- Reason’s Matt Welch on PBS’ Bill Moyers Journal Tonight
- It’s the Drug War, Stupid
- The Wire’s Series Finale
- How to Cut Air Travel Delays
- New at Reason.com and Reason.org
Reason’s Matt Welch on PBS’ Bill Moyers Journal Tonight
Reason magazine editor-in-chief Matt Welch will be on PBS’ Bill Moyers Journal tonight to discuss the presidential campaign, John McCain and conservatives. You can find your local PBS station and show times here. Matt is author of the book McCain: The Myth of a Maverick and an archive of his work is here.
It’s the Drug War, Stupid
More than one in 100 adults in America are in prison today. Reason magazine’s Jacob Sullum writes: “When the government incarcerates people who are guilty only of consensual crimes…it wastes scarce prison space that could be used to incapacitate predatory criminals. That compromises public safety rather than enhancing it. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that drug offenders account for about 25 percent of local jail inmates, 21 percent of state prisoners, and 55 percent of federal prisoners. Since 1980 the number of drug offenders in state prisons has increased by 1,200 percent, more than four times the increase in violent offenders.”
The Wire‘s Series Finale
The HBO series The Wire ends its brilliant run this Sunday. At Reason.com, Radley Balko talks with Ed Burns, The Wire‘s co-creator, about the drug war, public schools and the war in Iraq. Burns tells Balko, “Take just the term ‘war on drugs.’ I mean, they’re not warring on drugs. They’re warring on drug addicts and the users and the small-time dealers. They’re warring on neighborhoods. They’re warring on people who can’t stand up to them.” The full interview is here.
How to Cut Air Travel Delays
John F. Kennedy International Airport could reduce delays and increase capacity by adding a new runway between two existing runways, according to a new study by the Reason Foundation. Even with the new runway, JFK would still have runway spacing that is greater than the separation between runways at today’s San Francisco International Airport and similar to Boston’s Logan International. The report highlights numerous technological improvements that should be implemented as part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen efforts, which will completely revamp the nation’s air traffic control system over the next two decades. Full implementation of these new systems would increase runway throughput at JFK by 50 percent and by as much as 45 percent at Newark Liberty International. Reduced spacing on approaches would also permit an additional 10 percent throughput on LaGuardia’s runways.
» Study: Increasing Airport Capacity Without Increasing Airport Size (.pdf)
» Air Traffic Research and Commentary