VIRGINIA POSTREL ON INFRASTRUCTURE: Too Many Public Works Built On Rosy Scenarios. “Cost overruns in the order of 50 percent in real terms are common for major infrastructure, and overruns above 100 percent are not uncommon. . . . Promoters of rail and toll-road projects also tend to substantially overstate future use, making those projects look more appealing to whoever is footing the bill. Rail projects attract only about half the expected passengers, on average, while in new research still in progress, Flyvbjerg finds that toll roads (including road bridges and tunnels) fall 20 percent short. (Non-toll roads also miss their traffic projections, but their errors go in both directions.)”

UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE PUNTING OF RESPONSIBILITY: “Today’s shocking jobs report represents a modern record of 29 straight months with unemployment above 8 percent, and falls on the 800th day since congressional Democrats have passed a budget. This report is more proof that job creation in America is nowhere near where it needs to be for a strong recovery to occur, and that immediate action is needed to change course.” As a start, it’s probably a good idea to avoid political attacks on industries that are just starting to recover.

And maybe Obama should read this essay by Stephen Carter.

SHOCKER: Investigation into APS cheating finds unethical behavior across every level. “Across Atlanta Public Schools, staff worked feverishly in secret to transform testing failures into successes. Teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets. Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible.”

It’s basically Enron with your kids. The cheating is a big deal, but what the cheating was designed to cover up is the broader problem of an education system that’s failing miserably, doing much worse at educating kids than it did decades ago despite a massive increase in resources consumed. Is that a sign of a lower-education bubble? I think it might be. “Steady increases in per-pupil spending without any commensurate increase in learning can’t go on forever. So they won’t. And as state after state faces near-bankruptcy (or, in some cases, actual bankruptcy), we’ve pretty much hit that point now.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Beyond The Big-City Blues.

To get these jobs, we have to change the way our cities work. Essentially, we have created urban environments in which the kind of enterprises that often hire the poor — low margin, poorly capitalized, noisy, smelly, dirty, informally managed without a long paper trail — can’t exist. The kind of metal bashing repair shops that fill the cities of the developing world are almost impossible to operate here. Plumbers, carpenters, electricians, pushcart vendors and day care operators need licenses; construction work has to comply with elaborate guidelines and city bureaucracies disgorge the required permits slowly and reluctantly.

Read the whole thing.

THANKS, AL GORE, for ruining my marriage.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

BYRON YORK: Wisconsin Schools Buck Unions To Cut Health Costs.

WELCOME TO THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Neighbor vs. neighbor as homeowner fights get ugly. “Normally, it’s the bankers who go after delinquent homeowners. But in communities governed by the mighty homeowners’ association, as the sour economy leaves more people unable to pay their fees, it’s neighbor versus neighbor.”

POINTS AND FIGURES: Jeff Carter on unemployment and economic calamity: “This number was outside the standard deviation of expectations. I really can’t stress how ugly it is. There is no way to sugarcoat it. The economic policies used since October of 2008 are an abject and total failure. Not only that, but they have put the finances of the country in a precarious position that was not unforeseen.”

Yep. Things were bad in 2008, but if you had been trying to make things worse you couldn’t have done much more harm than Obama’s policies have. Note this column from James Pethokoukis, too.

UNEMPLOYMENT: For America’s ’99ers,’ Jobs Crisis Is Hard to Escape. “Mary Kay Coyne has just filed what she says is her 1,862nd job application since being thrown out of work three years ago. She is one of millions of Americans whose unemployment benefits have expired — after 99 weeks in many states — as the United States suffers its highest level of long-term unemployment since 1948.”

BOB OWENS: Don’t be confused on that ATF Gunrunning scandal. There’s a difference between the “Gunrunner” program, and “Operation Fast And Furious.”

THE FINAL SHUTTLE LAUNCH is currently still on schedule. You can stream it at NASA.gov.

Personally, I’m more interested in what comes next.

SOMEBODY SEND THE IDIOTS AT U.S. AIRWAYS A COPY OF Morgan Manning’s article on photographers’ rights. Or, you know, just sue them.

BOB OWENS: DOJ INSPECTOR GENERAL CAN’T BE TRUSTED TO INVESTIGATE GUNWALKER. “Ultimately, the operation led to the murder of two U.S. federal agents and an estimated 150 Mexican law enforcement officers and soldiers. The strong implication is that those individuals and agencies responsible for allowing Gunwalker to proceed aided and abetted murder, committing felonies as accessories before the fact. Such serious charges, potentially reaching the highest levels of the Department of Justice and possibly higher, should not be undertaken by an acting inspector general, which is typically a caretaker role until a new inspector general has been appointed.”

MORE ON THAT ATF GUNRUNNING SCANDAL: Dozens of ‘Fast & Furious’ guns were confiscated from illegal aliens in Phoenix.

SO IS THIS THE HOPE, OR THE CHANGE? Unemployment rises to 9.2 pct. in June, employers add only 18,000 jobs.

Bloomberg’s got the inevitable take: “U.S. employers added 18,000 workers in June, less than forecast and the fewest in nine months, while the unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed, indicating a struggling labor market.” Plus this: “The so-called underemployment rate — which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking — increased to 16.2 percent from 15.8 percent.”

And: “By a 44 percent to 34 percent margin, Americans say they believe they are worse off than when Obama took office, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted June 17-20.”

THAT’S CERTAINLY THEIR HOPE: Top Obama adviser says unemployment won’t be key in 2012. “It’s looking more and more like Obama will have to do something no president has done since Franklin Roosevelt: Win reelection with unemployment around 8 percent.”

OIL AND GASOLINE PRICES on the rise again.

ED DRISCOLL: Another week, another sector of American industry angry at the president.

HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE DOES MEDICAID MAKE IN OVERALL WELLBEING? Surprisingly Little. “This has implications for whether or not we should have a public health plan–is it worth the cost to make people feel happier about their insurance status, or protect them from uncollected medical bills rather than certain death?”

FUNNY, I CAN’T THINK OF A GOVERNMENT AGENCY THAT’S SUFFERED A SIMILAR FATE OVER WRONGDOING: British Newspaper Shuts Down In Response To Phone-Hacking Scandal.

COINCIDENCE? IRS Calls Off Gift Tax Investigation of Donors to Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS.

Plus, DSCC asks Kochs for Money.

SURPRISING SIGNS of an unhealthy heart.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on DVD and Blu-Ray.