Expo rail maps in detail now available

It looks as if there is finally a detailed map of where the Expo line is going to go when Phase II (Culver City to the beach) gets underway.

CAUTION: BIG FILE (over 35 MB)
Here is a PDF that shows the majority of the designated ROW (right of way) as it heads west to the ocean. The primary and alternate routes around the Palms neighborhood are both considered in this series of maps.

The primary route goes through Rancho Park and Cheviot Hills. The neighbors aren’t thrilled about this, even though MTA bought has owned the ROW for nearly twenty years and there has never been any doubt about what they were going to do with it.

Consequently, there is a plan for an alternate route that travels down the middle of Venice Boulevard, then turns right on Sepulveda and heads up to Pico where it turns west again.

Exciting stuff!

Goldman Sachs trying to silence critical blogger

Apparently they’re not cool with negative press under a domain name like goldmansachs666.com/.

I don’t agree with a lot of what this guy is saying. In fact, some of it seems pretty nutty. Which is all the more reason to watch GS initiate the Streisand effect on this guy. He’s already got 90,000 some hits and it’s only going to grow as he holds a “virtual press conference” on Wednesday.

White House on keeping evesdropping rights: please go away

Looks like the new White House administration is attempting to defend some of the actions taken by the previous administration. Intelligence gathering has been the one policy stance where I’ve been truly troubled by the Obama administration.

This morning I’d received an e-mail sent by the Electronic Frontier Foundation letting me know that Obama’s DOJ is taking efforts to defend all the wiretapping rights the Bush (43) administration had assumed under the USAPATRIOT Act.

I want to catch terrorists as much as the next guy. But I don’t like the violation of privacy. Bush never went to law school. That doesn’t excuse his violation of the law, but el presidente knows exactly what he’s doing. I assume he’s got a really good reason for it, but so far we haven’t heard it.

It seems more likely that it’s just a matter of not wanting to concede any elements of presidential power.