April 23, 2008

Headlines
Fingerprinting rankles travel companies
More states consider tolls amid budget deficits
IN: Gov candidate rejects privatization
IN: Residents angry at welfare meeting
NYC: Naming rights for park rink

News Summaries
Fingerprinting rankles travel companies
Airline and cruise ship companies will be required to fingerprint
foreign nationals leaving the United States under a controversial
Department of Homeland Security proposal released Tuesday. Tuesday’s
proposal delegates the fingerprinting job to the airlines and cruise
lines, which would be required to submit the prints and travel
information to the U.S. government within 24 hours. The proposal
sparked immediate opposition by the airlines and privacy groups.Both
groups said the government was "outsourcing" security, and the airlines
raised the specter that the change would lead to long lines at airport
counters. CNN
More states consider tolls amid budget deficits
A growing number of states are looking to freeways as potential revenue
sources to help offset budget deficits and pay for highway repair and
maintenance. Lawmakers here are weighing tolls for Interstates 78 and
80, two busy highways that slice across the state from Pennsylvania to
New York City. The idea was raised as an alternative to Gov. Jon S.
Corzine’s widely panned proposal to increase tolls on the New Jersey
Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway. "It’s not
the silver bullet that solves all our problems, but it’s one way to
bring some money into a system that needs it," said Democratic
Assemblyman John Wisniewski, chairman of the transportation committee.
Washington Post

IN: Gov candidate rejects privatization
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson fired up a crowd
of union steelworkers Tuesday with pledges to reject the privatization
policies advanced by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels."It’s time to end
the Bush-Daniels era in Indiana," Long Thompson told
a crowd of about 50 at the United Steelworkers Local 1010 hall in East
Chicago. "I think it’s time to privatize Mitch Daniels.""It’s time to
end the Bush-Daniels era in Indiana," Long Thompson told a crowd of
about 50 at the United Steelworkers Local 1010 hall in East Chicago. "I
think it’s time to privatize Mitch Daniels." Daniels, a former federal
budget director for President George W. Bush, touts the $3.8 billion he
secured for state highway construction by leasing the Indiana Toll Road
to a Spanish-Australian consortium in 2006. Northwest Indiana Times (Munster)
IN: Residents angry at welfare meeting
Charles Baxter is running out of time. The 51-year-old Anderson man
says his liver is failing, and each day, he wakes wondering if it will
be his last. Baxter, a U.S. Army veteran, says his life is at risk
because of the privatization of Indiana’s welfare system. I applied for
Medicaid last May and haven’t heard a thing yet.” Baxter and others
attended a meeting at the UAW Local 663 Union Hall in Anderson to
discuss a growing opinion that the Family and Social Services
Administration’s recent modernization of the welfare system is hurting
Hoosiers. The Herald Bulletin (Anderson, IN)
NYC: Naming rights for park rink
An ambitious redesign of a winter (and summer) wonderland planned for
Prospect Park could add $25 million to its cost, park officials
acknowledged Tuesday. The so-called Lakeside Center, which already has
received $22.5 million from Mayor Bloomberg, Borough President Marty Markowitz
and the City Council, is seeking $2 million more from each while also eying private
donations, Thomas said. Naming rights for the rinks also will inject cash into the
increasingly expensive Prospect Park project, which would begin construction in
2010 and open by 2011, Thomas said. Daily News (Brooklyn)