Feds poke a hole in revived NJ/NY Gateway Tunnel plan

Karen Yi reports for NJ.com:


A crucial infrastructure deal to fund a multi-billion-dollar rail tunnel under the Hudson River suffered a major setback Friday, after the Trump Administration announced the project relied on a “non-existent” agreement to secure federal funding. 


The tunnel is part of the larger Gateway Project and would build a two-track commuter tube for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains traveling between New Jersey and New York Penn Station — among the busiest transit hubs in the country.


But the Federal Transit Administration said Friday it did not recognize the agreement struck under former President Obama that would have the federal government kick in half of the bill, according to a letter sent to New York and New Jersey officials.


“There is no such agreement,” FTA Deputy Administrator K. Jane Williams wrote. “We consider it unhelpful to reference a non-existent ‘agreement’ rather than directly address the responsibility for funding a local project where 9 out of 10 passengers are local transit riders.”


A copy of the letter was published online by Crain’s New York. 


Williams wrote she had “serious concerns” about the first phase of the project that asked for $11.1 billion from the federal government. “Your proposal also overlooks that 50% would be considerably higher than much existing precedent for past ‘mega projects,'” she said. 


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Incoming NJ Assembly Speaker names his staff members

Alyana Alfaro reports for Observer:


Assemblyman Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) on Thursday announced senior staff members that will join the Assembly Leadership Office and the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee in January after he takes the helm as New Jersey’s next Assembly speaker.
“This experienced team will help lead our caucus and our state towards a better future for New Jersey’s working middle-class families,” said Coughlin in a statement. “As our state grapples with the many issues before us in the years ahead, I could not be more proud to have assembled a team that will meet those challenges head on to ensure a better future for New Jersey.”
Francisco Maldonado-Ramirez will remain the deputy executive director of the Majority Office after Coughlin is sworn in as speaker. Mickey Quinn, a current member of the leadership staff, will also be bumped up to deputy executive director.
Coughlin’s senior advisor will be Daniel Smith, most recently a staff member of the Communications Workers of America Local 1036. Laurie McCabe will be another of Couglin’s senior advisors. She will also continue her chief of staff role in Coughlin’s 19th legislative district, a post she has held since 2014.
Under Coughlin’s leadership, Iris Delgado will serve as the executive director of the DACC. Delgado has worked with the New Jersey Democratic Party and was the National Campaign Operations Director for SEIU.
Coughlin will be sworn in on January 9, 2018 the start of the next legislative session. Prieto began his tenure as speaker in 2014 but, despite initial efforts to keep his post ahead of the new session, was unable to stave off Coughlin and lock of up the necessary votes to remain in his post. Coughlin has been a member of the Assembly since 2010.
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Can Iceland regrow the forests that the Vikings razed?

A reforestation site in southern Iceland. The amount of land in the country covered in forest is still tiny.

Henry Fountain reports for The New York Times:

GUNNARSHOLT, Iceland — With his flats of saplings and a red planting tool, Jon Asgeir Jonsson is a foot soldier in the fight to reforest Iceland, working to bring new life to largely barren landscapes.


Jon Asgeir Jonsson, who works for a private forestry association, with larch saplings in western Iceland.

The country lost most of its trees more than a thousand years ago, when Viking settlers took their axes to the forests that covered one-quarter of the countryside. Now Icelanders would like to get some of those forests back, to improve and stabilize the country’s harsh soils, help agriculture and fight climate change.

But restoring even a portion of Iceland’s once-vast forests is a slow and seemingly endless task. Despite the planting of three million or more trees in recent years, the amount of land that is covered in forest — estimated at about 1 percent at the turn of the 20th century, when reforestation was made a priority — has barely increased.

“It’s definitely a struggle,” said Mr. Jonsson, a forester who works for
the private Icelandic Forestry Association and plants saplings with volunteers from the many local forestry groups in this island nation of 350,000 people. “We have gained maybe half a percent in the last century.”

Even in a small country like Iceland, a few million trees a year is just
a drop in the bucket.

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Guess who’ll foot the bill for PPL’s $900M investment?



By Alison Burdo – Philadelphia Business Journal


A $900 million investment to improve an Allentown-based utility company’s infrastructure will reportedly fall on PPL Electric Utilities customers starting in 2018.


A 5-0 vote last week by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission gave the green light to spend $903 million between 2018 and 2022 to repair, upgrade and replace parts of its distribution system, some of which dates back more than four decades.

Following the approval, PPL submitted additional documents with the PUC to allow for its distribution system improvement charge to be 0.91 percent starting Jan. 1, according to the Morning Call.

The utility’s spending plan faced criticism with some saying the huge financial request reflects poor long-term planning, but PPL spokesman Kurt Blumenau told the Lehigh Valley newspaper:

“The PUC has reviewed this and has determined our plan is cost-effective, and it will ensure safe and reliable service for customers.”


The rate increase will add just some change to most PPL customers’ monthly bills.

The PPL Corporation serves about 1.4 million customers in Pennsylvania.
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Six years later, Penn State still torn over Sandusky scandal

As school leaders try to move on, Joe Paterno loyalists, including many university trustees, continue to fight over the coach’s role in his assistant’s crimes.
Supporters of Joe Paterno, right, question the evidence used to conclude he ignored or covered up the assaults
committed by Jerry Sandusky, left. (1999 photo by Paul Vathis/Associated Press)




Will Hobson writes today in The Washington Post:

In July, Penn State’s board of trustees met to discuss the most important issues facing a school system with 99,000 students and
a $5.7 billion budget. It took about three hours before someone brought up Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno.

As the chairman tried to end the meeting, a hand rose from the back of the room. The chairman’s smile faded as he acknowledged an alumni-elected trustee.

Anthony P. Lubrano, a 57-year-old wealth management executive, launched into a lengthy statement assailing the board and administration. Lubrano’s criticism, as always, focused on the Freeh Report, the NCAA and the Penn State administration’s efforts to distance the university from the iconic coach.

“Hundreds of thousands of alumni who care about our past and our future have been deceived and, in the process, disenfranchised,” Lubrano said. “We will never heal without truth and reconciliation.”

While some of the nine alumni-elected trustees nodded their heads in agreement, some of the remaining 29 trustees rolled their eyes or shook their heads in frustration. Some walked out. When Lubrano finished, the room was half-empty.

Six years after the Sandusky scandal rocked Penn State, university leadership is still fighting a civil war over the case, a conflict fueled, in part, by weaknesses that have developed in investigations that concluded top Penn State officials covered up for the convicted child molester.

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