NewsTrust - Transportation - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Who to blame for the price at the pump? Tough to say

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Molly Moorhead - Apr. 29 (Fact Check) - The price of gas is determined by a litany of complex and shifting factors (Brent derivatives, anyone?), few of which you’ll hear mentioned in :30-second political ads. But politicians are interested less in cause, more in effect. The effect in this case: your anger.

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Ford may post best year since 1998

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Louisville Courier-Journal - By Bloomberg News - Jan. 26 (News Report) - Ford Motor Co., boosted by a one-time tax gain, may report its most profitable year since 1998, while weakness in Europe and Asia cut fourth-quarter earnings.

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Scientists Cast Doubt on TSA Tests of Full-Body Scanners

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By by Michael Grabell - May. 16 (News Report) - "There's no real data on these machines, and in fact, the best guess of the dose is much, much higher than certainly what the public thinks," said John Sedat, a professor emeritus in biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF and the primary author of the letter.

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IMF warns of oil scarcity and a 60% oil price increase within a year

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Crude Oil Peak - Apr. 21 (News Analysis) - In a benchmark scenario of its latest World Economic Outlook (April 2011) the International Monetary Fund (IMF) analyses what it calls oil scarcity (after “energy security” another code word for peak oil?) and warns of a 60% increase in oil prices within a year and almost 90% within 5 years due to a reduced growth in global oil supplies (assumed to be + 0.8% pa, down from a long term 1.8%) and low oil price elasticities of oil demand between 0.02 (short-term) and 0.08 (long term). Even in the best case scenario in which oil price elasticities increase almost 5 fold (greater substitution away from oil), oil prices are simulated to go up by 60% in 5 years.

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Digital permits to replace hangtags

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Towerlight - By Ryan Langrehr - Apr. 21 (News) - When students purchase parking permits for the fall semester, they won’t be getting them in the mail, or picking them up from the ticket office. Towson University is abandoning the traditional hangtag parking permits to implement an entirely digital system called the Virtual Permit system. Virtual Permits will work off of License Plate Recognition (LPR) [...]

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Obama's High-Speed Rail Project Gets $1.5 Billion Slashed In Budget Deal

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Apr. 12 (News Report) - As part of the final budget deal formally agreed to on Friday night, the Obama administration signed off on a big cut to a closely held transportation policy priority.

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Tesla Stock Soars After It's Called 'America's Fourth Automaker'

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Huffington Post Business - Apr. 01 (News Report) - A new report by Morgan Stanley suggests that electric car startup Tesla is in good position to break into the Big Three to become "America's fourth automaker." The brokerage believes that increasing gas prices and promises of governmental support for alternative fuel vehicles may help launch the manufacturer to global success.

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FactChecking Obama’s Address

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson, Viveca Novak, Eugene Kiely, Lori Robertson, D’Angelo Gore - Jan. 26 (News Analysis) - We found no outright false factual claims in Obama’s State of the Union address, but we did note some that were arguable, and some promises that may prove unrealistic. He called his Race to the Top initiative “the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation.” That’s debatable. Some independent experts say Bush’s No Child Left Behind program had a greater impact. The president set a goal of generating 80 percent of the nation’s electricity from “clean” sources by 2035. That’s ambitious. The first large-scale “clean coal” plant has yet to begin operation. And Obama counts nuclear energy as a “clean” source, despite the unresolved waste issue. He set a goal of giving 80 percent of the U.S. population access to high-speed rail in the next 25 years. But the U.S. only has one high-speed rail line in operation now. He said his new health care law will slow rising health care costs. But the office of Medicare’s chief actuary estimates the law won’t have much impact on costs, and there will be a slight rise in total spending as more people gain coverage under the law. He said “exports are up” since he set a goal of doubling them in five years, which is true. But the rise so far falls short of the pace required to meet his goal. On other factual matters we found the president’s statements to be accurate, or reasonably so. He said the U.S. subjects businesses to “one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world,” which is borne out by the Word Bank and other studies. He said U.S. engineers gave the nation’s infrastructure a grade of “D,” which is true. That rating was issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers. And he said U.S. workers are unexcelled in productivity, which is true according to one ranking and nearly true by other measures.

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TSA security groping leaves 61-year-old bladder cancer survivor soaked in own urine - Boing Boing

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Boing Boing - Nov. 20 (News) -

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TSA encounter at SAN

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Insert Title Here - By John Tyner - Nov. 13 (Investigative Report) - This morning, I tried to fly out of San Diego International Airport but was refused by the TSA. I had been somewhat prepared for this eventuality. I have been reading about the millimeter wave and backscatter x-ray machines and the possible harm to health as well as the vivid pictures they create of people's naked bodies. Not wanting to go through them, I had done my research on the TSA's website prior to traveling to see if SAN had them. From all indications, they did not. When I arrived at the security line, I found that the TSA's website was out of date. SAN does in fact utilize backscatter x-ray machines.

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Helicopter Crew In Pikes Peak Audi Commercial Shoot Released From Hospital

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

jalopnik.com - By Matt Hardigree - Sep. 18 (News) - All four crew members injured during the helicopter crash on the summit of Pikes Peak yesterday were released from the hospital... Stanford University and Audi were in the process of filming the driverless Audi TTS as it made its way up Pikes Peak when the helicopter went down. Video of the wreckage shows the aftermath of a hard landing that left the Aerospatiale Twinstar A355 F1 helicopter a twisted mess.

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Taking High-Speed Trains into the Future

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Bruce Selcraig - Aug. 16 (Special Report) - For the U.S. to have world-class high-speed trains, the government will have to subsidize them. The investment would be small compared to the billions lavished on highways and airports.

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Green Machine: The Charm City Circulator is more than a cool free bus--it's part of a hopefully sustainable relationship

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

City Paper - By John Barry - Jul. 07 (News) - Now, the Circulator is hoping to attract that population back to the buses with courtesy-trained drivers and green energy.

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Pakistani Taliban Link to Times Square Bombing Attempt Would Have Troubling Implications

Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Sebastian Rotella, - May. 06 (News Analysis) - If the Pakistani Taliban played a role, the terror threat against the United States may be widening to include an organization with thousands of hardened fighters who have not previously struck in the West. Pakistan would likely come under even more American pressure to move aggressively against the fierce array of militant groups operating on its soil.

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Off the Radar: Private Planes Hidden from Public View

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Michael Grabell, Sebastian Jones - Apr. 10 (Investigative Report) - Televangelist Kenneth Copeland faced a congressional inquiry after flying his ministry?s tax-exempt jet to Maui and the Fiji Islands. South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds has been questioned about his use of state planes for political and personal trips. And after getting a $180 billion federal bailout, the insurance giant AIG caught flak for its fleet of corporate jets. To prevent the public from seeing where they fly, all have over the years turned to a little-known program that lets private plane owners block their flights from view in the government?s system for tracking air traffic. The owners don?t have to meet any test to keep their flights secret. They merely submit a request to the National Business Aviation Association, a trade group that lobbied to set up the program on the grounds that secrecy is justified to protect business deals and the security of executives. Blocking Flights: How It Works View Graphic But in at least some cases, the program has also served as a refuge for plane owners who?ve faced bad publicity, according to a review by ProPublica of 1,100 blocked planes in the program. The list was obtained after a 15-month public records battle in which the business aviation group sued the FAA to keep it confidential. After a federal judge ruled that the records are public, the FAA provided the list this week. It includes aircraft registered to Fortune 500 companies such as 3M and Tyson Foods, private real estate developers, government agencies and evangelical churches. There are 62 Gulfstream IVs and Vs, which cost tens of millions of dollars each, 36 Learjets and two Boeing 737s. Registered owners include: College booster clubs and athletic programs for the University of Alabama and the University of Mississippi, who blocked flights to hide coaching searches and recruiting trips. The CEO of Hooters, who along with other business partners, has a blocked jet to conduct surprise checks on restaurants, according to the company. Owners of newspapers that have fought for access to public records, including Journal Enterprises, owner of the Albuquerque Journal, and Sam Zell, chairman of the Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. How the list came to be Use of the national airspace is generally considered public information because pilots ? whether airline captains or recreational fliers ? rely on a system of air traffic controllers, radars, runways and taxiways, lighting systems and towers that are all paid for or subsidized by taxpayers. As a result, flight data collected by the FAA in its air traffic control system ? except for military and sensitive government flights ? is public information. Web sites such as FlightAware post the data online, allowing anyone to observe the system and follow most planes virtually in real time. Chuck Collins, who has studied (PDF) the costs of private jet travel for the progressive Institute for Policy Studies, said the public has a right to monitor such flights because taxpayers and commercial passengers heavily support business aviation. ?It?s the use of the public commons,? he said. ?It belongs to all of us. It?s not a private preserve. It?s not a country club.? Dan Hubbard, spokesman for the business aviation association, which helps to administer the program, called the Block Aircraft Registration Request program, or BARR, said privacy is important because businesses worry that competitors could watch them, potentially disclosing deals that could move stock prices. ?Our members tell NBAA that there are certain circumstances where there is a security concern, and that?s why they want to avail themselves of the BARR program,? he said. The program drew attention in November 2008 after the Big Three auto executives were criticized for taking corporate jets to ask Congress for financial help, prompting General Motors to block its flights. The business aviation group administers BARR in cooperation with the FAA, and plane owners have two options for keeping flights secret. In one, the NBAA sends a ?block? list directly to private flight-tracking sites, which are bound by agreement with FAA to hide those planes. In the other, the NBAA sends a block list to the FAA, which hides the planes from data released to flight-tracking sites. ProPublica obtained the latter list. The former remains undisclosed. FAA blocks planes at no charge and without requiring owners to prove why their movements should be kept secret. The agency keeps only the current month?s block list and deletes historical records, which prevents the public from knowing who has used the program in the past. The origins of the block program trace to 1995, when flight-tracking Web sites began to proliferate. Several private plane groups petitioned the FAA to limit release of the data to a need-to-know basis. The groups lobbied Congress, and in 2000, a measure was attached to an FAA reauthorization bill requiring Web sites that use the data to hide any aircraft upon FAA request. Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the FAA, said the agency doesn?t have the resources to evaluate the block requests and, because the business aviation association is receiving the requests, allows it to gather the information for the FAA. Planes that drew scrutiny In some cases, records and news accounts show that aircraft owners flew into some public relations turbulence. In 2007, Sen. Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the finance committee, opened an inquiry into several tax-exempt ministries, questioning whether charitable donations had paid for mansions, Rolls Royces and private jets. Televangelist Copeland and his Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark, Texas, were questioned about layovers of church aircraft in Maui, Fiji and Honolulu. The church told Grassley the Fiji trip was for preaching and the others so the pilots could rest. The ministry?s Web site says the planes are used for humanitarian missions and to spread the word of God around the world. The church has five planes on the blocked list, including a $17 million Cessna Citation X. Also blocked is a 1953 North American T-28B Trojan, a vintage warplane registered to Copeland. The ministry and Copeland declined to respond to ProPublica?s questions. In September 2005, the use of state planes by South Dakota governor, Rounds, was the subject of a three-part series in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, which found that he had flown to Republican Party functions and his sons? high school basketball games. Two state planes are on the block list. Rounds, a pilot who sometimes flies himself, has advocated using state planes to save drive time and money. Col. Dan Mosteller, superintendent of South Dakota?s Highway Patrol, said he decided to block the flights to protect the governor after a routine security review. ?All the other things that go on with the governor?s office, that?s irrelevant to me,? he said. ?My only goal is for security reasons.? He said the blocking request was made on March 30, 2006. That was the same day Rounds announced his re-election campaign. South Dakota isn?t the only government entity on the block list. The New Mexico Department of Public Safety, which handles flights for Gov. Bill Richardson, and the Alabama Department of Transportation also have blocked their planes. Taxpayers subsidize system The use of corporate jets stoked the anger of the public and even President Obama in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and government bailout as banks continued to buy planes and fly executives to resorts and vacation homes. Firms such as AIG decided to sell aircraft and cancel purchases of new ones. AIG spokesman Mark Herr said in an e-mail that AIG blocked its aircraft years before the meltdown. ?It?s been AIG?s historical practice going back years to not disclose its aircraft identifiers to the general public,? Herr said. ?In light of the surge in numbers and intensity of the threats directed at the physical safety of our employees, it?s only common sense to continue this practice.? The private jet has always been an emblem in a long-running dispute about whether general aviation ? the class that includes corporate jets, recreational fliers, helicopters and charters ? pays its fair share in support of the nation?s air traffic system. According to an FAA study released in 2007, general aviation uses 16 percent of the air traffic system , yet pays only 3 percent of the taxes that support it. The rest is covered largely by commercial travel. The system, including salaries for traffic controllers, costs about $9 billion a year. The business aviation association disputes the FAA study. The association?s president, Ed Bolen, said the group?s members are rigorous in evaluating the costs of corporate jet travel versus driving or taking commercial airlines. But often, the need to fly to multiple cities in one day, the lack of airline service to some areas or the proprietary nature of business discussions necessitates the use of company planes. Confrontation on a landing strip Several plane owners defended the blocked aircraft program to ProPublica. One pilot who asked not to be identified for personal security reasons said he blocked his plane after he and a female companion were stalked by a man who had been tracking their flights. According to the account, which ProPublica verified with the local sheriff, the stalker showed up at the pilot?s private airstrip and confronted them as soon as they landed from a trip out of town. ?The only possible way he could have followed us there was to use that tracking software,? the pilot said. ?I run around with folks all the time who fly corporate jets and they have very, very good reasons? for privacy ?because there are some screwballs in the world.? Gannett Co., the media company that owns USA Today, which published a version of this article in collaboration with ProPublica, has blocked its corporate jet. Company spokeswoman Robin Pence said Gannett shields its flights mostly for competitive reasons, such as when it looks at possible acquisitions and investments. Security in a post-9/11 environment also is a concern, she said. A spokeswoman for Zell, the Tribune Co. chairman, declined to comment. Thompson Lang, publisher of the Albuquerque Journal, said the company?s jet has been used to ferry reporters to news events like Hurricane Katrina. But Lang said he plans to take it off the block list. The reason: Lang doesn?t want the governor or others to be able to hide their flights, so why should he?

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Toyota faces record fine for 'hiding defect'

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Australian Broadcasting - Apr. 06 (News) -

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Who Are You and What Did You Eat?

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Michael Scott Moore - Feb. 25 (Special Report) - Meanwhile, the U.S. also started requesting loads of private information from airlines, including passenger cell phone numbers and the names of people who’d ordered a special meal. This irritated Germans in particular. They get antsy about invasions of privacy, having both Nazi and Communist regimes in their recent past.

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Indonesian court overturns Garuda pilot's conviction over air disaster

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Wikinews - By Iain MacDonald - Dec. 12 (News Report) - Indonesia's High Court in Yogyakarta has overturned the April conviction of a Garuda Indonesia pilot who was behind the controls in an air disaster. Captain Marwoto Komar was cleared of negligently causing the deaths of 21 when his Boeing 737 overshot the runway at Adisucipto Airport.

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Hop a Bus to the Future

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

onearth.org - By Lauren Gravitz - Dec. 03 (Special Report) - The Orange Line doesn't look or operate like a regular city bus. The vehicles sport sleek, bullet-train silhouettes and shiny silver paint, and they run along a path that is separated from street traffic by barriers and trees -- much like train tracks -- and from which all other vehicles are barred. The trainlike features don't end there: outdoor stations have ticket vending machines, bike racks and enclosed bike lockers, and illuminated signs that alert riders to the arrival time of the next bus. Between some stations the buses reach speeds of up to 55 miles per hour -- much faster than the cars inching along Highway 101 at rush hour. Special sensors in the roadway detect moving buses and switch street signals up ahead, halting cross traffic so buses can pass through without stopping. Just like the train.

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Lobbyists rush to high-speed rail

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Center for Public Integrity - By Matthew Lewis - Dec. 01 (Special Report) - The U.S. High-Speed Rail Association’s October conference opened like any Washington gathering. The congressmen were in the front row. A powerhouse law firm laid out prints of its lobbyists’ biographies. And as the J.W. Marriott meeting room went dark,

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Positive Train Control Stalled Even After Deadly Nudge

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Joan Trossman Bien - Oct. 06 (Special Report) - Positive Train Control technology that adheres to the simple premise that there should only be one train to one track is still years away from full implementation in the U.S.

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Red Line Fever

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

City Paper - By Michael Byrne - Sep. 23 (News) - A very vocal opposition is campaigning against the [Red Line] plan for stated reasons that range from fears about property values to noise to fears of increased congestion.

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Intercity Bus Service Increasingly Popular

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Sara Barbour - Sep. 15 (Special Report) - With lower fuel emissions than planes, downtown access to rival trains and lower prices than either alternative, could buses be the future of intercity travel?

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Should the Airbus Be Grounded?

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By William John Cox - Jun. 20 (Special Report) - Not including losses attributable to terrorism, rebellion or military action, Airbuses have been involved in 23 fatal crashes causing the deaths of 2,584 passengers, crew members and people on the ground. In addition, there have been five nonfatal accidents causing 21 serious injuries. While the overall number of accidents and fatalities are not disproportionate to the crash experience of Boeing aircraft, three of the Airbus crashes involved a separation of the composite vertical stabilizer (tail fin) from the fuselage. Five hundred, or one in five of the Airbus deaths, including 228 from Air France Flight 447, resulted from these three crashes.

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Northwest's biofuel boom goes bust ?

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

OregonLive.com - By Scott Learn, The Oregonian - Jun. 07 (News Report) - The biofuel downturn has been a national phenomenon, Van't Hof noted. Oregon's plants are likely to be restructured under Chapter 11 proceedings or sold, not shuttered. And the federal plans for more biofuel use in coming years leave Oregon in a good position to capitalize as the industry grows, he said.

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