Page 22 - Highway Program News Today

>> it is paul ryans first full week as speaker of the house and already hes facing his first big test. today the house starts consideration of a giant six-year, $325 billion highway and infrastructure bill. this is a bill that has faced a notoriously bumpy road in the past. consider the number 35. thats the number of times the existing highway program has been temporarily extended since 2009. most recently just last week. the current extension runs until november 20th, putting a countdown clock ...

Democracy and where the government gets to decide what that speech is is concerning and violates the first amendment. >> let me ask you one more question on this before i let you go. what the government is saying here what they are arguing, is that because this is about a sign that would be quote, state designated state created and erected on a state highway, they see this as state speech, not individual speech. >> well thats an interesting perspective we reject. when the state opened up this ad...

Have hurtful speech such as kkk. we believe that this case is different. the license i plate cases -- the state here opened an adopt a highway program to all civic minded organizations. there were no state regulations governing the program, it was pure discretion on the state to decide. >> im going to cut in i totally get that i think what people are wondering, though is why should someones free speech rights. if someone wants to say theyre in the clan or hold a racist view, we have a constituti...

Illinois. and he aeldly was paying him hush money not to reveal the fact that hastert had sexually abused this young man back in those days. george, your thoughts about hastert and this case? >> whats interest behavior long ago that made him subject to blackmail but what made him worth blackmailing. he was a high school wrestling coach and then a member of congress and became very wealthy. first as speaker of the house, he presided over an avalanche of earmarks. by 2005 there were 15,000 earmark...

Background. questions of was there something in either family he didnt want to emerge? were just left with all of these questions. hes going to be buried this week as he should be and honored as a governor who served three terms in the state and gave a lot back in terms of what people wanted to hear. theres nothing left in new york thats named after him. theres no education program. theres no highway program. theres no parks program. theres no infrastructure program. no reformation of the penal ...

Thats why the weigh ways and means committee and financial committee are working ing to e the current highway program for another six to 12 months. i believe that the house ways and means committee is acting as we speak and i expect next week this issue to be on the floor of the house. >> you said that you wanted to hear from the committee on what theyre going to do on the [ inaudible ]. i wondered what the chairman may have told you about his plans. >> we had a nice discussion about that and ot...

What we would be doing is looking at the fact we have bridges literally collapsing. we have roads impassable. we have an infrastructure problem that in the eisenhower era would have been addressed by building a massive highway program that would give people jobs. >> i want to tie this into our next topic because here in the city of new orleans, unemployment is higher than expect. more than half of working age african-american men in this city were unemployed according to the most recent census. ...

The ku klux klan has found a new ally to help t join the adopt a highway program in north georgia. state officials say no way the aclu is jumping to the kkks defense claiming a denial would be a violation of the first amendment. as you may have heard by now, the clan is one of the nations influential white supremist group. anti-immigration, anti-gay, anti-anti. only a few members these days. a chapter called the keystone knights of the k.k.k. filed application to adopt a highway along route 515 ...

Brian robinson the deputy chief of staff in the governors office told us today, quote this is not a program to promote the visibility of groups that have been associated with discrimination and violence. this is a poor and accurate reflection on our state. this is not the image we want to project. prepare yourselves for quite the court fight. >> shepard: tough to beat the first amendment? whats the plan here? >> very tough to beat. what officials are likely to do is refer to the criteria for the...

what else is happening? >> reporter: absolutely. this is day one of this two-day election. people are lining up despite the awfully hot egyptian summer heat. theyre here to cast their ballots. people tell us that theyre still excited they have a choice in who will be the next president. it is not a right they had after decades of dictatorship in this country. there are two candidates they can pick from. one is a former air force general and the former prime minister are appointed by th...