportation is defending spending thousands of dollars on a public relations campaign designed to convince you to support toll roads, the department says it has no money to pay for highway construction, 1200 WOAI's Robert Wood reports. "The bottom line is, we're running out of money very quickly," TexDOT's Chris Lippincott says. Lippincott blames decisions by state lawmakers to spend more than $1.5 billion in...

Billions in Highway Taxes Diverted to General SpendingOnly one-third of fees collected by state and local government from motorists goes directly to road construction and maintenance. Billions of dollars collected from motorists from gasoline taxes, tolls, and registration fees are being diverted by state and local governments into uses that have nothing to do with roads and highways. According to the latest figures from the Federal Highway Administration, motorists gave state and local government $40.3 billion in 2005 for the ability to drive and own a vehicle. Gasoline taxes accounted for $20.5 billion in revenue while registration fees and miscellaneous...

$15 billion dollars is up for grabs, thanks to the repeal of a 100-year-old tax. The Spanish-American war ended in 1898. But the tax to fund it didn’t end until recently. The end of the tax is thanks in part to Fort Worth Congressman Michael Burgess, who said, “As of July 31st the tax is repealed.” For 108 years, the federal government collected a tax up to 3 % of your long distance phone calls. Although Congressman Burgess co-sponsored a bill to repeal the tax, it was the U.S. Treasury Secretary who recently told the I.R.S. to stop collecting it....

For the last decade, University of California leaders systematically failed to disclose to UC's governing board the details of pay packages and perquisites granted to senior executives, despite policies requiring such disclosure, according to an audit released Monday. .... At UCLA on Monday, Dynes noted that the situation was especially troubling in light of a similar controversy more than a decade ago, when UC was criticized for excessive compensation to departing executives. .... The report noted about $23,000 in undisclosed expenses for Dynes [the current UC president .... The report also noted that some compensation for a number of employees,...

Presidential candidate John Kerry will hold a rally on West Washington between Broom and Bedford streets on Thursday. It is currently scheduled for about noon, with gates opening at 10:00 a.m. WEAC will be providing bus transportation to and from the rally, with buses leaving from the Alliant Energy Center. The buses will begin shuttling members at 10:30 a.m. More information will be posted as it becomes available

I have noticed a lot of articles on the many things that United Way have done, stealing, corrupt CEO's buying horses, million dollar payouts etc, does anybody know if there is a list of all of the misdoings of this very questionable organisation, I have had some recent experience in Australia with them selling donated goods to pay staff wages (Salaries of nearly $100,000), doctoring the figures to make the 70% admin look like 15% admin etc etc etc, and would love to show some of the doubters over here United Way's true colours.

Lautenschlager isn't bitter Since Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager's drunk driving arrest in February, television stations have repeatedly showed videotape of it but she has no negative feelings over the coverage. ``I'm not bitter,'' the state's top law enforcement official told Bill Janz, a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But at least one family member feels that media reports have been excessive. ``Can't you just sue them? Can't they just get over it?'' she and her husband Bill Rippl quoted their daughter, Rebecca, 13, as saying. Lautenschlager was arrested after driving her state-owned Buick into a Dodge County ditch following...

<p>Imagine doing a Google search for a phone number, weather report or sports score. The results page would be filled with links to various sources of information. But what if someone typed in keywords and no results came back?</p> <p>That's the scenario critics are painting of a new bill wending its way through Congress that would let certain companies own facts, and exact a fee to access them.</p>

How the Current Congressional Database Protection Bill Would Go Beyond Current Law, and Why It is Unconstitutional and Misguided Recently, a bill seeking to establish special legal protection for databases was reported to the House floor for consideration. The bill, HR 3261, is called the Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act (DCIMA). If enacted into law, the DCIMA would create civil liability for anyone who, without authorization, makes available in commerce to others a substantial part of the information contained in another person's qualifying database. Qualifying databases must be "generated, gathered, or maintained through a substantial expenditure of...

A north Louisiana lawmaker said she made an error and will repay the state $448.50 for having state troopers relay a set of Sugar Bowl tickets the length of the state to her husband on the day of the national college football championship game. I made a mistake. I accept responsibility for it, said Sen. Sherri Cheek, R-Shreveport, who started her first term Monday. On Jan. 4, Cheek's husband was in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl but realized he'd left his tickets at home in Shreveport. Sherri Cheek called State Police and asked troopers to drive from Shreveport to...

No one should be able to own facts about other people. Our names and numbers, and also the laws we must obey, should not be property that can be owned by corporations and policed by federal courts. But special interests, such as the Software and Information Industry Association, are seeking new powers to own facts about us and about information we need. After quietly shopping a bill to Members of Congress for several weeks, the Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act was finally introduced last week as H.R. 3261. The Constitution authorizes Congress to create copyrights. But your name,...

Today, over 68% of public land -- land belonging to the people of the United States -- the land in our National Parks, Preserves and Monuments, is designated as a United Nations World Heritage Site, Biosphere Reserve or both. Worse yet, United Nations' land designations, such as UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites, currently take place without the approval of Congress and with no Congressional oversight. Nor are State and local officials, or even private landowners, usually consulted. By allowing these international land designations, the U.S. is indirectly agreeing to terms of international treaties, such as the Convention on...