HEALTHLINES a project might be delayed—but it certainly doesn’t help,” Rentschler said. Darin Chidsey, chief operating officer of the Southern California Association of Governments, calculates $22 billion of transportation projects across six southern California counties could be delayed. That includes $6 billion to widen parts of Interstate 710 to curb congestion from trucks shuttling goods in and out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. “Every day of delay costs money,” Chidsey said—citing costs to local residents stuck in congested commutes, to public agencies, and to the local economy. He added that “$22 billion of projects translates into a lot of jobs, a lot of economic activity—it’s critical.” From a back-of-the-envelope calculation, that could mean a hit to tens of thousands of jobs, according to Kiana Valentine, executive director for Transportation California—an advocacy group that represents labor and business in the construction industry. That’s extrapolated from the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers’ stat that “every $1 billion in federal highway and transit investment funded by the American Jobs Act would support 13,000
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jobs for one year.” From that, Valentine said, “If we’re looking at putting at risk $130 billion, we anticipate that there would be some pretty significant impacts to construction jobs and the economy in the state.” For now, transportation planners are in a state of limbo—anticipating a major setback, but not knowing when or how bad it could be. “To do a lot of contingency planning is hard to do, because we don’t know what the final rule is going to say,” Caltrans’ Schmidt said. “We’re all concerned, and we’re trying to think about what might the ramifications be—but we don’t know that. And our hope is really that the rule doesn’t get finalized.” San Joaquin’s Chesley agrees. “The headline is don’t make it tougher to do transportation improvements. It’s already tough enough as it is,” he said. “We want clean air. We want transportation projects. This rule works against both of them.” Ω
WEEKLY DOSE The curse of the summer cold Skies are blue, the creeks are flowing, the park is waiting for you to hit the trail, and then you wake up with the chills and a stuffy nose. Is it allergies or the dreaded summer cold? Though colds and allergies share the traits of sneezing, runny nose, congestion and an itchy or sore throat, a cold will include symptoms like coughing, sweating and fever. Allergies also last longer and the symptoms remain fairly consistent while a true cold will hit you with a rotating onslaught of misery as days progress. Colds are caused by some 200 viruses—those called enteroviruses are more likely to infect during warmer months. But summer colds aren’t actually more severe; they just seem so, most likely because you feel like the only one who is suffering. As with all colds, the best treatment is prevention, so use hand sanitizer, sleep well, minimize stress and exercise regularly to stay healthy.
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