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The Olympic Games in 2024 will not be
hosted in the nation's capital, a disappointment for Mayor Muriel Bowser but
a major victory for the city's residents, who will not be saddled with
the exorbitant costs of hosting the two-week event. That misfortune
could instead fall to Boston, which was the U.S. citychosen by the national Olympic
committee to bid for it. The Boston Globe's editorial board was
nonplussed by the news:
The independent scholarship on the
return to hosting the Olympics suggests that it does not pay off economically.
Beijing 2008 spent over $40 billion; London 2012 spent close to $20 billion;
Rio de Janeiro 2016 is projected to spend over $20 billion; and, Tokyo 2020,
just having won the bid a year ago, is already facing political protests and
reformulating its plan to reduce costs.
The Summer Games bring in around $5
billion to $6 billion from television, sponsorships, ticket sales, licensing,
and merchandise. Less than half of this sum goes to the host city. Beijing and
London actually experienced a decrease in international tourism during their
host month and year.
Wonkblog recently examined some
of the research the Globe cited. Hosting the Olympics has not been associated with economic
growth, and while it can spur a municipal government to invest in
infrastructure, that new construction often turns out to be wasted.
"My basic takeaway for any city considering a bid for the Olympics is to
run away like crazy," one economist said.
There is a good chance the International
Olympic Committee will pass over Boston and choose a city outside the United
States, but sporting officials and politicians are hoping for the best.
"We know Boston is the place to
inspire a new generation of athletes to discover the greatness within," said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt
Romney, who helped organize the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake
City.
The committee is scheduled to make its
decision in 2017.
What's in Wonkbook: 1) Obama's community college proposal 2)
Opinions, including Krauthammer on the gas tax 3) Boxer to step down 4) Manhunt
continues in Paris 5) Cleveland officers did not provide medical aid to Tamir
Rice, and more
Chart of the day:
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Most of America's wealthier citizens
think the poor have it easy, according to a new survey by the Pew Research
Center. Roberto Ferdman in The Washington Post.
1. Top story: Obama proposes free
community college
The president wants to offer two years
of free tuition to hard-working students at qualifying community
colleges. The goal, a White House official said, is to make two years of college as
common as a high school diploma. Some 9 million students would be
eligible. "Nothing this large has ever been proposed at the federal
level for community colleges," said a representative of the American
Association of Community Colleges. "It's a very bold proposal." Nick
Anderson in The Washington Post.
Congress isn't likely to provide the
money, though. The administration did not provide an estimate of the
cost of the plan or how they intended to pay for it. At this point, "the
idea is little more than a pipe dream." Fawn Johnson in National Journal.
The idea comes from a groundbreaking
book on U.S. economics in the 20th century. The authors, Claudia Goldin and Lawrence
Katz, showed how universal high school undergirded American economic power.
Arguably, two more years of education are needed to prepare citizens for the
economy in this century. David Leonhardt inThe New York Times.
2. Top opinions
KRAUTHAMMER: Raise the gas tax by $1 a
gallon, and return all the money to taxpayers. An increase in the gas tax will
weaken oil-exporting regimes like Russia and Venezuela, and reduce greenhouse
gas pollution. There's no reason the tax should cost taxpayers anything. The Washington Post.
BOUIE: Police and their critics have
more in common than they realize. Everyone wants to be safe. And as the
example of Los Angeles shows, a department that works to use force more
sparingly can be effective in reducing crime, protecting cops and civilians
alike. Slate.
RAMPELL: Police in New York aren't
"manning up" -- it's time for them to go on strike. There is something oddly
passive-aggressive about an apparent work slow-down with unclear goals that no
one in the force will take credit for organizing. The Washington Post.
A federal judge should have upheld
California's ban on foie gras.The practice of force-feeding poultry and selling their
fattened livers at slaughter is cruel, and California has the legal authority
to restrict it. Los Angeles Times.
EMANUEL: Skip your annual physical. The yearly examination does
nothing to improve patients' health and costs the system money.The New York Times.
Obamacare's 30-hour threshold hurts
low-wage workers. In the fast food industry, for example, employers
can easily rearrange employees' schedules so that none of them work more than
30 hours a week, and the firm isn't required to provide health insurance.John
C. Goodman in The Wall Street Journal.
McARDLE: "Antibiotic resistance may
well be the greatest human crisis we face this century." So the announcement this week of a
new antibiotic candidate was welcome news -- although the substance has yet to
be tested in humans. Bloomberg View.
3. Boxer will not seek reelection
A senator who helped make a place for
women in Congress is retiring. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said
Thursday she would not seek reelection when her current term expires in 2016.
She's been a tireless advocate of women's rights, famously insisting in 1991
(when she was in the House) that the Senate Judiciary Committee consider Anita
Hill's complaints during Clarence Thomas's confirmation hearing. Lucia
Graves in National Journal.
Without Boxer, California's Senate race
will be an interesting one.The announcement marked the beginning of a fierce
competition among ambitious California Democrats to succeed her. But with California's
"jungle primary," it's hard to predict who will wid up in the general
election in 2016. Paul Kane in The Washington Post.
Attorney General Kamala Harris and
former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom are likely candidates. Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor
of Los Angeles, also might run. Rory Carroll in theGuardian.
4. Manhunt continues outside Paris
As of this writing, police have
surrounded a building where the suspects are believed to have taken a hostage. Children are being kept away from
doors and windows, and pilots have stopped using some of the runways at Charles
de Gaulle Airport several miles away. Dan Bilefsky and Maia de la Baume
in The New York Times.
To help with the search, French
authorities can turn to a controversial new surveillance law. The legislation, which went into effect
on New Years Day, allows law enforcement to demand all kinds of data from
technology companies, including the locations of mobile phones. It isn't clear
whether police are using the law now, or whether firms have the capacity to
provide the data in real time yet.Sam Schechner and Lisa Fleisher in The Wall Street Journal.
BROOKS: Americans' hypocrisy is visible
in their sympathy for Charlie Hebdo's slain journalists. On American campuses, people with
offensive things to say are often denied a chance to say them. Do we believe
that everyone has the right to give offense, or not?The New York Times.
5. In case you missed it
Cleveland police did not provide medical
aid to Tamir Rice after shooting him. Newly released surveillance video shows
that the two officers handcuffed Rice's sister when she came to check on him.
"Officers then stood around Tamir as he lay wounded. One officer had his
hands on his hips when a man, identified by police as an FBI agent who was in
the neighborhood, entered the frame and administered first aid. It was the
first medical care the boy received in the four minutes that followed the
shooting." Cory Shaffer in The Plain Dealer.
The Pentagon will seek another $51
billion in contingency funding.While the amount represents a 20 percent reduction in
contingency funding from last year, observers questioned whether the Pentagon
needed the money to deal with contingencies or predictable expenses. "It's
a budgetary shell game," one defense expert said, allowing the department
to get around caps on funding. Tony Capaccio for Bloomberg.
Honda will pay two fines for not
reporting safety problems. Honda failed to disclose 1,729 death and injury
claims over the past decade, which the company has acknowledged was an error.
The $70 million fines, the maximum allowed, show regulators at the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration attempting to enforce safety rules more
stringently. Chris Woodyard in USA Today.
The fines are not related to the
defective airbags supplied by Takata. On Friday, Takata's chief executive said
the company was still working to identify the cause of the malfunction, which
has been blamed for five deaths and has led to the recall of millions of
vehicles by several manufacturers. Yoko Kubota in The Wall Street Journal.
Sixty-four Dartmouth students could face
discipline for cheating in an ethics course. The students allegedly gave handheld
electronic clickers, which the professor used to track attendance, to their
friends so that they wouldn't have to go to class. Matt Rocheleau in The Boston Globe.
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