You’d think it was April Fool’s Day.

Some of the great music venues in Detroit. It's been more than a decade since I left, but they're still close to my heart. Too bad Electric Six will be on the…

Gov. Bev Perdue comes talks a little Obamacare over at N.C. A&T.
The N&R’s Mark Binker takes note of the single-payer protesters at the meeting, among them Jonathan Kotch, a college professor who said single payer “is the only way we can provide health care for everyone and save money.”

Aviation Week talks with Randy Babbitt, President Obama’s nominee to head the FAA. Babbitt knows he’ll face plenty of challenges:

The NextGen modernization initiative will be a major focus during Babbitt’s tenure. “This is a big investment, and we have one chance to do it right,” Babbitt said. He believes getting system user input will be a key to implementing NextGen – “I want to keep channels open” to industry,” he said.

Another major priority for Babbitt after he is confirmed will be resolving a long-running labor dispute with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. He said this is a two-part process, and the first step will be addressing the current contract that was imposed on controllers and has remained a sore point. The administration has already acknowledged that this agreement has to be revised, Babbitt said.

Controllers and the administration also have to look at the longer term, and reform the process for negotiating contracts, Babbitt believes. The current process is “too subject to politics…there needs to be a more balanced, neutral approach.” For an initiative as ambitious as NextGen, “we need employees on board,” he said.

Reason Foundation’s Air Traffic Control Research and Commentary

The New York Times reports:

Construction companies, hungry for work in the dismal economy, have slashed their prices to try to win the first round of public works projects being paid for by the federal stimulus package.

Pennsylvania officials said contractors competing for their first round of road and bridge projects had offered bids 15 percent lower than the state had expected. Utah officials said some of their bids were coming in 25 percent lower than expected. And a bid to build a 4.7-mile extension of Interstate 49 from Shreveport, La., toward the Arkansas state line came in at $31.1 million, about $4.7 million less than the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development had estimated the project would cost.

“The bids are coming in lower than we would have imagined,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in an interview, adding that the low bids should provide good value to taxpayers. “I think there’s a huge appetite for these projects, and people are raring to go. There’s pent-up demand for people to get these bids and get the work.”

Several states are wisely using design/build which minimizes the risk of cost overruns and helps guarantee the cost of the project. States should be careful to minimize their exposure to “change orders” that drive up the costs.

Pssst…Hey buddy…wanna score some Cascade? Get high on Electrasol? Or do you just wanna leave your dirty dishes dirty even after cycling through the dishwasher???

Only in Looney Tunes Washington state do you find all the $20 bills no longer having cocaine residue on them – it’s being replaced by dishwasher soap, the possession of which may soon bring stronger criminal penalties than those for the possession of drugs.
 
From Spokane comes word of a massive smuggling effort by citizens in Spokane County.  These criminal scofflaws are going all the way to the Coeur d’Alene, ID Costco to score some really sweet, high-end diswhasher detergent, otherwise unavailable in Spokane.  Just what deviant behavior results when you mainline phosphate-based devil powder is, as yet, unknown.  But I’ll bet rehab is a real bear.
 
                                                             
 
Rumor has it that the struggle for power among those who make and distribute black-market detergents will soon degenerate into violence that will make the now-bloody Mexican drug wars look like a Sunday School picnic by comparison.   How soon before U.S. troops will be forced to contain fight-to-the-death skirmishes among gangs of clean-dish-lusting housewives who would rather kill than have to wash by hand?
 
                                                    
 
And how soon before farmers in Afghanistan toss over their opium poppies all in favor of packaging up a potent mix of phosphates and other chemicals to make a highly addictive dishwasher detergent? 
 
What will former Seattle Police Chief and now newly appointed Obama Administration drug czar Gil Kerlikowske have to say about all this?  What policies will he develop to address the issue? 
 
 
                                      
 
His well known penchant for focusing on treatment rather than jail for offenders won’t win him any friends among the greenies who are pushing the new, impotent types of diswasher detergent.  They want the harshest penalties for those who break our dishwasher laws – no leniancy since it sets a terrible example for the youth of America who are but a hair’s width away from falling into a detergent bucket of despair.
 
What eventually will have to happen is for the Obama Administration to convene a major Dish Deal Summit that will bring all the parties together (including North Korean strongman KimJong-il, who is rumored to be packing the missle he’s about to launch with several pounds of phosphate-rich LAUNDRY powder, a product not seen in the U.S. since 1993 – Do we really want to revisit those days?) for an international resolution of the matter. 
 
                                          
 
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is no slouch in certain domestic areas (remember the cookies?), has promised full United States backing of any initiative to supplant the manufacture and distribution of illicit dishwasher detergent with something more palatable and sane.  Cigarettes have been mentioned – especially those that appeal to school children.
 
                                          
 
But when dishwasher detergent is outlawed, only outlaws will have dishwasher detergent.  To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, “We must all rinse together, or we’ll all be rinsed separately.”
 
Less important issues like the Washington State Budget and world peace will have to take a back seat until this crisis is resolved, hopefully without a resort to nuclear weapons (nothing gets that goo off the good China!)
 
The Piper 
 
 

How are we going to pay for career government employees’ gold-plated retirement packages? I don’t know, but the action surrounding this issue sure is heating up here in Colorado.
Last week Dr. Michael Mannino (who wrote a groundbreaking report for us on the value of “deferred retirement compensation” for Denver public school employees … Hint: Think [...]

Bilingual education is one of the fastest-growing programs in state government, with the number of students enrolled far exceeding census projections for minorities. In fact, enrollment in bilingual education programs is growing at 10 times the rate of basic K-12 education. Compare growth rates for bilingual education here and basic K-12 education here.

In days of relative plenty, it has been easier for lawmakers to look the other way in terms of whether or not bilingual dollars are well spent. They are not, and we should face this now. Only about 15 percent (see page ii) of the state’s bilingual education students successfully graduated from our multi-year Transitional Bilingual Education Program in 2007-08. This result is worse than the one-year sheltered-immersion programs like the ones used in Arizona, California and Massachusetts. Replacing our so-called transitional program with a sheltered-immersion program similar to that used in California and Arizona would save tens of millions by actually graduating students who are proficient in English in a timely manner, as well as lowering costs related to remedial programs.

Until elected officials are willing to get serious about what works best for limited English proficient students, this is at least a better trade for the taxpayer dollars spent.

Check out www.105days.com for more information on dealing with Washington state’s budget.

A federal judge has ruled that the destitute town of Vallejo, California, which filed for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy last year, can petition the bankruptcy court to allow it to void and renegotiate labor agreements with local unions.
The decision is significant. As the Times notes today, “municipal bankruptcies are so rare that until the [...]

We admit it. We like Sen. Joseph Zarelli’s idea that the state could solve some of its budget problems by freezing spending at 2009 levels for the next biennium and building early savings into the budget. Sen. Zarelli contends that reducing spending for the remainder of this biennium and then holding spending at current levels can reduce the deficit to about $1.5 billion. Currently, the state is on course to spend $9 billion more in the next biennium than it expects to collect from state taxes and fees.

Sen. Zarelli’s suggestion is a good idea, but is not as easy as it sounds. Not all spending can simply be iced. For example, utility bills will be higher, landlords will charge higher rent to state tenants, the number of children enrolling in school will rise, the number of prisoners will increase, debts will be paid, etc.

Fortunately, there are still plenty of areas where the state does have some control and can help itself—by not raising pay or increasing benefit contributions for state employees, or not increasing the rates vendors get for state contracts. Any practical spending freezes that help with the state’s budget woes should be embraced by legislators.

Still, tough choices will have to be made, and Olympia is a town where any decrease in the rate of increased spending is defined by most as a cut. It’s not easy, but many households and businesses are holding the line on spending where they can. There is no reason state government can’t as well.

Check out www.105days.com for more ideas on balancing the budget, cutting waste and stimulating the economy.