Infrastructure in the News: April 2, 2010

WSJ reported Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner promised more spending on infrastructure and Logistics Management wrote on the idea of a U.S. infrastructure bank. Read more in this Infrastructure in the News.

National News

WSJ: Geithner Promises More Infrastructure Spending
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the administration is planning to use Recovery Act money for infrastructure projects that could help support domestic manufacturing. "We have a lot of money in the Recovery Act. We're prepared to spend more resources on infrastructure," said Mr. Geithner, referring to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Logistics Management: Transportation infrastructure: Is a U.S. Infrastructure Bank an idea whose time has come?
Former Transportation Secretary and several top transportation policy leaders are backing the idea of a U.S. infrastructure bank to help increase funding of badly needed highway and bridge projects. "The needs are great, and getting greater-and more funding is not coming," said Norman Y. Mineta, who was Transportation Secretary in the first Bush administration. Mineta is currently vice chairman of global communications consultancy for Hill & Knowlton, a public relations firm. Can the United States create an infrastructure bank? There are hurdles, Mineta said, but they are not insurmountable. Chief among them is how financially "score" such projects so they are fiscally responsible and paid for without increasing the national debt.

NY Times: The Sandra Bullock Trade
...The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year.

State News

LA Times: Clayton County loses vital bus service, link to Atlanta
The Great Recession has yet to claim J.C. Butler's warehouse job on the north side of metro Atlanta. But now it has eradicated his means of getting there. Butler, 57, lives in Clayton County, a majority-black, working-class suburb on Atlanta's south flank that killed off its local bus system Wednesday over concerns about a $19-million countywide budget shortfall. The demise of the buses, which provided 2.1 million rides last year, is among the most dramatic of the scores of public transit cutbacks enacted across the U.S. in recent months as agencies adjust to plummeting government revenue.