Below you will find a sampling of recent news stories featuring Reason and its experts. The links are to external news Web sites and may expire at anytime.

• September 2006
• August 2006
• July 2006
• June 2006
• May 2006
• April 2006
• March 2006
• February 2006
• January 2006
• 2005 Archive

Austin American Statesman
Sept 2
Democrats proving they don't understand the working class
Editorial Board
Stuck in Austin with the Buda blues again. How much worse can Austin-area traffic get? Plenty, according to a study by the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank with a Libertarian bent. A report from the foundation says Texas ranks second in the nation in the number of lane-miles needed by 2030 to reduce traffic congestion, 13,000 new miles at a cost of $49 billion. Austin drivers in 2030 may be looking at commutes 54 percent longer than today, the study advises, bringing it to congestion levels that rival San Francisco today. What to do about it? Keep building more roads, the study suggests. Otherwise, Austin and Texas will be threatening their economic health, which is anathema to the free market foundation.

Contra Costa Times
Sept 1
Bloggers rest at their own peril
Sites suffer dramatic declines in traffic when writers take vacations
By Elizabeth Holmes
A banner stripped across the top of the Daily Dish declares that the popular blog's host, Andrew Sullivan, has "gone fishing." Sullivan declared a two-week vacation and opted to leave his political blog behind. Several thousand of his readers have done the same. Despite the efforts of three verbose guest bloggers, replacements handpicked by Sullivan, the site's visitor tally has fallen. The Daily Dish, now part of Time magazine, usually garners around 90,000 unique visitors, or individual readers, each day. At the start of the first workweek without him, Sullivan's blog received about 67,000 hits, according to Site Meter. This week, traffic has hovered around 57,000."The frequency of e-mails of 'Bring back Andrew' and 'This is stupid. Bring back Andrew' is definitely higher than anything I've ever written," says David Weigel, a 24-year-old assistant editor at Reason magazine, who is one of Sullivan's guest bloggers and has filled in at other sites in the past.

Pueblo Business Journal
Sept 1
Is state pension fund really ‘fixed?’
By John Hazlehurst
And that, as Adam Summers of the Reason Foundation has written, might explain a lot. “At the heart of the pension crisis is a set of incentives that creates a ‘moral hazard.’ The fact that policymakers are able to make decisions for which they do not have to bear the consequences actually encourages risky behavior … underfunding a system does not create problems until years in the future … but policymakers get to reap the political rewards of creating lucrative new benefits for employees.” Any permanent solution to PERA’s inherent problems would present enormous political difficulties.

Des Moines Register
Sept 1
Libertarian group urges more highway construction
WILLIAM PETROSKI
Iowa needs to spend $572 million to add 164 new lane miles of roads over the next 25 years to reduce traffic congestion and accommodate growth in highway travel, according to a new study. The report by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian-oriented research organization, predicts that drivers in many cities, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, will face Los Angeles-like traffic jams in the future. But most Iowans shouldn’t share those worries, the report said. “Iowa really does not have a significant traffic congestion problem, although there are likely to be specific sites in the state where traffic does have some major adverse impacts,” the study said. None of the seven Iowa cities with populations exceeding 50,000 have travel times that reach the level of “severe congestion,” although relative increases in traffic delays will be noticed by Iowa commuters over the next 25 years, the authors said.

WTVM TV, Columbus, Ohio
Sept 1
A New Report Show Traffic In Columbus Will Increase By 2030
A recent study by the "Libertarian Reason Foundation" shows road congestion will sky rocket some 2,000 percent by the 2030. The report in USA Today says lines of traffic will stretch longer, including in Columbus. In 25 years the study says congestion here in Columbus will explode much faster than metro area like Atlanta and Birmingham. But the planning division of Columbus says they are aware of congestion. "We are constantly looking at trying to make sure we can accommodate new growth and new traffic that come with that growth," said Rick Jones, Columbus Planning Division. Some Columbus residents have their suggestions on issue. "I think they need to widen a lot of the roadways and make more turn lanes. That is so people who are turning can get out of the way of people who want to keep straight," said Kristine Keating, Columbus Commuter. But the planning division says public transportation could help ease the problem. "For every car that is transporting one or two individuals our buses can transport anywhere between 28 to 30 seated passengers. Which will take about 10 to 20 vehicles off the road," said Saundra Hunter, Metra Transit System.

El Paso Times
Sept 1
Road congestion
Figures show action must be taken
Caught in a traffic bog on I-10, were you? Yet again? Second or third time in a week? It's only going to get worse in El Paso and throughout Texas, numbers show, unless many billions of dollars in road upgrades start being spent right now. According to a new Reason Foundation report, El Paso could reduce would-be future traffic congestion by adding 801 new lane-miles in the next 25 years. That means we'd better get paving on the full Loop 375 -- the southern portion -- and on the bypass that would take traffic north of El Paso through Anthony Gap into and out of New Mexico. That would be ideal in relieving I-10 of so much truck traffic on what, essentially, is our main street between east and west El Paso. Texas is expected to add nearly 7 million people by 2030, and the Reason Foundation report shows a need for nearly 13,000 new lane-miles at a cost of "$49 billion in today's dollars." El Paso's needed "801 new lane-miles" would come at an "estimated cost of $1.4 billion in today's dollars. That's a cost of $80.16 per resident each year," the report said. That investment, according to the new Reason Foundation, " ... would save El Pasoans 9.2 million hours each year that "residents lose sitting in traffic, at a cost of just $6.21 for each hour saved." Since the latest census figures show El Paso may well double in size to 1.5 million people in that time span, it's easy to understand why the Reason Foundation figures show our "travel times during peak traffic hours will be 37 percent longer than during off-peak times."

Honolulu Star Bulletin
Sept 1
Traffic expected to worsen
Honolulu congestion in 2030 will match Tucson and other cities, a report says
By Nelson Daranciang
If major steps are not taken to relieve traffic congestion in Honolulu, motorists can expect to experience the same amount of traffic delay in 2030 that drivers in Tucson, Ariz.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Philadelphia experience today, according to a study by Reason Foundation, a public policy research organization. But even if no steps are taken, traffic congestion in Honolulu will be nowhere near as bad as it is in major U.S. cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington. The report, Building Roads to Reduce Traffic Congestion in America's Cities, says Honolulu needs an additional 296 lane-miles of roadways by 2030 to relieve traffic congestion. The study estimates the cost of constructing that much more road capacity is slightly more than $1 billion in today's dollars.

Monterey County Herald
Sept 1
Group urges more roads in Bay Area
By MICHAEL CABANATUAN
Bay Area roads and freeways, already among the nation's most congested, will be as clogged in 2030 as Los Angeles' are now, according to a new study. But the region can avoid emulating L.A.'s tangled traffic and accommodate expected population growth, the group behind the study says, with a major expansion of the Bay Area's road and highway system -- including a network of toll lanes as well as dedicated truck lanes between the East Bay and the San Joaquin Valley. The study released Thursday by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank that advocates toll lanes, takes a shot at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the region's transportation planning and financing agency, and its long-range spending plan, which during the next 25 years steers most money for new transportation projects to mass transit. ''We're saying we really need to look hard at changing priorities,'' said Robert Poole, Reason's transportation director. Building and expanding highways ''has gradually become the abandoned stepchild in transportation planning. Public transportation and carpooling can't eliminate congestion. People like to drive, and they're still moving to far-flung suburbs.''

Journal News, NY
Sept. 1
Future gridlock
Someday, say, about 25 years from now, commuters in the Lower Hudson Valley might actually look back fondly on their days of sitting bumper to bumper on I-684, or the hours spent waiting for the flood waters to recede along the Saw Mill River Parkway, or the endless truck dodge on I-95. Because, guess what, it's only going to get worse. The Reason Foundation, a libertarian group based in the city that invented traffic jams — Los Angeles — predicts in a new report that by 2030 (2030?!) our commuting time will grow by more than half. Drivers in big metropolitan areas like ours will spend 65 percent more time grinding their brakes in gridlock than they do now. Moving to the hinterland won't help. Drivers in small-town America will see their gridlock hours increase by a whopping 150 percent. The conclusions could be the impetus to start planning for better public transportation throughout the region or to pick up the pace on replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge, but why bother? By then, won't we all be commuting by jetpack anyway? That would certainly help. The traffic news this week wasn't all bad. The Census Bureau released its own, slightly more encouraging, traffic information. The data revealed that from 2000 to 2005, the nationwide average daily round-trip commute decreased by 48 seconds, to 25.1 minutes. Unfortunately, here in the New York metropolitan region, our own average commuting time actually increased slightly, now 34.2 minutes one way. That's second to only one other metro area, Vineland, N.J., which has the longest average commute in that class, 39.6 minutes each way. Still, we can dream. An extra 48 seconds would be long enough to adjust your mirrors, reprogram your radio stations, rage against the guy who cut you off . . . or buy a train ticket.

Fairbanks News Miner, AK
Sept 1
Reason for roads
Alaska needs about 230 miles of additional road lane miles to avoid traffic congestion during the next quarter-century, according to a free market think tank. The Reason Foundation, in a report issued Thursday, said the additional lane miles should cost about $850 million. At present, congestion lengthens commute times in Fairbanks by 3 percent and Anchorage by 5 percent, it concluded. In contrast, commuters in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. face time delays of 50 percent. Without the recommended additional lane miles, according to the foundation, congestion delays in Fairbanks will lengthen commutes by 7 percent by 2030. In Anchorage, 8 percent. Of the recommended spending, the report says Fairbanks should get $33.5 million and Anchorage should get $815.3 million.

Washington Times
Sept 1
Tunnel vision
A report released yesterday from the Reason Foundation emphasizes the important need to expand that capacity. Of particular note to Mr. Kaine is the report's conclusion that "congestion relief through provision of additional capacity is quite feasible, given current budgets." In other words, as the lead author of the report, David Hartgen, told USA Today, there is less a need to spend more money and more of a need to "spend it more wisely." The so-called tunnel option is a perfect example of transportation dollars being spent unwisely. The report ranked the District fourth in its list of most congested cities, behind San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. By 2030, however, the D.C. region will be third. To address the situation, the report recommends adding 1,800 new road miles at the cost of $16.2 billion. The District is 18th in terms of new roads needed and ninth in terms of cost (and it is important to note that this is a ranking among states, not metropolitan areas). "Increased capacity is the most important need," said Mr. Hartgen, who is also a professor of transportation studies. "It is vitally important that all transportation projects be evaluated on cost effectiveness and hours of delay saved." The importance of cost-effective transportation solutions should not be lost on Mr. Kaine and Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer as they prepare to announce their final decision, which we expect to see shortly, on the tunnel option.

Washington Times
Sept 1
Bleak congestion future
By David T. Hartgen
Labor Day weekend is usually one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, but who can tell anymore? Our roads are so overcrowded that a hectic holiday weekend is indistinguishable from an average weekday. Washington, D.C. is already the fourth most congested city in the U.S., behind only San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. Commute times during peak traffic hours are 51 percent longer than during off-peak times, meaning a trip that is supposed to take you 30 minutes takes over 45. And it's going to get worse. By 2030 the D.C. region will add around 1.5 million people. And peak-hour travel will take 87 percent longer than during off-peak periods, according to a new study published by the Reason Foundation. So a trip that is supposed to take 30 minutes will soon last an epic 56 minutes. Even present-day Los Angeles isn't that bad.

The Advocate, CT
Sept 1
Local Op-Ed
By David Hartgen
The bumper-to-bumper traffic we see on our roads over Labor Day weekend demonstrates both how much we love the freedom our cars provide and how much time we spend sitting in those cars, going nowhere.Despite growing frustration, drivers, businesses and political leaders have largely resigned themselves to a new reality: living with traffic jams. But living with it is going to become increasingly difficult.Today, just four U.S. cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco-Oakland) have daily congestion delays that prolong peak-hour trips by more than 50 percent. That means what should be a 30-minute commute, takes 45 minutes. In the next 25 years, 30 cities will join that club. And drivers in an unlucky 12 cities will face daily bottlenecks worse than the notorious traffic jams in today's Los Angeles -- their commutes will take at least 75 percent longer than off-peak trips, according to a new report by the Reason Foundation. The economic cost -- lost time, inefficiency, unreliable deliveries and snarled schedules -- is immense and saps the economy of $63 billion a year.Before you pack up and move to Small Town USA, you should know that things are getting just as bad there. Boise, Idaho's, congestion is expected to double and Albany, N.Y.'s, is set to almost triple by 2030.
No link

Standard Examiner, UT
Sept 1
Traffic getting worse in Utah
Traffic in Salt Lake City will become worse than Chicago and San Francisco traffic unless new roads and transit options are funded, according to a recent report.Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation said that over the next 25 years, traffic in Salt Lake City will increase and overtake other major metropolitan areas known for congestion.The report recommended that $2.3 billion be spent on congestion relief on Utah's most urban roadways

Scripps Howard News Wire
Aug 31
A call for more highways
By MICHAEL CABANATUAN
Bay Area roads and freeways, already among the nation's most congested, will be as clogged in 2030 as Los Angeles' are now, according to a new study. But the region can avoid emulating L.A.'s tangled traffic and accommodate expected population growth, the group behind the study says, with a major expansion of the Bay Area's road and highway system _ including a network of toll lanes as well as dedicated truck lanes between the East Bay and the San Joaquin Valley. The study released Thursday by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank that advocates toll lanes, also takes a shot at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the region's transportation planning and financing agency, and its long-range spending plan, which over the next 25 years steers most money for new transportation projects to mass transit. "We're saying we really need to look hard at changing priorities," said Robert Poole, Reason's transportation director. Building and expanding highways "has gradually become the abandoned stepchild in transportation planning. Public transportation and carpooling alone can't eliminate congestion. People still like to drive, and they're still moving to far-flung suburbs."

KCBS Radio, CA
Aug 31
By 2030, one transportation institute predicts the average Bay Area commute will be longer.
"If you had an hour commute now, it will be an hour and twenty minutes in 2030," said Robert Poole of the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation. Poole said the Metropolitan Transportation Commission should spend less money on rail service and more on the construction of highways for the Bay Area. "About 60-percent of the total spending is going to spent on mass-transit over the next 25 years according to the plan and we're saying, ' Wait a minute. That's too much,'" said Poole. Randy Rentschler of the MTC said in response that unlike places like Atlanta and Phoenix, the Bay Area has been judicious about putting in new highways. "There's a lot of economic and social, plus environmental benefits to focusing on transit so we think the mix is the right choice," he said. Rentschler added there are some good ideas from the Reason Foundation's report including the use of "hot lanes" where solo drivers pay for the privilege of driving in the fast lane during peak times.

WTOV TV, Ohio
Aug 31
Study Shows Big-City Gridlock In Ohio Valley By 2030
Local Transportation Officials Say State Gov't Needs To Invest In Area
The Steubenville-Weirton metropolitan area will experience the 25th biggest growth in traffic congestion by 2030, according to a study released Thursday.The report by the libertarian Reason Foundation shows drivers in larger urban population centers will still have the longest waits in traffic, but suburban areas will see the biggest growth in traffic waits by 2030.Drivers in Steubenville-Weirton experienced 1.2 miles of congestion per lane of highway in 2003.The study projects the same drivers will deal with 9.3 miles of congestion per lane of traffic by 2030."What it says is that the states of Ohio and West Virginia both need to recognize us as an area to invest in the traffic system," said Mike Paprocki, transportation study director for the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Planning Commission.

USA Today
Aug 31
Drivers can expect more gridlock, report says
By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY
Drivers in small urban communities will experience the worst increase in traffic congestion from now to 2030, and some will see rush-hour delays more than double, according to a study out Thursday.The report by the libertarian Reason Foundation shows that commuters in big urban centers still will face the longest commutes in the nation. However, smaller communities such as Boise, and Albany, N.Y., are expected to narrow the gap."Moving to small-town America is not going to solve your problem," says David Hartgen, lead author of the study, who is a professor of transportation at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "The growth in congestion is going to be worse there."The study, using 2003 data from state and federal officials, predicts:
• In the next quarter-century, gridlock will increase by 51% from 39,500 lane miles to 59,700. A lane mile is a measure of pavement: A two-lane stretch of road a mile long is 2 lane miles.
• Commuters in metropolitan areas with at least 3 million residents will spend 65% more time in gridlock than they do now.
• Steeper increases are in store for communities with 500,000 or fewer residents. Drivers will spend up to 150% more time in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
• By 2030, many midsize metropolitan areas will experience congestion worse than present-day Chicago. Among them: Sacramento, Charlotte, Tucson and Orlando.

New York Post
Aug 31
City Traffic 'Headed To L.A. Levels'
By JEREMY OLSHAN
August 31, 2006 -- In coming decades, traffic in New York will grow as congested as it is in Los Angeles, a study released yesterday predicts. Trips by car around the city currently take 40 percent longer during peak hours than they do at off-peak times - but by 2030, commutes could take 70 percent longer than off-peak trips, according to a report by the Reason Foundation, a think tank.To meet the growing traffic volume, the report recommends the city spend $38.5 billion and add 2,400 lane miles of highway, said David Hartgen, a professor at the University of North Carolina. "New York built its highway system fairly early, and now we are coming to the end of its useful life," said Hartgen.

San Francisco Chronicle
Aug 31
A call for more highways
Group argues region's focus on mass transit is flawed
By Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Bay Area roads and freeways, already among the nation's most congested, will be as clogged in 2030 as Los Angeles' are now, according to a study to be released today. But the region can avoid emulating L.A.'s tangled traffic and accommodate expected population growth, the group behind the study says, with a major expansion of the Bay Area's road and highway system -- including a network of toll lanes as well as dedicated truck lanes between the East Bay and the San Joaquin Valley.

The study released by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank that advocates toll lanes, also takes a shot at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the region's transportation planning and financing agency, and its long-range spending plan, which over the next 25 years steers most money for new transportation projects to mass transit. "We're saying we really need to look hard at changing priorities," said Robert Poole, Reason's transportation director. Building and expanding highways "has gradually become the abandoned stepchild in transportation planning. Public transportation and carpooling alone can't eliminate congestion. People still like to drive, and they're still moving to far-flung suburbs."

Las Vegas Review Journal
Aug 31
Study: Pay now for roads
Group warns of worsening congestion
By OMAR SOFRADZIJA, REVIEW-JOURNAL
Tail lights create streaks of light Wednesday night on Interstate 15 near downtown Las Vegas. The state foresees a funding shortfall for road projects, including a planned I-15 widening. Las Vegas Valley commuters can pay now for wider freeways and new roads or pay later in lost productivity and wasted gasoline while stuck in traffic, according to a study to be released today. The study by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, projects that valley rush- hour commuting times will increase significantly in less than 25 years without major road improvements that would cost about as much in dollars as time wasted behind the wheel.

Advertisement The group says planners are better off underwriting upgrades to heavily used roads rather than pursuing other pricey plans, such as mass transit, with limited or unproven appeal. "We must prioritize and focus our transportation funding where it can do the most good. We know the vast majority of Americans need to drive cars and that truckers haul 80 to 90 percent of our economy's goods," Robert Poole, who led the study and is the foundation's transportation director, said in a summary.

Detroit News
Aug 31
State's future road work is a $27-billion job
BY MATT HELMS
Los Angeles-style traffic jams are headed to metro Detroit by 2030 if Michigan doesn't build a ton of new roads and learn how to better manage its highway system.That's according to a study out today from the libertarian Reason Foundation, which tries not to make that prospect sound so dire.The study is called "Building Roads to Reduce Traffic Congestion in America's Cities: How Much and at What Cost?" It concludes that the nation will need to spend $533 billion on additional road capacity during the next 25 years to keep up with growth in traffic. In Michigan, we'd need to build about 3,660 new lane-miles, at a cost of $27 billion, to keep up, the study says. Solutions may have to include elevated or tunnel roadways.Detroit would have plenty of company in its traffic misery. The Reason study says that by 2030, Motown will be among 30 metropolitan areas -- including Austin, Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; Boston and Philadelphia -- where during peak traffic it takes 50% longer to make a trip than during non-peak times (meaning a 30-minute drive would take 45 minutes during rush hours.) Rush-hour driving in Detroit is now about 38% longer than during non-peak times.At least we wouldn't be among the worst cities, where it'll take 75% longer to make a trip during rush hours than during non-peak times in 2030.The study is sure to anger mass transit supporters because it says, unapologetically, that spending money on transportation options most people don't use will mean less money for road upgrades.Robert Poole, the Reason Foundation's director of transportation, says in the report: "We know the vast majority of Americans need to drive cars and that truckers haul 80 to 90% of our economy's goods. Unless we take significant action to add capacity where commuters have shown they want and need it, our economy and quality of life will take a pounding from congestion."

Philadelphia Inquirer
Aug 31
Need more roads, not mass transit
By David T. Hartgen
THE BUMPER-to-bumper traffic we see on our roads over Labor Day weekend demonstrates both how much we love the freedom our cars provide and how much time we spend sitting in those cars, going nowhere.Despite growing frustration, drivers, businesses and political leaders have largely resigned themselves to a new reality: living with traffic jams. But living with it is going to become increasingly difficult.Today, just four U.S. cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco-Oakland) have daily congestion delays that prolong peak-hour trips by more than 50 percent. That means what should be a 30-minute commute, takes 45 minutes. In the next 25 years, 30 cities will join that club. And drivers in an unlucky 12 cities will face daily bottlenecks worse than the notorious traffic jams in today's Los Angeles -- their commutes will take at least 75 percent longer than off-peak trips, according to a new report by the Reason Foundation. The economic cost -- lost time, inefficiency, unreliable deliveries and snarled schedules -- is immense and saps the economy of $63 billion a year.Before you pack up and move to Small Town USA, you should know that things are getting just as bad there. Boise, Idaho's, congestion is expected to double and Albany, N.Y.'s, is set to almost triple by 2030.

Contra Costa Times
Aug 31
It's time to get serious about traffic congestion
By David T. Hartgen
THE BUMPER-to-bumper traffic we see on our roads over Labor Day weekend demonstrates both how much we love the freedom our cars provide and how much time we spend sitting in those cars, going nowhere.Despite growing frustration, drivers, businesses and political leaders have largely resigned themselves to a new reality: living with traffic jams. But living with it is going to become increasingly difficult.Today, just four U.S. cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco-Oakland) have daily congestion delays that prolong peak-hour trips by more than 50 percent. That means what should be a 30-minute commute, takes 45 minutes. In the next 25 years, 30 cities will join that club. And drivers in an unlucky 12 cities will face daily bottlenecks worse than the notorious traffic jams in today's Los Angeles -- their commutes will take at least 75 percent longer than off-peak trips, according to a new report by the Reason Foundation. The economic cost -- lost time, inefficiency, unreliable deliveries and snarled schedules -- is immense and saps the economy of $63 billion a year.Before you pack up and move to Small Town USA, you should know that things are getting just as bad there. Boise, Idaho's, congestion is expected to double and Albany, N.Y.'s, is set to almost triple by 2030.

Charlotte Observer
Aug 31
We can relieve traffic jams
But it means building roads, not wasting money on alternatives
DAVID T. HARTGEN
The bumper-to-bumper traffic we see on our roads over Labor Day weekend demonstrates both how much we love the freedom our cars provide and how much time we spend sitting in those cars, going nowhere. Despite growing frustration, drivers, businesses and political leaders have largely resigned themselves to a new reality: living with traffic jams. But living with it is going to become increasingly difficult. Today, just four U.S. cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco-Oakland) have daily congestion delays that prolong peak-hour trips by more than 50 percent. That means what should be a 30-minute commute takes 45 minutes. Over the next 25 years, 30 cities will join that club. And drivers in an unlucky 12 cities will face daily bottlenecks worse than the notorious traffic jams in today's Los Angeles -- their commutes will take at least 75 percent longer than off-peak trips, according to a new report by the Reason Foundation. The economic cost -- lost time, inefficiency, unreliable deliveries and snarled schedules -- is immense and saps the economy of $63 billion a year. Before you pack up and move to Small Town USA, you should know that things are getting just as bad there. Congestion in Boise, Idaho, is expected to double by 2030. In Albany, N.Y., it will almost triple.

Charlotte Observer
Aug 31
Study: Traffic woes coming
Authors say Charlotte must spend billions more in next 25 years to avoid major jams
By RICHARD RUBIN
Traffic congestion will overtake the Charlotte region in the next 25 years, causing delays worse than those in Chicago today, according to a new national study released today. Clearing the roads will require another 180 miles of interstate lanes in Mecklenburg and Union counties by 2030, beyond the approximately 300 new lane-miles of interstates already planned. The study's authors also recommend another 890 lane-miles of other major roads to absorb the cars of thousands upon thousands of new residents.

The price tag: $2.9 billion.That on top of the $3.6 billion planned for state roads.And the $3.57 billion in the city's long-range transportation plan.And the billions needed to complete Charlotte's rapid-transit vision. And it doesn't include the effects of inflation in construction costs, now 15 percent a year. But, says co-author David Hartgen, reducing congestion is crucial to Charlotte's future economic health. "The regions that figure this out are the ones that are going to move ahead," said Hartgen, a professor at UNC Charlotte. The study was sponsored by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank. City and state officials agree with Hartgen's diagnosis that congestion will get worse. But what to do about it? That's where the debate lies.

Los Angeles Daily News
Aug 31
Driven to distraction
BY RACHEL URANGA, Staff Writer
The Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation predicts that by 2030, driving during rush hour will take twice as long as it would take during off-peak hours. Already, average speeds can slow to 13 mph during rush hour on the Ventura Freeway through the San Fernando Valley. "L.A. has now set the mold that is being followed by Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, (Washington) D.C. and Chicago," said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies for the Libertarian think tank. "This (behavior) really frightens me. There are accidents because of this. But it's completely understandable. People are desperate to figure out something to do." So Angelenos - who spend an average of 23.4 minutes commuting one way to work - are going to continue coping with the traffic in their own way.
Whittier Daily News
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Pasadena Star News
Daily Breeze (No link)

Riverside Press Enterprise
Aug 31
Analysis: Build more toll lanes
TRAFFIC: A libertarian think tank's take on Inland conditions riles some area officials.
By PHIL PITCHFORD
Inland commuters will be mired in traffic congestion rivaling that of Los Angeles if transportation agencies do not use money intended for public transit to build more highways, including toll roads such as the ones already on Highway 91, according to an analysis released Wednesday. The money that will be spent across Southern California during the next 25 years to subsidize rail and bus programs will not solve worsening traffic problems by moving commuters off freeways, says the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles that conducted the analysis. A better use for those funds would be to build more than 13,100 additional lane miles of freeway across California by 2030, at a cost of almost $122 billion, said Robert Poole, the foundation's transportation director. A lane mile is one lane of freeway that is one mile long. The report contradicts two beliefs in modern transportation planning: that government cannot build enough freeways to ever get a handle on increasing growth; and that public transportation, including buses and the Metrolink commuter-rail system, will solve at least some of the problem. Poole argues that commuters have proven that they are wedded to the convenience of driving their own vehicles to work, and that regional priorities should reflect that. "We really think there is hope, but not without action," he said.

Bergen Record, NJ
Car pools are becoming a thing of the past in N.J.
Aug 31
Though some of them may be on the bus -- bus use is up -- many more are choosing to drive alone. The number of solo drivers made up 89 percent of state motorists last year, compared with 85 percent in 1990. "Given all the emphasis that transportation policy has put on adding car pool lanes, we should be expecting it to go the other way," said Robert Poole, director of transportation for the Reason Foundation, a conservative think tank. "We have to judge this as a failed policy." Some transportation experts said drivers feel compelled to car-pool only when gasoline is scarce or extremely expensive, such as during the 1970s oil embargoes. Drivers generally tolerate short-term price spikes, like those they've experienced over the past couple of years.

Deseret News, UT
Aug 31
Commute times down, but gridlook may loom
More money needed to ease congestion, L.A. foundation says
By Nicole Warburton
The average commute in Utah is shorter than what most of the nation faces each day, but it will get worse unless more money is given to projects that help relieve congestion, according to two reports released this week. The first report, by the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, said that over the next 25 years, traffic in Salt Lake City will become worse than Chicago or San Francisco unless new roads and transit are funded. It recommended that $2.3 billion be spent on congestion relief in Utah's most urban areas.Across the nation, a total of $533 billion is needed to relieve congestion, the report said. And time spent in traffic in the United States will increase 65 percent over the next 25 years unless more money is given to efforts to ease traffic. The second report, by the U.S. Census Bureau, said that last year, Utah had the 11th shortest commute time in the nation, with motorists spending an average of about 20.5 minutes on the road each day. Nationally, average daily commute times were down from 25.5 minutes six years ago to 25.1 minutes last year.

North County Times, San Diego
Aug 31
Study: Even with new freeway lanes, congestion will get worse
By Dave Downey
Despite all the region's road-building plans, freeways in San Diego and Riverside counties are only going to get more crowded and experience more Los Angeles-style congestion over the next quarter-century, according to a new study being released today.While the counties' rankings among the nation's most traffic-choked metropolitan areas will improve slightly, the level of congestion will deteriorate to the point where, in 2030, traffic jams will be almost as pervasive as they are in Los Angeles today, asserts the study by the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based free-market think tank."That's a pretty big wake-up call, or it should be," said Robert Poole, the group's director of transportation studies, by telephone from Florida. "That's a very sobering message. And we found similar results over much of the country."Indeed, the only reason the counties' rankings are forecast to improve is because traffic in other urban areas is expected to deteriorate faster. San Diego County has the nation's eighth-worst congestion now, based on 2003 traffic statistics, and is expected to slide down to 16th place by 2030. Similarly, the metro area composed of Riverside and San Bernardino counties is predicted to improve from 11th to 19th most congested.

Metro Magazine
Aug 31
Study: Traffic delays to increase 65% in next 25 years
Traffic delays will increase 65% and the number of congested lane-miles on urban roads will rise by 50% over the next 25 years, according to a study released Thursday. Los Angeles will continue to have the longest delays, with trips during peak hours taking nearly twice as long as they do when roads are free-flowing. By 2030, drivers in 11 metro areas — Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Portland, San Francisco-Oakland, Seattle-Tacoma and Washington, D.C. — will be stuck in daily traffic jams, according to the study by the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank. Traffic congestion in smaller cities will worsen substantially over the next two decades. To prevent or relieve this severe congestion, U.S. freeways and arterials need 104,000 additional lane miles of capacity, at a total cost of $533 billion over 25 years, the report said.

WLNS TV
Lansing Expected to Have One of Worst Traffic Increase in Nation
Aug 31
Most Lansing residents are used to spending time in their cars. Driver: "I probably spend about two hours a day driving around." Many say they don't find major traffic delays, except where there's construction. Driver: "Overall it's not that bad." But according to a new study by the Libertarian Reason Foundation, that's going to change. In an analysis of state and federal traffic data, the study predicts Lansing will have one of the country's worst increases in traffic congestion in the next few decades.

Danbury Times, CT
Aug 31
I-84 traffic to double in 25 years
The California-based Reason Foundation released a study this week that reports Danbury will seea doubling of traffic over the next 25 years, although it remains less congested that I-95 in the Bridgeport-Stamford area. The study said the state must spend $45 per person per year to solve this problem by building 1,600 miles of travel lanes at a cost of $3.4 billion. Without taking this step, the foundation said Connecticut will have traffic delays similar to those in Los Angeles, but worse than traffic in San Francisco, Chicago or Atlanta. For further information on this study and I-84, see The News-Times on Sunday.

Bangor Daily News
Aug 31
Congestion predicted on Maine roads
By Mal Leary
Mainers who have been stuck in traffic waiting to get into a shopping mall, or been late to work as traffic backed up, will not be happy with a new national study being released today. It indicates Mainers could be spending more time waiting in traffic jams if the state does not invest more in new road construction in congested areas. "Maine is more like a simmering pot than a boiling pot," said David Hartgen, professor of transportation studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "There are congestion problems and they are getting worse in some places, but they haven't boiled over like they have in some urban areas of the country." The study, being released today through the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, is predicting a 65 percent increase in traffic delays in the nation's urban areas over the next 25 years with a companion 50 percent increase in miles of congested roads. The study focuses on the nation's urban areas. Hartgen released some of the information this week on embargoed basis.

Coeur d'Alene Press, Idaho
Curbing congestion
Aug 31
By BRIAN WALKER
"There should already be plans to address that and if there isn't, the public should be asking elected officials why not," said the University of North Carolina Charlotte professor of transportation studies. "There's no excuse for that. That's not tolerable, especially not in smaller towns."Hartgen teamed up with the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit free-market policy group, to deliver a study on congestion in 403 of the nation's areas with at least 50,000.He said that while North Idaho is no Seattle or even Boise, perhaps it's time to consider more double left-hand turns in the area if congestion is already enough to drive many locals crazy.The study suggests that 10.3 total additional lane miles are needed in Coeur d'Alene at a price tag of $18.3 million to relieve severe congestion. That equates to $7.70 per resident per year."Not a huge problem," Hartgen said.

Courier News, NJ
Aug 31
Drivers can expect more gridlock
Drivers in small urban communities will experience the worst increase in traffic congestion from now to 2030, and some will see rush-hour delays more than double, according to a study out Thursday. The report by the libertarian Reason Foundation shows that commuters in big urban centers still will face the longest commutes in the nation. However, smaller cities such as Albany, N.Y., and Boise are expected to narrow the gap. “Moving to small-town America is not going to solve your problem,” says David Hartgen, lead author of the study, who is a professor of transportation at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “The growth in congestion is going to be worse there.”

Chicago Daily Herald
Aug 31
The road well traveled: We're not moving to mass transit despite nation's 2nd-worst commute
Joseph Ryan, Daily Herald Staff Writer
According to the Reason Foundation, which advocates for private ownership of roads, Chicago will have rush hour travel delays worse than present-day Los Angeles in 25 years unless $55 billion is spent on road and transit upgrades. Currently, Chicago comes in second for commuting headaches, with rush hour travel times 57 percent longer than normal times. Los Angeles rush hour commutes are 75 percent longer than usual travel times. Yet, the car is still king in the suburbs as funding for transit projects and operations has fallen short over the last half decade. The U.S. Census shows that in 2005, between 2 percent and 6 percent of commuters used mass transit to get to work from DuPage, Kane, McHenry and Lake counties. The much denser Cook County, home to the CTA, is higher with 17 percent.

Los Angeles Times
Aug 31
The Windy City Gone Wimpy
Once a town of big shoulders and waistlines, Chicago looks increasingly like the nanny state of California.
By Nick Gillespie
I fondly remember visiting the Sears Tower in Chicago almost 20 years ago. Before being allowed to enjoy the view from what was then the world's tallest building, visitors had to sit through a promotional film about how rough and tough and great and booming the Second City was. (Never mind that the proud hometown of baseball's sad-sack Cubs had already slipped to third place in population, behind Los Angeles.)

The Wall Street Journal
Aug 31
No Day at the Beach
Bloggers Struggle With What to Do About Vacation
By ELIZABETH HOLMES
A banner stripped across the top of the Daily Dish declares that the popular Web log's host, Andrew Sullivan, has "gone fishing." Mr. Sullivan declared a two-week vacation and opted to leave his political blog behind. Several thousand of his readers have done the same. Despite the efforts of three verbose guest bloggers, replacements handpicked by Mr. Sullivan, the site's visitor tally has fallen. The Daily Dish, now part of Time magazine, usually garners around 90,000 unique visitors, or individual readers, each day. At the start of the first workweek without him, Mr. Sullivan's blog received about 67,000 hits, according to Site Meter. This week, traffic has hovered around 57,000. "The frequency of emails of 'Bring back Andrew' and 'This is stupid. Bring back Andrew' is definitely higher than anything I've ever written," says David Weigel, a 24-year-old assistant editor at Reason magazine, who is one of Mr. Sullivan's guest bloggers and has filled in at other sites in the past.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Aug 31
Bloggers struggle with what to do about vacation
By Elizabeth Holmes
A banner stripped across the top of the Daily Dish declares that the popular Web log's host, Andrew Sullivan, has "gone fishing." Mr. Sullivan declared a two-week vacation and opted to leave his political blog behind.Several thousand of his readers have done the same.Despite the efforts of three verbose guest bloggers, replacements handpicked by Mr. Sullivan, the site's visitor tally has fallen. The Daily Dish, now part of Time magazine, usually garners around 90,000 unique visitors, or individual readers, each day. At the start of the first workweek without him, Mr. Sullivan's blog received about 67,000 hits, according to Site Meter. This week, traffic has hovered around 57,000."The frequency of emails of 'Bring back Andrew' and 'This is stupid. Bring back Andrew' is definitely higher than anything I've ever written," says David Weigel, a 24-year-old assistant editor at Reason magazine, who is one of Mr. Sullivan's guest bloggers and has filled in at other sites in the past.

Chicago Tribune
Aug 30
Our long commute just gets longer
Chicago-area residents spend more time getting to and from work, and many of them even go to the `extreme': 90 minutes and up each way
By John McCormick, Jeff Long and Darnell Little, Tribune staff reporters
The new census data come just ahead of a study to be released Thursday by the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation that shows the Chicago area has the second-most congested roads in the nation, behind the Los Angeles area. The report, citing data from the Texas Transportation Institute and other state and federal research efforts, says driving times here during peak traffic are 57 percent longer than they are during off-peak times. If trends continue, the report suggests rush-hour drives here could take 88 percent longer than non-peak by 2030. The report also states that road capacity is not keeping up with population growth and that by 2030 Illinois will need roughly 4,450 new lane-miles of road at a cost of $55 billion in today's dollars. Chicago remains the Second City when it comes to commuting times for residents of the nation's largest cities, behind only New York. Chicago clocked in with an average of 34.3 minutes, compared with 39.1 minutes for New York. Los Angeles, without its surrounding metropolitan area, came in fifth, after Philadelphia and Newark, N.J.

Seattle Post Intelligencer
Aug 30
WELFARE SYSTEM TREATS MEN AS OUTSIDERS
By Cathy Young Reason
WELFARE REFORM had long been a contentious issue in American politics. In the 1980s and early 1990s, ending ``welfare as we know it" was a staple of cheap political rhetoric for Republicans and Democrats alike. It was also widely regarded as a nearly utopian goal. Then, President Clinton made the drastic overhaul of the welfare system a reality, in a bill signed into law on Aug. 22, 1996. Ten years later, the welfare reform report card disproves much scaremongering on the left and points to some important accomplishments, but it also highlights how much there still is to accomplish, both in reducing poverty and strengthening families.
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Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Aug 30
South Park Refugees
By John Tierney
Stone and Parker were never thrilled to be G.O.P. poster boys and said they weren't sure what a South Park Republican was. They were generally reluctant to be pigeonholed ideologically, but last week they clarified it by headlining at a Reason magazine conference in Amsterdam, the libertarian version of Davos. Stone and Parker said that if you had to put a label on them, they were libertarian — and that didn't mean Republican to this crowd. The G.O.P. used to have a sizable libertarian bloc, but I couldn't see any sign of it at the conference. Stone and Parker said they were rooting for Hillary Clinton in 2008 simply because it would be weird to have her as president. The prevailing sentiment among the rest of the libertarians was that the best outcome this November would be a Democratic majority in the House, because then at least there'd be gridlock. 'We're the long-suffering, battered spouse in a dysfunctional political marriage of convenience,' said Nick Gillespie, the editor in chief of Reason. 'Most of the libertarians I know have given up on the G.O.P. The odds that we'll stick around for the midterm election are about as good as the odds that Rick Santorum will join the Village People.' Andrew Sullivan, the blogger who coined 'South Park Republican,' was at the conference with a preview of 'The Conservative Soul,' his new book on the spiritual corruption of Republicans. He said he now prefers to call himself a South Park conservative, not Republican.
Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA) (No link)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (No link)

New Zealand Herald
Aug 30
Sideswipe
More than 20,000 residents of the town Ann Arbor in Michigan received a telephone call around midnight alerting them that a man with Alzheimer's disease had wandered off. The calls came from an automated system the city has adopted to alert citizens to emergencies. Officials are blaming an employee who didn't know how to limit the area the calls were made to. (Source: Reason.com)
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The New York Times
Aug 29
South Park Refugees
By John Tierney
Stone and Parker were never thrilled to be G.O.P. poster boys and said they weren't sure what a South Park Republican was. They were generally reluctant to be pigeonholed ideologically, but last week they clarified it by headlining at a Reason magazine conference in Amsterdam, the libertarian version of Davos. Stone and Parker said that if you had to put a label on them, they were libertarian — and that didn't mean Republican to this crowd. The G.O.P. used to have a sizable libertarian bloc, but I couldn't see any sign of it at the conference. Stone and Parker said they were rooting for Hillary Clinton in 2008 simply because it would be weird to have her as president. The prevailing sentiment among the rest of the libertarians was that the best outcome this November would be a Democratic majority in the House, because then at least there'd be gridlock. 'We're the long-suffering, battered spouse in a dysfunctional political marriage of convenience,' said Nick Gillespie, the editor in chief of Reason. 'Most of the libertarians I know have given up on the G.O.P. The odds that we'll stick around for the midterm election are about as good as the odds that Rick Santorum will join the Village People.' Andrew Sullivan, the blogger who coined 'South Park Republican,' was at the conference with a preview of 'The Conservative Soul,' his new book on the spiritual corruption of Republicans. He said he now prefers to call himself a South Park conservative, not Republican.

The Wall Street Journal
Aug 28
Schwarzenegger Gives Up
By Shikha Dalmia
Arnold Schwarzenegger is following the wrong script. After taking over as governor in 2003, he was expected to vanquish business-as-usual politicians in Sacramento -- and pull California from the brink of fiscal ruin. Instead, he has decided to put his own political future ahead of the economic survival of his beloved Golden State. How else to interpret his recent move to join ranks with his opponents in Sacramento to put a pork-heavy $37 billion bond infrastructure proposal on the November ballot?

Boston Globe
Aug 28
In defense of welfare reform
By Cathy Young, Reason
Welfare reform had long been a contentious issue in American politics. In the 1980s and early 1990s, ending ``welfare as we know it" was a staple of cheap political rhetoric for Republicans and Democrats alike. It was also widely regarded as a nearly utopian goal. Then, President Clinton made the drastic overhaul of the welfare system a reality, in a bill signed into law on Aug. 22, 1996. Ten years later, the welfare reform report card disproves much scaremongering on the left and points to some important accomplishments, but it also highlights how much there still is to accomplish, both in reducing poverty and strengthening families.

Los Angeles Times
Aug 28
Burning Man Turns 20
Weird desert hippie festival is actually as American as apple pie.
By Brian Doherty, Reason magazine
Twenty years ago, a pair of San Francisco bohemians, Larry Harvey and Jerry James, burned a handmade wooden effigy on San Francisco's Baker Beach. That simple gesture, through word of mouth, attracted more participants in following years, and by 1990 the crowds pushed it off the beach and out to the Nevada desert. It developed into a seasonal settlement of 40,000 or so, known as Black Rock City. For one week each year, Burning Man becomes the most quintessentially American city in America.

Slate
Aug 28
Plame Over?
By Sonia Smith
Libertarian David Weigel at Reason's Hit and Run wasn't offended. "Forgive me, but I just can't muster up the mandatory outrage over NBC running its filmed intro for the Emmys," he writes. "I completely understand how Kentucky viewers were shocked by this, as the Emmys began right after a local update on the crash. But hectoring NBC for insufficient pandering to tragedy seems a mighty lame tribute to 49 people."

Daily News of Los Angeles
Aug 27
For Answer to LAUSD's Woes, Look North
By Lisa Snell
In California, bad education news gets spun into good news. Test scores are getting better! In reality, years after a supposed ``overhaul'' of the state education system, just 42 percent of California's students scored proficient or above in English (up from 40 percent last year) and only 40 percent of kids are at grade level or above in math (up from 38 percent last year).As he moves forward in his bid for control of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa isn't getting overly excited about the improving, but still low, test results. With the support of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, key legislators and the City Council, Villaraigosa seems likely to take power of LAUSD soon. And if improving student achievement is his end-game, the latest test scores have given him a map to success: Mimic San Francisco Unified's plan.San Francisco is one of a handful of public-school districts across the nation allowing education funding to follow students. Former Superintendent of Schools Arlene Ackerman introduced the city to the weighted student formula, which requires money to follow students to the schools they choose while guaranteeing that schools with harder-to-educate kids (low-income students, English learners, low achievers) get more funds.

The Wall Street Journal
Aug 25
Ambassador Training
By Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason
A high-ranking Russian official was in New York during the Cold War to visit the United Nations. He was closely guarded at all times and his contact with Americans strictly limited, but on the ride from his hotel to the U.N. building he looked out the window of his chauffeured car and saw a sidewalk fruit stand. The sight of that roadside produce inspired him to defect, then and there. He reasoned that a country able to leave fresh fruit unguarded must be far richer, stronger and more just than he had been told. The Americans would inevitably win the war.Newt Gingrich tells a variation of this story in response to critics who want to kick the U.N. out of New York. But the story illustrates a broader principle as well: the immense value of allowing foreigners, especially those from hostile nations, especially elites, to experience American life firsthand. Fortunately, we have a ready-made flow of such people coming into the U.S. every day -- students. Unfortunately, most college admissions offices have been slow to adapt to the changing geopolitical climate and unwilling to adjust their theories of diversity and ideas about the role of the university.

OpinionJournal
Aug 25
Best of the Web
Did Hezbollah Win?—II
By James Taranto
Yesterday we questioned the conventional view that Hezbollah was the victor in its war with Israel. Others are raising similar questions, including Amir Taheri in today's Wall Street Journal: The way much of the Western media tells the story, Hezbollah won a great victory against Israel and the U.S., healed the Sunni-Shiite rift, and boosted the Iranian mullahs' claim to leadership of the Muslim world. . . . In Lebanon, the Middle East and the broader Muslim space, however, the picture is rather different. That's the summary; read the whole thing for his arguments. Here's Lebanese editor Michael Young, writing at Reason Online:

Perhaps a victory it is, but in that case Hezbollah's victory is no different than most other Arab victories in recent decades: the "victory" of October 1973, where Egypt and Syria managed to cross into Israeli-held land, their land, only to be later saved from a thrashing by timely United Nations intervention; the "victory" of 1982, where Palestinian groups were ultimately expelled from West Beirut, but were proud to have stayed in the fight for three months; the Iraqi "victory" of 1991, where Saddam Hussein brought disaster on his country but still held on to power. Now we have the Hezbollah "victory" of 2006: the Israelis bumbled and blundered, but still managed to create a million refugees, to kill over 1,000 people, and to kick Lebanon's economy back several years. One dreads to imagine what Hezbollah would recognize as a military loss.

Rocky Mountain News
Aug 25
On Point: 'Survivor: The Gutter'
By Vincent Carrol
Urban planners dedicated to increasing the density of American cities to aid mass transit rarely tell us what it would really take "to get people out of their cars." That's because cities where people are much more likely to ride trains or buses, or walk, are usually not just slightly more dense than the typical U.S. metro area. They are more dense by an order of magnitude that U.S. cities will never approach. Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation recently pointed out a study by urban economist Alain Bertaud that illustrates this mind-boggling disparity. In a Journal of Urban Economics article published several years ago, Bertaud compared the urban footprints of Atlanta and Barcelona, Spain, when each had a population of roughly the same size (2.5 million to 2.8 million). He found that the "average built-up density of the Barcelona metropolitan area" to be 28 times that of Atlanta.You could force all development in metro Atlanta into existing neighborhoods for the next 20 years and its density still wouldn't come close to Barcelona's.

American Spectator
Aug 25
No Terrorism To See Here
By Philip Klein
Reason's Ronald Bailey pointed out that people are more likely to die in a car accident, drowning, fire or by murder than in a terrorist attack. This lead him to conclude that "with risks this low there is no reason for us not to continue to live our lives as though terrorism doesn't matter -- because it doesn't really matter."

Tacoma News Tribune
Aug 24
Growth Management Act, impact fees inflate housing costs
By Jeff Hansell
A study by the Reason Public Policy Institute, a nonpartisan public policy think tank, concluded the GMA increased home prices in Washington state by 26 percent from 1995 to 2001. BIAW has consistently pushed for legislation increasing buildable lands in some manner, even if only by the amount rendered off-limits due to regulations. Disregarding the fact that more than 92 percent of the land in Washington is undeveloped, the government has embarked upon a frenzied effort to confiscate land to the detriment of affordable housing.

The Hook, VA
Aug 24
Zygote-to-go: Taking orders for custom-designed babies
By Ronald Bailey, Reason
The Abraham Center of Life, an adoption and infertility service company in San Antonio, Texas, run by Jennalee Ryan, is offering made-to-order embryos through the mail. The Center's name evidently refers to the first family to use surrogacy services. The Bible tells the story of the patriarch Abraham who-- at his wife Sarah's urging-- had a son by his wife's Egyptian slave-girl, Hagar. Infertile couples have long had the option of adopting children given up by their birth parents. In the 1960s, more couples began to use donor sperm. Then, nearly 30 years ago, assisted reproduction took off. Infertile couples could have their own eggs and sperm combined in a Petri dish (in vitro fertilization or IVF) to produce embryos that were then implanted the woman's womb.

Washington Times
Aug 24
Medicating consumer vertigo
By Gary J. Andres
Virginia Postrel, writing last year in Reason magazine, argues that anti-choice advocates use the excuse of "consumer vertigo" to constrain options. Mrs. Postrel references Swarthmore psychologist Barry Swartz's recent book, "The Paradox of Choice," in which Mr. Swartz writes: "As the number of choices keeps growing, negative aspects of having a multitude of options begin to appear. As the number of choices grows further, the negatives escalate until we become overloaded. At this point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize." Mrs. Postrel's insights are particularly acute with respect to arguments against "choice" in government programs, criticisms now as common as a Capitol cocktail reception. Denigrating choice seeps into public-policy debates like spilled red wine on white slacks. Yet they are often only thinly veiled attempts to bolster bureaucratic monopoly and maintain a one-size-fits-all approach to the provision of certain services. Enemies of choice are usually allies of big government.

New Zealand Herald
Aug 24
Sideswipe
Britain's Royal Mail is refusing to deliver mail to a small community on the Ardmore peninsula in Scotland. Mail officials say the small footpath is too dangerous for postmen to walk after one slipped and fell on a grassy slope on the path. Postmen have delivered mail to the community, and walked that path, for more than a 100 years. (Source: Reason.com)
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Seattle Post Intelligencer
Aug 23
Balancing protection and freedom
By Cathy Young, Reason
Ever since the 9/11 attacks jolted us into the new era of terror on our shores, the fear of "another Sept. 11" has been a pre-eminent fear for many people. The latest terror alert sparked by the report of a plot by British radical Muslims to bomb U.S.-bound airliners by using liquid explosives has been another jolt for the complacent. Actually, at present, we know little about how imminent or how great the danger was, and many observers argue convincingly that the massive response was an overreaction.

Boise Weekly
Aug 23
Taking Liberties
The salesmen say 'yes' is a vote to stop government from taking your land, but this stealth campaign would do far more than that
By Ray Ring, High Country News
The impacts of Measure 37 have been delayed by court battles, and the libertarians are determined to turn the delays to their advantage. Before the fallout in Oregon can be fully understood, they are rushing to pass similar ballot initiatives in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Arizona, Nevada and California. While each initiative has its own sales pitch, they all deliberately tuck the notion inside the unrelated eminent domain controversy. The Los Angeles-based libertarian Reason Foundation mapped the strategy in a 64-page paper published in April, titled Statewide Regulatory Takings Reform: Exporting Oregon's Measure 37 to Other States. It recommended pushing "Kelo-plus" initiatives, combining eminent domain reform with regulatory takings, to capitalize "on the tremendous public and political momentum generated in the aftermath of the Kelo ruling ..." The initiatives have titles like "Protect Our Homes," "The Home Owners Protection Effort" and "People's Initiative to Stop the Taking of Our Land"--as if the government is about to come in with bulldozers to sweep everyone off their property. But here's how the initiatives would work: If you could fit 20 houses on your land, plus a junkyard, a gravel mine, and a lemonade stand, and the government limits you to six houses and lemonade, then the government would have to pay you whatever profit you would have made on the unbuilt 14 houses, junkyard and mine. Generally, if the government can't or won't pay you, then it would have to drop the regulations.

Aviation Week & Space Technology
Aug 21
Urgent Need For Consensus On ATC User Fees
By Robert Poole, Reason
The Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO)--the multi-agency organization that is trying to craft a 21st century aviation system for the U.S.--has made a persuasive case that the current air traffic control model of separating planes by hand is not scalable. Hence, without changing to a network-centric model, we will be unable to double or triple the system's capacity over the next 20 years. And if we don't at least double capacity, aviation faces a future of ever-increasing congestion and rationing. But it strains credulity to think that the present funding and governance structure for ATC can give us the proposed NextGen system in a timely and affordable manner. Three major problems cry out for solution:
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Newhouse News Wire
Aug 21
Lax Air Cargo Screening Places Passenger Jets at Risk
By Ron Marisco
At San Francisco International Airport, a $30 million pilot program is being set up to electronically screen significant amounts of freight using measures like bomb-detection machines. "We'll all be watching that really closely," said Robert Poole, an aviation security expert with the Reason Foundation, a California-based think tank. "I'm sort of predicting the conclusion is that it's going to be awfully expensive" to permanently implement. Poole said he favors "a beefed-up, risk-based approach to air cargo," which would include screening certain freight shipments and more rigorous background checks for workers with access to the airport tarmac, shipments and planes. Security experts, however, are becoming increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of fixing the nation's anti-terror capabilities like the air cargo gaps.

Boston Globe
Aug 21
Seeking balance with alerts
By Cathy Young, Reason
Ever since the 9/11 attacks jolted us into the new era of terror on our shores, the fear of ``another Sept. 11" has been a preeminent fear for many people. The latest terror alert sparked by the report of a plot by British radical Muslims to bomb US-bound airliners by using liquid explosives has been another jolt for the complacent. Actually, at present, we know little about how imminent or how great the danger was, and many observers argue convincingly that the massive response was an overreaction. But there is no doubt that the danger of another terror attack is very real, and we still face the same question we did on Sept. 12 five years ago: How do we protect ourselves without handing terrorists the victory of curtailing our freedoms and turning us into a people governed by fear?

Berkshire Eagle
Aug 21
Big Dig
Sell it off: A solution?
By Erik Arvidson, Eagle Boston Bureau
Peter Samuel, a senior fellow with the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, which advocates privatization of public infrastructure, said cities and states are realizing the benefits of bringing private investment into public infrastructure. In Massachusetts, the Turnpike Authority has supervised the Big Dig project since 1997, while also having responsibility for operating the 123-mile turnpike from Boston to West Stockbridge.

Tech Central Station
Aug 21
Risk-Terrorism Analysis
By James H. Joyner Jr
Reason magazine science correspondent and TCS Daily contributor Ron Bailey argues that our fear of terrorist attacks is irrational, because you're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder. He concludes that, "with risks this low there is no reason for us not to continue to live our lives as though terrorism doesn't matter -- because it doesn't really matter. We ultimately vanquish terrorism when we refuse to be terrorized."He's right, of course. Then again, most of us already do that. Who among us isn't living our lives more-or-less normally, scarcely giving the possibility of getting killed by terrorists a thought?

Oregonian
Aug 21
Anti-spending crusaders gain steam for fall votes
By Laura Oppenheimer
Richard Lorenc, slim and sandy-haired, stands outside the Americans for Limited Government office. "Today," he says, "we're going to take a journey of liberation." Music fit for a jazz club plays as Lorenc, one of the twentysomethings who staff the office, steps jauntily into the streets of Chicago. He's going to interview people about government spending. And property rights. And freedom in general. "What do you think about the idea that government should be more accountable?" Lorenc asks a man with a close-shaved beard and trendy glasses. The answer, over street noise and wind: "I think they should definitely be more accountable. We should be able to see exactly where our money is going." Lorenc approaches a young woman. "What do you think about the fact that government can come and seize your property?" "I don't think that's right," she replies. "People work so hard to get what they have." Lorenc, a few months out of college, has thought about politics more than most do in a lifetime. The past three presidential elections, he stayed up all night, transfixed by results and commentary. He loves the slogan for libertarian-oriented Reason Magazine: "Free minds and free markets."

San Francisco Chronicle
Aug 20
California's stealth initiative on land use
Prop. 90 purports to protect property owners, but it could also do much harm
By Ray Ring
The libertarian Reason Foundation of Los Angeles revealed the strategy in an April policy paper that recommended pushing "Kelo-plus" initiatives to capitalize "on the tremendous public and political momentum generated in the aftermath of the Kelo ruling. ..." What is the "plus" in these initiatives? Libertarians and property-rights activists believe that many common government regulations on real estate, such as zoning and subdivision limits, take away property value. Therefore, they say, government should either compensate the owners or back off. This may sound like a good idea, on the face of it. But here's how regulatory takings work: If you could fit 20 houses on your land, plus a junkyard and a gravel mine, and government regulations limit you to six houses, then the government would have to pay you whatever profit you would have made on the unbuilt houses, junkyard and mine. Of course, the government can't afford to pay you, so it would have to drop its regulations, allowing the maximum development, no matter what your neighbors think. The text of Prop. 90 runs four pages, and almost all the wording plays up the eminent domain angle.

Northwest Times, IN
Aug 19
Toll Road lease
By Patrick Guinane
All seven of the other Indiana law firms that competed against Ice Miller for the main Toll Road legal contract have contributed at least $2,000 to Daniels' campaign. Three of those firms have given more than $30,000 since 2003, including nearly $146,000 contributed by Baker & Daniels, the state's largest law firm. Goldman Sachs, the New York-based global investment bank that consulted on the Chicago Skyway privatization, received slightly less than $20,1 million for its work on the Toll Road lease. The firm has not contributed to Daniels or any other Indiana state politician. Other costs: Two other firms that have not made political contributions to the governor received a total of $13,158 in legal fees related to legal challenges against the Toll Road lease. State agencies, primarily the Indiana Finance Authority, were reimbursed for $196,625 in staff time and other overhead expenses tied to the lease. The Reason Foundation, a libertarian California think tank that is a leading proponent of infrastructure privatization, received $1,242 in travel expenses after testifying in court and at legislative hearings.

Washington Times
Aug 19
Refocusing airport security
By Robert Poole, Reason
Terrorists were caught planning to blow up airliners by mixing liquid explosives, and the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) response was predictable -- ban all liquids from being carried onto airplanes. We don't need to ban water from planes; we need to keep terrorists off them. To most effectively do so, we need to get over our obsession with "bad" things (laptops, lighters, bottled water) and start looking for bad people. Consider the morning of September 11, 2001. The Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS), used to identify potential terrorists employing now commonly known criteria like buying one-way tickets with cash, flagged nine of the 19 hijackers on three of the four planes that were turned into weapons that morning. But our security response to that information was tragically lacking. Our "extra" security only required that their checked luggage be screened for explosives or held until the airlines were sure they had actually boarded the planes. The thinking was, and sadly still is, that while a terrorist might plant a bomb in a suitcase on the plane, he wouldn't be willing to go down with the plane. That is apparently why carry-on bags and passengers' bodies have not been routinely checked for explosives even after September 11.

Austin American Statesman
Aug 19
Perry's road revolution could take electoral toll
Governor emphasis on tollways, private road-builders has generated urban and rural unrest
By Ben Wear
...the Perry transportation agenda has handed his three principal challengers a hefty political club to wield as they campaign for his job. "That's why you don't see a lot of big changes in public policy, because they are risky," said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies for the California-based Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank. "It may be that the general public isn't yet persuaded that this is a crisis. In day-to-day, average-person political terms, traffic congestion may not be bad enough yet." Perry, with his famously well-coiffed look and perfectly tailored suits, surely doesn't look the part of a revolutionary, and he rejects that characterization. But he acknowledges that transportation is the area where he made the most "wide-sweeping" changes.

Rocky Mountain News
Aug 19
Playing catch-up
By Robert Poole, Reason
As soon as British authorities announced they had foiled a plot in which suicide bombers planned to blow up 10 jetliners using liquid explosives they would've mixed on board, the United States jumped back into the "feel good" security mode we've been in since 9/11. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called for federalizing more airport security workers, above and beyond the Transportation Security Administration's existing 43,000 screeners. The promise of more federal workers is supposed to make us feel safer. Likewise, members of Congress, never shy about spending taxpayer money in the name of appearing strong in the war on terror, demanded the purchase of better explosive-detection machines for airports, the installation of anti-missile devices on every U.S. airliner, and screening of every piece of air cargo - with no thought for the cost or effectiveness.

Post Standard, NY
Aug 19
Lax Cargo Screening Puts Jetliners at Risk
Air cargo loaded into passenger planes rarely checked electronically
By Ron Marsico, Newhouse News Service
At San Francisco International Airport, a $30 million pilot program is being set up to electronically screen significant amounts of freight using measures like bomb-detection machines. "We'll all be watching that really closely," said Robert Poole, an aviation security expert with the Reason Foundation, a California-based think tank. "I'm sort of predicting the conclusion is that it's going to be awfully expensive" to permanently implement. Poole said he favors "a beefed-up, risk-based approach to air cargo.
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Chief Executive magazine
July/August
Solving Airspace Gridlock
Robert W. Poole Jr, Reason
A war is about to break out over the future of aviation infrastructure—and you will soon be urged to choose sides. At stake is the future of our aviation system, which currently faces a crisis of capacity. And at issue is a controversial proposal to fund the cost of using airports and air traffic control (ATC) with user fees rather than the traditional fuel taxes. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) owns and operates the air traffic control system; it also makes grants to locally owned airports to upgrade their capacity. For years, the FAA has warned that the aviation infrastructure is running out of capacity. In response, the administration created an industry/government task force called the Joint Planning & Development Office (JPDO) to plan a completely new approach to managing air traffic. Some of the best minds at NASA, the Departments of Defense and Transportation, and aerospace firms like Boeing and Lockheed Martin have worked on this effort.

Newark Star Ledger
Aug 18
Lax screening of air cargo places passenger jets at risk
By Ron Marisco
At San Francisco International Airport, a $30 million pilot program is being set up to electronically screen significant amounts of freight using measures like bomb-detection machines. "We'll all be watching that really closely," said Robert Poole, an aviation security expert with the Reason Foundation, a California-based think tank. "I'm sort of predicting the conclusion is that it's going to be awfully expensive" to permanently implement. Poole said he favors "a beefed-up, risk-based approach to air cargo," which would include screening certain freight shipments and more rigorous background checks for workers with access to the airport tarmac, shipments and planes. Security experts, however, are becoming increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of fixing the nation's anti-terror capabilities like the air cargo gaps.

Washington Times
Aug 18
Will new rules make us safer?
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
The day toothpaste and shampoo became contraband, I flew from Dallas to Montreal by way of Chicago. It was not until after I flew back to Dallas a few days later that I began to suspect I had accidentally violated the new rules aimed at preventing terrorists from bringing liquid explosives onto airplanes.

Washington Times
Aug 18
Culture, etc
"[W]e thankfully live in an age of glorious ideological confusion. The old, worn-out designations Right and Left — a pentimento of early revolutionary France — are finally breaking down under the weight of current events and in the face of continuing technological and cultural changes that are giving more and more of us the ability to live however we want. The war in Iraq and the current immigration debate, to name two pressing issues, are pitting conservatives against one another and causing liberals no small intra-ideological squabbles. "More important, Americans are evacuating partisan politics. This is reflected in generally weaker attachments to the Democrats and Republicans. In 1969, according to a Harris poll, 81 percent of Americans identified themselves as one or the other. By 2004, only 65 percent did. ... [I]t's no small curiosity that Noam Chomsky from time to time calls himself a 'libertarian socialist' and William F. Buckley occasionally self-identifies as a 'libertarian journalist.'" —Nick Gillespie, writing on "What is Left? What is Right?" in the Aug. 28 issue of the American Conservative

North County Times
Aug 18
Smoking leads to ire in North County parks
By AndreW Peterson
But Jacob Sullum, an award-winning journalist and author of the book "For Your Own Good ---- The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health", said there were serious questions about the ban's social impact, effectiveness and scientific grounding. "I suspect that it will result in a lot of acrimony and confrontations if you're telling nonsmokers that they are now charged with enforcing this law ---- that sounds like a recipe for a lot of fights. And in the end I'm not sure it's going to save police resources because they still have to follow up and issue the fines or whatever it takes to enforce the ordinance." Sullum, who was also reached by phone, said the risk of second-hand smoke to bystanders ---- even in an indoor setting ---- was vanishingly small. "All the epidemiological studies that look at second-hand smoke deal with intense long-term exposure of the kind that you get from living with a smoker for decades," he said. "And even those studies generally find weak associations, often statistically insignificant."

Iowa City Press Citizen
Aug 17
Defining good community
By Bob Untiedt
I've reviewed the 2004 Reason Foundation study Cody notes. Among many other flaws, it fails to look at the number of inclusionary zoning ordinances with "in-lieu" fees. In Pasadena, Calif., for example, the inclusionary zoning ordinance has a $5,000 in-lieu fee (an opt out clause, if you will) on the books. Not one unit of affordable housing has been built since the inclusionary zoning ordinance was passed, and there were few built prior. But that's largely because every developer in Pasadena has opted to pay $5,000 for each low-income apartment they're required to create, in a housing market where the average per unit cost is $300,000. In-lieu fees are common in the Bay area, also. In short, the Reason Foundation study is sloppy.

Valley Advocate
Aug 17
The Brown Peril
by David Weigel, Reason
Bill O'Reilly raging against illegal immigration? Nothing special. Bill O'Reilly prophesying the decline of the white race? That's why we pay our cable bills. On May 16, mustering support for President Bush's proposed crackdown on illegal immigration, The O'Reilly Factor's excitable host advanced his theory of why some Americans are wimping out on militarizing the border. "According to the lefty zealots, the white Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tide," O'Reilly panted. "This can only happen if demographics change in America."

Detroit News
Aug 17
Indian town holds lessons for Detroit
By Shikha Dalmia, Reason
Every Detroit leader over the past few decades has promised to transform Detroit into a "world-class city" -- and left without reducing even the population of weed gardens on the city's many vacant lots. During the same time, 10,000 miles away in India, a sleepy little town called Bangalore has turned itself into a major information technology and outsourcing hub of the world. Does Bangalore hold any lessons for Detroit? Plenty, as it turns out.

Slate
Aug 16
More Mythical Numbers
The GAO debunks the official human-trafficking estimates
By Jack Shafer
Reason magazine's blog, Hit & Run, calls our attention today to a new Government Accountability Office study that casts doubt on official U.S. government estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. Scores of news organizations have accepted the 800,000 estimate as credible in their reporting of human trafficking in recent years. Within the last year alone, the figures have appeared, unquestioned, in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and NPR, just to name just a few outlets.

Seattle Post Intelligencer
Aug 16
NOW seems stuck in yesterday
By Cathy Young
Earlier this month, amid relatively little media fanfare, the National Organization for Women celebrated its 40th anniversary. This date comes in an era when women's issues have receded from the political spotlight, eclipsed by more urgent issues such as terrorism and the war in Iraq, and when the question has become: Is NOW's feminism still relevant?

Evansville Courier Press
Aug 16
Concerns over pattern of land development have merit
By Samuel R. Staley, Reason
Homebuilders and land developers in Indiana are worried that a new model of comprehensive plan might restrict their ability to provide the best housing at an affordable price. Experience suggests their concerns have merit. The most controversial element of this type of plan is the "urban growth boundaries"; that is, land-use regulations designating certain areas off limits to new development for a specified period of time.

North Adams Transcript
Aug 16
Privatization of pike, Big Dig discussed
By Erik Arvidson
Peter Samuel, a senior fellow with the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, which advocates privatization of public infrastructure, said cities and states are realizing the benefits of bringing in private investment into public infrastructure. In Massachusetts, the Turnpike Authority has supervised the Big Dig project since 1997, while also having responsibility for operating the 123-mile turnpike from Boston to West Stockbridge.

Lowell Sun
Aug 15
Could Mass. profit from sale of Turnpike?
By Erik Arvidson
Peter Samuel, a senior fellow with the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, which advocates privatization of public infrastructure, said cities and states are realizing the benefits of bringing in private investment into public infrastructure. In Massachusetts, the Turnpike Authority has supervised the Big Dig project since 1997, while also having responsibility for operating the 123-mile turnpike from Boston to West Stockbridge.
Sentinel and Enterprise
Aug 15
Experts consider the concept of dissolving Turpike Authority, selling highway system

Hollister Free Lance
Aug 15
Sewer Meeting Probes Options
By Brett Rowland
La Cruz organized the meeting to present options to residents. During a brief presentation, Adrian Moore, a wastewater expert with the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit research group that promotes libertarian principles, told residents that the city should look at other options before beginning construction on the project. The $120 million sewer project, which is to be completed by 2009, will allow the state to lift the ban it imposed on new sewer connections in 2002 following a spill of 15 million gallons of treated wastewater into the San Benito River. The moratorium on new sewer hook-ups has brought economic development in the city to a near standstill. Moore advocated privatizing the project to save money. He talked about how other communities have solicited bids from construction companies to design, build, own and operate city sewer plants with considerable savings to taxpayers. He said the city's model of hiring a planner to design the plant and then turning out the project for bids from private construction companies wasn't always the most efficient method. "All over cities are hiring private companies and saving money," Moore said. "This isn't a radical idea. It's more efficient. About two-thirds of the time, the savings in terms of time and money are substantial." Moore also said he thought the city had missed out on an opportunity to save money by not shopping the project around to more private companies.

Investor's Business Daily
Aug 15
One State's Key To Efficiency: Private Sector
By Mitch Daniels
Daniels is the governor of Indiana. He was director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2001 to 2003. The full version of this column is available in Reason Foundation's just-released 20th Annual Privatization Report (reason.org).

Tulsa World
Aug 15
What you bring aboard a plane today could be marked off the list tomorrow.
By D.R. Stewart
Robert Poole, director of transportation for the Reason Foundation, a free market think tank in Los Angeles, also said TSA's focus is on past events, not future threats. "This situation (in London) shows a flaw and the inconsistency of U.S. aviation security policy of putting far more emphasis on checked baggage than on carry-ons," Poole said in a telephone interview. "The current policy requires screening of all checked baggage but only spot-checks for explosives of carry-ons and virtually no checking for what people might have beneath their clothes. "Thus, it focuses on the pre-9/11 world in which the threat is seen as the Pan Am/Lockerbie type -- hide a bomb in somebody's checked suitcase -- rather than the post-9/11 reality of suicide bombers, willing to go down with the plane." TSA's passenger screening model treats everybody the same, Poole said."The alternative is going to a risk-based approach, which is assigning passengers to different risk categories," Poole said. "Low-risk travelers would be those who passed background checks, businessmen or those who have signed up for the Registered Traveler program. "Medium risks would be ordinary, occasional travelers. The high-risk category would be for people whose names appear on a watch list or those whom you know nothing about. For those people, you would inspect the person and their carry-ons." Poole said Congress, which is spending $2.5 billion a year on TSA's passenger screening program, should demand security that focuses on human threats or passenger profiling. "Congress would have to work for such a change," Poole said. "But the likelihood is not great because it is so politically incorrect."

New Zealand Herald
Aug 15
Sideswipe
Robert Samson faces a $250 fine because the sunflowers in his front yard are too high. The city of Tonawanda, New York, fined him for sight obstruction because they are more than 1m tall. (Source: Reason.com)
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New York Times
Aug 14
Airport Snarl in London Puts Scrutiny on Owner
By Heather Timmons
Some specialists on airports are pushing for change. “Four years of experience have taught that the U.S. government cannot do the job any better than the private sector,” wrote Robert W. Poole Jr. and James Jay Carafano, researchers who favor privatization, in a recent report for the Heritage Foundation, the conservative policy institute. “This should come as no surprise,” they said. “Virtually every other country that has used government screeners has reached the same conclusion.”

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Aug 14
Plans ignore homebuyers
Restricting land use will fail to promote diverse housing
By Samuel R. Staley, Reason
Allen County should reconsider buffer zones that inhibit development. Allen County homebuilders and land developers are worried that the joint comprehensive plan drafted by planners might restrict their ability to provide the best housing at an affordable price. Experience suggests their concerns have merit.

Boston Globe
Aug 14
At 40, is NOW what it set out to be then?
By Cathy Young
Earlier this month, amid relatively little media fanfare, the National Organization for Women celebrated its 40th anniversary. This date comes in an era when women's issues have receded from the political spotlight, eclipsed by more urgent issues such as terrorism and the war in Iraq, and when the question has become: Is NOW's feminism still relevant?

Hartford Courant
Aug 14
Don't be terrorized
By Ronald Bailey, Reason
On Aug. 10, British authorities broke up an alleged terror plot to blow up as many as 10 commercial airliners as they flew to the United States. In response, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security upped the alert level on commercial flights from Britain to "red" and boosted the alert to "orange" for all other flights. In a completely unscientific poll, AOL asked subscribers: "Are you changing your travel plans because of the raised threat level?" About a quarter of the respondents said yes. Such polls do reflect the kinds of anxieties that terrorist attacks, even those that have been stymied, provoke in the public.

New York Times Magazine
Aug 13
Hezbollah's Other War
By Michael Young, Reason
One evening earlier this summer, Lebanon’s most popular satire show, ‘‘Bas Mat Watan,’’ broadcast a sketch showing an ‘‘interview’’ with Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader and secretary general. ‘‘Nasrallah’’ was asked whether his party would surrender its weapons. He answered that it would, but first several conditions had to be met: there was that woman in Australia, whose land was being encroached upon by Jewish neighbors; then there was the baker in the United States, whose bakery the Jews wanted to take over. The joke was obvious: there were an infinite number of reasons why Hezbollah would never agree to lay down its weapons and become one political party among others.

Chicago Sun Times
Aug 13
Controversz
We want. We want!: Forget the mass market: We're becoming a niche nation.
By Nick Gillespie, Reason
If you're the sort of person who trembles with fear before the dozens of varieties of jams available in even the lamest of today's grocery stores -- and goes into absolute paroxysms of uncertainty when confronted with the millions of books at Amazon -- rest easy. There's a single slim volume that will help you navigate our current moment of super-abundance. The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired, explains not only how we came to live in a world in which Starbucks offers its customers 19,000 possible variations on coffee, but why such overwhelming choice is a fantastically good thing, too. Anderson's title comes from the conventional demand curve for most goods: At the "head" of the curve in a given market, a small number of "hit" products (books, movies, whatever) typically accounts for most of sales. As you move rightward along the curve, the number of products sold slopes down, eventually forming a "tail." The result is a "hit-driven economy" and a "hit-driven culture" in which producers seek to make money by pushing a few blockbuster items on consumers. Producers focus on the head and try to keep the tail short because it's too costly to make things that will only appeal to relatively few people.
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Chicago Tribune
Aug 11
U.S. efforts bog down, experts say
By Jon Hilkevitch
"It's ridiculous to screen 100 percent of checked baggage for explosives and be lackadaisical about what is inside carry-on bags or what people may be concealing underneath their clothes," said Robert Poole, a transportation researcher at the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based think tank. Today's terrorists aren't aiming to hide bombs in unaccompanied luggage , which is what happened in 1988 when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, en route to New York from London. Some 270 people were killed when the Boeing 747 was destroyed."The post-9/11 reality is that suicide bombers are willing to go down with the plane," Poole said. Passengers and the government may have been lulled into a false sense of security in the five years that no attack has occurred in the U.S.

McClatchy Tribune (Knight Ridder) News Wire (No link)
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San Francisco Chronicle
Aug 11
Screening: Some want airports to focus more on passengers
By Michael Cabanatuan
"Since 9/11, we've put all this effort into screening checked luggage, but we've been pretty lackadaisical about carry-on luggage or passengers," said Robert Poole, an analyst for the Reason Foundation who has advised the White House on transportation security. "The real threat is from people who are willing to die with explosives on airplanes."

Agence France Presse Wire
Aug 11
Race against the terrorists
Stephen Collinson
"Carry-ons have received... much less scrutiny than checked baggage," said Robert Poole, an airline security expert who advised four US presidential administrations and is now with the Reason Foundation. Current security "focuses on the pre-9/11 world in which the threat is seen as the Pam Am/Lockerbie type — hide a bomb in somebody's checked suitcase — rather than the post-9/11 reality of suicide bombers, willing to go down with the plane." Aviation authorities must now decide how to meet the new threat.
Analysis: Playing cat and mouse with airline terrorists

Sun Sentinel, FL
Aug 11
Planes are preferred terror targets, aviation experts say
High profile and potential shock value stand out
By Ken Kaye
Although officials in Britain uncovered the plot to blow up airliners, the incident shows the need to focus on passengers who fit the profile of potential terrorists, Koorse, of Lake Worth, said. Bob Poole, an aviation security expert in Los Angeles, agrees, saying the U.S. government is too preoccupied with hunting for dangerous objects. "To focus huge amounts of people and spending on confiscating lighters and Swiss Army knives is a very questionable use of resources," he said. Poole said under the current system, terrorists could spot security weaknesses in any number of foreign countries -- and place an explosive device on a U.S.-bound airliner. That is what the suspects in Wednesday's bomb plot allegedly tried to do; they saw that Britain wasn't inspecting carry-on items very thoroughly, he said.
Bradenton Herald
Planes remain preferred targets for terror attacks

Chicago Daily Herald
Aug 11
Will carry-on policy change?
Experts say all bags or just liquids could be banned
By Joseph Ryan
Perhaps one solution would be to separate the known low-risk fliers from the unknown fliers, said Richard Poole of the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that endorses market-based approaches. Poole said use of a registered traveler program and more in-depth security checks on fliers would leave just a small percentage of fliers to be thoroughly checked. The government could also stop those fliers from having carry-ons, electronics or liquids with less of a detrimental effect to the industry. “We have had a scandalous neglect of carry-ons,” Poole said. “But if we continue with the assumption that everyone is equally a threat, then we are going to massively inconvenience people. “We need a better approach,” he added.

Washington Times
Aug 11
Coping with doping
By Jacob Sullum, Reason
After winning the Tour de France, Floyd Landis was hailed as an American hero who epitomized all