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yond what their builders imagined.
• Despite their concerns about intense rain, historic floods and record heat waves, some transportation planners find it too politically sensitive to say aloud a source of their weather worries: climate change.
• Political differences are on the minds of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, whose advice on the design and maintenance of roads and bridges is closely followed by states. The association recently changed the name of its Climate Change Steering Committee to the less controversial Sustainable Transportation, Energy Infrastructure and Climate Solutions Steering Committee.
• Still, there is a recognition that the association's guidance will need to be updated to reflect the new realities of global warming.
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• BRUSSELS (AP) -- Leaders from around Europe are arriving in Brussels Thursday for what promises to be a turbulent summit on the budget for the 27-country European Union. And for once, Britain will be at the heart of the debate.
• In a battle pitting several wealthy member states against those seeking a bigger aid budget, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron will seek to reduce the financial clout -- and political sway -- of the EU's institutions.
• As he arrived Thursday morning for a preliminary meeting with Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, Cameron said he was not happy with the latest budget proposals. The Council is the assembly of the 27 European heads of state and government. Also attending was Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the EU's executive branch.
• "These are very important negotiations," Cameron said. "And clearly, at a time when we're making difficult decisions at home over public spending, it would be quite wrong -- it is quite wrong -- for there to be proposals for this increased extra spending in the EU. So we're going to be negotiating very hard for a good deal for Britain's taxpayers and for Europe's taxpayers, and to keep the British rebate."
• Facing an ever more vocal Euroskeptic electorate at home, Cameron is under huge pressure to veto any seven-year deal which would exceed the old 2007-2013 €1 trillion ($1.28 trillion) budget by as much as a euro.
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