Walz was included in a conference call about the College Cost Reduction and Access Act yesterday, the Athens (OH) Post reports:
Students across the nation could see lower college bills if legislation passed earlier this month is made official.
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act is being touted as the biggest investment in college aid since the GI Bill, which was passed in 1944, according to a government news release. . . .
. . . The federal bill would reduce loan interest rates, but states would continue to determine tuition rates, said Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn.
“There can be more, there will be more (done),” to reduce to the costs of college, he said. . .
. . .The bill also includes special provisions for future educators and public servants. Teachers who graduate with a GPA above 3.25 working in low-income public schools or teaching science and math will be eligible to receive up to $16,000 for college costs.
Legislators are focusing on attracting more high school teachers, said Walz, a public school teacher and beneficiary of the GI Bill.
“This is exactly why I took time out of my teaching job.”
The bill also would allow public servants, including those in military service, some types of lawyers, firefighters and early childhood educators, to receive loan forgiveness after working 10 years in their fields.
The main criticism of the bill has been the possible loss of autonomy by universities in terms of public policy. But Walz, Space and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, who also participated in the conference call, all denied a correlation between the bill and any impending loss of freedom.
President George Bush has indicated that he will sign the bill, which was sent to him Tuesday. Emanuel said the date that Bush decides to sign the bill “depends on if (Bush) wants to be associated with (the bill).”
The Winona Daily News reflects on the implications of the CP's purchase of the DM & E railroad in Railroad to roll full steam ahead:
. . .Critics who jumped on the DM&E’s poor safety record now have to find fault with a railroad that seems to have a much better track record, if you’ll excuse the pun.
Even though we are long past the days of the robber baron railroads, negotiating with the railroads isn’t an easy task because of the way they’re federally regulated and to some degree protected.
It remains to be seen whether folks such as Rep. Tim Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar will fight against CP. Walz’s interests are best split between the western and eastern parts of his district.
The western half of southern Minnesota sees great shipping potential for farm goods. The eastern half, including places such as Winona, has concerns over what more rail traffic will do.
So, without much help from federal legislators and with little to leverage in bargaining, it seems like the only tactic worth pursuing is simply trying to encourage the Canadian Pacific to do the right thing. Sending that many more trains through a town like Winona has serious safety concerns, as well as the ability to make traveling crosstown unpleasant and inconvenient.
Hopefully, CP will work with city leaders to mitigate the concerns, whether that’s building new structures such as overpasses, routing trains around the city’s busy thoroughfares or lessening the noise.
Winona has always been as much of a railroad town as it has been a river town. Let’s just hope this new chapter in our history is not a repeat of history — when the railroads ran roughshod right over towns, right over local politicians simply because they could.
KTTC-TV covered Tuesday's vote on joining a union by Rochester's bus drivers:
It could be any day now before workers with Rochester City Lines find out whether or not they can unionize.
About 3 weeks ago drivers and dispatchers announced their campaign to join the Amalgamated Transit union.
On Tuesday the workers voted, but the vote hinges on a decision by the National Labor Relations board over who is eligible to vote.
If the board decides in the unions way, a union official says workers could know shortly whether or not they'll be joining forces with nearly 2-hundred-thousand other transit workers across the US and Canada.
The ATU says workers deserve higher wages and better health benefits.
Management has claimed that part-time drivers who operate charter buses should be included in the vote count.
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