by Frank James

There's some Internet buzz that Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, slipped up and admitted somehow on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that he is really a Muslim.

That's not what happened. He did say the words "my Muslim faith" but any fair-minded person will have to admit that when he used that phrase, he was replicating the language of his accusers. He used it with invisible quotes around it.

Here's an excerpt of his interview with Stephanopoulos. At this point in the discussion, he was talking about Republican attacks:

SEN. OBAMA: You know what, these guys love to throw a rock and hide their hands.

SEN. OBAMA: My Christian faith - well, what I'm saying is -

by Frank James

Americans have been driving their cars and trucks a lot less, forcing down demand for oil and hence oil prices. That should be unequivocal good news, right?

Wrong. The nation's highway infrastructure is paid for by the federal gas tax. Fewer trips to gas stations means less tax revenue to fund the rebuilding aging highways and bridges or the addition of new stretches to the nation's interstate highway system.

So alarm bells are going off at the Transportation Department, on Capitol Hill, and in state capitals across the country, about the decline of driving and the effect on the Highway Trust Fund.

The Transportation Department issued its latest report this morning with statistics on the national drop in driving, which gave Transportation Secretary Mary Peters another chance to sound the alert on the impact the driving fall-off will have on the trust fund. For the record, Americans drove 4.7 percent less in June 2008 than the previous June, with the largest declines coming in rural areas. It was the eighth consecutive month of declines.

Here's a snippet from the Transportation Department's press release:

WASHINGTON - New data released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that, since last November, Americans have driven 53.2 billion miles less than they did over the same period a year earlier - topping the 1970s' total decline of 49.3 billion miles.

Last month, Secretary Peters unveiled the USDOT's transportation reform plan which offers lawmakers several options to consider when Congress takes up highway and transit legislation next year. "It really makes little sense to try to upgrade our infrastructure using a revenue source as ineffective, unsustainable and unpopular as the fuel tax," she added...

by Frank James

As has been widely reported, the Air Force stunned almost everyone yesterday by deciding to award its huge, $35 billion contract for new airborne refueling tankers to a partnership formed by Northrop Grumman, the Los Angeles-based company, and EADS Inc., the European maker of Airbus airliners.

Boeing, headquartered in Chicago but with a large workforce in Washington State, was the big loser. Boeing had said that if it got the contract to build the new tanker based on its 767 airliner, it would provide enough work to keep 40,000 U.S. workers busy.

But Boeing lost. So the aircraft will be built in Europe, with the conversion work being done in Mobile, Ala. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Mobile operations would employ far fewer people than Boeing says it would have, apparently 1,200 to do the modification work.

Aerospace workers protest in Everett, Wash. after the Air Force announced it chose Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent EADS over Boeing to supply air-refueling tankers, on Friday, Feb. 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dan DeLong)

This is obviously not making people in Washington State happy. The Seattle P-I puts it this way:

Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., a senior member of the House panel that oversees military spending, predicted "a firestorm of criticism about this decision." He said many lawmakers "don't want Airbus building this plane."

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told reporters she was "frustrated, angry and in shock at this announcement."

The state's senior senator said she couldn't understand the choice of giving a massive contract to a foreign-based business, considering that the U.S. is teetering on a recession.

"You can put an American sticker on a plane and call it American, but you can't call it American made. They are clearly going to be made overseas, and that is a factor we all have to be thinking about, whether we want American planes built overseas."

Murray said Boeing will be debriefed by the Air Force later this month on why it lost out, and the company could then appeal the decision. The Government Accountability Office then has 100 days to examine the appeal, Murray said. She said it was premature to speculate on a congressional inquiry, but added, "We clearly want to be supportive of Boeing and find out the facts."

by Mark Silva

President Bush, vowing to address “the epidemic of aviation delays,’’ today announced several measures aimed at, first, alleviating air-traffic congestion for Thanksgiving holiday travelers, and also improving the flow of airline traffic over the long-term.

“We can restore the confidence of America’s consumers, improve the efficiency of America’s airports and bring order to America’s skies,’’ Bush said at the White House. “It’s one thing to analyze a problem, but the American people expect us to come up with some solutions.’’

The government also has created a Web-site – www.fly.faa.gov – displaying delays at airports around the country and is enabling people to have delay announcements sent to their mobile telephones.

“We can do better,’’ Bush said. “We have an aviation system that can be improved.’’

This is the initial map of airports available at fly.faa.gov, but delays at regional airports also are available by following a regional button above the map to the regional airports.

President Bush meets with Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Acting Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bobby Sturgell in the Oval Office today. Bush is asking Peters to sort out the air-traffic mess. Photo by Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images.

by Mark Silva, and updated

President Bush has an idea for what to do about all the air-traffic delays that have made airline travel something of a nightmare this year: Get everyone in a room.

Bush and Transportation Secretary Mary Peters met today to announce what the White House called “new steps to address the serious problem of airport air traffic congestion and flight delays that all of us have experienced at one time or another.''

"The secretary and I have been talking about what to do about it, and I've instructed her to report back to me as quickly as possible on two matters,'' Bush said. "One, to make sure that consumers are treated fairly and complaints are listened to, and that we address some of the egregious behavior that our consumers have been subjected to. Endless hours sitting in a airplane on a runway, and there's no communication between the pilot and the airport is just not right. And so Mary is going to work very hard to make sure the system is much more responsive.''

The White House’s strategy is twofold: Reducing air traffic congestion, which, as spokeswoman Dana Perino put it, "is the root cause of all of these other problems, and improving air passenger complaint and response systems, like when your flight is over-sold and you get bumped off and you want to complain to somebody.’’

The Department of Transportation will act on its own to improve the handling of complaints, the White House says. As for the congestion which is “the root cause,’’ however, the administration plans to summon a meeting of the “stakeholders.’’

The White House today initially had said that Peters would travel to New York for these meetings, then clarified later today that the secretary will not be going to the stakeholders -- the stakeholders will be coming to the secretary.

"To clarify, each week beginning today, and concluding in December, the Department of Transportation will convene a weekly meeting of airline, airport and travel officials to discuss ways to address congestion in the New York area airports as part of the Aviation Rulemaking Committee,'' Deputy Press Secretary Scott Stanzel said this evening. "The secretary will be engaged in those meetings. However, she is not currently planning to travel to New York to meet with airline officials.''

Presumably, the stakeholders will fly to Washington.

by Mark Silva

“Clearly, this was not something that we expected to happen, given the history of the bridge,’’ Transportation Sec’y Mary Peters said today en route to the scene of the collapsed bridge in Minnesota with President Bush.

Peters, who has issued an order for all states to immediately inspect more than 750 bridges similar in design to the one that failed in Minneapolis and is calling for an investigation of the nation’s bridge inspection program, spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One about the collapse of the I 35-W span over the Mississippi River.

“The bridge at the time was undergoing what we would term relatively minor maintenance work -- some resurfacing, working on the guardrail, working on the lighting,’’ she said. “It was carrying a full load of vehicles when the bridge went down, and very, very tragically some people lost their lives; a number of people were injured, and still a few others are still missing at this time.

“But clearly this was not something that we expected to happen, given the history of this bridge, the inspection process, and how this bridge was rated,’’ Peters said. “It is clearly very, very important that we get not only to the bottom of what happened there, but also really look at the processes and the procedures by which we inspect and rate bridges, to make sure that we are doing everything we can to ensure America's infrastructure is safe.’’

Bush swearing in Mary Peters as transportation secretary last fall. White House photo by Paul Morse.

by Mark Silva

A team of federal authorities has been dispatched to Minneapolis, scene of the bridge collapse that has claimed many lefts and left many more missing, with the White House saying that the Interstate 35-West span over the Mississippi River – scored at 50 on a recent inspection grading bridges on a scale of 1 to 120 -- appears to have suffered a structural failure.

“It appears to be structural failure, but obviously people are going to have to take a look at that,’’ said Tony Snow, the White House spokesman.

President Bush, who first learned of the collapse over dinner with the first lady at the White House last night, called aides who quickly determined from the Department of Homeland Security that no terrorism appeared to be involved. And Bush this morning telephoned the governor of Minnesota.

First Lady Laura Bush, who already had planned to travel to Minneapolis on Friday for a summer meeting of the Republican National Committee – the party is planning its 2008 presidential nominating convention in the Twin Cities – will join a bevy of federal officials descending on the area in the aftermath of the bridge collapse.

The highway bridge had been given a score of 50 on inspection in 2005 – 50 on a rating scale of 1-120, according to the White House. This does not necessarily mean there was a risk of failure, according to Snow.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) addresses the bridge collapse:

Posted by Jim Tankersley at 12:10 pm CDT

Illinois shipping lanes would get $4 billion in improvements, Rockford would get a $5 million buffer against flooding and the Great Lakes would get more protection against dreaded Asian Carp, under a massive waterways bill the Senate approved this week.

The Water and Resources Development Act was overshadowed in yesterday's news cycle by proposed amendments - which concerned not water or resources or development, but Iraq war funding - that didn’t even make it onto the bill.

But the act, which now heads to a conference committee to iron out differences between its House and Senate versions - carries big-ticket projects for Illinois.

Posted by Frank James at 10:23 am CDT

The Washington, D.C.-based American Highway Users Alliance released a report card today on American cities’ ability to evacuate their entire populations in the event of natural disasters or terrorist attacks.

The only A went to Kansas City while failing grades of F went to the nation’s largest cities—New York, Chicago and, bringing up the rear, Los Angeles.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Wednesday, August 16, as collected by the Associated Press.

President Bush tours the Harley-Davidson plant in York, Pa., participates in a discussion on the economy there and then campaigns for Republican gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann.

The Labor Department releases the Consumer Price Index for July. 7:30 a.m.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Wednesday, June 21, as compiled by the Associated Press.

The National Transportation Safety Board is holding its second day of hearings on last year's runway overrun by a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 at Chicago Midway Airport.
Location: NTSB offices, 429 L’Enfant Plaza

President Bush is in Vienna, meeting with Austrian and EU officials.

The Educational Testing Service is releasing its results of a 6th annual nationwide survey of Americans’ views on key education issues. 11 a.m.