The defendant in a Stockton, CA murder trial was shot dead Wednesday after attacking the judge during a recess (http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/04/california.courtroom.shooting/index.html).
Federal court rules that the Vatican can be sued over abuse committed by its priests (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/us/04brfs-VATICANCANBE_BRF.html?_r=1&ref=us).
Gold down for a variety of reasons (http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/commodities/whats-golds-recent-slump/).
SF Fed: Recession bad in the West (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2009/03/fed-recession-w.html).
1/5 O.C. homeowners have negative equity in their homes (http://mortgage.freedomblogging.com/2009/03/04/1-in-5-oc-homeowners-with-loans-are-underwater/7423/).
Revised commentary on the CA budget, analysis and comments to come: (http://www.dof.ca.gov/budget/historical/2009-10/documents/Budget_Agreement_Full-Package-w.pdf).
No correlation found between hate crimes and the state of the economy, yet the "total number of hate groups operating in the U.S. has increased by more than half since 2000, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center." So what is driving the resurgence of hate?
(http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/the-recession-and-the-klan/)
Discussion of public transportation in Los Angeles, a place where the car is king, defending the mass transit system that LA has developed, and comparing its ridership with other major US cities. LA claims 2% ridership, while SF claims 5% and NY claims 10%. (FYI: Paris is at 20%, and Tokyo is at 50%).
(http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/los-angeles-transportation-facts-and-fiction-transit/)
What do we need to do to improve mass transit ridership in this country? Will the heavy rail spanning California will be successful in drawing passengers?
Improving mass-transit in this country will take a long time, and require our society to adapt to the two things stopping an effective system from being used: our historic love for automobiles, and the inherent decentralized and mismanaged areas of urban and suburban sprawl. When it becomes easier for me to hop on a bus to go to the local mall, I might consider it. Mass-transit is always going to have its limitations.. Perhaps people in other countries are willing to sacrifice tax money or forced relocation to build transit structure, but we are car-loving Americans who would rather get stuck in traffic driving to work than pay higher taxes or have my government force me out of my home for an improved yet still limited transit systems.
ReplyDeleteMickey makes a fair point. To provide as efficient a system as possible, I think the government would have to exercise its eminent domain power to an extreme extent - which would generate huge amounts of litigation, which would essentially prevent anything from happening for years to come.
ReplyDeleteWhat we need are flying trains...