More theme updates

In the realm of ASFR's favorite story lines, the following quick news bits:

• The anti-smoking bill has just gotten some new legs, with endoresements from the Chamber of Commerce, the Building Owners and Managers Association, and other business groups.
  
  
• SEPTA punctures the balloon about a federal windfall: they say that the $400M figure was to be divided among many cities in PA.

  "We have to make it crystal-clear to the public, including the riders and our employees, that the funding announced by the governor does not provide one penny more than we need to balance our budget, as mandated by the state.

  This is bad news in two ways:
  1. it's angered legislators, who felt that they were wasting their time on budget discussions while Rendell had a huge ace up his sleeve, and
     
  2. transit workers don't see this as the kind of gift that would talk them out of hard negotiation (please don't say strike!!) in their current contract talks.

So, kind of a Good News/Bad News kind of a day...