Red Light Revolt!

Roanoke officials continue to investigate the pros and cons of installing red-light cameras more than a year after the city council expressed mixed feelings on the issue. The devices snap a photo if a car enters an intersection more than a half-second after the traffic light turns red.

By Logan Neill , Times Staff Writer In Print: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 BROOKSVILLE — The city of Brooksville’s red light cameras were dealt a hard blow Monday night when City Council members decided to squelch the 2-year-old program that alternately had been viewed as a safety measure and a money grab. The council reversed its 3-2 vote from two weeks ago, when it had decided to reinstate the cameras.

This is not really a cycling-exclusive issue, but a transportation issue that is relevant not only in the City of Chicago, but in many American cities – it has to do with Arizona’s controversial immigration law, and whether or not local city councils want to stop doing business with Arizona companies. The reason this is so relevant to the roads, is that the largest company that intstalls and operates nearly 200 red light dameras at intersections in most major American cities is Arizona company Red Flex.  This company, in fact, is in the midst of a 5-year-deal signed with Chicago back in 2008.  So while Chicago lawmakers are debating whether or not to boycott their business with AZ, I have no doubt any ban will NOT cover these money-making intersections. The one thing not up for debate related to this issue is how the statistics regarding the effectiveness of the cameras merely depends on your source material.  To wit:  a recent University of Illinois at Chicago study found that crashes were actually UP at these intersections (stopped suddenly, etc.) by about 5 percent.  Yet if you ask IDOT, officials there report that crashes are down 20 percent.

LONDON/FRANKFURT (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) – So few banks failed Europe’s long-awaited stress tests on Friday that investors will likely focus instead on the dozen or so banks that just scraped through when markets reopen next week. Seven banks failed the unprecedented test of Europe’s banking system — including five small regional Spanish lenders — and need to plug a much smaller-than-expected combined capital shortfall of 3.5 billion euros ($4.5 billion).

NEW YORK (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) – General Electric delivered a shot of confidence to U.S. investors when it raised its dividend on Friday, pushing the S&P 500 through the key 1,100 level.

Eleven people died when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded.

CHICAGO, July 23 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — The Cook County Circuit Court ordered the City of Markham to set aside more than $528,000 in state-issued bond money and reserves to cover the backpay it owes to 32 of its Teamsters Local 700-represented police. Markham is on the verge of receiving two state bonds, both of which are worth more than $1 million. One bond is to be used for a senior citizen’s center and the other one was to be used at the City’s discretion.

BOSTON (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) – General Electric Co (GE.N) moved to raise its dividend by 20 percent on Friday, in a sign that the largest U.S.

In 1909 Britain’s prime minister, Herbert Asquith, and chancellor, David Lloyd George, presided over an extraordinary budget. It raised taxes on Britain’s landed, wealthy elites, so as to provide a raft of social services, from pensions to unemployment benefits. In many ways, it laid the groundwork for the welfare state that emerged after the second world war

CHICAGO, July 23 /CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/ — Global Capacity (parent: Capital Growth Systems, Inc.