Golden State Spurn: Trump DOT chief reroutes California rail money to train safety elsewhere

"Our infrastructure is rated at about a C-minus, and we should have A infrastructure in America," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy tells Just the News.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Friday $5.3 billion in investments to improve national rail safety and upgrade Amtrak trains, diverting nearly half the money from California's disastrously overpriced and stalled high-speed rail project championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

About $2 billion of the new Federal Railroad Administration investment will come from savings from Duffy's decision to end federal support for the California project, which exploded to becomes seven times over budget and years delayed.

"I would love to see America have high-speed rail. I'm an advocate of it and for it," Duffy told the Just the News, No Noise television show. "But when California has an initial cost estimate of $33 billio, but over the course of more than a decade, they don't lay one track. And by the way, the cost projection now for that rail is $231 billion.

"Listen, we're not going to invest in projects that don't deliver for the American people. We're going to invest in the projects that actually show that the hard work of an American taxpayer there's a deliverable for the money that they give us, and so that's one example," he said.

Duffy told Just the News that the new funding will:

Close over 30 train crossings and upgrade over a thousand with new infrastructure and technology

Purchase 43 Made-in-America trainsets to replace Amtrak’s aging fleet

Overhaul 41 locomotives currently serving Amtrak’s Midwest and Pacific routes.

"One of the most dangerous things that happen in rail is when vehicles cross the rail track," he said. "Eliminating many of those and deploying new technology improves safety. So some really cool things are happening," Duffy explained. "But here's a different philosophy as well. Our infrastructure is rated at about a C-minus, and we should have A infrastructure in America."

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/transportation/golden-state-spurn-trump-dot-chief-reroutes-california-rail-money

Ex-Cambridge professor facing plagiarism allegations found dead

Arday was the youngest black person to hold a full professorship and the university and resigned earlier this month.

Jason Arday, a former University of Cambridge professor accused of plagiarism, was found Friday at the age of 41.

"At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious," UK Police said, according to the BBC.

Arday was the youngest black person to hold a full professorship and the university and resigned earlier this month. He faced considerable allegations of plagiarism and the university ultimately announced an investigation into his work, which prompted his resignation.

Even his resignation letter faced allegations of being AI generated and earlier reporting suggested that he borrowed material for his upcoming autobiography from the TV series "Spartacus."

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/education/ex-cambridge-professor-facing-plagiarism-allegations-found-dead

Three US inmates put to death in one day for the first time since 2010

Tennessee and Oklahoma carried out an execution within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama executed an inmate six hours later.

Three people were executed in the U.S. in a single day for the first time since 2010. Tennessee and Oklahoma carried out an execution within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama executed an inmate six hours later.

Anthony Darrell Hines was executed in Tennessee. He was convicted in the 1985 stabbing death of Catherine Jean Jenkins, 54, as she worked as a motel maid in Kingston Springs, NBC News reported. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, was executed by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. He was the state's third execution this year. He was convicted of murdering his girlfriend at their Oklahoma City home in 2003.

Alabama executed Jeremy Williams, who pleaded guilty in the 2021 rape and murder of the young Georgia girl. Prosecutors say the 42-year-old raped and strangled Karamarie Holland after paying the child's mother $2,500 to perform a sex act. Prosecutors also say he filmed the attack.

The mother is serving a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty to sex trafficking.

https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/three-us-inmates-put-death-one-day-first-time-2010