-
Airlines Attribute Delays to Poor Traffic Control
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2007 CommentIn response to an Airline Quality Rating report released yesterday that found that instances of delayed flights and lost baggage were up last year over 2005, the Air Transport Association, the trade group representing the major airlines, released a statement yesterday.
In short, the airlines attribute the uptick in delays to one of the most contentious political issues in transportation this year: the updating of the air traffic control system and just who should pay the bulk of the bill for the much-needed improvements.
"The 2007 Airline Quality Rating study once again focuses on the symptoms rather than the root causes of passenger and airline frustrations," ATA President and CEO Jim May notes in the statement. He says that since the majority of delays are caused by weather problems that the current system can't handle, Congress must now take its "historic opportunity" to "approve an action plan for the Next Generation Air Traffic Control system ... while ending the multibillion-dollar subsidy of business jets at the expense of the commercial airline passengers."
For the inside story on the big-time Washington battle over restructuring the FAA, see associate editor Angie C. Marek's March 30, 2007, article here. Marek tells us that bills addressing the subject should appear in Congress soon.
-
Some of Bush's Premonitions For Underfunded Troops Already Occurring
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2007 CommentSpeaking to reporters this morning in the Rose Garden, President Bush once again scolded Democrats for attaching a troop withdrawal deadline to the emergency supplemental spending bill for Iraq. He renewed his threat of a presidential veto and said that further delay in funding will hurt in various ways, including forcing the Pentagon to extend current deployments beyond the planned end dates and by reducing the time soldiers get at home between overseas deployments. A White House transcript is available here, and see video below.
But some of that is already in the cards, points out Senior Editor Anna Mulrine, who covers defense. She reported last week that Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, head of the Joint Forces Command, is anticipating extended deployments and shorter home "dwell times" for soldiers rotated out of Iraq and Afghanistan if the Iraq "surge" continues through the summer.
-
Forecasters Call For Nasty Hurricane Season -- Again
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2007 CommentHere's the good news, if you can call it that: This year's hurricane season isn't going to be as bad as 2005, when Hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans.
But a leading U.S. hurricane prognosticator is predicting a "very active" hurricane season this year in the Atlantic basin, setting the odds of a major storm hitting the U.S. coast at 74 percent.
But as the website LiveScience.com points out, expectations for a nasty season were also high last year, leading meteorologists to describe the mild months of June through November as a "flop."
LiveScience also has a guide to hurricane predictions here.
Etc.: Climate Change Debate Heats Up, on USNews.com
-
Reader Question: Term Limits for Congress?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2007 Comment (16)Charles S. Merroth in Pennsylvania asks:
"Are any presidential candidates in favor of term limits for congressmen? It is one move that would alleviate most problems of corruption, campaign funding, seniority,porkbarrel proposals, etc."
We turned to senior editor Dan Gilgoff for an answer:
"I'm not aware of any 2008 presidential candidates who are advocating congressional term limits, and certainly none of the frontrunners have spent much time discussing such a move on the campaign trail," Dan says. "Which isn't to say there aren't some term limit advocates in Washington. 1994's GOP Contract with America actually included a pledge to consider congressional limits to create a "citizen legislature." But some Republicans elected in 1994's Republican Revolution have since disavowed pledges to serve only a set number of terms, and the 1990s-era movement to amend the U.S. Constitution to introduce term limits is now all but dead. And with the presidential contenders looking to pick up endorsements from the House and Senate, don't look for the idea to gain steam any time soon."
-
Administration Continues Immigration Push
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2007 CommentThis comes to us from correspondents Kenneth T. Walsh and Angie C. Marek:
The White House will continue to meet with some Senate Republicans or their staffers this week to carve out an immigration reform proposal, according to a Senate staffer with knowledge of the negotiations. A PowerPoint presentation obtained by News Desk last week on some of the preliminary proposals the group is floating earned widespread condemnation from immigrant-advocacy groups that once counted on the White House for support.
With Democrats in control of Congress, White House advisers have concluded that it's best to resurrect the legislation with Senate Republicans, who have always been more amenable to Bush's approach, and build support from there. "The expectation is that the Senate will move more quickly than the House," a Bush adviser said. The administration's lead negotiators with Capitol Hill are Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. Bush told aides he wants a bill on his desk that he can sign by August. Congressional insiders say that's unlikely.
Etc.: Ex-Bush Aides: It's Over, on USNews.com
-
Who's Where on the Trail
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2007 CommentDemocrats:
- Chris Dodd holds a meet-and-greet in Laconia, N.H.
- John and Elizabeth Edwards hold a town hall meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
- Barack Obama holds a town hall meeting in East Rochester, N.H., and healthcare discussion in Portsmouth, N.H.
- Hillary Rodham Clinton holds an open house at the home of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who dropped his own presidential bid and endorsed Clinton last week. Clinton then heads to Iowa City and Waterloo.
Republicans:
- Rudy Giuliani campaigns in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
- John McCain is still in Baghdad.
- Mitt Romney makes stops in Keene, Peterborough, and Derry, N.H., for community forums.
-
Morning Buzz: April 3, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2007 CommentThis morning's top stories:
- U.S. News White House Correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh has details on Matthew Dowd, Bush's chief strategist in the 2004 re-election campaign and an adviser dating back to the president's years as governor of Texas, who has defected from Bush's inner political circle, and ponders whether a larger rebellion is brewing.
- The political brinkmanship over war funding continues between the president and Democratic lawmakers in Congress, with neither side backing down. Bush is expected to address reporters this morning from the White House, one day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that he would try to eliminate money for the war if Bush rejects Congress' proposal to set a deadline to end combat.
- While official Federal Election Commission data on candidate fundraising isn't due out until the middle of April, most candidates have already disclosed their largess. Ten months before the first primary votes are cast, initial sums indicate that several candidates could ultimately amass an unprecedented $80 million to $100 million campaign war chest heading into 2008, according to the Associated Press. The News Desk will have more on this later today.
- For the second time since the beginning of the war in Iraq, Army units are being redeployed without spending at least 12 months at home, defense officials told the AP.
- A new study in the Journal of Management Studies finds that nearly 30 percent of office workers have been bullied on the job by a punishing boss or co-worker.