 State and local governments are singing a new tune in operating toll roads: selling or leasing them for cash and letting private companies run them. The governments plan to use money from the transactions to build new roads, repair old ones or pay for other programs. The idea has caught fire since Chicago leased its Skyway — an 8-mile elevated highway that carries traffic from the city to the Indiana border — for $1.8 billion in cash to Spanish and Australian investors in January. The Skyway had lost money for decades and only recently had turned profitable, generating $40 million in tolls and $20 million in profits last year. The price for the 99-year lease was more than twice as much as any other company bid. Now other governments around the country are examining what their toll roads are worth and wondering whether they can get a Chicago-style windfall — or at least a good deal. ...
http://www.usatoday.com
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Editor - 21:46:00 12-14-05
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 Mortar Lands Near Green Zone As Polls Open |
Iraqis lined up amid tight security Thursday to vote in a historic parliamentary election the U.S. hopes will lay the groundwork for American troops to withdraw, with a mortar landing near the heavily fortified Green Zone just minutes after polls opened. No injuries were reported, but the blast underscored concerns of violence despite a promise by Sunni insurgent groups not to attack the polls.Dozens of Iraqis waiting to cast ballots at Baghdad's city hall went through three separate checkpoints as police searched each person entering the downtown site."The first voting process to choose a parliament with a four-year term in Iraq has started," senior election official Abdul-Husein Hendawi said.He said some polling stations in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad, had not yet opened for security reasons....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051215/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=Anpo0IP5xJhFa06UjHQRIJ1vaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
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Editor - 21:35:00 12-14-05
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| Mid-Atlantic, South brace for ice storms |
This month's early onslaught of winter will strike harder Thursday with ice storms in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic and snow, sleet and rain through New England.Travel will be hazardous from the Carolinas north. Heavy ice could knock out power with snapping tree limbs and falling power lines.The tail end of a snowstorm that crossed the Upper Midwest on Wednesday also may dump up to 6 inches of snow on Detroit, Cleveland and points east. Rochester, N.Y., is bracing for 6 inches of snow through Friday.A separate system that flooded Houston with up to 4 inches of rain in three hours Wednesday pushed across the South with more rain and scattered tornado watches. ...
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2005-12-14-ice-storms_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 21:30:00 12-14-05
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| Convicted Hitman, 77, Executed in Mississippi for 1985 Murder |
A 77-year-old convicted hitman was executed Wednesday, becoming the oldest person in the nation put death since capital punishment was reinstated nearly three decades ago. John B. Nixon Sr. still claimed innocence as he was strapped to the death chamber gurney, and blamed one of his sons for the 1985 murder of a Mississippi woman. "I did not kill Virginia Tucker," Nixon said before he was given the lethal injection. "I know within my heart, and it hurts to acknowledge, that it was a son of mine and a Spanish friend and another man from Jackson." Nixon, a former car mechanic, did not say which son he blamed. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1407598&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
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Editor - 21:28:00 12-14-05
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| U.N., North Korea Fail to Agree on Extending the Agency's Feeding Programs |
The U.N. World Food Program chief said Thursday he failed to reach an agreement in talks this week with North Korean officials on extending the agency's feeding programs in the impoverished communist country. James Morris, the WFP executive director, said his agency would consider the results of his two days of talks in Pyongyang and planned to have more discussions with the North Korean government over the next few weeks. North Korean officials told Morris they want the WFP to switch its focus to development aid after feeding millions of North Koreans over the past decade....
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1407611
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Editor - 21:01:00 12-14-05
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| Meyer was warned over memoirs |
Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's former ambassador to Washington, was repeatedly warned by the head of the Foreign Office that he could not publish his controversial memoirs without submitting the book for his prior approval, letters released yesterday show. Letters over the summer warned him that publication would breach Diplomatic Service regulations. He circumvented FO demands by taking the memoirs to the Cabinet Office. The new cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, said he was disappointed that Sir Christopher was publishing the book, but had no other comment. In a letter dated July 26 the permanent under-secretary at the FO, Sir Michael Jay, wrote to Sir Christopher saying: "Imagine what would happen if the book were published and, however inadvertently, it contained disclosures that were in fact damaging to the international relations of the UK ... This is not a situation that I can allow to arise." He said the FO had taken legal advice "and ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1667796,00.html
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Editor - 20:58:00 12-14-05
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