Saturday, Feb 11th
Last update02:23:27 AM GMT
Congressional Glance
Thirty-three members of Congress have directed more than $300 million in earmarks and other spending provisions to dozens of public projects that are next to or within about two miles of the lawmakers’ own property, according to a Washington Post investigation.
Under the ethics rules Congress has written for itself, this is both legal and undisclosed.
"AFA has long been a proponent of passing a comprehensive funding bill that allows the FAA to move forward on vital safety and airport improvement projects that help to enhance the world's greatest aviation system. Corporate interests and right-wing ideologues took this vital piece of legislation and used it to destroy collective bargaining affecting workers across the country.
The pending authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration directs the Secretary of Transporation to develop within nine months “a comprehensive plan to safely accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system.”
“The plan… shall provide for the safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015.”
House Republicans late Thursday night adopted an amendment that would prohibit California from receiving any high speed rail money in a huge five-year transportation bill headed to the House floor next week. The $270 billion bill also eliminates bicycle and pedestrian programs and detaches urban mass transit funding from its traditional revenue source. The underlying bill did not include any high speed rail funding to begin with, and indeed would cut Amtrak by 25 percent, so the prohibition serves mainly as a stick in the eye to California’s plan for bullet trains.
Engaged: Barney Frank, 71, and longtime partner Jim Ready, 42, the congressman’s office confirmed for us Thursday, following a report by New England Cable News. Where’s the wedding?
In Massachusetts, where gay nuptials were made legal in 2004. When? Sorry, that’s all the details they’d give. Frank is set to leave Congress next winter after 32 years, and he’s said the rigors of the job and the desire to devote more time to his relationship were factors. “I have a partner now,” Frank told Charlie Rose in an interview a couple weeks ago. “I’m in love for the first time in my life.”
HSBC Holdings PLC is under investigation by a Senate panel in a money-laundering inquiry, the latest step in a long-running U.S. effort to halt shadowy money flows through global banks, according to people familiar with the situation and a company securities filing.
The inquiry being conducted by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations could yield a report and congressional hearing later this spring, these people said. The subcommittee has a history of conducting high-profile hearings that have proved embarrassing for the world's biggest banks.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was stopped by security at the Nashville airport Monday when a scanner set off an alarm and targeted his knee, although the senator said he has no screws or medical hardware around the joint.
The Republican, who frequently uses the airport about an hour from his home in Bowling Green, Ky., told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he asked for another scan but refused to submit to a pat down by airport security.
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