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This is the third of a sixpart series examining challenges Central Minnesota faced in 2011 and some of those ahead in 2012. Today we look at transportation.

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The past few years have been rough on Central Minnesota’s transportation goals. Commercial service to St. Cloud Regional Airport ended in 2009, and in 2010 it became clear extending Northstar commuter rail to St. Cloud was not in the area’s short-term future.

That’s why we deemed 2011 a critical year for leaders to join forces and clarify their priorities in establishing a revitalized transportation plan. While some progress was made, new challenges arose, which sets the stage for a very interesting 2012.

Air service

The top transportation priority must be restoring commercial flights to St. Cloud. Two developments bode well for that effort.

First, St. Cloud is working with area counties to create a regional airport authority, which would fund and oversee airport operations. That makes sense because the airport is a regional asset.

Second, the new Greater St. Cloud Development Corp. last month kicked off a strategic campaign to restore commercial air service by early in 2013. The GSCDC, which includes Times Media as a member, plans to focus on Chicago.

Roads

Several major projects grabbed headlines this past year, with some of those bound to keep making news into 2012. Among them are:

» Most dangerous intersection: The state rated Minnesota Highway 15 and Second Street South as the most dangerous highway intersection for 2011. Highway 15 and Division Street ranked 15th. This board’s challenge to local leaders: Make those intersections safer now.

» West Metro corridor: This $17 million project, which began in 2010, finished in November. Yes!

» Diverging diamonds: This $17.5 million proposal involves Highway 15 and Stearns County Road 120. The idea is to convert it into a freeway-style interchange. The project would take at least

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/bRz750WomUo/Our-View-Transportation-challenges-remain-Central-Minn-

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Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/JImzl-fqOLI/

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Frank Quesada has a message for people who appear before him in court: If you use oxycodone, don’t drive.

That might sound obvious, considering that Florida is in the midst of what has been called a prescription drug abuse epidemic that is killing roughly seven people a day. Oxycodone is a particularly potent pain medicine, and also particularly addictive.

But Quesada applies his policy even to those who are taking oxycodone completely legally, with each dose prescribed by a doctor.

His reasoning: The drug generally comes with a warning that people should not drive or use heavy equipment when under the influence of the drug.

So when Quesada learns defendants are using oxycodone, he modifies their probation and tells them they are not allowed to drive. At all.

“As long as they’re on oxycodone, I’m going to suspend their driving,” Quesada said in an interview. That restriction lasts as long as the defendant remains on probation.

Quesada’s policy is one more way the legal system is grappling with prescription drugs, which are legal and medically necessary in many cases but deadly in others.

“I think it’s very dangerous. I think it’s a very serious public safety issue that so many people out there are impaired by oxycodone,” he said.

Quesada presides in a Pinellas court for people accused of violating probation for all sorts of offenses, which don’t necessarily involve drugs. People on probation often are required to submit to random drug tests, which sometimes turn up the presence of oxycodone or other drugs.

If the person has a prescription for oxycodone, there’s nothing illegal about finding it in his or her drug test. But if that same person gets behind the wheel, it could endanger the public, Quesada said.

Quesada said he’s not criticizing people who take oxycodone legally. He said he has needed pain medication after recuperating from surgery and understands that it can be medically important.

On the other hand, it’s not hard to find evidence of people abusing the drugs. Some people in his courtroom wear a telltale “dull-witted” look, he says,

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/E9AGCN5oNBc/article1208113.ece

To some people, a school bus is a big, yellow beast full of rowdy kids.

To Irv Slosberg, it’s untapped potential, a rolling billboard that could help school districts rake in money.

Slosberg, a Democratic state representative from Boca Raton, is pushing a bill that would allow school districts to sell ads on the sides of school buses.

Given the rates that he says some districts outside Florida charge ($2,000 to $5,000 per ad), he figures thousands of school buses in Florida could swat down tens of millions of dollars annually. And given historically deep cuts in state education spending, he says that’s not chump change.

“Why shouldn’t our children get the benefit of that, rather than get education dollars cut?” Slosberg said Wednesday. “We should be looking around for every last penny.”

A similar bill went nowhere in the House last year. But with the possibility of more budget cuts looming, Slosberg expects it has a better chance in the 2012 session, which begins Jan. 10.

Two similar bills have been filed in the Senate, including one by Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, who also heads the state superintendents association. Slosberg’s bill has Republican co-sponsors in Rep. Bryan Nelson, R-Apopka, and Rep. Larry Ahern, R-Seminole.

“It wouldn’t be like NASCAR,” Ahern said of the ads. “It would be done in a tasteful manner, like the city buses are.”

Slosberg’s bill would limit ads to the outside. It includes a list of restrictions, including ads that promote alcohol, tobacco or prescription drugs; that are sexual in nature; and that “promote an illegal activity or antisocial behavior.” Districts could come up with additional conditions, Slosberg said.

One School Board member had mixed feelings. One expert on commercialism in schools said there were downsides.

The Pinellas school district definitely needs to look at potential revenue streams, including advertising, and it needs to have a thoughtful discussion about pros and cons, said School Board member Peggy O’Shea. The district has roughly 500 buses, she said, and “that’s a substantial amount of visibility.”

On the other hand, O’Shea said she worried about a provision in Slosberg’s bill that mandates where the revenue will be spent: 50

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/hlx48j78X-I/1208153

By PUI-WING TAM

SAN FRANCISCO—Friends Julie Mayer and Julia Bolcerek gathered their respective 7-year-old sons together recently and broke the bad news: The boys had to regress to booster seats.

Under California law starting Jan. 1, children must use car seats until they are 8 years old or 4-feet-9 inches tall, up from the current requirement of 6 years or 60 pounds.

“That’s bad,” responded Ms. Mayer’s son, Josh, who has been out of his car seat since turning 6. Ms. Bolcerek’s son, Aaron, shouted, “No!”

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The upshot: Ms. Mayer and Ms. Bolcerek aren’t quite sure what they’ll do about putting their sons back into car seats, and the boys aren’t satisfied. “It’s not fun to be in a booster seat,” says Josh in an interview. Aaron adds that he “feels really sorry” for kids who have to be in the “uncomfortable” contraptions.

Parents face a squirm-inducing dilemma across the nation’s most-populous state. Under California’s old law, many 6- and 7-year-olds—there are nearly 1.1 million of them in the state—proudly graduated out of car seats to big-kid status on their sixth birthdays. Getting those wannabe tweens back into kiddie seats is inspiring tantrums.

Some parents are invoking threats, asking kids if they want to see Mom and Dad hauled off for breaking the law. (In truth, noncompliance can mean a fine of more than $475 and a point on a driving record, but no prison.)

Others are making step-by-step plans to return children to booster seats or luring kids back with rewards. A few, especially those whose kids turn 8 early next year, have already

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/riRUDfxCUZk/SB10001424052970204319004577087420326708922.html

PHOENIX — Consumers in Arizona spent more money in October on automobiles, clothes and other goods than in that same month a year earlier.

The Arizona Republic reports that (http://bit.ly/sJf0oJ ) that state records show that shoppers spent $3.8 billion on retail goods during October.

That’s up 7.3 percent from the $3.6 billion for the same month a year earlier.

It’s the latest in a string of year-over-year monthly gains that lead economists to believe that economic recovery is solidly under way in Arizona, albeit at a slow pace.

Dennis Hoffman, director of the L. William Seidman Research Institute at Arizona State University, say the real measure will come in the spring when the monthly taxable sales figures are compared against year-earlier numbers that began to reflect the start of the economic recovery.

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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/-UblapBCr5g/