Free Republic

President Obama plans to nominate Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to serve as transportation secretary, a White House official said Sunday. Foxx, who would succeed Ray LaHood, would be the first African American nominated to serve in the president’s second-term Cabinet. Obama, who has had several Latino, African American and female Cabinet members step down in recent months, has come under fire for not doing enough to ensure diversity among his top advisers. The White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made, said, “As mayor of one of America’s most vibrant cities,...

China’s attempt at a high-speed rail network is fraught with corrupt officials, impossible costs, and deadly safety failures. But U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wishes America would follow it as a model. LaHood told The Cable last week: The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million. In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don’t do it that way in America. His comments are...

The president met with the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, in the Oval Office. He gave a speech in Washington, DC, on his national strategy to combat terrorism. Bush nominated Mary Peters, a former Federal Highway administrator, to replace Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Our intrepid Secretary of Defense faced the surgeon's knife today, having successful arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff (left shoulder). Eric Ruff, the Pentagon press secretary, said Rumsfeld's cuff tear was caused by "an old athletic injury." Rumsfeld wrestled in college and is an avid squash player. ohioWfan and I exchanged days...