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• Happy Halloween, Jay Walder. A spokesman for the Straphanger’s Campaign tells the MTA chief to lower fares, increase transparency, improve labor relations, and close the budget gap–all by doctoring a few candy wrappers! (HuffPost)
• NYT polls experts to find out just how dire the situation is with SF’s Bay Bridge. The long and short of it: the DoT screwed up, bad. A temporary fix for a broken eyebar wasn’t built to withstand heavy loads and wind, which (apparently) contributed to its failure. (Bay Area Blog)

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• SEPTA tries to keep a straight face as it tells customers that it’s “fully prepared with an alternate service plan” for this weekend, when all of Philadelphia’s fun is ruined because of the union’s decision to cripple the transit system. (NBC Philadelphia)
• Boeing will open a second plant in South Carolina to produce more 787 Dreamliners, the first of which has yet to arrive and is two years late. The president of the Seattle Aerospace Workers union says it’s an “ill-advised, billion-dollar bet on a strategy that’s a proven loser.” (Bloomberg)

• Robert Kennedy, Jr. spoke to Solar Power International attendees about the “democratization” of electricity; the individual-as-producer (and the abundance of energy start-ups) challenges the definition of utility. Can I be a utility, too? (TriplePundit, GreentechMedia)
• While utility companies are installing smart meters, four academic institutions will work on securing the smart grid against hackers. Unfortunately, the research won’t be done until long after the meters are installed. This is a serious problem, says an expert, because we don’t know “the qualifications of the experts who examined [the security plans] or the criteria they’re using to judge them.” (Wired)
• A former Republican Congressman who actually gives a hoot about the environment tells Congress that we need to change the culture of infrastructure so that each individual project is subordinate to “overarching national goals” that account not just for the environment, but for growth and safety as well. (StreetsblogDC)
• Built on an 80-foot-tall white oak, the world’s tallest treehouse–at ten stories and between 8,000 and 10,000 square feet–is made entirely of reclaimed wood and has a basketball court, a choir loft, and a belfry tower. (Inhabitat)