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PHOENIX (AP) -- An initiative campaign launched Tuesday would put a $42 billion, 30-year transportation funding plan on the books, boosting the state's sales tax by a penny.
Backers of the initiative need to collect signatures of roughly 154,000 voters by July 3 to get it on the ballot in November. The centerpiece of the so-called "Transportation and Infrastructure Moving Arizona's Economy Act" is the one-cent increase in the state sales tax.
Supporters say it would raise $42.6 billion over 30 years. The money would pay for highway construction projects as well as rail, transit and other transportation-related work.
Here's the original article.
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Working together to Improve Air Quality |
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Air quality is always a concern for anyone that lives in the Valley. We have exceeded the federal standard on 3 separate days so far in 2008. We're not off to a good start since ozone season just started on April 1st. Looking back to 2007, we did not exceed the ozone standard for the entire year. Due to health concerns- the EPA has tighter ozone standards from 0.08ppm to 0.075ppm. Maricopa County isn't living up to the new standards and is putting billions of transportation dollars at risk. Besides car-pooling, there are some simple ways that you can help cut down on ozone. Fill up your car with gas early in the morning. Filling up in the heat from the afternoon warms up the gasoline and ozone creating vapors that escape from your gas tank. Use electric power lawn and garden equipment instead of gas powered equipment. Leaf blowers are a huge polluter because they have little or no exhaust system to help cut down on ozone creating pollutants.
These are little things that we all can do to help clean up the air that we all breath.
ABC 15 has the full story.
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Here's one way for a building materials company to negotiate a U.S. housing collapse and look solid in the process: Simply buy a competitor with big assets in North America, thereby sending your year-over-year comparisons through the roof.
That clearly wasn't Mexico-based Cemex's (NYSE: CX) intention, but the company nevertheless benefited from its acquisition last year of Australia's Rinker Materials. Thanks heavily to the new Rinker contributions and despite a continuing train wreck in the U.S. housing market, Cemex was able to report a net sales increase of 43% in the U.S. Overall net income increased by 18%, to $470 million, from last year's $400 million. A significant amount of the quarter's improvement resulted from the $257 million brought in through its unloading of a 9.5% stake in Mexican telephone company Axtel.
Cemex improved its operating results in most of its widespread geographic locations. Its net sales were up slightly in Mexico and Spain, hit double-digit growth across most of its other locations, and -- drumroll please -- were up 386% year over year in Asia and Australia. But lest you assume the last-named area must be undergoing an unbelievable building boom, keep in mind the bulk of that increase is largely attributable to the newly acquired Rinker operations.
During the conference call following the company's release, Hector Medina, Cemex's EVP for planning and finance, predicted, "For the full year 2008 we expect EBITDA of about $5.6 billion ... This represents an increase of approximately $525 million over pro forma 2007 EBITDA ..."
Motley fool has the rest of the story.
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