(15 stories) Who's Afraid of the Big Bad House Transportation Bill?

US News - News February 2, 2012 See US News Weather Who's Afraid of the Big Bad House Transportation Bill? (portlandtransport) The US House recently unveiled their proposed Transportation Bill . And it's horrible in pretty much every way: It gives the shaft to pretty much any mode of transport that doesn't have an exhaust pipe; and proposes to pay for it all with a big heavy dose of drill baby, drill. American Ringstrasse (brooklynrail) Alan Ehrenhalt does not like the word "gentrification." That it is fraught with political meanings, that it is charged with racial overtones, and that it, itself, is enough to make urbanologists and city planners instinctively reach for their hypertension meds - these are distinctively not his concerns. Calif. Rep. calls for inquiry into stun gun use (York Dispatch) A California congresswoman wants an independent investigator to determine whether a federal park ranger used excessive force when she used a stun gun on a man walking his dogs. Romney stock trades clash with divestment pledge (ChannelOne) During his presidential campaign in 2007, Republican candidate Mitt Romney promised that a trust overseeing his financial portfolio would shed any investments that conflicted with GOP positions toward Iran, China, stem cell research and other issues. Why Is College So Expensive? And Can Obama Make It Cheaper? (theatlantic) How to control public college costs in two easy steps: (1) Get states to stop cutting education budgets and (2) push schools to become more efficient. Getting it done is the hard part. Last week, President Obama declared war on the rising cost of college -- or at least, he did so to the degree that a notoriously even-keeled politician with a penchant for policy wonkery can declare war on such things. Speaking at the University of Michigan, he laid out a four-point* plan to reverse the surge of tuition rates and student debt that, for many Americans, is threatening to turn higher education into an unaffordable luxury. The Komen Foundation Pinkwashes Anti-choicers, Punks Planned Parenthood (thenation) Remember when anti-choicers got LifeWay Christian Resources to pull its pink-covered Here's Hope Breast Cancer Bibles from Walmart and other stores because one dollar of every sale went to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation? The antis were upset that the wealthy and influential breast-cancer charity made grants to Planned Parenthood for ... (more) Calif. woman beats Honda in court over mpg (cbsnews) Heather Peters, who says her 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid never achieved the 50 mpg Honda claimed in its advertising, talks with reporters outside small claims court in Torrrance, Calif., Jan. Why Ron Paul could rally in February caucuses (csmonitor) Ron Paul has been looking forward to February, when caucus states take center stage on the GOP nominating calendar. On Tuesday night, when Mitt Romney won the Florida primary, and Ron Paul finished fourth, Mr. Paul wasn't even in the Sunshine State. Instead, he was addressing supporters in Nevada, which holds its caucuses Saturday. He hadn't even campaigned in Florida at all. Mitt Romney cum Marie Antoinette? (cbsnews) Even Mitt Romney's defenders admit that he chose his words poorly when, on Wednesday morning, he told CNN that "I'm not concerned about the very poor." But many of these defenders say the quote is innocuous once you read it in context and realize what Romney was really trying to say. Tax cut pay-fors bog down lawmakers (thehill) Perhaps the last thing Congress needs is another anxiety-ridden, eleventh-hour deal to stave off a tax increase and sink its abysmal approval ratings even lower, but that might well be where Congress is heading in the near future. Salazar to announce offshore wind move (baltimoresun) Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is blowing into B'more Thursday to announce the Obama administration's latest move to boost development of industrial-scale wind energy projects off the mid-Atlantic coast. Houston millionaire sued in fatal Florida crash adopts girlfriend (chron) In the strangest wrinkle yet in a legal drama that pits the state of Florida and a car crash victim against a polo-obsessed Houston millionaire, the girlfriend of John Goodman is now his daughter. The heir to an air-conditioning fortune, Goodman, 48, has legally adopted 42-year-old Heather Laruso Hutchins, whom he has been dating since 2009. Bernanke to testify on economy and deficit (Deseret News) Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will likely tell members of Congress on Thursday that the slowly improving economy may need more help from the Fed and that cutting the deficit too fast could backfire. Ruling due on release of gay marriage trial videos (Cybercast News Service) A federal appeals court will announce if it will unseal video recordings of the landmark trial on the constitutionality of California's same-sex marriage ban, but it's not ready to rule on whether a lower court judge properly struck down the voter-approved ban. Warm fall, little snow help storm-battered farms (York Dispatch) After being battered by flooding last year, farmers across the Northeast and Midwest can at least be thankful that a relatively warm and largely snowless winter has made it easier to get started healing their rutted and debris-strewn lands. More US News News...

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