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Thursday, January 10, 2008
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Political Wire: "A new Insider Advantage poll in South Carolina finds Sen. Barack Obama leading the Democratic race with 40%, followed by Sen. Hillary Clinton at 33% and John Edwards at 15%. On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee leads with 33%, followed by Sen. John McCain at 21%, Mitt Romney at 14% and Rudy Giuliani at 8%."
Captain's Quarters: "Mitt Romney needs a win in the primaries soon, despite all of the rhetoric about delegate counts and second-place credibility. The Romney team apparently understands that, and have begun focusing their advertising on the upcoming Michigan primary -- and have put off other ad buys for the moment. The AP reports this as a sign of trouble."
Political Wire: "Political Wire got an advance look at a new Strategic Vision poll in Michigan done over the weekend which shows Sen. John McCain leading with 29% support, followed by Mitt Romney at 20%, Mike Huckabee at 18%, Rudy Giuliani at 13%. The poll has a margin of error of 4%."
"2008 pres"
6:26:36 AM 
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Here's a roundup of speculation and opinion about Bill Richardson pulling out of the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination from The Moderate Voice.
"2008 pres"
6:23:39 AM
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TalkLeft: "Nevada will hold caucuses on January 19. The Republican caucuses are non-binding so no one is paying attention. But the Democratic race is heating up. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama increased volunteers and campaign workers in the state right after Iowa. Obama currently has more field offices open than Hillary."
The Moderate Voice: "Nevada will hold its first ever big-time caucuses on January 19, and despite Hillary Rodham Clinton's come-from-behind victory in New Hampshire following Barack Obama's big win in Iowa, she can no longer be considered the favorite in the Silver State although polls have showed her to have a narrow lead. This is because the state's two largest unions - representing casino workers, nurses and other professionals - have thrown their considerable political clout behind Obama, which means the Democratic caucus is shaping up to be something of a tie breaker. The endorsements from the 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and 9,500-member Service Employees International Union don't constitute a guaranteed win for Obama. But the unions may have an outsized impact because they are expected to turn out a fair number of members for a low turnout caucus. Some 45 percent of CWU members are Hispanic and that also could help Obama."
"2008 pres"
6:18:47 AM
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Recent disasters in New Orleans and Minnesota have served to help focus attention on infrastructure in the U.S. Here's a call to arms of sort to fund reviews and rehabilitation of dams from The University of Colorado. From the article:
The experts want to see more economical and effective rehabilitation of the nation's most deficient dams for the protection of the public and other infrastructure. The group of 25 engineers has wide representation from government, the private sector and higher education, and most are members of the United States Society on Dams, or USSD, and the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, or ASDSO. They endorsed the need to fund basic research to support national dam safety initiatives for the protection of life and property at a University of Colorado at Boulder workshop last fall. "Given the limited resources available to address maintenance of our aging infrastructure, we must develop a rational plan for rehabilitation based on thorough scientific research," said workshop co-organizer Victor Saouma, a professor of civil engineering who directs the George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation site at CU-Boulder. "Millions of dollars in rehabilitation and many lives can potentially be saved by properly studying and rehabilitating dams that are unsafe due to aging or at risk of failure from earthquakes or flooding."
The American Society of Civil Engineers' 2005 Report Card for America's Infrastructure gave dams in the United States a grade of D, as compared to a grade of C given to the nation's bridges. Technological advances through research are required for the development of investigative tools and new analytical methodologies to identify and correct deficient dams in the interest of public safety, according to the experts.
Of the 78,000 dams in the United States, 10,000 have a high-hazard potential, meaning that their failure could result in loss of life or severe property damage, according to the Dam Safety and Security Act of 2003. Many of the dams at risk are located along active fault lines in California. Additionally, the ASDSO has estimated it would cost more than $10 billion to upgrade the condition of all critical nonfederal dams -- dams that pose a direct risk to human life should they fail. Robin Charlwood, chairman of the Concrete Dams Committee of the International Commission on Large Dams and a USSD board member, stressed that investing in research now will save both time and money in addressing long-term needs. "There is a need to have more research and development to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the investment we must make in maintaining the availability and safety of our dams," Charlwood said...
Here's the link to Victor Saouma's Dam Research Web Page.
"2008 pres"
5:49:34 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:59:14 PM.
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