Aviation

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A Transportation Security Administration employee in Florida was arrested for allegedly stealing a passenger's iPad and stuffing it in his pants.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is pushing for more enforcement of distracted driving laws.

A stun gun was found on a Jet Blue airliner that landed at Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J.

Sioux City, Iowa's, Sioux Gateway Airport is gaining passengers because of flooding on the Missouri River.

The Federal Aviation Administration should seek more private money to build a new air traffic controller system, Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Friday.

Touting a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) saying that the FAA has not been completely successful "leveraging the research and technologies of its partners," Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said the agency should do more to garner support among private companies.

“Given current budget constraints, it is critical that FAA maximize resources available through interagency and private sector partners for development of NextGen,” Mica said in a statement. 

“The private sector nearly always performs better than government and can more effectively manage transition efforts like NextGen," he continued. "The FAA should do all it can to leverage private sector capital and innovation in this critical infrastructure enhancement project.”

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Would a transportation tax fare better when President Obama's on the ballot?

A JetBlue plane made an emergency landing at the Palm Beach International Airport.

Complaints against airlines are on the rise.

Washington's MetroRail unveiled a prototype of its newest rail cars.

Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe (R) said this week he was filing legislation to create a "Pilot's Bill of Rights" that would place limits on the authority of the Federal Aviation Administration. 

Inhofe, a pilot himself, said he has helped "an untold number" of pilots deal with regulations from the FAA. 

"This bill remedies many of the most serious deficiencies in the relationship between general aviation and the FAA, and ensures that pilots are treated in a fair and equitable manner," he said in a statement. "One of the reasons I got into politics was to fight for the everyday citizen facing an uphill battle with bureaucracy, and that’s why I’m so pleased to introduce this legislation — it’s a mixture of my love of flying and pilots and my job of legislating for the people.”

Your morning transportation speed-read:

The Federal Aviation Administration is celebrating the 75th anniversary of air traffic control.

Washington Mayor Vincent Gray is the latest politician to come out in favor of an above-ground D.C. MetroRail station at Dulles Airport.

The driver in the latest fatal bus crash in Northern Virginia has pleaded not guilty.

Virginia Sens. Jim Webb (D) and Mark Warner (D) are calling for allowing offshore oil drilling in their state.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A woman was kicked off a U.S. Airways flight for taking a picture of an employee's name badge.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) is defending a commuter rail plan in his district that was recently approved by Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

Delaware has a new transportation secretary.

A study found that urban children are likely to have healthier commutes to school.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

The recession is slamming transit systems around the county.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to quickly approve a gate-swap deal between Delta and U.S. Airlines.

Amtrak has been sued in the aftermath of a crash of a train and a truck in Nevada.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) is drawing criticism from the right for approving a central Florida commuter train.

Like his previous attempts to take on a populist tone, the proposal has drawn the ire of the business community.

Freshman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) took President Obama to task for his remarks about tax breaks for corporate jets this week.

Rubio, who many conservative activists hope will be the Republican Party's vice-presidential nominee next year, said Obama was playing class warfare.

“Quite frankly, I am both disappointed for our country and shocked at some of the rhetoric,” he said in an interview with the conservative National Review. “It was rhetoric, I thought, that was more appropriate for some left-wing strong man than for the president of the United States.”

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) reached an agreement on how to respond to the spate of sleeping controllers that made headlines earlier this year, the organizations said Friday.

Under the agreement, controllers would be allowed to request leave if they feel they are not alert enough to guide airplanes. They would not be allowed to take naps on the job or on breaks, which some scientists suggested would vastly improve alertness in flight towers.

Each side said the agreement would reduce incidents like the the ones that resulted in multiple air traffic controllers being fired as a series of reports emerged involving them either sleeping or being inattentive and making errors on the job. In one case, a controller was discovered to be watching a movie when the audio of the film was distributed over radio airways to the pilot of a military plane.

“The American public must have confidence that our nation’s air traffic controllers are rested and ready to work,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said of the agreement in a written statement. “We have the safest air transportation system in the world but we needed to make changes and we are doing that.”