An employee of the Transportation Security Administration was arrested this week for allegedly having a gun at the Orlando airport.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Meet the Transportation Security Administration's Blogger Bob.

The fate of another railway is in the hands of Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), and the high-speed-rail-killing governor says he hasn't made up his mind yet.

A second Atlanta airport would be cost-prohibitive.

United and Continental are trying to become one airline.

An airplane carrying Vice President Joe Biden nearly caused a collision this week between two other planes at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, reports said Wednesday.

After Biden's plane landed Monday and officials scrambled to resume normal operations at the airport, a SkyWest Airlines Canadair plane was cleared to land as an ExpressJet Airlines Embraer ERJ-145 plane was given permission to take off. The planes came within 300 feet of each other before the SkyWest plane was order to abort its landing, the Washington Post reported.

“Oh, [expletive],” the paper quoted an air traffic controller at O'Hare as saying on a recording of the flight tower.

“What the [expletive] was that?” the ExpressJet pilot reportedly said when he saw the SkyWest plane. “What was that?”

Biden and his wife, Jill, were traveling to Chicago for the mayoral inauguration of former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Their plane was not involved in the incident.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told attendees at a global tourism summit being hosted in Las Vegas that the Obama administration's high-speed rail initiative was still on track despite rejections of federal money by a trio Republican governors.

Newly elected GOP governors in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin have said "no" to entreaties to build new railways, despite the enticement of federal dollars. But LaHood said at the World Travel & Tourism Council's 11th annual summit that "Americans are way ahead of the politicians on this and it will be good for all of you in the hospitality industry.

"There is a pent-up demand in America for high-speed rail," The Wall Street Journal reported LaHood said during his remarks Tuesday.

President Obama is committed to finding a way to fund new routing technology for airplanes, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday, even though he acknowledges Congress has yet to even fully fund the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA has long planned to switch the air traffic control system from World War II-era radar technology to a satellite-based system. But in the series of continuing resolutions approved this spring as Congress was working to avert a government shutdown, lawmakers cut about $200 million from the FAA's budget that would have gone to the conversion.

Additionally, a long-term overall funding bill for the FAA has also been bogged down in discussions over the labor rights of airline and railroad employees. But LaHood said Wednesday that the administration was working to find a way a pay for NextGen, right after it convinces Congress to fund the FAA for longer than a few months at a time.

"The administration is committed to being helpful to the airlines," LaHood said in an interview with Air Transportation World magazine.

In a 42-57 vote, the Senate fell 18 votes short of proceeding with legislation opposed by the White House. 

The chairman of the National Labor Relations Board under the last Democratic administration says the current incarnation of the panel under President Obama has gone too far in its lawsuit against Boeing.

The NLRB has sued Boeing, which has been building 787 airplanes at its unionized plant near Seattle, arguing that the aircraft manufacturer is retaliating against strikes by unions in its home of Washington state by opening a plant to build more 787s in South Carolina.
 
South Carolina is a “right to work” state, where employers are not obliged to join a union.

Bill Gould, who led the labor board from 1994 to 1998 after being appointed to the panel by former President Bill Clinton, said he had never seen a case like Boeing's come before the NLRB during his tenure.

"The Boeing case is unprecedented," he said in an interview with Slate magazine. "I agree with much of what this board has done and is likely to do, but I don't agree with what the general counsel has done in the Boeing case.

Air Force One had to attempt its landing in Connecticut twice on President Obama's trip there Wednesday.

Obama is traveling to New London, Conn., to give a commencement speech at the United States Coast Guard Academy. According to pool reports, his plane aborted its initial landing attempt at Bradley Air Force Base before landing safely the second time at 10:02 a.m.

"FAA confirming a missed approach at 950a," the pool reporter quoted Mark Knoller of CBS as saying. "Blames bad visibility. Says AF-1 had to go around and landed safely on 2nd try."

The White House confirmed the incident late Wednesday morning.

"The pilot was in the process of landing but due to weather the pilot decided to circle around and then landed the plane," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said. "This is a standard and safe procedure."

The president was scheduled to make the 70-minute drive in his motorcade and deliver the graduation speech at 11:30 a.m.

One of the nation's most-watched Senate races next year could be affected by what would appear to be a local transportation issue in Northern Virginia, a Washington newspaper posited Wednesday.

The Washington Examiner said in an op-ed that former Virginia Gov. and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine's electoral prospects could be hampered by cost overruns of the planned extension of Washington's MetroRail to Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia. Kaine is running to replace retiring Sen. Jim Webb (D) and will likely face former Sen. George Allen (R), also a former Virginia governor who has had his own share of stumbles over the years.

But Kaine was governor when the agreement was made to use revenues from the Dulles Toll Road to build a new transit line to the airport, the newspaper said Wednesday. And with plans now calling for an underground station to be built, the Examiner says the tolls commuters in the crucial northern swing portion of the state pay could go up, which might bring down Kaine's poll numbers.

"Both presumptive nominees have a lot of baggage," the op-ed said. "But while Allen is dragging his behind him, Kaine's baggage is out front — waiting for him to trip over it.