DOT, State Farm join ESPN “On the Road to Camp” with Stop Distracted Driving safety message How do you visit 32 NFL training camps in 19 days? If you’re ESPN NFL Insiders Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter, you take the bus. In this case, two buses, and each of these twin tour buses sports the “Stop Distracted Driving” message, courtesy of DOT and State Farm. Mort and Adam will cross the nation–Mort in the West and Adam in the East–touring all 32 NFL training camps and helping spread the important safety message that, before you pick up the keys, you should put that mobile device down. The tour began on July 29 in Canton, Ohio, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And, as ESPN’s popular on-air personalities log over 15,000 combined miles by August 16, they’ll be broadcasting updates and publishing all sorts of interactive content on the web. More important to me is that Mort and Adam use their influence to let players and fans at camp know that texting or talking on the phone while driving is a dangerous and deadly epidemic. By reminding all drivers to “Put it Down,” we can help prevent thousands of deaths and injuries and keep our roads safe. Read more at fastlane.dot.gov

The Chinese government has said repeatedly that it intends the country to become the world leader in development, production and use of electric cars and other alternative energy vehicles.

Now comes a report that it is preparing to put its money behind that promise. The Shanghai Securities News says China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has prepared a new 10-year plan, slated for approval by the State Council later this month, that sets aside 100 billion yuan (U.S. $14,7 billion) for development and adoption of alternative energy vehicles. The unattributed news report says that China hopes to produce 500,000 alt-energy vehicles annually starting in 2011. Analysts at IHS Global Insight say this proposed expenditure is in addition to about $3 billion in already-approved hybrid and plug-in electric vehicle subsidies for private and commercial purchases and that China also is increasing its focus on development of a national EV charging network. Read more at blogs.edmunds.com

AMSTERDAM — She’s not afraid of pirates. She’s packed plenty of school books. And she’s going to miss her family and her dog, Spot.

Fourteen-year-old Laura Dekker hopped onto her boat Wednesday and sailed off from the Netherlands hoping to become the youngest person to make a solo voyage around the world.

About 100 supporters waved as Laura and her father Dick Dekker left the southern Dutch harbor of Den Osse in her 38-foot (11.5-meter) yacht Guppy, bound for Portugal where she plans to leave her father and begin her circumnavigation attempt.

Last week, Laura won a legal battle when a court released her from the guardianship of Dutch child protection agencies. They had blocked her initial plan to depart at age 13 over fears for her safety and psychological health during the trip, which will likely take around a year.

Dekker’s case has fueled a global debate over the wisdom of allowing ever-younger sailors to take on the tremendous risks of sailing the high seas alone.

If she completes the voyage, any record she claims would be unofficial and likely to be challenged. The Guinness’ World Records and the World Sailing Speed Record Council have decided they will no longer recognize records for “youngest” sailors to avoid encouraging overly optimistic youths backed by ambitious parents from seeking a world record.

In June, 16-year-old American teen Abby Sunderland had to be rescued in a remote section of the Indian Ocean during an attempt to circle the globe. A huge wave snapped her mast and left her helpless until she was eventually rescued by a French fishing boat more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) west of Australia. Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

While Streetfilms was in Copenhagen for the Velo-City 2010 conference, of course we wanted to showcase its biking greatness.  But we were also looking to take a different perspective then all the myriad other videos out there.  Since there were an abundance of advocates, planners, and city transportation officials attending from the U.S. and Canada, we thought it’d be awesome to get their reactions to the city’s built environment and compare to bicycling conditions in their own cities.

If you’ve never seen footage of the Copenhagen people riding bikes during rush hour – get ready – it’s quite a site, as nearly 38% of all transportation trips in Copenhagen are done by bike.  With plenty of safe, bicycle infrastructure (including hundreds of miles of physically separated cycletracks) its no wonder that you see all kinds of people on bikes everywhere.  55% of all riders are female, and you see kids as young as 3 or 4 riding with packs of adults. Read more at www.streetfilms.org

The religious order that was home to three nuns whose car was hit Sunday morning by an alleged drunk driver in Northern Virginia said it is upset at what it views as the politicization of the incident.

Sister Glenna Smith, a spokeswoman for the Benedictine Sisters, said Tuesday that “we are dismayed” by reports that the crash, which killed one woman and critically injured two others, is focusing attention on the man’s status as an alleged illegal immigrant. Critics of federal immigration policy have seized on the crash.

“The fact the he had DUIs is really poignant, but he’s a child of God and deserves to be treated with dignity,” Smith said of the driver, Carlos A. Martinelly Montano. “I don’t want to make a pro- or anti-immigrant statement but simply a point that he is an individual human person and we will be approaching him with mercy. Denise, of all us, would be the first to offer forgiveness.” Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

See more at www.youtube.com

In the 134 years since a splinter group of European-born Orthodox Jews built the city’s first synagogue in downtown Washington, it has been turned over to three congregations; converted into a grocery store and a barbecue joint; slated for demolition, saved and dubbed a historic landmark; literally cut in half and torn from its foundation; and moved, inch by inch, to Third Street NW, where it was renovated and reopened as a museum in an area that has followed the city’s economic fortunes from blighted to prosperous to recession.

And now the Lillian and Albert Small Jewish Museum needs to be moved again — twice — for one more tiring and costly journey to enable three prime blocks, as if a miracle, to be added to downtown’s buildable area. The New York-based Louis Dreyfus Property Group struck an agreement this spring with the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington to help move the building so a deck can be added above an entrance to Interstate 395 south of Massachusetts Avenue NW, with high-rises and greenery where there is now only a recessed highway. Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

Stolen cars which are most costly to insurers Read more at www.economist.com

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq—Everything from helicopters to printer cartridges is being wrapped and stamped and shipped out of Iraq. U.S. military bases that once resembled small towns have transformed into a cross between giant post offices and Office Depots.

“We’re moving out millions of pieces of equipment in one of the largest logistics operations that we’ve seen in decades,” President Barack Obama said in a speech Monday hailing this month’s planned withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

The orderly withdrawal is a far cry from the testosterone-fueled push across the berm separating Kuwait and Iraq, when American Marines and soldiers pushed north in the 2003 invasion, battling Saddam Hussein’s army while sleeping on the hoods of their vehicles and eating prepackaged meals.

Each handover involves a painstaking process of inventorying everything on the base that the soldiers aren’t taking with them. Every item is assessed to see if it can be moved and if so, whether it is needed anywhere else in the country. Many of the materials – water tanks, generators, and furniture – are eventually donated to the Iraqi government. As of July 27, $98.6 million worth of equipment has been handed over, most to the Iraqi army and Interior Ministry.

More than 400 bases are being closed down or handed over to the Iraqi military. By September, the American military will have fewer than 100 bases in the country, down from a high of 505 in January 2008.

The drawdown has not been without hiccups. The military was embarrassed by a report in the Times of London that contractors did not properly dispose of environmental waste removed from U.S. military bases.

But U.S. commanders say they are addressing problems and are confident they will be able to meet the president’s deadline.

Demartino said that while going through shipping containers, buildings and offices at Joint Base Balad, soldiers have been stunned at the materials hoarded over the years in nooks and crannies all over the base.

The biggest surprise was the thousands of printer cartridges tucked away by soldiers worried they would one day run out.

FILE – In this July 3, 2010 file photo, Iraqi truck drivers use hand signals to help guide a U.S. military mine-resistant armored vehicle (MRAP) onto a flat bed truck set to leave Iraq at a staging yard at Joint Base Balad, north of Baghdad, Iraq. Everything from helicopters to printer cartridges are being wrapped and stamped and shipped out of Iraq in one of the most monumental withdrawal operations the American military has ever carried out as U.S. forces flow out of the country. The move is reversing, over the course of months, a U.S. military presence that built up over seven years and dug in so deep it once seemed immovable. More than 400 bases are being closed down or handed over to the Iraqi military, some closer to small towns with elaborate dining facilities serving tacos and crab legs and gyms with rows of treadmills. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File) Read more at www.boston.com