2004 Presidential vote recount was rigged in Ohio county

The vote rigging case in the 2004 election in Ohio is finally going to trial, according to an article in an Ohio newspaper.

"The evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless," Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said. "They did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount, he said.

It's unlikely that a real recount would have changed the outcome in the overall presidential election, but how many other cases of this simply haven't been caught?

"Hypermiling" - getting the most out of a tank of gas

Mother Jones ran a great article about "Hypermiling" - squeezing out every ounce of energy from gas in a car, be it a hybrid or regular internal combustion engine. I've tried some of the techniques, and I can get about 50 mpg in my Honda Civic Hybrid. The subject of the article can get 59mpg in a regular Accord, though! He recently broke a record of getting 150mg in a Honda Insight hybrid. For more info, you can check out his blog: www.cleanmpg.com

Selling America's Infrastructure to Foreign Corporations

MotherJones.com published an article called The Highwaymen about the selling of American roads to foreign businesses, to be operated as toll roads. The trend is being spearheaded in Indiana.

The one thing everyone agreed on was that the Indiana deal was just a prelude to a host of such efforts to come. Across the nation, there is now talk of privatizing everything from the New York Thruway to the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey turnpikes, as well as of inviting the private sector to build and operate highways and bridges from Alabama to Alaska. More than 20 states have enacted legislation allowing public-private partnerships, or P3s, to run highways. Robert Poole, the founder of the libertarian Reason Foundation and a longtime privatization advocate, estimates that some $25 billion in public-private highway deals are in the works—a remarkable figure given that as of 1991, the total cost of the interstate highway system was estimated at $128.9 billion.

Isn't this going too far to privatize? Shouldn't the state use the money from tolls to improve other roads, and maybe build some new ones?

The problem with public-private deals, Enright argues, is that the companies will cherry-pick the most profitable roads and leave much of the public stuck in the slow lane. He offers this hypothetical: "If you want to go on the Chicago Skyway during rush hour, they can charge you a much higher price because it's premium travel time. Now what does that do to the rest of the transportation system? It puts all of those people who can't use the Skyway onto the adjacent roads. Now the adjacent roads are backed up further. Now [the Skyway] can charge even more because they have more of a time advantage."