| Northeast-Midwest Institute Weekly Update |
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Updated 2010 Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee Directory
The Updated 2010 issue of the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee's (UMRCC) Directory of Resource Managers in the Upper Mississippi River Basin is now available to download from the UMRCC home page. This extensive (fifty-page) and broad-ranging resource includes up-to-date contact information for Upper Mississippi River Basin stakeholders from the federal and state government, scientific, education and NGO communities, and is a valuable River Basin reference to keep handy on your computer. You can view the UMRCC home page and link to the Directory here or download the Directory as a pdf file, directly here.
For more information contact Mark Gorman at the Northeast-Midwest Institute, 202-464-4015. |
FREIGHT Act
From America2050
FREIGHT Act provides framework for national goods movement plan
The United States could soon have, for the first time, an official federal policy on freight if a bill introduced last month in the Senate becomes law. Three Senators, lead by Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, introduced a bill that would make it the policy of the United States "to improve the efficiency, operation, and security of the national transportation system to move freight." The bill, titled Focusing Resources, Economic Investment and Guidance to Help Transportation (FREIGHT) Act of 2010, enumerates five primary objectives to achieve this policy goal:
· Reduce delays at international points of entry
· Increase travel time reliability on major freight corridors
· Reduce by 10 percent the number of freight related fatalities by 2015
· Reduce national freight related CO2 levels by 40 percent by 2030
· Reduce freight related air, water, and noise pollution
The bill establishes within the Department of Transportation an Office of Freight Planning and Development, and gives the DOT two years to develop a National Freight Transportation Strategic Plan that would guide federal investment to achieve these goals.
The bill also establishes a competitive grant program to provide funding for capital investments for freight projects. These grants could go towards projects such as port or intermodal facility improvement, freight rail improvement or capacity expansion, and Intelligent Transportation Systems to reduce congestion. It also mandates that the DOT develop new tools "to support an outcome-oriented, performance-based approach to evaluate proposed freight-related" projects.
Click here read the complete text of the bill.
For more information contact Greg Lewis at the Northeast-Midwest Institute, 202-464-4005. |
Save The Date for New Partners for Smart Growth
The 10th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference will be held in Charlotte, NC from February 3-5, 2011. For more information about the conference visit their website. For the Save the Date card visit here.
For more information contact Fritz Ohrenschall at the Northeast-Midwest Institute, 202-464-4020. |
NEMW Releases "New Demographic Realities" Report
The Northeast-Midwest Institute released "New Demographic Realities: The Northeast-Midwest Region". The project, led by Colleen Cain, examines demographic changes, such as population growth, educational attainment, and racial/ethnic composition, in the region over the last decade. It consists of a Regional Report and individual state reports (Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin).
For more information contact Colleen Cain, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Northeast-Midwest Institute, 202-464-4003. |
Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference, Oct 13-15, in Cleveland
Help your community realize its potential by participating in the Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference! This year's conference will be held in Cleveland, October 13-15 at the historic Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.
Join hundreds of your peers from communities from the Sunbelt to the Rustbelt, to learn about the policies, tools, and strategies to catalyze long-term, sustainable revitalization. Share your experiences and insights, and become a part of the only national network focused on building the knowledge, leadership, and momentum to reclaim vacant and abandoned properties to foster thriving neighborhoods.
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