News

Come Up With the Money or Go to Jail: The Evils of Privatizing Probation. A new report I wrote for Human Rights Watch shows how widespread this kind of privatization is—and how much hardship it is causing. Slate Magazine

Food & Water Watch Exposes USDA Inspection Staffing Shortages… “We believe that the USDA has put food safety in jeopardy by this reckless personnel policy,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “This policy was hatched so the agency could implement its Filthy Chicken Rule, which deregulates poultry inspections—a move so fraught with controversy that it has yet to be finalized. What the USDA has done is put the entire meat and poultry inspection system on the brink of collapse.”  eNews Park Forest

GA: Senate committee approves privatization of Georgia’s child services. Opponents say privatization will replace a part of the system that’s not broken and usher in a new set of problems and expenses. Atlanta Journal Constitution

TX: TxDOT Has $2.6B of Bonds Coming Soon…In lieu of funding for public roads, TxDOT has turned increasingly to toll roads financed by European banks and operated by private companies. Bond Buyer

CO: Contentious public-private US 36 deal to get public airing this week…. Colorado Department of Transportation officials will address a growing chorus of concern that the agency is forging a deal with Plenary Roads Denver that hands a disproportionate amount of power and control over the Boulder-to-Denver highway to the private entity. Daily Camera

PA: Ex-charter school head sentenced to 3 years in prison…Skief, 32, pleaded guilty last year to stealing $88,000 from the West Philadelphia charter school and its related nonprofit, the Harambee Institute, both founded by his father, the late John Skief. Philly.com