There's been a lot going on in the background since early July related to my efforts to "out" the Traffic.com scandal, but a few of these activities are public:
1. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today ran an article about the implications of this scam on the availability of traveler information (and particularly travel times on the new 511 "nationwide traveler information number"):
State to get only part of data from new traffic sensorsThat article quotes me several times near the bottom, so I am truly "out of the closet" now.
2. A few weeks ago, the National Journal Technology Daily ran a story about Senator Hatch's efforts to break up the Traffic.com monopoly, which was picked up on the NJ's sister website govexec.com:
Senator pans federal contract for traffic information site3. Before that, the Sunlight Foundation posted a couple of related items on the foundation's "Real-Time Investigations" blog:
FHWA discouraging FOIA requests from potential contractors?SF-LLL Update: Not for public inspection?Of course, these articles and blog postings are just the "tip of the iceberg" related to the bigger scandal that involves several top people in the Bush Administration.
There's a lot more going on in the background that would be premature for me to talk about, but suffice it to say that things are moving along on a bunch of different fronts, if much slower than I ever expected. Nonetheless, things are moving.
I sent an email message today to a very conservative friend of mine (I have friends from all political stripes) to tell him about the Atlanta piece, and his reply was "Your persistence is paying off! Keep at it." He actually was a member of the Bush Administration's Transportation Transition Team that back in 2001 brought in many of the crooks who are involved in this scam, and finds it impossible to believe that the top management of the USDOT is complicit in this scandal. He's going to be floored when he realizes that what I've been saying for almost two years is absolutely true, that several high-level people in the Bush Administration (including Mr. Mineta and Mr. Jackson) are partners with Mr. Shuster in this scam.
By the way, the head of the Transportation Transition Team was one Jack Schenendorf, formerly Bud Shuster's Chief of Staff on the House Public Works and Transportation Committee. Schenendorf is also "Of Counsel" for the same firm (Covington & Burling LLP) that led the effort to bring Traffic.com public early last year. Amazingly, in
his presentation at the recent Texas Transportation Forum (which I did not attend) he offered the following sage advice on slide 10: "When all else fails, do the right thing -- Bud Shuster."
Of all the people to quote on ethics issues, this certainly takes the cake. Quoting a guy about "doing the right thing" who was "outed" on 60 minutes for moral and ethical transgressions and rebuked by the House Ethics Committee has to make Lewis Carroll role over in his grave.
It's only a matter of time for this all to come out. I just wish I had more patience.
Jerry
