Free Republic

It’s fun to talk about getting government out of the way for business. But when things get tight in the marketplace, we often turn to government for help. That is what happened Tuesday when the CEO of Hawker-Beech and its union leader went to Topeka. After meeting with them, Gov. Mark Parkinson announced a package of new state incentives to keep “the vast majority” of Hawker-Beech’s 6,000 jobs in Wichita. * Could there have been better news for the Kansas economy? Could there have been better news for Cowley County? The battle among states for high-paying jobs has been going...

Construction is Underway for High-Speed Rail Station Project to Create 48,000 Jobs Over Seven YearsNEW YORK, Oct. 6 -- Turner Construction Company, the nation's leading general builder, is providing construction management services for the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, Calif., designed to be the "Grand Central Station of the West." The project is estimated to create more than 48,000 jobs in its first phase of construction. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2017. Replacing a terminal constructed in 1939, the 1.3 million square foot regional transportation hub is designed to serve more than 45 million passengers a year and...

ROUND ROCK — Republicans must love doughnuts — or so it would seem from a glance at the latest finance report filed by the Republican Party of a suburban Austin county. But Williamson County Republican Party officials say it’s only by a clerical foul-up that it reported spending $5,272,010 at Round Rock Donuts on Sept. 20 and $9,082,010 at Applebee’s restaurant in Georgetown on Sept. 8.

WASHINGTON: The United States should tax the wealthy more, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the world's third-richest man, told a gathering of high-powered women Tuesday at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit. "We're going to need 20 percent or thereabouts of GDP to fund the kinds of things that we all believe are right to have in this country, and we've got to get it from somebody," said Buffett, one of just a few men invited to the conference. "If you're not going to get it from guys like me, why should you get it from the guy who serves lunch to...

In Delaware, 50 union workers, including 20 Electrical Workers (IBEW) members are at work and paying their bills and mortgages thanks to economic recovery money that is also saving Amtrak millions of dollars in new equipment.Those jobs are part of the as many as 3.3 million jobs that President Obama’s  American Recovery and Reinvestment Act saved or created since it was signed into law in February 2009. In the three months prior to passage of the legislation, the nation had lost 2.2 million jobs–more than 8 million jobs disappeared during the Bush administration. The Delaware workers are converting old and abandoned dining...

A tax on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) was shot down last year by President Obama. But a new study by respected transportation experts – and a successful pilot program in Oregon – should revive the idea.As more Americans buy hybrid or electric cars, drivers in traditional gas-only vehicles are bound to start asking: Why should I still be paying more in fuel taxes? Don’t we all use the highways?Indeed, the gas tax is quickly becoming an unjust way to finance the costs of roads and bridges. All vehicles, whether they be a Hummer or a Prius, use the same infrastructure,...

The United States is saddled with a rapidly decaying and woefully underfunded transportation system that will undermine its status in the global economy unless Congress and the public embrace innovative reforms, a bipartisan panel of experts concludes in a report released Monday. U.S. investment in preservation and development of transportation infrastructure lags so far behind that of China, Russia and European nations that it will lead to "a steady erosion of the social and economic foundations for American prosperity in the long run." That is a central conclusion in a report issued on behalf of about 80 transportation experts who...

FrontLines is now more than half finishedSALT LAKE CITY - The Utah Transit Authority is ahead of schedule and under budget with its FrontLines project. FrontLines is a group of five UTA rail projects that will add 70 miles to the 64-mile rail network. The project includes a TRAX extension running from downtown Salt Lake City to the Salt Lake International Airport, a TRAX line running between South Salt Lake and West Valley City, an extension of TRAX through Sandy and Draper and TRAX service for Murray, Midvale, West Jordan and South Jordan. An extension of the high-speed commuter rail...

I have to admit I was skeptical of the idea: Charlotte, N.C., serving as Tampa's model for building light rail and expanding bus service.Charlotte? Really?So here was the challenge: Could I could get by without a car on a recent four-day trip to check out Charlotte's transit system? Would it be a practical alternative for someone visiting for a meeting or conference?It was.I arrived in town on a Tuesday night. After a three-minute wait outside baggage claim, I hopped a ride on the Charlotte Area Transit System's "Sprinter," an electric-hybrid bus that runs every 20 minutes to downtown.Hailing a cab...

This week I am at a conference in Houston. I must confess that I don't attend many of the sessions at most conferences where I speak. But today, the guys at Streettalk Advisors have such a great lineup that I am there for every session. But it's Friday and I need to write. The solution? This week you get a "best of" letter. The best ideas I've heard and the best charts I've seen at this conference. Then we close with two short but very thoughtful essays from Charles Gave and Arthur Kroeber of GaveKal on "The Morality of Chinese...

NO COUNTRY FOR BITTER WHITE MEN They’ve made your lawns, beds and meals for several years, but now they might be signing your paychecks. Between 2002 and 2007, the number of Hispanic-owned businesses in Texas increased about 40 percent. If money in Texas could talk, it’d speak Spanglish. While Hispanics (namely Mexicans) in New York are largely seen are the mops and rags of the workforce, in Houston they are the face of new leaders emerging in the business world. Maybe it’s because they know their audience, which happens to have a projected $3 trillion purchasing power this year. This...

Funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) are helping improve the infrastructure and create new jobs, says a new report from the Washington-based American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). According to "More Projects and Paychecks: Transportation's Summer of Recovery," as of August 31, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported that $5.4 billion worth of work is under way on 4,200 mass transit projects, and 11,978 highway and bridge projects are being completed, totaling $24.1 billion. A total of 13,000 highway projects worth $26.4 billion have been approved for construction, that when completed will...

This spring and summer, hundreds of millions of gallons of oil seeped into the Gulf of Mexico. Simultaneously, debate raged in Congress about offshore drilling, energy independence, "cap-and-trade" legislation and a shift away from fossil-fuel energy sources. Nevertheless, congressional candidates and federal political committees nationwide have raked in more than $17 million from the oil and gas industry so far during the 2010 election cycle -- a number on pace to easily exceed that of the most recent midterm election four years ago. And so far this cycle, more than 20 congressional candidates have raised at least $100,000 from people...

Just a year after helping to launch a wildly popular twice-daily passenger rail service, Amtrak plans to more than double the frequency of its Cardinal train, a run that currently connects to Chicago or New York less than once a day. Under a new proposal just released the quasi-public passenger rail company, the Cardinal would leap from 6 weekly passes through Charlottesville to 14. “People don’t even know about the Cardinal because it’s just three days a week,” says local rail promoter Meredith Richards. “To have a seven day a week afternoon train for Charlottesville is really big.” Under the...

PITTSBURGH — Attorneys for Houston-based military contractor KBR Inc. again want a federal judge in Pittsburgh to dismiss a lawsuit by the mother of a Pittsburgh-area soldier electrocuted in 2008 in Iraq. An appeals court in August refused to dismiss the lawsuit after KBR argued it can't be sued for military decisions. The lawsuit contends KBR is responsible because it maintained the barracks where the Army says a water pump shorted out and electrified Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth's shower water.

Jack in the Box Inc. plans to shutter 40 underperforming company-run restaurants before Sunday. The fast food chain said Wednesday that it anticipates about $8.5 million to $9.5 million in fourth-quarter impairment charges related to the closings and approximately $21 million to $25 million in lease-related costs. The restaurants being closed are mostly in the Southeast and Texas. The closings coincide with the end of the company's fiscal year. Jack in the Box lowered its full-year earnings outlook in August and said that high unemployment levels in the U.S. were hurting its sales.

WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Automaker fleets would have to achieve substantially higher fuel efficiency -- between 47 and 62 miles per gallon -- by 2025 under a preliminary plan to further slash U.S. gasoline use that was released by the Obama administration on Friday. Gasoline and electric hybrid vehicles and electric cars would play a crucial role in meeting the higher-range targets, according to the analysis crafted by federal environmental and transportation regulators. "We must, and we will, keep the momentum going to make sure that all motor vehicles sold in America are realizing the best fuel economy and...

The Wisconsin Association of Railroad passengers has been analyzing and advocating for continued and improving rail passenger service in Wisconsin for 40 years. The association consists of people from across the state who see this mode of transportation as a critical option to the state’s well-developed highways and air travel. Rail uses only one acre of land compared to five for roads to move a like number of passengers or tons of freight. Recent ads by a major railroad highlight the great advantage of rail, which needs just one gallon of fuel to move a ton of freight more than...

The Adirondack Railway Preservation Society was awarded $200,000 in federal stimulus funds to rehabilitate a stretch of the Adirondack Scenic Railroad in the western Adirondacks. Bill Branson, president of the society, said the seed money will let the group access about $1 million in other funds, already raised through private and state grants, to fix 14 miles of track from Carter Station, just north of Thendara, through Big Moose up to Beaver River in Herkimer County. The cost of the entire project will likely be about $1,350,000, so the society has a good start, Treasurer Ed Kennedy said. The group...

Washington, DC, September 29, 2010—A new report, Infrastructure Construction and Equipment Finance Opportunities, issued by the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation (Foundation), provides an outlook on infrastructure construction and offers a review of the current situation as well as an analysis of future trends. In addition, the study discusses current legislation or policies that may impact infrastructure construction, provides insight into the impact of infrastructure construction on equipment demand, and examines the opportunities this landscape presents for equipment finance. The study was conducted at the request of the Foundation by IHS Global Insight, a global economic and financial forecasting company....