NATIONAL NEWS

Journal of Commerce: Senate Set to Extend SAFETEA-LU
http://www.joc.com/node/416590
Senators are expected within the next two weeks to introduce legislation to sustain surface transportation spending, John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials, said Tuesday.

STATE NEWS

Indy Star: Partnership unveils mass transit plan
http://www.indystar.com/article/20100210/NEWS05/100210016/Partnership-unveils-mass-transit-plan
A public-private partnership is asking for the public’s help in molding a region-wide transit system.  Officials today launched Indy Connect: Central Indiana’s Transportation Initiative, a more than $10 billion proposed mass transit plan that includes rail systems, an expansion of the region’s highway system, expanded bus service and tolled express lanes.

DC Streetsblog: Boxer, LaHood Coming to L.A. to Discuss Federal Transportation Bill
http://dc.streetsblog.org/2010/02/10/boxer-lahood-coming-to-l-a-to-discuss-federal-transportation-bill/
As transportation reformers continue to wait for the Senate to join the House in offering a new federal transportation bill, Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will hold a town-hall meeting at the headquarters of L.A.'s Metro transit authority on Friday, February 19.

Dallas Morning News: Let's talk honestly about a vehicle-miles-driven tax
http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/02/would-you-rather-pay-gas-tax-p.html
This is becoming something of an minor obsession with me, so let me go ahead and apologize right from the start. But it seems like you can't turn around in transportation circles these days without running into earnest hand-wringing over the future of the gasoline tax. (Rodger and I have written about this before, as it has become something of a political issue in the governor's campaign and elsewhere, see here and here.)  The problem, as I'll explain below, is that the whole debate misses something so obvious that it's hard to take seriously all the reams of research that has been conducted to support the call for scrapping the gasoline tax, and instead taxing drivers for how far they drive.