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Friday’s Headlines Dig Deeper

The Biden administration wants more U.S. mining to avoid importing EV battery materials from China. Plus, rural microtransit is catching on and more news.

By Blake Aued

12:00 AM EST on February 25, 2022

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The Biden administration is pushing to expand often environmentally damaging mining for rare materials like lithium used in electric vehicles to reduce dependence on China. (New York Times)
Microtransit is catching on as an affordable means of public transportation for rural residents. (Thompson Reuters
Nuria Fernandez, head of the Federal Transit Administration, praised Austin’s $7 billion Project Connect plan as “transformational” in a recent meeting. (KVUE)
Why not consider a tunnel instead of a new I-5 bridge over the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington? (Bike Portland)
Alaska, Idaho and Oregon could retaliate against a Washington state proposal to fund infrastructure by taxing gas that’s refined in Washington and shipped to other states. (Route Fifty)
Seattle residents are calling to tear down Highway 99 in the South Park neighborhood. (Seattle Times)
Arizona is spending $68 million to expand broadband access — but only for those who live near interstates and other highways. (Route Fifty)
Kansas officials hope that focusing on a small geographic area, rather than spreading out projects, will maximize the impact of federal infrastructure dollars. (Kansas City Star)
A coalition of groups fighting for gig workers’ labor rights renamed itself “Massachusetts Is Not for Sale,” a nod to Uber and Lyft spending over $200 million on Prop 22 and $17 million so far on a similar Bay State ballot measure. (WBUR)
Michigan lawmakers are considering starting a passenger rail line between Ann Arbor and Traverse City. (MLive)
A Black trans woman was awarded $1.5 million in damages spending six months in jail because Atlanta police falsely arrested her on a jaywalking charge. (LGBTQ)
Computer traffic models used to design housing developments in the UK are biased toward roads. (The Guardian)
The Ottawa “freedom convoy” protest is a great example of why gas vehicles should be banned from city centers, showing just how much noise pollution trucks cause. (Jalopnik)

Blake Aued

Blake Aued has been doing Streetsblog's daily national news digest for years. He's also an Atlanta Braves fan, which enrages his editor in New York.

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