Flutterby™! : Rails to new owners

Supreme Court ruling delivers a major blow to "rail to trail" bike and multi-use paths:

The case wasn’t about bike paths per se — it was about whether or not the federal government retains its control over land that had been granted to railroad companies once it’s been abandoned.  But the decision undermines a federal “rails to trails” program, threatening the more than 1,400 bike and nature trails it’s created since its inception in 1983.

Well crap. We paid to build the railroads, we paid again when they defaulted on their public debt, and in the end we're not even left with the land we gave 'em to begin with.

More on the story from NPR.