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• The LA Times editorial board is calling out Jim Oberstar and other House Transportation committee members for “chutzpah,” “putting caboose before the locomotive,” and indulging in a “utopian fantasy.” This tongue-lashing was in response to the introduction of a $500 billion bill with no funding mechanism. (LAT)
• NPR recaps what we know already: The Highway Trust Fund is facing a $20 billion shortfall and the Senate has no intent of passing a new bill before 2011. Not a bad 4 minute primer on the broader situation though. (NPR)
• A new study finds that 220-mph high speed rail between Chicago and St Louis is entirely doable because the existing rights of way are straight and flat. Travel time would be under two hours and the price tag would be over $11 billion. (Chicago Trib)
• Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will be in green mobility mecca Portland, Ore., today to check out an aerial tram and cheer on the streetcars. Already this week he broke ground for a bike path in Colorado. (Bike Portland, DOT Fast Lane blog)
• With California is the midst of a prolonged drought and possibly facing an Australia-like future as our much-abused planet warms, what invention could possibly be more useful than a waterless washing machine? Sounds a tad oxymoronic, but the device needs 90 percent less H2O. (Inhabitat)
• Some enterprising fellow down in North Carolina stuck his telescoping camera thingy into a sewer pipe and found these hideous, pulsating life forms clinging to the walls. It’s apparently a “muscle-like” clump of worms. (Deep Sea News) [item updated]
• In other sewer news, a U. of Minnesota professor is producing a “diesel like biofuel” from human poop. Right now it costs $20 a gallon, but he’s thinking with a technological breakthrough or two he can flush away our energy worries. (Yale 360)
• Kind words for the Daily Dig (and for the Infrastructurist) from a fascinating and very timely site affiliated with NYU’s journalism school. Well worth a read–or an RSS add–for anyone interested in the state of online journalism. (BeatBlogging.org)
• A street corner in Queens will be named after 80s rap sensation Run DMC — specifically, “Run-DMC JMJ Way” (after Jam Master Jay). We suggest a one-way sidewalk with a sign that reads, “Walk This Way.” (NYT)

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