Around the Nation

Tucson Citizen, March 21, 2007
"Business coalitions want legislature to keep tax cuts"
For the second year in a row, a collection of business groups is calling on the governor and the Legislature to continue tax cuts that would help business.
At the same time, another coalition of business organizations is making the case for state spending to boost the state's competitiveness.
Both groups say they do not see a conflict between the calls for investment versus tax cuts.
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Stateline.org, March 21, 2007
"Power prices put utilities in the hot seat"
Spurred by skyrocketing power bills, lawmakers in at least six states are considering reining in electric utilities that were freed from regulation in the late 1990s.
Moves to re-impose state oversight of electricity rates underline how deregulation of the electric industry has failed to live up to its promises of competition, lower prices and a reliable power infrastructure.
Officials in Illinois and Texas are alleging that power companies illegally manipulated prices, and bills are moving through both legislatures to roll back recent rate hikes. The Virginia General Assembly has sent Gov. Tim Kaine (D) a measure to set power company profits and shut out competition in his state's electricity market. Legislatures in Connecticut, Maryland and Montana also are considering measures to overhaul utility regulations and rein in prices.
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Lincoln Journal Star, March 20, 2007
"Death penalty repeal fails"
The Nebraska Legislature inched close to passing a death penalty repeal on first round Tuesday, but one vote proved fatal.
A 24-25 vote shortly before noon ended the two-day debate of Omaha Sen. Ernie Chamber’s attempt to replace the death penalty with life without parole and an order of restitution.
“Really, I’ve been fighting this issue for three decades so expectations are never high that success will come,” he said after the vote. A miss is a miss, he said, no matter how close.
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The Birmingham News, March 21, 2007
"Legislators pass 62% raises over Riley's objection"
State lawmakers overrode Gov. Bob Riley's veto Tuesday and approved giving each of the 140 legislators an $18,840-a-year raise.
"We thought we needed a pay raise and we thought it was reasonable under the circumstances," said Rep. Demetrius Newton, D-Birmingham. The raise, which gives each lawmaker a 62 percent increase in compensation, was the first for Alabama's legislators since 1991. It took effect Tuesday afternoon.
Lawmakers by voice votes on March 8 approved the pay raise resolution sponsored by Newton. Riley tried to kill the resolution with a veto Tuesday. "I vetoed it because I think it is excessive," he said.
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Washington Technology, March 13, 2007
"Lieberman calls for $3.4B to boost first response"
The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee proposed Monday to add $3.4 billion above the White House’s budget to bolster first responder programs in the Homeland Security Department for fiscal 2008.
Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an Independent who caucuses with the Democratic party, said he wants to add $479 million for the Urban Area Security Initiative, which provides counterterrorism funding to major cities, bringing the total to $1.2 billion.
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The Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2007
"Mayor vetoes sale of downtown air rights"
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday vetoed a plan to sell 9 million square feet of unused "air rights" over the Los Angeles Convention Center downtown — a gambit to boost the area's nascent residential boom.
In a veto message to the City Council, Villaraigosa said he wholeheartedly supports the air rights initiative. But, he said, the proposed law behind it violates the City Charter by failing to give him an opportunity to review or reject projects spawned by the plan.
Developers could buy vertical space over the Convention Center and use it to expand residential projects elsewhere downtown beyond what zoning codes allow — an idea that critics say will exacerbate traffic and strain other services.
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The Houston Chronicle, March 20, 2007
"KIPP academy takes a big step"
The Knowledge is Power Program — the much-touted national charter school network born in Houston more than a decade ago — will unveil a $100 million plan today to expand its number of schools here fivefold, creating a system that could rival the Houston Independent School District.
Within a decade or so, the Houston chain would grow to include 42 charter schools with 21,000 students, a huge jump from the 1,700 students who currently attend KIPP's eight area schools.
The large number of campuses — more than many suburban districts, including Spring and Galena Park — would give KIPP ample enrollment to prove whether its success at preparing some of the nation's poorest students for college is just a fluke, advocates said.
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USA Today, March 21, 2007
"More mayors move to take over schools"
Even with students on split schedules to limit crowding, the central court of Cibola High School between classes is a chaotic, noisy swirl of adolescence. The school on Albuquerque's fast-growing West Side was built in 1974 for 1,600 students; now it has 3,200.
Just one of the city's 12 high schools made "adequate yearly progress" last year under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and it wasn't Cibola. Of Albuquerque's 128 public schools, only 47 met the standard, according to the state Public Education Department.
The overflowing classrooms and sagging test scores have convinced Mayor Martin Chavez that the city's schools are failing. So he wants to follow the example of mayors in Boston, Chicago, New York and several other cities: Take over the schools himself.
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Philadelphia Inquirer, March 20, 2007
"Pa. turnpike lease plans 'proprietary'"
As Gov. Rendell begins a statewide campaign to build support for leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike, his administration is keeping secret the "expressions of interest" submitted by 48 firms interested in the road.
Citing "the proprietary nature" of the proposals, the Department of Transportation has rejected requests from legislative leaders for copies of the submissions, which have come from New York investment banks, the former employers of both Rendell and New Jersey Gov. Corzine, Philadelphia law firms, construction giants, international developers, and a prominent think tank.
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