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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

NY Firefighters Alarmed About Fire Truck Law

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Monday, February 23, 2009   

Albany, NY – New York firefighters without commercial drivers' licenses (CDLs) can drive fire trucks to emergencies -- but not back. It's a provision of the law they say makes no sense, and they want to see it changed quickly.

Firefighters, both volunteer and paid, are hot under the collar about this kink in motor vehicle law. It puts an unreasonable restriction on those who do not have CDLs, says John Black, counsel to the New York State Professional Firefighters Association.

"It says that you can drive to a scene but you cannot drive from the scene. If it's a fire vehicle, like a truck, how do you get it back? It doesn't make any sense. Being able to drive a vehicle to and from a fire or other emergency, or across the street to the local DOT or public works to get it fueled up, is what would be our concern."

Language that would restore firefighters' ability to return fire trucks without having a CDL is in Governor Paterson's budget proposal. A bill that would do the same –- but perhaps sooner, without waiting for budget approval -- has been introduced in the legislature. State Senator Brian Foley says his measure would exempt firefighters from having to obtain CDLs.

"This does not mean that this exemption will somehow make the roads unsafe. It won't. Those who drive the fire trucks are very skilled at what they do."

The exemption had been eliminated by the legislature four years ago; Black says firefighters only recently have realized its implications.



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