Latest news with #SenateBill1
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Hella construction on Sacramento's Hwy. 50 promises little long-term relief
The perpetual roadwork on Sacramento's highways is a never-ending story of surprise detours, dangerous lane splits, metal-smeared K-rails and tragic fatal accidents — all in the futile pursuit of a solution to relieve congestive traffic. A 'solution' that will be obsolete in less than a decade. Caltrans announced this week that the 'Fix50' project will go until at least 2026 and will cost $529 million — a year later than the original completion date of the summer of 2025 and nearly $50 million over the estimated budget of $483 million. For a mere 7-and-a-half miles of road, that's a cost of more than $70 million per mile. The project will add new carpool lanes in each direction from Watt Ave. in Rosemont to the intersection with I-5 downtown; replace crumbling pavement with reinforced concrete; add retaining walls and widen the highway between 39th and 65th street undercrossings; build new sound walls along the south side of the highway from Stockton Blvd. to 65th St.; upgrade and widen several on and off ramps; improve signs, drainage, guardrails and utilities; and widen 12 bridges overall — among numerous other, smaller improvements. But at what cost? We don't mean the more than half a billion dollar price tag — Californians are well-accustomed by now to that level of spending. The bigger issue is that the Fix50 project is notoriously dangerous for drivers, and statistically, will be out-of-date by 2035. So why are we investing more than half a billion dollars when Sacramento could be putting that money toward a project that improves mass transportation? Such forward thinking would not only alleviate traffic, it could save lives and assist Californians in our climate-neutral goals overall. Why do we insist on repairing and widening when we could be innovating? The construction on Hwy. 50 has already resulted in multiple fatalities, and is statistically likely to only cause more before its completion. According to data from the California Highway Patrol, the number of wrecks from March 2021 and December 2021 doubled from that same period in 2020 on westbound Highway 50. Ronald Fitzgerald, a local man, died on Hwy. 50 in 2021 after he crashed his motorcycle into a car stalled on the road's non-existent shoulder, leaving behind a loving wife and family — and all for what? This boondoggle project is funded through multiple sources in the state, with Caltrans subsidizing nearly $90 million of the construction costs under California's Senate Bill 1 — also known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. Caltrans has also relied on $52.2 million from Sacramento's Measure A Transportation Sales Tax to support the project, and the State Highway Operation and Protection Program is funding an additional $387 million. But all of the extra money and construction delays are unlikely to relieve Sacramento's notorious congestion issues in the long run. It begs the question: What's the point? UC Davis Professor Susan Handy, who specializes in transportation, explained that adding lanes to a roadway only relieves traffic in the short term. The new lanes actually encourage more drivers to use the road which simply leads to more traffic. 'We don't adequately account for the pain that we all experience during construction,' Handy said about the Fix50 project in 2023. She cited the increase in crashes, deaths and severe congestion as the cost of that hubris: 'The analysis that Caltrans and others are doing overstates the benefit of widening the freeway. And data analysis is also understating the environmental impacts of widening the freeway.' In a state like California, where driving is as second-nature as breathing and many commute on the highway to work, construction projects like 'Fix50' do more harm than good. With thousands of federal workers returning to the office on July 1, piling more cars on the road, the situation will only worsen. Caltrans, hell-bent on highway construction, is a lost cause. It's going to take leadership by a governor and a legislature to start investing in transit that can attract commuters and truly reduce congestion.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio Republicans will destroy universities in Ohio with SB 1; vote needed, reader says
The innovations that have made America great were not created in a vacuum. In the 1950s and '60s, the United States was the gold standard for university education. State universities provided affordable state colleges for nearly everyone who wanted to attend. They also supported research that benefited their communities. This research led to the U.S. putting a man on the moon, to the eradication of diseases like polio, smallpox, and measles, and to the development of computers, smartphones, and AI. What made American universities great was academic freedom, which allowed instructors to teach and do research where their interests took them, even though it might not seem immediately useful. It is this pure research that leads to the breakthroughs that result in innovation. For the last 50 years, the Republican Party has chipped away at institutions of higher learning, clawing back state funding and making colleges more expensive. Senate Bill 1, recently passed by Republicans in the Ohio legislature, will destroy colleges and universities in Ohio. It is a blatantly unconstitutional law, censoring what faculty can teach and what students can learn. The bill replaces diversity, equity, and inclusion with homogeneous conformity, inequality, and exclusion. It restricts the teaching of 'controversial subjects.' (How else does one learn how to think?) And it will gut academic programs, ensuring that students do not have the knowledge or skills to function in the professions of their choice. It is the purest form of censorship. It is important to remember that colleges are deeply interconnected with their communities. In many small towns, colleges are one of the top employers. They are drivers of culture, innovation, and growth. If you care about free speech and academic freedom, make sure to sign the petition to put Senate Bill 1 on the ballot so that voters can decide for themselves what kind of higher education they want. Laurie Finke, Gambier This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Vote needed to stop Ohio GOP from destroying universities, reader says
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio Senate budget alters the Governor's Merit Scholarship, ties funds to Senate Bill 1 compliance
College students graduating. Getty Images. The Ohio Senate's version of the state's two-year budget would reduce the number of students who would be eligible to receive the Governor's Merit Scholarship and it would come with strings attached. The Governor's Merit Scholarship currently awards the top 5% of each high school graduating class a $5,000 scholarship each year to attend an Ohio college or university. The Senate's version of the budget would reduce it to the top 2% of each high school starting with the 2027 fiscal year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Senate also added a provision requiring students who receive the scholarship to stay in Ohio for three years immediately after graduation. Students attending graduate school would be an exception, but the expectation would remain that they would come back to Ohio for three years after graduate school, said Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon. 'Part of the reasoning for that is we want to keep our best and brightest in Ohio,' McColley said. 'It stands to reason that if we want to keep them in Ohio, we should actually require them to stay in Ohio post-graduation.' If a student who received the Governor's Merit Scholarship moved out of the state within those three years after graduating, they would have to pay back a portion of the aid they received, McColley said. 'We do want some teeth to that,' he said. Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said the three-year requirement would be almost impossible to implement. 'I think it would be extraordinarily difficult to police saying you must stay in Ohio for three years,' Huffman said. 'I suppose we can try to penalize them and all that.' Todd Jones, president and general counsel of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio (AICUO), said he is open to the state's three year retention after graduation. 'We're very sympathetic to the need of the state to help retain people in Ohio who are getting financial assistance,' he said. 'We wouldn't oppose it not being there, but it's certainly a judgment call for the legislature to make on that, and we're sympathetic to their desire to keep folks in Ohio.' The Senate's version of the budget eliminated provisions the Ohio House added regarding additional requirements for private colleges to continue to participate in the Governor's Merit Scholarship. The House had added language to the budget that would have required private colleges to comply with parts of Senate Bill 1 — Ohio's new higher education law that bans diversity and inclusion efforts and regulates classroom discussion, among other things. Jones was happy that was nixed from the budget. 'It's important that we retain students in Ohio and keep our best and brightest here,' Jones said. The Senate decided to take that language out of the budget after hearing concerns from many private universities, McColley said. The Governor's Merit Scholarship was enacted through the last state budget two years ago and 76% of the state's 6,250 eligible students from the class of 2024 accepted the scholarship. Eighty-seven percent of Ohio students accepted the scholarship in its second year and 11 rural counties had a 100% acceptance rate. The Senate's version of the budget trims how much money is allocated to the scholarships. It keeps it at $47 million for fiscal year 2026, but reduces it to $56.4 million in fiscal year 2027. Gov. Mike DeWine's and the House's version of the budget allocated $70 million for fiscal year 2027. The Senate's version of the budget ties a portion of the State Share of Instruction to compliance with Senate Bill 1. 'We wanted to make sure that everybody at the university level was following through with the conditions and regulations in Senate Bill 1,' said Ohio Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland. 'We have the ability to decide how we're going to fund things. … If they are viewed as in compliance, nothing will be withheld from their SSI share, which would be their normal proportion of the SSI dollars.' Huffman said he supports tying a portion of the State Share of Instruction to compliance with S.B. 1. 'If the universities aren't going to apply state law then there needs to be some incentive to make sure that they do,' he said. House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, is against tying State Share of Instruction to compliance with S.B. 1. 'I firmly oppose S.B. 1, so tying more compliance to S.B. 1, which I think is an extremely flawed piece of legislation, obviously we oppose that portion,' she said. Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio, D-Lakewood, said she thinks the provision is outrageous. 'It's also following the pattern that we're seeing at the national level of intimidation and bullying, frankly, telling people that if you don't comply with what we say, then we'll just punish you and we'll withhold money,' she said. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio universities are closing their LGBTQ+ centers to comply with a state DEI ban
Multiple universities in Ohio have announced that they will be closing their LGBTQ+ student centers to comply with a state ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. Senate Bill 1, which is set to go into effect on June 27, doesn't just impose a sweeping DEI ban on state universities, but also restricts their ability to "endorse or oppose, as an institution, any controversial belief or policy, except on matters that directly impact the institution's funding or mission of discovery, improvement, and dissemination of knowledge." Related: What is DEI, what does it mean, and why are companies really getting rid of it? As a result, several colleges have shuttered their LGBTQ+ centers and related services. Ohio State University has so far closed two DEI offices, cut 16 staff positions, and took down its website offering support to LGBTQ+ students. The link is now deactivated, though the Internet Archive shows the page was active as recently as May 25, as reported by Signal Ohio. The University of Toledo has also discontinued nine undergraduate majors in response to the bill, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. Meanwhile, Kent State University announced that it would be shutting down "several identity-based centers," such as its LGBTQ+ Center, Women's Center, and Student Multicultural Center. KSU is also ending its LGBTQ+ Living-Learning Community, which allowed queer students to live together, while stating "all other university academically based Living-Learning Communities will continue within our residence hall system." "We understand these centers and the Living-Learning Community have been powerful sources of connection, support and growth, and we acknowledge the emotional and personal impact this change may have on many members of our community," wrote Eboni Pringle, KSU's senior vice president for student life. Related: Iowa State students hold 'funeral' for LGBTQ+ center shut down by anti-DEI bill The ACLU of Ohio has maintained that the law violates students' and universities' freedom of speech, with Policy Director Jocelyn Rosnick saying in a statement that "as students nationwide witness the ongoing assaults against their First Amendment rights, it is disheartening to see Ohio's own legislators follow suit in this dangerous pattern of stifling political discourse." "By dismantling DEI structures, Senate Bill 1 sends a clear, harmful message to students that their unique backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are not welcome in Ohio," Rosnick said. "Further, the exceedingly vague and contradictory language regarding the banning of so-called 'controversial beliefs or policies' creates a slippery slope for faculty and administration. This could lead to faculty avoiding any such topics in classrooms for fear of retaliation." "Institutions of higher education must remain places where academic freedom and diversity can foster – not be censored," she said.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
City partners with Goshen Schools to offer swimming this summer
GOSHEN — Public swimming will be available at Goshen Community Schools' indoor pool this summer while the Shanklin Park pool remains closed. From now through Aug. 1, residents can attend open swim and Red Cross-certified swim lessons at the Goshen Community Schools Aquatic Center, 1216 S. Indiana Ave. The indoor pool will serve as the city's main swim site after the closure of Shanklin Pool. 'Our city and schools always step up when the community needs us,' Mayor Gina Leichty said in the announcement from the city. 'While we don't yet know the fate of Shanklin Pool, we remain committed to working together in the best interest of our residents. Especially our kids.' The city paused the $12 million pool rehab project earlier this year thanks to uncertainty over the impact of funding cuts included in Indiana's new two-year budget and in Senate Bill 1. Goshen had completed design work and secured local support, but elected officials chose to delay construction until they better understood how the legislation will affect city finances. In the meantime, the Parks Department prioritized swim access for youth and families through the partnership with GCS, according to information from the city. Open swim runs Monday through Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Aquatic Center will not be available for open swim on June 7, June 19-20 and June 30 and on July 1-6, July 11-12 and July 18-26. Certified instructors will lead swim lessons Monday through Friday from 3:15 to 6 p.m. Sessions cost $55 and follow American Red Cross standards. Classes are available for beginners ages 5 and older, and for parents with children ages 1 to 5. Residents can register online at The site also allows daily pass purchases and waiver submission for youth ages 14 to 17 to attend without an adult, though a fee applies to all credit card purchases. Daily admission is $5 and children age 2 and under swim free. The city will not offer season passes in 2025. For more information, call Goshen Parks and Recreation at 574-534-2901. In addition to indoor swim options, the City of Goshen offers three free splash pads open daily through the summer. All three operate every day from noon to 8 p.m., May 25 through Aug. 25, weather permitting. Walnut Park Splash Pad is located on the city's north side at East Oakridge Avenue between Fifth and Sixth streets, Pringle Park Splash Pad is on West Lincoln Avenue between Greene Road and Indiana Avenue and Rieth Park Splash Pad is on 13th Street between Iowa and Illinois streets on the south side. City leaders around three years ago started looking at replacing Shanklin Pool, which was originally built in 1969. They settled on an overhaul plan that includes replacing the aging pool and support buildings that are beyond their functional lifespan with a modern facility. The design includes a beach entry, water slides, toddler bay, basketball goal, shaded lounging areas and cabanas. Construction was set to begin this year, but city council followed Leichty's recommendation in March and voted to pause the $14 million bond process and shift focus to fundraising and grant-writing.
