Free Republic

SACRAMENTO - In his first direct responses, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger defended dumping his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and actor Clint Eastwood from the state Parks and Recreation Commission - a step critics allege was taken in retaliation for their opposition to a six-lane toll road through San Onofre State Park. Led by Shriver and Eastwood, the appointed and unpaid commission has been an outspoken opponent of the toll road, claiming that super highways have no place in state parks. There also are worries that it could irreparably damage a renowned surfing area called Trestles. In an interview with the Orange County...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday released plans to boost enrollment in engineering programs at state universities. The plan appeared aimed at appeasing the state engineers' union and Democrats, who have balked at outsourcing government jobs to design roads, schools, levees and other projects. In a statement, Schwarzenegger said California faces a shortfall of more than 20,000 engineers. He said he wants lawmakers to establish programs at state colleges and universities to expedite degrees for military veterans with engineering backgrounds. Such a plan could increase opportunities for some 3,000 service members discharged in California each year with engineering-related military training, he...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called on lawmakers on Wednesday to pass legislation to allow the private sector to have a bigger role in building, operating and maintaining the state's public works. The Republican governor, who has often spoken in favor of public-private partnerships to improve and expand state infrastructure, urged the state's Democrat-led legislature to approve bills that would expand the types of projects, services and government entities that could enter into such tie-ups. Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers rallied voters last year to support ballot measures authorizing more than $40 billion in general obligation debt to...

A high-dollar seminar is under way this week in Miami relating to public private partnerships and investments such as the Trans-Texas Corridor in Texas. David Stall of the anti-Trans-Texas Corridor group, CorridorWatch.org, said he’s not surprised. “We are seeing a couple of these PPP infrastructure seminars every year now,” Stall said. “On the international market our highways, ports, bridges and airports are hot commodities.” If built out completely, the Trans-Texas Corridor would include 8,000 miles of tolled roadways criss-crossing the state of Texas. Republican Gov. Rick Perry has touted the benefits of utilizing public private partnerships in the construction of...

Let us start with the premise the title offers. Let us assume that our Constitution and three branches of government, our state constitutions and governors, our schools and universities, our health care systems, taxation systems, all regional and appointed governing bodies, commissions, and councils; our churches and synagogues, our military, land and watershed systems, and all forms of licensure and credentialing, including travel, are under the governing auspices of internationally emerging laws. Then let us try to figure out what is not under global dictatorship specifically here in the United States. We still have our 2nd Amendment intact, though it...

The Clinton Foundation, Operation HOPE and H&R Block Team to Deliver Tax Credits, Financial Counseling and Emergency Guidance to More Than 4,300 Families across the Gulf Coast KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 28, 2006--As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches amid an ongoing struggle for recovery along the Gulf Coast, one groundbreaking public-private partnership has emerged as a success story in helping thousands of Americans claim millions of dollars in much-needed, hard-earned income tax refunds. In just under six months, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Awareness Program, launched by the William J. Clinton Foundation in collaboration with Operation HOPE...

Last Thursday in a radio interview with the 55KRC Morning Show in Cincinnati, Tiffany Melvin, executive director of North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, told host Jerry Thomas that my June 12 Human Events article on NASCO was “absolutely inaccurate.� Melvin declined to be interview for this article, stating in an e-mail her current priority was to answer the “accusations, bad information, and false assumptions� in the June 12 article. “After I have a chance to get my life back and return to a normal schedule, I will contact you,� she wrote. “In the meantime, I will continue to respond to the...

Ideas for Trans-Texas Corridor-69 are slowly but surely rolling right along. The concept, which was known as Interstate Highway 69 until 2002, has been around for more than a decade, but Gaby Garcia, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation's turnpike division, said it's getting closer to becoming a reality. "What we're looking at now is taking all the comments we've received and identifying a narrowed study area," Garcia said. "That's where we get a specific area where people can say, 'How would this affect my property?' " Right now, she said, the projected path for the corridor cuts a...

Two decades of white-knuckle drives to Austin on Interstate 35 are proof that highway work isn't a quick endeavor. But what few realize is that planning started years before construction, and Texas Department of Transportation planners have never stopped altering and tweaking their plans. It makes sense. Big highway projects can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and permanently change communities. But other things to consider are that a major highway built to nowhere will, in time, make it somewhere because a highway goes there. Big roads can defy the laws of supply and demand. Planners often warn against trying...

On February 18, The Nature Conservancy partnered with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which is a division of the United States Department of Agriculture. This is another “partnership” with immense powers and no public input, whatsoever – no knowledge, no discussion, no opinion, no vote, nothing. The Nature Conservancy is a non-profit. That is laughable. TNC is a multi-billion dollar “non-profit” biodiversity conservation organization with assets nearing 3 billion dollars. They are a global land acquisition group up to its eyeballs in U.N. global governance missions and Agenda 21 implementation, and it partners with anyone who will further its agenda...

<p>Like every politician in California, Gary Podesto knows water is a hot- button issue. So, as mayor of Stockton, he wants to make one thing very clear: He is not privatizing the city's water supply. Sure, the 60-year-old Republican believes in private enterprise; before entering politics six years ago, he grew rich operating a chain of discount grocery stores. But he also knows how amoral the marketplace can be.</p>