BAF IN THE NEWS
Globes: "If you're not into autonomous cars, you're not in the game"
Former US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood tells "Globes" about his future vision for transportation.
NATIONAL NEWS
The Hill: Trump’s Transportation chief sits down with GOP members to talk infrastructure
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao sat down with House lawmakers on Capitol Hill Friday morning to discuss President’s Trump $1 trillion infrastructure package, which is expected to be unveiled this summer.
Inc.: Elon Musk Just Revealed How His Boring Company Is Going to Change Transportation Forever
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed new details about his futuristic tunnel-boring project during his TED Talk on Friday.
Construction DIVE: Report: Trump's $1T infrastructure plan could create 3M jobs
The proposed $1 trillion U.S. infrastructure plan could create as many as 3 million jobs if projects are prioritized for optimal job generation, according to a Boston Consulting Group report.
Washington Examiner: New Trump $1 trillion infrastructure push, 'We're like a Third World nation'
President Trump is stepping up his push for infrastructure spending, and he's using China's slick new roads and airports as a example of what he wants.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Infrastructure: our ailing economic engine
Infrastructure gets a bad rap. It’s because the millions of people who rely on it notice it only when it doesn’t work.
STATE NEWS
Wall Street Journal: Pittsburgh Tries to Avoid Becoming the Next Flint (full story follows clips)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pittsburgh-tries-to-avoid-becoming-the-next-flint-1493550002
As its soot-filled skies cleared, this city built on the steel industry gained a reputation as one of the nation’s most livable places. But it now has another environmental issue to contend with: It is one of several major American cities with lead levels in drinking water above the federal limit.
New York Times: Key to Improving Subway Service in New York? Modern Signals
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/nyregion/new-york-subway-signals.html
At a subway station deep under Manhattan, a dingy room is filled with rows of antique equipment built before World War II. The weathered glass boxes and cloth-covered cables are not part of a museum exhibit, however — they are crucial pieces of the signal system that directs traffic in one of the busiest subways in the world.
New York Times: Cuomo Has the Opportunity to Fix Penn Station, but Will He?
Almost every administration has a telltale moment. For Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, it may well have come in 2010, before Bridgegate, when he stopped a plan to build new passenger rail tunnels under the Hudson River, connecting to Pennsylvania Station, claiming they cost New Jersey residents too dearly. In that one decision, he seemed to prove what critics would later say: He put shortsighted politics before constituents, and himself above public welfare.
Capital Public Radio: Brown Signs $50 Billion Transportation Funding Package
http://www.capradio.org/articles/2017/04/28/brown-signs-$50-billion-transportation-funding-package
Californians will pay more at the pump later this year – and more to register their cars and trucks starting next year – to fund transportation projects from pothole repairs to public transit, under legislation signed today by Gov. Jerry Brown.
New Haven Register: Connecticut, New Haven region face major transportation challenges, fixes seen as economic driver
When it comes to people and goods getting from place to place, Connecticut is in a jam.
NBC Montana: Montana Legislature rejects all infrastructure bills in 2017 session
A last ditch effort made by Montana lawmakers in Helena to pass an $80 million infrastructure bill has failed.
Sacramento Bee: California gas tax increase is now law. What it costs you and what it fixes
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article147437054.html#storylink=cpy
Now that Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law billions of dollars in higher fuel taxes and vehicle fees, the state will have an estimated $52 billion more money to help cover the state’s transportation needs for the next decade.