Hot Links: DPS Covers State With Speed Cameras; Phoenix Cutting 1,000 Jobs; FBI Calls Robber "Mid-Life Crisis Bandit"

Travelers must force their way through a gauntlet of photo enforcement vans today on Interstates 10 and 40 in what appears to be the single largest deployment of speed cameras ever. The Arizona Department of Public Safety wants to "cover all of I-10 and I-40 in Arizona," says the Republic article below. Combined with fixed sites, the DPS says a speed camera will be placed every 20 miles -- though the story doesn't say whether that is the average. A good trick to lull people into complacency would be to place a van every 20 miles for 100 miles or so, then hit 'em with two spaced about a mile apart, right in the middle of nowhere. You never know what your state will come up with when it's out of money. Elsewhere in the news this morning: New York City subways are being threatened -- yup, the people who live to massacre large numbers of Americans are still out there. In Phoenix, they're eliminating 1,000 jobs -- how's that for smaller government? Meanwhile, they're buying a bunch of fancy new firetrucks. Rob a bank in your 40s or 50s and the FBI sticks you with a crappy nickname. Transportation wonks are moving forward with optimistic plans for a new freeway in the East Valley that nobody has money to build. And in the latest of a series of child kidnappings for ransom, a Valley teen rescued by police says he was beaten by his thug captors.