People of Harlem react to possible Highway 221 widening project
HARLEM, Ga (WJBF)- A new road widening project could be coming to Columbia County soon. Commissioners voted Tuesday to send a letter of support to the GDOT about the possible work to Highway 221 and committed to contributing $2 million.
Now the people of Harlem are reacting to the potential project.
They know that, like it or not, growth is inevitable. Because of that many said they support the Department of Transportation doing work on Highway 221, especially if it makes one notorious intersection safer.
'We have one of the most dangerous intersections in the county at North Fairview and 221. The last report I received is we're seeing about two accidents a week,' explained Mayor Roxanne Whitaker.
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Many of the accidents where North Fairview and Old Union Road intersect with Highway 221 have caused serious injury or have been fatal. Mayor Whitaker said the intersection has been a problem for decades.
'Most of the solutions that DOT have attempted are laughable at best. And that is not being addressed to meet the safety issues that our residents face every day.'
Right now there are no definitive plans from the GDOT regarding what they want to do and Mayor Whitaker said she would need to see plans before she decides whether or not to support the work. One business owner says widening 221 through downtown Harlem is not feasible.
'Parts of our downtown wouldn't be possible to enlarge or widen. Physically there are buildings in the way. And so, some sort of a detour, bypass around the town road may be needed,' said Renee Meyer Dean, owner of Red Oak Manor.
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Another dangerous location that many are concerned about is the area through Harlem Middle School and Harlem High School. There is some concern about safety if the road becomes four lanes through there, many thinking a different solution would be safer.
'I think a lot of the high school traffic could be alleviated with some sort of a plan. Again, with that Clary Cut, Fairview, Old Union, something…where most- maybe most of the traffic does exit the side of the school into a roundabout,' Dean offered.
NewsChannel 6 also talked to commissioner Alison Couch who told us that right now the project is in the very early stages of planning. She added that the commission would need to see a drafted plan in order to fully support any road construction to the area.
Commissioner Couch also said the DOT needs to talk to the city, the county and the school board about the project and address the biggest concerns. She added that when the time comes there will be public meetings about the project.Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Politico
a day ago
- Politico
How Musk's ‘soap opera' with Trump could dent his businesses — and upend federal policy
Elon Musk's rift with President Donald Trump is exposing his companies to all the perilous downsides of going to war with his former First Buddy. From SpaceX's role as a defense and space contractor to Starlink's hopes for billions in federal broadband subsidies and air traffic control contracts, Musk's businesses stood to reap potentially limitless gains from his 130 days as Trump's cost-cutter-in-chief. Even after the world's richest man left the White House a week ago, acolytes from his Department of Government Efficiency remained in key positions at agencies that make decisions about his companies — including weighing how to handle safety problems at Tesla, alleged security violations involving X, Musk's potential ventures in cryptocurrency, or air pollution generated by his artificial intelligence agent Grok. Now those same arms of government — the vast, powerful federal bureaucracy that Trump has openly portrayed as a weapon to be wielded against his enemies — are potential threats to Musk's business empire. Already, fallout from the Musk-Trump feud has wiped billions of dollars off Tesla's stock, although it recovered somewhat Friday after the White House sent signals of a possible rapprochement. The drama could reshape myriad policy outcomes, including the futures of brain-chip technology or America's hopes of reaching Mars. 'This is quite the soap opera,' said Steve Sosnick, a Wall Street veteran who works as chief strategist for Interactive Brokers. 'A lot of people saw this as a potentially combustible relationship, but the speed and ferocity at which it combusted is really astounding.' 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The agency investigates safety issues with automakers and can issue recalls for cars that suffer defects — and while Tesla had been poised for a potentially easier ride with Musk in Trump's good graces, that dynamic could now flip. Musk is also keenly interested in autonomous vehicle technology and has a significant stake in seeing it more widely adopted. Early moves by DOT had appeared aligned with Musk's interests, including requiring less self-reporting for some crashes involving driverless cars. He also wants national standards for autonomous vehicles, rather than the state-by-state patchwork that exists now — a wish that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has supported. But Congress has failed in the past to enact legislation to create a national standard, and Musk's barrage of attacks on GOP congressional leaders could make that already heavy legislative lift even harder to reach. Tesla also benefits from a suite of federal clean energy policies left over from the Biden era, including a $7,500 tax break for electric vehicle purchases, that Republicans are now pushing to abolish in the 'big beautiful bill' that triggered the flameout between Musk and Trump. (Musk has denied that his attacks on the bill are an attempt to salvage the tax credits — saying his complaint is the trillions of dollars that the bill would add to the national debt.) Tesla faces an additional threat from a Commerce Department proposal earlier this year to impose tariffs of up to 721 percent on battery ingredients from China. The GOP megabill also threatens to deliver a quick death to tax incentives that are crucial for Tesla's solar energy generation and storage division, whose annual revenues recently jumped 67 percent year-over-year to $10 billion. 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The move would also imperil plans to launch commercial space stations under a NASA-funded program. In addition, SpaceX is key to NASA plans to return to the moon, with the company slated to provide a landing system for astronauts for a planned 2027 mission. SpaceX was also seen as a top contender to win contracts for Trump's proposed 'Golden Dome' defense system, which would rely on a constellation of satellites to track missile threats against the U.S. homeland. Musk's SpaceX has already landed federal contracts for seven upcoming space launches worth $845.8 million out of nine that the U.S. is set to conduct. Payload, a media outlet covering the space industry, estimated that SpaceX's revenue shot up by more than 50 percent to over $13 billion in 2024, with U.S. government launches and Starlink purchases helping to drive the increase. DOT could also create significant headaches for SpaceX, whose launches are licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration. SpaceX can't launch without an FAA permit, and under the Biden administration several of its launches were delayed or prohibited until the company fixed problems or passed environmental reviews. The FAA also slapped SpaceX with a $633,009 fine last year for separate launch violations, triggering Musk to call for its then-administrator Mike Whitaker to resign. Whitaker subsequently stepped down, effective the day Trump took office — years ahead of the end of his five-year term. — Jack Detsch, Joe Gould, Sam Skove, Oriana Pawlyk and Jessie Blaeser Starlink, SpaceX's satellite subsidiary, has been angling for a role in the FAA's promise to upgrade its beleaguered air traffic control system — one of the most criticized potential conflicts of interest between Musk's businesses and his former leading role in the Trump administration. And it's seeking billions of dollars in Biden-era broadband subsidies, a decision in the hands of the Commerce Department. Now all that is at risk. Musk has publicly promoted Starlink's satellite communications terminals as a solution for the FAA's communications technology problems, while criticizing Verizon's work on a $2.4 billion contract meant to upgrade the agency's telecom infrastructure from copper wires to fiber optics. (He later conceded that he had meant to criticize a different contractor.) Duffy more recently urged Congress to approve a massive improvement plan for the FAA that could, among other fixes, allow either fiber or satellite technology to replace the agency's telecommunications equipment. He said he was 'agnostic' about whether Musk's companies should be involved. Duffy also allowed SpaceX employees to visit an FAA air traffic control center in Virginia in February, and some SpaceX engineers took temporary jobs at the agency under an ethics arrangement that allowed them to take part in matters that could affect the company's financial interests. 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The FTC is also investigating whether advertising groups violated antitrust laws through coordinating boycotts against X — an investigation that could help Musk, if it turns up illegal collusion. Or regulators could drop or stall the probe amid the Musk-Trump feud. Meanwhile, the clash between Musk and Trump blew up just as the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday was granting Musk, a longtime critic of the agency, another six weeks to respond to a January lawsuit over his purchases of Twitter stock in 2022. The agency has alleged that Musk was 11 days late to publicly disclose he had acquired a major stake in the company — a gap that allowed him to buy up shares cheaply while investors lost out on more than $150 million. 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The Environmental Protection Agency has so far declined to take any action against the sprawling supercomputer facility for the huge amounts of smog-forming air pollution it's releasing. Theoretically, though, it could order xAI to shut the unpermitted turbines down. If that happens, Grok would be forced to operate on just 150 megawatts of power that xAI receives from the local electric grid — a fraction of what it needs. Musk has underscored the importance of the turbines to his operations, saying at the launch of Grok3 in February that the bot was powered by 'trailer after trailer of generators.' xAI was valued at $80 billion in March when it bought Musk's social media site X. xAI is now seeking a Clean Air Act permit for 15 of the turbines. The decision technically lies with the Shelby County Health Department, but the department has requested assistance from EPA, which is reviewing the issue. 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CBS News
a day ago
- CBS News
Layoffs loom at Pentagon-funded think tank after Hegseth slashes weapons-testing office
Washington — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recent personnel cuts in the Pentagon office responsible for weapons testing has halted all work and cleared the way for potential layoffs at the Pentagon-funded think tank that supports it, the Institute for Defense Analyses, or IDA. In a letter obtained by CBS News, the institute's president, retired Air Force Gen. Norton "Norty" Schwartz, told staff he'd received a notice on Monday "terminating all IDA tasks" for the Pentagon's Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation — known inside the Pentagon as DOT&E. "Leadership is working to assess the full range of implications of these contract actions," Schwartz wrote, adding that the loss of funding "impacts all of IDA." He continued, "With the loss of funding, we cannot sustain our current staffing levels as an organization … All of this is devastating for us as individuals and for the amazing work we have had the privilege to perform for so many years." Congress established DOT&E in 1983 out of growing concern that the Pentagon lacked a clear and independent view of how its weapons systems performed under real-world conditions. Lawmakers at the time had grown frustrated with the quality of oversight, believing both Congress and the Defense Department were being left in the dark about the true effectiveness of the military's most expensive investments. IDA provides technical expertise and analysis to support the weapons testing office. DOT&E, along with IDA, took up the mantle of testing and evaluating all Pentagon weapon systems. By law, no weapon system can proceed to full production without the office's signoff. But late last month, Hegseth made deep cuts to the weapons testing office, which has caused a ripple effect at IDA. In his memo, Hegseth called much of the office's work "redundant" and "nonessential" and said it had functions that "do not support operational agility or resource efficiency." The directive made a sweeping reduction to the office's civilian workforce, cutting the civilian employee count from 118 to 30, with and 15 uniformed personnel, and one person in the Senior Executive Service position to lead the office. The memo also ended all contractor support to the office, such as the work done by IDA. Hegseth's memo said the cuts would save the Pentagon over $300 million per year. The cost to operate the office was roughly $377 million, according to Fiscal Year 2025 Pentagon budget documents. The IDA letter sent to staffers on Tuesday and marked "For Internal IDA Use Only," said the agency had faced a sense of uncertainty for months but that IDA had viewed such an outcome as an "unlikely event." CBS News was unable to determine how many IDA staffers will be impacted or what programs IDA was working on that were halted. The Fiscal Year 2025 Defense Department budget documents show DOT&E provides operational and live-fire testing and evaluation oversight for every major defense acquisition program. It's currently evaluating over 230 weapons systems that are at various stages of procurement. Contacted on Friday, Herman Phillips, the chief communications officer for IDA, confirmed to CBS News that IDA leadership has made the "difficult decision to reduce the size of the workforce. However, IDA has not currently dismissed any staff," as they continue to evaluate the impact from Hegseth's directive. Robert Behler, a longtime test pilot who led DOT&E during the first Trump administration, told USNI News Monday that the cuts will prevent the office from fulfilling its congressional obligations, and ending funding for contractor support will hinder DOT&E's ability to carry out its oversight duties. "I don't think they will have the resources to be able to accomplish all those tasks with only … a couple handfuls of people, 30 people. It's an enormous job, especially the annual report," Behler told USNI News. He was referring to a report, required by federal law, that summarizes the Defense Department's weapons testing and evaluation each year. The report for 2024 was 498 pages. During a roundtable discussion with reporters hosted by the Defense Writers Group on Wednesday, GOP Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, was asked about Hegseth's cuts to the DOT&E. "I have questions not only for the secretary and his team, and to an extent the National Security Council is involved in this, but also with stakeholders and experts around town as to the advisability of this, which would amount to a reversal of congressional policy," said Wicker. contributed to this report.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
FMCSA Modernizing Complaint System to Fight Freight Fraud, Coercion, Safety Gaps
For years, drivers, brokers and carriers have voiced the same complaint: Filing reports with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration often feels like yelling into the void. The National Consumer Complaint Database (NCCDB), designed initially to collect reports on bad actors in the supply chain, has been criticized for being clunky, outdated and ineffective. Now, in a low-profile move buried in the Federal Register, the FMCSA is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the NCCDB. The goal? To turn it into a fully modernized system for flagging broker fraud, motor carrier violations, shipper coercion and questionable conduct from substance abuse professionals, medical review officers and others operating under DOT compliance rules. It's not a new regulation, but it might be one of the agency's most important modernization efforts in years. The proposed changes stem from a 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that slammed the FMCSA's existing complaint system for lacking transparency, accountability and enforcement power. The new framework aims to change that by streamlining how complaints are filed, tracked and resolved and it aims to bring clarity to a marketplace defined by ghost carriers and untraceable the proposal, the NCCDB would get a complete overhaul, making it easier to file complaints, allowing users to track the status of their submissions, and improving data collection methods so that trends, patterns and serial offenders don't fall through the cracks. There's even language allowing carriers and brokers to challenge inaccurate or duplicate data, a nod toward due process in a system that's long lacked it. (This sounds ridiculously familiar to fleets' issues with the lack of due process in the antiquated Data Q system.) At the root, this change is about enforcement, not usability. The FMCSA has stated that the goal is to make complaint data more actionable, linking it directly to safety violations, broker noncompliance and the kinds of coercive behavior that regulators often miss in the field. While many complaints have historically vanished into limbo, the revamped system would increase the chance that they trigger investigations or enforcement when the trucking industry, this could be a quiet turning point. Carriers dealing with coercive shippers or unlicensed brokers may finally have a meaningful place to submit evidence. Drivers who've faced harassment, withheld pay or unsafe working conditions could gain a traceable channel to elevate their concerns. Brokers who play by the rules may benefit from a system that starts calling out the ones who don't. Freight fraud and cargo theft have gotten so bad that private businesses like Freight Validate and the Freight Fraud Task Force have been developed to fight fraud on the front end. In many ways, this feels like a 'clearinghouse' moment for complaints, especially fraud. While it doesn't have the regulatory teeth of the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, the concept is similar: aggregating data, flagging repeat offenders and giving industry players a tool to verify legitimacy before they engage. Still, execution is everything. A digital form means little if it leads to no meaningful action. The FMCSA has opened the door to a smarter system, but it will need real infrastructure and enforcement commitment behind it to succeed. The agency is gathering public comment and refining the proposal based on feedback, with implementation likely to begin in 2026. Given the freight market's growing vulnerability to fraud, ghost operations and regulatory loopholes, many hope this won't just be a paper fix. The post FMCSA Modernizing Complaint System to Fight Freight Fraud, Coercion, Safety Gaps appeared first on FreightWaves.
